Modista Modesta Sewing Group

Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

I am completely floored by the amazing work Sonia Barton and her church sewing group has accomplished.

After printing the full color pages at Staples using some saved, rewards coupons,

this group got together and produced 15 Handmade-for-Haiti books in 2 hours!!!

I am so grateful that I met Sonia through a SITS tribe group online.

She runs a fantastic blog called Modista Modesta where she features the many craft designs and sewing projects she works on as she currently goes to fashion school.

I am so grateful that she and her sister took the initiative to plan and organize this sewing group.

15 books in one night.  Fantastic!

We need 50 books to provide one for each of the children ages 2-6 living in the Croix des Bouquets orphanage in Haiti.

I have another group volunteering through my local community center to cut glue more pages and cardboard together next week.  

This will help us produce even more books and I am so excited!!

Please check out our new page devoted to the Handmade-for-Haiti project.

Like I say on this new page, I truly feel like this project has been divinely inspired and every time I feel a little distracted or discouraged by it, the Lord sends some help or prompts me along through the encouragement of others.  

Thank you all for your support and help!!!

-CK

Oh the durability!

Wooden spoons.

Painted.

Talk about fun new crib-side puppet shows!

I need to find me some more before my husband starts questioning where all the spoons went.

Do they sell these wooden spoons in packs at the dollar store?  How about little ones?  I think this couple needs some kids running around :)

-Becka

Friendship Bracelets

Meet Darling, our little sister.

Picture courtesy of Andrea Cerveny Photography (Thanks Andrea!)

Darling's birthday is July 5th.  A fitting day for her to be born.

What do you think Darling would be wanting for her birthday?

I took a wild guess and made one of these:

It is a single bracelet, a friendship wrap.  

I'd like to call them Dream Bracelets.

I'm thinking about entering some into my shop.  Contact me (Becka) if you would like to order a personalized one.  As long as it isn't too long of a word, I can also personalize the tags.

I'll admit, I was happy with the colors she chose.

love,

Becka

Cookie Tips

The secret to the fluff or the crunch!

Ohhhhh, just looking at this photo makes my mouth water.

I love cookies.  Especially if they include some type of melted chocolate.

I love how even a few days later the chocolate is still soft.

I had a friend once who said that she always thought that chocolate chip cookies had too many chocolate chips in them.

What?

The whole point of a chocolate chip cookie is to have chocolate chips and just enough dough to hold them all together.

Well, I thought I'd share a few things I've learned this year while making batch after batch of cookies:

You can control how flat and crunchy your cookie is or how fluffy and puffy it turns out.

Butter and sugar melt, and when they melt they can crisp up.  So if your cookies always seem to turn out a little too crispy and flat it is because there is just a little too much butter and sugar in there.

If you want fluffier more cake-like cookies, omit just small portions of the sugar and butter (this can turn out sightly healthier... sort of... in a perfect world where you aren't going to eat the whole batch anyways).

I wish I had example photos of how altering the measurements just slightly can make such a huge difference.  I personally like fluffier softer cookies, so if my recipe calls for a stick of butter, I omit a tablespoon of it.  Also, if my recipe calls for a cup of sugar, I omit maybe an eighth of it (maybe more).  Really, your cookies are going to be full of sugar and butter anyways, so it's not bad to hold back.

Likewise, if you really do like crunchy cookies, be generous with the butter and sugar.  More tips can be found on allrecipes.com for making the perfect cookie.

For the above cookies, I used the following recipe.  The changes I made were holding back on the butter, the white sugar, and the brown sugar.  I also used whole wheat flour instead of white, but that is a personal preference.  I don't think you could taste the difference in the flours, and I know they turned out slightly healthier this way.

The recipe.

Oh!  And I added three cups of chocolate chips instead of two.  Man were they good.

Hope you have a great day!

-Becka

Babins - The Language of Love

Ever since I started following Maria Babin's blog, I have been so inspired to speak Spanish with my son. I grew up in South America for the majority of my childhood so I remember a lot of simple phrases that are very familiar to children. Every time we sit down for a meal, I try to teach the kids a few new vocabulary words (ie. "shoes," "clothes," "fruit," "juego," etc.) I have had a lot of fun re-learning many Spanish phrases and my kids really enjoy it as well. It's pretty cute to hear them jabber away with new sounds they learn.

Maria and her husband recently made a video that is just beautiful- showing a little about their life style in France, and their experiences of teaching their children to be tri-lingual. She also conveys a deep love for life, family and faith that I think is truly inspirational ;)

You can click here for a few of the tips she offers in teaching children new languages. Great tips and great insight into the process. I am truly grateful for Maria for prompting me to retain some Spanish and pass it on to my kids a little ;)

-CK

Felt Dolls

Oh shoot.  

I didn't get a photo of how I made the board.

This is the first thought that came to my head when I pulled up these photos.  Sorry, I'll just describe it instead.

