{Works With Her Hands} - New Etsy Shop

Many of you are already familiar with my historical sewing business, Period Correctness. Well, orders there are just starting to pick up, and I've decided to help grow my crafting endeavours by starting a more modern Etsy page as well. So, here is it!





Please check it out, and spread the word to your friends! Also, if you see anything I have made on my blog and you would like to have one, too, don't hesitate to contact me about it! And, I've added links to both my shops on the upper right corner of my blog.

{Helpmeet In Training} Harsh Love

Does this look familiar?

Yup, we're back at it again. Stephen was accepted into the second semester of LIFT; I'm so proud of him for how hard he had to work to be accepted again, and for how hard he continues to work now that he is up there. He's been gone for about a week a half now, and my countdown chain has made it from 118 to 107.

But, the point of this was not to write about the countdown; I want to write about something I've been learning this past month - harsh love. It all started one day after Christmas when I was bored and decided to pick up one of the books Stephen has to read for this semester. It's called Your God Is Too Safe, written by Mark Buchanan. I was only able to read the first half before Stephen had to leave for LIFT, but even just that taught me so much. 

The idea that Mark really stresses throughout the book is the idea of "borderland". A place between the worldly life and the Christian life that is safe, and yet full of apathy. You may be comfortable in borderland, but you'll never really accomplish much. He then goes on to discuss the ways in which Christians have been blinded into believing that borderland is the best place to be, and how we have tried to mold the One True God into our own timid, lazy, permissive god of the borderland. The main point that I took away from the book is that God loves us too much to let us stay in borderland. Even if He has to chase us out with wind, rain, and hail. Mark quotes C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, talking about Aslan:

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king I tell you."

The second thing which got thrown into the mix in this lesson that I've been learning is 1 Peter 5:6-7. We read these verses in family Bible study the day before Stephen left, and they really stood out to me: 

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."

The mighty hand of God - a hand works; it creates, destroys, moves, cleans, comforts. So, Peter is telling us to submit and humble ourselves under whatever the hand of God is doing in our lives. But how can we do that when so often God's hand is not gentle? By casting our cares upon Him. By saying, "Your will be done. You be glorified." By recognizing that each and every hardship that comes our way is for our benefit.

And so, all of this has been thrown together to teach me an important lesson. I know God is good, but so often He also feels harsh. And yet, in this season of my life, that very harshness is what  shows me His great love for me. Even as I was crying right after Stephen left, I kept hearing these words play through my mind: God loves me too much to let me stay in borderland. And that has brought me comfort; I know, without a doubt, that God is working mightily in both Stephen and me during this second semester. I know that He is using the challenges to bring us out of borderland, and into a deeper relationship with the Living God.

So, is He safe? No. But, He is SO good.

{Works With Her Hands} Oh, Babies!

The past few months a lot of my projects have been baby items. Most of them were for my little nephew Hudson. I just finished working on this quilt for him. My mom did all the cross-stitched squares, and then I turned it into a quilt. I think it will look great with the rest of the travel-theme nursery!

Then, I've also been working on a present for a friend who is due in February. They aren't finding out the gender, so everything needed to be as neutral as possible. I ended up crocheting this adorable cat and dog duo:

Then, I knitted this onsie. The most interesting thing about it is the color patterns that ended up happening. I was working with two yarns, grey and white, at the same time. When I was knitting flat (the top and the bottom) the two colors looked more mixed. When I was knitting in the round, in the middle, the two colors are more scattered. I had no idea this would happen, but it looks kind of cool.

The edges are finished off with one row of grey crochet.

The openings have snap closures.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was stalled half-way, because I was using plastic needles, and one snapped :/  But, I got a nice new METAL pair, and from then on out it was an easy finish.

Paper Mothball Vintage Giveaway!

See these shoes? 




Yes, you want them.

 

You really want them. And so do I. But, since I was always taught to share, here's how you can enter to win them:

Paper Mothball Vintage is teaming up with American Duchess this holiday season to bring you one merry giveaway!

The lucky winner will receive a new pair of  "23 Skidoo" Spectator T-Strap Shoes made in their size, a $120 value, or the equivalent of $120. 

There are a lot of ways to enter and gain points so take advantage of them all! Winners will be announced on December 16th on Paper Mothball Vintage facebook page.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

{Helpmeet In Training} Boring Love

I read this great article last week about "boring men and the women who live with them." I'm sure a lot of you have seen it going around on Facebook, and maybe you've even read it. It's written as advice to men, and I definitely agree with all of it.

