London!

Dear son made it to London!  Here he is in center of photo, red shirt, worshipping with the London Arts YWAM team at a church in Notting Hill. He is part of a team bringing the good news of Jesus to those attending Notting Hill Carnival tomorrow and Monday.

He’s also had some free time and has been able to visit a number of historical places. He is absolutely enamored with all the history and architecture!

It is such a joy to receive messages from dear son off and on and hear of his adventures and mission endeavors!  I’m just praising God for this wonderful opportunity for my son to learn and grow and be used in this special way to shine the light of His love to a broken and hurting world.

Hope all is well with you and your dear ones!

Joyfully,

Jackie

We’re getting excited!!

Hi Friends!

We’re getting pretty excited around here!! Dear son’s 5 month mission trip is just 2 weeks away!

Here is his story and an opportunity to give, in case you are interested in making a donation to this great cause.  🙂

Blessings with JOY,

Jackie

(Click on photo to go to his website.)

Whew! What a month!

Hi Friends!

What a month!  LOTS of things going on.  My highlights have been celebrating dear daughter’s and hubby’s birthdays and going on a 2 week adventure that included a Children’s Ministry conference in Orlando, getting to go to Magic Kingdom & Epcot and visiting my beloved sister and her sweet family in southwest Mississippi!  I hope to have time soon to give a full report.  But for now, here is a photo that captured a favorite memory of mine:

Me and my twin (Pooh bear)! My life is complete! 🙂

Blessings with joy,

Jackie

Happy New Year! And A New Crochet Pattern! :)

This week from our window.

Hi Friends!

We continue to enjoy the holidays with dear son on Christmas break from school.  We have been playing Settlers of Catan quite a bit in the evenings and absolutely love it!

Also, in the last few days I’ve been working on crocheting, photographing, writing and publishing my latest pattern:  Highland Beauty Crochet Headband with Flower.  Yay!  As always, it seems that I need to get better photos for my Etsy listing (would like to get some outside shots with dear daughter), but they are adequate to publish for now.

Click on photo for pattern listing.

Tonight will be pretty low key.  We often times get together with a certain family and play games, but that didn’t work out for tonight so we will go to dinner, play some games here at the house and watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” with dear son who ALWAYS watches that movie on New Year’s Eve as part of his holiday tradition.  🙂  Dear daughter will be out with friends and having fun too.

I hope that you have a very blessed New Year!  And thanks for being a special part of a wonderful community of blog friends in 2013.

Joyfully,

Jackie

Plus 1

Hi Friends,

We had a very blessed Christmas day spent with my little family opening presents in the morning, then sharing a yummy ham lunch and a good visit with my parents in the afternoon.  And last but not least, we played a fun game of Taboo with some dear friends in the evening.

Today has been nice and relaxing.  I had some vacation time left this month so I am using it to enjoy the holidays and be home with my family.  So wonderful! In a few minute we are going to play a game we received from my brother: Settlers of Catan.

Here are a few photos of the day (and a few more thrown in from this week):

Here is a photo I took of my sweet peeps after we saw the play, A Christmas Carol, last weekend.

Christmas Day. Sure love these two!

Some crochet snowflake ornaments that I sent to family. 🙂

Christmas Eve beauty.

Do you have a fond memory from your Christmas you would like to share?  If so, I’d love to hear it.

Joyfully,

Jackie

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends,

We wish you a very Merry Christmas! And may you be filled with peace and joy as you remember the best Gift that was ever given.

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.'”
-Luke 2:10, 11

With JOY,
Jackie

 

12 Days of Separation!

Hi Friends,

It’s been 12 days since my last blog post.  Can that even be right?!

My days have been pretty full and my goal this month is to try and keep focused on Jesus, my Joy.  So far so good.  🙂

Up until today we haven’t had much snow.  But today is a different story! And a week ago or so we had such bad freezing rain and ice that schools were closed for a day.  You know it’s bad when OUR schools close, ’cause they hardly ever do!

