A Project, Pictures from the Park and "Keep"

Hello Y'all!!!!  Here I am with another blog post!!!!  Shockers and wowzers!!    Hahahaha     It was on my mind so I just done it.     I hope that y'all are dealing with the weather wherever y'all are.    It's pretty cool in my neck of the woods, down in the teens this morning.     I know that elsewhere, people are in the -degrees, so my prayers are for y'all to keep warm.     Lots of extra cover and warm soups are very effective this time of the year.    We just need to try to hold on till Spring.   It will be here before we know it.    Until then. we dream of warmer days.    Yay!!!

Remember in my last blog post, I said I would share a bracelet that was in the upper right hand corner of one of my photos?     Well, that was actually some of my jewelry that I had taken off.   hahaha  Sometimes it gets in the way and I needed for my hands and wrists to be free.    But, that did inspire me to share the pics of what I had originally thought was in the corner of that photo. 

My mother and I and 2 other family/church friends went on a cruise back in September of 2018 and I saved every piece of our itineraries that came into mine and moms room.   I even picked up extras when we was out and about on the ship, because I had a brain storm.   Sometimes those are quite dangerous!!!   hahahaha     But, it was a safe one this time!   hahahaha

When we stopped at each port, mine and mom's main goal was to collect our charm freebies from each port.    We ended up with quite a few charms and with the ones from our first cruise back in 2016 we have a small little collection.    I am missing 2 from 2 ports back on our first cruise, so eventually, I will try to get those charms to add to mine and mom's collections.

After we got home, I decided to make us a bracelet out of some of the itineraries.    I have shared my bead making techniques on here.    I started making paper beads back a few months ago and really enjoy the process.     So, using my process, I cut and rolled enough beads to make 4 bracelets, one for each of us on this cruise.    I cut the strips and rolled the beads and once I was done with the rolling, I started painting the beads with my Viva Decor wax rub colors.   I watered them down and made it real wet so I could brush the colors on.    I use tropical metallic colors in a blue, pink and green.   I just brushed on one color, let all the beads dry, brush on the second color, let that dry and then brushed on the last color and let that dry.    The green is not as outspoken as the other colors, but it is beautiful.

When I started the stringing process, I had some beautiful clear, color lined E beads that I had gotten at Joann's and they were the perfect color.    So, I strung all my beads and the E beads and tied the bracelets off and secured the knots.    Then I searched thru my jewelry findings and found jump rings that was larger than the E beads.   I put a jump ring around each E bead and then attached my cruise charms.

When I had all my cruise charms on my bracelet, I then added my own charms that looked to be tropical or island or cruise worthy.    It is a very heavy bracelet and may not be meant to be worn very much.   It may just be a show piece more than a utilitarian piece, but I was so thrilled with  how they turned out and so is mom.     I have the bracelets made for the other 2 ladies and all I have to do is put their charms on  and fill in with my charms.    This bracelet is mine.   Mom's bracelet is the first picture.   She couldn't find one of her charms.   We don't know what happened to it, hopefully we will find it sometime.   If not, I will see if I can replace it.    She is missing the gold colored shell down by the cruise ship.

Most of the charms are sponsored by Diamond International.   Looking at the picture above, you can see the DI charm at the very bottom left, beside the cruise ship.    Starting at the DI and working up to the right I will tell you what's a cruise charm and what's mine that I added, with the cruse charms in capitals.    So, the DI, ship, SHELL, SUNGLASSES, leaf, CROQUI FROG, umbrella, anchor, COIN, shell, MONKEY, CHARM WITH BLUE TOPAZ STARFISH AND SHELL, SNORKELS, and turtle.   I have 8 from the islands and would have 2 more but didn't know about them when we went on our first cruise.   If we ever get any more, we can easily remove my charms that I added to our bracelets.    It is beautiful and it does tell a story.   We had lots of fun collecting them and lots of great memories.   

I hope you enjoy this project just half as much as I did.   It is definitely a fashion statement.   hahaha

We go to the local greenway her in town a lot and enjoy it so much.    Over the past summer and fall we took  a lot of pictures.   We just enjoy doing that.    I love seeing beauty in nature and you never know when and where you will see beauty, you just need to be prepared at all times.   hahaha     I hope you enjoy looking at some of these pictures.

This is just a beautiful wild flower.   Those of you who know your flowers will be able to tell me what it is.   But for now, I just call it beautiful.     I got several pics of these flowers.     It makes me ready for Spring even though we are in the middle of winter.    brrrr

I don't know what kind of tree this is, but my husband had a habit of taking a picture of this same tree every time we was out.   hahahaha   

 Right here was a squirrel showing off his cuteness.    He was posing for us and strutting his stuff.   hahaha 

This was another big batch of those flowers and they are really beautiful.    I love them.     They are usually covered with bees and insects.   Its fun to see them up close and personal.    hahaha

This is a tree where the woodpeckers was going to town on it.    It had been freshly done.    I love seeing stuff like this.     Nature at its best.

