Monday Message

"Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to ‘prepare every needful thing’ (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors, and support bishops as they care for others." (All is Safely Gathered In pamphlet)

Keep working at putting a few things ahead in your storage. Keep building your skills. Everything we can do now when we don't have to rely on your skills will help you when you do need to.

Even if you never have the emergency that would require the skill, the more we can do for ourselves the more it will help with our budget.  

If we have things we can do, the money we would not be spending could be used on other bills. But mostly we wouldn't need to scrimp elsewhere to pull money together to pay for what we could do ourselves. That is a lengthy way to say - the more skills we can teach ourselves, the better things will be for our families.

I have a plan to take everything out of my sewing area and start fresh in a better way, using what I have. I am sewing myself a dress and it has been very tight working in there. I just have to add the sleeves and that is when I plan to do this so very soon as the dress is almost done. I have been working on it this week trying to build my sewing skill better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT5yo0JhKyQ - this gal has some great ideas on how to save on fabrics. She has made fantastic dresses out of vintage sheets. If you watch her other videos she makes two coats out of blankets and she walks you through how to do many things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e97prqsnzxQ&t=197s - this is the same gal, she is going to show you how to knit a sweater from start to finish.

These are a few things to help you build on skills you already have, like I am with my sewing or skills you can start.

How I teach myself...

I find books on what I want to learn. If you cannot find books thrifting, go to your library. I even have gotten very good sewing books from library book sales. Do not rule out the internet, there's so many things you now can learn on there.

I gather information. For example - watercolor is something I want to learn. At library book sales I picked up a few books years ago, then we had our anniversary trip to the used bookstore where I picked up another. Over the years I have gathered what I would need. Then I have been watching YouTube to find what people I like who teach free and study them. Several take you step by step like a tutorial. This will be a new skill for me.

I also have bobbin lace that I am trying to learn past just making bookmarks. So again I gathered used books and gathered supplies. My sister for my b-day one year gave me bobbins. In this picture I have just loaded the bobbins with thread I had. I will be studying the pattern. My sister, knowing I am wanting to learn it more, sent this video of what I want to make - https://pieceworkmagazine.com/never-enough-lace/ Scroll down you can see her working the bobbins.

So you can see my process. This is the method that has helped me a lot more than classes plus, I don't have the cost of the class, scheduling, driving, and I can go at my own pace.

A story about me when I was about four and my sister was two. We lived in Wyoming. Times were different back then. On this day we were going for a walk out in the vast prairie. I am pretty sure we were told to stay by the fence line, probably so whoever was keeping an eye on us could easily see us. Well off we went, after awhile we came to a wooden box just laying open on its side. Now I know there was packing stuff in the box but back then I did not know. Inside there were very pretty dishes with flowers on them. We plaid with those dishes for hours. This is a happy memory for me. Over the years I would see a platter or plates with flowers on them and I think of that day so I have just a small collection of flower dishes.

I like to decorate with them, they make me happy.

Missy, who is setting by the colored pencil books from a library book sale from many years ago, says never stop learning!! 

Tippy Longstockings says learn and then teach others, like teach your kids about budgeting and storage and how to make bread. There's so much to learn!