More redwork, links and general homemaking...

 As I mentioned last week when I showed you progress photos of my first Japanese style rice bag, the completed bag would be used to hold small stitching projects, once I'd made a matching pincushion and needlebook set. And that is what I've done since we last chatted here.

The rice bag is small, with a base and sides which measure only 5.5 inches square, so my pincushion and needlebook needed to be smaller still.

The pincushion is 3" in diameter, and filled with crushed walnut shells. I used some of the striped fabric from the rice bag to add a little tag, which is most helpful when pulling it out of the bag. I drew two little vines and embroidered them onto two quarters of the pinnie, then added two wool felt hearts from a small scrap of rich red felt I'd saved for a 'one day' project. You never know when bits of left over felt will come in handy. 

The needlebook - well, I actually made two covers for it, but decided the first one was too busy with not enough solid linen behind the embroidery and applique. As the French linen used is over a hundred years old, it was important that it should shine. I really loved this second version of the needlebook cover and it genuinely compliments the rice bag and the pincushion beautifully (plus another tiny felt heart to match the pincushion).

Inside the needlebook I added a pouch to protect my tiniest pair of embroidery scissors, plus more of that lovely scrap of rich red felt on both sides for holding needles and pins. There's also a wee pocket on the left side to store threads...

To keep those tiny scissors in their pretty scabbard I've added a press stud closure...

The closing ties are made using a 1/4" bias tape maker from white embroidery linen (the kind I use for most of my stitchery designs). Now my set is complete and I can plan the next project!

In the Kitchen...

On Monday I decided to clear out a few more things from the freezer, and one of those items was pumpkin I'd mashed up after our very abundant pumpkin harvest in May and June. We gave pumpkins away, and I made plenty of meals with some more, but for the rest I cook it and mash it for things in the future. 

Last year I was planning to bake a Pineapple Fruit Cake (recipe HERE in my free e-book) but realised we'd run out of tinned crushed pineapple, and I had no fresh pineapple on hand either as I could have put that in the food processor and used it instead. Something I am grateful for is a Nana who was resourceful and could swap around ingredients without ever blinking an eye! If she did not have what she'd normally use, she would use a substitute, and the final result was always delicious. And so, with Nana's example to draw from, I used mashed pumpkin in the fruit cake instead of pineapple. 

Well, hubby and I loved that pumpkin fruit cake, and so it's become the regular way for me to bake it now, which is wonderful when cleaning out the freezer and a use for mashed pumpkin is quickly required. 

I bake it in a large bread tin, then slice it when cold, and freeze half. 

Plenty of bread flour is also kept in the freezer, so I decided to bake a delicous focaccia to serve with meat balls that night. We had some leftover olives to use up so they covered almost two thirds of the focaccia, and the remainder just has fresh rosemary from the garden. Celtic sea salt and olive oil is added across the top before baking, and from the bottom of my heart, I can say this is my absolute favourite bread to have with anything. 

Half of this is kept in the freezer, along with half the meatballs I'd made, so we have a hearty meal to look forward to on nights when we're busy or simply exhausted and cooking is not an option. 

Removing some chicken breasts from the freezer gave me more room for preserving the last of our garden produce, so I cooked them in butter and diced some for sandwiches and a pasta salad, and the rest were sliced for use in chicken/avocado/cucumber sushi rolls which hubby takes to work with a satay dipping sauce I like to make.

Homemaking...

I have a set of binders in my sewing room/office and one of them is the very well used Household Binder. It holds a lot of things that are referred to regularly...

One of the things I needed to do this week was replenish my supply of Miracle Spray, which over the years has proved to be the very best cleaner and the one I use daily for general cleaning, spot cleaning and washing stains. The recipe ingredients are always ready in my laundry storage area, and as long as I have an empty 2-litre vinegar bottle on hand, a quick supply can be made immediately. 

I decant some of the mixture into a glass spray bottle, and can happily tell you that my husband loves using it too. 

Generally...

We're in the process of pulling up most of the vegetables we have grown over our tropical winter, as the season is over and the spring/summer bug brigade have arrived in full force already. There are some things they leave alone, such as beans and snow peas, so they'll keep producing for a while yet, and the citrus trees are already showing signs of being quite fruit laden in coming months. We have more bananas growing, which have been bagged to deter the fruit bats which fill the skies most of the year, especially now in mango season. We lost half of our last banana harvest to fruit bats last month - they even tore into the bottom of the bags. Being mango season they will probably be busy elsewhere for the next few months and may leave our bananas alone. 

I completed another large cross stitch, but will show that next week. 

