only you

OUR anniversary is coming up on Valentine's Day...yep, I married a romantic man...a long board surfer dude from the '60's...who sings to me and loves me still after all these years.  He's been the keeper of my dreams when I couldn't carry them and then given them back to me,  blown on the winds of kindness.  He is truly my soul mate.  I can close my eyes, think of him and my heart flutters.  He has made our DS's the sweetness that they are.  He has loved their mother.

I know he'll love this card I made for OUR anniversary.  He always teases me about it being MY anniversary, cause I get all the gifts!  It is true, he lavishes me.   He proposed to me on bended knee with this song playing in the background of a very public place.  My card fits several challenges around our cyber world, the SCS Limited Supplies, Sharon Johnson's no time72, and the Twisted Sistahs create a scene. I love that is uncomplicated...that it has depth, but is two layers, and it tells a story.

Least you think this was a fairy tale, I must admit I had to kiss a lot of frogs before my one and only...

bigger glass

Just a happy Thursday to you all!  I'm slowly getting back into my routines...I had a chance to play with paper today and created an ATC for the Ways to Use it Challenge on SCS.  I got to use a RAK image from the fabulously generous artystamper, JULIA!  Who doesn't love a sentiment that declares, I'm going to need a bigger glass????

All the details are in my gallery if you're so inclined.  I'll tell you: I would need a smaller glass, just for the alcohol...but I'm all for a bigger glass to hold all my dreams and goals.  Life's about going for the gusto...being all you can be so YOU will spill over to others and keeping goin' round!  So today, I'm wishing a double measure, maybe even a triple for you...if you could only see the impact you have on others...spread the bubbly....round!!!

cupcakes and pleats

Happy Monday, AGAIN, everybody!  Why does it seem we are always just beginning our weeks? Well the sun is shining here in the PNW so I have to rejoice.  I'm listening to a random party mix my DS, Andy left for me today...it's like a psychedelic trip for my ears and I love it!!!  Right now, it's Angels and Airwaves, 'did ya know I love you'.  Priceless gifts like this make me want to shout, thank you, LORD for every tiny blessing you place in my life!  

I'm playing in the TLC today on SCS.  The focus is paper pleats.  I needed a birthday card for a dear friend and decided to use one of the first stamps I ever purchased, Tim Holtz's fairy girl with the bingo # wings!!!  I have included all the details of the creation over in my gallery so click on if you want to read more.  I love the admonition to ALWAYS  b Yoself  (forgive my slippin into some of the teenager talk around my house!)  But no matter our age, we should strive to shine as  the Lord created us to be...I know for me, I get jokes long after the punch line is delivered, I am slow to think, and my best jokes are always the ones based on my life!  

How about you?  Are you hiding your light or are you boldly going forth in this world, shining for all to see.  I know the gifts the Lord has endowed me with, I am using them everyday, some days not perfectly, but always striving to cause more smiles and tears of joy...so even though it's Monday, I'm going to count on a good one!  Oh, and if you wonder what's on the shuffle as I end this...Magic Mirror...Leon Russell

Blessings overflowing my friends, everywhere!

sovereign

I am so excited and happy for my friend, Vicky Gould chosen as the Featured Stamper on SCS. I imagine there will be an overloaded gallery from all her friends!  My card for the His Holy Names Challenge fit right in with casing this one of Vicky's. If you would like to read more specific details on how I created this 6x6 page, please drop by my gallery.

I really enjoyed this weeks study on the word sovereign. There are over 290 scriptures that mention the Sovereign Lord in the Bible. I chose two that really spoke to my life, one from the Psalms that acknowledges just who my confidence is in.  And the other from the prophet Amos, a very telling word of a famine coming where the hearing of the words of the Lord will fall on deaf ears.  I truly believe we live in a time such as this where all rationally has disappeared.  I know the Lord warns to write HIS words on your heart and indeed a day will come where there will be no Bibles or a way to read the word of GOD. 

The LORD has a supreme place of authority in my life.  In my work for challenge 2, I chose to place the word 'sovereign' on a spring green paper.  It represents the growth of my relationship with GOD. I used Basic Grey's Perhaps paper. The butterfly reminds me of how it begins life as something less than beautiful, at least in my eyes, and over time is transformed into a creature of great beauty, delicate, transparent, frail, but strong to lift it's wings in flight. To be free to live life in that perfect balance only God could create. I know I'm feeling a bit frail right now, but I'll rest in the hand of the one who created me, for I will soar again, I know I will.

