The Coiled Rope Bowl

The ladies at Maya Made and Soulemama have been making these wonderful rope bowls for weeks now.  

I finally took the plunge and made up one myself.  

I have a feeling there will be many more in the works!

These wonderful bowls are so simple to make!  

All it takes is some cotton braid clothesline, a spool of thread, 

and your sewing machine.  

I found this clothes line at Walmart for just under two bucks.

Begin your bowl by coiling the rope around itself and begin stitching using the zig-zag stitch on your machine.  Just keep coiling and stitching, lining up the rope edges in the center of your presser foot to make sure your stitch catches both edges of the rope.

When the bottom of the bowl is as big as you like, start tilting your work up a bit.  The angle of your tilt will shape the bowl.

Just keep sewing until the bowl is your desired shape and size.

You can add handles, a loop for hanging, 

change thread colors, even dye the rope.

There are truly endless possibilities in crafting these beauties! 

I will not stop until I have a basket for EVERYTHING!

Confirmed in the Spirit #2!

Last week our second son, Kyle, was blessed with

 the Sacrament of Confirmation.  

I didn't let him wash his forehead that night because the chrism smelled so heavenly!

We are so thankful to our beloved Fr. Ty, the Confirmation class teachers, and most of all Kyle's grandmother who was his sponsor.

Our Bishop retires this year (at the grand age of 75!),

so we were very happy that Daniel and John Paul 

were able to serve Mass for him.  

He's been the only Bishop they've ever known 

since moving to this diocese seven years ago.

It is (an old) Catholic tradition that the Bishop give the Confirmand a slap to the cheek after his blessing to remind them that they should always be ready to suffer anything, even death, for the sake of Christ.

Two boys Confirmed and neither one of them 

received a good smacking!

I'm thinking I might need to take this tradition on myself.  

Watch out, John Paul, your next in line!