Tons and Bunches: Sewing Camp

Wow has July been busy! I spent the first week building my author blog Once Upon an Ordinary, the second being a mother's helper at Perry and Tyler's (along with Em--so much fun!), and this last week was full with a sewing camp. ;) I've been quite enjoying the summer adventures and opportunities my family and I have had. I can't wait to see how this week pans out! ;)


Here's a post my sister Anna did about the sewing camp. Enjoy!

Tons and Bunches: Sewing Camp: Sewing Camp Monday through Friday was a blast! The youngest sisters (minus BB) enjoyed sewing four hours each day with some of their frie...

Bookmark Buddies

Today my younger sisters and I made bookmarks. I had found the instructions on my Pinterest, and Mom and I both agreed that it was a really adorable craft. We want to make them with little girls at church sometime, but I thought it'd be fun to try it out today with my own sisters. ; ) 

We had a ton of fun!

Since they are bookmarks, we wanted to pose them with a book and chose this one because it is already about paper dolls. (Em said this makes them look like they are dancing.) ; ) It's a really cute story and one of our favorites!

These bookmarks are so adorable (and very small so it was hard to get good pictures)! The one on the left was made by Em, and Pearly made the 

other one.

Blue earns the "prize" for the most original dress. We all accidentally chose some shade of blue for our dresses. ; ) The stripey one on the right is mine.

Here's what mine looks like in the book I'm currently reading. Pretty cute, eh? (And yes, that's the corner of Triple Creek Ranch: Set Free.) ; )

We might add some glitter to them after school, but other than that 

our summer reading buddies are finished! ; )

Soap Factory

I pulled out my glycerin soap making supplies, and soon Em and Blue got in on the fun. They are having a ton of fun melting and mixing and experimenting with colors. ; ) Fun buddies.

Like Em's turtle?

These are some of the better things I made. I recently got white glycerin soap for the first time, so some of my projects this time were experiments with it. I LOVE the way the shells turned out.

Mom encouraged me to make some sparkly green bars to represent ocean water. I think they make a nice backdrop, and once I replace the paper plate with something a little prettier it will be just perfect. ; )

Next, I hope to make some peanut butter cookies, and after that we are going to a get-together this evening (which might have something to do with why I'm crafting for the first time in forever). ; )

Discovering, Breathing, Enjoying, and So On...

Yes, I have been extremely busy! You can just look at our church calendar and see at a glance 2/3s of what is filling our time. Add to that birthdays, celebrations, social events, and family ministry--wow!

Today's blog post is going to be a little different. So many awesome things have happened that I'm going to just share a few pictures of some of my favorite experiences. ; )

We celebrated Chum's birthday by feeding "eatmeal" to ducks at the park. He had a ton of fun!!

Chap and Uncle Paul watching the ducks.

Love that sweet smile!!!

Yeah, this is what I mostly did. ; )

On that same day, Pearl and I discovered our first Little Free Library! We had the back of our van full of rejected stock for our used book business, so we decided to take the time to fill the library with an assortment of books. It was so much fun, and we can't wait to do it again! ; )

Our evenings have been mostly occupied by church Bible studies. It's been a really good time of learning and fellowship! Mom, Aimee, Anna, and I are also going through the Botkin's Reclaiming Beauty study with some friends of ours and their homeschool group. We just had our third session today, and it's been really good so far.

Anna and I spent a huge chunk of one day decorating the backs of our notebooks with things we love. (Mine is on the left and hers is on the right.) ; ) It was a great sister togetherness time, and we were sad when the project ended. ; )

What else have I been doing? Well, living, experimenting (more on that later), discovering (love this creative community!), editing ("Mara"), breathing (glad to hear it, aren't you?), cleaning, studying (real Mount Sinai!!!), enjoying, loving, and learning (the Levites were presented to God as a "living sacrifice" just like we are to be!). 

Oh, and um... stories... Perry Elisabeth is hosting a short story contest!!! I'm so excited, and I can't wait to start on my submission. Also, if you go to my page on Noble Novels, you'll find the fifth part of "The Twin Arrows". (The suspense is building!!)

It's been an awesomely blessed week and a half! How was yours?

