Summer Days

I've been wanting to do a picture post since July of some of the things I was into this summer! I'm just now getting around to it, but at least it's getting done right? :)

So, here goes.

One day while the four of us (Dad, Mom, Trissy, and me) were in Wal*Mart shopping for a bird feeder for The Grandparents ( ;) ), I spotted a "Wren House" birdhouse. I love wrens, building, and the shape and design of this little house! "I could make one of those!" So with (alot of) help from Dad, I was able to create a very similar house, and add a few tweaks of my own to the design. I plan to enter it in 'woodworking' in the County Fair next week.





{"Finished Project" picture coming soon!}


Because I was going to be taking a summer class online, and so would not have much of a summer at all really, the four of us had kind of a "summer week". One of the things we did was go hike a trail in our area that we had never investigated before. Between Trissy and me, we got alot of pictures! But rather than bore you with all of them, I'm just posting a sample. :)



This little frog was about the size of a dime!





I wasn't really feeling good that day, but marked it off to the heat and being out of shape for all that walking. Well, apparently I really was coming down with something. I don't know what it was, but I sure felt miserable! Nothing soothes quite like a nice cup of hot chocolate though - even in the summer!



This is just a little something we thought was funny. The picture isn't good quality, but maybe you get the point. :)




We've also been working on some much-needed clothing.


Something we've really been needing is some new Sunday clothes. You can't hardly find anything decent in the stores, or even patterns for that matter. But we did finally find some patterns that, with just a little tweaking, I think will work.
We started cutting out my first dress the other day. I hope to have it done this week, so I can enter it in the County Fair next week. I'll try to post a picture when it's finished.



One more thing that I'm very thankful the Lord helped me get accomplish before school started, is {drumroll} a craft blog! I am really needing an 'outlet for my creativity' so to speak. My creations are piling up in my closet, and in various boxes, totes, bags and corners all over the house! And I'm running out of room for supplies for new projects. So, since I don't have an Etsy shop, a blog seemed the way to go. I am desperately trying to learn how to make a blog button, but since I don't have one yet, I'll just post the link:

http://www.handworked.blogspot.com

You can cut and paste it into your browser, or (if you like the easier road ;) ) you can just click here -> HAND WORKed


The rest of these pictures are just random summer snapshots. :)











SOLI DEO GLORIA!

-Kyrie<><

"Inside Garden" Update

Just a little update on my "inside garden" experiment :) . I noticed yesterday morning (or maybe it was the night before) that the pot I had planted the Asters and the 'mix' in had little sprouts in it! I was so excited!




And then last night, the dish I have the Shasta Daisies, Forget-Me-Nots, California Poppies, and Carpet of Snow in had sprouts on the Carpet of Snow row, and this morning the Shasta Daisy and California Poppy rows did too! So now in that dish (and yes, it is one of those trays you buy ground meat in. We recycle, OK?! ;) ) the only thing that hasn't come up (yet!) in that dish are the Forget-Me-Nots, and I'm hoping they will soon.
You probably can't even see the little green sprouts in the picture - they are very small still. Maybe if you look really close...




None of the seeds were even supposed to come up for at least a week, but every time the dirt even looks a little dry on top, I've been misting it with water out of Mom's spray bottle we use to dampen the clothes with when we're ironing :D ! So I think that has really encouraged them to go ahead and grow :) .




The only pot that doesn't have anything yet is the Lavendar pot. Hopefully they will start coming up soon.




I have all the dishes in front of our dining-room window during the day, to catch as much sun as possible. Then when it begins to get cold in the evening, I move them away from the drafty window and put them against another inside wall. I can't wait to have little plants to put in the garden!




Don't you just love my Americana flower pots, by the way?! I am a very patriotic and crafty person, and one year while Trissy and I were still young enough to be in 4-H, at one of our end-of-the-year closing programs we had a patriotic theme, and pots like that were used as centerpieces for some of the tables. I commented on how I liked them and would like to paint some myself, and our 4-H leader heard me and just gave me two of them! Wasn't that nice?!

