.......Part of the Family, A Project and a Tip

Good afternoon Y'all!!!    I trust that where ever y'all are today that it is a blessed day and that you can say that you are happy to be a part of such a magnificent day!!!!    Not so good, you say.    Well, if your are reading this and was able to get out of bed today, then that makes it a pretty good day, doesn't it.    I got up with rain this morning, but the sun has shone just beautifully today.    The wind is blowing quit a bit, but not like it did late last week and over the weekend.    Every day was a bad hair day.    I have let my hair grow out and it is now hanging on my shoulders and back a bit, and boy does the wind whip it around.    I had forgotten about that fact when I started letting it grow out some. But, I guess I'll suffer through it for a while anyway.   I'm kinda enjoying the longer messy look, not that that was the look I was going for, but it seems to be the best I can do with it for myself.   Even back years ago when my hair was really long, I couldn't do much with it then, but I do even less with it now.     Maybe a perm to help it hold curl better?    Hummmmmm.........we'll see.     But....if the wind is blowing where you are, just hang on to your hair, otherwise you might end up looking like you have a tumbleweed on top of your head!!!      Hey, ask me how I know!!!   hahahahaha

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I have a project I wanted to share with y'all today.    I love crafting and I love recycling.    But I really love it when I can craft and recycle at the same time!!!    I bet y'all do too!!!    What did I do?    Well, I took some cracker boxes that was headed for the land fill somewhere and I turned it into a "priceless" necklace and earrings!   I did!!!!     hehehe    I took 3 layers of cracker box, aka-chipboard, and xyroned the layers together to make it a good, thick, sturdy, beefy, layer.    Then I searched thru my sizzix steel ruled dies and found one that was good for jewelry pieces.    I haven't been able to find the one I was looking for, gotta dig deeper for it I guess.    The sizzix dies will easily cut 3 layers, or more because they are the thicker, heavier dies..    The die that I chose was rectangles. It cut 4 or 5 different sized rectangles in one run thru the machine, then I took the largest of the rectangles and cut them in two and it made good sized pieces to work with.   I used the smaller of the rectangles as is, to make the earrings.

The first few pictures are of the raw chipboard.

 This is the shape I used for them.   The larger piece was twice the length.

 This shows a pretty good shot of how thick it is.

So, here it is.    What do you think?   I love how it turned out.    I put a base of a mixture of paint on for the first and base coat.   It was a mixture of metallic acrylic paints.    Then I commenced to put micro beads of different colors on.   I sprinkled on a couple of different micro glitters and added a few seed beads and then some gold flakes of a large flake glitter.

I will share with you another little secret tip.    Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone, but the micro beads and little thingies that look little hex nuts are from the Dollar Tree, in the nail polish area.   A couple of summers ago, they had tiny little bottles of all these micro beads, glitters, and stuff meant to put on fancy finger nails.   I use it on my fancy crafts.   hehehehe    Shhhhh, it's out little secret.

 The pin shows a perspective.    This is a very light weight set of jewelry.

 This is a better closeup of what's going on with the necklace.

Here you can see what's going on with earrings.   I punched the holes in the 3 pieces with my cropodile.    And I also made the ear wires.    I have a tool kinda like a jacked up pair of pliers and you cut a 2 inch of ear wire and lay it in a channel and squeeze the handles together and it makes all the bends on the ear wires perfectly.   Just be sure and sand the ends of the ear wires really well so as not to scratch up your ears.   Joanns used to carry the ear wire maker, but I don't know if they still have it or not.   You use size 18, 20, or 22 size wire to make the ear wires.     And then, what did I finish the earrings and necklace up with?    3 layers of my favorite shiny nail polish from the Dollar Tree.   When it cures, it's perfect!!!     Well, that's my project for this go around.    I am working on another project that will be awesome, I hope.   hehehe     Can't wait to share it with y'all!!!

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My tip, which is lower in the post, is about taking a picture of your church calendar with your cell phone.   When I started writing about that, I was reminded of our prayer list.    If you go to church, I bet your church keeps a prayer list too.    Even if you don't go to church, you may still have your prayer list that you go over on a regular basis.    I hope we all have people that we remember regularly in our daily prayers.    That's what I would like to remind us to keep those people close to our minds and hearts in prayer.   Lots of family and friends with all different kinds of needs.     Sickness, disease, victims of crime, loss of jobs, death, up coming surgeries, accidents, lives filled with sin and many other issues that we need to keep at the forefront of prayer needs.     Every one of us have problems, which means every one of us have needs.    We can take every one of those problems to the One who can meets those needs!!!!  

