PONDERING....

Reading The Scriptures
(I have added the word scriptures on his book)

Scriptures.....when I think of this word I have a million images and thoughts race through my mind and body. I have soooo many hours and hours under my belt from the time I was very small all the way to now of consistent scripture reading. I have read them after climbing up in to a very tall tree and settling myself happily on a branch, and in a field with my collie dog Prince who would lie down and I would prop my head up on his side and he wouldn't move the whole time I read out loud to him, and other places, my bedroom, sitting on the stairs, in a car, in a Doctors waiting room, on the front porch steps, in the back yard while trains were noisily going by, in Church classrooms, at the kitchen table and many other places.

When I read, the people and circumstances come alive for me. I am always happy when they are wise and choose good things, and always very sad when they are unwise and choose things that bring them to ultimate destruction. Is it any different in our day... if we were written about and we stumbled upon our names in the printed word what would we find out about our lives, to what end would it play out. To me the Scriptures are the ultimate classic--to be read over, and over, and over again. There are so many life experiences to learn from--real people whose story is in print, who lived a a long time ago and yet can have, if we let them, a great impact on our lives today.

I love this quote from "The World According to Narnia" by Jonathan Rogers

"You can hardly help but feel that a life of virtue is an adventure you wouldn't want to miss"

Do you read the Scriptures?

Glass Vials

I love Itty-Bitty things--they make life so satisfying.

I have these vials in 3 different sizes. They are perfect for buttons, brads, beads, or whatever is small and in need of a home. I even took the largest one and put one of my favorite spices in it and tied on a miniature tag with hemp string and had a perfect little just because gift for a friend. I have quite a few of them and I have been dreaming on the perfect way to store them. So far I have come up with -- taking wood and drilling holes to fit each circumference. Also something with a handle on it so it can be moved around easily. I purchased them online at Specialty Bottle . I am hoping to acquire more in the future,--after all you can never have too many homes for those Itty-Bitty things. It just makes life more orderly. :)

Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Swing

Doesn't this picture just make you smile : )

This print by Scott Gustafson, is titled "Humpty Dumpty Sat On A Swing."
My husband and I were at a gallery and we saw this picture on canvas, framed. It instantly made me think of a picture of my son "little MorgyMan" when he was a baby, the laugh on Humpty Dumpty was just like my sons. It was love at first sight for me but alas it was priced at $600.00 which was not in my budget. My husband saw sitting on a table the book "Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose, Illustrated by Scott Gustafson. We looked through the book and lo and behold in its pages was the above print. Tony said, "lets buy the book and you can cut out the picture and frame it. " So that's exactly what we did. I've hung it temporarily in my family room until my "nursery hall" area walls are ready to hang pictures on, then it will be transferred to the stair hallway.

When our boys were younger all of us would put puzzles together. Some of the puzzles we had were of art work from Scott Gustafson. I love his children illustations. Some of my favorite are "Pat-a-Cake", "Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater", "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".

I also received a signed copy of "Classic Fairy Tales" Illustrated by Scott Gustafson in 2008 for a Christmas present from Tony. Sadly, Jack and the Beanstalk didn't make it into this book because of time constraints on the Illustrator. So I am researching on where and if I can purchase a print to frame. We used to have Jack and the Beanstalk in puzzle form, but that has disappeared over the years and can not be found.

But in the meantime I had some fun with this picture using "picnik". And here is what I turned it into just for fun........

that smile is so contagious....

:-) : } :-) : } :-) Have a Happy Day!

My Country Tis of Thee

I can hardly believe it's the last day of July. Summer is flying by~and with it the Celebration of Our Country on July 4th. To help us celebrate the 4th this year I made this banner. It's made out of my very favorite material, "felted wool". I already had my white wool felted, so I took some red and blue wool from my stash that I had collected and I "felted" it. Then I started cutting everything out and putting it together. I was running out of time to get it completed by the 4th so my dear husband joined in and helped me make the pendants. And then he hung it up for me.

I love working with felted wool it feels "meaty" as if your working with something substantial and not wimpy. And when layered it looks even better. It turned out just as I had hoped. Except that I possibly should have made it a little larger.

Let us live in such a way so that, "God Can Bless America"!

