Cute Sewing Ideas

Well...I'm back. I have excuse after excuse why I shouldn't continue this blog but I keep coming back to "I have to keep doing this."

So here I am, again. In reviewing the past blog posts I see that the most view posts were relating to crafts and food. SO I will post those kinds of things as long as you are willing to also view one of my spiritual posts as well, deal?

I haven't pins in awhile either so I decided to try and catch up on some and I found these cute ideas to sew. I think they are easy to do but honestly I haven't tried them yet. Let me know how they come out for you; what was easy and what was hard. Have fun!!!

This first one looked like a fun idea. I usually just stick business cards from those I meet with in a pocket of my purse, then when I go to look for them, I have to shuffle through everything, this cute little pouch could probably save me a lot of trouble.

Zipper-card-pouch

This looked cute. I looked it as a diaper bag first then said, "Nahhhh, it's cute as just a plain bag."
I was looking for something to carry my family history stuff in for when I go to a Family History Center to do research, or to take with me when I go Dead People Hunting. It also works as a Graggy Bag (my grandson named me Graggy instead of Granny). I could use it to put coloring books and supplies, treats for road trips with my Graggykids, just a thought.

Diaper/Messenger Bag

How about making a super cute scripture bag for your scriptures?

Scripture Bag

This looked so cute that I just had to add it to the list.

 Mini wallets

Christmas Shoebox Project

When we lived in Utah I had the great opportunity to work on Hill AFB, at the chapel, where I learned a lot about different religions. I loved participating in a few of their activities like the one I am going to tell you about today. This program is called Operation Christmas Child.

My family loved this one. As I was searching today for good ideas for family service projects this came up as an option, then I remembered how much we enjoyed doing this and asked my family if they wanted to do it again, they did.

So for family home evening, Monday night, we will be going shopping and filling shoe boxes with gift items for these children, who otherwise might not have a Christmas. It's a fun project and easy to do, especially for younger children, but your teenagers will love it too.

The only catch is the collection date runs from Nov 18th - Nov 25th so it has to be done like now. Here is the link to show you where the closest drop off place is and some great ideas to fill the boxes:

Operation Christmas Child

Random Acts of Kindness

My youngest son will be turning 18 in January and then come summer he will probably be starting his mission for our church. My children have asked that we make this years holidays extra special. We talked about these like watching old Christmas movies, driving around looking at lights, and making goodies to snack on.

So I started looking for service ideas for my family to do this year as well and I came across an idea called "Random Acts of Kindness". I like what I saw and want to try this idea out this season. Take a look and see if is something that sounds fun to you.

Random Acts of Kindness

The website says this is for Valentines Day but you can do the same thing for Christmas. This is an easy project. Maybe an idea to enhance the goody bag is to add special messages attached to a few of the kisses. Maybe you can come up with another idea that would be more memorable to your family or to the families you service.

I'm going with this one as one of our projects this year!!!

Service Projects for the Family

Hello,

A this time of the year we start to feel a sense of excitement. The weather changes always get me excited not matter the season. But at this time of the year we are preparing for the holidays; fun times with family, gift exchanges, good food are only a few of the things that we get excited about.

I love spending time with my family, no matter the what time of year it is but at this time I feel the need to focus more on others than myself so I like to think about the kinds of service I can offer to others. I decided that in order to spend that time with my family and provide a need in the community that organizing family service projects would be a great idea.

SO, over the next few weeks on Saturdays I will offer some service project ideas that you and your family might like to do. I promise it will be a fun time for your family, great memories, and good teaching moments for your children as they learn to do for others.

Today, I would like to offer the idea of gift bags for kids who will be in the hospital on Christmas Day, no fun for them, but we can try to make it a little better for them by proving a bag of fun. Maybe you could even find a Santa suit and dad can dress up as Santa to deliver them. It doesn't even have to be Santa but maybe his elves. Looking for green and red costume ideas that time of the year should be really easy. Your kids could dress up as the elves, they would love it.

First, we need to make a gift bag. Here is how to make a paper gift bag.

I'm giving credit to the following link for the paper gift bags; Scrapbook Paper Gift Bags.

You will need the following:
1) 1 - 12X12 sheet of scrapbook paper
2) glue stick
3) scissors
4) tape
5) cardboard (cereal box)
6) ribbon
7) single hole punch

1. Start with a large piece of scrapbook paper (I used 12x12). Find a box around the house that is the size and shape of the bag you want to make. I used a box of spaghetti for one, and macaroni for the others. Fold  the scrapbook paper around the box as if you are wrapping a gift. Don't tape the paper to the box. Glue the edges together. (I added a couple of pieces of tape to the inside seam for extra support.)

