Sewing Studio in Progress

I'm so excited! At last I have a much needed sewing studio! We decided to re-do the guest room so I could have a space to work other than the dining room table, and daughter number one could have a bigger bed. So we moved the big bed into her room, and her single bed into the new studio, so there is still a place for a guest to sleep if we need it. I pushed it into the corner and propped up some pillows to get the day bed effect. Then, I moved out the big antique mirror above the dresser, and moved in a hutch from the attic. It was a strange brown color, so I painted it white. Now I have a cute storage area for my fabric. I love the way the fabric looks all stacked up on the shelves. For my work table, I am using an old interior door from our house. The doors in our house are beautiful, and I've been saving this one especially for a table. I set it on the two nightstands that were in the guest room (also from the attic in the previous form of a dressing table), and voila! A cute, shabby chic table, and it's the perfect size for my needs. Now I just need to get a big piece of glass for the top of my table, and my sewing studio will be complete.

Challah

My little family observes the Sabbath on Saturdays. "What? Are you Jewish?" you ask. No, not Jewish...but...this quote about sums it up: "I am not Jewish. But I follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am a disciple of the Jewish Messiah. I live as a Jewish person lives. Messianic Judaism is my faith. But I was born a gentile, and by grace I have been grafted in." (Rick Spurlock of BereansOnline.org) Because we put our faith in Jesus (we like to call him by his Hebrew name, Yeshua), we are able to be a part of God's people, so we follow his instructions for life, the Torah. We are learning more every day how to do this. Because the Jewish people have been following Torah since it was given, we have adopted many of their traditions and customs, which are full of SO much meaning.

All that to say: Every Friday night we have a special Family dinner to welcome in the Sabbath. I light the candles and my husband says the blessings over the wine (well...juice) and bread and prays for the children. On most Fridays I do as many Jewish women do and make two braided loaves of challah. As the mother of the family kneads and braids this bread, she prays for her loved ones who will be eating it. I LOVE this! It is a special privilege for me to make challah for my family and entwine my prayers for them within the braids. I recently learned how to make a six stranded braid, and it turns out so beautiful! I learned by watching this video:






Shabbat shalom!

Ode to Oranges

Ok, so I guess this isn't an actual "ode", since it's not a poem, but lately I have been really wanting my favorite fruit in the world, so I thought I would write about it. This is not just any average orange, at least not here in the United States. The orange I am talking about is called the "Tarocco" orange, and is found primarily in Italy. When my husband and I were in Rome about two years ago, I tasted the most delicious, juicy, sweet oranges I have ever tasted, and I am usually not a big fan of oranges!
My first taste of this wonderful fruit was the in the juice they served us on the plane from Paris to Rome on Alitalia Airlines. It was early in the morning, and the flight attendants came by with the beverage cart and asked us something in a different language. French? Italian? Or maybe just heavily accented English? I was too groggy to figure it out. I just said "juice?" and was served some kind of red liquid and a mysterious pastry-looking thing. The pastry was positively yummy. Then I took a sip of the red juice, and was introduced to my new favorite juice ever. I wish I could remember the name of it. It may or may not be this:

Sadly, this juice is not available in the U.S. They also served the juice in our hotel at breakfast. I was a regular juice-aholic! Oh, how I miss that juice! We then were able to find the actual fruit at a little fruit stand not far from the Colosseum in Rome. So yummy! Later I found out that Tarocco oranges are the most popular "table fruit" in Italy, and I can definitely see why. My question is, why, oh why can't I find these oranges where I live??? I love them so much, that I may have to go back to Italy just for their oranges...

Mount Vernon

George and Martha Washington are two of my most favorite people in history. My family and I had the pleasure of visiting their home this Labor Day Weekend. Mount Vernon has been restored to look like it did the year George Washington died, 1799. It is SO beautiful! My favorite part of the house is the veranda with the columns and the sweeping view of the Potomac River. The rest of the house is absolutely gorgeous, too, and the grounds are amazing. We weren't able to see the flower garden (the "Upper Garden") because it was under reconstruction, but we did see the "Lower" vegetable and fruit garden. What a design! The whole place was so impressive! It was a self-sufficient farm, almost a little town in itself. We also took the little river cruise on the Potomac, and toured the Grist Mill and Distillery. And the Education Center and Museum were so interesting! George and Martha Washington were truly admirable people.

One of my favorite quotes is from Martha Washington: "I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."


Beautiful veranda.


View from veranda.


Grist Mill.

Sock Monkeys!

I love sock monkeys! Yes, I love the old-fashioned ones made with the gray and red socks, but I especially love making sock monkeys with bright and fun patterned socks.
I first made a sock monkey last December when I was asked to teach a sewing class to elementary aged students at the school where my husband is the principal. Hmmm, I thought, what to have them make? I wanted to do something fun and easy, but that would also give them a challenge. I decided sock monkeys would be perfect. Just to be sure, my daughters and I made some first for practice. We sewed them completely by hand, just like my students would. So much fun! We laughed so hard with each new monkey part we completed. They were just SO CUTE! We sould hardly stand it! Those monkeys had to be the most fun project ever! And my little students did a fantastic job and had a lot of fun making their little monkeys.
I had so much fun with those monkeys, that I decided to make some to sell in my Etsy shop. These monkeys are sewn by machine first, then the individual parts are sewn onto the body by hand. I like to embroider the face so that little ones can play with the monkeys without worries about small parts like buttons coming off.

These are my latest monkeys. I love them!

Shop Visit

I recently visited the shop where my bags are being sold, "Postcards From Delaware" in the Delaware Welcome Center. I was very impressed with the place. It is a very busy center, and very well done. It was fun and exciting to see my own creations displayed there for sale! I stood in the background and watched people browse, and pick up the things that I had made and look at them. Many of the bags had already sold, and when I returned home from this trip I found that they had ordered 24 more!

Magnificent Niagara Falls

We recently got back from a family vacation to beautiful Niagara Falls. Absolutely magnificent! If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it! The falls were the most powerful, amazing and awesome sight! On my birthday we rode on the Maid of the Mist, which was a wonderful experience. While we were there, we also took the walk behind the falls, rode on the "Whirlpool Aerocar", and went on the whitewater walk. All were great experiences, but my favorite was definitely the Maid of the Mist (and I usually don't even "do" boats!) It was an absolute delight to be down on the water right next to the falls, and get soaking wet! I feel so blessed to have been able to be there and share the experience with my husband and daughters. We all had a great time. The town of Niagara Falls, Canada, is very much a tourist trap, but we still enjoyed it, and even had some fun playing mini golf, going to Ripley's Believe it or Not, and playing arcade games. But the big attraction was definitely the falls. We could stand and stare at them for hours!

We also drove to the nearby town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was a lovely drive past vineyards, orchards, and beautiful homes and countryside. The town is very cute and historical, and has nice shops and restaurants (a little pricey, though). On our way back to our hotel we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought delicious peaches and cherries. We also saw Lake Ontario, toured Old Fort George, and visited a historic home that survived the war of 1812. It was a fun vacation, and one we will never forget.