Faith Hope Love - a gift...

 

Hello again, and welcome back...

Yes, it has surely been awhile since my last blog post. I had written back in May of taking a break for 4-6 weeks to focus on some health self-care, but more than 9 weeks have passed, and though I appreciated all the caring emails and Etsy messages asking how I was, I must apologise for not responding. 

I do not want this blog post to just focus on the continuing pain and treatment challenges of the past year since the accident with my knee, as it can be quite wearying being regularly asked "are you any better?", "how is your leg now?", or "what treatment are you having?" and not having the mental capacity to explain something that is ongoing and still being treated with various avenues - so I simply opted out of correspondance and blogging. Please forgive me if you are one of those precious women who reached out, and received no reply. ((hugs)) I even avoided discussing things with my daughters, and rather turned the conversation to their own lives and families, because to me they mattered far more. 

So let me offer a one-off reply today and then we'll move on to more enjoyable things. 

The past three months have been the worst with regards to pain and recovery. It turns out that I was given the wrong treatment by a number of different physiotherapists and more damage was done to my knee and surrounding ligaments over the course of these past twelve months. But they were simply following the guidelines for various 'singular' aspects of my injury and not the combined aspects, believing they were helping, so I hold nothing against them. 

Last week I began with a new physiotherapist, a woman with much experience, a woman who didn't just listen to me (such a blessing) but who connected the dots with all the areas of my knee which were injured in the accident, rather than honing in on just one. She's a gift from God to be sure. I am unable to sit in a car (as a driver or a passenger) and cannot travel even short distances anymore, so we are doing video appointments instead of 'in person' ones. Even in the past week of following her advice, I have some improvement, and though the road ahead is long, I have hope of finally recovering and getting back to my normal everyday life. The extensive nerve pain side of things is extremely difficult, and the treatment for that has thus failed, but I have faith this too will be resolved in time. 

I have read your comments and emails, and prayed for those of you who shared stories of your own mobility, joint and pain challenges, and the treatments which helped you. What surprised me was how different they all were, and how different my situation was to all of them as well. How very unique our bodies are, and that helped me realise that its okay to get second (and third and fourth) opinions if a treatment is not helping or is making the problem worse. Thank you for praying for me, and please be assured that I was praying for you too. What a gift it is to pray for others and know that we do not need to have all the facts about someone's situation for God knows it all. We just need to lift them before His throne and leave it all in His care. Blessed are we.

As I have been unable to stand for long, it was important to find a project that would take time and not need for me to be up and down in the sewing room (I do miss that though), so the best option was to begin a cross-stitch pattern. You know, it took me a month to choose one. ;-) I had decided a lovely strawberry themed pattern would be lovely hung near the kitchen and so I began looking online at paper patterns and PDF downloads. 

There were some lovely small ones, but my preference was a larger design that would take time, and that search took quite a while. Eventually I chose this one, and am loving it. This was my first time printing a large PDF cross-stitch pattern, and the 8 pages of the strawberry graph needed to be cut and aligned to give one very large sheet to work from. Initially my thought was to not buy another large pattern such as this again, but over the past six weeks in which I have been working on this, it has not been a problem at all. In fact I have purchased another cross-stitch pattern from the same designer to work on when I finish the strawberry one (though the next one is smaller and only 6 pages of graph). I may tea dye the strawberry cross-stitch when its finished, as I think it will suit a more 'aged' display when framed. 

Our garden is somewhat changed this winter. If you're new here, we live in the tropics where summer vegetables are grown in winter. I do a little in the garden each day, thankful that everything was planted months ago before my injury worsened, so it only needs watering and fortnightly fertilising, along with the joy of harvesting fresh tomatoes, herbs, spring onions, leeks, beans, cucumbers, snow peas, rocket, bok choy, lettuce, herbs and other greens. Our pomegranate tree has five good fruits on it, and more forming, so it has finally established itself after four years of nothing but a single fruit two years ago. 

