There's An Etsy Post For That

I knew that Etsy has AMAZING things for sale, easy opputunities to sell your own items, and great help on how to do that.  But with the blog being such a vital way to share about yourself and steer people towards your crafting business, they also have some great suggetions on how to keep posts flowing to your blog (even if you don't have your own handmade business) via Etsy's very own blog, Storque.  I may not be very good at taking an every day week and turning it into a post, so I found this post helpful and fun.

 

Tell Your Every Day Story On Your Blog

 

And I thought I would try it out..

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1. Three Things You See Or Hear Right Now I see my sister reading, I hear the clock ticking (it's evening at our house and in the evening it is very quiet), I see the book "How To Make Money Using Etsy" by Timothy Adam. 

 

2. Three Things You Did Last Week I made bran muffins (I think my next project will be poppyseed muffins), I babysat two of the cutest kids from our church, read lots of the "Adventures in The Northwoods" series (those books never get old however many times you read them).

 

 

3. Three Exchanges You Had With Someone Else I laughed over a Lazarus Bible story felt figure with a friend, talked to a man on the phone who was trying to get me to compare auto insurances, until he found out I was not the lady of the house, and heard one of our Awana Cubbies sing her clean up song: "clean up clean up, everybody scare yourself".

And I think I shall add my own section..

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4. Three Things You are Thankful For  Pink cardigans and matching hair ribbons, the nice weather before the deep freeze, and family outings.

 

Well, I don't know if I could make a complete post from one of those items, but even listing it like that makes it fun.  And hopefully this will help and encourage me to keep posting regularly.

 

Many blessings,

Amber Nicole

Cozied Up with Fabric

For sometime now it has been a great interest of mine to be selling my own crafts (specially at Etsy.com and craft fairs).  At first I was rather hesitant and slow to begin the actual process, feeling rather unqualified to make sewing in to a business, but now it has been such fun to spend a good part of the day sewing!  Also, if anyone has any suggestions on where to find good crochet yarn and vintage/vintage style fabric, please share! 



My first completed project are these cotton fabric napkins in an adorable owl pattern - to fun!

Now that fall is here I have also enjoyed doing some of the fall-type things: romps in the leaves, apple cider, buttoning up the garden, and a party in a friend's barn loft!  I also learned that when you're pulling out the sweaters for yourself, you can't forget you're mug...

Isn't this to sweet!?  Coffee needs a hug sometimes too!  You can buy these dear little things at Mug Sweater Shop.

Have a blessed Autum!

~Amber Nicole~

Wilderness Lodge Again

Just last Friday we got back from another great time at Wilderness Lodge water park.  I have lost count of how many times we have been there, so it feels like I am saying the same thing each year I post about it.  But there were a couple new things.. mainly a couple new slides:

The red one is a practically straight drop of five stories while the other is a loop (which is cut off to the right of the photo).  I was planning on going on both of them - just to say that I did - but the lifegaurd said that people wearing skirted swimsuits have more troubles making it over the loop:

And as I had already seen people make it up to the top of the loop and then slide back down to where they came from, I opted out!  But with the red one there was no chance of going to slow! :)  Probably the scariest part was standing at the top on the platform and then having the floor drop out from under me as I go zipping downward!



Over all it was a fabulous vacation, the weather was just wonderful!  Oh, and I had fun going in the hot tub only for adults (18+), just because I could. ;)

Day at the Zoo

Last week my Grandparents took my six year old cousin, sister, and I to the zoo and amusement park.  It was so much fun to spend a day with family exploring the things to see!



Seeing the animals up close and riding the rides was lots of fun, but the main part was spending good, quality, time with family!  Christian (our cousin) always keeps us laughing and very entertained, and even though we only have one cousin, I don't see how we could have more fun with any more! <3  He kept us smiling and it was fun to see what it would be like to have a little brother.

 We were also able to ride the old carousel and go paddle boating for the first time!  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of boating - I wasn't sure if I should chance taking my camera out on the water or not, but I wish I did.  Both were fun experiences though!  And you can be sure that after eight hours of fun, we were ready to spend a relaxing evening at home!

Many blessings on the rest of your summer, friends!

Vacation Bible School

A couple weeks back Anna and I were privileged to help out at our church's VBS, which in years past has been so special and fun, and this year was no exception at all!  I led a small group of four and five year olds, two of them being in Cubbies (Anna and I lead Awana Cubbies) last year and will be back again this fall and one looking much forward to joining this fall!  They were so sweet, obedient, and made me very proud with their memorizing ability!  I was really blessed to be able to spend a week with their exuberance!

Two of the three in my group and I (one little boy wasn't able to come every day).

The morning was spent in Bible lesson, craft, snack, learning about missionaries, and games, and song time.  It was really neat to see video from the African church we were raising money to translate verses into their language for.  They are people that really love the Lord and are used by Him, but probably haven't been able to read much of the Bible! 

Bible Lesson

On Thursday the focus is on Jesus' death on the cross, and even though, as far as I know, no one accepted Jesus as their Saviour, I think, at least for my group, they understood well and had some things to think about.

Anna and and couple of her kids

Many friends we have met over Bible Quizzing through Teens For Christ also came to help out through the week.  It was so nice to visit with them again now that we only get to see them about twice a year.

VBS 2012 will be a special memory for a long time, and now I am really starting to look forward to AWANA Cubbies!!

~Amber

The Swing

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!


Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside--


Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
      

Robert Louis Stevenson

Ever since I was a baby I have loved to swing!  Back then I swang right to sleep, and even though I don't do that any more, it's not often that a day goes by when I don't swing!

Our set is nicely positioned in our backyard so that while swinging I can look out over our ten acre horse pasture!  It is a perfect place to still enjoy the outdoors while keeping those misquitoes off and look out over the field, pray, sing praises to our Lord, think, or even read.  It is a perfect spot during sunset, but during the quietness even the friendly squeak of the swing seems to loud and should be hushed in the splendor of God's creation.

~Amber Nicole 

Homemade Poptarts

As I was browsing Pinterest I ran across a recipe for mini homemade poptarts and I thought they were a sweet idea, but then didn't think much about them afterwards.  But then more recently I again saw on Pinterest a recipe for the full sized ones, it was nearing Father's Day, and so I thought it would be a fun thing to make.  Daddy loves poptarts but I thought by making it myself it could have less sugar and no nasty additives and preservatives!

So without further to do here is the link to the sight for..

Homemade Poptarts

I thought they laid it out so well that there was no need for me to rewrite it!  It does take a little time, but I think it's worth it!  I made strawberry poptarts, but they also give the recipe for making the cinnamon kind and also suggest filling them with Nutella, if you like that sort of thing (I have never tried it)!  Anna and I were also talking that it would be fun to experiment with marshmallow cream and chocolate to make the S'more kind.

Here are the ones I made (sorry about the bad quality of picture).

Thank you for reading!  Let me know if you try them!

~Amber Nicole