Praise

I made two more ATC's tonight. I really like experimenting with the different paper and colors.

Psalm 89:1

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; With my mouth will I make known

Your faithfulness to all generations.

Lilies

Psalms 34: 18-19

The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Inspiration

From the book, The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale

Ten Simple Suggestions to Use in Solving Your Problems

1. Believe that for every problem there is a solution.

2. Keep calm. Tension blocks the flow of thought power. Your brain cannot operate efficiently under stress. Go at your problem easy-like.

3. Don't try to force an answer. Keep your mind relaxed so that the solution will open up and become clear.

4. Assemble all the facts impartially, impersonally, and judicially.

5. List these facts on paper. This clarifies your thinking, bringing the various elements into an orderly system. You see as well as think. The problem becomes objective, not subjective.

6. Pray about your problem, affirming that God will flash illumination into your mind.

7. Believe in and seek God's guidance ont he promise of the 73rd Psalm, " You will guide me by Your Counsel."

8. Trust in your insight and intuition.

9. Go to church and let your subconscioua work on the problem as you attune to the mood of worship. Creative spiritual thinking has amazing power to give "right " answers.

10. If you follow these steps faithfully, then the answer that develops in your mind, or comes to pass, is the right answer to your problem.

Purple

This is a corner of my yard two Springs ago.

Buddy

This is my brother Buddy, he is holding my niece. Buddy died in a car wreck seven years ago in August.

When I took this picture I had double exposed the film. I took pictures at a local art fair and then of family members. I didn't get these developed until after he had passed, and I remember thinking when I got them back how much he would have loved them.

What is so odd, is Buddy's eyes were the color blue of the boy in the picture. Buddy taught me alot about art. He taught me to love and experiment with art.

He was the kind of person who made life good. He could make the ordinary extraordinary. And he made people feel good about themselves.

It seems when someone dies we are never truly whole again, but we do learn to go on. I also have learned to try to live my life to the fullest and to try new things.

Taming of the Shrew

She is a saucy girl, but I really don't want her tamed! I like people who are a little wild with a mind of their own. It makes life more interesting.

Cosmo

I made two ATC Cards tonight. I am still pretty new at this, but I really like making them. Hopefully I'll get better as I go.

Ghost of Persimmon Road

This is an old railroad track with a huge culvert beneath it. It may look abandoned but it's really not.

Jess lives here. Who's Jess?
He was a hobo back in the 1930's.

He and another man were camping at this site one summer evening when they got into a fight. Some say it was over liquor and some say over food.

The other man murdered Jess by hitting him in the head with a huge rock.

Now when you drive down Persimmon Road late at night.You might see someone walking through the fog. A lone figure dressed a little oddly, straight out of the 30's. Don't worry Jess is just going home.

Inspiration

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

One single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer. -G.E. Lessing

There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart.

- Celia Thaxter

1 Samuel 16:7

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

I woke up this morning thinking about how much gratitude moves a person to a new level. If we are grateful for the small ordinary acts we perform everyday it brings joy to our lives like we could never believe. I am happy I can walk and talk and move. I am happy to be alive.

I know that there are a million and a half things to worry about. But today I will be grateful.

ATC= Twilight

This is my daughter Elizabeth's ATC Card. We had a workshop tonight and it was the kid's first time making them. Her and Teone are teens but Malik is just a little guy. But they really liked making them, we are experimenting more tommorow. I really love the way liz's turned out.

ATC= Flower of God

This is my nephew Malik's ATC Card. He is only 9 years old and this is his first card. He came up with the title on his own. I was blown away.

ATC Card= Portrait of A Poet

This is my niece Teone's ATC Card she made tonight. I really think it turned out so pretty. xxoo

ATC= Thoughts of A Pot

I just finished one of my ATC Cards tonight, It has the rounded corners, but the next ones will be rectangular. This is from a picture I had drawn years ago.

Do you like it?

More Art Adventures At the Library

I struck gold today! I found the most awesome book of Victorian posters. It was a really old book with even a bit of dust on it, which I promptly swept off. Here is a look see for you all. There are more at the bottom.

Hey, There's a Cat in My Pants!

We have a cat named Sade, and every time anyone goes to the restroom he tries to sit in their drawers. Yesterday I am on the pot and he tries it. I yell, GET OUT OF MY PANTS, NOW! DON'T EVEN TRY IT!

I hear a knock on the door and go to answer it and my Mom is there, smiling. Am I interrupting something?

I feel myself going red from my head to my toes.

So I explain to her about the cat's bad manners, and she is laughing her crazy head off.

I have a feeling I will never live this one down!

Inspiration

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for
And certain of what we do not see.

When everything is crumbling around us and in us, Christ is our Strength and Foundation.
Pope John Paul ll

Skill is stronger than strength.
_ W.G. Benham

To do nothing is the way to be nothing.
_Nathaniel Howe

A woman's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience
Olivier Wendall Holmes.

Pennsylvania Dutch Art

I forgot to add one book! Pennsylvania Dutch Art Designs, by Rebecca McKillip. And this is my favorite one. It is chock full of wonderful designs. Don't you just love the mermaids?

