{confidence and peace}

Posted on by Trish

Where have YOU been?

Who ME?  

I’ve been on a journey.  See…I blog for my 3 girls.  For me.  For my family.  For my friends.  To share with you some of my crafting and some of my heart from time to time.  And as of late, my heart has just been unable to speak words.

February 1st, Uncle Mel died.  My husbands uncle.  My husband grew up with him being more like a brother since they were so close in age.  But in recent years, he’d been the other “father in law” I’d ever known (my husbands own father died almost 30 years ago) and Mel had stepped in and been a guiding light for our family.  We had grown close over the recent years and we know now that was such a blessing.  It takes time for your heart to feel like it can go on.

4 weeks and 6 days later, my dear sweet friend Kris passed away.  A homeschooling mother of 5.  A courageous and generous and loving woman who I miss terribly.

One day, years and years ago when I used to do home trunk shows and sales of the Two Peas stuff, I got an email from a woman who said she enjoyed my blog and had I ever considered having a sales rep?  She went on to tell me she lived in Columbus, Ohio and was a homeschooling Mom of 5 and looking for some small income and job on the side.

I wrote her back telling her that I too lived in Columbus (she didn’t know that at the time she emailed me) and offered to meet her for coffee sometime.  She wrote back telling me exactly which suburb she lived in (Columbus proper is over 1 million people and the suburbs total way way more than that and covers a pretty large area as our state capitol) so we could make plans.

Would you believe we lived in the exact same town?  Not only that but we lived within 3 miles of each other.  And when we met for coffee at the local coffeehouse, she went on to tell me about the church she and her family were considering joining.  It was the church we belonged to.  Kris and I were friends from that day on.  We bonded over sewing, over kids, over our church.  Her kids were on swim team with my girls.  We chatted about 4H and lots of other things.

And then a little more than a year ago, she got sick.  I had sent her an email asking for help with some sewing projects and she responded, asking, had I seen the note she posted on facebook.  I hadn’t.  I read it and my heart dropped.  She had been diagnosed with cancer, thymoma.  Over the next year, I joined in with countless friends and family to help bring meals to her family and clean house for her while she fought.  I prayed for her a lot.  Every single day.  Many times.  But her healing just didn’t happen here on earth.  The end of January, her family had a birthday party for her and I felt in my heart, I was saying goodbye.  A month later, she passed.

Hard stuff.  Hard stuff for my heart to handle.

Last week, my husbands best friend got married.  Joy.  My husband, the Gardener, he was the best man and our little Sprout was the flower girl. When we walked into church for the wedding rehearsal, we walked into the area where my friend Kris had laid at her memorial service – where I last saw her earthly body – and said one final goodbye to my friend.  We walked into this joyous occassion and I had to turn around and walk right back to the restroom to have a cry.  My two peas had much of the same reaction.  They said they could “feel” Ms. Kris there in that place.  I did too.

So my heart has been on this journey.  And although there is sadness – I don’t want this post to be about grief.

In this sadness, I have actually been given amazing gifts that I feel incredibly blessed to receive.

In these last couple of months, this little journey has brought me to confidence and peace.

I had the gift of being able to care for my family when Mel died.  I shared very intimate conversations and time with my husband and I got to love him even more than before.  He has been through a lot in his life and being able to comfort him and share life with him, good and bad, has been a blessing for me.

I shared a lot of my rollercoaster kind of feelings with my Pastor recently – after Mel died, I had not been back to church for awhile.  It was too hard.  But what I felt in my life was that God was changing me.  And I have been thinking a lot about death.  In a good way.  About meeting death with confidence.  About peace.  Because death – in my faith as a Christian – is not the end.  But I had not yet reached the place in my life that I fully rested in that truth or the promise of eternity.

Tomorrow is Easter.  My Pastor asked me if I would read a scripture verse at our Good Friday service last night and if I would share something personal about my thoughts on this scripture.  Tricky.  He knew I had not been in a “good” place lately.  Or maybe I have been in a very good place.  My scripture verse I choose was Luke 23: 44-46.

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.”  When he had said this, he breathed his last.

One of my girls drew the picture above for me while we were sitting in church last night before I went up to speak.  Wishing me Good Luck. What I shared was that Jesus had willingly took the torturous pain and burden of our sins.  He knowingly came to the cross.  And he confidently came to death – He was not afraid, His life had not been TAKEN but that He had GIVEN His life for ours.

But I’ve never had that confidence.  I don’t think I’ve ever trusted in God enough to be at peace with what eternity is, whatever it is.  And when I think back to Mel, in his final moments, he showed tremendous courage and faith.  He wasn’t scared.  He was ready.

My friend Kris, she fought hard for the sake of her kids but ultimately, she was not afraid because she knew where she was headed.

