More bookbinding adventures

I haven't made any books in a while (not since I was home last time) but I had this old cookbook that was my great grandmother's on my mom's dad's side. Fun story - did you know my great-grandma used to babysit Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon? Cool, right? And my grandpa (her son) didn't want to play with him because he was too little!

As you can see, it was pretty tattered. This cookbook was published in the 1930's and by all indication was used for decades. (The pages you see here are the blank ones at the back, used for writing in her own recipes.) In addition to writing in many of her own recipes, she collected many from newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, etc, and either pasted them inside or folded them up and stuck them between the pages. I found a newspaper article from 1972 talking about how useful computers were proving to be in police work! It also advertised Cuticura, which is a salve I use in South Africa but can't find here in the States. Instead of removing all these tidbits, I decided to bind them into the book.

This is by no means any kind of professional restoration. I used regular contact paper and packing tape, which probably would turn the pages yellow or something if they weren't already yellow and stained with decades of food splatters. I started by taking the covers off. The binding had fallen off long ago and been replaced with packing tape, which wasn't doing much good at all. Then I cut the signatures apart. A lot of them were still ok - if rather brittle - but the ones at the front and back of the book were falling out and falling apart. I encased them in contact paper and folded them over to create new signatures. I also created new page sections from clipped recipes, index cards, etc by creating "pages" with contact paper - sticking the scraps between two pieces of contact paper and folding them over to create new signatures.  

For the sections where the stitching holes hadn't been ripped out and weren't too badly damaged, I reinforced the folds and edges with contact paper (and sometimes packing tape).

I punched holes in the cover and began sewing everything together. This page has an excellent article on the mechanics of bookbinding.

I used waxed linen thread from Hobby Lobby, and regular needles with holes large enough to accommodate it. I broke several needles!

I cut a strip of leather and bound it to the edge of the book. I unfortunately didn't take photos of this step or any of the stitches but it wasn't too hard. I marked the design on the wrong side of the leather and used an ice pick to poke holes in the leather and the book. Dad has an awl somewhere but I have no idea where!

I was quite happy with the result! The spine is flexible yet sturdy. All of the most fragile pages are pretty securely protected, and most of the pages have contact paper/tape on the edges to keep them from ripping when I flip through the book.

I will still have to be careful with it, but I don't have to keep the whole thing in a Ziploc anymore to keep the pieces all together! Hopefully I will be able to use it for years to come!

I had a bit of leather left, so I made this little thing too:

Winter Update

Hey everyone!

Sorry, you haven't heard much from me lately on this blog (besides the occasional crochet pattern). This is mostly because I'm still at home and don't have a whole lot of new things to say.

I'm currently ALMOST 3/4 of the way to my monthly support goal (if you see on the thermometer graphic to the side of this blog). When I hit $1000/month, I am going to book my return ticket to South Africa. I have had a lot of one-time gifts, and I will trust God to bring in the rest when I need it. I have to return for a little while in late April 2018 (next year) to renew my visa, but hopefully that trip doesn't take too long!

As always, if any of you have more questions about monthly support or how it works, don't hesitate to ask...my email is abigailcaple@gmail.com.

I have been doing my best to keep busy at home with visiting friends and speaking at churches, working on my crochet business, and sewing/doing other crafts. Here are some things I have made recently:

Dresses,

dresses, 

and more dresses,

as well as these quilts (no, most of these aren't going back with me...I don't have THAT much space! But the dresses are!)

It's been nice to spend lots of time with people too - my grandma, as she's getting older (and isn't so happy about me moving away...), and friends farther away - I've been blessed to be able to travel some while I've been home.

Making Christmas cookies with my grandma

Cheese!

Visiting a friend with adorable puppies!

She has lots of chickens too. I miss my chickens! I have lost two to snakes (or who knows what) while I've been gone.

And, of course, time in the States wouldn't be complete without frequent trips to the thrift store. No, I didn't buy these beauties! Ha ha!

It was nice to spend the holidays at home. We had Thanksgiving at my aunt's. Isn't this a beautiful table?!

Christmas was fun too, with lots of decorations.

All these nativity sets! Yes, that is one made up of bunnies!

Sweet baby Z is the only one of the babies I left who is still in our care! We have had a new bunch of kiddos come in since I've been gone. He's so big now - he just turned one and has started walking. As you can see he is enjoying his mango - I'm jealous that I'm missing mango season!

So, that is my life here in Ohio - it hasn't been super exciting, but I wanted to write an update so people didn't think this had become entirely a craft blog! ;) Hopefully I will return to South Africa soon so there will be a lot more baby pictures then!

