Jacob's Heart in Gods Hands Quilt

Happy Sunday Everyone,

Hope all is well with you and your family. I'm starting a new sewing project and making a small wall quilt. It is just at the beginning stage and it's taking me forever, but I usually only get to work on it during Jacob's nap times. 

It's far from complete.  Each side rectangle will have a flower inserted to represent that what is planted by Gods hand will grow and flourish.  Each of the 4 corners will have a patched heart showing that God accepts all hearts especially the ones with patches that he can heal and make whole, at least that's the plan.  I haven't chosen a backing fabric yet, but I do love to go to Joanns and shop.  I purchased some small heart shaped buttons to attach to the inner checkered middle squares.

We want Jacob to understand the power of our God and this is a story that I've made for him that I share as I sew.  The hand stitching is fun because Jacob likes to put is finger on the hearts in Gods hands and I repeatedly have to tell him what is means.  He doesn't understand yet but he will and our prayer is that he will always keep his heart in Gods hands. 

There is so much violence in the world today directed towards our children and I want Jacob to know that if he's ever faced with tragedy and dad and I aren't there, that God will be with him.  As a nurse for many years I've seen a lot of the cruelties that people direct toward children and it breaks my heart to think that Jacob could someday be faced with circumstances out of his control and feel alone and afraid. 

At this stage of his life I can cuddle him and kiss the ouches away but that won't always be the case, for as he grows older so do I especially as we were blessed with Jacob in our older years. Last night as he slept on my chest, and I felt his soft rhythmic breathing, everything in the world was right for those few minutes and I knew that he was safe and I would die before I'd let anyone or anything hurt him. 

However there will come a day when he will venture out into the world and he will need someone stronger that his elderly old mom-mom for strength. There will be a day when I won't be there to hold him when he cries, but I can make sure he will never be alone. I want to fill his heart with the love of a God who has never tiring arms and the strength to set his feet back on solid ground should he fall, and a hedge of protection he can feel safe within.

That being said, you might think, "well a quilt isn't going to make him feel safe", which is true.  The quilt will rot and become rags someday, but the story he learns from the making of the quilt will hopefully be etched on his heart forever. God's Word never fades nor rots, but remains the same forever. Hopefully Jacobs love for God will also remain forever. 

 

I'll be posting progress pictures as time goes by. 

In the meantime, God Bless

Angel

Cooking Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies with Jacob

Hello Everyone,

Hope you all are having a great Saturday.  My Jacob loves chocolate so we decided to make cookies.  He had such an awesome time.  He likes to play in the dough as much as he likes to eat the cookies.  He is so adorable when he uses the wooden spoon and thinks he is mixing the dough, most of it ends up on his face and shirt but he has a great time.  I love to cook so maybe he will be a good cook when he grows up. He is 14 months and can say several words very well and he has learned "Jabub cook", he can't get Jacob yet but he's close.  He's my angel boy.

 

The house smells sooooooooo good.  Wish you all were here to have some cookies with us. 

 I put the receipe below if anyone out there would like to try them.

 

Ummmm

 

 

Recipe:

 

3 cups flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2/3 tsp salt

1 tbs vanilla

2 room tempture eggs

2 cups milk chocolate chunks

 

 

Directions:

 

Chill dough for one hour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Drop dough in large spoonfuls onto parchment papered cookie sheet

Bake for 10 minutes

Cool on sheet for 2 minutes

Transfer to wire cooling rack

Enjoy

 

God Bless,

Angel



Computer shopping

Hope everyone out there is doing great.  Life around my house is never without things going on.  Today my daughter was shopping for a new laptop.  There are way to many to choose from.  I'd rather pay a little more than spend the amount of time it takes to run all over town searching out the best gigs and rams for the price.  It all sound like greek to me anyway.  My daughter is a computer geek and most of the time I don't understand what she is talking about anyway (relating to computers).   

I can feel that dazed and confused look coming over my face when the kids at computer counters start looking at me and asking questions, like what exactly are you looking for in a laptop?  My answer would be very simple.  I'd like it to come in a little black plastic casing that will bounce when dropped repeatedly and will remain totally functional, be able to withstand diet soda spills without smoking, and I'd like it to have a huge bright neon orange key that says "push me to turn computer ON stupid!".  That's pretty much my requirements.  My daughter on the other hand does not agree with my theory on purchasing requirements for laptops so it took us a lot longer to find the right one. 

