*Rustle, rustle...snip,snip....whirrr....whirrr!*

Yup, that's what it's been sounding like coming from my art/sewing/reading/relaxing room these past four days! :-) I found a really simple dress pattern for H not long ago and bought some cute material that was on sale. For some reason I was thinking that the shoulders would be sewn up but when I looked at the actual pattern paper it showed button holes!!

Shiver me timbers!! LOL

I have always avoided anything with button holes before with my preconceived ideas that they are terribly hard to do!

Was I wrong! I decided it was about time to learn. With my faithful singer machine, we tried out the button hole foot on a scrap piece of fabric.

Wha.. hayyy!!!!! (I was saying to myself) There's a buttonhole and my heart-shaped button actually fits through it :)

As you can probably tell, it's the little things in life that aren't noticed much that get me excited. :) The dress pattern is called NewLook 6576.

Anyways, back to the dress-making. Here are the photos...

Completed pink dragon-fly dress.

Dungaree Dress

Orange Dress





Blue Bug Dress

Well, I have some more material packed away that I'm going to pull out and use up...might even do some of what Beck's doing and have a bit of a sort through and chuck out :-)

Have a great day!
S.

Our own Little bit of England!

Hello Everyone,

H and I had a fun day today. We designed and decorated her very own post box! (Well, I did, she was happily playing with her toys leaving little trails of them all over the house! hehe)

The post box is made out of an empty Luvs Diaper box. If you're interested in making one for your kiddos, here are the instructions:

Supply List:
Empty diaper box
Sellotape
Pencil
Glue Stick
Rule
Stanley Knife
Bright Red Acrylic Paint
Gold Acrylic Paint
Black Acrylic Paint
White Acrylic Paint
Paint Brushes
Black/ Gold Pens (for outlining)


1. Cut the shorter flaps off the box (the large flaps are the opening at the back of the post box) and cut out the letter slot.
2. Wrap the box in brown paper using glue stick, including the large flaps so they can still be opened and closed.
3. Paint entire box in bright red acrylic paint.
4. Once paint is dry, lightly draw the square design that runs around the top of the post box, the Time of Pick-up label, crown, and ER symbol.
5. Mix a little gold with the bright red paint and carefully paint the square design, out-line of the letter slot, and the ER symbol.
6. Paint the Time of Pick up label white.
7. Paint the crown gold.
8. Using the rule, draw a 1-2 inch line up from the bottom of the box all around the box. Paint below this line with black paint. (It's the base of the post box).
9. Once all paint is dry, outline the crown and ER symbol and write 'Post Office' at the top.
10. Carefully sellotape all edges including letter slot and any areas you think might suffer extensive 'play abuse' ;-)
11. Enjoy watching your child play and learn about British post boxes! Look them up on the Internet, there are so many different designs, there is even a museum for rare post boxes no longer in use!

sa

Put the reins over the horn!

Each morning I go out to the pasture with some feed for Mr. Pepper who noisly greets me and is sometimes echoed by Pi. I lead Pi to the round pen (rp) and then let Pepper have his breakfast and the roam of the field while Pi and I go to work.

In the rp I walk Pi to get his legs stretched out. He's been pretty stiff due to the surgery wound but it's looking really good under there and healing well. This morning I put on the bosal with the reins attached to the halter and over his neck(we haven't taught him about the bridle/bit yet) and let him have a sniff at the blanket before I put that on him. Instead of leading him at a walk this morning I made him walk out from me as I stood in the middle. A few times around in both directions.

Next I got the saddle, let him sniff it and put it on his back. I did the girth up, but not real tight, and I remembered the tie-down clip! I forgot it yesterday and had to call him back in to do it up! Everything went well. He sniffed the stirrups a little irritated they kept banging him, but all was routine and he's remembering!

Out he goes, walking around at a nice pace. Then his head goes down and I see the danger. I call him in but I can't make my own body work as fast as my mind is going. His inside foot goes through the reins. AGGHHH!!! I had forgotten to put the reigns up over the horn and now he's fighting to get his head up and his leg free!

I try to get the reigns unclipped but there's no slack in them as they are around his neck and leg! "Lord, Please help me. Woe, Pi. Slow boy, it's ok, let me undo the clip. Please help me." I keep my voice calm and low. He is still moving but allows me close to try and help him but there's still no slack. I thought to myself, "I need a knife! Quick! I'll just cut those reins!"(which were brand new, but I didn't care!)

Down he goes. Oh, I didn't want him to go down. Still trying to get his leg free, and now the saddle is in the mix with the stirrups digging into him. I get the clip undone. There's blood. His leg is free. "Oh, where are you hurt, Pi!" I'm praying, Lord please don't let him be hurt! I start looking over him but I can't find the source. I reach for the girth to undo it and see the blood is from a gash in my thumb. I flip the saddle over him and move the stirrups out of the way. He sits there. Then he turns his head and sniffs his hind leg that is under him. I'm praying, Lord please, please don't let his leg be hurt, please!.