Good craft and Art books

Yesterday I found some great books at the library, my home away from home. Yes, sigh, I am a book nerd. I love them, can't live without them. But anyway , Here is a list you all might like:

1. Picture Sourcebook For Collage and Decoupage, Edited by Edmund V. Gillion. Jr.

2. Creating Cards with Scrapbook Embellishments, by Mary Jo McGraw

3. The Complete Book of Papercrafts , Published by Hermes House
This is an awesome book, it has over 300 projects in it!

4. The Country Diary Book of Crafts , by Annette Mitchell
This book has some beautiful graphics in it, and rag doll patterns, crochet, cross- stitch, etc.

5. New ways in Collage, by Mary Jane Mayer and Mary Webb
This is actually an older book, but it has some really neat stuff in it.

6. The Complete Book of Candles, By Gloria Nicol
I have 3 of her projects at the bottom of the page.

I hope these will inspire your creative juices to flow. They have mine. We are making the paper mache pear today. I am really excited to see how it turns out. Have a blessed day.
Nita

Inspiration

Daniel 2:22

He reveals deep and secret things, He knows what is in the darknness and light dwells with Him.

Amos 4:13

For behold.
He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is.And makes the morning darkness. Who treads the high places of the earth- The Lord God of hosts is His name.

In this short life that only lasts an hour, How much, how little, Is within our power.
Emily Dickinson

It's true isn't it? We do have alot of control over most things in our lives. But little control over sudden illness, or accidents or death. But if we make the most of every minute and love those around us as much as we can we will have no regrets.



A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Francis Bacon

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.
Henry David Thoreau

In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.
Albert Camus

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man be perfected without trials.
Danish Proverb

Thought for Day:

Plant seeds of goodness today for you may need kindness tomorrow.

If any woman needs encouragement, I have found a really good book by Stormie Omartian called,The Power of a Praying Woman. Very good book.

Have a blessed day

Decoupage and Collage Art and Paper - mache`

I went to the library today and found some awesome decoupage pages, and I would like to share them with anyone who would like to have them. I also found a wonderful paper-mache` pear. I hope everyone likes them. They will be at the bottom of the page. Nita

Inspiration

Psalm 91: 4-7

He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.

Sometimes it is so scary in our society with all the things we have going on, I want to encourage you today not to be afraid.

The Power of One
When I was a kid I use to walk to school. There was an elderly woman who sat on her front porch everyday on the path that I took, whom I use to stop and talk to on the way to school and on the way home. Sometimes, to be honest, I really didn't want to but I did because I felt so sad for her.

As we were talking one day she said,"Do you know you are the only person I talk to everyday?'

"You are the only one who has even bothered to stop and talk to me. Out of all the people I see walk past my sidewalk, no one stops. I just want to thank you for stopping."

I walked home that day knowing I had made a difference in someones life.

Just by stopping and talking for a few minutes.

American Indian Monday

I had a few more things I wanted to add to American Indian Monday. I hope you enjoy them.

A very good book : Reinventing the Enemy's Language: Contemporary Native Women's writings of North America

author, Joy Harjo

( A quote)

Let us be brave in the face of adversity

Seneca

Inspiration

"I am a companion to all who fear You, and of those who keep your precepts."
Psalm 119:63

The Six Mistakes of Man

1. The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others

2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected

3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it

4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences

5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.

6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

Marcus Tullius Cicero


Thought for the day:

The mightiest works have been accomplished by men who somehow kept their ability to dream great dreams.

American Indian Monday

We do not have a National holiday in America to celebrate the American Indian. So in honor of all American Indians, I am starting American Indian Mondays.

The picture at the top is of an Arikara medicine man cloaked in the skin of a bear he has slain to acquire its powerful spirit and to symbolize his membership in the tribe's bear clan. (picture

from the 1800's)

( American Indian Authors)

In Vine Deloria Jr.s book, Custard Died For your Sins, Deloria tells of how every treaty that has ever been made with the American Indian has been broken.That is a lot of treaties.

Sherman Alexie writes with a newness that makes me want to create new material every time I read him, His honesty can be brutal for whites and Indians alike. But then he softens it all in the next line.

Some of his books: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, The Summer of Black widows, I would steal Horses For You.

Wes Studi , a Cherokee actor with numerous film and TV credits, serves

as a spokesman for the Indigenous Language Institute, a Sante Fe based non-profit agency that supports the revitalization and preservation of Native languages threatened with extinction. Of an estimated 500 American Indian languages that existed when Columbus arrived, only 175 remain. Of these, 40% have nearly disappeared.

Inspiration

I want to encourage anyone who is having a rough time right now. Don't give up. God helps.

Proverbs 3:5-6

" Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths."

Picking Berries

Today we finally went blackberry picking . We were supposed to go yesterday, but stuff happened.
Three deers came to eat berries while we were there. A momma dear and her two little fawns. They had the most extraordinary eyes, so sweet and innocent. They stood there for a minute like please leave our berries alone. ( I swear we only took enough for a cobbler. )
Then two sky blue dragonflys flew past me while I was picking , and I could have sworn they were faeries !
I have purple fingers, but I am quite happy.

By the way, has anyone ever read The Yearling? I loved that book.

Blackberry Cobbler (yum yum)

2 1/2 cups blackberries

1/4 cup flour

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

Be sure to mix one ingredient at a time. Pour into crust and bake at 375 until light brown and bubbly.

You can double or triple this recipe easily.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pie Crust

2 cups all -purpose flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

Mix then add:

1 cup butter flavor or regular Crisco

Mix with a pastry cutter or a fork until

worked in well and crumbly. Then add 6 Tablespoons of ice water. Mix until it sticks together. Put a little flour on table and your rolling pin and roll out.