Frugally Building a Stash

Yesterday we found out our granddaughter has strep throat. I have been feeling worn down the last several days. I figure I am trying to get sick. At the same time I am doing what ever I can to take care of myself and work towards better health. So far I am holding steady. Not at 100% but at least not going down hill.

 

Today I wanted to share with you a great way to build your stash frugally. I stumbled upon this method recently and so very glad I did. And truth be told this method may not work for everyone. Plus this method is not fool proof.

 

So a couple of weeks ago, I was looking around one of the thrift shops near where my Quilting Store is. And I found piece of fabric folded up and taped with a price of about 50 cents written on it. I thought for 50 cents it would be worth me buying it to see if it would be good quality fabric or not.

 

This is where this method could get tricky - not all fabric is of good quality and good to use to make quilts. So you need to get a feel for good quality fabric. And when the fabric is all folded up and taped in that position it is hard to see if there is any information about the fabric on the fabric. Many times on the edge of the fabric is the name of the company that produced the fabric and then they also have the name of the fabric line. These details can be very helpful to know what quality the fabric is. Utilize this when possible.

 

When I got home and opened up the piece of fabric I found a great quality piece of fabric! The next time I went to the store, I decided to look in the same area to see if I could find some more good quality fabric. They have fabric there many of the times that I go to this store- not all of the fabric is the quality of fabric I am looking for, so I have to be selective when looking.

 

This is the batch of fabrics I found last week:

The two fabrics with the cream back grounds were 1/2 yard pieces of fabric - for $1.00 a piece I thought it was a bargain.  The blue and beige fabric and the birdhouses fabric were 1 yard pieces  - for $1.50 per piece I was happy to add these to my stash.

This 3/4 of a yard piece of fabric was found at a different thrift store- for only a quarter - I could not pass it up. Sad thing is that there is not much fabric that goes through this store- but I will certainly keep an eye out for more good quality fabric!

 

Oh and for those of you that may not know- when you buy good quality fabrics at quilting stores you will probably pay about 10.00- 12.00 dollars a yard - give or take a little. You can find some fabrics at other type stores for less money - and some may be good quality to use making quilts - you just have to really pay attention to quality. 

So when you realize that the price of quality quilting fabric is quite high - it really shows what a good deal I got on my fabric. And also why I have found it important to have these other place to shop to add to my fabric stash. I don't have a lot of money to put towards fabrics. And it is so fun to find great fabric at great prices!!

I hope you are lucky enough to have some stores in your area that have good quality fabric that come through - so you too can add to your stash for very little money! :O)

 

Hope Thou In God

So I am working on a blog post for tomorrow. And thought I would share my devotional for this morning - this is from one of my favorite devotionals - "Streams in the Desert"
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Why art thou cast down, O my soul (Ps. 43:5).

Is there ever any ground to be cast down? There are two reasons, but only two. If we are as yet unconverted, we have ground to be cast down; or if we have been converted and live in sin, then we are rightly cast down.

But except for these two things there is no ground to be cast down, for all else may be brought before God in prayer with supplication and thanksgiving. And regarding all our necessities, all our difficulties, all our trials, we may exercise faith in the power of God, and in the love of God.

"Hope thou in God." Oh, remember this: There is never a time when we may not hope in God.
Whatever our necessities, however great our difficulties, and though to all appearance help is impossible, yet our business is to hope in God, and it will be found that it is not in vain. In the Lord's own time help will come.

Oh, the hundreds, yea, the thousands of times that I have found it thus within the past seventy years and four months! When it seemed impossible that help could come, help did come; for God has His own resources. He is not confined. In ten thousand different ways, and at ten thousand different times God may help us.

Our business is to spread our cases before the Lord, in childlike simplicity to pour out all our heart before God, saying, "I do not deserve that Thou shouldst hear me and answer my requests, but for the sake of my precious Lord Jesus; for His sake answer my prayer, and give me grace quietly to wait till it please Thee to answer my prayer. For I believe Thou wilt do it in Thine own time and way."


"For I shall yet praise him." More prayer, more exercise of faith, more patient waiting, and the result will be blessing, abundant blessing. Thus I have found it many hundreds of times, and therefore I continually say to myself, "Hope thou in God."
--George Mueller

Not What You Would Think

From the list shared on yesterdays blog post, you already know that I have a list of things to write about. All I need to do is pull photos together and get the posts typed up. So you would think that I would be sharing one of them today, but that is not the case.

Today I am discouraged and I felt the need to write about it - hoping that it can be therapeutic for me to write it out and maybe somehow I will find the cloud lifted.

Ever since July I have been really struggling - trying to lose weight and yet not losing the weight. I have been exercising, sometimes more than once a day. For the month of January - I ended up exercising like 36 or 38 times for the month. So I had thought that even though improvements were not showing up on the scales that improvements were still being made.

Today I pulled down an tote that has some of my summer things in it. I tried on a few of the tops and had hoped that they would be fitting much better than they were when last tried. I was disappointed that there was not a very big difference. Therefore, I felt discouraged all afternoon. I have wondered if all the effort is pointless. But I have come to realize that even though I am not seeing big changes right now - that I know that what I am doing is good for me. I know that exercise has many benefits.

I know what giving up feels like and what the results of giving up are... me gaining weight back and being even more disappointed in myself and I do NOT want to repeat that. That is why I am having to work hard to just get to where I am - because I gave up in the past. I want to see what will happen if I will stick it out. If I can just keep at it even when I don't see results. That is really the hardest time. It is easy to continue to make good choices to take care of yourself when you see the weight loss and when you see the improvements for the betterment of yourself. But what about when you are really putting out effort and you are trying to take good care of yourself and not seeing results? That is the hardest time to keep going.

