The End of June, Questions and Projects

So, here it is the end of June.     What??????      Where did June go????      I guess it slipped on by just like January thru May did.    I really can't say that I wasn't busy, because I was.     I worked on several different craft projects.     I have a few pics to share of some of the items I have worked on recently.     Got a few more projects in the works.     I love staying busy and having fun in my craft room.

Oh yeah, I've still got my Herman Munster boot.     Don't have any idea how long I'll be wearing that contraption, and don't really care, if it means no surgery.     So, I'll be kicking around with it for as long as necessary.     One thing I have learned.     It is harder walking up hill in my Herman boot, that it is walking down hill.      And, it's not necessarily the best thing to chase a spider in.    Because, if said spider decides to run in the toe of said boot, it's not easy to get said boot off really quickly.     (Don't ask!)     So, I don't like spiders.     Did I say I don't like spiders?      So, as long as I am sporting this highly fashionable boot, I will be calling on my "honey" to stomp any spiders I see.    hahahaha       Oh, he has come to my rescue many, many times over the last, soon to be 36 years.     He is my hero!!!!!

I always talk to y'all from the place that I am at when I make a blog post.     I just try to share with y'all in a very real way.     I try to share with y'all what God is showing me in my own life.     I also know that what ever I am dealing with, I believe others are dealing with the same issues. 

With that said:    Where do you belong?     To whom do you belong?     Do you try to fit in?     Those are difficult questions with equally difficult answers.    We spend most of our lives wanting to fit in somewhere; trying to be a part of something.      Maybe a special club or a group that we have been trying to be a part of.     I have never met a person in my life that hasn't wanted to be a part of something, belong to something or belong to someone.     I have met self proclaimed loners.     Even they have a desire to be a part of something.    Most organizations have hoops to jump through and secret handshakes and a list longer than a giraffes neck of all the pre-requisites.     The sad thing is this, even after we become a part of the Kingdom of God, we still try to fit in to all these groups, clubs or organizations.    Why  is that?     Why do we have such a need to find our place and fit in and be a part of something temporary?     Why are we not focused on the bigger picture and being focused on what we are a part of, through the blood and resurrection of Jesus Christ?     So what, (so stinkin' what), if I don't measure up in the eyes of some people!    My husband says, they are people that "have their nose out of joint".     You know the people.    You have seen those people, more than likely you have encountered those people.    You know exactly what I'm talking about.   The ones who have a permanently upturned nose, because they look as if they smell something bad.    The sad thing is, the harder they try to exclude us, the harder we sometimes try to break their barrier.     Why?    Why?    Why have I spent so much of my time trying to find validation in groups, organizations, or individuals that wouldn't spare a cup of water for me if my life depended on it?     Why have I tried so hard to find self worth in the worldly?     I have asked myself that over and over only to come up without an answer.  

The fact is this.   The day I accepted Christ as my Savior, that is the day I became a part of the Heavenly Kingdom of God!!!!!!     That is day that all the worldly stuff should have taken a back seat. I say should have, simply because it didn't.   I was still looking for belonging in the temporal.    I had not realized yet, that I was a part of something that no one could ever exclude me from.    Jesus is the One that opened the door for me.    Jesus is One that welcomed me into His kingdom.     Jesus is the One that made it possible, for a sinner such as I, to be a part of all that God had given to Him.    Jesus is the One that died on the cross for me, then arose from the grave and thus opened the door to His Father's Kingdom, to sinners such as I.

So, after a few years of still looking for groups and cliques and organizations, God finally showed me that my self worth came from Him and ONLY Him and not from this world.     My self value is based on what Jesus Christ thinks of me!  Not on what the world thinks of me and all the flaws and faults and short comings that they can see.     But on what Jesus Christ alone thinks of me.    There is not a group or an organization on the face of the planet that is equal to the Kingdom of Heaven!!!!  