2. Fold one end of the paper as if you are wrapping the edge of a present. This will be the bottom of the gift bag.

3. Use a glue stick on every fold of paper. I used a little tape for extra support.

4. Now remove the box from inside and pinch the sides of the bag to crease in the middle. You will be left with a little triangle on each side. You can fold the bottom over for easier storage.

5. Trim the top of the bag to whatever height you want the bag to be. I used fun scissors.

6. Punch little holes and attach ribbon handles. I also measured out a small rectangle of cardboard (a cereal box works great), and glued it to the bottom inside of the bag to make the bottom a little sturdier.

Now you have made some cute bags and an inexpensive cost. Now what are some good ideas to put inside?

1) coloring/activity books/crayons
2) reading books/comics
3) play dough
4) toys from the dollar store
5) stuffed animals
6) card games
7) movies
8) balloons
9) puzzles
10) drawing paper/pencils/colored pencils

These are just a few ideas that might be helpful. You can use your imagination and come up with some wonderful fun to keep their sweet minds off being in hospital during the holidays. Then, when they are made and delivered, pray for them and their families, then pray for gratitude that your child are not the ones in the hospital. We must always remember to thank God for what we have including our health.

Worldly Treasures

Matthew 6:21
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

I used to buy things for my kids when they really wanted something, which was all the time. My mom did the best she could in giving us what we wanted but she couldn't afford much. I remembered that there were things I didn't have that I wanted in my life so I wanted my kids to have what I could give them.

One day, I watched a video about children from third world countries who had nothing and were starving. I cried, a lot. But in those tears I realized that my children had a lot of things. So I committed to not buying tons of needless things for my kids. I talked with them about the video and why we needed to make changes. We referred to this scripture and made our changes. We took the money and gave it to programs to help these children have more. It felt good.

When we die we can not take worldly things with us so why do we need to buy so much now?
Through this scripture we can see that the things we can take with us are knowledge, goodness, and everything that we retain in who we are; our character.

Who we become is the most important thing we can take with us. God gave us the gift of this life and now, we in turn, give it back with all we become in hopes of it being returned full of goodness and knowledge. 

We, as righteous women can find great treasures to fill in our hearts through studying the scriptures and doing good deeds. When we return to our heavenly home the Lord will know where our hearts were by all the good that pours out of them. Remember to seek after the true treasures that you should fill your life with.

Feasting Upon the Word

2 Nephi 32:3
"Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, ^bfeast upon the ^cwords of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will ^dtell you all things what ye should do."

My children are mostly grown now; I have one teenager left. I knew the day was coming that I would have to start thinking about what was best for me and not putting so much focus on my children and what was best for them. I would always be thinking of what I can do for them but I could now begin to focus on my path.

I started thinking about what I should do with the rest of my life. So I began to pray and ponder about those things. I decided that I needed some temple time. I went to the Orlando Temple and sat in the most beautiful room in the building to contemplate my life and it's direction.

I thought about things that I had always wanted to do, or planned to do. I thought about retirement some day and spending a lot of time with my grand-kids.  But I knew I wanted to do whatever God wanted me to do first. So I prayed for help in knowing what He would have me do with the rest of my life. 

Then, while watching General Conference, I pondered my questions and heard this scripture. We were told to feast upon the words of Christ. Where do we find them? We find them in the scriptures. We were promised that if we feast upon  His words, read and study them, then we would find all the answers to our questions within them. How awesome is that?

I found that God might not have a specific plan for me but He wanted me to do as much good as I can, using the talents that He gave me. So now I have to think about what I can do with those things to help build His Kingdom here on this earth. We all have talents; we just need to find out how to magnify them for good.

God sent us here not to figure out life for ourselves, but he gave us tools to help us on our path. We have no reason to feel lost because our answers are in the scriptures, our greatest tool ever. If we study and ponder these things out the Holy Ghost will help us find a path that will help us do our part. 

God loves us and wants us to come back to Him even stronger than we were when we left Him. He gave us the tools we need to return home to Him being the best us we can be. Don't throw away those tools, find peace and direction with them. You will be surprised to find happiness there as well. I hope you will have a great feast in your life, it's never too late to start.

Christmas Before You Know It

Hey!!! Do you realize that Christmas is just around the corner? Yeah, I was surprised, too. What happened to this year? When I was young it seemed like days lasted forever, but now that I'm...older, it seems time flies. I was surprised when my teenager said the same thing. So when someone young notices time is flying bye then you know you are running out of time.

I was thinking, that since I would be looking for gift ideas for Christmas that I would share some fun things that I find easy to do and inexpensive. I hope these ideas will be helpful to you.

Mod Podge Tile Coasters

I think I'm going to do this one for my co-workers. Last year I made them a glass plate with our company logo on it. It was a lot like this.

Take a glass (see-through) plate (any size you want), lay it on a table and lay some material of your choice on top and cut out the circle a little bigger than the plate. I could find material with our company logo on it so I found a pair of pajama bottoms with the logo and cut the material I needed (then I hemmed the bottom of PJ's and sent it to my favorite Uncle); he loved them and still wears them.

Take a sponge brush and add Mod Podge to the back of the plate. Lay the material on top of the Mod Podge side and smooth it out. Let it dry for about 10 minutes, trim the edges and Mod Podge on top of the material for a matte feel. Let it dry and then display your peace of art on a stand. I gave all mine away and didn't keep one for myself so I can't show you what they look like. Mod Podge can be lots of fun to use.

Here is another one using Mod Podge, I can't wait to try this one.

Stained Glass Candle Holder

I just have to include this blog spot because there are tons of Mod Podge ideas that can be helpful in completing your Christmas shopping list.

Wall Art with Mod Podge

Easy Art Work

This one was pretty cool and easy to do using a 2 liter soda bottle, no Mod Podge needed. I might have one of my kids do this for a teacher gift.

4th Article of Faith

"We believe that the first principles and ^aordinances of the Gospel are: first, ^bFaith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second,^cRepentance; third, ^dBaptism by ^eimmersion for the ^fremission of sins; fourth, Laying on of ^ghands for the ^hgift of the Holy Ghost."

These are the steps we take to become members of God's Kingdom. We must have faith in Jesus Christ in order for all of the other steps to become successful. Having faith means to believe in Him and his saving grace. It doesn't mean we have to know for a fact but that there is something we feel in our hearts that cause of to have that belief that He is real and loves us. 

When we want to follow Jesus then we find we must give up on the things that cause us to sin  and do things that are not what Jesus would have done. This is where the repentance part comes in. We ask forgiveness of our past sins and promise to never do them again, but if we make mistakes we can remember that Jesus suffered for our sins so we can repent again and start over. However; the idea is that we "never" do it again.

After we have made this change in our life then the next step is to be baptized the right way and with the right authority from God. The correct way to be baptized is to do it like Jesus did, see Matthew 3:13. It says he came up out of the water, meaning he was under the water so the proper way to be baptized is to be taken under the water and brought back up like Jesus did. The proper authority is through the priesthood of God. You can only get that from God meaning He gives the authority to those who holds His priesthood.

The last step is not the least step but just as important as the rest, and that is to receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands again through the proper authority from God. What is the purpose of the laying on of hands in this process? It is to give us that promised Comforter always, to have the Spirit to guide our lives so we know we are doing the right things. Its a promise to have His spirit to always be with us. Now that is an awesome gift.

Its all pretty simple to understand, Jesus did his part now we have to do ours. We need to believe that he is our only Savior, then change our pattern in life to emulate His, become baptized, then receive our gift of the Holy Ghost. I love the Plan of Salvation. I hope you feel the same Spirit I do when I watch this short video of Jesus being baptized.

Jesus being baptized

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to all of you this beautiful day. Yesterday my family and I spent the day creating fun traditions since things have changed in our lives over the past few years. We did a lot of fun stuff but the stuff that meant the most was just spending time together.

One thing we did was paint wooden boxes as a gift to our Savior, then we put inside a promise of a gift of something we would work on in 2013 to perfect ourselves. It was a promise to Jesus that we would become better in something we thought would please him. It was very special as we talked about the things we could offer Him. So every year we will go back and see if we accomplished that promise and then create a new one. I loved that idea, can't remember where I read about it but it doesn't matter, its now a tradition for us; to show our gratitude to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Today is supposed to be my post for Emergency Preparedness, I will post that on Thursday instead. Have a great day! And don't forget to praise God for his ultimate sacrifice, His Only Begotten Son.