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We also need to remember our country!!!     Lots of issues are going on, true.    But there are lots of people causing unnecessary trouble.    I have always said that people who are looking for trouble will either find trouble or create trouble.   We have a lot of people finding the trouble and just as many more creating unnecessary trouble.     To those people I say, get a job or get a life, just get out of the way of the people who are trying to work for the good of others.    I seen about 2 or 3 minutes of the news this morning and all the slop was over the academy awards last night.    I asked hubby if he seen anyone with their arms in casts or slings and he asked why.    I said I just figured they all broke their arms while patting themselves on the backs!!!    Most of them are in the hall of SHAME in my book! But then again, that's just one woman's opinion, and for the time being, I am still allowed to have my opinion, and as long I am allowed to have my opinion, I will express it here.     I don't figure there are very many pagan hollywood elitists rushing over here to read my blog, but I sure wish they would!!!   I don't need pagan hollywood telling me how I should think, vote or feel about anything!!   There is only a VERY FEW people in hollywood, living today, that have actually served their country proudly in uniform.    There are a few, and for those few, I am thankful.    Google it.   You'll be surprised at what you find, or maybe not.   I know the generations before the pagan hollywood we have now, that MANY of those served their country.    I enjoyed "watching" those people.    I just don't need mimicers, apers, actors, liars, thieves, adulterers, idol worshipers, lovers of self, revilers, deviants, brawlers or impersonators (lots of other stuff too) telling me how I should act, feel, or think about anything.    Do you?    Probably not.    I can think for myself and I'm sure you can too.   We vote with how we spend our time and money.   I will not waste time or money on hollywood!!!    We love Christian movies with actors who are not afraid to walk the walk and talk the talk, in their every day lives.    Those are few and far between, but they are out there.     Support those movies and actors.     Ok, I'm getting off my detergent (soap) box now.    

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Have you ever thought of yourself as being in a royal family or of royal heritage.    I'm not thinking in the line of earthly royalty.    Although we can get an idea from what we see in some of the countries across the globe that still have some form of a royal family that people look to.    Again, that's not where I'm going with this.   Because that is putting people in classes.    Yes, there are wealthy people, and what we call middle class and lower class.    That isn't what I'm thinking at all.    And I'll tell you why.   Just because you may be wealthy, does that make you a good person?   No.    You may be middle class, does that make you a better person than the lower class person?   No.    We as human beings are always quick to label.    Hey, I did it, in the paragraph above this one.    But when we look with our physical eyes, that's what we do.    That's just what we do.    I don't know why we do, but we do.    I guess it has a tendency to make us feel better.     It shouldn't though.     When we look at scripture, in the very beginning, when God decided to make for Himself a companion to commune with, what did He use?    DIRT!!!!!!     Where's the bragging rights in that?     Well, there isn't any.   We do the best we can to get rid of as much dirt as possible.    We bathe, we clean our houses, we wash our cars, we clean up outside, all to get rid of accumulated dirt.    For me, I just say don't disturb the people that have collected in my house in the form of dust and dirt!!!   hahahaha    But you see what I am saying.    I have oft wondered why God chose dirt to make us from.    He could have made us from gold just as easily.     He could have made us from fire, or water or from trees, but he chose simple dirt.    I have to come to the conclusion, for myself, that God chose dirt, so when we started thinking high and mighty of ourselves, we could come back to basics and realize that dirt is dirt is dirt.    The only real variant in dirt is the colors, but in the end, it's still just dirt.

The "royalty" that I want us to take into consideration is the royalty in the family of God.    You see, at the foot of the Cross, we are all beggars; we are all thieves; we are all liars; we are all low class citizens; we are all in need.    The rich, the middle class, the peasants.......we are all in need of the same thing.   What is that particular need?    Redemption.     We live in a day and age when such things are not spoken of outside the church and to be honest, I don't think it's being talked about very much in many churches today.   It's all about passing blame or giving sin another name that removes all accountability.    Yes, redemption is an old word, yes it's an odd word from today's point of view.    Sin is one of those old words that has almost gone by the way side too.     I heard a young girl the other day in the grocery store saying that her generation has influenced the language of the day.   She was bragging about it.    For me, I almost cried.    Her lack of understanding, the lack of years under her belt, her lack of wisdom.....yes, I almost cried.    That's not necessarily something to brag about from my point of view.     I almost stopped her and asked just what she had contributed to the language of the day, but I didn't.    What about God's language, wonder what she knows about God's language.

