She was Game!

This evening Lily was all up for taking pictures of skirts.

Ya!

Here is the Dr Seuss skirt.

The very pretty bird toile type skirt.

This is my favorite of all of the skirts I have made this last few months. A red country feel calico skirt.

This carousel toile is very sweet.

Here is a close-up of the carousel toile. Well, a semi close-up.

A sweet country calico skirt.

Crafty Chloe riding her unicorn.

I am pretty pleased with this top I made for Lily to wear for the pictures. I found the cute 'specialty cotton' with the ribbon and lace already sewn on the fabric. I added a back, lining, and tie straps. Very simple but it looks so delicate and like I spent hours on it when in fact it only took 15 minutes or so. It looks just wonderful with the skirts.

Oh, that silly Lily...

What motivated her to agree to do the photo shoot with me?

I promised her she could play a game on my Ipod...

and that she could wear lipstick.

Apparently, she had taken my lipstick and hid it in her drawer for such an occasion as this.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Skirts and a Poor Boy

I have a few different items made to photograph for my My Little Dragonfrye Etsy shop. I am experimenting with ways to photograph my items without depending on Lily as much. Ha ha. She is a busy girl with many things to accomplish during her days. Being mom's model is usually not on that list. But you are SO darn cute,Lily!!

Here are my test photographs of two of my skirts. I think the pictures look ok but not quite the way I want them to look. The impressive thing about these pictures is that I took them very late at night but look like I took them during the day. I wonder what they would look like if I actually used real daylight...I will keep working on it.

After I was done taking my pictures I found Joel like this on the couch.

The story is Joel was apparently pretending that he was a poor boy and needed to use newspapers as blankets and fell asleep playing his 'poor boy' game.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Grant is Going to Ghana, West Africa!!!!!

I hope you do not mind my adding Grant's Ghana support letter on my blog.

Grant leaves at the beginning of October for 6 weeks!! Yikes!! It will be a great opportunity for him!!

I added a great video after Grant's letter. Really, it is very good.

I also added some pictures of his trip last year at the bottom of the letter.

Enjoy!!!

August 11, 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope your summer is going well!

First of all I want to thank all of you who supported me either by your prayers and/or your financial gifts last year that allowed me to go on my mission trip to Ghana, West Africa last fall.

The trip was truly an amazing and faith building experience for me. I really felt like God used me in a special way there as my team and I reached out to the people of Ghana. One of my most memorable experiences from that trip was going to a rural village and attracting a crowd by spinning a basketball on a stick and performing some other basketball tricks I had learned. A crowd gathered very quickly and everyone came out of their houses to see what was going on. It was a fun way to help start our ministry there and prepared the way for the message that would be shared later by the pastor.

In addition to the good feeling of God using the gifts I had to offer, I found that I truly enjoyed spending time with the people I met there. There were several people that I got to know pretty well during that time and was sad when it was time to go.

After that mission trip, I came home knowing that this was something I wanted to do more of in the future. In the months following the mission trip, I was busy doing things at home in Waseca such as finishing my schoolwork and graduating, working a lot of hours at my job, and purchasing (and repairing) my first car. However I still kept in my mind the desire to be involved in future missions work in Ghana when the right opportunity came along.

A new opportunity has now come up which I am very excited about, This new opportunity is a second and more extended trip to minister to the people of Ghana. It is again under the direction of ASON International (Americans Serving Other Nations).

For this mission trip, which will be approximately 6 weeks beginning October 1st, 2013, I will be serving Pastor Peter with a team that will be lead by Ellen from ASON and the team will also include the Dominican Republic pastor, his wife, and their interpreter. The work will include the construction of a guest house for the church in Ghana that would allow future missionaries that come there to have a place to stay. I will help build a septic drainage system for the school on the grounds. I will also work with the youth in the Ghana church by filming skits and such that they do which will be made into evangelistic videos to help further the Gospel to the Ghana people. In addition to these projects, our team will also be involved in other outreach activities aimed at sharing the Message of Jesus with the people in the near by villages and ministering to their needs.

I am very thankful for the chance to go on this second mission trip to Ghana. I think this one is even more exciting than the first one because I have much more of a vision of how God might use me there. As with my other trip, I again ask for your prayers for me that God would prepare me to serve there and also for the people I will work with and those who we will minister to.

The other need that I have will be for financial support. Since this trip is longer than my trip last year, the amount needed will be slightly higher. In order to cover six weeks of living expenses, I will need to raise $3,500 more by late September.

I would really appreciate it if you took the time to prayerfully consider whether this is something that you would like to help with.

If you do decide to contribute financially you can mail a check to this address below with a note mentioning that you are contributing to Grant's Ghana fund. The address is:

ASON International, Inc.
1840 Sarno Road
Melbourne, FL 32935

If you would rather contribute via a credit or debit card you can call ASON directly at:

321-757-7252 

Thank you very much!

In Christ,

Grant Frye


Pastor Peter is the pastor of the Ghana church Grant and the others in the ASON team will be helping.

Now the pictures!!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

It's Called Humoring Mom

and Lily did it well.

Yesterday, it was somewhere between making the Farmer's Market bread for this morning, the kids eating their cucumbers, waiting for Jeff to get home from work, and being out of the way so Joyce could prepare the yard for her bonfire party (did I mention that I had been up for way over 24 hours at that time already?), I rushed through a photo shoot with Lily. What was the hurry? Well, in my sleepless,foggy mind it just had to be done right then. It was on my list, you know. I needed to cross it off.

I had seven skirts that had been waiting to be stored away for my Etsy shop but before that I needed to take pictures of them. Cross it off my list.

I am glad Lily was in a cheerful mood because I was being rush-y.

If I was willing to wait, I could have taken pictures outside of the yard but I decided the yard would be ok.

Not all the pictures turned out as clear as I wanted but my list was what mattered in my sleepy, foggy mind.

The Strawberry Shortcake skirt

The Cats and Dogs skirt.

See, doesn't the top I made look great with the skirt!!

I do like this close-up of the skirt.

What about the retro kitchen gadgets skirt? It turned out cute.

Ah, my little Babushka stacking dolls skirt. One of a kind,you know.

I do not really have a name for this skirt but it is very pretty.

I also made the top that lily is wearing in these last pictures.

A close up

I like how clear this picture is. Too bad the neighbors house and Jeff's car are in view. I will just pretend it is some special location...

I really like this fabric.

Pretty Zinnias.

This picture turned out the best.

Ok, picture taking checked off my list.

I feel better,now.

Thank you Lily for being a good sport!

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

YUM!!!

Angela, they did not last long after you dropped them off!!!

Thanks SO much!!

I think Odell (in the sunglasses) is making a quick eyeball count to see how many each person gets...

Ha ha, the girls are all waiting for Odell's go ahead.

Joel even abandoned his matchbox car playing for a bit.

What is not pictured: the big kids (almost all of them) standing around the kitchen counter eating their plate.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy

Now I Can Change My Thread...

Now that I have these three things finished I can finally change my sewing machine thread back to its standard white thread.

I just thought this retro kitchen fabric would be a cute little girls skirt. I know the fabric shouts, "apron! Not skirt!" but I have my own odd sense of little kid style.

As long as I was sewing with black thread, I used up this remnant piece of babushka fabric to practice making this style of skirt.

I made this little top to match the skirt laying underneath it. I made the top specifically for Lily to wear with the skirt when I photograph the skirt for my Etsy shop. My vision of the two together I think will look good but I have not had Lily actually try the pair on yet. I could have her wear a solid black top like she will the two skirts pictured above...I will see what looks better. Either way it was fun to make.

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy