Stripping and Sponging

When I moved into my new house, I picked out some colors that I wanted to paint the entire house. This is my dining room. My mom paints and papers for a living, so she did this for me. You start with a flat paint for the base and the stripes are the same color, only semi-gloss. Then between each of those is the sponging, using a shade darker and a shade lighter than the base, in semi-gloss.

The base is like Stampin Up's Mellow Moss. Funny how we always reference our colors in everything we see eh? LOL I've never been much of a "green" person, but when I saw this color, I knew that it would be beautiful in the dining room. I also did the bathroom in the same color, but just a solid color. Except for the craft room which is an apricot color, the rest of the house is like creamy caramel. It makes it feel like home. I'm really happy with it.

How Cute is that Baby!

I had such a great time making this card, and I love it when a plan comes together from the very start. This is using the faux suede technique for the bunny. When I made this a few years ago, it was done using liqiud applique and a brayer to make the suede like feel. First I used a paint brush to apply the applique onto the brayer, making it pretty thick. It also works better if you try to do a smaller area vs a full 8 1/2 x 11 page. Once you spread the applique evenly over the card stock, you will heat it until you see it change colors. For this card I used creamy caramel card stock to add a little strength. Then you'll stamp the bunny is Staz On Black, allow it to dry, and then chalk over it with the creamy caramel chalk.

I found the cuttiest little clothes pins at a craft store (I have no idea where, now, but I'd love to find some more that aren't colored and just plain like this). I applied this with a mini glue dot.

All stamps and other supplies are Stampin UP! Wash day wheel, A New Little Someone, Retro Alphabet

Thanks so much for looking! God bless...

I love you

This is my Valentine's Day card from my sweetie. He knows a man that draws freehanded and had him make this for me. He knows that I'm a butterfly queen, so that was an element he asked him to add. I think it's just wonderful. Plus I had the perfect frame to put it in...one that I found at JcPenney in the wedding section. He took a 81/2 x 11 sheet of card stock and folded it in half to make the card. I had to crop it a little to fit it in the frame right and kept the other half with the words he had written inside. Isn't he such a sweetie?!

Fear

The other day I was on the phone with a friend. Before we hung up, she ended, "You'll have to come and see me. Gary's on night shift now and I have the kids all the time. I'd come to you, but I don't think you want two toddlers running all around your stuff". I asked her if she was afraid at night there by herself, and she said, "YES...I'm really having a hard time right now". I think it was meant for me to talk to her that day. I said, "Jennifer, I've been having the same problem, and you know that God doesn't give us the spirit of fear". For some reason all summer the devil has been on my heels about fear. At night I have the same routiene: Brush my teeth, say my prayers, and listen to my IPOD. When I pray, I have to ask God to take this fear from me, that I know it shouldn't be there and I want to just have the faith in Him that either way it goes, I'm ok, and I'm READY when it's my time. Mark 4:40 says: And he saith unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
Over the weekend, God reminded me that and gave me this message to write. As I was being air lifted to the "big city" with a possible heart attack, I looked out the side window at the beauty that God has created. I had been in many planes, but never a helicopter. The mountains, though not fully turned in color, were beyond breath taking. The Lord and I had a conversation right there in the helicopter. "Lord, I was scared but I'm not now, and if it's my time to go, I really want my family to know that. I love you and I trust you". I had such a peace to come over me and all the fear was gone. Isaiah 41:13 For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isn't that great? Some of the scripture I've found since studing this is now forever embedded in my heart and has been a great help to me. I love in 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
God knows what I need when I need it. He's always there for me and is only a whisper away! Sometimes in the bussle of life we get sidetracked or don't take our faith seriously or maybe just a little for granted, but He strengthens us if we'll just let him.
The first thing my mother did on the way to the hospital was call the ladies from the church to get a prayer chain started. Three EKG's showed blockage and one muscle damage. Still, I got past my fear and said, "whatever is, is". When the Heart Cath was done, there was NO bockage and the doctor told my family that I was like a spring chicken! The devil wants to consume us with fear. The more he has over us, the more he thinks he can pull us away. However, have faith in knowing that NO ONE can pluck us from our Father's hands. Proverbs 3:25, 26 Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

What is God to you?

Since I have been going to church (over 30 years now), the older I get, the more songs have such a meaning to me. Songs are not by any means the reason we go to church nor should be be the best part of the service for us, but we tend to be able to relate to music and it's easily understood.

I've sang in the choir for as long as I can remember, and ever so often you can feel the spirit begin to move within the church when we start singing the amazing songs of zion. About a year ago, we were introduced to this song, and sometimes when I'm here at home just cleaning or sitting around doing nothing, this song comes to mind and brings an instant tear to my eye. I've heard Amazing Grace all my life along with a lot of older Christian songs, but this one is special to me for many reason. No matter what storm rages around me, what valley or mountain top I'm on, whatever I need..that's just what He is. Here are the lyrics...wish I could give you the tune and it'd be stuck in your head too!

Whatever I need, That's just what He is:

Sometimes I try to tell what Jesus means to me
And I find myself searching for words to say just what I mean
I never can quiet describe how good He's been to me
For I know whatever I need that's just what He is
Chorus
He's my rock and my deliverer He's my strenght My God and my King
He's my shelter in time of trouble yes I look to Him for everything
He can be a Mother , a Father a friend and on Him I can always depend
For I know whatever I need, that's just what He is

I'm poor and needy yet the Lord thinks about me
In troubled times He's a high tower and a refuge you see
This world has nothing to offer me I'll cling to Him
For I know whatever I need, that's just what He is

WHAT IS GOD TO YOU???

A life of abuse...it's not a choice

I've seen so many shows on TV about wife abuse. Oprah has done many shows over the years and interviewed many women who have been or are going through the abuse from their husbands. Often the woman feels trapped inside her own body, imprissioned in her own home by another human being. Many people are angry by this and family members don't understand why they stay when they "can just leave him or divorce him to get away".

As I watched one of these Oprah shows 17 years ago, I remember seeing a woman that had left her child with her husband. While the woman was gone, the husband threw the baby against the door where there were wire coat racks hanging out, and the baby stuck to these racks, killing it. I was sitting alone in my living room, completey alone in more ways than one, sobbing uncontrolably. I was living in my own prision with an abuser. At the time, my son was less than one year old and learning to walk. That show changed my life forever. I knew if I didn't leave, he'd kill my son just to get at me because he knew I loved him so. He destroyed my self-estem little by little until I thought that every time he hit me, I some how deserved it or that it was my fault.

Up until that point, I had been beaten, had numerous trips to the hospital, black eyes, bruises, broken glass in my face, and he even caused the miscarriage of my first child. I didn't tell my family a whole lot because I was ashamed and embarassed by it all. I felt less of a human than I had ever felt in my life. When they figured it out, they all wondered why I "didn't just leave or divorce him". There's such a control that an abuser has over his victim that no one can understand it unless you've been through it. Women don't decide that they are going to stay and be abused...they feel they have no choice. I found the strength inside me that was there before I ever met him and I got my son out before one of us got killed. The straw that broke the camels back you ask? When my son was learning to walk and still holding on to the coffee table, screaming and crying because his dad was hurting his mom...he was on top of me on the couch choking me by the throat so that I couldn't breath.

It's not a choice to be abused, but you do have the choice to leave. It IS there...you may not realize that is an option, but there's a way out some how by the grace of God. If you are in this situation, you are not alone in this. I'm sure you may feel like you're all alone, but you are not. GET OUT NOW and live your life for yourself! If you have kids, you owe it to them to give them a life with no abuse. Life may not be easier, but you'll certainly be happier. Lean on God and He will give you strength and the power to do all things!!