Sunflower Mixed Media Canvas.....

Good Afternoon my Blog-pal lovelies.

How are you?

This video took me like four or five takes to get it the way I wanted it and still I would change it, so I decided to just post it =)

I made a mixed media canvas and wanted to share it with you.....

enjoy.

I love you so ~~ have a Beautiful day ~~

A Good Foundation.....

Dak came to visit last week and saw a multi-media canvas I did for my craft room.

He really liked it and asked if I would make him one for his dorm room.

Okay, let's just stop a minute and smile shall we?

How sweet is it that my college boy likes his mama's art and wants one on his dorm room wall?

Ahhhh.....

Okay, let's move on =)

He told me kind of what he wanted and so my mind got to thinking on it.

I researched some different things and came across a technique very similar to mine, but with a different foundation than mine, so I decided to try it.

I generally do a scrapbook paper, dress pattern type of foundation.

Well this particular artist used newspaper as her foundation and then painted over it for texture.

I loved that idea, so I went out and bought me a paper, and then started thinking.....

I didn't feel good about that foundation.....

Did I really want the depressing world news as a background for artwork that would hang in my son's room?  Ummmm..... no.

So I started thinking again about what I could use and it came to me.

We have a big box of books in our garage that we are going to sell or get rid of.

We don't read them anymore and they are collecting dust,

so I decided to go out and recycle =)

I also am needing some hard back book covers for some altered projects I'm working on for CHRISTmas, so I got to work.

I found a book "Wild at Heart" and went to work.

I know that some of you might be cringing thinking that I destroyed this book, but I assure you that it is going to a very good cause:  a good foundation.

And I will be using the cover as well.  So I am repurposing and reusing a VERY GOOD book!!!

At the heart of this project is a good foundation.

It is important to me.

If you get something from me in the mail, it will have a good, thought out prayed over foundation.

It is important.

Really important.

 And then I take this good foundation and add some white acrylic paint.

It makes such an interesting background.

Yes it covers up some of the words, but it lends itself to such texture and character.

The foundation of a project and a person is so very important.

It is what we are built on.

If we have a solid foundation, built on the LORD JESUS CHRIST, we are strong, we are courageous.

This project means so much to me.....

I'll keep you posted =)

 And speaking of projects.....

I wanted to show you this little bit of cuteness.....

This is a little card I whipped up to hold my SSMT this time.

 LOVE this verse!!!!!

 And speaking of love and cuteness.....

Sir Cuteness......

 Have.you.ever.?.

 He is so sweet!!!!!

Love you ~~ Have a Beautiful Day ~~



All I can't do .....

PALES IN COMPARISON TO ALL HE CAN DO!!


I'M BELIEVING GOD FOR SOMETHING BIG!!!


HOW ABOUT YOU??

Oh beautiful Tuesday.....

So what do you do on a beautiful Tuesday with your beautiful Sir Cuteness?

Well have a picnic in front of the garage in the shave (*shade*) of course =)

We thought about the library, but it was so pretty here today we decided to venture outside.

He picked the spot, I packed the lunch and made the sweet tea (be still my heart =) and off we went!!

I make this little apple throw a few years back.

(Don't be too impressed, it was EXTREMELY easy =)

But it is a little cusioney and really soft and made a nice little picnic blanket.....

 Oh my stars.....so cute!!!!!

 I packed a delicious lunch of bologna sandwich, complete with a little mayo and cheese +

some tostito's of course.....  and I had a soy chicken on an english muffin with rice cheese and chipotle mayo.....

 We shared silly faces.....

 And an apple.....

 And hugs.....

 And more silly faces =)

 Oh and our picnic?  Yes completely bare footed.....

We'd have it no other way on this fine day ~~

 We drank sweet tea from the carafe and shared pickle jar.....

 And rode the picnic basket.....

 And showed off our Smurfette tatoo and was just so stinkin' cute I could hardly stand it!!!!!

We hugged the carafe.....

 And read a library book.....

Then we jumped on the trampoline, played baseball, played chase the baseball, ran around the house (literally) and then took a walk with our wagon and caught grasshoppers and picked the neighbor's flowers (with permission of course). 

Now he is napping and I am resting.  WOW!!!  Now we have had a FUN, FUN DAY!!!!!

I hope yours has been filled with the love of Jesus and lots of memories too.

*****

I get to see my bestie G this afternoon ~~ YAY!!!

And Dak this evening ~~  YAY YAY!!!!!

WOW ~~ I am a well-Blessed woman!!

Because then tonight I will get to lay down next to the love of my life and have a cute little curly headed three year old tucked safely in between us, saying prayers and asking us how are day was.

Yes, I will tell him.....

I've had a good day.

Love you ~~ Have a Blessed and Beautiful Day ~~

In Him,

Hesed Revisited

I am finding this study on Hesed fascinating.