My rock, other than Jesus, has been and always is, my precious husband. He works six days a week, and yet these past months has taken on some of my home duties in order to alleviate a bit of the regular homemaking work load that I love and miss. Small things, like doing the dishes after breakfast and making the bed before he leaves for work. Watering the vegetable gardens at dawn became his responsibility too, as well as picking up the groceries after I have ordered them online. Every extra thing he's done has been done with a heart full of love for me, and I have never felt so deeply treasured in all my life - which surprised me because his love has always been true and deep. 

Despite everything, I choose to laugh a lot, and smiling is natural because God made me to be 'glass half full' girl. Knowing that life is a gift not be taken for granted, as are the family our Father gave me, JOY overflows in my life every day. 

His Word is alive and as I read, He has given me more 'epiphanies' this year than ever before. I am always telling my husband, "Mark, listen to this..." and he also marvels at things hidden deep in Scripture than are too easily overlooked. Oh how exciting this is! 

You know, this past year is not one I would have chosen had I known in advance the level of pain and immobility that would progress with the passing of each month - BUT - I have learned things which would not have been learned any other way (I think) and for all these life lessons, sharp character edges smoothed, JOY increased, love expanded, spiritual insights, and confidence in pursuing a healing path and not giving up even now, it has been worth it. More than I could have imagined. 

No matter what God allows in life, do not let it rob you of growth, change, and hope. It's too easy to wallow when things are harder than you'd expect, to allow despair, complaining, impatience and other negative attitudes to infect your heart and mind...and by extension to spread into your relationships with loved ones, and even with God. It may be hard to be happy and hopeful if you're not naturally a positive person (my husband is like that) but God can do anything, so why not ask Him to change your perspective and to graciously highlight things in your life which bring  to mind the JOY your heart needs. ((hugs))

I'm sure this post is long enough for today. Now that I have updated you, it's a relief to move on with blogging again and focusing more on the everyday life of homemaking, regardless of the life season you or I are in, and on living this life to its fullest with JOY and hope in the Lord. 

God bless dear ones!! Let me know how YOU are okay? 

I have a gift for you before I sign off...

I first released this pattern in 2012, and I still use the table runner today as it's one of my favourites though it is a little worn out. I have long wanted to remake it, so that might happen soon. I'll share pics here if it does. May you be blessed as you make it for your own home or as a gift...and remember, have faith, hold on to hope, love God with all your heart, and show His love to those around you...

DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN HERE

Until next time,

PS: My Etsy Shop is always open, so please drop by if you are in the mood for something new to stitch.

CLICK HERE

An unexpected slowing, a pattern and a tutorial...

I think many of you know that I've been pursuing a slower, simpler life for more than a decade now, probably since around 2012.  At first it was all about discovering who I was after many years of homeschooling, and then a realisation graciously unfolded before me from the Lord that I was now about to embark on a new season of life. I was an empty nester, no longer teaching, and discovering life with just the two of us left at home held a great blessing and immense joy. 

Life in the home would be slower, simpler, and different - though my natural "I can do it all" personality would thwart me off that track for many years. Slowing for me meant slow to learn! But I have, bit by bit, found that slowing, and especially living more simply, is what my heart truly needed all along. 

When I announced retiring from the blog last June, it was with full intent to not return. I spent the first two weeks shredding sixteen years of Elefantz Designs paperwork, and the next two weeks working in the garden. My heart soared in the garden! The joy was indescribable, and I felt perfectly at peace with my retirement decision. It was as though a huge weight had been lifted and I was free to live a much slower paced life as a very contented homemaker. 

And then I had an accident and injured my knee, an injury which ten months later has not improved, and is actually a bit worse than before. I was shattered at not being able to move around the garden, and follow through on the plans I had made for it and for our home. There have been other health issues since then, which praise the Lord have now been resolved, but the knee injury is the one which restricts me like no other. 

