Here's my take on the challenge this month:I've loved this layout for a long time now and was excited to finally be scrap-lifting it! To get started I went to my LOM [Library of Memories] box and pulled a photo of me. I matted it and then pulled out some papers: red, orange with leaf texture and coordinating scraps from my card box. I decided to use the song, "Wherever He Leads, I"ll Go" as the frame around the photo, so I typed it out and put some of the words in text boxes with a color filled background [i used white text in those. I hand wrote the journaling in pencil first and then placed some words from The Girls' Paperie and computer created text box words throughout before going over it all in pen. MM rub-ons were used for the title: Follow Me, old Heidi Swapp flowers [one cut in half] butterfly embellishments of different kinds replaced the paperclips I kept meaning to get to the store to buy. I love that the butterfly represents new life in Christ. At the end I wasn't happy with how tall my paper scraps were so I added the orange trim to even things out a bit.

I'd still LOVE to see your creations using this sketch [link above] - just comment or send me an email with where I can find it!

Ten on Tuesday

1. On the ‘First Day of Fall’ it was 100* here. But things changed a bit over the weekend and I woke up to this yesterday morning [view from our driveway & across the street.] Hope the cooler temps stay with us!
2. Yay for new television shows! As the kids have gotten older and we no longer have related activities I’ve become hooked on TV [again-?] – we so enjoy: House, Modern Family, Amazing Race, and after watching Grey’s Anatomy’s finale last season we tuned in to see how they were coping this week too! Oh, & I still love Chopped, Bones, and Desperate Housewives – but don’t seek them out like I do the first three. And I’m watching Oprah’s last season and crying like a baby – but will admit that when I watch it ‘live’ I’m switching back and forth between her and Ellen.
3. We love t-vo – it gives us 20 minutes per one hour show. Seriously – a friend and I were talking about how we start watching House at 20 after and still end at 8:00. TWENTY MINUTES of commercials – cRaZy.
4. I’ve been wanting a stainless steel topped island since we moved into the house [I used a stand-alone kitchen cabinet from our previous house – used for a bookshelf base there - for the island.] So I’m thrilled to have this little beauty. Craig’s wooden cutting board from Ikea is on one end and I love how it looks. [The drawer pulls even match the ones we put on our cabinets in the great kitchen re-do.]
5. New Bible Study this week – we’re expanding our group to attend a church-wide study– and let’s just say the Lord is putting me in places I’d choose not to go. It’s very different from what we’ve been doing – and I miss our intimate little group…but I’m trying to be open to His leading.
6. Please continue to lift Matt’s friend [early twenties] up in pray as he said a final goodbye to his mother that he hardly, [if ever] lived with while growing up. Soooo many feelings going on with this situation, I’m sure.
7. Look what I made on Saturday while *watching* the Alabama game with Craig – this was made with the ‘Knifty Knitter’ – Now I know how to knit, but this little gadget is so fun and easy – There’s no counting! It creates perfectly gauged stitches! And things come out perfectly aligned!
8. I’ve given up on the garden and am ready to pull it all up – the heat really tortured it this summer – even with regular waterings. But you know what? I just don’t think you can kill a fig tree. I’m just sayin’.
9. Little things make me happy – I love having a red light on my phone to show an awaiting message [at work] – and a speaker phone too – oh my!
10. And lastly – Drew’s been house-hunting and may have found one he’s particularly interested in. Random fact: the man who built it worked on the Gemini Missions and was a magician. [This has nothing to do with his wanting the house of course, nor does the bright olive carpet or turquoise kitchen countertops – gotta love the 60s!] We’ll see if he goes for it - [Payment should be = or less than rent.]

Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway!

Thanks so much for all of your comments throughout the month!
It's so fun to share together and
I love hearing your thoughts on some of things I put out there.
I appreciate each of you taking the time to stop by and visit!

I've subscribed to two monthly kits now [and am getting a third one for the next few months with my 'winnings' - yippee!] and try as I might to use it all,I [still] have a bunch of stuff to give away!- and I'm really tired of seeing the OMG abbreviation everywhere [I try hard to make my mind read 'oh my goodness!] So am hoping that we might also come to think of it as a

'Once a Month [old stuff] Giveaway!

I plan to randomly draw a name from the comments on this post and send that person a little bag of [old stuff] goodies that hopefully they can use [new to them and all, you know...]
And another little note - I've moved to the flat rate box so I can pack it FULL each month!
[Just ask some of the previous recipients!]

- To enter -just browse through the blog and leave a comment about
your favorite post from SEPTEMBER.
Comments will close on October 5th at midnight [central.]