When I think about my Grandma Beatrice before she passed, even years before she passed, she would tell me she was ready.  I never understood that peace.  But she would ask me all the time if I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and had I asked Him into my heart.  I would be annoyed with her because of course I had – being raised in the church and all.

But in my adult life – I have found that it’s not something you do just once.  At least not for me.  Because my life with Christ – my confidence and peace in my faith comes and goes.

When Jesus was in that dark place on Good Friday, He was outside of the kingdom of God and in pain from the burden of all of our sins, and He did that to free us so that we might have eternity.  He did that so that when we come to death, we can meet it with confidence and peace knowing that it isn’t goodbye – it is, see you later.

I have created in my life, my own personal Hell at times – I am a sinner.  I have done things I am not proud of.  I am ashamed.  And those things can really weigh you down.

But in these last couple of months, in grief, I have found great joy.  And Peace.  Because I’m finding my own confidence.  My faith has been strengthened.

I have NOT ONCE.

NOT TWICE.

But many times over in the course of my lifetime, I have asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior and I have asked Him to come into my heart, and forgive me of my sins.  And each time I do, I think about my Grandma Bea, and her teaching me those words.

And in sorrow, I’m finding peace and confidence because I believe that my sins are washed clean.  I believe I can have second chances to do better, be better.  I believe in the promise of eternity.  I believe I can move forward in my life, unburdened, made anew, without fear, without worry – that I can be like Mel, and Kris, and my Grandma Bea.

That I can find peace and confidence.

So, I haven’t been here in blog land much lately because my heart has been on a journey.  It didn’t feel right to come here until the time was right to share what God has been doing in my life.

And Easter – Resurrection Sunday – is the perfect time.

For Hope.  For Blessings.  For Rebirth.  For Forgiveness.  For Courage.  For Strength.  For Promises.  For all of us.

I ended my sharing at our Good Friday service by quoting a song I love by contemporary Christian artist Matt Maher called “Christ is Risen”.  (find it on iTunes – you’ll love it).

“Oh death.  Where is your sting?

Oh Hell.  Where is your victory?

Oh Church.  Come stand in the light.

Our God is not dead.  He is alive.  He’s alive.”

Happy Easter and Many blessings to your family.  Thanks for sharing my journey and being patient while I ride the ride.

 

 

{alice in wonderland 11th birthday party for my peas}

Posted on by Trish

My two sweet peas celebrated their 11th birthday with a fun tween theme of Alice in Wonderland.  This was a great theme because it was fun and whimsical but also sophisticated enough that they felt really special with the grown up touches to the party.

I thought I’d share what all we did for our party to inspire you – it was fun to put together!  I think this party could be done for just about any age.  Plus, this gave me an excellent excuse to go thrift store shopping – bonus!  So, here’s how our Alice party went…

Invitations – I found some great graphics from google and also the graphics fairy to create these postcard invitations printed front and back  (the peas are not actually named Lily and Emily – we fudged them, they like their privacy.  Tweens!)  We hand delivered each invitation with a teapot cookie that Aunt Carla made for the girls (they were AMAZING cookies – these photos from my phone don’t do them justice!).  

Decorations – I HAD to go to at least 5 different thrift shops to find all of the teacups and saucers.  Twist my arm.  Love junk shopping!  I scored these great Johnson Brothers china teacups at one shop and was so excited.  They match my dishes – I have  a different pattern but they are very similar!

Cupcake plates!  To make the cupcake plates, use super glue or an epoxy and glue the saucers to the candlesticks.  These were used as our treat plates during the party and we also let each girl take them home as one of their favors.  They could use them to hold jewelry or a candle, etc.  Most plates were 59 cents, candlesticks 99 cents…pretty cool deal I think!  I found the teapots at the thrift store too…and added some faux flowers and birds from the dollar store.  The other decorations that hung from the ceiling were also from the dollar store with all the Easter stuff.

Playing card garland – also from the dollar store, I punched a couple of holes into each card and strung them up to create a garland.

I also used a roll of craft paper and poster board to create the rabbit hole by cutting out the hole and adding some mushrooms.  We hung this in the doorway to the party room and the kids had to crawl through.  That was a lot of fun!  Of course, we added a few arrows saying, This Way, That Way, and The Other Way!  And arrows over each birthday girls seat with their names on the arrows.  A mix and match of table coverings and chairs to mimic the Mad Hatter’s tea party worked great – we just used what we had on hand.

I also added “drink me!” and “eat me!” tags to the teacups and plates as well as to some little bottles I thrifted.

As each guest arrived, we gave them a ticket for the movie.  We had them pretend to drink from the bottle that said “drink me” and then showed them to their seats.  We had the Alice in Wonderland movie set up (there is a great 1999 version that is a modern update to the classic – NOT the Johnny Depp version!).  When we brought them into our family room, we had a row of chairs set up from the girls American Girl and Barbie houses and pretended that they must have grown and therefore, wouldn’t fit on our seats.  They thought that was funny!  Then we watched the first half of the movie, up to the tea party scene…that made them hungry and so we went out to the party room and ate.

