Thankful Tablet Cover...

November is quickly approaching

and a time when we are more aware 

of what we are thankful for in our lives.

Within the past few years, 

our family made a construction paper garland during the month of November.

I Am Thankful For...

This is a statement that resonates this time of year.

As Thanksgiving draws closer, 

it seems like remembering what we are thankful for regularly

is a great way to really celebrate the season.

Even today, the girls and I went for a walk this morning,

which was on the chillier side...

in the low 50's with some wind.

Thanksgiving Card...

This week I've been doing a little more "scrapbooking" than normal...in the form of some cards!

Today, I made a Thanksgiving card for my Grandma...

I thought it turned out pretty cute...so I think I'm going to make another one! :)

Be careful for nothing; 

but in every thing by prayer and supplication 

with thanksgiving let your requests 

be made known unto God. 

Philippians 4:6

Amanda

'Tis the Season...

To decorate the house for Christmas. It was accomplished yesterday ..and today I made a new way to display my annual Wendell August Forge Ornaments.

This is the doorway from our living room into the dining room. The yearly ornaments from Wendell August Forge are gifted to us each year at Thanksgiving by my in-laws. I had been adding them to a wide ribbon that hung on the left door jam. Looked nice but was 'hard' to add new ones to...I hadn't added any since 2008! Not only that, the ribbon was hard to store with the ornaments attached...so this year I decided on a new system!

The larger one in the middle was for our first Christmas...in 2004...the annual ones also start with 2004 and go back and forth out from there, so the even years are on one side and odd on the other :) I'll get to add a new one next week!

A few other decorations... the Christmas village.

The Christmas tree and Stockings.

There are only three stockings, but yes, there are four of us in the family, but I have yet to find one to coordinate well for Amber.  I even bought material last year to make four matching ones...however, the material has been used for other things and I never got around to making them. This morning Liz asked which was hers...technically the cream, but I told her that she and Amber can use the matching ones and Mommy & Daddy can share the cream one...she still thinks there needs to be four...so perhaps I should get on that :) (I not holding my breath though!)

Although I've decorated for Christmas  Thanksgiving is yet to come, so I'll share this picture with you and wish you all a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

Earthy Primary Baby Quilt...

This past Saturday I attend a baby shower for Chad's brother & sister-in-law. This is their first child and it is a baby boy :) So, I had a plan when they announced they were having a baby, that I'd need to make them a quilt! Quilt ideas were pinned and reviewed...Chad picked the 2 he liked the best, and of them I decided on the Around the World pattern. In earthy-primary colors...

The back is a light green gingham with a medium green at the top to make enough backing :)

The binding was chosen to bring all the colors together...but I had to add a little of the medium green to have enough binding as well!

I think it turned out cute and finished at...
ok so I did remember to measure it this time, but I don't know were I wrote it down at...oops!
So, from the construction measurements, it is roughly 42" x 48".

I also made a pair of slippers from a new pattern...they are cute, but look slightly different in size, although they are the 3-6 month size from the pattern.

 Although I was making handmade gifts, I still pa-roused the gift registry a few days before the shower and decide to make something that wasn't on the list, but went with items I did see...

a Weighted Nursing Cover-up Blanket...

It turned out great...I loved it, the front is flannel trimmed in quilting cotton (Moda at that!) and the back is a soft white flannel from the local Mennonite Store. It was so nice feeling. The one corner is weighted to put over the Mother's shoulder to hold it in place while trying to situate the baby...

This is probably the simplest design of a cover-up out there, but I liked that it was a little more versatile and easy to put in a diaper bag! I hope it works well, I've never personally used one (nor had the need) but it seemed like a great concept when I saw a blanket like this at church when I was on nursery duty the one day.

But the great thing is that the removable weight allows for washing and for it to be used as a blanket!

The weight is a washer wrapped in bias tape.

The happy couple received an abundance of gifts...and had some unsolicited help from a little girl that is very excited about her new cousin. 

 Another little one to make presents for...I better get to work, Christmas is coming fast!

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed,

turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

Luke 17:15

This week I had the kids devotional during our mid-week service and decided to get them prepared for Thanksgiving...so our topic - Thankfulness! I read a story about the first Thanksgiving, then we also read about the 10 Lepers in Luke...the story were 10 were healed, but only one returned to say Thank you.

Well, while preparing the lesson, I realized that we all need to be the ONE that returned to give the thanks for the blessings we receive and to praise God for giving them to us. Then just as I was typing out the verse, the part about the leper glorifying God "with a loud voice" emphasized that we really need to let others know our gratefulness to God for all that He provides for us.

So, with great thankfulness to have readers of the blog, for the ability to type and to craft things to blog about, and thanking God EVERYDAY for the great blessings bestowed upon me...

Give Thanks...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, one of the major holidays celebrated here in the United States. So, today I decided that Liz and I should make one of the felt turkeys as shared at Sewing.org. It's one of those projects that I'd rather not do, but knew I should to have some crafting fun with Liz...however, once I got started reading the instructions, it didn't allow a whole lot of room for Liz to help.

Also, I didn't follow the directions exactly...I used the felt I had on hand...which wasn't enough to go directly with their instructions...

But he still turned out cute...

I machine sewed it also, trying to make it go a little faster. I did all sewing... no hot gluing :) I sewed all the embellishments on, then layered the pieces and sewed them together using a zig-zag stitch, leaving openings at the bottom to stuff (which Liz did get to help with). Doing it this way also meant only cutting one small feathers piece, one body, and two wings...compared to their two (four) of those pieces.

Here's a comparison photo, both cute!

(Sewing.org picture source)

Maybe he should have the bow tie? What do you think? I forgot about it until I posted it on here :) !



Adding this fun Thanksgiving project to some of the weekly linky parties...see the right side bar for the listing.

Let the words of my mouth,

and the meditation of my heart,

be acceptable in thy sight,

O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

Though this verse does not have the word thanksgiving, thanks, thankful, etc. in it...I saw it there while I was starting to look for one of the typical thanksgiving verses. We need to remember to always have a word of thanks on our lips and thankfulness in our heart to God who has blessed all more than we deserve!

I am thankful for...
The salvation of my soul...
Having the Bible to guide...
A wonderful husband...
Never being able to lose my salvation...
Kids that are healthy...
Sewing time...
Going to a great church...
Inspiration and creativity...
Valor and sacrifice of the servicemembers of the US Armed Forces...
Initative of the forefathers to give us a free country...
New horizons to be crossed...
God's grace and mercy given daily!

My adorable girls this morning...

God is so good!
Amanda