We sold my beloved and very old yellow Mitsubishi Lancer. I did cry. It was my dream to own one the first time one drove past back in 2007. In 2013 hubby saw a second hand one and bought it for me. What a marvellous car it has been all these years...and not just for me, but for hubby when his car was off the road, and for Blossom when their car was off the road. It was loved by all the family, but being 22 years old now, it had a lot of breakdowns over the past six months and we simply could not pour all the money needed into a car that would continue to have problems. A young man has bought it as a project to work on over time, and I am hopeful the 13 years of prayer and worship almost daily as one of us was driving along, will bless him. 

My beloved is having a birthday today... 

He has turned 60, and with almost 35 years of marriage behind us, I give all the praise and glory to God for the ever-growing love we share, and the countless blessings He has showered over our marriage through these decades. Would you pray a blessing on him today sweet sisters in Christ? God knows what he needs most, and in that we can surely rely. Thank you. xxx

With regards to sharing links to some of my preferred YouTube channels, I shall create a page on the blog you can access and have a scroll through. You may like some and not others, and that's fine. :-) 

I am quite eclectic in the things I watch and do not like wasting uneccesary time scrolling channels, so these are the channels I enjoy for inspiration, information, and pure delight. 

Go HERE to the "I'm Watching on YouTube" page on my blog. 

Hope this wasn't too long for you. I've come to realise that it's best if I just do one blog post per week, and hopefully encourage you in some way to see joy and beauty in the everyday ordinary things, especially during these times of unrest and change across the globe. 

When we put our hands to work within our homes, our very own family sanctuary, and keep the world at bay, our mind, heart and body relaxes. Physical 'stress' from housework, the garden, or cooking, is good stress. It's productive. It's healthy for us, and it glorifies the Lord who has provided what we need, when we need it. Removing our thoughts and focus from an ever increasing darkness around the world, allows peace to settle within us and within our homes. We pray for those in need, and then hand it over to the Lord. We do not scroll and scroll social media, or watch for every new bit of news on the television...we look at what is right before us, and what needs doing. Pray about your day. Ask the Lord to guide you through it, and give thanks for all you have. 

Don't look to the lives of others as your guidepost. You and I are unique in this life, individuals with our own resources, relationships, health challenges, limitations and life skills. I am inspired by those who work hard and simply 'get on' with what needs doing, those who create beauty in the simplest ways, those who are not out to copy others but to use their own mind and imagination to bring about a life worth living to the glory of God. 

The older I get, the more at peace I have become with the life God has gifted me to live. It's something that allows me to be myself at all times, and to be content in all situations - maybe not immediately, but it comes about the closer I walk with Jesus. 

I like who I am, I like that my heart desires to be refined, I like that God knows this and even though I am so very imperfect, He is patiently changing me day by day. What a gift that is! 

May the days ahead bring you many happy moments to treasure in your heart, and may you find all you are looking for in our Saviour, Jesus, who loved you with His life before you were even born.

Much love!!

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

Redwork rice bag, and Cully May...

 Well, wasn't it a bit strange to have commenters unable to leave their comments on Blogger blogs last week? Many of my blogging friends had the same problem as me, and though we tried leaving comments on each others blogs (multiple times) it just would not work for days. Apparently Blogger updated everything but a glitch was found in the comments update so it took a couple of days to get that sorted, but thankfully we're all back to normal again. :-) If you took the time to leave a comment on last week's blog post and could not get it published, thank you for trying. It means a great deal to have you write back to me, and share your own thoughts and experiences, as well as updates on how your own days have been. (((hugs)))

This week had ups and downs at our place. After doing a bit better with my leg/knee situation for a few weeks, I found this past week to be akin to "taking two steps back", so lots of rest times were required each day between home and garden tasks. I admit to feeling a tad frustrated at this unpredictable roller coaster effect on whether I have good days/weeks or the more difficult ones, BUT...every day has it's own rhythm, and no matter what, I seek out opportunities to do what I can around home, and also to be creative with my hands during the needed intermittent hours of resting my leg. 

Last weekend I decided to begin a new project, one that has long been on my list of things to learn or make. In last week's post I wrote there were six things on my list which I hoped to do in the months ahead, and as I needed a lot of down-time this past week, I chose to start with some redwork slow stitching and the making of a Japanese rice bag. 

Many years ago I purchased some pieces of vintage French linen, the kind with red stripes and a bumpy weave. I've read that many people do not like hand-stitching on this kind of linen, preferring smooth fabric instead, but I really love how it can give a more rustic finish to hand embroidery so I chose to finally make use of it all.

I began by drawing up four little designs to stitch, which would incorporate a bit of applique. The white French linen fabrics (above) with the thick red lines were to be my embroidery backgrounds, and the fuller red striped fabric behind them is repurposed from an old linen top I had. Together they worked beautifully for what would eventually become a rice bag. 