Back to blogging in November, there was joy being able to connect with you again, as I rarely see anybody since the injury, and that helped me to put the disappointments aside and get on with life as a slightly much slower homemaker. In fact I look back now and see all of this a blessing in disguise. My heart's desire was to live a slower simpler life, and God has used my unexpected physical limitations to teach me exactly how to do it. 

So here's the thing I have been reflecting on this week...

When you can only walk slow, everything in life slows with it. As the months have passed, I find myself not only unable to hurry, but not wanting to either. Not as much gets done around the house, or the garden, in any given day, but things eventually get done in time. I have learned that there's no rush to housework, no checklist to mark off at the end of the day, and no feelings of failure when tasks have to wait.

The garden is coming along well because of those small increments of care given in pure delight, and the preparation and care of making our sourdough bread over 24 hours every third day is an absolute slow joy after many years of baking a loaf within three hours. 

When I look around our home I see a place that is lived in, with a lot of love, a sanctuary for my beloved and I to enjoy each other where we can close a door on the world outside. I'm noticing things that eluded me before, and delighting in what once was seemingly unimportant. When I do something like cleaning the oven, I take my time, and it can be many hours of slow work, but I notice things which had been invisible before. 

For example, cleaning the oven this week I thought about what a home baker once said about putting dough to rise in the empty oven with just the light on - that it would give a subtle enough warmth to help the dough rise, and with milder winter days coming that setting would have been beneficial but alas I do not have an oven light. 

Then as I cleaned, I thought to check the oven manual. You never know what's right before you until you slooooowwww down. 

On my oven settings there's fan bake, ordinary bake, rapid bake, grill...quite a few settings, and I use them all for different things. But in the manual it mentioned a Defrost setting which can be used to defrost food from the freezer AND to rise dough! I walked slowly to the oven dials and yes, there it was in plain sight and I'd never noticed it. 

I wonder what else I'm going to discover that has been overlooked these past eight years living here? There's so much to love about this slower life, my friends. Yes it involves pain, and yes, it prevents me from driving the car, but it has so many benefits to rejoice in, and I choose to rejoice.

Now, this week I wanted to give you a couple of free projects. 

One is an embroidery pattern that ties right in to choosing a slower life. May it be a gift that blesses you, and anyone you choose to stitch it for. Use the link below to download my free "Message to Self" pattern.

DOWNLOAD the free pattern

The second gift is a tutorial which was originally shared here during Covid. I want to share a few home-focused projects with you in the coming weeks, and this is a favourite of mine. The Farmhouse Produce Bags are simple to make and you only need a few things, one of the them being a cotton tea towel. 

I made two back in 2020, one for onions and the other for potatoes, and they have stood the test of time because I still use them today. Six years on and they are still pretty, still functional and have not worn out. Using good quality tea towels may be one reason for that, but I also think the French seams have kept them sturdy.

We use brown onions and red onions, but all this time I've mixed them both in the same onions bag. Early this week that changed. I decided the red onions needed a bag of their own, so I followed my own tutorial, and made one...

If you'd like to make some Farmhouse Produce Bags, I have put the tutorial into a PDF file for you to download and keep. These bags would be fine for storing other things too, such as dried beans, parsnips, or whatever you like to store in cotton that will keep well. 

Use the link below to download the free tutorial.

DOWNLOAD the free tutorial

I completed the cushion made using the free Bird in Pot pattern I shared with you HERE and it's sitting in my leather chair by the front window, where our dear Kelly-dog loves to watch all the roadworks which have been going on out front since January. 

How are you? Have you had an experience which forced you to slow down, but became a blessing in disguise? Perhaps your slowing is still fresh and its been very difficult to accept - know that I am praying for all of you who are going through such a time.

Remember always, God sees you. He is not blind to your struggles, nor ignorant of your joys. He is our Father who loves us, and His mighty hands hold us even through the fire, the storm and the valley. This season has taught me to not just pray for healing, but to pray for my eyes to see the good in it, and my heart to overflow with happiness and gratitude.

