Lord, help me not to disregard or compete with others in an effort to be number one. I pray for opportunities to show love to others by helping others get ahead and reach their goals in life.

Love Out Loud -- Joyce Meyer

I found the blog site "Eileen's Machine Embroidery Blog" last night.  She had an interesting article called "The Embroiderer's Bucket List".  What caught my attention was the statment she made -- "You’ll find if you write it down, you’re apt to tackle some of those easy-to-put-off complicated embroidery projects. And once you do, you’ll probably discover that they were way easier than you imagined."  What a great idea that is.  So I decided to create my own bucket list but it's going to contain not just the embroidery projects I want to do but other type of projects as well. 

My bucket list for August --

1. Finish pink flowered top
2. Make bed caddy
3. Finish Advent Calendar
4. Make pink lemonade cupcakes
5. Scrapbook Cake Pop Baking page
6. Do journaling for 6 scrapbook pages completed
7. Grayson's car stack embroidered t-shirt
8. June's dragonfly stack embroidered t-shrit
9. Make spice cake balls
10. My clothesline flip-flop t-shirt
11. Make taco cups

I'm keeping my list short so I don't get overwhelmed.  I tend to "bite off more than I can chew" and make a long list then feel bad when I don't complete it.  Any projects I don't complete this month will roll over to next month. Of course I always have more projects I want to do so I won't have any problems coming up with another list for September. I think that list will consist mostly of the projects I want to do as Christmas gifts.  So I'm off to start working on my bucket list. I'll let you know how it goes.

The lightbulb popped on . . .

Lord, I declare that I love myself because You love me.  The more I love myself, the more I can love others.

Loving Out Loud -- Joyce Meyers

I've not written for the last several days simply because this week has been tiring - but in a good way.  Monday through Wednesday I was out in the field on a asphalt project.  Since for the last year I've been working on a construction project or in the residency and have basically had set hours, working 10 to 12 hours a day then making my over an hour drive home (thank God for audiobooks) was a shock to my system.  Sleeping hasn't been an issue for me this week.  Then yesterday was spent in the office playing catch up on all the work that I wasn't able to do while not in the office.  But I love what I do so it's no hardship - God blessed me with a wonderful job and I thank Him for it everyday.

Yesterday morning I was doing my usual - drinking my tea and writing in my journal.  Usually that's when I have my "Ah Ha" moments.  The last month or so I've had several conversations with different people I know about being alone and doing things on my own. The audiobook I started listening to turned out to be about single women who live in NYC and doing things on their own.  When God is trying to get His point across, He doesn't mess around.   I've got a list that I made of things I want to go do by myself.  I've had the list for years and haven't done anything with it but add too it.  I've been waiting to get "brave" enough to take the plunge.  So far bravery hasn't been  knocking on my door.  Although I didn't realize it, I've really been waiting to meet someone "special" and go do these things with. 

Yesterday the light bulb over my head went off and it almost blinded me.  The Lord revealed to me that I'm in my current situation because He wants me to become comfortable being alone, to get to know myself, fall in love with myself (not in a selfish way), to enjoy my own company and go and do the things I like on my own.  That I don't need to have bravery knock on my door, He's already given me the strength to do it.  The Lord showed me that by my learning the above  I will become stronger in who I am and in my faith.  That I will no longer do what I've done in the past which is to compromise the things that are important to me -- such as my belief and faith -- to keep peace in my relationship because I'm afraid I won't have anyone to do things with and not have someone to keep me company.  To learn that I can enjoy being alone in all areas of my life with Him as the best company that I can have. Learning these things will help me not to stay in a relationship long after I should be gone because I won't have the fear of being alone. The Lord showed me that I will have difficulty maintaining any relationship until I have overcome the fear I have.  However, I will say there are many aspects to being single that I already do love and enjoy -- not having to fight over the remote to the tv is one.  :) 

So anyway,  I'm going to start with baby steps and do some small things on my own.  Stuff close to home to begin with.  There's several parks close by that have trails. I think I may start by going to one of those and doing some hiking.  Or maybe go berry picking so I can make some jam.  I'm sure if anyone does read this will think that I'm such a baby for not being able to do things by myself but since I've never really been completely alone, it's new to me.  I don't want my life to consist of the only time I go do anything is when I go to work or do my household errands.  I want to live and enjoy life.  I want to become one of the confident women I see who feel the fear and do it anyway.  I heard a saying once that you can eat an elephant one bite at a time -- being afraid to go out & do things by myself is my elephant and it's time I start eating.

Something to think about . . .

There is a difference in a person's "who" and their "do".  God may not always be happy with what you do, but He is always pleased with who you are.  Remember, God always loves your "who" even when your "do" could use some improvement. 

Love Out Loud - Joyce Meyer

It's been awhile . . .

I had stopped posting for several reasons.  First because I didn't think that anyone checked my blog out and thought what was the use.  The second was that I was still dealing with getting through the hurt of a breakup with someone I loved very much.  I was very depressed and some days it was all I could do just to get through.  I travel about an hour & half to work one way and there were days when the hurt would be so intense there was a physical pain in my chest and my tears would blind me.  I had thought the blog would help me get my mind off this hurt and help me.  I found that it wasn't doing a blog that would help me get through this time of pain but God.  I turned to Him and He healed my hurt and has blessed me in ways that I couldn't even of dreamed of.  I give God all the glory, honor & praise for where I am now in my life.  

