FOR DAD...

ONE DAY EYES THAT ARE BLIND
WILL SEE YOU CLEARLY
AND ONE DAY ALL WHO DENY
WILL FIND EVEN THEE
ONE DAY HEARTS MADE OF STONE
WILL BREAK INTO PIECES
AND ONE DAY CHAINS LEFT UNBROKE
WILL FALL DOWN AT YOUR FEET

SO WE WAIT
FOR THAT ONE DAY
COME QUICKLY
WE WANT TO SEE YOUR GLORY
EVERY KNEE FALLS DOWN BEFORE THEE
EVERY TONGUE OFFERS YOU PRAISE
WITH EVERY HAND RAISED
SINGING GLORY
TO YOU AND UNTO YOU ONLY
WE'LL SING GLORY TO YOUR NAME

ONE DAY VOICES THAT LIE
WILL ALL BE SILENCED
ONE DAY ALL OF US DIVIDED
WILL BE WHOLE AGAIN
ONE DAY DEATH WILL RETREAT
AND WAVE IT'S WHITE FLAG
ONE DAY LOVE WILL DEFEAT THE STRONGEST ENEMY

SO WE WAIT
FOR THAT ONE DAY
COME QUICKLY
WE WANT TO SEE YOUR GLORY
EVERY KNEE FALLS DOWN BEFORE THEE
EVERY TONGUE OFFERS YOU PRAISE
WITH EVERY HAND RAISED
SINGING GLORY
TO YOU AND UNTO YOU ONLY
WE'LL SING GLORY TO YOUR NAME


WE KNOW NOT THE DAY OR THE HOUR
OR THE MOMENTS IN BETWEEN
WE KNOW THE END OF THE STORY
WHEN WE'LL SING
GLORY TO YOUR NAME

-SELAH AND NICOLE NORDEMAN FROM BLESS THIS BROKEN ROAD



DAD,

WHEN BOTH OF OUR EYES DRY WE SHOULD SING THIS TOGETHER. IT WOULD BE A PERFECT DUET FOR US AND IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG. I KNOW BOTH OF US CLING TO THIS PROMISE!

I LOVE YOU! MANDY

Bringing It To Life...

I thought I would share a bit about two sculptures that have captivated me here at camp. They have brought scripture to life in a very real way to the eyes. They have brought a beauty to what has happened between God and man. Now imagine sitting in view of these as the dew is fresh on the ground and the sun has just risen in the sky. There is still a hush over the campground and you are able to reflect on the amazing gift the Lord has given us! FORGIVENESS AND PURITY ANEW! Or as you sit there just as the sun is setting, you can hear the voices of hundreds of students singing in the chapel, full of joy and thankfulness.

The first one is called "Opened Eyes", it is a beautifully painful expression of man after eating the apple in the garden. I always feel this ache when I look at this, but what must it have been like for Adam and Eve, who had known life without evil and sin, and then all of the sudden being awoken to those. The incredible loss they must have felt!


A hole in man's heart that ONLY God can fill!


This is what is written at the sculpture...

"You won't die!" the serpent hissed. "God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil."

The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it too. That moment their eyes were opened, and for the first time they saw evil. it changed their spirit so it could no longer fellowship with God. For God is spirit, and it's worshipers must worship in the spirit and truth."

But there is hope God has a plan to restore our fellowship with Him. At just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Genesis 3: 4-7
John 4:24
John 14:15-17

That then leads to the next sculpture here at camp. God's hand reaching down to ours.





Psalm 40:1-2

I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the muck and mire;he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm18:16, 19b

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;He drew me out of the deep waters.

He rescued me because he delighted in me.

Psalm98:1

Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

Isaiah 41: 13

For i am the Lord, your God,who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear, I will help you.




I always enjoy stopping at these with our kiddos and sharing again with them, the amazing love the Lord has for us, the fact that the God who created the universe wants to have a personal relationship with us! WOW! He knows each one of us intimately. The fact that he made a way for us out of the crazy mess we have made and he did it with His own Son- the sacrifice was personal and was priceless.

A Week At Camp ...

Many of you already know that my family and I are away at camp this week. I had meant to update each day with the blessings each day has held for us, but it has been one of those weeks where I have enjoyed just being in the moments and when I am not, I am snoozing! Wow, I can not believe how a change of pace and schedule can bring out how tired I am! But it is a very good and content tired.

