Making a skirt

I have grand ideas in my head that I am the best dressmaker! In truth I struggle in my relationship with my sewing machine and the ideas stay in my head. But I have recently discovered a love of Pinterest. The idea of learning through pictures. I love it. 

I do realise that I am a little behind and everyone else is using YouTube or some other video watching app but I am using Pinterest in a really weird way to make skirts. Particularly my passion is denim. 

As a child my mum told me that denim is for work men not for young ladies. So as an adult my pursuit of wearing awesome denim is quite something. I have discovered you can make your own denim skirts! I love denim skirts. 

You take a pair of denim shorts. 

You add a skirt you love but that is ill fitting. This particular one I try to wear once a year and fail because each wearing makes me feel like a beached whale. 

You make a few cuts and spend some time sewing them together and voila you have a fun and flirty denim skirt. My favourite kind. Considering I have spent some money on these skirts in past I am well please with the outcome. 

I wore the skirt with a sweater and was so pleased when someone said they loved my skirt! Happy days. I love it and that's all that counts. Plus it's in the purple range! 

Kids and the great day off

So you have a day off with the kids. Options. 

Clean and tidy. 

Go out. 

Stay in and entertain. 

In our case it rained on our day off. Not just a light drizzle but absolutely poured down. Normally weather won't stop us but after a super active few weeks a day inside seemed like a good idea. What happened. 

Free play. 

Is there anything better than watching your children's imagination run wild and fill your home with fanciful stories of triumph. 

Chocolate play. 

We finally did it, we created chocolate. 

We made box loads of beatiful chocolate shapes. Really easy to do with a mix of dark and milk chocolate is what we used and some fancy moulds. Yummy stuff. 

Cake baking. 

In my home this is always a highlight. I have to say I used many shortcuts this time but nevertheless the children loved the experience of making their own cakes. 

Weaving 

This was the surprise activity. I thought there might be love with this one and there was but it turns out they wanted to make baskets! At least they liked their woven animals and surprisingly they were simple to make. 

Yes we did all this in one day as well as jumping around, watching a movie and of course eating a meal. To be honest it was a great day. It's days like this that make it all worthwhile. Days when all the skills and creativity are being pushed and it works. Not every craft day is so successfully packed with so much. However this worked. 

Can each of these activities be turned into bible lessons? You bet! The baking was the most obvious because the children took them to church and shared them in them at pot luck punch. 

Te chocolate is being shared with daddy and there is some discussion about what bible story can go with making things. 

As to the weaving well the basket that Moses was in. The animals themselves tell a story. Fish play a central role in story telling in the bible.  

Whatever you decide to do enjoy the process. Don't be precise they are children and most of all try and laugh because either way you are building a memory to last them a life time. 

Celebration is Important

In the bible one of things that make me happy is celebration. Whenever something happens to a Israel and they overcome then there is a do this in remember statement. This turns into a yearly celebration. I think that the idea of celebration as a discipline is so important. 

If you have the opportunity take a friend out to celebrate their birthday and indulge in your passion. A treat a moment to thank God for another moment of character growth. 

This was our moment. Celebrating a God blessed friendship! Thank you awesome God for awesome friend. 

My little make

I love making things. I might not be brilliant at it but I enjoy it no end. I truly believe that as people when God said we are created in his image he also meant our creative nature. I really enjoy this element. 

Recently I have started looking at making clothes again and oh it has changed so much since I first started it. Now with the internet everyone is sharing their wonderful creations inspiring us to do the same. 

Since I now feel uncomfortable in my own skin customising clothes seems like a very good option. Well I saw this idea to turn a T-shirt into a draped vest. I thought start small and see how we get on. 

Step one. Get a T-shirt your not using. I had my beloved Brazil shirt which now makes me look fat and frumpy. But I dare not give it away because I love my team. 

So now I am ready to go into step 2. Cut off the sleeves and cut down the sides. 

Now to step three neaten up and make it work. 

Now we are ready to go out into the brave world and wear it. 

Now this was on a day out with the boys to a play area. We were having a fun time. The vest does it's job works great as a cover up looks cute. It hides your tummy which as a mother is amazingly brilliant! Also when I go into the bathroom and the kids need a towel the front of my t-shirt works amazing. 

Most of all I love it and that's the main thing. Everyone else can make their judgements but guess what it's fun it's easy and makes me happy. I am also going to do it again. I can make it any colour and pattern I can find a large T-shirt in. Way hey! If you have a youth group with some girls in it then this is a fun bonding activity. All you need is scissors and t-shirt. You could also get some embellishments. Have fun creative people x

Our Finnish Adventure

This is the beautiful view from the porch as I sit and write this. 