Anyway she did purchase one and then we had to go through the ordeal of her wanting to show me all the features and describe them in geek language detail.  Don't get me wrong when I use the word ""geek", I have the utmost respect for computer wizards, I just don't understand a word they say.  She lost me right after she showed me the ON button.  She's happy with it so I'm happy.

We did have fun shopping with our little guy in tow. He's as cute as a button and a true woman magnet.  He dazzles women with a big smile and is 2 teeth and they just melt.  Everybody is always touching him and talking to him. We always have plenty of people to talk to when he is with us. When I carry him around the store I have to remind myself to check on his handhold for me, he likes to hold on to the center of my bra. This sometimes gives people a great view of my boobs, at my age that could either make you smile or give you nightmares.

Today of course he had a huge BM while in one of our stores, the oozing out of the back of the diaper huge.  Of course it's always a trip when you are trying to change your little one in the back of your SUV and everybody in town apparently wants to park right beside you, even if you are parked at the far end of the parking lot. I always feel like bank robbers or something.  My daughter Shelly stands close beside me as the lookout, Bug (what we call our little man) laying on his changing matt with both legs up in the air making as much noise as possible and grabbing at the poop between his legs and up his back and down his thighs and now on his hands which immediately goes to his hair and face, you get the picture. Anyway I'm trying to wipe him down when he really needs to be hosed off and people are going by and of course everyone is curious about what you are doing because you are trying to be discrete with your kids poop. Then you finally get him clean enough to put a fresh diaper on and as soon as you get the new diaper under him, before you can pull the tabs he pees and giggles relentlessly, what do you do? LOL. Living the dream. 

It was an awesome day.  Hope yours was good too.

God Bless,
Angel

Playroom

Hello Again,

I hope things have been going well with all of you out there.  It's been busy around my house.  I work harder now than when I actually went out to work every day.  Last weekend I had another yard sale to enhance my makeover fund.  This one was even more profitable than the first one. 

My net was $451.  God just keeps blessing my socks off!

 

 

I've been working a lot on the playroom area of my craft room.  So far I've got it painted yellow with white beadboard and white  trim.  Since I have a small one I actually double padded the flooring. The first layer is gray rubber tiles from Harbor Freight made for working in garages but also great padding. I spent more on the floor than anything attempting to keep the small ones safe as possible. The top layer I purchased 2 packages of alphabet letters from Toys R Us.  The flooring has cost me $150 and worth every cent.  The room is very bright and happy.  The kids love to play in it already.  I'm not done but you can see the progress. Jacob loves his big teddy bear.

I made each wall have a different theme. The one below is sports.  So far I've only spent $30 on this wall.  The picture is from Hobby Lobby while on sale for $20.  The other items also Hobby Lobby totaling $10.  I'm not finished with this wall yet, still looking for more items.

The wall pictured below is a Mickey Mouse wall.  I took colorful pictures from one of the childrens books purchased from Michaels for $3 and purchased photo matts for $8 total at Hobby Lobby

which look adorable on the wall.  Also at Michaels in the craft items I found these cute little figures for the wall for $5.  So far this wall has cost $16. I intend to purchase 2 large Micky posters, one for each side of the wall to complete this wall, which I will make frames from some thin wood pieces I have left from making a large spice rack for my daughter 3 Christmas's ago.

 

The fourth wall will be the entertainment wall but I have barely started with it.  I did need help from my husband mounting a TV yesterday.  It is a 42 inch model from Costco that my husband purchased for the room for his birthday which is tomorrow.  Isn't it funny how when you have small children around even puchases for your birthday are for them.  My husband is one of a kind. He's a good man and I'm blessed to have him.  He knows how much I love the kids and I love it when he does things like this.  Hopefully I will have pictures of that wall to post by the weeks end. 

 

Well that's my progress. I hope someone out there will get inspired to try their own project.