ABIGAIL - I almost forgot to tell you that I have made the entire Abigail Bible study into one PDF file. You can download it HERE

God bless,

until next time,

My free newsletter is back. Just sign up HERE and you'll receive it every couple of weeks.

You will find loads of patterns for instant download HERE in my Etsy Shop 

Contentment, simplicity and acceptance...

 

I have lately been pondering the physical changes which have come to pass these past few years, or perhaps across the past decade. For a long while it was a frustrating struggle to accept the increasing number of limitations my body enforced upon me, and too much time was spent lamenting the days of yore when my man and I were off exploring every weekend, driving to rugged places, hiking mountains to see a waterfall, trekking through the rainforest, all with a large picnic hamper, a thermos of tea, water bottles, ground blanket and cameras in hand, and no time restraints on ending our day. 

And then in September 2018 we bought our quarter acre and set up this home as our 'landing space' for however long the Lord keeps us here, or until Jesus returns. It was the first time we'd had a home of our own, after decades of renting, and was an old home in need of many repairs, but all we saw at the time was a blank slate and the opportunity to build gardens, to grow food, to do to it whatever we wanted in order to create a home which truly reflected us - a home which would be our very own sanctuary now and into the future. 

(harvesting young radishes, basil, and garlic chives)

We were in our late 50's at the time, and had no concept of what this new and exciting change would require of us - but after the first few years, we realised the change was in fact an enormous challenge, one that would weary us commensurate with natural physical aging. But after a few more years, and with a good number of modules in various God-designed reality lessons, all we feel now is gratitude and acceptance for what has become for us, a simpler style of life. It's an honest hardworking life, without excess and living within our means, and much richer in reward than we could have imagined, even with bodies that continue to age.

Throughout these years the seeds of contenment grew as well, and to be honest, I believe that may be the very root of how acceptance sprouts in the heart. Once that happened for us, it became clear the Lord had been using a number of trials and challenges to show how 'our' perceived dreams often do not match up with reality. 

(pesto made from fresh radish tops and basil - delicous!)

I was recently thinking of the old saying  - "If only I knew then what I know now" - and I asked myself even if that were possible, would I have changed anything about this journey? I asked my husband as well. Both of us had the same answer. No. How can we regret learning what we did not know, with the Lord right by our side all the way, gently imparting His wisdom when our own had failed. 

(this morning's sourdough loaf, baked at 6am in a dutch oven after proving overnight, and made from two flours - rye and wheat)

There are many 'dreams' we have in life, or perhaps some were more like wishful thinking or hoping for the best outcome?  I'll be honest with you, apart from home ownership, motherhood was not what I imagined, neither was marriage or homeschooling. These 'dreams' ended up having a very loose resemblance to how they truly were. But looking back, the realities held far more wonders and were much richer than the dreams ever promised to be!

(baby beet tops for adding to salads)

So now when I have my hands in the soil, preparing more area for planting food crops, I get so excited about the process of building a garden, planting seeds, growing food, and later enjoying an abundant harvest. Its a slow thing, a time consuming act working with the climate here so that we plant things which will grow and not waste time or money on plants which are known to fail (often that knowledge came from our own mistakes)...but oh how marvellous it is to the heart being in the garden, and acknowledging that here in our 8th autumn, we can see the result of those years before and give thanks to the Lord for the abundance we have today. 

(my April UFO finish, fingerless mittens with embroidered motifs)

The truth is, no experience in life is wasted. In God's economy, all we have done before, and all we are doing now, can be looked at as a kind of investment in our character if we simply allow Him to correct, refresh and guide us forward. My husband and I are not the same people we were the day we moved into this home back in 2018. God has whittled away a number of sharp edges in our character, built our faith even higher through various trials and outcomes (some not at all what we'd hoped for), shown us over and over that disappointments will come but He is still walking with us and He will see us through them. It is one thing to hope God is with you, but quite another to have no doubt whatsoever...and that's us. We believe, we accept, we have no doubt, we love Him so much, and we worship Him alone. 

