Why I'm Thankful for Emu's - Do you have Rosacea?

First I want to say, I make no money from promoting this product, nor am I a friend or family member of anyone from the company.

I am just an extremely happy customer and would like to pass on some help that was passed on to me.
See, I have rosacea. REALLY BAD.
I had worst rosacea than just about anyone I had ever seen. It was like a mask on my entire face and my whole face was raised and red and dry, with peeling, sores , and on and on. It was absolutely horrible. I wish I had a before photo. It got to the point I didn't want to go out because everyone who saw me asked, "what is wrong with your face?" One day we went to buy a new vehicle. The man that owned the place said

"I don't mean to pry but is that rosacea you're dealing with?".

He told me he had really bad rosacea , but looking at him, I couldn't see a trace of it.
Up to this point, I had tried some different all natural / herbal things because that is normally the first route I try for any healing and normally have great success but not this time. Also, the doctor had given me some prescriptions to antibiotic creams which I never filled because I just couldn't see putting antibiotics on my face every single day...... forever. I also had cut chocolate out of my diet (thank you God it wasn't the chocolate), and had tried cutting some other things out of my diet. Nothing helped. So this man tells me he tried lots of things also and he prefers natural things (same here) and he gave me the name of this cream.

It is from Vermont Prime Emu Producers www.vtemu.com
They have many products but if you are dealing with rosacea you specifically want the one called Blemish Control.
I am here to tell you this cream is AMAZING.
I not only don't have any sign of rosacea but my skin is nicer than it has EVER been, and there is nothing in the ingredients that I can't pronounce. It at first seems a bit pricy but it really does last as long as they say (and I'm using it on my entire face). I would say it ends up working out to around $10.00 per month which to me is a small price to pay for my self confidence which had sunk to an all time low. The product says to give it a few weeks to work, and although I did see an improvement in that time, it took me longer to get to the point my skin is at now, and it has maintained. I have an occasional small break out (pimple) but nothing like before. I have found that after you get things under control, if you skip a day from time to time it is fine. I first purchased the smaller size to try it out but have since ordered the larger size. If they ever go out of business, I am going to have to get myself some emu's.
Thank you Vermont Prime Emu Producers!!!

Just Couldn't Wait to Post These

Aren't these cute. They aren't quite done yet but I thought I'd show you them now. The angel still needs her wings and the shepherd his staff and the kings their gifts. They will probably end up for sale once the manger is made and the other details are done but I'm not sure yet, I'm tempted to keep them.

Look What I Made

Look what I took off my loom yesterday. What are they you ask? Well, they are woven newspaper, woven plastic bags and woven grapevine. I know, I know, you are right now asking yourself why on earth anyone would weave such materials but it was just one of those days when anything that came through my door was bound to be, well, bound in my warp threads. Currently they are in the form and size of approximately a place mat but I will be making them into pocketbooks. I will post the pictures of them here when they are done.

Making Gift Tags: A Tutorial

Make these pretty enclosure cards/gift tags for next to nothing.

It has always bothered me the amount of money that is spent on greeting cards just to have them dropped in the trash. So, about 2 or 3 times a year my daughters and I take out all our greeting cards and sit and make tons of enclosure cards, reusing greeting cards which we have been given. Here is a tutorial on the method we use to do this. I hope you enjoy.

