endless gifts {386-395}

386. stellar parents
387. my grandma came through surgery successfully
388. my Mom's health [The older I get, the more I am thankful for my Mom's health. She is going in for a routine check up today. This December 7th will be 12 years since she was initially diagnosed with AML. She told me today that she never thought she would live this long. Wow. God is so good!]
389. forgiveness
390. encouragement from others
391. music that lifts my soul
392. Sunday school
393. the people I work with in my ministries
394. the Holy Spirit and His working in my life
395. the family I work for

Post-edit:

I must add...
396. Andrea
and
397. Sharon

A personal side-note. These two ladies are incredible. I grew up with them. I've had a few email exchanges or comment exchanges {blog to blog} with them recently. Their mother is someone who had a profound influence on my life. I was able to help out in her Sunday school class the year and a half before the Lord took her home. She also had it arranged my freshman year for "town girls" to come to nightly devotions at the college girls dorm while I was in college. I can still hear some of her "devos" and words of admonition and encouragement. I miss her so much. And the love of the Lord that shone through her life has been passed on to her daughters. They are a Biblical example of love and friendship!

::an amazing day::

Saturday was an amazing day. In this post, I mentioned that I found a store that offered sewing classes.

W-E-L-L.

I went to a class on Saturday.  Out of all my little ventures that I have made the past few years, my instructor on Saturday was the nicest and most helpful.  She started at the very beginning [here is the "on" switch for the sewing machine] but never made one feel silly for asking a question or not knowing how to do the simplest task on the sewing machine.  Awesome.

I bought some cheap-ish fabric hurriedly Friday night at Wal-Mart.  While I was waiting for the class to start, I ended up buying new material for my project.  [I'm so glad I did.]

I'm serious, in my opinion, fabric choice is at least 50% of the success of a project.  This material is incredible.

Okay.  So here's my pillow.  I am not patting myself on the back [yet] because a)_I did this project with a helpful instructor close at hand and b)_the material is fabulous.

After class, I marched right back upstairs and purchased another 1/2 yard of the same fabric which forces me to make another one [and soon]. 

::the bigger picture::

::the zipper--not bad for a beginner::

::an up-close and personal view of the brown bird::

::the perky little corner::

I have never been so excited about sewing in my life.  So we need to get our sewing machine fixed pronto so that I can whip up another pillow before I forget what I learned.  And I plan to take another class there.  Whoop!

endless gifts {376-385}

376. new mercies every morning [if you stop to think about that....Wow!]
377. forgiveness
378. long-suffering
379. godly people in my church
380. failure [if everything goes right in my life, will I ever improve? no...]
381. busyness
382. bus riders that are faithful to church
383. new Christians added to our church
384. friends who spur me on to strengthen my Christian walk
385. provision every week, every need



PS...Another giveaway is happening for a set of cards from my Etsy shop. Please go check it out! I would love if one of ya'll won!!  Contest closes this Friday, November 5th.