I love A.W.Tozer.

"Be thou exalted" (Psalm 21:13) is the language of victorious spiritual experience. It is a little key t0 unlock the door to great treasures of grace. It is central in the life of God in the soul. Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continually, "Be thou exalted," and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity. By the exercise of his will he has set his course, and on that course he will stay as if guided by an automatic pilot...He has met his life problem at its center, and everything else must follow along.

~A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

I have been reading a lot lately about the our tendency to compartmentalize our faith. In an effort to organize and balance our lives, we set aside a little bit of time in the mornings and on Sundays for God, and that is where our relationship with Him stops. Thus, we draw a dividing line between the spiritual and the secular that ought never be drawn. I really like how Kenneth Boa puts it in his book Conformed to His Image, "We must not view our life in Christ as merely an add-on to our life in this world; instead, we must learn to see it as the wellspring of our being and the meaning of our existence.”

When Christ has ceased to be at the center and "wellspring" of our lives, permeating even the minutest details, our hearts become disordered and out of focus, and a "thousand minor problems" begin to riddle us from all sides. Restore Christ to His rightful place at the center of our being, and, as Tozer says, we meet our problem at the center, and everything else must fall into place.

As I think about this, a couple of the Psalms of David come to mind.

"You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?"
Psalm 56:8

"How precious also are Your
thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than
the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You."
Psalm 139:17-18

Even if we neglect to center our lives on the Lord, He is still lovingly watching over us. Just imagine, the God of all creation keeps your tears in a bottle--He knows exactly how many you've cried. We cannot even begin to number His thoughts of us. It is simply mind-boggling.

What I have experienced in my own life is that, no matter how wise I think I am, God is infinitely wiser (I mean, He's God, isn't He?). Each and every time I follow the Lord's leading I am glad I did. Whenever I decide to take my own advice over the prompting of the Spirit, dire consequences follow. It's inevitable. Keeping the Lord and His will central in my life is simply an invaluable practice. Unfortunately, I am still not very good at it! However, life provides one with many great opportunities to learn and grow in this area. ;)

So there you have it--my ponderings for the day.

Oh--I made a very cute pencil skirt a couple days ago! I just happened to have enough pretty wool fabric to put together a "Very Easy" Simplicity skirt from the 50's. I finished it in a few hours and wore it to work the next day. Looked great. I'll get some pics up soon!

Have a fantastic day!
~Bess

Plaid Jackets, Raggedy Ann, and Sewing by Hand

What a lovely day we had today. Sylvie, Esme and I started a very fun sewing project together--we are making our very own Raggedy Ann dolls! This afternoon we cut out the pattern pieces, ironed on the face transfers and began embroidering faces on our dolls. The girls did a fantastic job. I was quite impressed.

Sylvie's Raggedy

Esme's Raggedy (she also finished the "I Love You" heart on the tummy)

My Raggedy :)

I have been working on a very pretty ruffle-collared blouse, sewn completely by hand. I am super pleased with how it has turned out so far! I opted for bound buttonholes to suit the fabric, and made some pretty little covered buttons to match. My bound buttonholes are still far from perfect, but they are improving!

I've also been working on a really adorable plaid jacket. If I hadn't messed up the lining like a doofus, I'd have been finished with it by now. Oh well. Live and learn! Note also that I have yet to install the buttons. (Sorry the pictures are a little blurry--I'll get some better ones up when I'm finished)

Moi. Notice lack of buttons.

The original pattern is from the late 1940's by McCall

I made this little flower pin for the lapel. The button in the center is vintage.

Down in my room I have a stack about a mile high (ok, maybe only two feet) of fabric for my fall sewing projects. It is inpiring to look at. I wish I had more time to actually dig into it! Alas.

By the way, I've been posting some great new patterns on Etsy, and have many more that I will be putting up within the next few weeks. Be sure to check out our Etsy shop (see the link in the sidebar)!

Farewell, Weekend! I shall see you in seven days...

~Bess

It is finally fall.

Fall is the highlight of my year. Thankfully, there is actually a little nip in the air down here in Georgia (so early!). Usually we have to wait until November for the summer weather to finally pass the hat to a colder season. Yes, this makes me happy. :)

I have been sewing in spurts, but since I began school a couple months ago (has it been that long?), I haven't really had much time to be productive, garment-construction-wise. I have been working on three different projects off-and-on throughout the past few weeks:

1. A lovely ruffle-collar blouse(#5 in my Fall Fashion Inspiration post) in cotton/silk poplin from fabric.com. I decided to sew this blouse completely by hand, and have gotten about half-way through with it.

2. The red corduroy jacket (#8). Yes, I am still not finished with it. I have been very uninspired to work on the poor thing lately.

3. A very darling plaid jacket (#6). I thought I had finished the darn thing last night, but unfortunately the lining was just a little off, and so I will have to re-line it. Yuck. It is really adorable--I think this might be my favorite fall garment so far. I originally planned to list it on my Etsy, but I am having second thoughts...

I'll try and get some pictures up as soon as I can. We are having a few issues with our computer uploading photos right now. Ah well! Perhaps this lovely pattern (to be listed soon on my Etsy!) will suffice? Perfect outfit for a day at the office in autumn.