The title of one of the sections in my reading on "The Gospel of Ruth", which is by all accounts fascinating and intriguing, is: "The Trouble with Hesed". Now if Hesed is so wonderful then how could there ever be any trouble with it?

That is an interesting question and one I found myself wondering about as I read, because how could there be any trouble with YHWH's Hesed?


The trouble comes in, when you feel, as Naomi did, that the LORD's Hesed had been taken from you, or maybe that you feel like He isn't showing you Hesed on a particular part of this journey through life.

There have been times in my life when I could relate to that. When my sister and husband died within three months of each other back in 1986, those tragedies became part of my story. I didn't feel like God was showing me any kindness, Hesed, during that time. Oh how I was wrong!! I just didn't know enough at the time to recognize it.

Fast forward some 22 years. We (my Mr. Winslow and I) have been on quite a journey with a family member we love so dearly. The choices that have been made have been very hard to understand. The last 2 1/2 years have been quite a journey. A journey both of pain but also of extraordinary Hesed by my Abba. He has held me more than I have walked I assure you. I have been broken and humbled in ways I didn't know I needed to be.

I thought at one point that I would drown in the deep rivers of sorrow that sin produces. Watching it so closely, through the life of this dearly loved person, has given me new insights and understanding into how much the enemy desires to thwart the plan of God in our and our loved ones lives. Oh but God.

He has saw this differently and has worked in incredible ways to help me see it differently as well. I am a changed woman for sure because of this journey of pain and hope; Great Hope.

My hope is in Jesus. That is where I place my heart and existence, firmly in Him. At the beginning of this current season of my life, I could not imagine that God could use me to help anyone again. How could I help and give hope to anyone when inside I was so broken and hurting so badly myself. Oh but God. He just sees things so differently than we do.

I'm so thankful that while I wallowed around in "what do I do now" mode, that He was all the while pointing me, teaching me and loving me so well with Hesed and showing me how to show it to others.

I'm so thankful for this journey of pain. It has brought me and is continuing to bring me so much closer to Him. He is opening up doors that just would not have been open had the last 2 1/2 years not been fraught with pain and seeking. Oh precious seeking. He is moving in us and we are listening and obeying and believing the best is yet to come!!

I want to leave you with a paragraph from this book that has touched me deeply:

"If someone gives you a pair of gloves when the sun is shining and your hands are warm, it doesn't mean that much. If your well-fed and have plenty of food in your cupboard, a sack of grain and a ready- to-eat meal seem ordinary and perhaps a little boring. Prosperity tends to dull our senses to the presence of God's Hesed in our lives. But, when trouble strikes and you're sitting in the darkness with a heart that aches for Him, the slightest sign of His Presence is monumental. A load of grain, a cooked meal, or a pair of gloves sends a signal -- faint though it may be -- that He is here and He has not forgotten. Naomi's experience is a lot like watching a heart monitor gone flat and suddenly seeing the flicker of a pulse. It is an exhilarating moment -- the best possible news for the despairing Naomi, for now she knows God's Hesed is still here and it is meant for her."

God's Hesed is still here child and meant for you.

I love you ~~ In Him,

Hesed

For the last few weeks I have been working on a Bible study from the book of Ruth. It is "The Gospel of Ruth" written by Carolyn Custis James.

It has been a very thought provoking and heart examining book. It has covered such topics as widowhood and infertility, both of which are roads I have journeyed down. They were difficult and sad roads and my heart goes out to anyone who has traversed down these paths. My heart has been tendered by the plights of Ruth, Naomi, Orpah and Boaz. I am learning so much.

I wanted to share with you the rich and beautifully selfless love and care that Boaz showed to our two lovely ladies; Ruth and Naomi. He showed them Hesed. Carolyn describes Hesed:


A little help from Hebrew scholars, we can come a little closer to the meaning of Hesed..... They tell us Hesed is a strong Hebrew word that sums up the ideal lifestyle for God's people. It's the way God intended for human beings to live together from the beginning -- the "love-your-neighbor-as-yourself" brand of living, an active, selfless,sacrificial caring for one another that goes against the grain of our fallen natures."

Wow and does it ever go against our fallen grain doesn't it, but the closer we get to God in our daily lives the closer we are to being able to show Hesed to someone else.

She goes on to say:

"It's actually the kind of love we find most fully expressed in Jesus. In a nutshell, Hesed is the gospel lived out."

I love that. Jesus lived Hesed, kindness, love, pure joy... to it's fullest potential. We are to show that to others. Much like Boaz showed to Ruth and Naomi. In that culture, what Boaz did was truly remarkable. He went far above and beyond what was expected of him. His heart truly went out to the plight of these two women. It moved him to action on their behalf, regardless of what the culture of that time dictated he should do.

I want my love and kindness to exceed what the world that I live in says is enough. No I truly desire to show His kindness and love to the point of Hesed. As a daughter of the King, I must show that kind of kindness to others, because of all He has done for me.

