Maren's Baptism

Saturday was a happy, joyful day for our family! In our church, a person can choose to be baptized starting at age 8, which we believe is the age of accountability. Maren decided that she wanted to be baptized, and we've been looking forward to the event for months!

Here is a bit more about what my church teaches about baptism:

"One of the purposes of baptism is to symbolically wash away our sins, but even Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, was baptized. Jesus was baptized because it is a commandment and he wanted to provide a perfect example of obedience to Heavenly Father’s divine guidance.

The ordinances of baptism and confirmation are a way for us to show that we are willing to take the name of Jesus Christ upon us, which means to become Christians and do our best to always live accordingly. First, we are baptized by being lowered under water and raised back up by a person who has authority from God to do so. This action symbolizes Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and it also represents the end of our old lives and beginning a new life as His disciples. After we are baptized, a person with authority puts his hands on our heads, gives us the right to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and confirms us members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (source)

Maren was baptized by her daddy. They both dressed in awesome white jumpsuits.

When the time came, they both entered the font (like an oversized, sunken bathtub in the church) and he held her just like John is holding Jesus in the painting above. He said a brief prayer, and then immersed her under the water completely before bringing her back up again.

Next, I helped Maren get dried off and into her pretty dress so that she could be confirmed as an official member of the church.

We believe that baptism is the first step on the path to following our Savior, Jesus Christ. As He was baptized, we must also be baptized to show obedience and love for our Heavenly Father. It's a huge step and a decision of the utmost importance, and I'm so happy and proud that it was something that Maren wanted to do!

I believe that if we keep the covenants and promises that we've made to God about how we will behave and make the right choices, my family can be together forever, and I want nothing less than that! I love them so much--my family brings me JOY!

Up next: the lunch party!

Weekend Junk Finds: Vintage sparkles edition

Hello, friends! It seems like decent Spring weather has finally decided to arrive here in the Denver area! Oh, we had snow and sub-freezing temps last Tuesday, all right--but this weekend the sun came out and the air was legitimately warm. It's enough to give me hope that winter might finally be in the past! Having a snowstorm here in May is not at all out of the realm of possibility, but I think we might be through the worst of it. My kids played outside all weekend long and came in at night, filthy dirty and sunburned but boy, did they fall asleep quickly! I'm all too happy to return to that routine.

I didn't do any junking at all this past week. Still trying to get things OUT--I took another box of stuff to the consignment store a few days ago and I think I've decided to hold a yard sale in a few weeks. Can you believe that in all of the many yard sales I've shopped, I've never actually held one of my own? We're trying to dejunk the house in preparation for selling so now seems like the perfect time. Truthfully, I don't have a whole ton of stuff to sell yet--all of my 'good' discards have been going to the consignment store for months because I can get more for them there. Maren is itching to sell some toys and make some money, and I've asked some friends if they want to send any of their stuff over for me to sell. They'll get the proceeds, and hopefully my sale will look bigger and thereby attract more shoppers--win for us all!

This week's junk finds are all of the pretty and sparkly variety:

This gorgeous vintage brooch is big, about 2" across. It has pretty multicolored gems and part of it is painted. It makes me think "Spring"! It has an 'older' look to me, older than the brooches I usually see. It really is lovely.

This brooch is tiny, about the size of a quarter is all. It's a sweet little birdcage and there's even a wee birdie inside! It's attached with a separate jump ring so it dangles and moves.

I bought this pin because I thought it looked unusual. On the back of the circle there are three teeny screws, and I was curious to find out why it was fastened that way! The only other vintage brooch I have with screws on the back conceals a tiny battery compartment. When I got home and found my itty bitty screwdriver and removed the back, I found that each of those little tiny circles with the blue stones is removable, and there are slots for four more of them. I'm guessing it's some type of service pin, where a circle would be awarded for years of service or some other achievement. I'm wondering if those little blue stones might actually be sapphire chips? Any ideas?

Can't pass up an owl brooch, especially one with red jeweled eyes and rhinestone feathers!