Finland is a truly beautiful country and even though the sun never sets they have the most beautiful sunsets lol. I am here is summer. But let me tell you our adventure to getting to this point. 

Firstly weeks ago my storms start telling me that they want to go fishing. They have no idea we are going on holiday. They have no clue about the destination. But every day they want to go fishing. 

Now fast forward and we are preparing to travel. First how do we get to the airport? Concerning but by some miracle my mum turns up at the house to help us travel with the kids on public transport to the airport. 

We just about make our first bus connection. With a little running from me and the little man we get their. Next we have 18 minutes to make the next bus connection and travel is piling up. We make it with 5 minutes to spare thanks to some miracle of God. But just as the bus is about to pull up my hubby realises I have left his backpack at the bus stop. 

He takes off running. I get the storms, the luggage and the adults on the bus. All the while worrying I have managed to lose his camera and other precious items! The bus driver then hearing my conversation with my mum stops the bus and asks if he wants me to wait! I said no we should be ok. Call desperately to figure out if everything is ok. As we go to the otherside of the town for our next stop. As the bus starts to fill we see my hubby who has run across the town having found his bag. He makes the bus. Praise God. 

We arrive at the airport and after some misguided listening we follow my mum to the correct terminal and check in. 

Well we sit and wait for our plane to be announced which gate. The hubby is off looking for shirt. He does not want to be sweaty from his jog! Then I see the news so I think ok let's go. He goes to grab some water while I make my way with the boys. As we approach they are closing the gate! Seriously closing the gate! We aren't late there were no last calls but they are closing the gate. The lady says excellent our last four. So I call Jeremy tell him forget the water and come down. So he races down and they lock the gate behind him! 

We get on the plane settle down and we are ready to go! Nope we just sit there due to some problem for another 35 minutes waiting to leave. After more time has elapsed the sheer joy by storms have at the plane taking off was the most amazing amazing feeling in the world. No pain in my ears could possibly spoil the joy that moment gave me. 

We land I am in excruciating pain not so unusual I have real problems flying. The surprise is that my poor storm is experiencing something similar. This has never happened before. So the air stewards were amazing and materialises with two cups or Mickey Mouse ears to help the pressure and somehow I see past my crippling pain and deafness to sing and give comfort to my boy who settles against mummy. 

Then we settle in our room and more hilarity. There are four of us and three beds. We juggle around and find a way to sleep. The toilet however is on the otherside of the building through what can only be described in my wild imagination as a maze of horror movie tunnels. Every time we needed to use the facilities it was funny to sing through the corridors. 

We have the shocked expression on one mans face when try realise their sabbath morning speaker is a woman. I thought he might pass out. Fun times lol. 

We then have a major misunderstanding and have to rustle up some lunch. More hilarity as the storms to refuse to eat food they normally stuff in England! 

We are then picked up and travel many hours to camp. Was it all worth it? Absolutely. We are in a beautifully place. The people are so lovely and the kids are swimming, fishing!!!!!!!! Playing volleyball, football, darts, tennis and bouncing on trampolines! So much so that our littlest storm says on Tuesday we are not going home we will stay and extra week! I smiled he has a wild imagination just like his mother! 

Thursday a rash breaks out on the storms. Friday morning the on site doctor says chicken pox and quarantine. We head to the health centre and after a few hours of waiting we are not going home we are staying for the extra week. Somehow the little one had a whisper from the Holy Spirit. What was one camp turns into two. 

As God would have it the speaker for the second camp is arriving late and here I am to fill in. All because of a case of cheeky pox (my storms name for them). Every time I thought this is just crazy God worked out some miracle of fun to happen. From fishing predictions weeks ago to bags left at bus stops to an extra week stay thanks to cheeky pox. God has been with us every step of the way. 

Most times things aren't straight forward but remember that it's ok. It really doesn't have to be. What you do want is peace love and joy so that no matter what happens it doesn't phase you. It just causes you to go higher an higher. 

So I sit with the sun setting in a traditionally Finnish way not disappearing from the sky but changing colour I think there will be more adventures and I need to remember to trust God! 

Life is a Maze

You know I love to create something. So here is my latest baby... 

Who could possibly navigate your life better that God? Life is complicated and it has twists and turns all over the place. Personally I would like peace and the only way I know how to get that is to follow God and allow him to help me make the best choices I possibly can. 

Looking for love

Thought for the day. 

Looking for love? Find yourself first then you will know what love is