 

God Bless,

Angel

Cuddlebug Cuties

I've found this awesome artist at Cuddlebug Cuties.  Her stuff is just to cute. During my basement makeover I've made time to create a cute little card.  This little Cutie is Kelly.  I used butterfly cardstock, stickers, Copic markers. Martha Stewart puncher, a cute little button, ribbon and pearl gemstones.  I hope Kelly makes you smile.

Challenges:

Bellichallenge - winged things
Doyoustackup - buttons
Scrap-creations1 - kid theme
Bearlymine - anything with wings
Ladybugscraftsink - summer fun
Anythinggoes- anything goes summer
Flutterbywednesdays - butterfly - anything goes

 

This week I've been working on the walls of my play area makeover.  The walls are up and painted.  Then I decided that some beadboard would look nice.  I had some reused pieces from prior projects over the years so I started with those and then purchased the remainder needed.

The wall below poses a little challenge with the water pipe coming into the wall.  Haven't figured out how to cover it yet, but you can see how the work is progressing.  You may notice that I've also painted the floor.  It's just to clean up the room until I decide on flooring but it does make it look nicer than the way is was.

Now meet my new best friend, the wonderful staple gun.  Another air tool I've had to learn to use.  This one is actually a lot of fun.  It is not as loud and scary as the big nail gun was.  It's been great for the beadboard and the trim.

Below is a pretty good photo of the walls.  So far I've purchased 2 gallons of paint, 6 packs of beadboard, 2 packages of contractor grade trim, brushes and roller wheels.  My cost so far is approximately $200 for supplies,  plus various toys I've purchased for the room. I'm at about $400 cost from my $429 start up budget.  

I'm planning to have another yard sale soon to fund my craft area makeover.

This has been a fun week.  I love seeing the room coming together.  I'm almost to where I can start on the craft/sewing room area.  Can't wait! 

I hope if you are reading this blog that maybe it will inspire you to take on a project that you've been wanting to tackle.  Why not? Who knows what you can create if you put your heart into it.  Hope you decide to go for it.  Until next time, be blessed in whatever you do.

Angel

Hello again. 

As you can see this playroom area has begun its transformation.  One wall is finished and painted. I decided that I loved the yellow paint.  It's very pleasant to look at.  The other walls were put up this morning.  I am particle board as the walls.  Particle board is reasonably priced, I got 5 sheets for $52. You probably wonder why I used particle board.   When painted it has an amazing texture to add a little punch to the walls inexpensively. .I am using spackle to fill in any cracks where the room is not totally leveled out or where I just couldn't make it fit exactly.  Either way, the spackle works great. 

This room has the main water knob and pipe on the wall and I haven't decided how to hide it yet.

Below you can see my arch nemesis, the dreaded nail gun.  I hate the sound of this thing.  As a nurse I've seen what these things can do and it scares me but I want this room so

I had to put on my big girl panties and suck it up and use it.

Well that's todays adventures. 

Hello

I'm new to blogging and just wanted to tell anyone who reads this a little bit about who I am.

I'm a registered nurse and have been for many years. I've always been so focused on my role as a nurse that theres never been much time for anything else until now. The most important thing is that now we suddenly have a new little man in our lives.  My husband and I aleady raised our kids and now suddenly we have another.  Wow, talk about a shocker! So needless to say things are changing.  We thought we'd retire early and travel, which we still will but the new kid will probably be pushing us around in a wheelchair.

So here we are, Abraham and Sarah, with our new Jacob.  The child God gave us in our old age. We call Jacob our miracle child, our angel from God.  He endured a scary pregnancy but made it to seven months gestation.  The doctor tried to keep him from coming so early but Jacob just wasn't being patient, still isn't.  He decided it was time to meet the world at 1am after 3 weeks of labor.  Then our Jacob spent many long weeks in the NICU connected to tubes and wires. Doctors kept preparing us for all the worse senarios that he would probably go through. And as a nurse I knew the odds.  However Jacob was obviously of God, his little 2.2 pounds of fighting glory kept proving the doctors wrong. He was so tiny he didn't even look real.  We all sat by the little warmer bed day after day, praying and believing God was in control no matter what the doctors said, and he was. It was the most horrible feeling to see a baby that you loved so much but to not be able to touch or hold him.  I can't describe how heartbreaking it was.  But, once again God prevailed and tiny little Jacob finally came home with us. Our lives changed drastically and I hold my Jacob all the time and he fills my heart with so much joy.  He is worth all the months of waiting and worrying.  So now its time for us to begin a new chapter in our lives, second time around raising a child.  Look out world here we come again!

