Life's Summer Storms

Good Afternoon from the Scraptuary,

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning how to dance in the rain.

Wow 5 months since my last post and not much to show for it. I am very grateful to you my followers for sticking with me and not giving up... thank you from the bottom of my heart. The storms of my absence were not very entertaining so I won't bore you with them today. What I will tell you though is the SDK's Scraptuary has a new plan and purpose to encourage and inspire creativity all week long. Would you like to know the plan? Ok but first I have to give kudos to my creative twin Kris for challenging me to use the talent I have been given by God to the best of my ability oxoxoxo <3 ya sis.  And to my Divine Sisters who inspire each and everyday through the Word of Christ <3ox<3ox<3

The Scraptuary will have a topic for each day of the week beginning today......

FunDay Monday's

~~featuring various examples of fun ideas that I have done in my 20+ years of crafting 

UseDay Tuesday's

~~the challenge will be to use scraps, embellishments, crafting supplies, etc. that have been collecting dust just sitting around the Scraptuary

Wordless Wednesday's

~~a pic only of what inspires me to create either from the net or my personal collection of photos

Thankful Thursday's

~~a day to share my thankfulness with you for my family, my friends, my life, my talent etc.

Friendship Friday's

~~everyone's fav day of the week and my fav place to share how to encourage friendship thru cardmaking

There you have it folks my ambitious plan to encourage and inspire creativity with the 10's of you who follow my blog.  If you would like to participate in one of the days please email me and let me know, I love to listen and learn from others creativity as well. Until we visit again, have a blessed day :)

@>--%----God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. 

Use them well to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10 NLT----%--<@

While I've Been Away...

Hello Everyone :) I have missed communicating with you, have you missed me? Life the past couple of months has been a complicated jumbled mess...health issues, loosing loved ones, and dealing with the hand God has dealt me mentally, physically, and spiritually...it's time for me to call and join the game again and not loose sight of the eternal jackpot He has in store for me. Please forgive my non communication. Instead of keeping it to myself I need to be sharing with you what life for me is like. Please pray for me as I try to get better about posting my thoughts and goings on of my simply complicated life as a daughter of Christ, wife, mom, sister, sister in Christ, soon to be Aunt, and friend...Deal me in JC, it's time to live the hand you continue to give me on a daily basis :)

During my blog absence, a new dear friend introduced me to knitting. She tried to teach me how to knit via Skype and it didn't go very well. I ended up using my fingers instead of the hook to do my first chain :S Well I was determined to figure this craft skill out so while at the store one day I came across a small round loom. The loom instructions said anyone could make knitted flowers quickly and easily. At first I had my doubts but I brought it home and played with it. Before I knew it I was knitting flowers and falling head over heels for any kind of unique and novelty yarn.  I was making the flowers everywhere, before church service, after church service, in the car waiting for my girls after school, even at Starbucks. Don't get me wrong I still love all things paper, but now I have found another fiber outlet that I enjoy very much. 

This past Saturday was the main reason for me knitting the over abundance of blooms. My oldest daughter Chelsea had the honor of attending her first Masquerade Church Prom. She was sooooooo excited and had dreams of a beautiful dress,shoes, the perfect up do for her hair, mani & pedi, accessories, the masqurade mask to match the dress, and even the after party outfit for the lock-in before she purchased the ticket. She had it all figured out except for one lil' thing.....where would the funds for this memorable event come from?  The first plan she tried was babysitting and that raised a small portion to get her started. Then the thought bulb bloomed when she saw the flowers I had been making. She asked if I could make her some headbands with them and she wore them to school, church, and out and about. The reactions she got from friends were awesome so we decided thru prayer to sell as many of them as we could to raise all the money she needed.

We knew it was going to take work getting them out there. I was encouraged to open an online store on Artfire.com and posted them there. Then God blessed our plan even more when the manager at my local Family Dollar invited us to sell them in front of the store one Saturday morning. Our faith kept blooming faster than I could make the flowers. But the overwhelming encouragement came from our brothers and sisters at church. To make a long story short she earned enough for her ticket and everything she hoped and dreamed for :) Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all those who donated to her dream <3 Thank you Sonya for taking this beautiful pic of her <3

 

My daughter is beautiful on the outside but nothing can compare to the inner beauty of faith, trust, and love she has for our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you God for blessing me with the honor of being her temporary parent to such a beautiful soul :) 

Thanks be to God for making her dreams come true, Amen :) Please come back to check out the pics I will post tomorrow. For tonight it's time to turn in and give my body a rest so that I may enjoy every blessing God has in store for me tomorrow @>---%-------

New Year, New Love, New Me

Good afternoon everyone :)  Today is such a B E A Utiful day here in SA. God's Sonlight is really shining down on us today.  So far this year has been the best year of change I have had in a very longggggg time.  Let me rewind for a bit to explain...


