Framed words

I was looking for something to put on my fireplace mantle. It came to me that I could buy cheap 8.5x11 picture frames from Dollar Tree and frame a word, using 1 letter per frame. The fireplace is in our den, which is more laid back and fun than our living room, so I chose the word LAUGH.

I purchased 8.5x11 scrapbooking paper, opened "Word", chose a font and typed 1 letter per page, enlarged it to cover most of the page, then printed it out on the papers. Then I put them in the frames and Tadaa! I was done!

Organizing jewelry

I haven't done much posting, but I have really done lots of "designing". Now I need to take the time to share them! LOL!

Today I want to share ideas I've had for organizing jewelry. I have lots of necklaces and lots of earrings. So I'm attaching photos of how I organize them.

Fortunately I have a closet door with slats. It suddenly occurred to me that I could use shower hooks to hang my necklaces on my door.

Then I saw a belt hanger and thought that would make a nice necklace hanger as well.

Still not enough, so I purchased a towel rack that can be hung on a cabinet door and hung it on the cabinet door in our bathroom. Then I put necklaces on shower hooks and hung them from that. FINALLY enough room! 

Earrings are difficult to keep track of. Especially since I have several Christmas ones, several that came specifically for my necklaces and several "favorites". I went and purchased some boxes used for soap bars when traveling. I marked them and use them to store my earrings.

I have recently seen someone keep sets of earrings together using buttons. I think I'm going to add that to my boxes so they don't get as tangled as you can see here.

And that's it. Those are my ideas for keeping jewelry easily available.

VBStarts

I set aside my crafting/baking things for awhile so I could finish my biggest project so far; VBStarts. Several years ago I saw a need for inexpensive vacation Bible school (VBS) programs for small churches. So many small churches don't think they can host a VBS program because of the cost or the lack of people to run it. This program is built as a full program for small churches - full of tips and suggestions we've actually used in order for a small church to run a VBS! It's also set up to be used as a kick-start for people who want to design their own program but need a few ideas to get going. Each VBStart has a theme song, forms & other handouts, memory verses, and craft ideas. Some even have snack suggestions to go along with the theme and most of them have a skit for each day. They each have lists, so with a quick glance you know what is needed for your program. We have 3 topics ready at this point, and another one in the works. All are Bible based and strongly Christian! So if you think your church or group might be interested, please check them out at http://abbadesigns.99k.org/ and THANKS!

Snowflakes

      I came up with these and then got brave enough to take to a family Christmas and another Christmas party last year. I got lots of compliments on it, and several people claimed it tasted like fudge. But this is a no-bake quick and easy recipe. 


Snowflakes
Ingredients:
1 lb peanut butter
1/2 lb butter
1 regular pkg mini chocolate chips
1-1/2 lbs powdered sugar
more powdered sugar (for dipping)
Directions:
Mix the peanut butter, butter and mini chocolate chips together. Then work in the powdered sugar (don't add the powdered sugar all at once, it makes it too difficult to mix). Roll into 1 inch balls and then flatten. Dip into powdered sugar and refrigerate until ready to use. These can be left out for awhile, but I think they taste better when they're refrigerated.

Hi!

I've found a hobby!!!! I'm so excited! I never had one before (other than reading), unless you call "avoiding housework" a hobby! But I realized I enjoy creating things - recipes, crafts, etc. And now I want to share some of these. Some are things I've come up with all by myself. Others are things I've seen at a craft show or online and decided to have fun with it. Some are recipes, some are crafts, but all are FUN! And since I don't consider fun to be the same as difficult, all are also pretty easy!


But since the hobby didn't seem to fit my other blog (http://godsfailure.blogspot.com/), I've decided to make a new one. I'm calling this one "Abba Designs" because without my Abba (Daddy... God) I couldn't begin to make ANYTHING! I begged Him to give me a hobby now that my children are finished with school and I'm now a retired homeschool mother... and He did!!!


So this is my introductory post. My next blog will be a recipe I created myself called "Snowflakes".