Crochet Fuzzy Sheep Hat Pattern

I designed this hat for my sweet niece Sarah who loves her SHEEP!!! I made her a stuffed sheep from this adorable pattern and I wanted to crochet a hat to match!

This pattern makes a hat with a 20" circumference.

I used Red Heart Buttercup yarn in white. I found it at Joann Fabrics, but it's probably other places too. It's REALLY fuzzy, so pay attention to your stitches so you don't get lost! (I kind of did get lost, a lot, but the fuzziness makes it pretty forgiving if you mess up.)

Abbreviations

Ch - chain

Sc - single crochet

Hdc - half double crochet

Dc - double crochet

St - stitch

Sl st - slip stitch

Rep - repeat

Rnd - round

Dec - decrease

Sk - skip

Hat

Rnd 1 - Create a magic ring. Ch 2, 9 dc in ring, sl st to close

Rnd 2 - Ch 2, 2 dc in each dc, sl st

Rnd 3 - Ch 2, *2 dc in first, dc in second, rep from * around, sl st

Rnd 4 - Ch 2, *2 dc in first, dc in next 2 st, rep from * around, sl st

Rnd 5 - Ch 2, *2 dc in first, dc in next 3 st, rep from * around, sl st

Rnd 5 - Ch 2, *2 dc in first, dc in next 4 st, rep from * around, sl st

Rnd 6 - Ch 2, *2 dc in first, dc halfway around, 2 dc in next, dc to end of round, sl st

Rnds 7-9 - Ch 2, dc around, sl st

Rnd 10 - Ch 2, dc dec, dc halfway around, dc dec, dc to end of round, sl st

Rnd 11 - Ch 2, dc around, sl st

Earflaps 

Row 1 - Ch 1, hdc 10, turn

Row 2 - Ch 1, sk st, hdc 6, hdc dec, turn

Row 3 - Ch 1, hdc across (8), turn

Row 4 - Ch 1, sk st, hdc 4, hdc dec, turn (6)

Row 5 - Ch 1, sk st, hdc 2, hdc dec, turn (4)

Row 6 - Ch 1, hdc dec (2x), fasten off.

Weave in ends. Cut yarn for braids (I used 9 strands for each braid), pull through earflaps, double over and braid.

Ears

Rnd 1 - Make magic ring, ch 1, sc 7 in ring, work in rounds without joining.

Rnd 2 - 2 sc in each sc 

Rnds 3-10 - Sc around

Finishing - Sl st to finish. Fold ears in half and attach to hat above earflaps.

November Update

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to write and let you all know of a few updates and catch up on what has been happening here in Ohio.

I was originally scheduled to leave next Tuesday (yikes!) but there is no way that is happening yet! I debated between changing my tickets and just canceling them and eventually rebooking them - which would avoid going through all of this again if I still haven't raised enough support. However, it cost $50 to change - a one-time allowance - and would have cost $200 to cancel and rebook (presuming I could have found new tickets for the same price, on short notice). In light of this, I decided to just change the tickets for now, and if it doesn't happen, at least I'm only out $50.

All of which is to say, I am now planning on leaving January 19th, Lord willing. Two months seemed like a long time when I was originally planning my time at home, but now I know it will go by in the blink of an eye, especially over the busyness of the holidays. It will be so nice to be at home with my family this Christmas! I can't believe we've had snow already. It is so pretty when I'm inside. I love watching it fall and drinking hot cocoa and working on crafts. I do NOT like going outside in it, even to the mailbox! Ha ha!

I know I have informed many of you that I get 100% of the donations given through 1Hope (the link on the side of my blog). This has changed a little and they now take out 7% to cover administrative costs. It's good that it will be able to help them help us, and it really isn't much compared to what some ministries take out.

I am currently at 61% of my monthly funding. If you might be interested in supporting me, or if you know anyone who would like to hear more about our ministry, please contact me at abigailcaple@gmail.com. I'm so thankful for everyone in my life that has supported and partnered with me in this ministry so far!

Prayer requests

 - That God will lay on people's hearts a burden for orphan care

- That I will have wisdom to know how to best spend the rest of my time at home

- For the rest of my support to come in so I can return quickly to South Africa

- That I will trust in God's timing

- For God to raise up more foster parents in and around Pretoria!

Love to you all!

Auntie Abbie

Thoughts on foster care

I've been thinking a lot the last couple of days about the desperate need for more foster parents in general and in South Africa in particular.

With very few exceptions (extreme behavior issues would be one example), kids DO NOT belong in institutions. They belong in families.