A Camping We Did Go

Last weekend, my family and I had the awesome adventure of going to our church's family camp together! Since it was an hour or so north of here, we got to enjoy a taste of greenness once again. The best parts, though, were sharing a cabin duplex with Perry and Tyler (and the BABIES!!!!!!) and getting to know our church family better.

After packing way too much clothing; gathering card games; baking and popping food (I made these cookies and popped four huge batches of popcorn. I even used up all the coconut oil and melted the lid just to make it more fun.); finishing up the sermon (Dad did that part. We only pack things and melt things.); collecting random forgotten things; and smashing it into the back of the van (Paul saying his typical, "Hey guys, don't open that one door. Everything will come out.), we started off on our adventure. Wow, that was a run-on sentence if ever I saw one!

Some of my lovely road-trip buddies. (My angel mother is in the passenger seat, but since she is shining like the sun you can't tell she's there.) We are veteran road-trippers now from our move down here last winter, so an hour doesn't feel like much. ; ) Dad had an awesome time pointing out real and imagined landmarks to us, and we kept ourselves clapping and bouncing with the PianoGuys.

The rest of my lovely (????) buddies. Weird angle because I'm sharing a seat with them, but you get the idea that it was pretty fun. ; ) (Oh, is Paul an angel too? I'll leave that for you to decide... No, he is an angel for sharing a seat with all the copious amounts of bedding we brought.)

 A little while later (we used to drive this far to go grocery shopping). we arrived at Friendly Pines just in time to throw everything into the cabin and run off to the cafeteria for dinner. After that came a chapel session, organizing our cabiny-messy-thingy, and games in the cafeteria until the wee hours of the morning.

Next morning we all walked to church. (It should always be this way, shouldn't it?) It was beautiful outside!!! At just about every session of chapel our family enjoyed mixing with Perry and Tyler's little family and the H. family as well.

Our fantastic little neighbors. They were the best thing about the weekend!! Unfortunately, they were so cute that we had a really hard time not laughing out loud during the sermon.

Especially when this one sneezed so hard he almost fell over...or when his older brother dumped a toy dump truck load of dirt into my lap...or when the camp cat startled one of them out of their wits when it came scampering by. Yeah, pretty cute. ; ) Don't you just love those funny eyes???

The theme of the weekend was revival, and Dad chose a really amazing aspect of the whole topic for his sermon Saturday morning. I HIGHLY suggest you listen to his sermon "Don't Lose Heart". It was very encouraging!!! (Special thanks to Anna for taking the picture because I couldn't see Dad very well through some people's heads.)

Saturday is probably everyone's hands-down favorite day of camp. That's because of....

FIELD GAMES!!!! I watched the first few games from the sidelines, but after a while I wished I had joined in. ; ) This game was a crazy relay race of trying to bat a balloon down the field without popping it. Add to that an ornery breeze and some surprisingly sharp grass--you get the picture. ; )

Another great one was passing a hula hoop around a circle of people without letting go of each other's hands. That was pretty crazy, but a high-five to everyone who managed it especially those wearing skirts.

We didn't get pictures of my favorite relay race (also the first game I played), but it was pretty fun/funny! All of us players threw our shoes in a huge, stinky pile at one end of the field and lined up on the other. You've probably guessed the objective--run across the field, find your shoes, cram them on, and make it back to your team without them falling off. There were some pretty hilarious stunts too, like my brother-in-law throwing his best friends' shoes out of the pile so they would have to go farther to find them. Thumbs up, Tyler! It was pretty hard to find my shoes (since apparently brown is the most common color); and I found myself wishing for one of the first times ever that I had flip-flops. ; ) I'm not sure how the scoring came out, but my team was awesome!! ; )

The tug-o'-wars were awesome!! This picture is kids against adults. You'll find me on the kids' side because this was taken before a couple of older girls and I realized that we belonged on the other team. ; P We lost the first one since our church is mostly children, but we won the second! ; )

That's my little buddy!