So here I am writing a blog.  I do love a good crafty project. I wish I could say I have one interest that captures my creative nature but I have many crafting interests. My greatest passion is probably quilting, however, I love creating cards, scrapbooking and love, love, love to resuse anything made of wood. My father made cabinetry and things out of wood when I was a child and I love the smell and feel of wood. With all that being said, obviously I've found a million blogs that interest me. Over the years I've started so many projects that I've gotten to busy to finish. Now I have some time to work on all my projects.

In case you are wondering why I suddenly have time to craft until completion of projects, well that's because after a lot of prayer, I finally decided I had seen all the pain and death that I could handle and I wanted to celebrate life and enjoy time with Jacob.

 

 I resigned my job recently and decided corporate america would do fine without my weary body and mind. The job I left just was literally sucking the life out of me. To many 16 hour days, too much death, and a boss that only cared about the almighty dollar. I'm sure I'm not the only person whose ever felt this way, but I was just done, just couldn't do it anymore. I got into nursing with the wide-eyed, idealistic dream of helping save the world. Today it seems that nursing, and medical care in general, has just lost the vision of helping human suffering, at least until your insurance coverage is verified, and then only to the minimal extent of your coverage.

Anyway, now I'm spending some much needed time with my family, enjoying life and trusting in God to lead me to whatever I'm supposed to do next.  My youngest daughter loves to create cards so we are spending a lot of time together now which I thoroughly enjoy. I feel like a completely different person . I'm laughing again, my family tells me that I had forgotten how to laugh in the last year before we knew Jacob was coming. I had let my career become my life, I guess you could say I lost my way, but now I've found it again and I can't wait to see where my path will lead me. Now that I remember how to laugh I'm trying to do it a lot so I don't forget again. God will take care of the rest. And Jacob will be my constant reminder the God can create new life in any situation

We all have issues that shake us to the core of our being at times. I hope if this is you that you have the faith to stand firm and trust that God will help you, just stand still for a minute and listen. I knew long before I left my job that I was supposed to leave but I kept hanging in there because I worried that my patients would not have an advocate if I left. I was miserable because I didn't listen when I prayed because I didn't like the answer I was getting, by the time I smartened up I was just miseaible and it was my own fault. I'm not saying for anyone to resign their jobs like I did, I'm saying just take a minute and maybe your answer will come before you reach the miserable stage.

Anyway, I've started so many projects that I still need an extra day in every week to get them all done. I have decided to create a craft room in our unfinished basement so Jacob can play while I create. The kids grew up and we've used the basement to harbor junk for way to many years. Now we have a new baby in the house and need more usable space.  I have started moving everything out of it. What I can't use, I've sold. What I can't sell I've donated and maybe someone can use it. My first yard sale was a success at $429 profit. Now I'm only about a million short of enough money to create the craft room of my dreams. I took some before photos now that I've got it pretty close to empty so you can see where I'm starting from. Wish me luck on this renovation DIY.

Until next time.

Angel

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Ok, well this one of the before photos.  This 10 x 10 area is going to be a play area for my grandson.  At this time there is one partially finished wall and the rest of the area is concrete.   I've definitely got some creating to do here.

The below photo is a fairly large room that has been used for junk storage.  This rooom will be my craft room.  I have planned out a crafting side to the left, and a sewing area to the right.  I have 3 sewing machines that I want to set up on seperate stands since over the years with all the updates, each one has different features. 

Below is the right side of the room where as you can see are currently old shelves that have been there for probably 20 years.  This is where I plan to use the old tabletops I've held on to for years.  I will have to do some wood work on the structure before I can attach the tabletops. 

Below is the other side of the basement after 20 years of stuff was removed. 

This was a major undertaking.  I'm not sure how this side will end up yet.  Time will tell.