I might sound a bit hypocritical when I also say that I work in a baby home. Regrettably, due to the way the process works in South Africa and the lack of families available, children often end up in a facility like ours for a while instead of going to a family right from the start (which would be the best option). We work very hard to have a low caregiver/baby ratio, keep babies with the same caregivers, and give them a very high standard of care. And most importantly of all, we work and do what we can to place babies in a family environment as soon as possible. It's not all up to us, indeed, in some cases none of it is up to us, but we do what we can to work with the social workers and the system in South Africa. We serve as a temporary landing place for babies while they find a permanent place. So that's why we aren't an orphanage and why we can't (and wouldn't want to) keep babies for years. We are technically a place of safety.

In SA, kids don't usually go into a foster home first thing - they go to a place of safety. Later on they are transferred to something more long-term if they need to remain in care. A family can be a place of safety, and later a foster home, but again - there aren't enough families to deal with the influx of kids who need homes. 

We CAN set up a baby home to be a place of safety. We CAN minister to birth moms, but we can't always fix their situations. Often they have given up their babies for reasons that go beyond not having enough money - a lot of times despite the support someone can provide externally, a birth mom still has to make her own choice to accept help and be responsible. We CAN provide information to families who want to foster and adopt. We CAN raise awareness about foster care. (We are hoping to do a conference this year!) We CAN pray, pray, pray. We CAN write blog posts that attempt to convince you that becoming a foster parent is a great idea! ;) What we CAN'T do is twist people's arms to get them to become foster families!

It takes a lot of strength to foster. It takes a lot of strength to adopt as well, but fostering presents a unique challenge in that you get attached to a child that you may or may not have to up. Sometimes you think you might keep them forever and at the last minute everything changes. Sometimes (like me) you KNOW you won't get to keep them forever, and know that is even for the best, and you STILL get attached and it's STILL hard. I have had a little one know me as Mama and stay with me and have had my heart break in two as I watched him leave, happy for him and grieving for myself at the same time. (I regret nothing.) I can still feel how so many of our babies felt in my arms. I think about them and wonder how they are doing and how big they have gotten. I haven't attached to all of them, but I have attached to a lot of them. It's different from working in a daycare because you know these babies don't have anyone, no mama to come get them at the end of the day, no one to call to come get them when they are sick, no anxious parent to hand them back to when they start crying. They are ours. I grow to love them in a special way, but I can only imagine how hard it must be to give up a child you were hoping to adopt and keep in your family forever.

Foster care is hard. It's really hard. It's not what a lot of people envision their family to be. They want permanency, stability, certainty. Dealing with birth moms is hard. Dealing with social services is hard. Attaching to a child can sometimes be hard, especially if they are older. Maybe I'm not qualified to comment extensively on how hard this all is since I haven't officially done foster care, but I know it to be true, and I wouldn't want to sugarcoat it. There's a lot of happy, sweet, fluffy stuff about orphan care floating around out there, and even though plenty of people will assure you it isn't all fluff, sometimes I think that's what the church hears. Help babies! Rescue orphans! God adopted us! All great, but orphan care involves a lot of suffering and we can't forget that. We know that children come from hard places and we expect that suffering, but sometimes we might forget just how much we might suffer and grieve while carrying out God's call.

On the other hand, we can't fear suffering. (Well, ok, we can, and anyone with a brain probably doesn't like the idea much.) But we can't let that fear stop us from doing what God might ask us to do. He might ask you to say yes to adoption. (Maybe, maybe not, everyone has a different calling.) But He might also ask you to say yes to the "maybe yes, maybe no." He might ask you to let go of a beloved child who calls you "mama." He might ask you to persist through multiple court dates and waiting, waiting, waiting, and unexpected biological family, and visits with difficult birth moms, and to show them Christ's love when it is the last thing you want to do. You might be afraid of saying yes to the wrong thing and having to live with the consequences. That does happen. But you can still make the best decision you can knowing that God is sovereign over it.

There are many things He might ask you to say yes to when it comes to orphan care. He asked me to say yes to moving halfway across the planet, to finding a new family, to working in a baby home, to NOT being in a position to adopt right now, even though I would love to do so - even when I see kids in desperate need of families every day. He asks me to say goodbye a LOT. That isn't easy. But like I said, I regret nothing.

One of the hardest things is to know (and sometimes watch) kids go into institutions long-term because there are not enough families. I can trust God's sovereignty, but I can also do everything I can to help when it comes to recruiting people! Whether you are in the U.S. or South Africa, please take some time to pray about whether there might be something to which God is asking you to say yes.

And please...don't be afraid. God is so good, and so beautiful, and so sufficient, even in the midst of suffering. He will enable you to bear whatever burden He calls you to bear...He will give you the strength, and joy and love in unexpected places.