I'm wishing for you today, eyes to spy something of wonder, delicate, yet strong and I hope you'll marvel at the majesty of God's creatures!  Thanks for hanging with me...big smile, well in my mind!!!!

oh, happy day~o

Hope you'll have time for a coffee story, as my card celebrates the liquid for today's Inspiration Challenge. I grew up on French Roast in the can blended with Chicory...from the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.  I thought it was the most sophisticated coffee around until I ended up in coffee lovers paradise, Seattle! In the early days of the 'buck, they would conduct coffee colleges, where you would attend for three nights and discover  all the ends and outs of coffee growing, roasting, and of course the sexy, streamline machines that brought forth the espresso I had grown to adore! They taught about perfect pours and three layers and oh the crema...not to mention the smell...well, 15 years and 3 espresso machines later, I still enjoy the ritual of morning cappuccinos with my DH.  He's strictly a latte man which leaves all the foam for me! Oh I love it when it's a win for both of us!!!  I've stepped up over the years to a more expensive machine, but mine, RED, like a sleek Italian sports car just hums when I prime the pump...life's simple pleasures!

So tell me about you, are you a coffee snob or a tea drinker?  Do you have a ritual you would share, I'd love to hear.

paisley hope 2

Sunday Challenges over on SCS are a favorite of mine.  I love that I can "try out" some one's design style, learn a new layout or way of using ribbon, or...well, you know what I mean.  Today it was stamp_ momma's day to shine in the spotlight.   In the end, I chose one that sparked a look back into my gallery to my very first upload...I  bought Paisley Prints off the B/S board.  I've come a long way since then...and have enjoyed every moment.

I'd love to hear what your first experience with stamping looked like!

chairs and dreams

I love chairs, I know I've said it before!  Something about them, as I type this I look around our family room and I see no less than 7 different styles of chairs!!!   And that doesn't count my chair collections!!!   I appreciate the differences and am reminded we are all unique...comfy models or upright ones, a curve here or tuft there.  I love them all...I know I never tire of them.

Of course the challenge for the Inspiration today on SCS was Pottery Barn Teen Catalog.  How easy to find more chairs to make my heart beat faster!!!  This time Polka Dot!!!  I had to recreate the PB Teen room and add my spin on the framed sentiment!  We all need to DREAM, one of mine would be to have a total rehouse remodel with rooms filled with new furniture.  

What are you dreaming of...I'd love to hear!

Holy

Good Morning, friends, It's the middle of January and I am far behind in this blogging year! But right where the LORD wants me in terms of commitments! Our home is settling down after a rockin great visit from Sam. He's back in the swing of classes as is Andy. I hope the cycle of our calendar reminds you of fresh beginnings.

One beginning I am particularly excited about is the HIS HOLY NAMES CHALLENGE that Patter Cross is leading over on SCS. I had prayed about becoming involved with this and was blessed when the answer came with the closing of one door and the swinging wide open of another! It is an every other week challenge which gives me time to be in the Word and study, so I suppose you could say, this work is truly inspired.

The first challenge which was issued on January 4th, was the word HOLY. The format is 6x6 scrapbook pages. I have found this to be a perfect size for me to use. I will be putting this into a small box that will allow me to access the pages. I plan to have hidden pockets, hinged papers, pull outs where I can journal my study of the words as we go along. My first entry was done using traditional scrap booking and a bit of digital. As I studied, I selected two scriptures that especially spoke to me, 1 Samuel 2:2 and Exodus 15:11a. I love God's word for it is living and active and will speak to just where you are if you approach it with an open heart. God is indeed my ROCK! HE is HOLY, everything else in my life must be measured by HIM. I filter everything through what HE speaks to me.

Since my last post, pearl(S) of wisdom, I have some health issues I am facing...not life threatening, but significant just the same. I am so happy to have the LORD'S perspective and pray I will honor HIM in all my choices. If you would like to read the details of the creation of my first word, HOLY, please catch it in my gallery on SCS.

Blessings to you,

Susan

pearl[s] of wisdom

Happy New Years, dear readers, I pray your new year will be filled with blessings of health and happiness.  I know I am looking forward to what life brings and the opportunities I will seize!

Today's challenge over on SCS is the Featured Stamper.  It is a day to recognize one stamper by perusing their gallery and creating a card in honor of the FS.  For the first challenge of 2009, it's none other than HER Royal Rubberness, Julie Ebersole!  Here is my card based on one you can find in this link.  

 I am reading a delightful book called, Path of the Pearl, which you can find at Amazon.    I 'happened' upon it at my favorite bookstore last weekend.  I knew there would be words of encouragement within for me.  Little did I know, I would need the words of wisdom contained therein so soon.  I received some disappointing news this week that I know has a deep life lesson within.  We all are such shells on the outside, looking pretty, but if we look inside, would we be truly be happy with what we see?  I know being a girl and not playing sports ( I am of that era when the opportunities for girls was not in sports), I never learned to accept losing gracefully and even really how to face rejection.  But I need to learn that lesson, even at this stage in my life.

Pearls are created as a result of an intrusion, an injury, an irritant.  How the oyster deals with this was of great interest to me.  Fellini said, " All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography".  Something so beautiful coming from an injury.  And with me...I will take rejection and let it coat me with a layer of  nacre.  So I can grow and have more depth and be on the inside what I am on the outside.

As the author of the Path of the Pearl writes, "Like the pearl, our splendor is formed of life's obstacles."  How about you?  Can you see the beauty you truly are?