The Painted Garden

Ok I must post about this blog I found again!  The painted garden.  I love this ladies work!  I am also a painter and always admire someone's else work.  Her art work of her flowers is fabulous! 

Also a big Texas Thank you to Sew ritzy~titzy for sending me a pattern I admired on her blog.  Thanks Dawn, Love ya to stitches!!!

Make it- love it website

Today while in blog land I ran across what I think is a great little handy website.  I liked the tutorial about the cake baking tips.  Not that I'm going to be baking a cake anytime soon, but who knows, one can always use useful tips.  I also added a link to this website on my sidebar. 
Hope you all are having a great "hump" day!

Heavenly Father,

Sometimes when I think about what the future might hold, I slip into worry.  I forget that You have a plan for my life, and that You are trustworthy beyond my wildest imagination.  Thank You for both the good days and the hard days ahead, and thank You that You have a good future in store for me.

Amen!

Inspiration to help others

I hope all of you are doing great this fine Wednesday.  I'm holding my own.  I've been having lots of trials in my life.  I do have to say there is a silver lining under those dark clouds.  Last week at Between job Ministry, I helped pray for a young mans, girlfriends Grandmother, what an awesome thing to be able to do for someone whom I don't know or will probably never see again.  Then today I had a good chat with an older man who was thankful that I gave him some good ideas on how to make his dream of owning a barbeque business happen.  This all reminds me of the book that I'm reading.  It's called Living God's Way.  Here is an excert from the book.  I will probably post some things from the book from time to time. 

The Inner Circle

 

The Proverb tells us, "As iron sharpens iron, so people can improve each other"  (Proverbs 27:17) One of the best tools for sharpening our character is to seek out accountability and encouragement from other people. 

Take a minute to prayerfully consider the relationship in your life.  Is there someone whose wisdom you admire, someone you might want to ask to be you mentor?

Is there someone you'd like to take under your wings?

Do you think you have the kind of close friends who want to see you become your best?

Once you've taken stock of your relationships, think about what steps you might need to take next, and then take those steps, whether it's nurturing an existing friendship or seeking out new ones.  Remember that God goes with you, and that the friendships He brings your way have the potential to make you spiritually stronger and sharper. 

Be united with other Christians.  A wall with loose bricks is not good. The bricks must be cemented together. Corrie Ten Boom.

What a wonderful message.  I'm glad I could share this with you.  Please let me know if this has helped anyone out there, I would love to know. 

I haven't had much time to sew lately or even paint any thing.  Some times the crafts have to take a back seat.

Happy Friday! Gourds and other jibberish!

This may be a long post but here it goes!  First off I'm having a good week for the most part, If any of you know me, I've had my struggles with unemployment and my home life has been a train wreck, for the last 14 months.  I have been trying to find full time work, and can't seem to get anything but a part time position.  Let me just say that this week I have had a really good face to face panel interview with a good company.  And on Thursday of this week I had a really really good phone interview with another terrific company.  My prayer everyday is that all that is affected by unemployment, will soon recover and find new opportunities elsewhere. 

On another note!  I have quite a Gourd collection.  I grew some a few years ago and I really love to craft with Gourds.  I really love to paint on them, they make a fantastic painting surface.  Here is one I painted a few years ago. 

More details in this photo.

But now I'm so sad, I went out to my cage that I keep all my gourds in and found that something has been eating a hole in every one of my gourds.  What ever it was chewed 1 hole in each gourd.  I'm so angry! 

 I only have 11 gourds that I can paint on now, some of the came from my sister, they had a huge field of them.   It's funny how they have 1 hole in them. They may not even be fit to make a bird house out of.  I'm assuming it was a rat or mouse that did this. 

Gotta find me some more gourds, anyone out there know of anyplace I can get more gourds from please let me know. They will have to be cheap! 

Also I received my tote bag from my tote bag swap partner that lives in Australia.  Thanks Jeanette for the great bag!  The bag is actually blue not purple.  It has fantastic applique on it.  ok I must go for now.  Happy brush trails!