 And so I come back to the first reason why I stopped my blog, no one following it.  My daughter and I were having a conversation about the ideas she had for home schooling my grandchildren.  Laura has really great ideas and I suggested that she start a blog to help others who want to do the same. That's when my daughter asked me why I had stopped keeping up with my blog and I knew then that the one that mattered to me missed it. Laura told me that was how she kept up with the cool stuff I was doing.  Even if she is the only one that views this blog then keeping up with it is worth it. Although we talk almost every day our conversations are short & sweet since Laura's got two little one who seems to know when she is on the phone and that's when they want her attention.  Anyone else familiar with this?  Lol. And Laura lives almost two hours away so getting together isn't always as easy as it should seem. 

So this blog will not only be what projects - sewing, scrapbooking, crafting, cooking, etc that  I'm doing, what I want to do and have done but also my thoughts, views and events in my life.  Somewhat of an online diary.  Some posts will be long, some short and some days there won't be any.  But since this is my blog - I make the rules.  :)

Another Week, Another Page

I'm still keeping my challenge to do a page a week.  Whew!! Didn't think I'd get it done but I did. (Well, I got to do my journaling.)  I added a photo corner to meet Challenge #49 - Make Your Own Photo Corner from the 52 Scrapbooking Challenges.  

This is of my grandson & I going blackberry picking. 

On the way to the Berry Farm I asked Grayson if he was going to eat any of the berries as we picked them. His reply was "No Nana, they're dirty."  I showed him which berries to pick and I'm eating as I'm picking.  Grayson is watching me real close, he picks a berry and then tells me "I try this one, Nana."  And then I hear "Mmmm, they're good."  After that every time Grayson picked a berry he'd say  "Nana, I try this one."  After about half hour later, Grayson tells me we're done.  I had about 20 berries in our bucket - they were ones I picked.  I figured out that we were done picking berries because Grayson tummy was full.  My plan was to pick berries and make jam.  My trip didn't work out the way I'd planned but that's ok, I had a great time with my grandson.

I am so excited!!

I decided to do some experimenting with inks and copic markers.  I wanted to see what options I had besides using stamps & ink.  Here's what I found -- Sharpie permanent pens don't run when using with Copic Markers.  I have the Marker Holders from Amy Chomas so I'm able to use Sharpies in my Cricut.  They work great!!  This opens up a whole new arena of options -- I can "draw" my die cuts and color them in using my Copics. 

My second experiment was to see how my printer ink works with Copics.  I have a HP Photosmart printer.  I printed a word using an open font that could be colored in -- the ink didn't smear.  Now I really have more options with using the markers.  I can download Clipart and color in. Since I'm not much of a stamper - I have mostly background stamps because I do scrapbooking not cards this is really great.  I don't have the patience for cards but so admire those who do. Some of the cards I've seen are just "Wow!!".

Now I got a lot of possibilities for how to use my markers.  Yeah!! I got the last batch of Copic Markers from A Cherry On Top.  They have a large selection of Copic Sketch Markers for only $5.24 and free shipping.  I've not been able to beat that.

Meeting My Challenge

I went to a crop yesterday and got some stuff done.  Okay, I didn't get as much done as I wanted but I did have fun.  I got to catch up with friends I've not seen in awhile, see what everyone else was creating and I found out where to get some cool page kits.  I've always wanted to try page kits but didn't know about the quality and most I found were pricey.  One of the women was doing page kits from "Out on a Limb Scrapbooking".  The kits used good quality paper, fabulous die cuts, priced $6 to $7 per kit and new kits are added daily.  What's great is I can make alterations & add embellishments to make my own.  Needless to say, I've already ordered a couple of kits.

My daughter has been talking about doing scrapbooking but insists she doesn't have time -- two young children, going to school, husband & house to keep.  I told her about the page kits and now she's planning on using the kits and start doing now.  I'm tickled because that means she and I have something to spend time together doing. 

I didn't do a page last week - was as really busy but that's okay life happens.  I made up for it this week while at the crop. I was trying to figure out what I could use as a way to motivate myself to keep up with a weekly challenge and I found it.  I bought the book 52 Scrapbooking Challenges by Elsie Flannigan several years ago but have never really done anything with it.  I decided that now is the time but I'm not going to do them in any order, just what strikes me at the moment.  So here are the first two challenges I have completed --

This does happen to be Week #1 Challenge - Work Those Words.  The challenge is to do journaling on strips of cardstock or paper.  So I decided to do a simple layout of my granddaughter describing some of her personality.  I added a couple of die cuts of butterflies from my Cricut Cartridge New Arrival and just added glitter glue in turquoise to match.  I used paper that I've had in my stash.  That's another challenge I have with myself is to use what I have in my stash before buying.  Good luck to me on that. Lol.

This Challenge is Week #5 -- Embellish a Floral Accent.  The challenge is to take a flower accent and add something to it.  My flower is a Die Cut from Cricut Accent Essentials.  I used Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks in Wild Plum, Stream and Silver and created the coloring.  The flower just had a flat look so I used Copic Marker B05 Process Blue to outline the edges and the flower gain ed a more dimensional appearance. Then I took a pink button and tied center with floss in turquoise. 

I'm quite pleased with how my pages turned out.  Using the book 52 Scrapbooking Challenges has certainly got my creativity flowing.  My scrapbooking style is still "Clean" but that is what works for me. 

I think my next project will be one of these --
Challenge #2 -- Focus on One Photo 
Challenge #3 - Customize a Ribbon Border
Challenge # 4 -- Make My Own: Chipboard Accents

My mind is already getting in gear to get started. Gotta go now & start scrapping.