Paradox of the Cross - A poem by Elliot Pope

Happy Good Friday. I wanted to share a poem with you that was written by a good friend and the "youth pastor" at our church (sorry for the weird format, I had to scan it from a prayer retreat book and break it up to make it readable).

I hope this helps you focus and meditate on what Christ did for us 2000 years ago. He gave His life as a ransom for ours. He paid for our sins and took the wrath of God on our behalf. Because He bore our sins, we can be presented to God the Father with the righteousness of Christ.

I hope that on this Good Friday, you remember what Jesus did and thank Him for it. If you do not know Christ, I would ask you to consider how you have sinned, if you've ever lied or stolen or been unjustly angry, or if you've failed to honor God as you ought to, you can see that you are not worthy of God's favor, you have earned His wrath. But because of what Christ did you can be seen as worthy by God. Christ did live a perfect life and gave Himself to suffer in our place, but only if you turn from your sins and trust Christ fully for your salvation. If you trust in Christ alone for your salvation, you receive His righteousness. You are not only seen as sinless by the Father, but you are also seen as perfect.

Only perfect people can be accepted into heaven...are you perfect?

Crafty Sewing Mamas Blog Challenge 10

A short while ago I introduced the Crafty Sewing Mamas "sew along". This time around I get to host the sew along! This challenge was created to help those of us in the Crafty Sewing Mamas group on BabyCenter to keep our blogs updated by posting projects that we're working on. We've decided to have two weeks to complete each challenge and this time around the challenge is to sew and blog about:

A Crayon Roll

and/or

A tie (bow or standard style)

Here are some tutorials to get you started if you'd like to participate:

Crayon Roll Tutorial

Bow Tie Tutorial

Little Boys Tie Tutorial

Please link up to participate and be sure to visit all the other blogs that link up!

Easter Fun

Today we went to a little egg hunt and spring festival. It was Elora's first egg hunt (she was sick last Easter, and only about 5 months old) and she had a blast, in her own, grumpy face, non-smiling way. She should have gone down for a nap right when we got there so she was kind of in zombie mode, but she had fun and so did the rest of us!

I made her two Easter dresses this year, one for casual events, like the festival today, and one fancier dress for church. Both are short sleeve and it's a still a bit chilly so I whipped up a little jacket for her last night. I made the pattern and came up with the design all by myself, I was pretty stoked to have an original idea and make it happen!

She loved hunting for eggs....until she realized there was candy inside, then the hunt was over.

After several chocolates, she decided to move on to cotton candy.

We had a fun time and now we're enjoying Elora's sugar crash, she's sound asleep in her bed.

What I've Made

It's been a little while since I've come to my blog. Lately I've kind of felt like I'm barely keeping my head above water, but I think I'm past that now. I'm feeling caught up (except on the laundry, story of my life!). I have sewn quite a few things since my last time here, so I thought I'd share them with you!

Here's what I've been working on in the last two weeks:

Crossover Ruffle Dress

Elora's Easter Dress

Shirred Summer Dress

(aren't her pigtails the cutest?!)

Possibly her 2nd Easter Dress:

Look at that face! I can't believe I got this photo. She almost never looks at the camera. Especially if I am this close. This is a one in a million shot. Love it!

Other than sewing for Elora, I've been organizing my sewing room and now it's like my little wonderful hideaway. I love being in here and I love sewing in here. I'll post photos of it soon and let you know what I did.

Have a fabulous weekend!