Nanowrimo/Fear

My house it engulfed with a frenzy of writing this month. My Dh and my children are busy participating in National Novel writers Month. They are so excited as their word count grows and their stories come to life. I on the other hand am content to hear about their stories, encourage them and read their offerings. Why ? because I am afraid.

So there it is. I am afraid to write. I have been afraid of it for a very long time. I feel not up to it. Like the words just fall there in an uninspired way. I have convinced myself that I just do not like to write, but really I am afraid to do it badly. I have a husband, children, a good friend who write so eloquently. They bring imagination to life and illuminate the ordinary. My words just, well don't. It is not that I have nothing to say - as thoes who know me can attest - I have no problem expressing myself with the spoken word. I think the fear comes from the pressure I put on myself. If it is written it should be important, eloquent and have a meaning worth reading. Okay even as I write that it sounds silly, but it is truly what I often feel. I am working on this fear and one of the things I have realized is that it is okay not to write. It does not make me less intelligent. It does not make my great pleasure in reading less enjoyable. It just means that this thing is not where I am focusing. I do not have to be jealous or envious of another's ability. God has given me my own gifts and I need to recognize those. It is okay to write competently and not be a wordsmith. I do not need to write a novel and I do not need to like writing stories but I do need to not be afraid of sharing what I love, what I cherish and about my faith in our glorious God.

So what this means is I hope to have more posts that I have worried less over.

I have been hanging out at a new scrap board - Inspired to scrap.

Last weekend I took a fun card class and got a jump on my Christmas cards and now coming up on Friday is a great Layout Sketch class. You can read more about it here - www.inspiredtoscrap.net/store

October 15-29 : 15/15 Inspired by Sketches – $15
Let’s complete 15 layouts using sketches! The design team will present a new sketch for you each day during this 15 day class. We’ll have inspiration, techniques and challenges for you to be motivated to complete more pages.
Features of the class-
Access to a private area of the message board
Daily inspiration will include a new sketch and samples
Video tutorials (special surprise techniques!)
All new samples and layouts to spark your creativity
Encouragement and support to complete 15+ layouts
Inspiration from fellow classmates

I am going to try and take this class too! come and join me if you can.

My heart overflows tonight.

Tonight I am so grateful to my savior who has reached down and grabbed my girls heart. She was fretful and upset over things that had happened today. We talked a bit about them and I sent her to bathe. After her bath she came to me questioning me about sin and then as I brushed her hair she said " I asked Jesus into my heart tonight before my bath" Oh man I can not tell you how my heart overflowed. I have prayed with her and tucked her in and I sit here now with tears in my eyes.. Thank you Lord for this amazing blessing. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for loving Josephine and capturing her heart.

Spring to Finish.

I did not meet this goal by 5/31 but I am still working on it!

Over at the Tallgrass Prairie Studio blog the challenge is on to get some uncompleted projects finished. So here is my list of items I would like to complete (I may add on to this as I go)

1. My knit tote - it is about - complete 7/6

2. American girl doll purple outfit - cut out, Shirt sewn

3. American girl Kirsten school dress - cut out

4. recycled purse - cut out, 3/4 done

5. Skirt for Jo from old dress - Complete 6/28

6. 5 pages in Tim's Scrapbook - Complete 6/4

I will reward myself with yarn for my next knitting project.

SarahAnn's Easter Dress

I wanted something a little more grown up for SarahAnn this year and I pictured a long dress with a regency era feel to it. I love how it turned out! I used the Miss Madeline Pattern increased by about 1 inch in diameter and made it longer. I also made the waist band about 5/8th of an inch wide and used 1/2 inch elastic. To give it the regency era feel I made the waist empire height.

You can see here how sheer the fabric is if you look at the sleeves. I lined the body of the dress for modesty. The ribbon can be removed for more casual wear.

A close up of the rolled hem and the lining fabric. SarahAnn is well pleased with the dress. I will take photos of both the girl's in their dresses tomorrow. (the ribbon really does match better than these pics show)

Josephine's Easter Dress

I cut out this dress last summer for Josephine but just now got around to sewing it. It is a size 8 from this pattern - Simplicity 2628 . Good thing this pattern runs big or I do not think it would have fit her. I love the fun patterns and colors on it. I made a few changes to the original pattern. Below are some details with photos.

I did not really like the bottom band on the sleeve and I was worried it might be to tight on Jo's arm. So I finished the bottom of the sleeve with elastic gathers.

I am not a fan of putting in zippers so I changed the back to have a button opening with 5 small buttons. I really like how cute it is.
at the bottom I added a ruffled trimmed I made from one of the fabrics. I just did a tight zig zag over the edges and then gathered it down the center and zig zagged it onto the dress.
I made a cute little flower pin using the flower tutorial from "Pink Paper Peppermints" blog. I made mine double layered with a self made fabric covered button.
I really like it and will post some pics of Josephine wearing it after Easter. Next up is SarahAnn's dress.

My Funny Valentines

These pictures are from our Valentine's day breakfast last year. I love this tradition we have. I made this page in response to challenge #50 over at the ScrapYourCrap blog. The challenge was to use glitter and hearts and of course it needed to be all stuff from your stash. It is hard to see but there are some heidi swapp acrylic hearts with pink stickles on them as well as some Making Memories glittery heart brads. I added in some Love elsie stickers and a plastic ribbon slide with a heart - I do not know who made it. I am so pleased with this page. Really captured the sense of quirky fun I wanted it to.

A valentine gift box

The All Things Crafty and Delicious blog has another cute free box svg file to use with your cricut! She issued a design challenge using it and this is what I came up with. I got a Cricut Expression this week so I was able to make it a larger size. Mine is 8 X 2 3/4 X 2 inch tall. I am going to fill this box with heart shape butter cookies for our neighbor.

I used the cover from an old Cricut mat to cut the clear window piece from.
The roses are based on this tutorial by Tim Holtz. I used ranger distress ink in lipstick pink on the edges and added distress pink Stickles as well. The centers are Doodlebug bling and the leaves are from silk flowers - I used glitter embossing powder on them. The ribbon is from Stampin Up.

Be sure to check out the other examples on her blog.