In this life there are lots of places that we want to go, lots of places we want to visit.     What about the days to come?   What about eternity?    What are some of the words that will get us closer to an eternity spent with our Savior?   Confessing our sin, admitting our sin, asking forgiveness of our sin. 

Turning from our sin.   Taking accountability of our sin.  Calling on Messiah Christ Jesus to help us.
  

I said earlier that the foot of the Cross is level for all of us.    The rich, the poor, the upper class, the lower class.    Where ever you fall in those categories, we're all on an even playing field when we come to the Cross.     That's where mercy and grace comes together and changes us all.    If you have ever taken the step and came to the Cross, confessed that you are sinner and repented of your sin and asked Christ Jesus to be Lord of your life from that day forward, then let me tell you something.   You now belong to THE royal family!!!    You are now a Brother or Sister of Christ Jesus.    That makes you heir and joint heir with Christ.    You can now call Yahweh our God, Father.    Being able to call Him Father makes you a "Child of God".    If you are a child of God, then you my friend, are a son or daughter of the most high God!!!!     We go from rags to riches in the blink of an eye when we accept Christ as our Savior.    We go from beggar to heir of heaven.    We go from homeless to mansions.   We go from scruffing around on dirt roads to treading the streets of gold.    We go from tattered and torn clothes to priestly garments.   We go from being a nameless person to having our name written in the Lambs Book of Life.   We go from pauper with nothing to heir to all the riches that heaven holds!!!!    

I don't know 'bout you, but that just does my soul a whole heap of good.    You know, I can't even begin to imagine what eternity with Christ is gonna be like, but I do know that I would never ever find out what it's gonna be like without having a few words in my vocabulary like: redemption, ransom, sin, repentance, accountability, faith, mercy, grace, forgiveness, confessing sin, and many more words that are less common today than they should be.    Can you call yourself "Child of God"?   If so, then you are a part of the family, a son or daughter of the "most high God"!!!!    Can you say Amen and Amen to that?    So be it!!!!    So be it!!!!

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Another tip for y'all.     Woohoo, I hope are enjoying the tips I have been sharing.    Today's is a bit different, but I hope you will like it anyway.     I do, so I think a lot of y'all will like it too.     There have been a couple involving my cell phone, this one does too.   At church, we have a monthly calendar.    It has all the events and birthdays and anniversaries, church times, special meetings and the like.     It also has the daily Bible reading on it.    If you read every day, you will have read the Bible in a year.     So, what I do, every month when I get the new calendar to put on my fridge, I will take a picture of it with my cell phone.    I make sure it is a good clear picture and then I can zoom it large enough every day to read it and see what is happening and especially do my Bible reading.    It comes in handy if I am out somewhere and have a few minutes, I can do my Bible reading, because I have some Bible apps on my phone too.   So whether home or not, I can always do my Bible reading and it really helps to set yourself for success, by making it easier to have the calendar always at my fingertips.     Hope you like this and can find a way to use it to help with your daily Bible reading.

Well, that's just about it for now.    I hope you seen or read something here today that is a benefit to you or someone you love.     I hope and pray that you can call yourself a "Child of God" and call God Father.     If not, please consider what's keeping you from it.    Nothing is more important than having your eternity settled and secure.    That happens ONLY thru the blood of Christ.    There is no other way to the Father, except thru His Son.    Don't let anyone lie to you or cheat you out of an eternity in the presence of Jesus.    We make the choice.    No one can make the choice for you.    You choose.   Please choose wisely.    I hope you enjoyed the tip I shared with y'all and I hope you enjoyed the craft and recycling.    It's great to make something beautiful with something that would have been tossed otherwise.    I hope that you have an awesome rest of the evening, a blessed and refreshing night of rest and that tomorrow is a wonderful day for you!!!!    Always remember that God loves you and so do I!!!!!    hugs and love, Patty

"Unspoken Broken" and another Tip

Good Saturday morning from my lovely neck of the woods!!!   Hope and pray that you have an awesome day planned out for yourselves.   It is a little overcast, but for driving that's a good thing.   That's what we will be doing in  a few minutes.    Road trip!!!!!   woop woop!!!!   hahaha    You would think I don't never get out of the house, huh!     Oh well, it's always good to take a run up to see my Mom, and that's what we are gonna do today.     Hope every one has been doing well and having fun the first few days of the year.    Here it is, almost Valentines Day!     I have to tell you, I love my husband as my Valentine, but my true Valentine is the One who shed His blood for me!!!!     Jesus is my Valentine!     I sure hope He is yours too!!!     He never disappoints!!!    He's sweeter than the finest chocolates!    He always has your best interests at heart!    And He will never leave you, nor forsake you!!!   Those are shouting words, for sure!!!   Yay!!   WooHoo!!!   Praises!!!!