This is just one of the trees along the greenway that has a split on the back side of it that is a resource for wildlife.    I'm sure that one day the rot in it will cause the tree to come down, but for now, it's a beautiful piece of natural architecture.

I think this is one of my favorites.    Can you guess what these are?      If you guessed tree roots that are above the ground, you are right.     They are pretty gnarly looking, but again, it is also beautiful nature at its best.    I love it.

This is the woodpecker tree above, at a distance, taken at the same time.     I really love this!!!     This just happened from one day to the next.     By now, the whitish spots have already turned grayish and just blends in, quietly and unassuming, but in the pictures, you can see it really stands out.

This is just a hedge apple on the walking path, but I thought the color was beautiful and the spot of sunlight right beside it.     I love the composition of this picture, which I did NOT plan, but was pleasantly surprised!!

Another one of the pleasantly surprising pics.     Simple beauty.      I'm happy with it.

This tree is very unassuming.     It is just a tree that is a beautiful habitat for birds and all kinds of wildlife.    Like I said it is very unassuming.      But, if you look closely, you can see something very strange.    I'll not give it away. 

Now look closely at it.     There is a corn stalk from the year before hanging in that tree.     We had a flood back in 2017 and a corn stalk from the crop of corn in 2016 ended up in the tree.   It has been there this whole time, with an ear of corn hanging in it.    We never noticed it until the leaves fell in the fall of 2018.    The reason I know the cornstalk was from 2016 is because for 2017 and 2018, the farmer planted beans.   But the flood was in early 2017.   

We never know what we will see, we just have to be ready to see beauty where ever we look.    I hope you have enjoyed the beauty that I have shared with y'all today.    It does my heart good to share the beauty from my neck of the woods with y'all.     I sure hope y'all enjoyed seeing these pictures and I do have more to share along the way.

As we mosey on thru this year, I try to remember to keep in the forefront of my mind that God is creator of everything.    He is the best artist that ever has been or ever will be!!!   No one has ever done anything without God having done spectacular feats before human attempts.    I hope that makes sense.     It makes sense in my mind, but I don't know if I conveyed it well enough for it to make sense to y'all.    Anything that a human being can do is because God allowed that person to do it.    It's not because that person is so great and talented.     They may be talented, but that talent came from God.    So, I just try to keep remembering that everything good comes directly from God.

In thinking about the word "keep", I had said we may do a word study on it.   I think I will start it today with just a little bit of food for thought, for us to start digesting.    I had no idea what the word was going to mean for me, and to be quite honest, I still don't.    But I am enjoying how the Lord is presenting me with the word from time to time.

I got out my Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words and opened the book to the word keep.    Actually, this is the only book in my library of Biblical books that had a good supply of definitions and explanations.      This is some of the descriptions of the word:  "watch over, preserve, keep, watch, guard, hold".    This is just a few of the descriptions of the word keep.    Some come with a military meaning, some have bankers terms attached to them,  some convey the word strength, some stress love, some descriptions actually means to be set apart for a specific purpose.   There are many more descriptions that I don't have the mind set or the ability to convey all those meanings, but I am seeing for myself, right now, that the word "keep" is much deeper than I ever imagined.    This is just a few thoughts for us to ponder until we delve deeper into the word and start digging thru scripture.    I will share scripture that will help us/me see how it fits into our/my everyday life.    I just pray that God will open our/my hearts and our/my  minds to what He has set aside for us/me to learn from this.   

Every word has meaning and depth.   I am going to try to find the word in Hebrew also and see what that has to say.    I am sure it will shed even more light on this subject.     Keep a prayerful mindset as we go thru this during the year.     I pray that God will show us some exciting revelations in His word.    It should be exciting every time we open His book and I think this will be an exciting time.   I hope you are set to join me in this journey.

I want to thank y'all for showing up here today and I pray that you had a good time here.     I try to be as real and honest with y'all as I possibly can.     Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good, but all times it's real.    I hope y'all know that.    

I hope you seen something that will inspire you in some small way.     Maybe take more pictures.   Maybe get out in nature more and look for all the fun things that God has placed around us for our viewing pleasure.    I promise you, when you start noticing the small stuff, He will put bigger stuff out there for you to enjoy too.    Maybe even make a piece of jewelry with other pieces of sentimental jewelry.    Who knows, maybe even do a word search on your own and grow closer to the God of creation Himself.     God never meant for His creation to be worshiped.   He never meant for the "created" to be worshiped.    We are to worship God of all creation!!!!     Thank you Father God for all the blessings You put before us each day, may we take notice of them more and more every day!!!!

My prayer for each of y'all is to have a blessed day!!   Just remember that God desires to have a right relationship with each of you and that only happens thru the shed blood of Jesus Christ.   God loves us enough to provide us THE way to be in right relationship with Him.    It's up to us, as individuals, to chose Him.   Chose wisely my friends.    Love y'all and be blessed today!!!   hugs, patty