The Winner for July is:
HollyK from PA
- send your mailing address to me: Judy@faithbasedpages.com
and I'll get a little box of goodies out to you soon!

I love how God works – how He knows what’s going on in our lives – and what is about to be going on. And I love how He uses these things to build together to help us see the truths He wants us learn. Big or little things – it’s just always so neat for me to see when I realize His hand is [again] on my life. Here’s a little thing - Just this week I attended Beth Moore’s simulcast – wow! 125,000 people ‘together’ worshipping and studying The Word. It was wonderful to be a part of it. I attended [this is my 2^nd time to take part] without knowing what the study would be on…and it was surprising [why are we surprised to see how our God works? Or is it just me?] to hear her say we should open our Bibles to Proverbs 31. – We’ve just completed a swap [in one our Yahoo groups] on the Proverbs 31 Woman. I’m awaiting the ‘pages’ – but each of us will have a little page depicting each verse about the characteristics God wants us to have. Different people took a verse and studied it a bit before putting it on the page to share. So the Lord was preparing me to be open to a more in-depth look at some of the verses. I was secretly hoping Beth would choose ‘my’ verse to expand and lead us on – but it was another one – “She opens her mouth in wisdom and kindness is on her tongue.”[verse 26] Some things that made me take a step and think a little deeper: Kindness is an attitude – not an action. Sure we can fake it by doing good things – but if we are really living by the law of kindness it shows in our attitude towards people. Here’s what she left us with at the end of the day:

“My Dear Sister, Your God has called you to use that mouth of yours for His great glory. Don’t just add to the noise. Become a real woman who opens her mouth with wisdom. God wants the Law of Kindness on your tongue, and the love of Christ in your heart. Never forget: kindness is not a weakness! When you’re wearing down head to Christ and His people and let them build you back up. Always remember: His yoke is KIND. Make sure it’s the only yoke you wear. It’s time to go our separate ways but we’ll all meet up again at the glorious epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. Until then, let the One who led you here lead you on with cords of kindness. Now, get out there and build a welcoming fire in a cold world. Live by the Law of Kindness!”

Kinda makes me want to study all of those verses just a little more in-depth…

Ten on Tuesday

1. Craig enjoyed a night with friends this week – cooking fish, and hanging out playing cards, visiting, and telling fish tales.
2. I met the youngest for lunch while I was in Montgomery and it was so nice to just be with him. Miss him when he’s away at school…
3. And of course, as mentioned [on FB] we went to the fair. Somehow, I remember it being a little bigger as a child… but it was still fun! A real fair with exhibits and farm animals [our local fair gave that up a while ago I think, but who would know? – we’ve lived here 20+ years and never attended – ha.]
4. And despite my crazy stomach, between the six of us, we managed to give the following a try – cotton candy, corn dogs, shaved ice, a fried pie, and pork skins. Not too bad, really, considering the options available - There’s just something about being in the heat and smelling greasy food that makes me so NOT want to eat. Random info - my good friend who grew up way up north had never heard of a fried pie. [She’s lived in The South now for over 20 {30?} years…]
5. The demolition derby was fun [one of our main reasons for going] – more a man thing, I think. It lasted a little longer than us girls had planned. And we just kept thinking those guys in the cars HAD to be sore the day after.
6. I was one of the 125,000 people who attended the Beth Moore simulcast on Saturday – it was great to be there with a good friend and so neat to think that many of my blog friends were singing and digging into The Word right along with me in their home towns.
7. Drew and Matt hung out in Auburn for the weekend. – War Eagle. - Barely.
8. We celebrated Apple Dumpling Day [the 17^th] by having them for dinner – with ice cream. [What? Fruit + milk + carbs & butter doesn’t = balanced?]
9. I’m reading Radical [thanks Joey] and finding it interesting. I know I’m very opinionated and so, just as I did with Crazy Love and The Shack – I’m writing my own notes in the pages for those who might read it after I pass it on…
10. And finally – it’s just NOT FALL YET. Our temps are still 15*+ above normal and in the high 90*s here in the middle of September. [But at least the 103*+ are gone…]

"Trying to do the Lord's work in your
own strength

is the most confusing, exhausting,
and tedious of all work.
But when you are filled with
the Holy Spirit,
then the
ministry of Jesus
just flows out of you."

fbp Monthly challenge - September

Title – Follow Me

Photo[s] – 1 large

Papers – your choice, - orange, red, blue

Embellishments – 1 whole flower, two half flowers, paper clips

Technique – 1] create your layout in a triangle on the page, 2] use word stickers [or create your own] and paper scraps to form a frame around your photo. 3] Handwritten journaling interspersed with word stickers. - Share what it means to YOU to be a Christ-follower.