First, greeting cards are often made of beautiful papers, which if purchased in the craft store, would cost lots of money. Here is just a sample of some of the papers I have saved from my greeting cards. Some of the papers come from the sheer lining which is glued inside the actual card, some comes from the back of the card, you just never know what you'll find. I sit (usually while I watch a movie) and cut all the usable part off a stack of cards and throw away the rest. I have a small paper cutter which makes this job quick and easy. Be sure to look at the space on the back of the card, sometimes there is a little picture or writing on the back but the space above or below it may be nice usable paper. If there is writing on one side of the card it is o.k., you can just use that piece to glue onto another.Here is a picture of some of the adorable images I have saved from some cards. You are going to begin looking at the cards you receive in a whole new way. Each card is full of potential for these cards as well as other crafting opportunities. On the back of the two cards in the photo, you can see there are two little images. Many cards have these on the back. These are great for creating with also. I spend time (while watching movies) cutting images out and I have a good collection going of them at all times. You will need nice sharp scissors which are good for cutting detail work to do the cutting of the images. Keep them in a baggie and you'll be ready to make cards at any time. In the following pictures you will see the little snowman and the pine cone in the above picture used on cards.
Here is another item you'll need to make these cards, however, I can't remember what they are called. They are little squares of foam which are sticky on both sides. I purchase them at Walmart and they are in the section with the mirrors. I cut them up into itsy bitsy (I mean, really small) squares for use on the cards. Because I cut them up so small, one package lasts me quite a while. You will also need glue.

Here is the process I use.

I take a card and first decide how I am going to use it. I will be using the bottom piece of this card for the main part of the card which I am going to make. I will be throwing away the top piece and I will be cutting out the flowers on the middle piece for adding to the card which I am going to make. Sometimes the flowers or other images which I will add come from other cards, however, in this example, all of the images are from the same card.














Here is the bottom piece folded into the main enclosure card and the flowers which I want are cut from the middle piece. I then take some of my little tiny squares of sticky sided foam and put them on the back of some of the images which I cut out. You only need a couple on the back of each one depending on the size.

Here is the card with the flowers in place. The second image is taken from an angle so you can see the three dimentional effect created by the foam squares. I do not use the foam squares on all of the added images. In this example only two of the three flowers were raised.

You may notice in the pictures that the edge of my cards are finished with a decorative edge. I do this with a deckle paper cutter but you can also use fancy cut scissors.


Here are a few images of a Christmas card I did. In the first picture note that the image with the bird is almost the entire front of one card. The little separate piece of holly is from another card. See how an image you may think will look funny when folded actually looks very nice. Further below are some more samples.












Here you can see some of the finished cards I have made for Christmas, they are complete with their ribbons. If you look closely you can see that the three across the top do not have any added image, they are just mounted on heavier paper and then the ribbon was added. Also, if you look at the two cards in the middle and at the right end of the top row you can see they are from the same card. The top right card has an image of some people decorating a tree, I cut off the top of the image and used it for the card at the center top. For the card on the far right end, the carolers were added and are raised. For the card with the pine cone, here is a picture of the individual elements before assembly (aren't they pretty?). Another thing I do with these cards sometimes is water down some glue and paint it lightly on certain places and sprinkle with glitter. Here is a photo of the cards I have ready for this coming Christmas. I also try to keep an ongoing stash of cards going for all other occasions. If you want to see something I came up with for children's valentine cards, please watch here for another upcoming tutorial. I hope you enjoy making these cards as much as my girls and I do. Happy Crafting, Shelley

What are we making?

This picture is of some of our church family sewing parachutes for Voice of the Martyrs.

Does anyone own this cat?

This is my daughter holding the latest addition to our family (I supose), who has been affectionately named "Lily". She seems to have been dropped off by someone who found our rural road and knew my daughter would love her to pieces. She is very sweet and after all...what's one more?

The Hospitality of Home Church

The Hospitality of Home Church

by Shelley Howland
So you want to home church but you don't know where to begin. You don't know how others are doing this, you've never been to another home church and hospitality creates stress for you. The Hospitality of Home Church will walk you through some of the details. Intended as a sort of handbook for homechurching women, you will gain insights into topics such as: how to set up seating, what to do with the children (and the pets), how to make unleavened bread and how to truly have your heart focused on the Lord and those in your gathering so all will be blessed. Includes many crowd pleasing recipes as well as recipes for unleavened bread. 74 pages.
Available in our store (see link in side bar).