Well, class is about to start so I'd better go. Have a wonderful day!

Reading And Crafting Are A Good Combination

Good evening to you all! I hope you have all had a wonderful and profitable Monday!
I have been working hard on school pretty much all day, but I'm looking forward to an evening of rest. Mom often reads out loud to us as a family during the evenings, and we've been through lots of good books together that way! Lately she has been reading "The Gentleman From Indiana" by Booth Tarkington. It is a pretty old book. Have any of you read it? If so, please tell me what your opinions/thoughts were about it.
Anyway, while she reads, I work on crafts (Trissy does too sometimes), while Dad watches the backsides of his eyelids (he deserves the rest)! I've made lots of things that way, and it makes the whole evening so enjoyable! I finished my blue/green/yellow dishrag/washcloth Saturday night and started on a stormy blue one, which I finished last night (Sunday) while she read a little while after we got back from church. I thought I'd post pictures, and y'all tell me what you think please. Any suggestions on improvement?

I took these pictures this morning on our dining table, and just as I finished taking the varigated one, the sun came streaming through the dining room window, and so that's why the stormy one looks all lit up like that :) .

Oh, I posted pictures of my finished shawl, so if you want to see them, you can click HERE. Tell me what you think! And not just if you like it - I value constructive criticism as well as praise :) !
Well, I'd better go. I've still got a little school work that's due in the morning. Y'all have a wonderful evening, a good night's sleep, and may the Lord guide your day tomorrow for your good and His glory!

Confess Your Faults, One To Another...

Well, if you read all I have to say about my day yesterday, you would not go away uplifted, I am sure. Lets just say I had a "Jonah Day", and if you don't know the story behind what that means, it just means I had a really, really bad day. It seems that the devil lets me get to the end of one of Jenna's monthly challenges, and then lets me have it! *Sigh* It was just one of those days where everyone and everything seems against you. The day starts off at the bottom, and goes down from there. And many times I did not react in a Godly way. The Bible says to confess your faults to one another, and to pray for one another, so here I am confessing my faults, and hoping you will pray for me and my temper when the Lord brings it to your mind.
Hopefully I learned from the situation though - I know the Lord can take the crumbiest situation and use it to teach us something valuable. Sometimes it's just hard to find the diamonds in the dirt. :]

Well, enough griping - I did get to accomplish a couple of things that were enjoyable, one of which needed to be done soon if it was going to happen this year:

I love growing things, and last year Dad gave me a little section of the "big garden" for my own, to grow any flowers, vegetables, and herbs I wanted! The only dissapointment was: nothing came up! I'm not sure what the problem was, but I thought I may have started my flower seeds a little too late. So this spring, I'm going to try starting them indoors in pots, and then moving them outside when it's warmer. I got Shasta Daisies, Forget-Me-Nots, California Poppies, and Carpet of Snow, and (when I get them outside) I want to plant those in rows next to each other. Because of the stair-step heights they are supposed to grow to, and the amazing color contrasts, I thought I'd like to see how that looks! I also got Lavendar (I love herbs), and Asters, and a perinial mix. I put the Lavendar by itself, but mixed the Asters and the mix. Hopefully they'll all grow and provide us with some beautiful color and cheer! :) I took pictures of the pots once I'd gotten the seeds planted, but they didn't turn out, so I'm just posting a picture of the packages before I'd planted them. :)

I'll try to keep you informed with how this "expirament" (that spelling doesn't look right, but I can't remember for sure how it is LOL) turns out!

I also started on a knitted dishrag! Recently I've been on a dishrag crocheting frenzy, and have made about ten. Knitted projects don't take as much yarn as crocheted ones do though, so I'm changing to knitting for a little while. :)

Aren't the colors in this yarn just wonderful!?! I love combinations of bright contrasting colors :) ! I'll post a picture when I finish it. Bye for now!

Odds And Ends, And Recent Happenings

Ok, this post is just sort of random stuff that's been happening in my life lately, and I thought I'd share it...