I recently heard the term "unspoken broken" and I turned the tv off.    God touched my heart at that time and I knew He wanted me to take the term and let Him show me what He wanted me to know about it.    I had no intention of even looking at it, but, I felt I had to do it.   So, with that in mind, where does your mind go when you read these two words, "unspoken broken"?     It's not fun to think about, to go to the darkest place and the most hurtful place in your soul.    But, it's there and it must be dealt with in order to move forward with the life that Yahweh wants you to live.   But I will have to say right about now, that most of us are not able to deal with it ourselves.    We need a trusted friend; a Christian Counselor who counsels directly from God's Word; someone who is strong enough and has vision enough to lead us thru the minefields of the enemy.  

What are some words that describe "unspoken broken"?     Hurt, anger, pain, shame, guilt, pressure, sorrow, darkness, alone, drowning............and many others words that I just left unspoken.

"The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those are crushed in spirit."  Psalm 34:18

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me....   The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."   Psalm 51:10, 17  

What does a contrite heart or a spirit of contrition look like?    It looks just like something that God likes.    It is closely linked to humility and brokenness and a deep healthy fear of God's Word.    In my search, I found that in the Hebrew and Greek, the words most often translated mean crushed, crippled or broken.    In a word picture, you would see someone whose conscience is crushed by the weight of its own guilt, who takes full blame and offers no excuses.

We have a tendency to look at things that are broken as useless, worthless and despised; something to be tossed out.     Praise God that He doesn't do the same with us!!!!!    Some of our bad habits, sins we live in and commit, pride, broken marriages, broken relationships, boastfulness, personal effort, self will, busyness of our lives, arrogance, stubbornness and a multitude of other personal attributes need to be broken in order to fulfill the ministry and mission of Christ in our lives.     On the other hand, broken is not necessarily a bad thing.   Sometimes you break a piece of bread to share with someone.    That's what Jesus did with the loaves and fishes and it was an awesome experience that we can be a part of today.    You may break away from the old crowd to make the necessary change. Sometimes we may break a line to let someone in front of us at checkout.   Sometimes we may break away from the norm and do something unexpected, for all the right reasons.    Even breaking a piggy bank to get at the hidden treasure inside.     There are many forms of broken that bring great joy.   Most of the time, we can't experience great joy for those around us, until we have experienced great brokenness.

Even when we think of our personal service and ministry for the Lord, there has to be brokenness of our own "self will" in order to serve and minister to others in a pleasing manner that represents our Lord.   Brokenness is a hard place to be, unless it is Yahweh that is getting us to the point of useful service.  

Most of us can relate to brokenness in some way or fashion.     It is the process of becoming useful to God.    But what about some of the "unspoken broken" that has taken place in our lives.     Most of us have some kind of "unspoken broken".     Something that someone else has done to us, abused us, hurt us, mistreated us.   It is the stuff that you poke down and bury and won't even allow yourself to think about.   Most of us have it.   We just do.     The people you see that have the thickest and highest walls around them, usually have "unspoken broken".    I have known people my whole life and never really known them because of those walls.     People have known me my whole life and never really known me because of those walls.    It's not easy letting people into those ugly places and seeing exactly what it is that has made us into the people we are.    It has to be a matter of trust when you let people in.   Just because someone wants to befriend you, ask the Holy Spirit if it's for the right reasons.    Build those friendships and proceed cautiously before inviting them into your "unspoken broken".   

Only you know what your "unspoken broken" is.    Someone else can't name it for you.     Your trusted friends can be in prayer for you, but you are the only one that can walk to the throne of God with it and give it to Him.     Once you have done that, as hard as it is, leave it in His hands.    Yes, there will be times you will be reminded; give those times to God, He can deal with them, you can't.   There may even be times He wants to take you a step further in the healing process; if so, do it.     I will tell you that you must never dig around in the "unspoken broken" that the blood of Christ has covered without Him with you.    If the enemy convinces you to dig through it by yourself, he will get you deeper into your unspoken broken than you was before.    A trusted Christian friend, one who is in the Word of God and on their knees daily can help you in this process, if you feel the Lord wants to take you to the next level of healing.     You know, I've heard it said that when God heals a broken place in out heart and in our lives, that if we don't fill that place with Him and let Him reside in that healed place, then something far worse and more evil will eventually take up residence.   I believe that with all my heart.    When we give something to God, thru the blood of Christ, we must make sure to fill that void with Him and never let that be exposed to the enemy again.     The enemy plants seeds of deceit and doubt and we are all to quick to water it.     Lets plant seeds of love, mercy and grace and water those seeds and watch them grow and flourish, so we can be all God wants us to be, and so we can point others to the only One that is the healer of the "unspoken broken".