No regrets. Even now with a very painful physical condition that restricts many activities, we hope for my healing, but we also accept the situation as it is right now - after all, there are a number of spiritual insights which have come from this, such as a deeper compassion for others who experience chronic pain, debilitating conditions, isolation, or enforced slowing for example. 

(hand quilting my Bird in Pot block - I shared the free pattern HERE)

I do not know where you are on this journey of gentle homemaking (see HERE for that blog post), or in your walk with the Lord, but as a woman who is still learning new life skills and spiritual insights at 67 years of age, let me encourage you to seek the good things around you, and not focus on the valley you may be walking through. God will walk with you through the valleys, and if you trust that is true, just allow acceptance to bring you peace. Then lift your eyes to notice the joys which nest around your life, joys which you may have overlooked or not searched for. 

 Between homemaking and garden tasks I need to rest my leg for a few hours, and during that time I may have a play with my photos using the Midjourney membership Blossom and Ross gifted me. The photo above is one I took last week in our kitchen, and then transformed it into a watercolour painting. I had recently cleaned out the walk-in pantry shelving and made this kitchen entrance area of repurposed book cases more functional by adding the everyday pantry items. Previously they have held jars of various food items, but this time I chose only items which are cooking staples. It's lovely to stand at the kitchen counter and look over at this area! It inspires me every day to create in the kitchen. These two watercolour pictures will be printed up and framed in the kitchen and pantry as soon as I can drive again and visit the op-shops for good frames. :-)

(the watercolour version of this photo above, using the AI feature in Midjourney, added a little drawer beneath the two top shelves, rather than the almond milks which sit on the shelf below, but I love it and thought how lovely it would be to have real drawers there)

Well, its time for a herbal tea and some freshly baked sourdough with hummus, pesto and avocado. One of my favourite lunches! Later on I may roast a pumpkin, one of the many still growing in our front yard, for soup tonight. But first, lunch and a rest with the leg up. 

God bless, I will write again soon, and in the meantime I'd love to read your own stories in the comments...

You will find loads of patterns for instant download HERE in my Etsy Shop 

My free newsletter is back. Just sign up HERE and you'll receive it every couple of weeks.

Old becomes new...

 

I have taken to the habit, after baking a fresh batch of delicious scones, of freezing a few for those afternoons when I'm a tad tired and longing for something to enjoy with my cup of tea. Such was an afternoon this week. After defrosting one such scone, and brewing a large cup of tea in my very special Royal Albert "rose blush" mug, I opted to open a jar of mango jam, one of many I made before Christmas, and smear it generously across the butter. In our family scones are served at room temperature, and never warm. I truly cannot bear to have the butter melted away, for butter is a delight to my tastebuds. Sometimes I wonder if it's the butter, more than the scone and jam, that I enjoy most of all? How do you enjoy your scones?

Before writing any further, I must clear up a misunderstanding from my previous post. As you can see above, I've once again taken one of my own photos and changed it into a watercolour painting scene. This has not been done with any skill of my own, but through the use of a membership my dear Blossom gifted me as an early Mothers Day present. I tried a 5-image free trial with Midjourney earlier in the month, and loved how the recent photo of the front of our home was transformed in watercolours. I showed my Blossom-girl, and she was most impressed too. Then she told me how Ross uses professional Midjourney for his business (in a completely different way to the watercolour style I love) and that they had decided to gift me a one-year membership. So you are going to see more of these gorgeous pics in the coming year. 

With only eight days left in April, I decided that a pair of fingerless mittens which have been awaiting completion since they were stowed away on a shelf in February, would be my April UFO project. I had made three pairs previously, all of which went to the grandchildren. The blue pair I initially made for myself were claimed by Cully May and that just made me so happy. Now all three will have warm hands this coming winter. 