And the last and probably my favorite--a giant, bejeweled lizard! He was tricky to get a good in-focus picture. Guess my hands were feeling shaky that day.

He's 4" long and made of really pretty large grey and aurora borealis rhinestones, with red AB stones for his eyes. There is no marking on the underside so I have no idea of age or origin, but he looks like a really nice piece and it must have been quite a bit of work to solder all of those settings together. I absolutely love it and I've already worn it!

Did you find any treasures this weekend? It looked like there were a ton of garage sales around here this weekend, though I didn't get to go because I was busy throwing a special party--more on that tomorrow!

Weekend Junk Finds: Small town edition, now with more Jadeite!

I know I've been neglecting my blog lately, but the truth is that things here still continue to be difficult and it's hard to feel like blogging. The laundry room floor situation is still not resolved (we're 3 months in, in case you're keeping track) and has in fact gotten WORSE, if you can possibly believe it. All those times when I was trying to be optimistic and chirped, "Well, it could be worse, right?"--apparently I was right about that.

This past weekend alone: on Friday afternoon, a few hours before an event I'd been looking forward to for months my babysitter called and cancelled because she was sick, leaving me scrambling to find another. The Mister worked all weekend long, we had both an unexpected $700 car repair on Friday and an unexpected $170 computer repair on Saturday, all of which culminated in me having a sobbing breakdown last night when I couldn't find any of my photos from 2011-2012 on the computer. I'd like to think I've been pretty tough through all the crap I've dealt with lately, but that was the one thing that finally reduced me to tears. I *think* my sweet husband may have located them, tucked away in a folder with a weird name, but I'm still not 100% sure. And the external hard drive that was supposed to be backing up everything has apparently not been plugged in for quite some time. Needless to say, we have signed up with Carbonite.

And then the capper? Last night as I was reading bedtime stories to Maren, Porter was in my bathroom, decapitating lipsticks. He got through four of them and tried to dump four lip glosses down the sink as well before I caught him. Today's fun? I get to have my very first cavity filled. I made it nearly 35 years without one but if my luck was going to turn, I'm not surprised that it did it now because why not add that to the list? Oh, and I'm developing a nasty canker sore on the same side as the cavity, so that should be fun.

Seriously, I need a vacation from my life.

And if you made it through all of that whining, you deserve a treat! How about some Jadeite?

I spent most of our Spring Break week staying with my recently-widowed grandmother who can't live alone. I managed to sneak away to the thrift store for a few minutes one afternoon between errands, and these Fire King beauties were my reward! I actually gasped audibly when I saw them on the shelf. This thrift store has a "boutique" attached and they skim off any halfway-decent or 'antique' donations so they can charge a higher price for them in the boutique. How these escaped that fate, I'll never know but I was thrilled to find them!

I found a few other goodies on that trip as well.

The lidless Tom's peanut jar was from a different thrift store and actually was not much of a bargain, but I snagged it anyway because I have plans for it. The three Fire King Kimberly mugs were from the same store as the Jadeite bowls.

That same store also produced a handful of vintage seam binding (which I've been using frequently in my recent crafting) and a pair of vintage games. The Children's Hour game is adorable! There are actually three games inside the box:

--An elephant board game complete with an cool, graphic game board, little plastic elephant game figures, and an elephant head spinner.

--Some sort of card game with animal cards that have cute illustrations

--and a darling fishing game with little alphabet cards and a wee fishing pole. Sadly, the instructions are missing so I'm not sure how to play any of these cute games.

I have high hopes that this week will be a better one. We do have rain and snow in the forecast and cold temperatures expected for the entire week which will do nothing positive for my mental state, but I know we desperately need the moisture here. We're having a big event for Maren in less than two weeks so I need to start party prep, a task I always enjoy. I'm hopeful we'll make some progress on the basement disaster. And perhaps we'll get through the week without something expensive breaking or my 3-year-old destroying it. Cross your fingers for me.

