My 18th Birthday

I am now 18!!  And my dearest family made the day oh so special for me!

The morning started out as pretty much every birthday morning - I opened up gifts before doing much else!  They included new DVDs (Courageous - fantastic movie, Facing the Giants, and Love Finds a Home), the two "One Yard Wonder" books (on sewing), and a gift card to Joann Fabrics!  Soon after that we were off to spend the day at Duluth!

Sadly, it was rather foggy and only in the 40's, but nothing can burst birthday spirits! ;)

A ship obligingly was passing through the channel soon after we arrived, so we got a good view of that right away.



Soon after that we went to Famous Dave's for lunch, and then to Vertical Endeavors to rock climb!  Vertical Endeavor turned out to be a really nice place where we could hook up ourselves, so it made for easy moving from place to place!  The climbing went well until after a few up and downs, then our arms were getting so worn that even the easy ones we used to breeze through were very hard!  But it was such fun (way high up there! :D), a good work out, and I have been feeling it in my arms for day! :-)

The rest of our time was spent in shopping Duluth and enjoying the lake.  But the bad weather soon drove us into Caribou for my free birthday coffee!

The rest of the evening was spent quietly at home watching Love Finds a Home; over all my birthday was so wonderful and special!  But the celebrating wasn't over...

Two days later I had another wonderful celebration with my dear girlfriends!

Of course, some Pinterest inspired decorations.

Menu:

Chicken Wraps

Rainbow fruit kabobs

chips and pickles

cupcakes and ice cream

I love planning the decorations and food, but I'm not very good at choosing creative activities that will last the whole party.  But Mom stepped in to help with that, and she came up with some very fun games.  It started with a photo scavenger hunt where we go around doing crazy and fun activities and games - like in the picture above, where we have to pass the hat not using our hands, or how about a homesteading game where we carry an egg on a spoon in our mouth, shoot a chicken (picture of chicken on can), pluck the chicken (feathered balloon) and kiss one of our chickens :) - and take a picture of each activity.  We also made fabric flowers for hair, bag, or to be used in any other stylish way.

Thank you girls for coming and making my day special!

Blessings, Amber

Party Planning

Over the past month or so, my thoughts have been a lot on a couple big events coming up - one of them being my 18th birthday at the end of March.  Usually we are allowed a birthday party every other year, and this year being my 18th and then two years from that would be my 20th, I felt this would sort of be my last "normal" birthday party.  Although, you never grow out of getting together with girl friends, so I am guessing that is what will be done come birthdays after this.

Now that maybe some of the invitees are reading this, I don't want to give to much away!  But here is the picture of inspiration for some of my decorations..

I am busy planning the decorations along with invites, food, games, and all those fun things!

Another HUGE thing we are planning for is my graduation!!!  My dear Mom has been busy working on the scrapbook, getting that up to speed.  And my Grandma and Grandpa bought me a graduation ring.

I didn't want anything big, so I think the size is perfect, even if the wording is hard to read; written on it is "2012 Prairie  Bible 2012" (our school name is Prairie Bible Academy).

We are also looking at diplomas, tassels, and other things for the open house, like cake and colors for decorations.  I opted for not having a ceremony - I don't really need to give a speech! :-)  Another special thing I am looking at is a new dress (worn for the first time at the open house, but then something I can wear again and again after), I am thinking 50's....

From this pattern (made by EllyenaMarie at Etsy),

probably in this fabric.

And, to answer to age old question of what I'm going to do now...

I would mainly some day like to fulfill the Biblical role of being a keeper at home!  I like some of the thoughts I got from "Raising Maidens of Virtue"; it says in 1Timothy 5:14

"I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.". 

 If that is the Scriptural norm, why aren't we focusing on training for that!?  And I do not plan to get a job just in case I don't get married - you don't see engineers going to school to also be a doctor just in case they get layed off! 

I would also love to someday soon have my own home business selling crafting items, although I do not have firmly set what I would like to do.  I am interested in sewing aprons, dish towels, pillow cases, making jewelry and cards and other things in a vintage/whimsical style.

Thank you for reading!!

Blessings, Amber

My Day in Pictures

A bit ago Amy did a review of her day by taking a picture every hour, so I thought I would try it too.  But I am afraid I chose a pretty boring day!

My day in January 23rd, 2012:

6:30am: *yawn*  Good morning!

7:30am: after my morning Bible reading and barn chores it was time for breakfast, which included this delicious grapefruit!

8:30 am: laundry days are Dorcas' favorite days!  As soon as I have all the clothes sorted she is in her basket!  Okay, time to hit the school books...

9:30am: Finds us busy working on verses for Bible quizzing.

10:30am: I am in need of some hot chocolate to keep me warm as we go into history!

If you came at 11:30am you would have found me just finishing up violin practice.

12:30pm: After lunch I am back to school and busy with Economics (with some crackers left over from lunch).

1:30pm  Home Economics - last subject of the day!

2:30pm: we were outside enjoying the beautiful snow and exercising Elsa.

3:30pm: Enjoying some computer time just like I am right now.

4:30pm: A little Wii playing.