Matt and I have brought campers up to Lake Ann now for two years and we have been blessed by the camp in the fact that they provide our family with a cabin retreat for the week, giving my husband, who is a youth pastor, the chance to refresh, rest, hang with his family and also get to know the camp and be a part of the activities going on. We bring our oldest child to be one of the campers, but the other four of our kiddos stay with us for the week in a fun little log cabin on camp grounds. For us, it is a slow paced week in God's beauty and time to enjoy sitting in on chapel services with the different age groups who are here at camp, but not have the normal ministry responsibilities of life back home. Matt has a chance to study, return messages, and prepare but on a more relaxing time schedule. I believe the Lord really blesses Him during weeks like this.

So, while he is down at the beach with our younger kiddos, I thought I would do one big blog update for everyone.

We drove up on Sunday, it is a 7 hour drive, and the trip went very smooth. We arrived pretty late at camp and had a few kinks to work out with lodging for the night. Normally Matt stays with the guys the first night until camp begins on Monday morning and i get us settled into our cabin for the week. But, this year our cabin was not ready for the kiddos and me, so we had to bunk it in a camp cabin. The thought "hotel" crossed my mind and we even called to get rates, because I had not packed bedding for staying in a camp cabin, but the girl's and I roughed it for the night. Let's just say it was an adventure! With no bedding, no cell phone(I realized I forgot it when we got to our cabin), and not knowing where my husband was staying with the guys, I was also unable to get into the van and trailer for our "stuff"- BUT-the girls and i survived and it turned out to be just fine, and I learned how to be flexible and laid back! I can definately use that lesson more often in my life-so thank you Jesus!

Monday morning started at 5:30 am with my lovelies wide eyed and ready to get out into camp. So we did our best to clean up and we explored around camp while everything was still hushed and the sun was still fresh in the sky. Once everything was abuzz with preparation for the first day of camp, we met up with our crew again and got everyone fed and registered. Cole, our son, and a friend from church, Andrew, were already having a blast. Cole was covered from head to toe on dirt before he was even registered-yikes.


My Coleman is the lovely man with the "Silent but Deadly" Tshirt on. I made the mistake of showing it to him as a joke when we were shopping for clothes. What was i thinking, he is an 11 year boy, like he wouldn't want that shirt! All the kids were busy collecting these caterpillars around camp, kind of creepy, I know!

Cole's age group of campers is bunking in the woods. Their cabins are up on stilts and they do a lot of thier meals over the fire. They even have some of their chapels out there as well. It is Wednesday, and I haven't seen him around, but my girls have and says he is having a great time and hasn't brushed his hair! I guess he is trying for dreds! I sent him a care package with the mail and included amongst the goodies-A BRUSH-since I have the sneaking suspicion he did not even bring one!

Last year was my first time as a mom, having to give up one of my children to a stranger to care for them. Ouch, did my heart ache. The lucky thing for me is that I was actually here at camp the whole time and got to spy on him and watch him having such a good time. By Friday though, I couldn't stand it anymore, and I had to go and tackle him for a hug. I behaved though, and waited until his buddies were not around, so I would not completely embarrass him! Well, this year, I am doing alright with it. But I did get a bit misty when I said goodbye to him. I actually ache more now for the disappointment he goes through when camp is over. I remember those times as a kid! He will probably be just like his dad was and work at camp all summer as soon as he is old enough. Camp really changed my husband's life as a kid and that is where he felt his call to full time ministry, so we have a very big soft spot for camp!

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Here is the kids bunk room in our cabin. All four of them sleep here, it is pretty sweet. The cabin is pretty much in the woods, but we have some great neighbors! It is pretty fun this year, another Youth Pastor friend and his family is up here for the week as well, and they are right next door. Our kids are having a great time playing together and it is so good to just stop and chat throughout the day!



Noah and i are taking a walk through camp and will show you a few sights. He is just so excited to be free of four walls, our little wild man!
Here is the beautiful center of camp, if you want to watch all the activities and kids running around, you can sit out on the swings and soak it in!


The next picture is of a super fun game that they play here called octiball. It is always fun to watch no matter what age group is playing, wether it be 5th graders or sr high!


Here is the lakefront. They have a waterslide, the blob(which is always hilarious to watch), and a few other things.








Noah is sacked out after a fun day of hiking and playing at Lake Michigan.

Bell fell asleep right on the floor after walking in the door after a day down at camp! Ah, the fresh air and lots of exercise!

We took the afternoon on Tuesday to swim at the beach on Lake Michigan. It was a very HOT day, but the water was still frigid, so only the girls braved swimming. It was a very fun afternoon! While i was a good mama and caked on the sunblock on the kids, i was silly in not putting some on myself-and OH HOW I AM PAYING NOW! Let's just say I flinch when anyone comes around me for fear that they will actually touch me! I can barely stand matt putting on the solarcane.



