I truly don’t know what I did wrong.  I tried to be a good mother and keep my children from the things that would lead them down the wrong road.  But somewhere I must have failed because my daughter is addicted to crafting. ” Oh,” you say,” it cannot be that bad.  May be she is just a recreational crafter.”  No, truly, when someone hides out in their room just to complete a craft project in secret, it has gone too far.

Seriously though,I absolutely love that Christina loves to create things to bless her friends.  It amazes me at the variety of things she can come up with and how she figured out how to make such beautiful things out of almost nothing.  Here is her latest fun craft made from coffee filters and a small paper cup.  They are going to be filled with jelly beans as favors on the table for a 10 year-old’s birthday party. How fun!

Philip’s weekend travels took him on a train ride to the town famous for the cut-throat sheriff and a good-deed doing robber, the city of Nottingham.  Though much of the city is newer there is a castle and random old homes scattered throughout the city.  Here is some of what he saw.

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A wonderful young sister in the Lord came over today and gave Abby a new doo, relieving her of a good part of her thick hair and making all involved much happier. You see Abby does not appreciate when we brush her hair and would prefer to be bald.  We don’t enjoy the wrestling match we engage in every time we wash it.  Joe however loved Abby’s lovely long hair.  This was a compromise between no hair and lots of hair.  Tell us what you think!

I was asked to make a miniature wedding cake and some cupcakes for a small wedding.  The cake was to be 7″ at the base, 3 tiers, white with red, pink and gold decorations.  They wanted raspberry cake with vanilla filling for the cake.  The cupcakes are my white almond cake.

Philip took a road trip up to the town of Stamford Saturday.  He loved the small town charm and the plethora of alleyways filled with a wide variety of shops.  He spent hours perusing the shelves of a used book store housed in a 16th century building and enjoyed peering into the past in the many antique shops.  He saw the 13th century St. Mary’s Church and wandered through streets that have remained nearly unchanged for centuries. So much so that the town has been used in films such as the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. Lunch was a British version of shepherd’s pie at a local eatery and then back down to Sawtry past the beautiful Burghley House (Rosings in the same film).

All in all, he had a glorious day in the countryside!

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“What an amazing Christ we serve.  He never seeks for our approval, only the faith to believe that He is at work when all is a mystery.  To put yourself in His hands is not to be led astray.” ~Watkin Roberts

There is property about a mile away  that straddles the Rogue River.  It is a ranch with horses and cows.  But every so often a different species decides to graze there and it is such a treat, I just had to share!

Philip and a coworker took a train to London today and walked the city for 11 hours. It was a beautiful day.   He said they crossed every bridge in the city at least once and some twice.  They got to see so many of the sites from historic buildings to markets where people were selling everything from clothes they designed to handcrafted items to food. There are random pieces of walls from castles around the city.  One had a statue with centurion in armor, the plaque stated that the bottom of the wall was from Roman times (90 AD)and had been added to  during the middle ages.

Here are the pictures he sent.

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