"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.""It is only the loyal soul who believe that God engineers circumstances. We take such liberty with our circumstances, we do not believe God engineers them, although we say we do; we treat the things that happen as if they were engineered by men. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, and that is to our Lord. Suddenly God breaks up a particular set of circumstances, and the realization comes that we have been disloyal to Him by not recognizing that He had ordered them; we never saw what He was after, and that particular thing will never be repeated all the days of our life. The test of loyalty always comes just there. If we learn to worship God in the trying circumstances, He will alter them in two seconds when He chooses.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the thing that we "stick-at" today. We will be loyal to work, to service, to anything, but do not ask us to be loyal to Jesus Christ. Many Christians are intensely impatient of talking about loyalty to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men, and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.
The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us - "I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine." God wants to use us as He used His own Son."
Today's reading from Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest"
Just a reminder that if you haven't purchased our Street Fair Skirts pattern, you should do so before tonight. The special price of $11.97 will be ending tomorrow so be sure to take advantage of this great offer.
It's the day you've all been waiting for ~ we are giving away a pattern to one of our blog readers! The exciting part? The winner will get to choose the pattern of their choice from ANY of our patterns in our store. That's right, folks! If you win, you'll get to pick the pattern you would like us to send you for FREE. If that doesn't excite you, I'm not sure what will.
The Ritz Cracker Cookies didn't turn out as well as I hoped because the melted chocolate kept sticking together. But I got enough good ones to use for something. This is a super easy recipe. Basically you make peanut butter sandwiches using Ritz crackers and peanut butter. Dip the "sandwiches" in melted chocolate and let them harden in the refrigerator. My family has made these cookies for Christmas parties and get-togethers for years and people always love them.
Here is the final list of all the cookies I made today:
Oh. My. These cookies are heavenly! They are even better than I expected. If you like lemon, you should definitely make a batch of these. We are huge lemon lovers so I added in lots of extra lemon peel and they are very lemony. But if you just followed the recipe, you probably wouldn't be able to taste the lemon flavor that much. I'd love to try these without the lemon peel or with another substitute as I'm sure they'd be just as good.
Lemon Angel Wings - from Taste of Home magazine
The Lemon Angel Wings have finished the first round of chilling. I rolled them up and stuck them back in the refrigerator for another hour. So far, they look like they are going to be a hit. 
I think the way that you roll these up is quite interesting. You'll have to wait to hear more details until later when I post the recipe.
Next, I started on another new recipe called Walnut Horn Cookies. Except I tweaked them...to Oatmeal Horn Cookies as I substituted oatmeal for the walnuts. (My husband doesn't like nuts PLUS we didn't have walnuts!) I used my nifty little grinder to grind up the oatmeal and it worked wonderfully. This is actually the first time I've ever used it since receiving it as a wedding gift back in August.
They actually didn't turn out too bad considering I substituted out the main ingredient! I've posted the recipe below this picture.
While the Sugar Cookie dough is chilling, I'm going to begin working on Peanut Butter Blossoms. I'll be back later!
My morning went a little different than planned, but isn't that the way life always is? Even so, it's finally time to begin my Christmas Cookie Baking Day! I've turned Christmas music on, donned my lovely apron (that I received as a wedding gift), pulled my hair back, and made my list of cookies to bake. I'm getting ready to make up the dough for the Lemon Angle Wings - a new recipe that looks scrumptious. Since it has to chill for 2 hours, I thought I'd start on this one first.
I've been wanting to bake Christmas cookies for quite some time now. In fact, I've been stocking up on ingredients for a few months now. With my husband in the thick of finals right now, this week seems to be the perfect time. So, tomorrow is the planned day.
If you've been thinking things have been rather quiet around here today, it's because we've been working hard to update a few things on our website. One of these things included adding the Street Flair Skirts Pattern to our store.
We are thrilled to now be offering these skirts from our friends at Marie Madeline Studio. The Street Fair Skirts Pattern has endless style options and two different lengths. We think you'll love this new pattern so come check it out. As an introductory special, we are offering this skirt pattern for ONLY $11.97! But snatch it soon because this price will only last for a week.
So many winter memories involve the little fireplace in our living room. Hardly a cold evening went by without someone building a fire in the little fireplace. Winter events at our house were always complete with a fire. And on snow days, the handful of ashes under the fire became a heaping mound. I even remember the Christmas when the oven was so full with other food there wasn't a place inside for the Challah bread to rise - so the fire in our little fireplace came to the rescue. (The bread turned out wonderfully, by the way!)
The little fireplace is still being used. Just not by me.
"I received the three little sewing instruction books today. Thank you. They are really well done and I will enjoy having them to help me teach sewing. ~Yolanda"
The adorable Slinky Shrug is designed for drapery knits and woven fabrics - I imagine it would be fabulous over a fancy short-sleeved dress for a dressy winter outfit. Click here for the FREE down-loadable pattern!
Bubbie's Apron is a simple pattern that would make a great gift for someone who enjoys working in the kitchen. I may just even have make this one myself! Click here for the FREE down-loadable pattern.
My wonderful husband serenaded me with his classical guitar today. I got a few photo shots as he was playing. Okay, well maybe more than just a few... but he didn't seem to mind. :)
"Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous; for praise is comely for the upright. Sing unto Him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right; and all His works are done in truth." From Psalm 33
"There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life. One individual life may be of priceless value to God's purposes, and yours may be that life."An excerpt from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers
For those of you that have yet to take advantage of our incredible ebook sale going on right now, be sure to do so before this coming Monday, December 7th. The "I Can Sew" ebook series, which includes all three levels, is currently marked down to $5.49. If you are wanting to teach your daughter or any other young lady how to sew, this series is for you. (We've even had older ladies use them to learn how to sew as well!) Each ebook includes fill-in-the-blank workpages, projects, interesting facts and history about sewing, many colorful illustrations and pictures and lots more! Don't miss this opportunity to save over 50%!
We discovered that we were going to have to make our own hooks for the ornaments since we didn't have any on hand. My creative husband got to work...using paper clips.
The finished product! 
"When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy." Matthew 2:10
And that's the story of how our little Christmas tree came to sit in our living room. 