One day my guilt was nagging on me.  My daughter was bored.  I wonder why?  Why, in this one room apartment, is she not finding an endless array of things to keep her occupied?  Why is she not content to sit and stare at the pictures in a book for hours on end?

hmmmm.

So I shifted through the box of ideas in my mind and came up with this one.

It's not new.

It's not original.

Take a small sized masonite board.  I have seen these made of cardboard, but that just won't last.

Cut out a piece of felt that will drape around the board and hang over a few inches on each side.

Hot glue the edges down.  Pull the felt tight as you go.  Glue it down nice and tight.

Ta da!  A felt board!

 For the 'paper' dolls, 

Draw a little body design on paper.  Practice how you want the faces to look.

Cut the little bodies out of the felt and draw on the faces and panties.

And now the fun part!  

Use the same paper pattern to design your own outfits for the dolls.  

Become a hairdresser.

Design accessories.

And presto!  Fun for ages 2+

I'm just trying to figure out ways to keep them out of my one year old's mouth :)

-Becka

Merry Christmas Honeybear!

Haha!  I think if I actually called my husband Honeybear I'd get the stinkeye.  I've never really been able to use nicknames.  I am great at coming up with them.  I can answer to them.  But calling someone else by something that is not their name?  Even if I try really hard and think it would be so cute and really want to, I just can't do it.

But that's off the subject.

Remember this?

That was a while ago.  It's when I was just learning to embroider.  And I'm still learning, little by little.  It just so happens that I created the following piece for my husband... for Christmas.

And I finished it yesterday.

Yup, six months later, I was finally able to deliver to him his Christmas present.

And you know what the best part is?  His birthday is next week!

If I weren't so nice, I'd just have wrapped it and saved it until then.

Unfortunately he is a really good gift giver.  If I pulled something like that, I would willingly pin on the badge of 'Dweebiest Wife of the Year'.

The picture this piece portrays is the grand dream of a young couple in love.

Yup, a farm.

Actually, we don't want to run a farm for a living, but we want to raise our children on some land where there are gardens and animals to take care of.  Somewhere where we share responsibility.  Somewhere that we all learn together.  A place that we can grow vegetables, and fruits, and flowers.   Where we can learn to be slightly self reliant.

We want to be somewhere that we can help our children learn to play and work and learn together.  A place where we are all kept busy and have no time for the degenerating forces of our world.

Please don't be mistaken.  Our kids are going to a public school.  They will have friends.  And we will definitely watch movies.

But one of my biggest fears as a parent is that my children will not learn how to work, that they will sit and stare at a TV or computer screen all day, soaking in all of the horrid media and expectations for oneself that are flowing from them.

And the scripture is there because it means so much to me.  It was my grandmother's favorite scripture.  There is actually more to it, but I could only fit in this part.

It means that even if our fun dreams of living in the country and having enough money to own land don't come true, 

everything will be all right.

As long as we are trying.

-Becka

This post has been linked up!

A beautiful collection of crafts at:

What I live for

The next couple of days I hope to share with you the thing that keeps me going.  I'm sharing it because it is what I live for, and what makes me happy.  The above picture is of my husband and our two children. This is my family.  We are young and we are few, but we will grow.  

We are eternally bound together.

The article I wanted to share with you today is titled, "Defending The Family in a Troubled World", and it is written by Elder Bruce D. Porter.

I read this article this morning and it reminded me of what my goals are, and why when I am straying from those goals (ie. becoming selfish with my time and activities) I grow less and less happy.  And likewise, when I am giving and sacrificing myself and my time over and over again to my children, it actually makes me happy, the fog clears, and I can breath.

This article is what I hope to remember early tomorrow morning when I want so badly to sleep in but know that I should get up, get showered, and get the family going.

with love,

Becka

Handmade for Haiti

The books are finished and ready for print!  

I am so, so, so excited!  I'd like to give a BIG round of applause and thank you to Stephanie Victor from Abundant Ground for helping me to write the books, translate the books and make suggestions for each illustration!

Her knowledge and understanding of the Haitian culture, language and children has been invaluable throughout the course of designing these handmade books!

A group of us from church got together Thursday night and put some books together!

It is pretty easy to follow Katie's Toddler Memory Book tutorial on how to cut out the pages, put them in individual plastic covers and sew them together.

The books turned out great and I am so happy with the colors and pictures!

They are stiff, sturdy and easy to clean!

Thank you everyone who came to put them together!  I think the books turned out great!

We want to make and collect 50 books for the Croix des Bouquets orphanage in Haiti.  Please let me know if anyone out there is interested in printing and assembling a book!  They are super easy and cheap to make!  If you have already emailed me in regards to this project, I will contact you soon with the PDF of all the illustrations ;)

Thanks all!

-CK

PS how do you like our new layout???

oops!

Hey friends, we're trying out a new background and working out some kinks,

Hope to be back in a jiffy!