A Spot of Tea

Tea parties can be loads of fun, and a perfect way to catch up with friends, and neither do they have to be just "little-girl-pretty-princess" teas.  I love looking through the "Teatime Bliss" and other such magazines and getting inspiration for my next big tea.  Actually, I had a high tea last summer, next time I imagine more of a simple tea and scones with lawn games, or maybe an ice cream social and pie swap ~ wouldn't that be such fun!

Do any of you collect tea cups?  I think it would be a lovely thing to collect, but I don't know if I will ever start.  At least it would be a useful collection, but I wouldn't want to get more than I could use.  My favorite are the beautifully floral cups, I can just see them sitting at a little outdoor table scape, set for a few close friends.

As for putting in those tea cups, I've used to never really like tea (how horrible for me to say - a girl of all things vintage! ;).  But I have found that a not so strong brew fits me just fine!  I also like the look of puting the soup in a larger tea cup for a nice luncheon!  We also found a recipe for a sweet tea that is also good for kids that don't usually drink normal tea or for anyone with more of a sweet tooth that day:

Russian Tea

1 3/4 Cups Sugar

1 Cup Sweetened lemonade mix

1 Cup Powdered Orange mix - Tang

1/2 Cup Instant tea

1/2 t. Cinnamon

1/2 t. ground cloves

Mix, store in air-tight container.

To serve: Add 3-4 t. to 1 cup of hot water, or 1/2 Cup of powder to 7 cups of water.

Also, find some tea etiquette at Tea Laden.  I find it interesting that somehow holding the pinkie out while sipping tea became the way everyone thinks they should do it - it is not!  Actually the opposite, it can be considered improper and rude! :-o  Of course, most gathering with friends do not have to be so proper, but just more of a nice time with loved ones. 

Enjoy your tea time dear readers!

Blessings, Amber

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