Skate Park Photo Shoot

I finally got the boys' school pictures taken!  It was a little difficult trying to get a relaxed pose out of each of them with all the other kids skating around us during the photo shoot but I think they turned out fairly well.  So here is the sneak peek of the skate park photo shoot.

God's Beautiful Creation In The Sand Hills

Yesterday the weather was perfect for a long walk in the Sand Hills near our home.  I grabbed my camera, my youngest son and the dog and headed over for a nature walk.  We had a great time up until we hit the stickers and we were stopping every few feet to pick stickers out of the dog's paws!  Poor Poopsie was afraid to take a step!  I ended up carrying her as much as was possible.  And mind you, she is not a little dog!  We were all glad when we finally reached the sand road so the dog could walk without getting stickers!  
Taking pictures of nature is one of my favorite things.  There is no posing and you can take your time most of the time to line up the composition.  So here are my favorite shots from our walk through the Sand Hills.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Facebook just keeps messing around with their settings, rules, and such making it nearly impossible to keep up with what can or cannot, should or should not be posted!  So from now on I will use this blog to post the sneak peeks and favorite photos from Flowerz Photoz and only sharing the link to the blog on my Flowerz Photoz Facebook page.
I'm looking forward to doing several fall photo sessions - two of which will be my boys' school pictures!  I also have a baby belly/mother/daughter photo session being planned and a postponed baby belly session that needs to be done!  Fall is my favorite season and it's a great time for outdoor photos!  Let me know if you'd like to schedule a session too!

Last Post

It is obvious to me now that keeping up with this blog isn't something I am able to do so this will be my last blog post.  Thank you to those of you who followed, read and commented since I started this blog.  It's time to put it to rest and focus on other things in my life.
Blessings!
~ Bev

No More Putting Off Planning

Once again I have taken quite a pause in posting to the blog.  The viruses that have been such an epidemic the last few months have hit our household and I have been sick a majority of the time.  And now I have managed to do something to my wrist that prevents me from doing much in the way of sewing, crocheting or any other crafting I like to do.
Our church's community ladies bible study started back up recently and I've really been enjoying the book we are working on.  It's Pilgrim's Progress in modern English.  I had read it when I was in 7th grade and really enjoyed it then but had forgotten most of the story.  It's nice to refresh my memory of the story now but also to do a more thorough study of it.
I've also been trying (that's the key word here) to get more organized.  It's been a two steps forward and at least one step back process though with being sick but I am making some progress.  I'm trying to work on some weak areas of mine as far as home management and have gotten a lot of ideas on Pinterest that I'm trying to implement into my routine.  Planning meals is not a strong point for me but it's very important to my husband and sons that I have meals planned ahead of time rather than winging it.  We eat healthier when meals are planned so I need to work harder on planning menus for the week or more.  I've tried a lot of different planning techniques but so far nothing has really stuck.  We have dietary needs to consider as well as particular pallets so that makes meal planning more challenging for me.  So I'm hoping this latest idea of mine will work on simplifying the whole planning process.  What is your planning method?

My Very Long Hiatus

It's been three months exactly since my last blog post!  Yikes!  But things have been busy, busy, busy and I just haven't had much time for blogging.  Besides, most of the things I've been up to couldn't be written about because they were gifts/surprises for some of my (very few) readers!

So this is going to be kind of a catch up on the last 3 months.

We celebrated my oldest son's 16th birthday by going to a motorcycle museum.  My son requested Grammy's bread pudding as his birthday treat.  He's not keen on sweets anymore and it'd been a long time since I'd made the bread pudding. 

 

I was attending Every Woman's Grace bible study and had signed up to bring a bread to share.  I tried a new recipe for pumpkin scones and they looked delicious.  However, they were quite dry and heavy but my hubby really liked them.  IF I use the recipe again I will tweek it.

 

My older sister and honorary mother-in-law (my youngest sister's actual mother-in-law) worked together to give my younger sister a surprise baby shower the weekend after Thanksgiving.  My sister and her family live out of state and wouldn't make it back for our Christmas get together since she's due right around that time so we wanted to make the most of the time that they were here for Thanksgiving.  We had a preChristmas celebration as well as the surprise baby shower.  After our meal my two sisters went for a quick walk and that's when MIL L and I quickly set up the shower decorations and such.

These are just some of the receiving blankets, bibs and wash cloths that I made for my new baby niece.

These are the cute little Ugg-like boots that I crocheted for her.

I put together a cute little cardboard oven for the shower.

 The refreshment table at the shower.

 All the gifts for baby niece.

 Not a great picture but these are the tissue pompoms I made for decoration.

 MIL made the cutest pennant banners for the shower.

 This, if you hadn't already guessed, was our theme for the shower!

And this is li'l sis L with her bun in the oven and her now middle daughter miss T.

 

Our church has an annual event for the ladies every December called the Candlelight Christmas Coffee where we decorate 35 tables, all differently, and get served coffee, tea and cider by some of the men in the church and listen to a special speaker and special music.  It's a wonderful evening of fellowship and spiritual encouragement.  This year I co-hosted a table with my friend C.  The theme of the evening was Celebrating Hope and featured Linesa Keith and the International Princess Project.

 Our Christmas Coffee table.

 We celebrate hope in knowing that God is Sovereign and He holds tomorrow!

My co-host and I.

 The decorations were amazing for the event!

 Our pastor's wife Kris Goertzen shared her testimony and Linesa shared music from her album Greatest Mystery as well as some of her life story and how the International Princess Project began.

 The women in India who have been rescued from sex slavery are taught a trade in sewing and they make the most beautiful "punjammies".

 

There's been a lot more than this going on but it would take too long to write about it and I didn't take pictures of the various things I did during these last three months.  That's been my blunder but I've been so blessed during these busy months!

Pocket Garage

A very special little boy recently had a birthday and I wanted to give him something that I thought he would love.  This little boy loves cars and trucks!  I remembered that I had seen a tutorial on Pinterest for a cloth car caddy and so I decided I would make that for this special guy.  The car caddy from the tutorial used velcro but I wanted this one to be able to go to places that he needed to be quiet too so I scrounged around in my bits and pieces drawer of my craft dresser to see what I could come up with.  I found some red elastic cord (probably from a gift box or pair of shoes that don't come in a box) and a button from some old fatigues that my husband used to wear to work when we were first married.  Do I keep too much stuff?  Um, yes, probably!  But sometimes it comes in handy.
I used an old pair of my husband's work jeans that were in the scraps pile and cut out the pieces I needed from it.  I found a piece of canvas drop cloth I had used for outdoor curtains and cut out the pieces I needed from it.  Following the tutorial I sewed the pieces together and sewed the elastic to it all.  It didn't look very neat so I cut out a small piece of striped material from the scraps pile and appliqued it over the stitching for the cord.  I need to work on my applique stitching.  But it did look better than just the plain stitching.  The tutorial called for felt but I just used more denim and yellow thread to make the road.  And then, of course, I couldn't give it to him empty!  I filled it with 6 cool cars and trucks!  With the heavy duty material used for this it should last quite a while.  And I've been told that he loves it which was my goal!