I stop myself thinking about the ramifications of a horse having a broken leg. Remembering what the Lord has been teaching me recently about thinking on things that are true. (Philippians 4:8) From what I knew at that moment his leg wasn't broken and I should stop imagining the worst.

I try to encourage him to get up, but he won't move just kept nosing his leg. As I watch I realize that it's not his leg that hurts, but his surgery wound! The wound hasn't opened again, but it was the stress of going down that made him hurt.

I get the lead rope and attach it to his halter. "Get up Pi, Come On! On your feet! You're not dead! Get up Pi!" I put sterness in my voice, pull a little on the halter and he gets up :)!!

Joy! Thank you Lord! :) I walk him around a little, I do not detect a limp in any of his legs. Oh thank you, Lord! I pet him and talk to him quietly. I apologize for causing the trouble. I tell him we're both learning together, that there will probably be more mishaps, but with the Lord helping me, hopefully they will be few. I tell him I'm going to put the saddle back on him as I don't want him frightened of it. He stands there and allows me to put the tack back on him. He is a good boy.

I tell him to walk out and he does. Hubby calls from the house and asks if I had run him. I say no, and tell him what just happened. He comes to the rp and has a look under Pi and says that all looks well. I said I thought I shouldn't try to ride him today, but Hubby said to go ahead. So I did. I got up and Hubby led Pi around and then let go. Pi took a few steps forward on his own and was well praised :) He definately earned his breakfast this morning! :)

As I go about the tasks of my other responsibilities, I pause to watch Pi through the kitchen window as he walks around the rp swishing his tail against the flies and watching Pepper who has come as near to him as being in the pasture will allow.

I'm thankful I was able to call on the Lord for help to get us both out of that situation. I'm thankful that we were both not seriously hurt. I'm thankful for the lesson it has taught me about being diligent to check the tack. I'm thankful that drawing on the Lord's strength helped keep my emotions under control.

I'm sure that by now Pepper has heard the full story and they both hope I remember to put the reins over the horn tomorrow!!

sa.

Fire Works Evening

S, H, myself and some of our church members had a great 4th of July evening. After a convicting Bible message... Lamentations 5:21... pray that God would turn our hearts back to Him before what happened to those people in this chapter, happens to us and our country!

We enjoyed the fireworks. H was really good and didn't get frightened at all! :-)

Fire Works Show

From the 'Y' in the backyard to the Babe in the hospital!

Hi,

Another busy day here, and we did get a lot accomplished. Which is good. Sometimes days can be busy and I see very little accomplished, but those are more not than often :)

DHubby has been working so hard to set up the pasture for Pi. We had someone come this morning to dig a trench for a cold water line and an electric cable line that we need to give some 'umphf!' to the wire fence around the pasture! I helped to fill in the trenches and pack down the dirt as DH put together the water line. He asked me "Are you enjoying yourself?" I actually was, it's not every day I get to stomp around in dirt in a hole nearly up to my knees with the threat of heavy rain overhead :) Whilst DH was at the hardware store the rain came down, but I didn't mind. Being an English lass, I grew up with the rain! and hey, if you're gonna get dirty you may as well get good and wet too :) hehe.

I had to retire from my work before the last third was completed to check on H and get her lunch ready. DH finished up the trench and then came in and installed a new sink faucet, hooked up the ice-maker and the dishwasher! We have non-ice-cube-tray ice!!! This is the first ice-maker we have ever had so it's a novelty :)

Now, about this Honoring Your Husband Challenge. For today, I passed and I failed, but I think the scales lean more towards fail :( I think it will help if I write some goals down as I have seen others do, which I'll post after i've had a little prayerthink about them. With the Lord's grace, I'm going to do better tomorrow.

To end the day we visited a new family member that 'discovered America' today. She is such a sweetie and scrunches her nose up so cute. Congratulations to her new Mom and Dad!

TTFN,

Suzanne, DHubby and Pi.

Too much fun... :-)

Hello,

I'm in my 'color box' mode now... bright colors to liven things up :) I also like the slideshow of Hannah. Can you tell how my spare moments were spent today ;-) hehe.

Where did I get to on the Revival week story?...... oh yes,....

If I remember correctly, due to the visitation efforts, three people accepted the Lord as their Savior and we had visitors each night of the week. We would have had more, but sister churches had events which coincided with ours. In all, it was a good first week of revival for Ware Baptist Church. We have seen some prayers answered and those embers are being rekindled!

As a special treat for the children, we took them to the Okefenokee Swamp park. We all had a good time. We could see some of the damage caused by the wildfires. As we took the train ride the swamp on one side of the track had burned. The firefighters used the track as a firebreak. Our train conductor started telling us about one particular aligator "Rambo" that he was 'friends' with and how he would coax him out of the pond up to the train with marshmellows!! He said he hadn't seen Rambo for a couple week due to the fires. About that time our train ride was approaching the pond and guess who was there! Yup, Rambo!! We got the marshmellow demonstration too :)

The Kokenzies felt led of the Lord to stay on an extra few days before going home to TN. We are glad that they did. We took one day before they left and toured around Jekly Island and St. Simons Island (which has a great lighthouse to tour... lots of info!)