Once the children had them, I started another pair for myself, but this time in a solid cream merino wool, because the lure of knitting a pair with embroidered motifs was hard to resist. I'd used the plain pattern for the kids mittens, though the wool in theirs was variegated in lovely colours...but now I can have a play with something more mature for my own. 

Couldn't resist another watercolour version of a photo, and thought you'd enjoy seeing how artfully it is done. I shall be choosing some to frame at home throughout this year, and perhaps create calendars for Christmas gifts at year's end.

Are you wondering about the heading of this blog post? "Old becomes new" is an idea, or more of a desire really, that I have had for a few years now. I began designing in early 2009, just as I turned 50. Over the past seventeen years, my design portfolio has grown to more than a thousand patterns, and when I look back on them, there's at least fifty I'd really like to give a makeover - you know, in a style more 'me' of today. Naturally one can dream, but the reality is that I won't be able to follow through on that scale of project...but I can pick a few here and there as time allows, simpler ones, and a few that I could share with you as a thank you gift for being here, reading along, praying, encouraging, and sharing your own stories in the comments. 

Today I'll start with a cute design, "Bird in Pot", which was first shared back in 2016 as a tea towel project. Today I have that same design in a PDF for you as a free download, and you can make it up any way you  like...

At the time I first made the Bird in Pot tea towel design, my applique style was fusible raw edge blanket stitch. You'll notice this in the majority of  Elefantz designs during those first 14-15 years...but then I tried my hand at needle-turn applique and a new love developed! :-)

So in sharing this simple pattern with you once again, ten years on from it's first debut, I am re-working it with needle-turn and a different colour palette.

The background fabric is cut from an old linen sheet, and apart from an old Minki Kim brown floral print, the remaining prints are from a 2017 charm pack by Bunny Hill Designs. I love shopping from my old stash! 

I chose to make a few changes from the pattern sheet. Instead of keeping the stems and leaves in one piece as I did with the original applique, this time I have used my nifty bias maker to create needleturn stems, and made some cardboard templates for the needleturn leaves (because I find the points of leaves fiddly without preparing around a template first) ....

Instead of a tea towel, this will become the centre of an autumnal cushion for our bedroom, and I'll hopefully have it completed next week to show you. 

How would/will you make Bird in Pot, and how would/will you display it? Use the link below to download the pattern templates.

DOWNLOAD Bird in Pot

I was reading Lin's blog the other day and she recommended this book (below) so I checked my library and yay, they had it, so reserved a copy. Our driveway is under construction from tomorrow (part of the new upgraded road and water pipes they've been installing for the past two years) and we shall not be able to enter or exit our property with a car for seven days, and fortunately the library is at the end of our long road so I was able to collect the book today, along with a DVD. The movie is one I watched last year and loved, so now I can enjoy it again while I knit and stitch. 

Hubby has just arrived home so I'll sign off now and pray each of you have a restful day/evening, assured of God's hand on your life, and His love displayed through the blessed gift of our dear Jesus, the coming King and Lion of Judah! 

Chat again soon,

My free newsletter is back. Just sign up HERE and you'll receive it every couple of weeks.

You will find loads of patterns for instant download HERE in my Etsy Shop 

Jam, fingerless mittens and Abigail part 3...

 

JAM

It is the end of stone fruit season in Australia, so before it all disappears I have jam making on my calendar. Over the weekend I made apricot jam, one of my personal favourites, but I did have to be frugal about it as apricots are quite expensive. It helps that no-one else in the family considers apricot jam their favourite, so the two large jars I made up will last me a while. 

Blossom's favourite jam is strawberry, and I always make a big batch of that around July or August, as where we live in the tropics, strawberries are in season through winter. 

Cully May and I both love plum jam, and I have about three kilos in the fridge waiting for me to prepare them, but as I've had a very painful few days with my knee and cannot stand very long, they will have to wait a bit longer. 

Rafaella and Charlie David love my Lime Butter, and Lemon Butter. As our lime tree is heavy with fruit right now, they are making the most of whatever I can make them. Apparently Charlie David eats our limes like oranges! I give him a few to take home, thinking he'll have some slices in his water (he loves that) but in fact he's eating them whole. By the way, he eats lemons too. 