I blanket stitched the applique pieces with a single strand of off-white thread...

Using the white thread allowed the applique to blend more easily into the linen background, rather than standing out and taking centre stage in each of the embroideries. 

Each day I would embroider one small block, and took my time to use different stitches, or add lines of running stitch - my sketches are a basic rough outline and any enhancements are made during the stitching. 

It's been a while since I did a design just in redwork, but the vision in my minds eye of a vintage style well-loved rice bag was a project I was excited to finally create. 

Rice bags are made in many sizes, but I chose to make a small one, with the base and all four sides measuring 6" square, so that should give you an idea of how small the stitcheries are. 

I waited a day before sewing the sides together and finishing the rice bag, because I like to give myself a bit of pondering time before the end of a project, just in case a few changes or new ideas come to mind. I was still not sure whether to line the bag with more of the striped linen, or whether to use plain white linen. 

The white linen won in the end, and I also used it for the double drawstring closure. Once the bag was completed (yesterday) my heart was so very happy with how it turned out because it's even nicer than I'd hoped. 

 

Once it's sewn, each side and the base measures 5.5" square. The lining is made the same as the outer bag but with no embroidery. Across the top there are channels, one on each of the sides, to thread the drawstrings through...

Now you may be wondering what I'll use this sweet little bag for? First I shall draw up a couple of new designs for more redwork using leftover fabrics from the rice bag, and then I will use them to make a small needlebook, scissor fob, and pincushion to keep inside the bag. 

Embroidering small projects is one of my favourite things, and this little bag will be perfect for storing what I need, plus a project-on-the-go. 

On my pondering day, between completing the embroideries and eventually sewing the bag together, I did a little more redwork to personalise a couple of Japanese style cross-back aprons I'd purchased recently from Temu. I genuinely like these cotton aprons, and am thrilled with the quality. Not having to tie apron strings or adjust neck ties, these simply slip over your head and cover the body very comfortably. The cotton fabric is thin admittedly, but I've not had a problem with that, especially as our tropical summer arrived this week (completely skipped spring!) and thin cotton or linen clothing is once again a must. 

What I did not like was the little decorative tag on the front of each apron, and as I had some nice thick cotton twill tape in my drawer (came wrapped around sheets we purchased last year), and red thread on hand, I decided to personalise my aprons and drew up two tiny embroideries to replace the generic ones that came with the aprons. Much nicer...

My week of redwork costs me nothing but time. It's so much fun using what you have, especially what you've had for a long time and waited to use 'one day'. My outlook on life is very much about using the good crockery all the time, making things with special fabrics I collected years ago, and enjoying all that we have today. Why wait to use what's already in my possession? And why waste money on buying more when I have enough now? 

I thank God for all He provides, and for the commonsense needed to create beauty from what is already in my hands, the things He has gifted me with and allowed me to source over the years. 

One more thing before I close off this post. I'll be having some regular days with Cully May as my companion and helper. You know, she turned 10 last month! Many of you will remember her birth back in 2016 and the JOY of seeing our precious Blossom bloom into motherhood. I still can't believe its been a decade since I held the first of three babies...I am a blessed Nana indeed!

Anyhow, Cully May and I love spending time together, but it has not been as often since my accident last year, so Blossom and I decided we'd make a regular day of it, and this past Wednesday we began. 

We took a trip to the library (just up the road), had an early lunch in the library cafe, and then back home to watch a favourite show, The Great Australian Bake-Off. 

Ever since she was a toddler, Cully May has loved watching baking shows with me, and this particular day we got inspired to make a few simple things before Blossom arrived to take her home. 

Firstly we made Hedgehog Slice, a family favourite, and as a bonus it's a no-bake recipe (we used THIS recipe). She was able to take most of it home for the family to enjoy, but left a few pieces here for Poppy to enjoy after work - which he did!

Then Blossom arrived an hour earlier than expected, so we raided the garden for tomatoes, leeks and basil to make a sauce, and cooked fried gnocchi which was then folded through the sauce with some fresh garlic, cream and a squeeze of lemon juice. It is one of my husband's favourite meals and was a real hit with Cully May and Blossom as well. 

Cully May took this photo of us...a bit blurry and a tiny pic, but so very special.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog post. Last week I received notifications from some of you that yes, you would like me to share some of my favourite YouTube channels, so I'll have that done for the next post. 

In the meantime, my prayers are with you and for you. May your hearts be full of joy and gratitude for what you already have, and I pray the Lord will bless you with extra creativity to make your home even lovelier by the addition of what you can make with your own two hands. 

Much love!!

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

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