This is just something small that happened about a week ago, that reminded me that the Lord just likes to make us smile sometimes!
I have a keychain that a friend gave me for my birthday years ago, but it is probably my most treasured possession next to my Bible. It is a sturdy little metal cross with ivy engraved on it, and the words, "With God, all things are possible." I was getting ready for bed the other night about a week ago, and thinking about some things I'd like to see happen, but that seemed almost impossible. I flipped back the covers to crawl in, and there was that keychain, in the bed! "With God, all things are possible" My mind immediately jumped... maybe it would happen! Then, almost as soon as I thought that, this verse popped into my head, "...I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. ..." Of course, this is the Apostle Paul addressing the Athenians on Mars' Hill, but the timing was just so perfect, that it made me laugh out loud! I believe the Lord truly does have a sense of humor!

I've been working on a crocheted shawl for about two weeks now, and finally finished it Sunday! It didn't quite turn out how I thought it would, but it works, and was fun to make! Here are a couple of pictures of it:

Thanks to my friend W. for "modeling"!
If you want to try it yourself, click HERE for the pattern. Just a warning though, if you want the triangle to be very deep, you've got to make the beginning chain longer. I have a friend who made one out of the same yarn as the pattern calls for (I made mine out of maroon acrylic), and hers turned out BEAUTIFUL! She even wears it to church over a black top, and it looks so elegant!

Well, in about twenty hours my grandparents, Mom, Trissy, and I will be headed on a six-hour car ride to attend the wedding of one of my cousins! Trissy is going to be the 'bride's assistant", and I'm a photographer! Not the main one (I'm not THAT good LOL), but she (the bride, our cousin) liked some of the just personal pictures I've taken at other cousin's weddings, and she wants me to be sort of a 'candid photographer'. I'm really looking forward to it! The wedding's Saturday afternoon, we'll be staying for church Sunday, and come back on Monday. I hope it's not too hectic, 'cause I have classes early Tuesday morning! Oh, well, it'll all work out. :)

This past Saturday we (Dad, Mom, Trissy and me) went to an evangelism study being started at the church. Justice and another man in the church have been 'trained' to teach the material, and it's designed to teach how to share your faith in a non-confrontational but thought-provoking and loving way. Saturday was the all-day introduction, and now classes will be every Wednesday night starting Mar. 4th. My family, Oliver, Landon, two older ladies in the church, and Ashlyn ( I haven't told about her yet, but I'll try to soon) are the ones who are taking this class. I'm hoping it'll help me share my faith in college. We'll see how it goes.

Tonight's college Bible study, and I'm (of course ;) ) looking forward to that little boost. I still haven't told about last week, and it was about the best one we've had so far, I think. It was so good. Maybe I'll get a chance to tell about it, but with the trip and everything, I may not.

One last thing I thought some of you might enjoy: Hannah Paige is having a photography contest on her blog! The theme is "Color". I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of entries she has! Click HERE to find out more, or to enter!
I'm going to accomplish two things here at once :) This is my entry in her contest, and it's also a mystery picture:




Several of my blogging friends have done mystery pictures, and they have been alot of fun, so I thought maybe I'd try one! You have until next Thursday (a week!) to guess, mainly because I probably won't have much blogging time between now and
then :[ ...

Ok, I'm at the college and class is about t0 start, so I'd better go. Maybe I can come back later today :)

In the mean time, have a wonderful day, and Keep looking Up!

-Kyrie<><

Valentine's Day Baking

I know Valentine's Day is a week gone, but here are a few pictures of some Red Velvet cupcakes, and a miniature double-layer cake I made for the occasion - I used some of our old toy baking pans ;) !

Batter...

Baked...

The finished product!

I'm not much of a cook, like some of you - the icing turned out lumpy, so my creations don't look very pretty maybe, but they did taste good ;) !