And it doesn't help that I have several friends who are spending the big bucks $$$$$ and taking ketones and have lost a good amount of weight...sad thing is they were not that heavy to begin with.
It discourages me to see their big differences in such short amounts of time - 6 months or so. And me? I have been plugging away at this for 1 1/2 years. And I have a ways to go - till I reach my goal. And I will even then not be any where as thin as these ladies are that are taking Ketones- even when I reach my goal. It is quite discouraging. But I am NOT giving up.

I am planning on spending some time today refocusing on what my goals are and what I am going to do to reach my goals. Maybe spend some time adding things to my Heath and Wellness journal. Maybe reviewing things already in my book. I might even write up a few of the posts that I have planned for this week.

I hope you all are doing better than I have been doing. It has been over cast and much colder than what the weather people were saying it was going to be so far this week. Hoping the sun comes out soon so I can get out and get a walk in. I know getting out in the sunshine and fresh air would be very beneficial for me.

What You Can Expect to See

The schedule that I have found works best for me is to have my quiet time first and then shortly afterwards to take time to exercise. Because I spend the 30 minutes or so exercise in the morning - then my shower and breakfast afterwards - sometimes I feel like I could be getting lots of more important things done if I would skip the exercising and do it later. The only problem is that when I don't do it in the morning - many times I find too many things coming at me during the day and not ever getting the time to exercise. So it really is best for me to do it earlier in the day. Then later in the day if I get a chance I can always add more exercise in - which is always a good thing!

Putting God first and then choosing to take care of my physical body by exercising, I get myself in better shape to handle what ever comes my way during the day. Sometimes I don't get everything done that I would like to get done. But each day I write out my list and I work towards getting as much done as I can and that is all I can do. If I don't accomplish all of my goals for the day - I can add those things to the next day.

These are just a few things I have been thinking about lately and just wanted to share.
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I will be busy this morning volunteering. I also have a bill that I need to get paid and then a few other jobs around the house I need to take care of. I have several posts I would like to write this week:
"Refurbished" "Frugally Building a Stash" "Money Well Spent" just to name a few! And of course I will have at least one post about "Grace" ~ Speaking of Grace - I am amazed at how often I just happen to see the topic of Grace. I started a new book and the 3rd chapter in the book is called "Theater of Grace" Will probably do a post about that since this is very important for us to know what the Theater of Grace should be.

Well I better close. Hope everyone had a good week end!

 

 

 

 

Beloved Names of God ....series "Author and Finisher of Our Faith"

Author and Finisher of Our Faith

 

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;

who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,

despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2

 

• Name of God the Son
• Jesus is referred to as the "author and finisher of our faith" once in the KJV,
• As Author and Finisher, Jesus is the creator, fulfiller, and the very last word on Christianity.
• The author of Hebrews urged his listeners to be good examples because many were watching them. He urged them to turn from temptation, knowing that the prize waiting for them was an eternity in heaven in the company of a faithful Savior.

 

Jesus Christ came telling parables, or stories. Like most stories, they had beginnings, middles and ends- but they often left people feeling unsatisfied and confused. Likewise, his life was the story of the creation of Christianity. It had a wonderful beginning, a little-known middle, and a glorious end- and millions of people have asked, "What was it all about?" since then.

 



As God the Father, He authored His story at the beginning of time. As the Son, He brought it to a conclusion and He told us "whodunit." But, just like those puzzling parables seemed to have more to them, He had more to offer after His death and resurrection. He promised us a sequel. The Sequel would be like no other story ever told; it will have a beginning, it might have a middle- but it will never, ever end!
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Next week we will look at "Firstfruits"



Sometimes you have to lose something to truly appreciate it

Sometimes you have to lose something to truly appreciate it. I know that's how it was with my hair. I had loved my hair before the adventure with chemo, but it was only after that time period that I truly was grateful to have hair.

Well last night I had the opportunity to truly appreciate something else that I have taken for granted. At 2:15am I was awoken by my husband opening the closet that houses our heater unit. He pointed out that the temperature in the house was below where we had the heater set, but the unit was not going. It was making a weird noise and I could smell the kind of burning smell that you smell at the beginning of the season when you turn your heater on. For an hour we messed with this and that to see if we could fix it. My husband also went up in the attic to check to make sure there wasn't a fire.

It took a while to get back to sleep after being up and being stressed. Thankfully my husband was able to go get the part needed from a business nearby and get the heater going by about 9am.

Did I mention that last night it got down to 32 degrees and it felt like it was 25 degrees? Yeah... The several nights before that night- the temps hadn't gotten that low. Too bad the heater didn't do out on one of the other nights. Oh well. It is done and fixed now so I'm just gonna praise God that my husband was able to fix it and that we didn't have to spend any more than a half of night being cold.

You can be sure that tonight when I say my prayer, I will include a big thank you for heat and protection from any serious damage.

Hope you all are staying warm. :0)

Divinely-implanted

“The vital point is this: We are saved by God’s grace alone; and the faith by which we lay hold of that grace is itself a gift. Far from anything we can take credit for, faith is the divinely-implanted capacity in the soul to believe in, and act upon, the revelations of God’s saving love. “For by grace are you saved through faith: and that [faith itself is] not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9). “
~Shades of Grace by Ty Gibson, pg 46

I love it- faith, grace, and love - all mingled together. :O)