Splinters & God
I’m diverting from the regular craft post to share with you a touching moment I had at work today. As some of you know, I’m a Teacher’s Aide at a local high school. Today I was in Scripture with a year 7 class. The Scripture teacher, Scott, is a very passionate, down-to-earth, young surfie and he said some things today which really moved me. I am a Muslim and I think it doesn’t matter which higher power you pray to, the message in this story applies to everyone.
Scott prays to God every morning and asks Him how he can show his students how much God loves them all. This morning he did the same thing and as he held his hand up, he saw a splinter. He then realised how significant that splinter was. He shared with the class, whilst on his knees in the middle of the group, that splinters are like hurtful words that people say to all of us. They get stuck under our skin and they hurt. Sometimes we forget about the splinters and they get infected. Just like how in life, we forget about those hurtful words until an experience reminds us of them.
The splinters hurt us and cause us much pain. Similarly, the constant put-downs, criticisms and insults festers in our minds and we slowly start believing them. We get depressed and think that we are just not good enough for anyone to love us. This pain, like the splinters, will continue to hurt us until they’re removed.
He then invited students who share this pain to kneel down with him and pray to God together. He said, “God, I give you this pain! Take these words that hurt me! Show me how much I am really worth. Show me how much you really love me. Show me how much I deserve to be loved…”
I was deeply moved. I thought that his analogy of the splinters and the criticisms was just spot on. I never thought of it that way and then to release them to God, to surrender it to him, was just so… simple. Psychology books tell me to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Others say to forgive the people that have hurt me. It felt like a big weight on my shoulders as I struggle to shift my mind into a happier place.
Instead, I was enlightened today by simply saying, “God, I give you this pain! Show me how much I am really worth.” I invite you to do the same.
{ 5 comments }
Retro Knits
I went to a car boot sale last weekend. I love going to them cos you just never know what you’ll find there. I stumbled upon these old knitting books under a pile of books that were sitting on a milk crate. I bought them for a $1 each without even flicking through them first. I thought since they were so cheap, I could use them to get ideas.
Little did I know how much pleasure I was going to get out of them. I flicked through them on the way to a friend’s place and we had the best laugh in ages! There were some real beauties in them and it felt like we were in a Mastercard ad – $5 for retro books, the laughs you get from the photos, PRICELESS!
These are my favourites from each book. All I can say is that “What were they thinking!?”
Warning: These photos may cause uncontrollable fits of laughter!
Project 365 – Week Eight
Click here for previous week’s story
Day 50: Tink saw them too but they had both ran away before Little One or Tink could talk to them!
Day 51: Little One and Tink decided to chase after them. They had so many questions to ask them; Why were they running away? Who are they? And why were they spying on them?
Day 52: Little One and Tink kept running after them but they bounced and rolled away so quickly!
Day 53: Little One and Tink finally caught up with them. Breathlessly, Little One and Tink began to ask them questions. Who are they?
Day 54: The two of them stared back at Little One and Tink uncomfortably. Little One had never seen an animal like them before. He couldn’t help but ask them an embarrassing question.
Day 55: They are not animals. They are Malu-malu. Little One and Tink have never met a Malu-malu before!
Day 56: The Malu-malu had strange names.
Stay tuned for next week’s story!
{ 1 comment }Handsewn Ellies – Whip vs Blanket Stitch
I decided to do things slightly differently from the regular Ellie, mainly because I didn’t have the right fabric to use and I thought I’ll challenge myself with this simple project. I decided to use felt and handsew the entire project.
After two nights, Sky Ellie was born. I used mostly blanket stitch to seam the pieces together and satin stitched the details. The instructions then told me to whip stitch the ear onto Ellie and I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t know what a whip stitch was!
After a little hunting around the internet, I came across Futuregirl’s article on Choosing A Stitch for Handsewing. I then realised that I should have used whip stitch for seaming my softie instead of the blanket stitch! So I decided to make another Ellie using whip stitch to test Futuregirl’s theory.
Earth Ellie was born very soon after. He is a lot rounder than his sister, Sky. Using a different stitch made a world of difference! Compare for yourself:
Blanket stitches on Sky gave a flat seam around the edges.
Whip stitches on Earth made him much more rounded.
I highly recommend reading Futuregirl’s article before handsewing your next softie and she has tutorials on how to do both stitches in her blog too. The two Ellies are nonetheless happy to be part of a very useful experiment so that all future softies are sewn just a little bit nicer. Now they live happily together, never to be alone again.
Pattern from Softies book
White Chocolate Berry Muffin Recipe
I normally bake muffins using the store-bought muffin mix. I don’t really like baking them because they taste pretty ordinary. But the last two weeks I’ve had a craving for muffins. It’s been a while since I’ve had them and when my friend gave me this recipe, I thought I’ll just have to bake them as a Thank God It’s Friday! reward to myself and Richard.
I’m almost ashamed to say this but I don’t think I’ve ever made muffins from scratch. I was quite nervous at how they’ll turn out. My friend gave me this recipe from a magazine and she had never tried this recipe out herself.
All I can say is that I wish you were here to taste this! It’s absolutely beautiful! They are by far the best muffins I’ve ever had! I’m not kidding. The recipe is super easy and I think just about anyone can make this. I don’t think you’ll ever see a box of muffin mix in my trolley ever again!
Recipe (PDF)
Get automagic 
blog updates