Jesus Christ alone loves me enough to provide a way for me to have a relationship with Him!!!    Who does that?????    Has anyone ever provided a way for you to have a relationship with them, and no strings attached?     Have they????     I haven't walked in anyone's shoes other than my own, but I dare say, that no one has done for you what Christ has done for you.     Jesus loves me right where I am and He helps me to get past where I was and directs me to better.     The day Christ came into my life, I was in the pits of hell.     No other person would meet me right where I was and provide a way out.     He did!!!!    Jesus did!!!!    Jesus pulled me from the pits of hell and has been cleaning me up ever since.     That will soon be 38 years ago.     Have I reached a state of perfection?    Absolutely NOT!!!!!!    I can confess that I am not where I was 38 years ago; but I am not where I want to be either.    I struggle every day to do better, for the cause of Christ!     I struggle every day to do better, for the sake of Christ!     I still have sin in my life; I recognize that, and I seek God on a daily basis to help me make it through another day without being an embarrassment to my Lord and Savior.    I struggle with my temper; I struggle with the words from my mouth; I struggle with fear; I struggle with anger; I struggle my thoughts and I struggle with sooooo much more.     I am not proud to admit that, not at all.     I would love for people to look at me and think, "Wow, she really has it all together", but that's not the case.     I don't!     And I must tell you, that when my friends have actually told me that; I am very quick to tell them otherwise!!!     Oh no, not me, I don't have anything all together!!!!!!      God is so good!!!!!    Praise God, He is NOT done with me!!!!!

I said all of that to say this to you; that if at any point while you was reading what I have written, you said to yourself, "that reminds me of me"; I want to tell you that God is not done with you either!!!!    If you desire better, He will help you achieve better!      All the clubs, groups and organizations of this life will never give you what God can give you!     Eternity with Him!!!!!    God will never ask us to do something that will go against His standard for our lives.      He just won't!!!    God will always provide a way out of every situation that the enemy of this world throws at us.     Unfortunately for me, I haven't always chosen God's way out of some of the situations I have been in, even recently.     I have learned from some of my mistakes.     At the end of the day, I am still a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven!     At the end of the day, I still belong to God, through the love of Jesus Christ, in and for my life!     At the end of the day, Jesus made the way for me and NO ONE else!!!   And, at the end of the day, I don't have to try to fit in, Jesus made me acceptable when He said, "It is finished."  I fit in because of Him!    SO DO YOU!!!!!!!    If you are His, you already fit in!    If you are not His yet, it's not to late.   Just ask Him to make Himself real to you in your life and I promise you, HE WILL!!!!!    Confess to Him that you are a sinner and that you WANT to change and that He is the change you need.     Repent of your sins.   That means acknowledging your former ways and regretting what you have done or haven't done.    Then ask Him to fill your heart and soul with Himself and to lead, guide and direct you the rest of the days of your life.    Friends......it AIN'T easy!!!!!     It's not!     There are lots of people that will be wanting to see you fall and will be happy when you do.    There will probably be people in your former life that you may need to walk away from.  There was for me.    But, there will be more people that will be rooting you on.     There will be people that will be pulling you along, and there will be people that will be praying for you.

So..........I ask you these questions again.    Where do you belong?   (In the Kingdom of God!)     To whom do you belong?   (God!)     Do you try to fit in?    (You don't have to try to fit in in the Kingdom of God, if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, You belong, you already fit in!)    I hope you have answers now that maybe you didn't have before you started reading this.    Just know that God loves you more than you can ever begin to imagine and your self esteem and freedom comes from Him alone!!!!

So, what about some of those projects?     Ok, lets do it!

Ok, so the first picture is of my dragonfly clips I made.   I cut two dragonflies and layered them and dotted them with glitter glue and then adhered them to the mini clothes pins.    They are so cute!!!!!    I just love them!

These are some post in note holders I made.   They turned out really nice and I liked them a lot.

This is what they look like open.   It is really easy to replace the post it note pad when it is used up.

This is an altered picture frame.    I went to a mystery craft event at the UT Extension Office and this was one of the crafts.   To paint the frame how ever we wanted too.     I got my frame really muddled looking at the event, but I done some more on it when I home and got it looking like I had wanted and then I put one of my stamped and die cut images in the frame and decorated it with some jewels.   I like how it turned out, a lot.

I had a bridal shower to go to at church and I made the bride a tag as a keepsake.   That is what I have started doing and they really love the keepsake.   This is the front of it.

This is the back of the keepsake tag.

This was just a stamped image that I water-colored.    It's not great, but I was kinda happy with it.   

This is a tag that I made for a friend.    I was sooooo happy with the way it turned out.     I just love when the final image looks like the initial image in my head.    This did, and I have to say it really is beautiful.

This is another tag that I made for another friend, and as with the other one, this one came out like I had hoped it would.     It looks just like the image in my mind and it too, is beautiful.

 This is an artist trading card of a half face.    I pencil drew it and then sprayed a fixative on it and then sprayed different colors of Lindsay's Stamp Gang on it and then stamped it with a wonderful sentiment.

This is my state flower artist trading card.      I stamped the image and then used my water color pencils to color it.    After coloring it, I just sprayed it with water and swirled it around and let it dry.    I then colored the flower with clear Wink of Stella, which gives it a wonderful shimmer and then I stamped the word Iris on it.    I really enjoyed doing this atc.