Challenge is based on this scanned photo from Creating Keepsakes August 2007, page 120 [note: this is NOT my layout] :

Scripture / Inspirational Thought – Jesus said to His followers, ‘If anyone wishes to come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.’ – Matthew 16:24

Projects are due by the last day of the month. Please post your layout in our FBP Flickr Group and / or post a comment here to let me know where to see your completed layout. A winner will be randomly chosen from those who complete the challenge iIf we have at least five participate.

The winner will receive their choice of one of these prizes:

My Mind's Eye album kit [red / black], fiskars cutting system [w/ blade and 5 cutting templates,] Cropodile Big Bite [gently used,] SEI card kit, MME brown album, or pixie craft sewing machine [purple.]

Scissors Up! Scrap on –

Blog Hop Winner

Husband randomly chose a number form the comments -

Congrats to Jessica - Fiskateer #5319
Jessica - please send your address to me - judy@faithbasedpages.com and I'll get the dino cartridge in the mail to you this week!

Ten on Tuesday

1. We had a birthday boy this week! Wow! When did my babies become adults? It’s such a joy to watch him grow! And it was eye-opening to hear someone say ‘Mr. Hardwick’ and not be referring to Craig during this recent appendix episode.
2. Celebrated with sushi! Yum! And I branched out from my ‘regular’ California Rolls and tried a couple of new things. Some good, some not so…
3. This week I also had two full days of training – attending, not teaching, and honestly [since it was a review for me] – I’d rather be teaching than attending – it just makes the day go quicker. [And we had great trainers btw – friends of mine-]
4. The Fiskateer Blog Hop was a lot of fun – both to participate in and to hop along – there’s lots of talented people out there with some great ideas!
5. We enjoyed walking the trail up on Green Mountain this weekend – it sure feels like ‘fall’ right now! Let’s delight in every moment of it! And the cooler weather has renewed the life in our hibiscus too.
6. I’m all about keepin’ it real - so I’m just going to say it – I was the devil woman for a couple of days this week. [Some of you know who I’m referring to – ha] But seriously! I could feel it happening and knew it was PMS and even though I tried to keep it under control, things spewed from my mouth like a crazy-person. [I’ve already asked for forgiveness.] Any of you been there? Be honest – I know some of you have!
7. I don’t see how chronic sufferers [or their loved ones] survive to middle age – mine has just started these last few years. And it’s BIZARRE. Thank goodness this craziness is not happening every month for me – I wonder if my absolutely atrocious eating [as in delicious – but oh-so-unhealthy] this week could have spurred it on?
8. It seems the fox in our yard is gone – there’s spider webs over the hole – and someone heard from someone else [dontcha love it?] that there was a fox picked up in our area with distemper – bad for the fox [and fox families] - yippee for us!
9. But we did see this a couple of houses down – and saw him actually fly off with the squirrel in his talons – so there’s still danger for our little kitty who needs to learn to stay ‘under cover’ a while longer.
10. And finally - we saw our first hummingbird this week. We don’t put feeders out or try to lure them in – but each September we do see them around our butterfly bush outside the kitchen window – and, life goes on…
    

The Top Ten Lessons I Learned From Charlie Brown #9

9. Action creates reality.

As Charlie Brown was reminded time and again after prodding from Linus: it takes action to bring about change. Though he often failed, Chuck took action quite regularly... and every now and again things would go his way.

Submitted by Jim Allen, a personal & business success coach, who can be reached at Jim@CoachJim.com, or visited on the web at http://www.CoachJim.com.Jim Allen wants you to know: Charles Schulz taught me much through his daily work. Now, I hope to return the favor in some small way.

Welcome to the Fiskateers' ORANGE blog hop!!

I'm Fiskateer #5798 and I'm so happy to be a part of the fun!
If you want to start from the beginning please go to the
Fiskateers website
[click above or on Fiskateers / Blog Hop buttons to the right -]
Annnnd - if you don't know what a Fiskateer is -
then check us out today and join in on the fun!

Today I thought we'd talk a little about trends we see in our own scrapbooking.

There's lots of trends in the 'scrapbook world' for sure,
so I'll start with sharing some trends I've noticed in my own scrapbooking lately -
I usually start my page with some of my favorite photos bunched together in the middle or to one corner a la Stacy Julian's finish line method -

then I add the other stuff around / underneath the photos.
I love large circles and have noticed that I include them in A LOT of my layouts -

I also love using multiple tags on a page - and journaling over them

And of course alphabet stickers [it's an addiction for me-]

And you can see from these I've shared that I don't shy away from one-photo layouts,
but I often do multi-photo layouts too;

I almost always do one-page layouts - that's what I enjoy more [there was a time when I felt pressured to do two-page layouts because someone told me that was the *right way* to scrapbook] but I say do what you enjoy - it's your photos! your art! your memories!
I also like to use my own handwriting on most pages and
tend to outline most everything [alphabets, photos, mats, etc.] with a black pen. Sometimes straight outlines, sometimes squiggly, sometimes little dashes that [I hope] looks like stitches [lol - been doing the little stitch thing since middle school - why give it up now?]