I am finishing up the last of my product orders and now all I am selling in my shop are patterns until the end of December.  I actually published a new pattern today, Easy Elegance Fingerless Gloves.  We’ll see if it generates any interest.  🙂

I sure hope you are all doing well.  Remember to choose (and pray for) peace and joy instead of worry and negativity.  And if you are sad or hurting this season, I pray that you will find love and comfort in Jesus our Immanuel (God with us).

Adoring Him,

Jackie

This was taken at Ozarks Americana. A delightful shop in town.

Dear son had a Christmas band concert this week. They did a great job!

I got to go to dear son’s play again (2nd time). This is what part of the set looks like for Christmas on the Yukon.

My latest pattern – Easy Elegance Crochet Fingerless Gloves

It’s beginning to look a lot like … a snowstorm!  This was early afternoon today and it’s still coming down steady.

Another pretty setting at the gift shop.

P.S. If you crochet and are looking for some special gifts to create for your loved ones, I have an option for you:

Click on photo to go to the crochet pattern section of my Etsy shop.

Goodness! Where Does the Time Go?

Hi Friends,

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving last week! Ours was lovely.  We had two different celebrations:  Our family dinner was the Saturday before Thanksgiving so that everyone (my fam of 4 and my mom & dad) could attend.  Then on Thursday we celebrated with some friends.  Both occasions were such a blessing.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, crocheting, family time, baking, a little working, and dear daughter and I went to The Nutcracker Ballet at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.  It is our mother-daughter annual tradition and it was delightful as always!

And now my busy season is in full swing.  I hope to at least send out a shout here on the blog once (hopefully twice) a week.  Or maybe I will surprise myself with more.

Here are some photos of some of my recent events. 🙂

Blessings with joy,

Jingle Bell Jackie

The day after Thankgiving it was -9 F, but I had my yummy drink, toasty warm fire and Christmas crochet!

Our early Thanksgiving. ❤

On Thanksgiving day. 🙂

At the Ballet!

After the ballet… Parisian macaroons! 🙂

Baking was also part of our weekend. Here is some batter for pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins.

And I am currently designing little crochet people (with a matching shoe). Also known as a “Shoe Baby”. 🙂 Stay tuned…

 

 

Monday, Monday…

…as the old song goes. 🙂

Hi Friends!

Not sure why it’s taken so long to write, but here we are.  My past few days have been filled with work, special family times, crochet projects, early Thanksgiving dinner with my family and parents at our house (since dear hubby will not be here on Thursday), attending opening night of the community theatre play dear son is in (so much fun!), church, brunch yesterday with family and then a fun mother-daughter outing, … and just being thankful.

Here are a few photos from this week.  I will try to add a couple more when I get some others downloaded.

Happy Monday, dear ones.

Joyfully,

Jackie

An order this week.

A recent addition to my shop. Product and pattern.

On our outing yesterday…yummy Parisian macaroons.

After opening night. He did great! 🙂 Hoping to get a picture of him in costume as well.

Weekend Recap

Hi Friends,

My 3 day weekend was relaxing, fun and productive.  Here are some quick highlights and a few photos:

Friday –

• Lunch with a dear friend at our fave Japanese Restaurant.
• Shopping at a fun gift shop
• More time crocheting

Saturday –

• Relaxing morning {fire in the wood stove, banana muffins, Christmas music}
• Productive afternoon {lunch with dear daughter; then shopping and packing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes)
• Fun Evening {Hubby and I were invited to dinner where we had a lovely visit, ate a yummy salmon meal and played dominoes}

Sunday –

• Morning – church at home because dear son wasn’t feeling too good.  It  was very special to have all 4 of us sharing prayer requests and praying for each other; listening to the Bible together; taking communion together, etc.
• Afternoon – each of us went our separate ways for awhile.  I did some more crocheting and a little laundry & housework.
• Evening – the family went to a new restaurant and had a nice time.

And now for some photos:

Part of Friday’s lunch. Yum.

At the gift shop.

Saturday morning sunrise over the mountains. Amazing!

Decided to make this “Sparkly Snow Crochet Cup Cozy” too.

Dear daughter with the filled shoeboxes. Click on this photo for information on this awesome ministry.

It was a blessed weekend for sure!

I hope you have a great week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Joyfully, Jackie