Duck Dynasty Party

Do you watch "Duck Dynasty"? We're big fans around here, and when the third season premiere rolled around back in February, I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a party complete with appropriately-themed food! If you've watched the show the food should give you a laugh, but if you don't watch you will probably be awfully confused. :)

Uncle Si's glazed donuts with hand-stamped "Happy Happy Happy" picks. I loved that I already had that stamp in my stash, long before Phil Robertson made the phrase famous.

My tablecloth was one of The Mister's camouflage Army-issue poncho liners and I pulled out all of my green and brown dishes. We scattered shotgun shells as 'confetti'!

Miss Kay's Banana Pudding. I made little signs for all of the food using kraft cardstock and camouflage scrapbook paper.

Homemade biscuits and honey and jam

 

And my favorite, Godwin's Protest Ham Sammiches complete with cardboard box protest sign. I made the funeral ham sandwich recipe from The Sunday Baker and they were SO yummy! We're having a big party at the end of April and I think I'm going to make them again. They're great party food because you make them ahead and then just pop into the oven for 20 minutes before serving.

 

I used my vintage McCoy log planter to hold green napkins

 

And found this vintage duck planter to hold a few more shells. I forgot to get a picture of our "Muscadine Berries" which were chocolate-covered cranberries.

 

And of course, we had to dress up! I never pass up an opportunity for a costume, you know. I dressed up my outfit with a vintage pearl necklace and a vintage rhinestone brooch in the shape of a pheasant.

Even Bronco got into character, wearing Willie's flag bandanna around his neck.

The Mister was excited because he has an old green Army cold weather cap, just like the one Jase wears when he goes hunting.

The Littlest Beard

My funny neighbor thrifted camo pants for Maren and a camo shirt for Porter so they could be dressed up too.

My awesome neighbors! Alice (wearing her best Miss Kay apron over on the right) ordered beards for her family, unbeknownst to us. When we opened the front door to let them in and saw them all dressed up, we about died laughing! What funny, funny friends we have and what a fun little party this was!

Weekend Junk Finds: vintage Letterman sweater

I mentioned in Friday's post two things: Porter started preschool and I found some fun junk at the thrift store. These two items are totally related, because the latter could not have happened without the former! Porter now goes to school two days per week for about 2.5 hours each day, so I have five lovely hours all to myself (well, not always--last week I watched a friend's baby one day and then volunteered at the school on the other. But the potential is there, anyway). I've been staying well clear of the thrift stores lately because I'm trying to get stuff out of the house, not bring more in. However, I had to celebrate Porter's first day of preschool with a solo trip to the thrift stores! I was rewarded with some fun finds, one of which I want to show today.

That particular day at the thrift store, all of the winter-type clothing (coats, sweaters, etc) was 50% off. I took a spin through the women's racks to see if I could find anything to keep or resell but didn't even think to look at the men's section. As I was walking to the registers at the front to pay, something caught my eye:

a vintage letterman's sweater! It wasn't even hanging with any other sweaters so I'm not sure what it was doing there, other than patiently waiting for me to find it. :D

At first I thought maybe it was a reproduction or a newer version, but this tag clued me in that it was the real thing. Then I saw the number on the arm and got really excited:

1943! Very cool. As I was inspecting it, I found one more little treasure:

the owner's name, embroidered on the inside placket. So naturally, I Googled him, and guess what--I found the owner! Mr. Moog passed away last November, and through the magic of the Internets I found his obituary. He was "Top Boy" and graduated from high school in 1943 in Eveleth, Minnesota--hence the giant E. He served in the Navy after graduating, then went on to work as an aeronautical engineer. He even worked at Lockheed Martin on the Viking Mars Lander and Space Shuttle programs!

I think the sweater is a really fun find, but I must admit that after recently losing my own grandfather I feel like it's my duty to see if I can make contact with any of the children named in the obituary and ask if they want their dad's high school letterman sweater returned to them. I can imagine that after he passed away his belongings were donated to charity and that's how they ended up at the thrift store. If I can't locate anyone or if they don't want it, then I'll keep the sweater and at least my conscience will be satisfied!