I encourage you to take a look at some of your recent layouts and
see if you find trends in your own work.
Do this a few times a year and you'll see how
your own scrapbook 'style' changes and evolves.

Finally, this is one of my very favorite layouts of a tree in our neighborhood

- and I wanted to leave you with this quote:

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed.
Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every moment
with love, grace, and gratitude."

I wish you happiness!

And I hope you'll come back and visit often!
I'll do a random drawing from the comments on this post [deadline is Sunday midnight]

and the winner will receive
a [never opened] cricut dinosaur cartridge!
I'd love to have you join us in Faithbooking 101 in the
Faith Based Pages Classes Yahoo Group too!
[It's a free class! - link to the right]

Now - on with the Orange Blog Hop -
go on over and visit Rachel H., Fiskateer # 667 next!
Have fun!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Well, my week started off with some dental work – so NOT fun when almost my entire face is numb for most of the day. But it had to be done [old cavities, ya know.] And Drew had his post surgery visit and all is well – now he’s looking forward to replacing the seats in his jeep [he couldn’t pick up the new seats until now.]
2. Found some old friends on Facebook this week – it really is fun to catch up with people. [I think I’m addicted to it.]
3. All of my boys enjoyed some time together in Auburn when Craig and Drew spent the night at Matt’s house before the first game. [Report is that it has a nice college guy vibe to it.] Much thanks to John and Holly for saving them a park at our old apartment. [I think we’ll miss that place more than they will – it was just too convenient!]
4. And triple thanks to Craig for finding just the right GLIDER for us to use as the base for the piecrust pattern I love. [But THIS IS IT – no more gliders will be coming home to our house!]
5. Sitting out under the trees is just soooo relaxing.
6. Craig also shared a sweet moment with a little guy named Nathan when he gave him an extra AU hat and Nathan wanted to give him a hug & pray for him. They talked a bit about being a fan, & I think Craig made his day when he shared that the most important thing was to be a Jesus fan.
7. I enjoyed a weekend of scrapbooking – It is just so wonderful to have a fun group of gals that get together monthly! I’ve had a sinus crud going on so I didn’t get a ton done – but it was fun to visit and catch up! I did 7 pages + finished up 4 I’d done earlier in the week for a DT call.
8. My Bible Study Group gathered this week after having the summer off. We’ve decided to not do our own study this fall, but instead plan to attend a joint study led by our women’s group at church. There’s a worship time included that I’m looking forward to –
9. Little Pauly is earning his keep! Our older cat brought it to him but he sure seemed to take a liking to it. So happy he’ll be taking part in the chipmunk extradition around here. [And happy that the older cat is beginning to accept him..]
   
10. And finally, we enjoyed walking through the Dog Days Flea Market this weekend – we picked up a glass fruit juicer, a blue glass insulator, another fig tree [different kind] and a flour sifter for our hoosier cabinet – the only problem is that when we got home, we found that OUR hoosier cabinet [the one we’ve had for over 25 years] has one intact and workable. Soooo – let me know if you’re in need of one –lol. [The sifter, not the cabinet.]

[photo from facebook - one of son's friends]

The Spirit Flows Through Us.

But God has revealed it to us by his spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

I Corinthians 2:10 NIV

Thought:

I think every person experiences or sees the world in a slightly different manner from the next. Visual artists might be prone to notice color, texture, value, shape, and line. A musician might be more sensitive to the sound of people walking down a hallway, the rhythmic patter of rain on the rooftop, and a blast from a train whistle. A biologist might be drawn to the sound of an animal in distress or the movement of birds in the trees. We all have interests that influence our view or perspective of the world. We all have knowledge of one sort or another.

God provides us with another type of knowledge or wisdom through the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can open up a new world to us whether we are an artist, musician or biologist.

The Holy Spirit lives in us and flows through us. The Holy Spirit helps us understand the deeper things of the world and allows us to be more spiritually connected to God. As artists we can use the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us become better artists and better people. Remember that you have this gift.

Prayer:

Lord,

Thank you for always being there for us. Thank you for blessing us with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Guide us as we use our gift to do your will. Bless us in our creativity on a daily basis. Give us the ability to inspire and help others. Grant us peace and joy. In Christ’s name. Amen.

From My Creativity Blog.