The Reynolds Family Christmas Cow

Imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail this week telling us that we could have a chance to win a trip with Compassion to Nicaragua! All we had to do was create a video about our experience with the Gifts of Compassion Christmas catalog gift that we purchased.

Could we do this? I had never created a video for a contest before! After tossing a bunch of ideas around in my head (and not getting a lot of sleep just thinking about this!), I came up with a 'script' and e-mailed it off to my husband at work. He wrote back that he thought it was great!

So we spent the afternoon gathering props and making signs on poster boards. We transformed our living room into a 'filming studio'. I am so glad we have that big tri-pod for my camera!

After dinner, we rehearsed through the script. The video could be no more than 3 minutes long. I wasn't really sure how long the video would be when I wrote up the script, but after one run through, we came in just under 3 minutes! Praise the Lord!

We did 2 takes on the video and we submitted the second take. It is not perfect, but we were all happy with the results.

If you have read through this far, I have a big favor to ask of you! If you are on Facebook, please vote for our video. You can find it on the Compassion International Facebook page under 'My Gift of Compassion Video Contest'. The link is on the left side of the page. Our video title is 'The Reynolds Family Christmas Cow'. You can vote once a day through March 1st.

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Victor

Victor is 13 and lives in Ecuador with his parents and two sisters. Victor likes to ride horses and take care of them. His favorite sport is soccer.

This is a picture that Victor drew of the place where he lives. I wonder how tall those mountains are? I will have to remember to ask him in my next letter.

Favorite Photo of the Week

Don't you just love how raindrops collect on flowers?



The Joy Dare #101-119

Are you following along with The Joy Dare for this year?

101. baby showers
102. daffodils blooming
103. chocolate
104. Valentine Banquet with our church family
105. eight cups of freshly squeezed orange juice ready and in the freezer for Orange Iced Tea
106. thirty-two cups of pasta sauce made and ready for the freezer

Source: i.imgur.com via Yvonne on Pinterest

107. inexpensive frame, page from 'Persuasion', red heart...quick and easy craft made
108. amazed by His love for me
109. a baby's smile
110. knowing a friend is praying for me

111. collection of raindrops on plants in my garden

112. homemade chocolate chip cookies
113. quiet at the end of the day

114. waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast

115. candlelight dinner at home with my family

116. having all the ingredients at home for a special dessert
117. Matthew arriving home safely after running errands for me
118. Kelsey's flower girl basket
119. evening of knitting with Kelsey

WIP Projects #7

I got a little behind on my WIP projects postings. Life happens sometimes, and rather than dwell on a missed blog posting, I am choosing to  move on!

In my last WIP project post, I had 3 projects that I was hoping to get done that week. Here is how they turned out:

4. BOM quilt block - since I only had a couple of days to finish this one or pay $5 for the new block, I made sure I finished this block! Now I need to work on the next block, but I will probably wait a week or two to work on the new one.

5. Valentine Banner - I am so happy with the way this project turned out! Since I have many more pages of 'Persuasion' that can be used for other projects, I now will be searching Pinterest for other book page projects!

6. Prayer board - this is hanging on the wall in our hall way so that everyone sees it everytime they walk to their bedroom. It has been a great reminder to be in prayer for everything that is posted on this board.

Now for the new WIP Project! Now that I just posted the baby blanket tutorial and baby wash cloth tutorial, I would really like to have all of these done and ready to go when baby showers come up. So here is what I will be working on:

7. Baby blankets and baby wash cloths - I have three baby blankets that need to be completed and 10 sets of baby wash cloths to finish. This will give me 10 baby shower gifts!

What projects will you be working on?

Baby Wash Cloth Tutorial

Last week, I shared with you how to make a flannel baby blanket. If you made the blanket, you know there will be some extra flannel material. I have been using the extra flannel material to make baby washcloths!

The steps are very similar to making a blanket, just a little smaller this time.

Find a coordinating terry cloth material to go with your flannel print. You will not find a lot of choices for terry cloth at the fabric store, so just pick something that will match most of the flannel you have on hand.

I use my quilting tools to cut out 6 inch squares from the flannel print and terry cloth.

With right sides of one flannel print and one terry cloth square pinned together, I take my scissors and slightly round each of the corners.

Time to move to the sewing machine! I use about a 1/4 inch seam on these, but remember to leave an opening to turn these right side out!

Clip each of the corners like you did for the blanket.

Pull in the right side out through the opening you left.

Give each wash cloth a press with the iron.

Back to the sewing maching to zig-zag stitch around.

Time for some thread and a needle to stitch closed that opening.

Ta da! In less than one hour and for less than $5, you can have a really nice homemade baby gift!

Meet Our Compassion Kids Monday: Mohammad

When Kelsey asked if she could be a correspondent sponsor to more kids, she was really hoping that she would get someone from a country that we don't really know a lot about. So, she was really excited when she learned that Mohammad was from Bangladesh!

Mohammad is 5 years old and lives with his dad, mom, older brother, and baby sister. He likes to play soccer, sing songs about Jesus, likes vegetables, and the color blue.

In his first letter to Kelsey he wrote that is was starting to get cold where he lives and he wants Kelsey to pray that he stays healthy. He also wants to know what our capital city is. I was thinking it would be fun to put together a map with all the capital cities of the United States for him.