Queen of Hearts - of course, there HAS to be the Queen of Hearts!  I obliged and surprised my girls when I came down in a red ruffly shirt, black sweater and skirt and one of their huge hair bows on my head.  I painted some craziness on my eyelids and added a heart to my cheek and embarrassed them by talking in some weird British accent most of the day.  The Gardener had his Mad Hatter hat on for all of 5 minutes.  Sprout thought we both just looked funny!

I found a mirror at a thrift shop and I’m going to hang it in my sewing room but I used it on the food table for the party – it was really pretty.  We served fruit and veggie trays with ranch dressing and peanut butter dips, chocolate covered strawberries and pretzels, and pink lemonade and sweet tea, of course!  Maybe because the girls were all dressed up or maybe because we were using real glass serving ware but they were so well behaved at the tea party…it was funny!  Not that I expected them to not behave but they were all being very proper and using such nice manners.  

Games and Crafts – I think it goes without saying, if you have an Alice in Wonderland party, there will be croquet.  So…Ohio this time of year, well, it was windy, overcast and barely 40′ outside BUT darn it, we did play croquet!  And the kids loved it!

We also set up a photo booth which was really fun!  Being close to St. Patrick’s Day and Mardi Gras, I was able to easily find fun crazy glasses and hats at the dollar store.  The kids could put on whatever and pose in front of the backdrop which was plastic table cloths hung from the ceiling along with balloons and some playing cards.  We turned on some music and they had a blast snapping shots.  Even Sprout went crazy with all the big kids (she’s such a trooper – she’s been icky sicky with a cold all week).

We made these simple marble magnets - I read about these probably 7 years or so ago in Family Fun magazine and we make them often.  Just button magnets with images (I used my alice images I found online) with those floral marbles that are flat on one side all glued together.  The marble magnifies the image.  Pretty cool.  I also found this inexpensive ball chain that we cut to length for each girl and these key pendants.  The girls then had to add a jump ring and string them on their necklace.  Both made for great party favors.

Cheap is how I like to go so I opted to use these lunch bags as their favor bags.  I think they were $1 for 50 and then I added a tag with each girls name on it and some ribbon.  I also added a few stickers and a crazy straw to their bag to add to their key necklace, magnets and cupcake plates as Favors.

But the big favorite as far as favors go had to be the hairbows.  My friend Kelley from our twins club has the cutest bow shop and made up these hair clips for all the girls.  I have a basket full of her bows for Sprout and the Peas – they are super cute and really fabulous quality!  This picture I swiped from her facebook page isn’t the best quality photo – the girls were so excited about these I didn’t even get a chance to take a quick pic!

After the tea party and croquet and photos and crafts…the girls were ready for CAKE!!

My BFF Kristin (who also helps me with my two peas business) is an amazing cake maker!  She gifted the girls with this cake for their party.  It was off the hook, crazy AWESOME!  She had their names on it, cards, mushrooms, the white rabbit and his watch, the caterpillar, the cheshire cat and his big grin…topped with a teapot and teacups.  All handmade fondant and hand painted by her and her daughter, who is one of the two peas BFF’s.

On top of that – the inside was a white and purple checkerboard!  It was a huge hit at the party and yes!  She is for hire!  (She’s driven as far as Texas before to deliver cakes but if you’re local to Columbus, she loves to make cakes on the weekends for all kinds of parties for a little extra “mom” money.  You can get in touch with Kristin at kristintwopeas at gmail dot com).

With 11 girlfriends – most of whom they have been friends with since they were 3 or 4 years old, it was a great way to celebrate the Two Peas 11th birthday!  I love you girls to the moon and back!

Happy Happy Birthday!

 

: : schoolhouse clutch : :

Posted on by Trish

slowly easing back into things…I have a literal mountain of work, laundry and thank you notes before me.  Catching up is the name of the game currently.

 Over the weekend, I had fun sewing up a quick sample for our Schoolhouse Clutch Sew Along.  It’s not too late to participate – just grab a copy of the pattern from your favorite retailer or from our shop and join in.

Since I posted about the sew along early in February and then went on hiatus with 24 hours afterwards (see February post…spent with family) we lost out on promoting this sew along.

BUT if you participate, I promise I have something fun just for you!  Send me a copy of your receipt showing me you purchased the Schoolhouse Clutch pattern and I’ll send you the link for the private post on how to add an easy zippered pocket to the inside of the bonus mini-journal included in your pattern PLUS a few little design tidbits.  And there may be more…just saying.

Take a moment and say hello if you will…I always scratch my head in wonderment at the number of hits this blog gets vs. the number of comments that are left.  Hello?  I’m real, not a robot…and I’d love to connect with you and get to know what you are crafting up.  Introduce yourself…I’m so glad you are here.