Father,
Thank you for showing me Hesed through Your Son Jesus Christ, who lived Hesed perfectly. He is my example, and I will follow Him to the best of my ability! Thank You for loving me and desiring Your best for my life. I love You so ~~ Amen

Let's try this, shall we?

So over the weekend I was the recipient of a beautiful gift from my Mr. Winslow. We had talked at my birthday about getting me an iPad but I had spent most of my money on two certain college bound lovelies and so had very little $$ to contribute myself. So this past weekend he was asking me how much money I had saved for the iPad. To which I had not quite half and half was my goal to save for it well at least that much. Well my man pulled out the rest of what I needed to make half and told me to get the rest out of our account and go get it.

WHAT??!!!

So boys and girls this is the voyage run of posting on the iPad. This is an app so we'll see how well it works.

Okay, off to get Sir Cuteness, but I'm working on another post and plan on having it up this afternoon.

Love you so ~~

Random Friday on Monday =) ~~ Birthday Edition ~~

OH MY STARS ~~ It is SO good to be back!!!

I have been having trouble with blogger.again.

But now I'm back. 

So in honor of me being back.....

let's Random Friday post on this Labor Day Monday.....

Is it me, or has this weekend gone REALLY FAST?!!

*****

anyway.....

So my birthday was on August 26th, so last Friday, and I had such a wonderful day.

I am a Well Blessed Woman!!!

First, G took me and Sir Cuteness to Lola's for lunch.

Now let me just say, if y'all live in the area and have never been.....shame on you and GO.

And if you don't live in the area, when you come to visit your blog buddy in MO, because I know you want to RJ, Jacquie, Stephanie, Meredith..... =)  I will take you to lunch at Lola's and we will bask in the blueberry poppy seed dressing and coconut cake, among other things =)

anyway.....I digress.....

Here is Sir Cuteness, doing what he does best, being cute =)

I'm pretty sure it's his love language.....I KNOW it's mine =)

Oh.my.stars. he is the cutest thing in an "I Love Grandma" t-shirt going.....

Just stayin'  ~~

 Do my hands look older, or is it just me?

Yep, they are another year older too....

When I told Leggs my hands looked older,

she said they just looked used.

Yep made me feel NO better =)

And here is G and I.....

Ya know hanging out on my birthday.....

Me smiling, her smirking.....

Yep, it's the way we roll =)

By-the-way, she looked so pretty that day and I looked so sloppy,

but in my defense it was Friday which is Bear Wear day (every Friday if you are an MSU'er or have a kiddo at MSU, Friday's are Bear Wear Day, so my birthday was on a Friday, so I donned my Bear Wear), that and it was my birthday after all =) 

So thanks for looking so pretty G, and so sorry I was, well dressed down at best =)

Oh I wish I'd taken a picture of Sir Cuteness's food.....

It was a muffin tin and each section had a different food..... like,

one section had turkey, another cheese, another carrots, another a dish of ranch dressing, and so on.....

It was SO cute!!!!  And he LOVED it!!!!!

And then for dessert it came with a cookie that he got to pick out.

So he picked out the apple sugar cookie of course and I put whipped cream on it from my Homemade Angel Food Cake.  It was SO good!!!!!

And I might have put a little on his nose =)

Bliss.

Sheer. Total. Bliss.

I love this mouth!!!!!

OH my stars ~~  He is THE sweetest thing!!!

And then that afternoon Dak, Legs, K and 2 Suite Mates made their way home.

Dak came running in before everyone else.....

Bounding into the house and hugged me SO TIGHT!!!!!

This was the hug!!!!!

Oh.my.stars.

Bliss.

Do I look short?

Why yes, yes I do =)

K coming in to hug me.....

And Leggs.....

 

The Group.....

I LOVE these three so!!!!!

Ahhh.....it is good to be loved!!!

The gang....that is E, the girl's suite mate and S, Dak's suite mate.

So glad they came to see me too =)

So cute.....

I'm not the only one who has really missed Dak.....

So sweet.....

I'm trying to show him how to accept his award letter stuff.....

Yeah, does he look like he's paying attention?

No.  No he's not.

So there you have it ~~ it was a Beautiful Birthday.

That evening when everyone had gone, Mr. Winslow and I ate pizza and watched Soul Surfer, which is a GREAT movie, by the way, and then on Saturday he took me to town and bought me a tool bag.  I have been wanting one for a really long time.  I need a central place for my screwdriver's and such and needed some new ones, so he fixed me up and took me to lunch at Zio's.  SO YUMMY!!!!!

And then this past Saturday (day before yesterday) Leggs took me to my favorite coffee shop and out to lunch at Zio's again.  SO good!!!!!  She bought me a mug from my favorite coffee shop and we had THE best time.  Then she came back to the house and helped me cook a lovely supper of fried fish, mashed potatoes, corn and cornbread.  We thought we were well in the south for a minute instead of just kinda =) 

*****

I'm so happy to be back with y'all ~~ hope you are having a beautiful Labor Day ~~

Love you,