Baby Has Arrived!!!!

Introducing a new member to the Bryan family...

Miss Heidi Lynne Bryan

She was born on April the 3rd at 9:12 pm

She weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces

She was 19" long

God was good and Rebekah had an easy labor and birth. We're so happy to see them both happy and healthy if not a bit tired.

Heidi is the most adorable niece an Auntie could ever have!

Of course everyone had to hold her...

A very happy Nana...

And Papa was all grins. He even told the barista at a coffee shop that he was a Grandpa. So cute... 

And of course the very excited and proud parents! 

We are so happy to finally meet Heidi and look forward to seeing her grow up in a godly family!

I think we all are pretty excited...

Another Interesting Book...

I found a book that's so interesting, thought provoking, and well written that I wonder it hasn't been republished in recent years. Here's the opening paragraph... 

"There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." 

~ Galatians 3:28 ~

"Woman was the finishing grace of creation. Woman was the completeness of man's bliss in Paradise. Woman was the cause of sin and death to our world. Woman was the means of our redemption. Woman is the mother of the human race; our companion, counselor, and comforter in the pilgrimage of life; or our tempter, our scourge, and our destroyer. Our sweetest cup of earthly happiness, or our bitterest draught of sorrow, is mixed and administered by her hand. She not only renders smooth or rough our path to the grave, but helps or hinders our progress to immortality. In heaven we shall bless God for her aid in assisting us to reach that blissful state, or amid the torments of unutterable woe in another region, we shall deplore the fatality of her influence."

Some of My Sewing and Jewelry Projects...

I thought it would be fun to share with you all some of my various finished projects. Maybe they will inspire you to do something you never thought of before! 

All of these projects were made between 2012 and 2015. I never realized how many things I've made until I started putting this post together! I'm feeling tired just looking through them! 

Below is a baby quilt made up of baby flannel 5" squares and 2" plain cotton squares. The border was light yellow flannel as well as the backing with a silky green party taffeta ruffled binding.

I got the front and backing finished just before our family road trip to New Mexico. 

And was able to finish off the binding while in our cabin at the NRA Whittington Center in New Mexico! We didn't know if our friends were expecting a boy or a girl for their first so I thought it was best to be safe and just use all the colors. :) They ended up having a boy, but hopefully he didn't mind having a bit of pink in there. 

Then in 2013 my mom and I saved up money to make a trip to PA for the History of America Mega Conference and a week long Revolutionary War tour with Vision Forum. It was a great time. The last night of the History conference was time period costume night. So of course I had to think of something. One day at a thrift shop I found for $4.00 this dress...

This is just a photo off the internet but it is the same company, color, etc. Any way, I got an idea to combine it with a dress that I had at home that need to be altered. With the help of some friends (it is really hard to pin things while you are in the dress.), I took off the bodice from the one I wanted to alter and inserted inside the dress you see above. 
After it was pined in place I cut off the extra and stitched it in place. Then I took the ruffles that were around the neck line of the "to be altered" dress and made them into mock sleeves, hiding the added bodice. It really helped keep it modest yet giving it that added flair. The other thing that had to change was the tucks in the skirt and again with help from friends I made swags with little cream colored rosettes out of chiffon. It turned out so much better then I expected! 

These pictures were taken at the conference with a hoop skirt under it. 


Around the same year I decided I wanted a fun apron that fit me. With my small torso it's always hard to have to fold up the apron so it fits. And also I wanted one that looked cute. So I went digging through my fabric stash and patterns and came up with this 50's styled apron with a sweetheart neckline and black lace. It's thick canvas type material with tight pinstripe pattern so very durable. I used black binding to edge the top of the apron, the top of the pockets and around the apron skirt. 

Then for Christmas I found a very fun table runner kit. Of course that meant I needed to alter the pattern. I never seem able to follow one exactly. I got the kit from Connecting Threads and loved the fabrics! It screamed my mom to me.  

Since it was small I thought it would be interesting to try my hand at free hand machine quilting. It's not easy but lots of fun to make up as you go...

Then I made a little applique and hand embroidery on the back. My first I've done in a long time...

I tried my hand at a fleece quilt. It came pre-cut into squares with fringed edges. I loved the design but found out it was very important to have a long needle on your sewing machine if you wanted two thick layers to stay sowed together. 

I ended up selling it on Craigslist rather fast. I think I might try to do more in the future...

Another project I did last was making some teapot cozies. I think they turned out better then I expected. I altered the original design to fit different size pots.

I used vintage buttons that I got from my grandma's stuff when she died...

And other buttons just seemed to fit the style of the cozy...