The rest of the weekend consisted of more hanging out (I did a little exploring with my friend Hannah and chatted some with her older sister), chapel sessions (I loved the history of the laymen's revival), an amazing bonfire (S'mores. That's what we exist for.), and amazing games in the cafeteria. (Some of my family members brought crafts to do with everyone, but I never got around to doing them.) Those times of all sitting around together laughing and talking or trying to beat each other at Dutch Blitz were my favorite times of all. That's when I got to know people (and sometimes got to beat them too!). ; )

Hanging out with the H. girls was my younger sisters' favorite thing about their first family camp (that they can remember, at least). I got to hang out with them a lot of the time which was so much fun! We visited their favorite spot at camp (nicknamed "the L tree"  for it's unusual shape), visited each  other's cabins (this picture was taken in ours), and sat together during church and the group picture. ;)

Altogether, it was an amazing time of fellowship and learning from God's word! And I highly suggest you all check out my Dad's sermon. ;)

Snow-him, Snow-her, Snow-baby

When my Dad told us at the beginning of this month that we could participate in the Rosewood Handmade Craft Sale this year, we began to kick around ideas. Now, several weeks later we are starting to see the fruits of our labors and become very excited! I thought I would share some pictures of what we have been working on...

 

1. Anna crafted these delightful flower magnets from glue, magnets, scrapbooking paper, and her own imagination.

2. and 3. Bluebelle decided to make some cards and started with different colored squares glued down, before we cut out some things out for her. Then Mommy gave her the idea of making snowmen cards, and we ended up making a whole family. (We even invented our own terms: snowhim, snowher, and snowbaby.)

4. and 5. Since this summer, Pearl has been making crocheted bags for water bottles. Look at that row of bags!!

6. Paul has discovered what he can do with his scroll saw and Dremel--gift the world with amazing dollhouse furniture! He is currently working on cutting out chairs, staining another bed, and sewing linens for them all. Good job, Bro!

7. Aimee should be dubbed "The Earring Queen" with eleven gorgeous pairs of earrings. (Mom teases her by asking for almost every pair for Christmas.) : )

8. Anna's notebooks are coming along with more on the way. I love how each one is unique.

9. and 10. I've been enjoying making little girl's purses to sell. It's been so fun to dream up (or have Mom help dream up) each little one. : ) The pink one is actually a gift for one of my favorite little girls, but the purple one will be there. : )

11. And yes, there is crafting stuff everywhere and lots more products on their way including: silk flowers, paper flowers, Christmas cards, Christmas wreaths, and more of everything else I already mentioned.

 

One of the best parts about this has been seeing how some of the supplies we needed were already providentially here at home! It's been so much fun to work together, and I really must sign off now to go help out with some flowers that are waiting very patiently for me. Who else is coming to the craft sale? : )

 

Rosewood Handmade Craft Sale, Saturday, November 29th, 9am-5pm, at the Tigard Grange. (13770 SW Pacific Hwy., Tigard, OR 97223) : )

Reenacting A Reenactment

We visited a Civil War reenactment a few weeks ago, and we were inspired.
Dressing our doll house dolls in the most authentic clothes we could find
(even using construction paper and tissue paper), we made paper tents and
set up our camp on a large piece of green felt. Of course, the point of
the reenactment we went to was the war, but we only played the most
domestic (and interesting) side. I thought you might enjoy seeing some
pictures of both events...

1. The battlefield stretched out before us.
2. The Tanker family talks to Mr. Withrow while they prepare to eat
dinner. (Each doll house family has a name, and some of the names stick
forever.) : )
3. My sister pushes her stroller past the camp.
4. Mrs. Withrow similarly takes care of her baby. There are mothers
everywhere!
5. We loved watching the cavalry--they were one of the coolest parts!
6. Avery admires the horses in the stable.
7. The Union flag flies high over one of the cutest tents.
8. Mrs. Roscoe (the doll I commonly play with!) gives Savannah
instructions while they set out dinner.
9. The soldiers came marching back to camp just in time for us to take a
few pictures before we left. So awesome!

That was a lot of fun! : )

Coloring Together

Usually, I draw a picture for the little girls and make copies so they can each color; but now Betsy Bea has taken to drawing pictures for me. (She can even make copies of it on the printer.) Today while we were coloring together, she pointed to a little circle on the front of the Mom's dress. "You see that ball? It means that she is pregnant." I remarked on how many flowers she had drawn on the little girl's dress. "Yeah," she said, "I drew it extra cute so you would want a copy." : )