The cupcake papers are 're-used', so to speak, but completely sanitary, I asure you ;) . Some folks from my grandparents' church gave them a big tin of cookies for Christmas. As the cookies were eaten, I saved the papers they come stacked in, and am now getting around to 'recycling' them as cupcake papers! Waste not, want not, as the saying goes... I can't stand to throw something useful away... ;)

IT SNOWED!!!!!

Yes, away down south in Dixie!

Yesterday it started about 7:30 am, and in an hour, our yard went from this-

to this- !

I know for all you Northern folks, that probably seems like nothing - just a puny little dusting - but for us down here... That's SNOW folks!! :D

As you can probably tell, we don't get it down here much...

Trissy and I got out and "played" in it for a while, the only problem was that my camera batteries kept dying, and I'd have to go back inside for new ones! I used Mom's camera for most of these pictures.

I wrote a heart-felt message on Dad's truck hood ;)

Trissy. She was jumping up and down, and didn't know I got her picture :D

Me.

I was trying to get a picture that would give an idea of how deep it got... Didn't turn out too good, but maybe you get my point :)

Our mailbox. Everything was so pretty... The pictures look alot 'greyer' than it really was. It looks like an over-cast day in the pictures, but it really was quite bright.

Our cousin's cow pasture across the way.

Trissy and I were having so much fun, that in a little bit, Dad and Mom came out too, and we all went for a treck in our little pine woods behind our house. It was like a winter wonderland. Or Narnia, as Dad pointed out :D

The stump was a little unsightly, but otherwise, this little clearing was so beautiful and dreamy

The border path between my cousin's bordering pasture and our pine woods.

When we got back, Trissy and I made a little snow indian! ;D

As you can probably tell we had a nice day!

The Model Museum

Uncle David and his family came down Monday, but I had't really gotten to enjoy their visit because of school. So yesterday since I didn't have classes, instead of the kids doing school school, we made it a 'fieldtrip day', and spent the day together! It was so much fun! A few months ago, Mom had read in our local power company paper about this man who was 90-something, and for most of his life had had this hobby of making models - airplanes, cars and trucks, ships, spaceships, tanks, trains... you name it! In the 50s, 60s, and 70s when the plastic model kits were really popular, he really had fun with it, and by the time of the article, had put together a total of almost 4,000 models!! For a long time, he had wanted a place to display all his projects, and so about a year ago as a surprise, his sons converted an office building one of them owned into a small museum - lining each wall from floor to ceiling with shelves, and having a separate room for each 'category' of model! It is open for public viewing in the afternoons, and for small groups in the mornings.
So yesterday we all (Mom's parents, Mom, Uncle David and Aunt Winny, Trissy, me, and the two cousins) piled into two cars for the drive down there to visit this little 'museum'.
It was amazing!! The place was floor to ceiling models! The son who had first had the idea for the museum was there to meet us, and kindly took quite a lot of time showing us around, telling stories about his father, the models, and interesting historical facts about the actual machines they were modeled from. We spent only a couple of hours in there, but you could literally spend days looking at everything, asking questions, and it was a 'collector' photographer's dream!
As most of you know, my camera is dying :""( but I was able to get a few picture, poor quality though they be. Hopefully I will be able to post some of them soon, just so you can get an idea of what it was like. We hope to go back soon when Dad isn't working, and can be with us!
When we left the museum, we went and ate out ( ! ) (we hardly ever eat at a resturant!) at the Golden Corral (any of you ever been there? It was our first time) and had a delicious and leisurely lunch, enjoying being together and just breathing freely for a time - away from our individual and hectic schedules. It was so nice!
After that we came back and spent the afternoon at "the grandparents' house" until time to leave for church. It was such a relaxing, fun, refreshing day! Isn't it great how the Lord knows just how much to let you go through, and then He will send you a little 'lift' just to help you keep going? He is good!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Feb. 3, 2010

"It's a... Classic Car Convention?"

Here are some of the car pictures from the Model Museum. There are other models I'll try to post later.

Sorry about the poor quality, but... *rolls eyes* my camera...

At least I got some! ;)