A Butterfly Cake

What a great weekend we had celebrating Olivia's 2nd birthday! For days, she talked about her "Butterfly Cake".   Kristen and Brian decided to celebrate at the Children's Museum in Gulfport!  They loaded up the family and Kacie and Josh came with the twins, along with Steven and Rebeka from Oxford so we all had so much fun!  It is a wonderful hands on museum for children and such a wonderful way to spend a birthday!  As Kacie said, it is so refreshing to go somewhere for a birthday party that is just about being together and watching the kids have simple fun!  We then celebrated with her Butterfly Cake that Kristen made and enjoyed hamburgers with all the trimmings!  Olivia is such a happy little girl!  Bright, articulate, beautiful inside and out and already at two,  ruling the show!  (well sort of....Ava is her sister!)  Thank you Kristen and Brian for sharing your beautiful family with all of us.  May God bless her life in every way and may she come to know the Lord Jesus early in her life and lead a life filled with joy, health, and happiness.....always!

  To God be the Glory!

Christ Church Frederica

Late last May in 2009, Steve and I decided on a whim to take an extra day of a trip that we had been on and spend the night on St. Simons Island at the King and Prince Hotel.  We were early to check in so we spent a good part of the afternoon just soaking up the sun and enjoying the pool.  The pool is built right at the edge of the water so it's a very beautiful sitting!  Our room still wasn't ready at check in time so they could "up grade" us to a suite if we wanted it now at no cost!  Were they kidding, of course we would!  We enjoyed our time there so much.  Shelly and Kara and I had stayed there once before and really enjoyed it so I was happy for Steve to see it also.  The next morning after checking out we decided to take a drive to a part of the island, on Frederica Road and passed this beautiful church, Christ Church!  We parked the car and walked  onto the beautiful church grounds, peering in the windows and wishing we could go inside.  The cementery grounds are filled with saintly people, who lived on the island, now gone to be with the Lord and I cannot imagine a more peaceful place to be at rest. The history lesson continued as we drove on to the end at Fort Frederica and toured the park and the grounds of a former settlement that now only holds the foundations of the town and the homes.  We took our time, reading, and thinking about how life must have been for the settlers there.  As we drove back, past the beautiful church, we saw a prayer garden that was "Just There" in the middle of what seemed like no where!  We got out, walked up the path to pray.  We prayed for our family and others that the Lord brought to our hearts.  It was a day that is vivid in my mind as one of peace and goodness.  Fast forward to last week........I was with Kristen, our daughter, browsing an antique shop near where she lives and found a book St. Simons Memoir by Eugenia Price.  I bought it on the spot, because I love St. Simons NOW and Eugenia Price was/is one of my favorite writers.  I had no idea what the book would be about but to my suprise.....it's all about her life in finding, writing, and living on the island.  It's about the real people of Christ Church Frederica, their history, and more importantly their lives. 

Like her, my life was touched that day by this special place.  God finds a way, not to waste a single turn or event in our lives to teach us a lesson.  As she says in her book, if we stay open to His intentions, if we allow it-He will find a way not to waste a single tear (or turn).  God is able to redeem far more than sin.....He redeems all that happens and works truly, all things for our good and His glory.  Thank you Lord!!!  No matter what you go through, if you will give Him an opportunity, He will make your life beautiful.....In His Time, again and again......that's called GRACE!  How humbling........

Life's Daily Investments......

Much of my time last week was spent investing in smocking dresses for my little grandchildren!

This dress was made for Mary Isabel!  She loved it!