More recently I helped do a few things for my brother's wedding. Since I've done a bit of jewelry over the years I offered to do all the bride's maids jewelry. I put together a few photos of styles and had each pick out their favorite. Each unique to only them! The colors of the wedding were ice blue, silver, and crimson. So this is what I came up with...

This was Kendra's...

I asked which Sarah liked more and she picked the one on the left...

This one was Kortney's... 

This one was Katelyn's...

Then we ran into a snag and time crunch with the shrugs so I asked a friend of the family if she could help me get five red shrugs put together over a weekend. I got the pattern and mock ups made and she helped sew them as I was stuck in bed with the flu. (I wasn't much of a help after the first day). But they got done and I learned a lot along the way...

 I also went a bit crazy and offered to help my new sister with altering her wedding dress. It was topless and she didn't like that. How hard could it be? I've altered dresses before... So with much fear, prayers, and lots of fittings I created a top to attach to the existing bodice. Crazy I know but it seemed to work! No one noticed at all! At least no one said anything to me so I live in sweet ignorance of any mishap...

Another of my projects I did last year was burp cloths to fit the shoulder. I don't know about you but I have narrow shoulders and burp cloths always seem to fall off or not cover enough. So This pattern worked out perfectly. I made it a bit longer then the pattern I found online so it would cover more in the back and front... 

I did one side terry cloth and the other a fun cotton fabric...

For fun I did one visible seam with contrasting thread in a straight stitch then another in zig-zag...

These are very easy to make and they make burp cloths more enjoyable to use. At least I think so...

Last year I found out that one of my was going to have twin boys! So I thought it'd be fun to have matching quilts made for the occasion. One with the main color blue and the other green...

The fronts were a mix of cotton and flannel 5" squares (4.5" when finished). For the binding I did the same as my other baby quilt and got silky fabric. Then I fell in love with Minky fabric and had to have it for the backing. But since I had two quilts to sew I thought it would be faster to free style the quilting part, so I did swirls. I always thought it would be fun to do them on a baby quilt.

Then Mom was sweet enough to give me a hand in doing the elephants. I picked out the pattern online, gave mom the embroidery floss, what to put on the quilts and left the rest to her while I quilted...

I think they turned out perfect. There were of course flaws, but since they were shipped to CA I wont have to look at them all the time and thus be forced to fix them.  

Well, I hope this post helped you get your creative juices working! I would love to hear about your projects! Feel free to drop me a line and maybe a photo or two! 

Guess What I found...

Before you watch this slide show you might want to click on the button below that says youtube. You can see everything in more clarity on there.... Enjoy!

Dispelling the Myth

Stacy McDonald

(Excerpt from Passionate Housewives, Desperate For God)

'Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is price is far above rubies'

Proverbs 31:10

       In the 1970s, the pro-feminist bestseller Stepford Wives turned the traditional housewife into a mindless, husband-pleasing, yes-woman who was literally heartless—because, come to find out, she was actually a robot. The message was clear: a woman who faithfully serves her family, loves pleasing her husband, and joyfully takes care of her home (from home) is not a “real person,” but a contrived fantasy of her overbearing and selfish husband.

       Instead of treasuring women and properly utilizing their gifts, our culture has attempted to discard the beauty and uniqueness of biblical womanhood and create an emotionally androgynous power-woman whose worth is measured only by the degree of her ambition, the shape of her body, and her money-making potential. Rather than women renouncing this affront to their dignity, amazingly, the slaves are demanding their slavery!

       In place of the glorious picture painted for us in Scripture of the passionate keeper at home, a hollow counterfeit has emerged—a desperate image concocted and promoted by Hollywood stereotypes, magazine models, and women's self-help books.

      The rise of the Internet has only added to the confusion. As women have gravitated to the web en masse, they have met a flood of men and women of all backgrounds and persuasions propounding conflicting notions of what it means to be a woman. The cacophony of ideas and teachings that today's Christian women must wade through as they contemplate their rightful place in God's created order can be simply overwhelming.

      Of course, the challenge of determining the meaning of true biblical womanhood is not unique to our time. While today's women may be bombarded with more media steams than their counterparts of previous generations, biblical femininity has always been an unusual quality. This is what led king Lemuel's mother to observe, “who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” Proverbs 31:10. Virtuous women have always been rare, and oh, how precious they are!

What a Queen Had To Say On The Matter...

I hope you all enjoy this quote from Queen Victoria of England back in 1870. After reading this I wished I could have talked with her! What a woman!

" I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights', with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to 'unsex' themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection. I love peace and quiet, I hate politics and turmoil. We women are not made for governing, and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations. There are times which force one to take interest in them, and I do, of course intensely"

Queen Victoria 1870