This final project was My favorite scripture artist trading card.    The paper itself was a gift from a friend at Christmas.    She had made the paper by doing the shaving cream with different spots of ink and dipping your paper on the colored shaving cream.    She sent me a stack of these beautiful papers and I knew it was for a special project, I just didn't know what the project would be.    I stamped one of my fave Bible verses and then added a feather trimmed with a gold thread and a ruby stone.     I also put a cross on it.   I think it turned out really great.

So, there you have it some of what has kept me busy for the last little bit.    I hope and pray that y'all enjoyed seeing some of my projects.    None of it is really fancy, but I had a fun with all of it and look forward to more fun in the near future, maybe tomorrow.    hahaha

Ladybug, Sweetpea loves you a lot and looks forward to visiting again!  

As I leave y'all this evening, I ask y'all these questions again:     Where do you belong?     To whom do you belong?     Do you try to fit in?      I hope you have clear answers to those questions and that you know that God desires for you to spend the rest of your life in His watch care and then enjoy eternity in His presence.     God loves you!!!    Have a great night and a wonderful, safe 4th of July weekend coming up this weekend.    For those of us that live in the United States of America, let's remember what that day actually means.    I pray, that we as a nation would put God first in everything we do.    In order to do that, we must give God first place in our individual, every day lives.    I have a friend that says, "make good choices".     I pray that we will make good choices in every aspect of our lives.

God loves y'all and so do I.    hugs, Patty

Where have I been??????

What a question to ask, huh?    Well, I asked myself that too, only to come up with no answer.    It just seems like at times, we have to just get still and calm some of the noise of life that goes on around us and life seems to be getting louder every day.     So, I reckon I just went internal for a while.   Certainly not meaning to ignore my blog or those of y'all who are faithful readers and followers.    So, I do apologize for my absence, but, I really needed the time away from it.    I hope to be back with fresh new insight and fun crafts and more stories and just all that you have seen here in the past, only better, maybe.    The funny thing is, I have a blog post that has been sitting in "draft form" for almost 2 months and I have looked at it many times and just haven't been able to hit the "publish" button.     I will go ahead and post it at some point, but I just felt the need to do a totally new post today instead.  

One thing I would like to remind myself and all of y'all from time to time, is to remember those around us that are hurting.    It just seems the list is growing exponentially on a daily basis.    Friends have lost loved ones; friends are dealing with sickness, surgery and recovery; a sweet cousin just getting over major surgery; another special cousin just getting back to work after major surgery; friends have lost jobs; friends have lost homes due to fire; all the unrest going on across the nation and world..............and the list goes on and on.    I also have to say that there is a lot of good stuff going on in friends lives also.    New babies are always that special gift from God and when there is twins, that is a double blessing.     So congrats, to a long distance friend that is enjoying the double blessing of Grandma!    One of my cousins just became a wonderful Grandmother and I'm so thrilled for her!    Another special friend becoming a Grandma thru her daughter being a foster parent.    Friends with new jobs.    Friends making plans for new change coming their way.     Congratulations to all for the great things going on!!!!!     Praise God!!!!!      Folks, if you are not on the list in any way, if you have nothing heavy going on in your circumstance right now, thank God for that blessing, because that's what it is, a blessing.     On the other hand, if you are in one of these circumstances or anything that I didn't mention, I challenge you to just hang on.    God knows about your circumstance.     He is going before you even as I type and making the way for your circumstance to change for the better.     But, until "better" gets here, remember our friend Paul, and all his writings that was inspired directly by God.