Last year for me was filled with pain and health issues. Now as we all know there are different types of pain, physical, mental, spiritual and I experienced them all in one year. Truth be known some of them had been building for many years and the changes came on so subtley that I didn't notice.  My family and friends had been concerned and were noticing things ,but honestly I didn't pay attention. See I am a person who LOVES to make people happy and making friends comes easy to me.  Little by little I started withdrawing from others, not participating in the simplest of everyday things.  I knew something was different but did not understand why until I followed the advice of dear friends.  They recommended I change doctors and do whatever she said to get better especially when I didn't feel like following through.  Advice is just that until you put it into action and I am very happy I did.  God blessed me with a doctor that is a member of my congregation and she really knows her stuff.  After evaluating me and sending me for numerous tests the answers became clear.  Apparently for years the dark storm of depression had been building engulfing me so that I was losing sight of God's light in my life.  When she explained to me that it was nothing to be ashamed of and there are medical and lifestyle changes that help , that's when I knew this year was going to be different.  


Well what about the changes you ask...since being on the proper medication and taking it faithfully I have lost 16 lbs. so far and prayerfully will loose ALOT more.  After being so seditary for so long in the dark, I'm up and moving.  As the day goes on His light becomes brighter and brighter.  I find joy now in doing everyday domestic goddess duties rejoicing that I have a family and friends to serve and take care of.  Somedays still get a lil' cloudy but but they are a temporary emotional front that will blow out as quickly as it blows in. 


My new love is also part of my healing process...drumroll please <><><> Introducing Snuffulupacus Nibbles Kalinec<><><> the newest member of our family....

My husband made it VERY clear that he is my puppy and I am fully embracing it.  He is 8 weeks old and a mix of Pekignese, Poodle, and Shiht Zu which is perfect for my allergies.  He hopefully will get no bigger than 15-20 lbs. max which makes him the perfect lapdog size.  I am smitten.  I am being reminded what it's like to take care of a baby which motivates me to function during the day.  Yes he is chewing on everything, yes we have had accidents in the house but those parts of his lil' character that will change with the proper training. 

"Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong." Hebrews 5:14 NLT

The title of this entry is a new year, new love, and new me.  Well the new me is still revolving and changing on a daily basis.  One big change has been my eyesight.  After battling blurred vision, headaches, and believe it or not nausea, it was determined that I needed glasses.  Apparently the sight in my left eye has been way off for quite sometime.  So another drumroll please<><><>

 

Whatcha think? My kiddos say they make me look younger...

  I turned 40 last September with hesitation of what the year would hold for me.  Little did I know that God intends for this year to be my year and I'm not planning on disappointing Him.  Thanks for taking a moment to visit me and read my thoughts.  Drop by often for each day is a new day and a new opportunity to become who you are meant to be.

Enough Procrastinating On with Initiating ...

First things first I need to apologize to you my dear neglected blog and it's followers, how I have not given you any respect for more months than I care to count, so here my fingers are begging for forgiveness with each click of the keyboard keys. This year will be different because I am different and changing daily...thanks to God chiseling away at my character and helping develop lil'ole me into the woman He wants me to be.

So here we go...2011 here I come...the year that I finally finish things that I start such as live and apply my quiet times, projects, housework, getting healthy, etc... just to name a few.  Last year for me was full of twists and turns, ups and downs, waking up on the rightside of the bed and sometime during the day falling off the wrongside.  I am excited to find out what God has laid out ahead of me.  I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was 13, somehow this is very similiar... I'm holding on with both hands right now but eventually I hope to be looking up and screaming "look daddy no hands" peddling furiously fueled by faith.

Over the next few days, months, dare I say year I will share my prayers, my projects, my opinions about this curious thing called life, and anything else God needs me to be open with...I would love if you would join me for the twists and turns, ups and downs, rightsides and wrongsides and everything else in between...hang on it's gonna be a bumpy ride :)