It is always a bit sad to be making family memories without Cole, and yet, I love that he is making his own memories!






There is a bunch more to share, and I will share it later. it is time for me to go find my family and get some grub! Have a wonderful week!

And yes, I brought my sewing machine, if any of you were wondering how I survive a week without sewing-I don't! It travels with me! I was working on a quilt late last night as Matt was studying. I t is pretty peaceful quilting in a cabin in the woods!

Shop Update...

Just wanted to let all of my lovely customers and friends know that I will be at camp for the week and out of the studio. We are taking a crew from church to camp on Sunday the 21st and will return on Saturday the 27th. I will be checking my messages and will do my best to respond when time allows. I am leaving the shop open while I am gone, but any orders placed during this week will not be shipped until the 30th. Just wanted to give you a heads up! Have a very blessed week!

The Polka Dot Quick Fix...

I found this sundress while thrifting, it had a small hole on the front, but it was just so cute and simple, I could not pass it up. The hole was in an odd location, but I figured I could come up with some sort of cute patch.

As I was sorting through my scraps, I just was not coming up with anything I liked-and that is just wrong when I have thousands of fabric scraps to choose from! But I finally realized it was the patch idea that was really not doing it for me. So, I changed my approach. Instead of covering up the one little spot, I thought I would do something to include the entire dress, and cover up the hole in the process. I opted for polka dots-an old faithful for me. I also decided that prints were not what I wanted, I choose to work with solids instead. I picked out three different colors to work with. I fused interfacing to the back of the solids. The interfacing helps to make the fabric hold up longer through the wash, as well as making it easier to work with.


For getting the varied sizes of circles, it was nothing fancy. I just use what I have around the studio or house in the sizes that I want. Here were my very fancy and sophisticated tools for making circles:)

I attached the circles with a satin stitch on the machine. I randomly placed them(well except for the hole:))- Bell stood at my machine and sang a little song about her new dress, so it ended up being a hit. I know the days of my girls liking the clothes I make for them are numbered, so I am soaking it up while I can!

PJ's On A Budget ...

Like usual I have had a stack slowing growing in my studio of reclaimed Jersey bed sheets that I was intending for some pj bottoms for my little ones. Always good intentions but never enough time on the clock. But, we are about to take a crew up to camp in Michigan and are getting chance to stay for the week in a cozy little cabin, so, that has been my push to finally get some cuddlies made for the kids. I can hardly wait, slow pace, nature, chapels with hundreds of excited kids worshiping! Alright, back to the pants.

I am not a pattern sewer, and not normally a clothes maker, but every once in awhile I get inspired. I took the kids favorite pj bottoms and used them to draw out the patterns for each of them. That way, I knew they would turn out to be just how they like them.

Using jersey sheets are extremely inexpensive if you pick them up second hand. They are so comfy soft and easy to work with. You can even cheat and skip a few steps by using the hems on the sheets for the hems on the pants. I love shortcuts!

Here are some picks of one of the pairs I did for Joslyn.

Here is the sheet I began with.

I use a heavy recycled brown paper roll to draw out my patterns. I always date them and label who they were for.

All cut and ready to sew.

After I finished with them, I had her try them on to see if I needed to make any adjustments, she never took them off! Yeah, they were a success.

Wearinf these is like being in bed all day!

What To Do With Vintage Linens #7

This project is not completely sewing, and actually could be done very easily without a sewing machine! I, being completely obsessed with vintage bed linen prints used some of my favorites for this. It takes such a small amount too!

After deciding to keep my Friday night quilt, it was given a focal spot on my living room wall, but of course, it was not as simple as just hanging it on the wall, it then needed "something" to compliment it. So I dug through my crate of old decorations out in the garage to hopefully inspire me, and sure enough, I came across some of my old painted picture frames. I had robbed them years ago of their glass for some other project making them just perfect for my new project.


I have always loved the idea of framing fabric and making it art in itself, so I decided to do just that and to place them above my new wall quilt. I decided to actually quilt the fabrics I had chosen, because I will basically use any excuse to free motion quilt! But this part can easily be skipped.


You can quilt your fabrics or just leave them plain. You can choose to keep the glass in your frame or remove it. The possibilities are endless when framing fabric. Either do one large frame, or a multitude of little ones. You can use one fabric or multiple prints. Random or coordinating....you get the idea!

If you are keeping the glass in, it is a little bit easier to attach the fabric. But since I did not have glass in my frames, I simply stapled them in the back.


Here they are finished and up on the wall. It only took about a half an hour to accomplish, so if you are needing a quick solution for some wall, here you go!

