TaDa! Creations

Friday, April 6, 2012

Dressing Bella

My niece is going to be especially adorable this Easter.

I think this dress turned out even cuter than I had envisioned. It ended up being the perfect use for my only yard of one of my favorite Heather Bailey fabrics. I never could decide what to do with it, but when this came to mind I didn't hesitate to cut into it. I just knew it wanted to be a sweet dress for a very sweet baby girl. Ahhh...and now I see they've decided to reprint freshcut. Smart!

Love the pleats on the front and back. This is Simplicity 2668 {size M} 12-18 mos.

And look! My very first zipper installation. I tried following the pattern and even the zipper instructions on that tiny piece of cardboard. Let's just say it was going to be a hot mess. Then I remembered I had pinned this {tute} a while back. What a life saver! It worked perfectly.

Bring on the zippers!

We ran out of time to work on the jacket we had planned. only the collar has been cut out so far. But I think I like this one even more, it's even the same color. Thank you Target for the last minute find. Now she can be cozy too.

I hope you love it Bella! Can't wait to see you in it on Sunday.

Good Friday

Eleven years ago, David and I had the pleasure of visiting Rome and Israel as part of a group of 40 people from our church that included our parents as well.

I had been meaning for a while now to get the negatives from that trip onto cd's and today was the day. So when I looked for them this morning I was shocked to find that I had the good sense to have them put on cd's when they were originally printed so many years ago. Yay! I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane today being that it's good Friday and all. Of course this was actual film, so not too many photos are worth sharing. Ha!

A replica fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus walked on water.

Matt 18:6 "“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."

An actual millstone at Capernaum. I had no idea how huge they were until we saw these. This is the fishing village on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus first taught in a synagogue and where Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John and Matthew were from.

The beach there was made up of just shells. Oh and dead fish and cats. It smelled pretty bad.

Stones on the ground underneath the Temple mount area. These were excavated back to the time of Jesus. Yes, he could have actually walked on these. When they build new, they just build right over the top of the old structures. Often using the same building materials over and over.

Gethsemane. The garden at the Mount of Olives where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before he was crucified.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Where Jesus was crucified. Pictures inside were difficult to take since it was so dark and crowded. But notice the ladder in the photo above. It's been up there since before 1853. Since this church belongs to three different religious groups, they all have to agree to make any changes. Evidently they couldn't all agree on removing this ladder. You can read more about it {here}.

A lot of the sites we visited, no longer looked significant because the first thing people do when preserving places of history (at least back then) is to build a shrine over it and usually a church. The tomb he was laid in is somewhere under that church. We also visited a more natural site of what it would have looked like back then. And of course it was much easier to worship and ponder it all there.

A few other favorite photos from that trip...

St. Peter's Basilica. Probably my favorite photo ever. I love the light stream in through the window. And I didn't notice the guy with his arms stretched out until this was printed back at home. Ahhh...the lottery that was film, right?

We found it interesting that inside St. Peter's, the names of other churches are carved into stones in the floor (Notre Dame, etc...). They are there to show how much bigger St. Peter's is than all the ones named.

Michelangelo's Pieta.

The Coliseum

Inside during renovations.

The Forum.

The elusive Smart Car. They were everywhere and so speedy that this was the best photo I could get. They sure do look out of place over here though. There is one in our neighborhood. It's the only one I've seen driving around our city. We've even seen it pull into our church parking lot on a Sunday.Just remember that you are easily identifiable in a Smart Car in the U.S. So don't get one if you don't want people to notice you. LOL But in Rome, everyone seemed drive one, either that or a motorcycle.

My dad on a camel in Jerusalem. He was such a goofball!

Masada. King Herod's palace is the darker area jutting off the side.

Top view.

Boulders that the Romans catapulted up to the top in 70 AD during the first Jewish-Roman war.

If you ever have the chance to visit Israel, I highly recommend it. As our Pastor just said "No, it doesn't make the Bible come alive, as it's already alive." But it sure does give you a sense for what it was really like. I would love to take a Steps of Paul tour some day as well. I couldn't have cared less about history when I was a kid, but now I can't get enough of it.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Does the Easter Bunny know?

"Daddy, the Easter Bunny spends a lot of time working on Easter.

I don't know if he has time to worship.

We should leave him a note to tell him about Jesus!"

~Allison

Oh, how I love that girl!

Chuck the Barber

Look at my little guy modeling for our friend Chuck's new web-site. David and I have known Chuck since 7th grade from church youth group. He's a great guy and if your great guy needs a haircut, in the Edina/St. Louis Park MN area, he should really go see Chuck. He's been cutting David's hair ever since he modeled for his barber school final exam.