To be a Violet

On the suggestion of a very sweet person, I've been reading the devotional by L.B. Cowan, Streams in the Desert. First let me say, I recommend it! Enlightening, encouraging and challenging! Well I wanted to share an entry that is particularly relevant to contentment. Bear with me, it's good...and simple enough to share with a child to help understand the concept of being content as God made you.

"A story is told of a king who went to his garden one morning, only to find everything withered and dying. He asked the oak tree that stood near the gate what the trouble was. The oak said it was tired of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine tree. The pine was troubled because it could not bear grapes like the grapevine. The grapevine was determined to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and produce fruit as large as peaches. The geranium was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac.
And so it went throughout the garden. Yet coming to a violet, the king found its face as bright and happy as ever and said, "Well, violet, I'm glad to find one brave little flower in the midst of this discouragement. You don't seem to be the least disheartened." The violet responded, "No, I'm not. I know I'm small, yet I thought if you wanted an oak or a pine or a peach tree or even a lilac, you would have planted one. Since I knew you wanted a violet, I'm determined to be the best little violet I can be."

People who are God's without reservation "have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." His will becomes their will, and they desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do. They strip themselves of everything, and in their nakedness find everything restored a hundredfold."

Phillipians 4:11 "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."

To be a Violet.....

It was a Kool-Aid Day!

Yes, it was a Kool-Aid day at our house today! Kool-Aid is a rarity reserved for special occassions around here. Today, being the first day back to work, school & the early rise routine, I felt it called for a little extra inspiration of the pink lemonade form....everyone agreed! :) And while we had all refused to admit that the end of our holiday was coming, up until the very last minute yesterday evening, it turned out to be a wonderful day! Most everything went smoothly and the things that didn't, just didn't seem like such a bid deal anyway. The girls and I had one of those rare, uninterrupted heart to hearts to start the morning, my big boy that turned FIVE over the holiday officially started his first math lesson (which he was so adorably excited about and was so much fun!) and the evening came to a close with a box full of some of the most lovely fabrics waiting for me when we arrived home. It was a good day! It was a Kool-Aid day!

Me & My Mommy Matching Reusable Shopping Bags

I was wanting to make some child-sized reusable shopping bags for the kids to use when they play store. I couldn't find a child-sized pattern anywhere! However, I did find this great tutorial for making regular sized ones, so I improvised a bit following these directions http://www.instructables.com/id/Make_your_own_grocery_bag/ and came up with one of my own.
Here it is! :)

Make your pattern. I traced this on cardboard from the recycle bin. 10 1/4" wide, the handles are approx. 5" long and 2" wide. You can use any round edge to help make the curve at the top of the bag.


Select the fabrics for both the outside and lining of your bags. We found this adorable grocery print for a ridiculous deal at a moving sale and bought all they had! Paired it with a simple red with white pin dot and just love it!
Cut 2 of each fabric.
Sew the outer fabric pieces right sides together along the sides only.
Repeat for lining fabric pieces.
You can finish the seam with a zig zag stitch or serger if you have one, like this.

Whether serged or not, press seams to one side, not open.
Turn outer fabric right side out and place inside the lining fabric that is still inside out.

Pin the outer fabric and lining together, beginning at side seams. Position the seams on opposite sides so there will be less bulk when stitching, like this.

Continue pinning all the way around top of bag being careful to match up curves smoothly.

Sew the top of the bag, leaving the top of the handles open.

Trim the seam allowance and carefully clip the rounded corners.

Turn the bag right side out and press neatly, lining up the seams of the outer fabric and lining.
Topstitch around the top of the bag continuing to leave the top of the handles open. Topstitching will give your bag a finished look as well as keep the outer fabric and lining in position.

**If you don't want gussets on your bag, skip this next step.**
To form gussets at the bottom of your bag, turn your bag inside out and fold the sides in toward the center about 1-1 1/2" and pin in place at the bottom.

Whether making gussets or not, stitch completely across the bottom of the bag.
Serge or finish with a zig zag stitch the bottom of the bag.

Keeping the bag inside out, sew the tops of the handles together. Serge or finish the seams with a zig zag stitch. (Being that the play food your children will be carrying probably won't be as heavy as what you might get at the store, extra stitching strength here isn't as necessary as in the original tutorial.)
To finish your handles and hide the raw seam at the top of them, turn your bag right side out and stitch just under the seam or serge. It will look like this when done.

Now, just fill this adorable bag with all your lil' ones shopping goodies and let their imagination take over!

And since I was already at it, I had to make myself some as well, you know, since I just love this fabric and never seem to have enough bags when we go shopping anyway! ;)

I did make one addition to the pattern tutorial listed at the top...I added a pocket. Mainly because I really like to make use of ALL of my fabric, and the cut-out at the top of the bag comes out in the perfect shape of a pocket! How handy to hold your keys or coupons or receipts right??? (all other scraps end up in either my "pre-cut" box for pieces big enough to use for quilting or applique and then the tiny scraps go in the "stuffing" box to be used to stuff pillows easily made from a muslin lining...learned this from a very clever & resourceful crafting mama....maybe I can share that idea later!) :)
ANYWAY! Back to our pocket addition! lol!
Here is the pocket shaped cut out. You should have 4 of them laying on your cutting table right now!

Iron the edge of the pocket, folding the top hem over twice so there is no raw edge.

Sew the top hem.

Pin the pocket to either layer of your bag depending on whether you want the pocket on the inside or out. I mean, you have plenty to do both if you don't want to choose! Stitch pocket in place on one layer of your bag. Carry on with bag making from the side sewing step or Step 2 from mentioned tutorial link above.


Enjoy sewing and proudly using your bags...I know your kiddos will, mine couldn't wait for me to get theirs done! :)