And now on to August :)

Felted Wool Embroidery Keeper

I have recently finished my "Embroidery Keeper". I love it. Now I have most of my "tools" all in one place, ready to pick up and embroidery whatever project I'm working on. It was also the second time I had ever "felted my own wool". It was a fun project.

And here it is opened to reveal all the little compartments. The pocket on the far left is to hold the embroidery floss. In the middle portion is a pocket to hold the scissors, a pocket to hold a pen or pencil for any tracing that's needed and then there is a pin cushion. On the far right is a removable needle keeper and the heart below has two little pocket areas to hold incidentals. Here I have some buttons in it.

In this picture I've opened the needle keeper so you could see inside.

And here I've taken the scissors out to show that I added a plastic covering to the bottom of the scissors because it kept snagging on the wool as I would put it back in the pocket. Finally I decided to take the covering off of a pair of tweezers and put it on the bottom of my scissors and it worked perfectly. No more catching on the fabric. I bought the pattern from Crab Apple Hills Studio, I really had fun working on it. I am also making one for my sister with a pink wool inside lining. I can't wait to finish it so I can send it to her. We are both working on a quilt from Crab Apple Hills and it has alot of embroidering on it. It seems that embroidery is making a come back...:) So try it, you'll like it.

The Blessings of Industry...

Industry defined:

Habitual diligence in any employment, either bodily or mental;
Steady attention to business;
Assiduity;
Opposed to sloth and idleness.
We are directed to take lessons of industry from the bee.
Industry pays debts, while idleness or despair will increase them.

There is a story that goes like this: Charles Schwab, one of the first presidents of Bethlehem Steel Company, once inquired of efficiency expert Ivy Lee: "If you can give us something to pep us up to do the things we know we ought to do, I'll gladly pay you anything within reason you ask."

"Fine." answered Lee. "I can give you something in two minutes that will step up your 'doing' by at least fifty percent." "All right," said Mr. Schwab. "Let's have it." Mr. Lee handed Mr. Schwab a blank sheet of note paper and said: "Write down the six most important tasks you have to do tomorrow and number them in the order of their importance. Now, put this paper in your pocket and the first thing tomorrow morning look at item one and start working on it until it is finished. Then tackle item two in the same way; then item three and so on. Do this until quitting time."

"Don't be concerned if you have only finished one or two. You'll be working on the most important ones. The others can wait. If you can't finish them all by this method, you couldn't have with any other method either; and without some system, you'd probably not even have decided which was the most important." "Do this every working day."

"After you've convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your men try it. Try it as long as you wish and then send me a check for what you think it is worth." A few weeks later Mr. Schwab sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 with a letter saying the lesson was the most profitable he had ever learned. In five years, this plan was largely responsible for turning the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world. And it helped to make Charles Schwab one hundred million dollars.

I like this plan--I think its simple and to the point--obviously in the home it will look a little different, but the principle is the same. What ever your working on stick with it until its done. Even if it overlaps into the next few days (or weeks-or months) depending on the project.

I have numerous projects that I am working on in all different categories. Some of these categories are; collecting and felting my own wool-quilting-embroidery-sewing-cooking-knitting-crocheting-scrap booking-geneology-writing books about my children-A wall of history with time line-decorating-gardening etc. I am finding if I apply this principle to my projects list, first choosing 6 projects that I would like to have completed and then begin working on the first one for a set amount of time each day while in between I do all the other things that are needful for that day--meals, laundry-phones for the business etc. I am seeing success with accomplished projects. The next day I pick up where I left off the day before on my project. Almost all my projects are rather lengthy and will take considerable time to complete (even years). That just seems to be the way I like doing things. A little twist on this is that I also rotate my 1-6 priority list and may work on say, knitting for one day and maybe the next day I need to step away from it and then I may pick up project 2 embroidering an embrodiery envelope holder made from felted wool. And depending on the length of the project I may have 1 or more wonderful things completed by the end of the week or by the end of the month.

But either way the power is in the "finishing". Finishing what we start can never be praised enough. Because its then that we feel and see the "fruits of our labors". Very rewarding!!!

Some one once asked a famous designer to finish this question;
-The only thing I know for sure about the creative process is ......
(his answer)-"People spend a lot of time talking too much about it rather
then getting on and doing it".

Industry, in praise of our hands for the ability to create, to work, to serve.......:)