Modest Monday: Why I Still Wear Pants

I talk a lot about wearing skirts and dresses, and share many Modest Monday posts on them. So I know some of you who know me in real life may wonder why I’m still wearing pants. I wanted to take some photos of some of my modest outfits wearing pants, then talk about this as an accompaniment,  but since I haven’t taken the photos yet, I’m finally talking about it anyway.

My two main goals in clothing are: MODESTY and FEMININITY. I truly believe God desires those two things from us in our daily living. As I switched back to wearing skirts and dresses, I had a problem, I didn’t want to get rid of tops and pants that had been so difficult to find and waste the money on so many items. So I started thinking. I also had a few situations where it might have made friends feel too uncomfortable. So I decided I would go ahead and wear pants sometimes, as long as the rest of my outfit was still feminine, and , as one blogger said, my tops “hide my hiney.” Not the way I usually speak, but it ‘s the best way to describe the issue. :>

 

So I make sure my tops are long enough, pants aren’t too tight, and of course add to the top if it’s too low, which they usually are these days. I love Half Tees and Cami Secrets for those situations.

So these days I’m wearing skirts and dresses about 2/3 of the time and pants the other 1/3. This may change in the future, or maybe I’ll keep it this way. Not sure yet. I just know I need to follow what God is telling me to do, and in this case that’s being a woman who is feminine and modest, and encouraging others to do the same. That part will never change. :>

If you wondered, now you know!

The Homemaking Party

Recipe Exchange: Candy Cane Hearts

It seems that time just slips so easily away from us. The good thing about today’s Recipe Exchange treat is that it works for both Christmas and Valentine’s Day! Makes me feel a little better about being behind on posts. Oh well, such is life. So you can save this for next year or make a cute treat for Love Day. You can make them with the kids too, they’re sooooo easy!

And use different candy canes for different, personalized looks and flavors!

I found this idea HERE! But the two types of candy melts I found were more yellowy, but still a big hit!

Candy Cane Heart Candy

Simply take two mini candy canes and form a heart on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Melt the candy melts/white chips, whatever you’re using and pour into hearts. Immediately add sprinkles, crushed candy canes, peppermint pieces, etc.  Easy!

For the full instructions head over to HERE.

Make them for your sweetie, kids, friends, neighbors, the list goes on!

Happy treat making!

 

 

Homemaking Party with Hope in Every Season

Birthday Queen’s Tea and Modest Monday

Last week my friend Diane and I celebrated our December birthdays by having tea at our local tea room. We had a blast!!  Since I don’t have official outfit photos for the Modest Monday post, I thought I’d combine these two in one post. The lovely English owner of The Tea Trolley took some photos of us, and I wore a new dress and jewelry! Coincidentally, I wore this new necklace for the first time on my actual birthday a couple of weeks earlier. :>

She gave me a teapot with shamrocks…perfect!!

My sweet friend Diane:

The Queen’s Tea:

Our super yummy tiny sweets:

Delectable scones! Very similar to my friend Laviece’s at J. Henry Manor, and hers were my favorite! I even like them better than my own. :> I miss her tea room.

I had the apricot tea. Mmmmm. Ironically, it was also Laviece who helped me to learn to like flavored tea. I was strictly an Irish or English black tea girl, until…she introduced me to French Caramel Creme Brule’ black tea. It’s like a dessert, and I don’t even use sugar in my tea. :>

I had the tomato, cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches:

Even a pretty water goblet for me, the choking girl!

Lovelies:

And here we are:

My dress is from Target, Shrug from Ross, Sanita’s from Footprints, Tea themed earrings and bracelet from a craft fair and gorgeous necklace from Etsy.

A closer view of my dress and necklace:

I always notice the flowers:

The queen sends us off with her queenly wave!

We had a lovely time celebrating our birthdays, the food was fabulous and everything was so pretty! I can’t wait to go back here!

The Homemaking Party with Hope in Every Season

Recipe Exchange: “Gingerbread” Nativity

This year I found this sweet nativity idea, and as an avid gingerbread house fan, this really appealed to me as a way of observing Christ’s birthday! So today’s Recipe Exchange idea is this “Gingerbread” Nativity, a great activity for kids of all ages. :>

I made this at a little get together and it’s a bit messy looking as I hurried. Next time I would try THIS method. Then I wouldn’t have snow at the manger either, so better, since there wouldn’t have been any at Christ’s birth. And my little trick for this type of thing is…ALWAYS let the “glue” on the structures harden OVERNIGHT!!!

I used shredded wheat type cereal for the hay instead of coconut. And you have to make sure you find the rectangle graham crackers as these days a lot of them come in squares. When you cut the cracker, use a sawing motion and slowly and carefully saw into shape. I only found one size of gum drops, so I just cut off part of one for the heads. I used fruit roll ups for the head coverings and Jesus’ blanket. Just glue everything together with the royal icing, candy melts or caramel sauce.  Marshmallows and licorice pieces made the sheep.

This was so much fun to make! I think it needs to be a new tradition! :>

Recipe Exchange: Penguin Poppers

The Old Fashioned Recipe Exchange is BACK! Yay!! I’m happy to once again join with Little House on the Prairie Living and share recipes far and wide! :>

These little cuties I discovered on Pinterest, which led me to this site. and they were a big hit at our church Christmas party. I was also going to make them for Christmas day, as my mother-in-law is a big penguin fan, but I was WAY behind this year with less time after Thanksgiving, an unexpected week in Oregon and a week of not feeling up to much, so I didn’t get to them. I’ll make them for her another time though. :>

These Penguin Poppers are easy, but they do take some time and patience, especially filling the cut olives. You can use any olive sizes, as long they are two DIFFERENT sizes. (It can be hard to find the Colossal size they suggest). And I don’t know HOW she kept her olives so wet and shiny with all of the finger handling!!

Winter has just begun. Make some of these today!! Surprise your kids with this healthy and adorable treat!!

Modest Monday: Blue Christmas Outfit and Cameo Flexi Clip

After a much needed break for Christmas, birthday and New Year’s, relatives have all returned home, my Sweetie and I have settled back into our routines, and Modest Monday is back!! I still have one event left…celebrating with a friend our two December birthdays at a local Tea Room this week!! We can. not. wait!! Whoo Hoo!!

So, even though this was technically a Christmas outfit for me on two different occasions, and I didn’t have time to share it because of all of the fun busyness with family, I figured I’d share it anyway because it can be worn anytime really. As I’ve mentioned before, I like blue and white for Christmas since Jesus Christ was a Jew and those are the Jewish colors, so I call them the original Christmas colors. :> Although, if it’s true that the reason the English chose red and green is because they were bringing in greenery and red berries for decorating, I’m all for that, especially being an Oregon transplant living in California and missing evergreens so much!! And the SMELL!!!!  It HAS to be a REAL tree!! :>

Anyway, back to the outfit:

It can be tricky dressing Christmasy on these hot California “winter” days too, so I was happy to come up with a new outfit this year!

I won this Cameo Lila Rose Flexi Clip from The Modest Mom’s and Deborah and Co.’s  Caroline

Skirt $1 last year and the necklace this year at Walmart

Cardigan from several years ago from?

Tank from a thrift store several years ago

Shoes: Sanita’s

Snowflake earrings: gift

Joy/Nativity pin: Kohl’s last year or year before

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!!

Homemaking Party @ Hope In Every Season