My Son's Latest Work

My son has been working on carving bread boards lately. Here are some photos of a few of his most recent pieces. This first one is incredibly beautiful, it is made of Teak. It was carved using a Travisher, Spokeshave and Gouges.
If you are interested in purchasing any of his work you can find it here.

In one of these photos the bread board is sitting on a chair seat. The chair is a hand made Windsor Chair which Forest also made.





Here's another bread board, this one is made of pine. (Following 2 photos are of the same bread board)

How to Make Inside Out S'mores

We have just returned from a week at my mom's house. While we were there we celebrated my mom's birthday with a campfire. Due to one item, this campfire was one to remember. Knowing how crazy my mom is about marshmallows, we just knew we had to buy her these:






Now these may look in the photo like just a regular bag of marshmallows but they are not, here is a photo to show you the comparison of a regular marshmallow to these babies.





Let me tell you, these are huge! The kids had to use two hands to eat them and what a mess.
We did come across one problem with them. They are too big for the crackers for making S'mores. So we got creative and made Inside-Out S'mores. We made a hole in the marshmallow (not all the way through) and put the crackers and the chocolate right inside the marshmallow, then roasted them. Spur of the moment creativity....genius!

These should be illegal. Due to the chocolate being heated while the marshmallow is roasting, these were ridiculously gooey and delicious. They were definitely a hit with the kids (and the adults). So if you see these super sized marshmallows in the store be sure to pick them up for some added "wow" value at your next campfire. And be sure to have a hose ready for hosing down the sticky kids.

New Project For My Family: To Help Those Fighting Leukemia

It has been awhile since I put anything on my blog. I have sat at my computer a few times trying to write and the words just would not come. Even the last post I did for Pink Saturday I had to force myself to do. See, In April my Nana went home to be with the Lord, and I was out of state for about a month spending time with my family. I could have written while I was out of state but as I said before, the words just would not come. I wrote about my Nana back in March, here is a link if you would like to read it. My Nana was an amazing lady and I will miss her all my days and my children (one who just turned 17) are incredibly fortunate to have had their Great-Grandmother as a regular part of their life, oh how blessed we have been. I mentioned back in March that part of the legacy my Nana left was a legacy of hope, more specifically, hope for Glory. As a symbol of that hope, her family, almost 30 of us, wore bright yellow to her funeral, it was a sight to behold.

A while after we arrived home from being out of state and doing the funeral, my daughter asked me if there was anything we could do to help people who were fighting Leukemia, like Nana died from. My daughter is 13, she loves crafting and creating (gee I wonder where she gets that?), she loves planning and organizing, and she loves blogging (she has her own crafting blog here). So, here is what she came up with to honor Nana's memory: She started a ministry called "Ellen's Hope" and a blog for you all to follow the progress of her projects. She wants to do ongoing projects to help those fighting leukemia, but she wants the projects to be able to change. For example; right now, for her first project, she has a goal of putting together 50 gift baskets for Leukemia patients (25 for adults, 25 for children), to be delivered to the cancer floors of local hospitals. However, once that project is completed, she wants to have the flexibility to do something different, maybe a yard sale to send money for leukemia research, maybe a bake sale, etc. So, on her blog you can follow all of the details of what we are currently doing. I say "we" because "we", the whole family, are helping with these projects.

We will be adding to the "Ellen's Hope" blog regularly so please check back often. If you would like to participate in any way, please get in touch with us through the contact information either on this blog or the "Ellen's Hope" blog. If you would like to participate, we are currently looking for donations for the baskets. Attention crafters: This may be a great way to get your items into people's hands. We don't mind if your labels include your contact information.

Pink Saturday!

Here it is Pink Saturday once again. I thought for this weeks pink it would be fun to see what pinks my hands touch in the course of an average day. These are a few items which I lay my hands on daily.

First, I have a sweet basket pin cushion which is one of my latest thrift store finds. I have needed a new pin cushion and spotted this one at the thrift store for under $1.00. Next to the pin cushion is a cone of pink yarn which I took from my stock of weaving yarns. It's a pretty shade of pink and has been used in baby blankets, purses, and other items. These two items are sitting on a Math Teachers Manual. I am a homeschooling mom and therefore this pink item is truly a part of my every day life. See, pink truly is everywhere and you don't have to look to far to find it. What pink is a part of your everyday life?

It's Pink Saturday Again!

Once again it's time for another edition of Pink Saturday. For this week's edition I have a couple of lovely pinks for you. The first is a quilt I made for my daughter. Her bedroom is a loft above our kitchen and it is all pink. She has pink cabinets, pink bow borders and pink walls. She loves pink and this is the quilt I made for her bed.

This next photo is of one of my daughters and believe it or not, it was taken just last week on Cape Cod in MA. We had a beautiful fairly warm day in the midst of snowing and cold and took the opportunity to head to the ocean while we were at my mom's. We have been studying oceans and were at the point of studying shells so we were looking for a chance to collect some, and boy did we, we came home loaded down. I love this photo, don't you think even the water looks pink?



















By the way, the lovely lady in this photo is participating in Pink Saturday this week on her very own blog. She is very excited and would love for you all to drop by at
www.crittersncrafts.blogspot.com

Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for organizing Pink Saturday for us all.

Handmade Blank Journal from Vintage Book Cover

I made the outside of this journal from the cover of a book called "Do You Love Someone?" The journal is a pretty pinkish color and closes with a corded tie. Inside you'll find 28 cream colored pages with deckle cut edges. You'll also find some stitched fabric pockets to hold notes and keepsakes. I also included some of the little images from the original book on the corners of a few of the pages.

Faith for Today, Hope for Tomorrow

I was traveling recently to visit my Grandmother who is fighting leukemia at 83 years of age. As I was driving, I was listening to a recording of a friend of ours, he had given a talk on the subject of hope. It seems when hope is mentioned in scripture is it referring to things in the future. But when faith is mentioned it is referring to things of the present.

2 Corinthians 5:7
"For we walk by faith and not by sight."

2 Timothy 4:7
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

His talk got me thinking about my Grandmother, my Great-Grandmother and my Mother.
My Great-Grandmother was a Swedish immigrant who after moving to America as a young woman, never returned to her homeland. She never saw her mother or most of her family again. Times were so different then with no telephones, email, facetime, skype or webcams and communication was done primarily through letter writing. My family has many of the letters which my Great-Grandmother wrote home to Sweden and they have been translated from Swedish. In those letters is expressed the heartbreak of homesickness and longing. Buried in one of those letters is one line which still resounds in my heart many years after first reading them. I am paraphrasing that line here because I would have to go through every letter to find the exact line but it says something like this "if not for the hope of Glory, I would not be able to endure the heartache of missing you all".
While listening to the audio of our friend speaking it struck me that the legacy my Great-Grandmother, my Grandmother and my Mother have tried to instill in us all, is a legacy of faith and hope. They have instilled in us a faith in God, a faith which helps get us through today and the trials of life. But in addition to faith they have tried to point us towards hope, hope for Eternity, hope for Glory, hope for tomorrow. What a beautiful legacy to leave for those you love. In the end, isn't what really matters knowing that your loved ones know the Lord and Savior Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior? I know it is for me. I only hope I can leave a legacy of faith and hope for my children. I am so grateful that three incredible ladies loved me enough to pass on that legacy to me. Thank you Ma, I can't wait to meet you in Glory, and Thank you Nana and Thank you Mom. I love you with all my heart.