Praise in the Rain

I know a couple of people going through tough times right now.

It is never easy. We never look forward to those times. 

We pray for the Lord to free us from them! or even more so,  to never go through them!

Yet, the Lord allows awful circumstances to come our way. Why?! 

We specifically prayed for that not to happen. 

Well, the answer isn't always what we want it to be. But it is always good and perfect.

God is wiser than any of us...and more than all of us together. Like one my friends puts it: we only carry one piece of the puzzle with us. He sees it all put together!

One reason why God allows tough times in our lives is to make us stronger and more beautiful. 

Do you ever work out? How do you know your muscles are being benefited by your exercise? it BURNS!

Have you ever seen gold in its natural stage? it pretty much looks like any other ordinary rock. For it to shine and be as beautiful as we know it, it needs to be put through FIRE first. So yes, the process of getting stronger and refined will hurt. Not always, but more than often. 

Another reason, and I must confess I'm glad for this one, is to learn to praise Him always. This is a hard one. We all know that. Questions such as "Why?!" and "was this really necessary?!" fill our minds during hard times. The Lord knows our hearts and he will not let us endure what we do not have the strength for. 

Like the song we always pray for God to bring us joy, peace and the chance to be free. We pray for God to bring anything that will bring Him glory. I think we forget that the later isn't always something pleasant!! I cry my eyes out when I sing what follows: "and I know there'll be days when this life brings me pain, but if THAT'S what it takes to praise you, Jesus bring the rain!" ~ makes for wonderful lyrics, but if we really think about it, we are asking for "bad" things to happen. Or at least we are saying "we are OK" with tough times to come our way. Easier said than done! 

I truly believe that THAT should be our hearts' attitude. Always. Whatever it takes to bring God glory! Even if it's pain. We'll take it. Not that we want to suffer, but we'll take that chance if that is what God will use to be glorified. 

One verse I always hold on to (well, I could quote the whole Bible for that matter!) is Psalm 27:13-14

"I am still confident of this: that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

The Lord has used this verse more than enough times to remind me of His unfailing promises! He is faithful and loves me. He loves you. Things are not always the way we want them to be. God's ways are different from ours. Yet, they are always perfect and good. His thoughts are always of good for those who love him. He is our hope. He is my hope. 

...Holy is the Lord, 

God Almighty,

The Earth is filled with His Glory...

Little Red Dress

I have become obsessed with Pinterest. HA!
I just love all the great ideas out there! There are some very talented people in this world and I am thankful to many of them for sharing their creativity with the world.

I found a tutorial for an old sweater turned into a dress, through Pinterest,  at this website by Ashley: www.makeit-loveit.com so yes, the credits for the idea goes to her! I believe she did an awesome job of explaining the how-to. Please visit her site! I'm sure she will appreciate it!

I mixed two of her tutorials (long and short sleeves) and came up with my project. It is a little dress for my baby girl, Amelia. Hopefully she will be big enough at Christmas time to wear it :)

I apologize I did not take all the pictures. I realized afterwards that I would want to blog about it. Hopefully these pictures (and your looking back at Ashley's blog) will be enough guidance. :)

so first, find an old sweater. Maybe at a thrift store, or an old one that you  already have. Then  maybe using  a dress that you already have, measure the size. I did not follow that advice and just guessed at the measurements. You can tell by the end result :P When cutting, always leave at least 1 to 3 inches for the seams. It is always better to have more and the cut back down than to cut it to short/tight.

On the original blog, she uses just the cuffs of the sleeves. I decided I wanted it to be long sleeves. So I used more fabric and just cut it a little so it would be kids size. Make sure the shoulder area is diagonal. Otherwise if it's too square it may look like a box. 

Sew it together...right sides facing each other.

Now, this part is better explained at Ashley's site. Basically, use some elastic (Or cut a string from an old t-shirt  like I did! it stretches a little) and folding the rim outward, towards the right side, sew the elastic in. It will give a ruffle effect to the neck. You can adjust the width of the opening. In my case, since I did not use elastic, I had to adjust it so that it would be open enough for her head, but narrow enough to cover her shoulders and be a modest dress for a 5 month old! :P Using elastic will give you more freedom and will look prettier, but I didn't have any handy, and was too inpatient to wait  to get one! I really wanted to make the dress. 

And....tadah! Amelia couldn't care less! haha

Like I said, the shape is not perfect, but I love it. It was made with love and hey! She will grow out of it before i know it, so why stress about it!! haha...

For the bow, use two strings of fabric: one of 7x3 and one of 3x1/2inch. Or whatever dimensions work best for you :)

Happy Sewing!!