This  dress was made for Olivia Ann....she loves to wear her smocked dresses!   Oh.... The blessings of life!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning."  James 1:17   Truly, I am thankful for the gifts of  the blessings of my life.  When I was a young mother, it never occurred to me at all that one day I would bear five children who would grow up to become adults......as a busy mother, you just never think that far ahead.  You are truly so busy just meeting the needs at hand and reading another book to a child, driving another child to school, church, gymnastics, baseball, piano lessons, art lessons, tennis lessons, or some other  very important event...like the grocery store for the fourth time in four days.  But, these are investments necessary for their lives to grow and become beautiful.  Investments of a most notable cause because, these wonderful children have the ability to grow up into the most wonderful adults full of God's love and full of the living expression of His goodness through a life that has chosen to give Him their own investment of time and love.  We invest in many things in our lives such as our health and fitness, a job, a savings account of money, relationships, but none can be more important than a marriage and a family.  If you invest in time with your husband or wife, it will show up in the faces and the lives of your children, not only today but in the years ahead of them.  They will understand that marriage is about commitment as much as it is about a great night of laughter and love!  Often as I sew for others, whether it be for their home or a garment for a child, I use the time to think about people that are important to me....people that I sense God is leading me to invest in and invest in praying and asking God to bring blessing to their lives.  If you know Christ, you live under His blessing.....think about that.....He wants to spend time with you and invest in you more of Himself.  His desire is to mold you and make you into a vessel that reflects all the love and time He has poured out for you.  Jesus came to give you life and to give you a more abundant life.  God's covenant to us is a covenant for abundant life.  John 10:10 "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."  

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!
Weekend................................
      

Valentines Day has to be one of my all time favorite holidays just because it is a day all about love!

The one you love, those you love, and then those who show and share their love with you!  What a special day to just wake up with with joy, joy, joy!

I hope that your day is filled with much happiness and much love~

Fashioned in LOVE........

A Little White Dress

Our ties to our past are precious.  For me, the art of creating beautiful handsewn clothing go back three generations of watching my great grandmother, Nancy Elizabeth Balthrop Murphy, sit at her sewing machine or in her chair, sewing beautiful garments for others.  Now in my life, I realize that God did indeed allow me a special gift of spending a great deal of time with her.  She kept me for two years when I was three and again from four until I was ready to begin school.  I attended kindergarten in the morning and in the afternoon stayed with her and my great grand father, John Joseph Murphy.  She would make wonderful meals at noon and I enjoyed the love that they gave to me.  I also watched her sew.  She was an exquisite seamstress of handsewn clothing.  She worked with extra fine thread and tiny needles to create the delicate clothing for babies and children and truly her work was art.  I am so thankful that I have inherited just a little of her talent.

French handsewing brings to mind a picture of a little girl in a beautiful dress and the softness and sweetness of a baby's face is only enhanced by these garments.  Only the finest materials are used such as batiste, lawn, and organdy with lace found only abroad or in speciality shops here in the United States.

I made this little white dress over the past two weeks for one of my granddaughters who will wear it on the wedding day in May of our daughter, Kara, to her sweetheart, Philip.  The little dress is made of white swiss batiste, tulle, French lace beading, entredeux beading, and the sleeves are organdy.  It is still actually in process because I still have to travel to New Orleans to purchase the ribbon at a shop there and I plan to close the back with old fashioned antique beauty bars.  Of course the greatest stitch I am putting in this is my love.  The love that a mother, grandmother, or a great grand mother shares with a child is dramatically different from all other kinds of love.  It is a miracle working kind of love.....to have a love given so purely, freely, and unconditionally is the way God loves us.  He gave Himself totally to and for us.  His love is the kind of love that radiates upon the face and in the heart of someone who possesses it.  He used HIS finest materials in making you and then created you in HIS own image so that you could shine like a star in the universe......and all for HIS GLORY!!!!.  Do not be afraid to share HIS love because just like the story in the Old Testament where the children of Israel went out each morning to gather manna for the day according to the people within their own tent, His provision of love for you is similar.  The love you give away will indeed be returned to you in a bountiful way and it is new every morning.  "And in the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord!"  Exodus 16:7  Give your love, talents, and resources that you have been blessed to recieve and it will be given unto you my friend!

His love for you is beyond your understanding.  He longs to show you His majesty.  Turn your eyes to see the beauty and glory of His creation.  Ponder the vastness of HIS abilities.  It is when we use those abilities, no matter how small, that a masterpiece is created and I might add one defined by LOVE!