InstaFriday!

Have you had a chance to pop over to Life Reaaranged yet? I am really enjoying taking the time to recap my Instagram photos each week!

Here we go...

 It was a Pinterst week around here! Kev cut and put together this mason jar box project for me, so I spent time this week finishing it up. To give the wood a weathered look, you start by staining the wood with a somewhat dark stain. Since the stain has to dry, of course we move onto other things...

 

So about mid afternoon on Monday, Matthew mentions that he has to bring something to his Italian class the next day. Good thing he knows his way around the kitchen. He actually made biscotti and impressed his teacher!

Getting really tired of pale hospital green paint in my bathroom. It is the only room in the house that hasn't been repainted since we moved in here 6 1/2 years ago. Not really sure if I want to go with these colors yet...

 Happy Compassion mail day! I received a letter from Abner this week!



Finally finished! One summer afternoon, Kelsey and I found a cute tear-off pattern sheet at Michael's. I thought, that would be a really cute blanket to make! Three months and over 200 rows later, it is done! Now to decide what to do with it, Kelsey thinks I should save it for one of my future grandchildren. Not sure if I should hang onto it for that long...

Kelsey and I enjoyed fall tea and cookies one afternoon this week. The last few days have been unseasonally cool, overcast, and a little gloomy. Looks like our normal October weather will be returning soon... :o)

Mason jar crate done! After the stain, you spray paint the wood with an antique white paint. Then you sand off most of the spray paint to give the wood that 'weathered' look. I forgot to take a picture of the box with the jars and flowers in it! I was hoping to use it as a centerpiece for our table, but it is larger than I anticipated...still trying to decide where it will live...

Yesterday brought use a sprinkle of rain, so we lit a few candles. Kev and the kids made this tea cup candle for Mother's Day, isn't it cute? :o)

 Pinterest Party treat! Vanilla Chai Cupcakes

 

Since I had 2 cups of hot tea yesterday, I starting searching on Pinterest for mug cozy patterns. Found this one which is actually a mug cozy coaster! So quick and easy to crochet, I made 2 yesterday!

 Got together with some of the young ladies from our church for our first Pinterest Party! We each brought our own project supplies and spent a few hours this afternoon working on one of our Pinterest pins. We have already scheduled our next meeting we had so much fun!

 

I had planned on working on this project, but I didn't have the right color paints at home. So a little last minute scrambling and I was able to work on these which will be new ornaments for our Christmas tree this year.

It was a pretty busy day around here, but we made time tonight to work on Christmas cards for unsponsored Compassion kids. This is something we did last year too. If this is something you might be interested in doing, be sure to leave a comment and I can get the information to you.

So how was your Instagram week? Be sure to link up with Life Rearranged to share your Instagram week with us!

My latest homework assignment: Portraits

We are probably about half way through the photography class I am taking and I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable taking pictures in the manual setting now. I know I still have a lot to learn, but our latest assignment allowed me to use two of my favortie subjects!

 1/40s, f/5.0, iso 100 at 92.0mm

 

This one is straight out of the camera. Since I have an old version of Photoshop Elements (6.0, should I upgrade?) and I just purchased a used book to try to learn the program, I went through and did a quick edit on this one.

 This is the quick edit version. Do you see any difference? My instructor said I did good camera work on the portraits, but a little processing would enhance them a bit. Guess I need to spend a little more time learning Elements!

 

 1/80s, f/4.2, iso 100 at75.0mm

 

Again, here is the straight out of the camera shot, and here...

 

...the quick edit version. I know I could probably crop in on this one so that both photos are cropped similar (the grandparents might like these for Christmas!)

 

I wonder what we are going to learn at our next class?

Happy Compassion Mail Day!

 Today there was a new letter with a drawing from Abner!!!!

 

Abner is one of my Compassion correspondent kids. He lives in Colombia and we have been corresponding for about a year now. He is such a sweet boy!

Here is what his letter said:

"Dear sponsor Yvonne,
I greet you with a big hug filled with peace, love and blessings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today is a very cheerful day for me because I have the opportunity to write you again. I thank you for the letter, drawings and pictures. I am very proud you are my sponsor since you have a very kind heart and you help other children. My family and I will be praying for them and their families. We also will continue praying so that God takes care of you and gives you wisdom every day and good health. I hope you pray so that God uses me as an instrument to his work. I tell you that my mother had her birthday on August 11. I am going to decorate a card with a beautiful rose. I am doing well in school too, and I got 2nd place in my classroom. I feel very happy at the project. I hope you read Joshua 1:9. I say goodbye with much love. You are always in my heart.

Abner"

This little boy is just 9 years old and I love how he shares his heart with me. If you have taken the time to read through Abner's letter, will you say a prayer for him and his family?

Imagine this...

...the sound of 3,159 children and their families singing, rejoicing, and giving thanks to the Lord!!!

This is what happened in September when many people participated in Compassion's Blog Month! Last month, many of us who blog for Compassion were given weekly assignments to try to reach a goal of having 3,108 children sponsored solely through the internet. Well, that goal was met and then some! Prizes and giveaways were offered for certain assignments and there was one really big prize of earning a spot on a Compassion Blogger trip next year!

My Pinterest friends helped me to earn a $25 prize for Lina and her family! I was so excited when I received the phone call from Shaina at Compassion telling me that I had won a prize for her!

Do you have a blog? Would you like to blog for Compassion? It is really quite simple, join the network. You will receive assignments once or twice a month to help spread the word about Compassion. Share pictures and letters you receive from your sponsored kids, and most importantly, help others to realize how important our letters are to these kids!!

A few of the bloggers are getting ready to head to Peru. Will you join us in praying for them before, during, and after their trip? Oh, and be sure to read about their journey. These blogger trip blog posts are amazing!!

InstaFriday

Here is a roundup of some of my Instagram photos from the past few days...

 

Now that we have been in a good rountine during our school week, I have gotten back into my walking schedule. A while back, Kelsey bought an iPod, so I was able to 'buy' her old iPod from her. I love that I can create a playlist of walking songs. I usually 'shuffle' the songs before I head out the door. Two days this week, my walk started with Shaun Groves songs. Have you heard of him? If you haven't, you need to go check him out...like right now!

We had a little visitor over the other day and there was no bib in his bag. I improvised with a wash cloth, some fabric, and some safety pins. After he left, I figured I could find a cute pattern on Pinterest for an apron to keep at our house, just in case. I found this pattern and just loved how quickly it came together! Now to make a couple more...

Just a week ago and up until a couple of days ago, our day time temperatures were right around 100 degrees! As of yesterday, it looks like the weather is starting to cool off, hopefully not too quickly!

On Thursday afternoons, I am at home by myself for a couple of hours. Yesterday, I wanted to keep myself busy, so I pulled out a project that has been sitting around that needed to be worked on. This is the third cloth book I have put together in the last couple of weeks. These make great gifts, but I am thinking of keeping this one if my church bag, just in case a little one sitting near us needs something to keep them quiet for a bit...

 

Today I pulled out some fabric I bought a few months ago and sketched out a quilt block to make a small quilt. I was able to finish piecing the top together, now to wait for my friend to let me know that her quilting machine is up and running!

 

 

Are you on Instagram? You can put together a blog post of your Instagram week with the rest of us at