Just To Make You Laugh....

How many of us can say that our kids come up with the funniest things to say!? But, with time, our memories just lack the ability to remember all of those moments! I know I have lost too many of those side splitting times to the abyss in my mind, and I only hope that the Lord brings those memories to the surface when I really need them! But years ago, with the encouragement of different mom friends and family, I began to write some of them down whenever possible so I did not have to rely on my ever failing memory! Now if I could just keep from losing the notebooks!....

I came across one of those notebooks from years ago with some of those funny times jotted down and thought it would be fun to share. For those of you who know our kids, well, you will laugh even harder because it so fits them! We always knew as well, that our kids were going to get us in trouble with the things they say and we have prepared ourselves for those times of squirming red faced childlike honesty!

This one was from Dec 4th 2005. And you have to have seen Elmo in Grouchland to understand this one(which, you only grin and bear it through this movie if you are a parent of little ones!)

Cole came to me after seeing a commercial on TV. He said the guy in the commercial was the same guy that stole Elmo's blanket(or wubbie) in the movie. In the commercial he was talking about our cholesterol. Cole proceeded to tell me he thinks this man is lying and that he really wants to steal our cholesterol! IF ONLY THAT WORKED!


This one was from Dec 14th 2005

The kids were licking chocolate left over from dipping pretzels for Christmas. They of course were covered with it. Madison looked at Cole and said, "Gee Cole, I wish you were a statue so I could lick your face off!"

This was on Dec 16th 2005

Matt told me one night as we were getting into bed, that Madison told him he should put name tags on them(our kids) because he always calls them by the wrong name! Matt said the birth of our fourth child threw everything off and name tags would not even help! - Imagine our trouble now that we have 5!


This was from Feb 2nd 2006

As we were getting ready for church this morning, Joslyn told Matt, "Dad, you're getting too old, I don't think I can keep you!"- We are in deep trouble I think:)

This one is from March 3rd-2006

Today when I was picking up, i found a piece of papaer that Cole had written some phone number's on. He had heard a commercial about cash and thought he ought to write the number down and give it to me. The number was 1-800-needcash. The other was 1-800-bathroom.

Now that bathroom one! I probably could have used a few months ago if your remember reading the bathroom demo blog of mine! Hum? I wonder what Matt and were talking about that week that Cole was tuning into!? :)


This was from June 11th-2006

This morning as we headed off to church, we locked ourselves out of the house(and our cars) Of course, Matt and I blamed each other and it quickly turned into yelling. (I cringe to think of our neighbors watching out their windows saying "hey honey, listen to the pastor and his wife getting ready to go to church) After Cole climbing in our window to rescue us from ourselves, I stormed in, said we are not going and that was that. Joslyn says to Matt, "Daddy, you amd mama need to give up the madness!" Oh, the insight of child. Well, we sat down(reluctantly) apologized, prayed and did make it to church. (For the later service:)- Not exactly one of our prouder moments as parents or a couple, but I know I am not the only one who has had a moment like this!


This was from Feb 13th-2007

Tonight, during family devotions we were talking about the Holy Spirit being symbolized by a dove. Madison then mentioned the dove from Noah's Ark. Joslyn then went on to tell us that the dove had brought back "weed" to the ark. After practically rolling on the floor in laughter, we continued to about the Holy Spirit coming down when Jesus was baptized, Joslyn once again shared her Biblical knowledge that God put His Son in the ocean to baptize him.-Needless to say, we may need to work on Joslyn's interpretation of scripture:)

Remember My Memorial Weekend Plans?.....

So, do you remember what I said I was going to do Memorial Day weekend in between planting our gardens? I believe I had a disclaimer in there saying "If all goes as planned" Well, the gardens did get planted, but the dresser, well....

But... I can now say it is finished! With a few sick kiddos, it was a stay at home Friday night, ok, most Fridays are stay at home:) kind of Fridays-because of the kiddos! After putting them to bed, I retreated to the garage to finally finish my dresser.

Remember how it looked?

Here is the finished masterpiece. I am in love.



There are those feet! I just love them~


Now I get to figure out how to dress it up! It turned out to be a perfect way to finish off some almost empty paint cans from recently painted rooms in the house. It has a weathered appearance and such a romance to it.

Friday Night Quilt-It Is Finished!

Remember how I said it was going to be hard to give up! Well, let this be a lesson to you quilters...do make a quilt you intend to sell or pass on in the colors of your own decor! I did, and it never made it into the shop! I am so enjoying it hanging on my living room wall! I do intend to make another for the shop-I promise!