Be careful and cautious of who you let into your lives.     Most of us have never had any more than two or three really trusted friends in a lifetime.    Oh, we all have lots of fair weather friends and people who just want the latest gossip.    But it's rare to find the people who will love you EVEN when they know your full story of unspoken broken.   Those people will be praying for you  even when the night is still the darkest.     Those people will be taking you to the throne of grace when you cry out for help.    Those people will be holding your hand when no words can suffice.     They will be wiping their own tears while you are wiping yours.   They are the ones that you know are sent into your life, personally, by God.     Those are the people who will help you get to the point of allowing God to turn your "unspoken broken" into "holy ground".    Let Jesus into your "unspoken broken".   Only God can take us from "unspoken broken" to "better" to "holy ground"!    Praise God for holy ground!!!!!    Praise God for healing!!!!

I have a "tip" to share with y'all again today.    A lot of times when I am crafting, I want to put a clear smooth finish on something, like a piece of jewelry.     I have several different kinds of lacquer right now, but I may not always have the same supplies so I am always looking for things that will give the same look.    Right now I have glossy accents, crystal effects and diamond glaze.   Each one works awesome.     But, to be honest with you, something I have found that works equally well is clear nail polish.    I buy two or three bottles at a time from Dollar Tree and use it on what ever I want a clear finish on.     If I want it to look like a thick layer, I will put two or three coats on and let it dry well between coats and then let it cure well after the last coat.    I honestly have not found the situation where nail polish isn't just as good as the ones I mentioned earlier.   The nail polish is a whole lot less expensive than the other products.   Just sayin'.    So, if your budget is tight, and who's isn't, then keep a jar or two of clear nail polish on hand and if you get if from the Dollar Tree, it's affordable.

See if you can pick which one is which.    One of these has nail polish as a finish, two have crystal effects and one has glossy accents.     Look at the close ups and see if you can tell which one has nail polish as a finish.     Click on the pictures to bring up larger pictures of each one.

 These are one and two.  

These are three and four.

Close up of number 1.

Close up of number 2.

Close up of number 3.

Close up of number 4.

You can check out the other pictures also to help you decide which one is which.     I really wish you could hold them in your hand and feel them to make your choice.    They all feel so great.     The texture on each is very similar.     Very shiny and smooth and they just feel rich with each of the different finishes on them.  I can assure you that your eyes can not make choice, the feel can not make the choice.     Only you knowing for yourself which is which, it the only way to know for sure which one has nail polish.     But, since I am the only person that knows for sure, I will tell you.

Numbers 1 and 2 have crystal effects as the finish.     They feel really nice and look beautiful up close.    Number 1 and 2 actually have the flattest finish.    It doesn't seem like there is as much shine on those as there is on the others.     Number 3 is finished with glossy accents.    To be honest, this one is my least favorite of the finishes.    In hand, it doesn't look as nice as the others, but I believe that's only because I have first hand knowledge of all 4 of them.    It is still very beautiful!!!!   Number 4 is finished with clear nail polish from the Dollar Tree.     Number 4 feels the best in hand and it looks the best.    Because nail polish is much thinner than the other two finishes, I put two layers of nail polish on it and let it cure and it is awesome.    Also, nail polish by nature, is really shiny.    So, if and when I can't afford the other products, I know beyond a shadow of doubt, that nail polish will work fantastic!!!!      Make your own comparisons and see what you think.    I believe it is more than satisfactory when and if funds get tight.    Been there, and yes, I used that!     hahaha     So, hope you like this money saving tip as well as I do.     Yay!!!!

Well, there you have it, another day in my adventure thru this thing called "Life"!    I hope you enjoyed your visit with me and I look forward to you stopping by again real soon.    Just know that God loves you and He loves the brokenness that you have, when you let Him in it.   He always uses every little nick and chip for His glory!   Tell someone you know that God loves them, they need to hear it.    I love you too and will see you back here real soon, y'all!!!    hugs and love, Patty