5:30am: after dinner, cleaning up the kitchen, and barn chores I am back to working on Bible Quizzing verses (sorry to be redundant).

6:30pm: I know capture the flag isn't a very good two person game, but when you have only two, you make do!  Anna and I played it in the dark of the basement for a little extra fun. ;-)

 

 

7:30pm: I felt so much like knitting, although, I had no pattern that I wanted to do or was prepared to do, so I just had fun trying a new stitch.  I will probably be ripping it out later to keep the yarn.

Another snapshot of Dorcas at 8:30pm.  She sleeps now, and then is all crazy while we are trying to sleep!

9:30pm: I ALWAYS read at night.  Right now I am inhaling (again) the Mildred Keith books.

Thank you for joining me for my day.  Sorry it was one of such little excitement!  I am pondering how nearly all of my posts are of no real importance - it's just about me and what I have been doing.  It's just that I am so horrible at typing out things I have in my head!

Have a blessed day!

Amber

Finally, Itching to Be Stitching

Lately I have been trying some new sewing projects, and surprisingly it has gone very smooth without many bumps in the road.  So I wanted to share them along with the books and places that help make it turn out the way it did!

For my Mom's Christmas gift Anna and I took out our needles.  The two potholders my sister made was quickly and beautifully whipped up while Mom was away.  On my dish towel thankfully the pleats turned out to be easier to make (I just looked up on the internet on how to make them) and the polka-dots helped keep them even.

Another project I just finished a couple of days ago was my first apron.  You can tell it was made specially for me, the left handed girl of the family, with the pocket being on the left side. :)  The fabric is a beautiful rabbit pattern.

The pattern for this apron came from a little book well named, The Apron Book.  It is mostly filled with the history of the apron with beautiful pictures, but it also has some patterns intermingled among the stories.  And I was so VERY pleased the the instructions - concise and easy to understand, and I need that!

A book that I am reading right now is The Handmade Marketplace.  This wonderful little book tells "How To Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and Online.  My dream is to someday have my own home business and sell something crafty I've made.  It's not really a book to help me decide what to sell, but it has a lot of great thoughts for after and is very inspiring!  It also has tidbits from other crafters and even from the vice president of Community at Etsy. 

Now to hit some of the other projects waiting for me... maybe the Edwardian Apron that has been sitting in the basement for who knows how long, or unto the next apron book with bigger and better things!

Oh, and here's a couple of other sewing books on my wish list.

Take time to be crafty during these long winter months!

Blessings,

Amber

Musical Endeavors

Over the past month I have had the privilege to be able to play violin at a few events.  Even though I've been playing for over ten years it has pretty much been for just enjoyment - no high aspirations of playing in the Minnesota orchestra or anything like that!  But even for playing in front of small groups I was rather nervous, and sweaty hands are not good for playing the violin! ;)

Christmas program at our church

But over the last few performances I have been reminding myself that it really shouldn't be that big of a deal and I should be only playing for the Lord anyways (so why does it matter if anyone is watching me ;-).  So with lots of prayer I was able to play at our church program while actually REALLY ENJOYING it!  Much better than what it has been and so much more fun!

I also had the privilege of playing for the middle school boys choir (above).  This was probably my biggest audience but it went pretty smooth, except for coming in slow at the beginning..  Oh well, I believe it was a really good experience for me!

We would also like to be part of a little group that would meet every once in a while to just casually play together.  That would be good - not to big, and yet something where I can play with other people instead of always shutting myself up in my bedroom! ;-)  Now just to find someone willing to lead!

So, in concluding, I would suggest to not be afraid to play for the blessings for others!  Have a blessed day and Merry Christmas!

~Amber

Bagging for History

This past summer our poor, dear little historical society was burned to the ground.  So Anna and I were asked to join other West Riverside Museum School kids to pack groceries to earn money for a new building.  We took up the offer and had lots of fun, although, it is rather nerve racking to pack groceries for other people and wonder if you're doing it to their approval.  But I think we got pretty speedy at packing and it went smoothly.

Of course there was lots of giant turkeys and stuffing being sold and we usually put the turkeys in a plastic bag.  But one little oops that happened was I put the turkey in the bag, and as I was lifting it into the cart it fell right through to the floor... *sigh*  Oh well, I'm going to blame it on the week bag! ;-)

One person asked if we were part of a religious group: like Amish, that's twice now that I've been asked if I'm Amish!  It's sad when people see long skirts and our hair in braids or such and right away think Amish instead of my own desire to be modest and feminine!

Thank you for reading, have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Amber

P.S.  A couple parting shots from our first real snow of the season....

Pinterest - Addicting!

Yes, I have joined the wonderful place called Pinterest!  For those who do not know what that is: it is for posting and sharing pictures of what you love!  Instead of cutting pictures from magazines, you can have it all organized at one place online! 

When I was first considering getting a Pinterest I was unsure: it sounded like a good way to become envious of all the beautiful things that I didn't have!!  But actually, I haven't really run into that.  The wonderful part is to find loads of great crafting, sewing, kitchen help, party planning ideas (which I am into right now), and so much more!  Here are just a few of the things I have found:

Find me if you have a Pinterest, or get yourself one! ;-)

Blessings, Amber