 

But what caught me is that is it also great advice for women to appreciate their men. I think as women it is easy to feel unloved if our men don't have a big surprise for our birthdays, or don't cook a fancy candlelight dinner for Valentines Day, or don't put on a huge fanfare for us when we think we deserve it. What we need to remember is that true love is shown in taking out the trash, unclogging the sink, going to work every day, and putting up with our crazy female hormones. So maybe he doesn't bring home roses every week, or plan a special romantic date every Friday, or leave mushy notes around the house. But it takes a lot more love and devotion for him to put up with a lousy boss 5 days a week, or brave his fears in order to be a good leader, or put his arms around you when you're crying for no reason at all.

In light of that, we are blessed women indeed who have "boring", hard-working, Godly men. Let us never take that blessing for granted, and may we always remember to see the strength of our man's love in the little, everyday actions of their lives.

Photo credit: Ann Voskamp

{Living History} - Fabric Giveaway!

Anna Worden Bauersmith is a beautiful re-enacting friend, an amazingly talented seamstress, and the author of the book Fanciful Utility; and now, she is having a give-away!

I have only had a few chances to talk with Anna, but every time I do she has such great bits of knowledge and new ideas to share. Her sewing work and outfits are all exceptionally beautiful and incredibly authentic. She has done so much research, and we all get to benefit from it! So, if you're into sewing and period reproduction fabrics, head on over to her blog and enter the give-away!

{Works With Her Hands} Dying Day

If you had come to me five or six years ago and asked what type of a crafter I was, I would have said a quilter, and a quilter only. Sure, I learned how to knit and crochet at a much younger age, but I thought quilting was my one-true-love in the craft world. Fast forward two or three years, and I would have broadened into being a seamstress, because I loved making quilts AND clothes. But ask me today, and I couldn't even being to give you an answer! I just love doing a little bit of everything, from paper to fabric to yarn, and everything in between.

While I still love quilting, and must always have at least one quilt in the making, I've recently been discovering all the other awesome fiber arts; three weeks ago I learned how to spin on a drop spindle. Gosh, was that a tricky one to pick up! But, I did it....I'm getting a little better each and every time I try. Yesterday, a group of friends got together and we dyed wool yarn, the 19th century way with big kettles hanging over the fire and all-natural dyes. Now, I have some awesome plans for knitting up the yarns I dyed!

Getting things started by mordanting the yarn. Mordant, I learned is a pre-treatment for the yarn which will soak up the dye and make it colorfast. They seemed to be mostly metals....tin, chrome, alum, etc. 

Yarn soaking in sumac, to create a red-ish brown. This same yarn was then heated with water in an iron pot to become a charcoal grey. An yes, the pot or container that you dye things in makes a difference in color, too!

Getting the sage ready:

Because every party with *mostly* females needs a lot of this!

Right now it looks like some disgusting witch's brew, especially the sage:

Yay for frog hats! It was cold in the morning....

Checking out the walnut dye:

Our amazing picnic lunch of chili, cornbread, and baked potatoes. We sure know how to do these things right.

Most of us brought other fibery projects, too, like knitting and spinning.

All the pretty colors, fustic (yellow) on the right, madder on tin (orange) in the middle, and sage green on the left.

We had pretty colors all around us, too!

We also dyed with some indigo:

This yarn ended up variegated blue/green because of an interesting pre-treatment.....it was so beautiful!

And isn't this madder on tin amazing? Madder is a root, and can actually produce some very different colors depending on what mordant is used. Tin makes this fantastic orange. I was literally bouncing with happiness when my yarn came out this color!

Fustic, madder, and sage.

Marisa's yarn was partly acrylic, so it didn't hold the sage dye very well, which you can see in this picture. However, she then over-dyed it with indigo, and ended up with a beautiful light grey-blue.

Ron showing Sarah her fustic overdyed with indigo, watching it grow darker as it oxidized.

Such pretty colors! That green was produced by fustic and indigo.

Madder, sage, and cochineal (red):

Yeah, color makes me so ridiculously happy. It was so  fun experimenting, and learning how to produce such fabulous colors. The best part? They're all period correct for the 19th century. So when visitors harass me next year about how "They wouldn't have such a bright orange back then!", I'll be able to inform them that it really is accurate, and I even dyed it myself!