KNITTING

Lately I've had a feeling that we may get an actual winter this year - something rare in the tropics. Last year's winter was so mild and very warm, that it was only during a week of cooler temps (23-25C days) that I realised my feet were cold and I needed some warm clothes. I still do not have any closed-in shoes, or warm slippers, but I am starting to prepare for these purchases. 

One thing I am doing, using what I already have, is to knit fingerless mittens. Many years ago I bought this pattern, Misselthwaite Mitts from Alicia Paulson, because I loved how she'd embroidered the little vignette's (inspired by the book The Secret Garden) on all sides of the mittens, but as I only have variegated 4ply fingering yarn in my stash and no solid colours, I simply went ahead and knitted them plain. Such an easy pattern too!

These are the mittens I completed for myself...

On Tuesday I had Blossom and the children visit for the day, and Charlie David absolutely loved my mittens, wearing them around for ages. The he asked, "Nana, will you make me some too?!" and of course I said yes. :-)

He told me how he loves the colours in a sunrise and sunset, so this is the yarn I'll use for his...

I altered the pattern to fit his hands, with room for growth, and made a start this morning. Blossom is very excited because she is sure he will love them. She also requested a pair for herself. It's rather fun to have these projects on hand because I adore knitting, but always need a purpose for it. 

I hope to make the embroidered mitts one day, but for now I am very happy with the plain ones!

SEWING

Another frugal activity recently has been to repair some of my linen/cotton dresses. I wear dresses every single day, and because of this, the hems can become a bit the worse for wear. I hang all our washing out back on the clothes line, and the fierce summer sun probably has a part to play in the wear and tear, but oh how I love the smell and feel of washing off the line!

Anyhow, I've been going through the cotton quilting fabrics for prints I can use as new borders on the dresses which need repair. 

This Tilda print from 2024 was leftover from a quarter metre bundle I was sent to design with back then. It's not exactly the same in colour (nothing in my stash was), but it wasn't bad and the final look is really nice - after all, this is only a day dress for wearing at home. 

Have you done any mending lately? Do you alter or repair your clothes? 

I have a number of items in my wardrobe that will be made-over in the coming month or two, but I will need to purchase some warm things as well. Even if we do not end up having a cooler winter, I'd rather be prepared than regret not doing it. 

ABIGAIL

Part three of the Abigail study is up on the Abigail page today. Looks like I've been sharing one part every three weeks, and so I'll have part four (the final part) in three weeks from now. Have you been following along?

On the Abigial page you can simply choose to read the study from there, or scroll to the bottom of each part to download the file and store on your computer. :-)

Go HERE for Abigail Part Three

The summer is fierce right now, as is usual in February, but I must admit that its really knocking us around this year. I find with each passing year, the traveling forward in age, things that were once easy are increasingly challenging. 

Staying on top of things in the garden is not happening, especially as I am unable to stand for long periods and water the parched pots and raised beds...however I am still doing a bit each day, and that consistent labour, small though it may seem, does reap rewards. As overgrown with weeds as our front garden is, the grocery delivery man this morning said "what a beautiful garden!". I lamented all the weeds which have crowded out the flowers and shrubs quite a bit, but he said, "it's still lovely!" You know, my heart lifted when he said that. 

Too often we see the weeds in our life, and the beauty that still dwells within the weeds is unnoticed until someone else points it out. That's just like the Christian walk isn't it. We are a mix of weeds and beauty - but as time passes, and our walk with the Lord grows deeper, the weeds get less and the beauty becomes more obvious. There is hope in that! 

In case you ever missed this free HOPE patterm I shall share it again...

Go HERE to my FREE patterns page for this and more stitchery gifts I have shared in the past. 

Until next week, God bless dear friends...

My free newsletter is back. Just sign up HERE and you'll receive it every couple of weeks.