In the midst of our circumstance or our season at hand, you and I can be content and have joy and peace while going thru it.  That is what Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me" is all about.   It's not about having bigger, better anything, or moving on up to bigger house or better job or nicer car or fancier clothes; but being satisfied and joy filled and contented with what we have in the circumstance or season of our lives, by leaning on what Jesus Christ has done for you and I; who, by the way, is much bigger than any situation or circumstance you or I can ever be in. When looking at this verse, and all scripture in reality, we must look at in the context in which it was written.   Paul was speaking about adverse times when he spoke these profound words.  He wasn't speaking of the good times; moving on up the corporate ladder and finding his joy because he was on a higher rung today than he was yesterday; and being able to wave down at his buddies as he left them choking on his smoke as he speed-ed on up that ladder.  Not hardly, at all!!!!!!   Paul was coming from a place of having been in chains and behind bars and little food and being led from here to there by people who had no regards for him, all for the sake of Christ.    He had found the key to contentment.   And that was leaning in on his source of strength, Jesus Christ!!!!   My friend, if you don't have joy and peace and contentment in your life, let me just say this, the only place you will ever find it is in the same place Paul found it, Jesus Christ!     The world just can't offer what it knows nothing about.     Unrest, tension, and problems can only breed unrest, tension and problems!     When we desire better for ourselves, we must go directly to the source of "better", and that is Jesus Christ!!!!     So, y'all, lets go to the source, Jesus Christ, and lift all those around us to the Throne of mercy and grace and thank God for all the blessings and ask Him to help those going through difficult circumstances to just hang on, because God is already in our tomorrow going ahead of each one of us working our days out!     Thank you Father God for all the blessings!!!!!     Thank you Father God for knowing all about each one of us, and loving us anyway!!!!!!    Thank you Father God for your mercy and grace that you so freely give!!!!!!      I look forward to seeing how God is going to work in the tests of our lives and turn those tests into "test"imonies, all for HIS glory!!!!!     Praise God and Halleluiah!!!!

While I have been absent, I have still been doing things, crafty wise, that is.    There's always something going on.     I've worked on an ongoing project of making bookmarks for church and that has slowed down for now.     It has been a most pleasurable time while making them and I loved every second of it.   God is so good and He has blessed my efforts and for that, I am so very thankful.    Some of us at church has been working on some craft projects that we will be selling in what we are calling, "The Country Store", first annual fundraiser.    It has been a great time of getting together and crafting.   Lots of fun and laughter and fellowship has been had by all who was blessed to be a part of it.    We all have been working on projects at home too.    I can't wait to see what all we come up with to put in The Country Store.   We pray for God's blessings on the efforts that have been put forth for His glory!  

In the midst of all of this fun and happy stuff going on, I have been dealing with, or should I say, not dealing with very well, an issue with my foot.    I have got achilles tendonitis in the back of my heel on my left foot, making it almost impossible to walk.    Ibuprofen and rice ice bags have been my best friends for the past six weeks.    I finally got in to see the podiatrist this week and walked out with something on my foot that I have lovingly called a "Herman Munster" cast off shoe.     I really hope he doesn't come looking for it, because I will NOT let him have it back till I'm done with it.   hahahaha    

I have had a great learning experience with this so called "Herman" boot.     The Dr actually told me that I could take the boot off when I am setting down.     Ok, I can do that, right?     Well, yes I can, easy enough.    But, I am not to be walking without it.    I have been in enough pain that I don't WANT to be walking with it.    So, I take my boot off while setting down.     Guess what, my bladder does not know anything about this Herman boot, nor does it care, not even a little bit.     So when mother nature calls, I commence to putting my boot on while talking to myself and encouraging myself that I can get this boot on and make the call of nature in time.     I feel like Houdini getting in and out of this contraption, really!     So the lesson learned is that my bladder does NOT know that it's relief depends solely on me getting this boot on, quickly!    So, while sitting down, I keep said boot on, because it IS impossible to put it on quickly enough to satisfy my finicky bladder.    hahaha     Ok, I'm sure that wasn't what you wanted to hear about today, so for that I apologize.   Just wanted to share a little bit of my "I Love Lucy" moments.    Sometimes I feel like I am in a sit com, with no viewers (thank God) hahahaha!    So, I just wanted to share a funny moment of my day.    In all seriousness, I would appreciate prayers on this matter, because if the boot does not help, surgery will be in the works, and I really do not want that.     So I appreciate your prayers.    God is good and I believe that He will take care of this.

Anyway, I have a pic or two to share with you before I call it a night and put my boot to bed.   hahahaha

This is some of the bookmarks that I have made with a fish and starfish theme.

Some more of the sand dollar bookmarks.   I love the the sand dollars, they make me happy.

This is a "flip flop" album and journal.   It is made with 5 sheets of 12 x 12 heavy cardstock with lots of scoring and folding and then cutting pieces of designer card stocks and papers.    It is an awesome album to make and so much fun!

This is the same one, just the other side, decorated with lots of beautiful designer cardstock and papers.   I just love this and may make some more later on.

Anyway, I just wanted to show you that I have been crafting and I do have a lot more to share later on.   Keep your eyes peeled, because I will be back with some special shares that I can't wait to show y'all.

Ladybug, Sweetpea loves you and hopes to get back up for a visit real soon.

Well, I think I have kept y'all here just about long enough for now.     I hope y'all have read and seen something here today that has tickled your funny bone and I hope and pray that y'all will come back soon for another visit.    In the mean time, always remember that God loves y'all  and so do I.     hugs, Patty