Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas everyone! I do not know how much I will be around for the holidays so I am wishing you a very Merry Christmas and I pray that you enjoy your families, your homes, good people, good food and are truly blessed. May your New Year bring His great joy, peace and unending love to each of you.

God bless you always and thank you so much for following, reading and commenting on my blog ~ I appreciate you all very much!

Thinking Back Through 2010

This year (2010) my Word for the Year was Breakthrough... I was thinking about that and at one point I thought... hmph! "There wasn't too much of that going on!" Then I put aside my negativity and looked through my posts for this year! Breakthrough was actually the perfect word for 2010:
1. I was able to ween down my medication that I have been on for almost 14 years! (I had tried before and failed but this year I DID IT! YAY!) BREAKTHROUGH
2. I got a new job in January of 2010 and learned how to do accounting which I have never fully involved myself before (it was actually a fear of mine, but this year I overcame and am now comfortably slotted into a book keeping position!) BREAKTHROUGH
3. My husband got a new job and was blessed to get out of a job that he had been in for a number of years but never enjoyed... now he is doing something he really enjoys and is much happier. BREAKTHROUGH
4. I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia - not knowing what has been happening to my body for a number of years I am now able to learn more about this illness and put into place those things that help with the pain - I am finally able to go to the Chronic Pain Clinic and learn more about the resources available. BREAKTHROUGH
5. I started the Artist Blog Hop and since then have met MANY awesome artists who have inspired me so deeply - BREAKTHROUGH



6. Both of my sons are happy with school this year (never happened before that they both love it) BREAKTHROUGH

These are all amazing BREAKTHROUGH's in my life this year and I can see how God has worked in my life through this word that He gave me.

Now onto 2011 and I am looking forward to the HEALING HEALTH that will come! Come Lord Jesus come! Amen.



I pray that all of you can look back over this year and find the blessings that you have received.

Many hugs and blessings to you all - Merry Christmas!

Inspired by Angelia

The above picture is the beginning... it all started here... (I have posted the finished pages at the bottom of this post).


Last week Angelia from Angelia's Art Journal has been doing some amazing art journal spreads with acrylic paint. I have loved seeing the progression of her pages from small blobs of paint to actual faces, birds etc. Her lovely pages have inspired me to try this (for me, very scary) technique. I unfortunately have not experimented with, hmmmm... what's the right word to describe this... is it abstract??? I'm not sure! Finding your painting in through the colors on the page, allowing the images to find you actually is something very new for me. As you can probably tell from my art work I am not experimental, or very abstract... usually what you see is what it actually is, there's no guess work involved in my work! LOL.
I really need to try not to be so regimented as I can feel that creative spirit inside of me wanting to burst free of it's confines that I have placed around it. This is where the lovely Angelia comes in. She is such a wonderful inspiration to me, I can't get enough of her vibrant colors and free spirit that just flows out of her and onto paper or canvas. I just discovered that she is a painter! I can't believe I did not know this before! This is one of her awesome journal spreads - isn't this fabulous???






And this is another amazing spread - look at this detail!








From Angelia's inspiration I was able to work out an image from a few blobs of colored paint and this is the outcome... (surprise, surprise... can you see the tree?)




I must say that at first I wasn't liking what was coming up... I did not like the colors, the way they were blending, I wasn't very imaginative in pulling out the images but in the end I felt it was very liberating to make such a mess and then to be able to clean it up! LOL! I think I will do some more of these spreads, especially after seeing what Angelia has accomplished!

Thank you so much Angelia for all your inspiration!

Hugs and blessings to you all! I hope and pray you are all enjoying Christmas!
Happy Creating everyone!

New Word For 2011 (Journal Spread) - Done Early

I can't believe it! Usually I do not remember to do my "Word Of the Year" until after the New Year has begun! Yahooey! For once I am ahead of myself! (imaginatively doing the happy dance right now!)

This year has been quite the year and I am anxiously waiting for 2011 to begin although I am enjoying the Christmas Season! I am ahead of all the hustle and bustle that plagues many a household this time of year... I do not like the busyness at all! I HATE crowds of people so when I do my Christmas shopping I embrace it as if I am in battle - very strategically! Last week my son Ben and I went and did our shopping together (every year we choose who is buying for who and go off to a store to buy those little gifts)... we mapped out our list of things to do and it was a great success! Nowadays strip malls are going up all over the place so chances of you finding everything you need in one place are very high ~ for convenience I give that a thumbs up! Although, I do not particularily love seeing these strip malls everywhere. We as a society are very commercial, very materialistic and seem to flock to these malls like bees on honey ~ I am guilty of this! I yearn for the simplistic life while I type on my laptop computer in my nice warm and cozy house, all nested in with my Itouch I-pod on one side and my blackberry on the other! Does that sound strange to anyone else? I do not actually know what a 'simplistic life' would look like, though this year I think I am going to try harder to be more simplistic and not have so many "things"...

Anyway, on to my new "Word of the year"



I chose two words this year because they go hand-in-hand: HEALING Health! I didn't have to think too long to know that I really need to focus on Healing and getting Healthy in 2011. As pointed out by one of my dear blogging friends Esther, many of us are in deep need of healing this coming year! Well, it's so very true! How many of us, if not every one of us need that healing touch from the Lord to rain down upon us and set us free from physical, emotional or spiritual bondage?

I say no more!

I can't stand to go through another year of being bound by physical pain and I know that God doesn't want this for me either!

So basically... I SURRENDER! I am giving it ALL to the Lord this year! I have so much junk-in-my-trunk that it's no wonder I am sick! I am talking about toxicity in my body that I really need to find away to get out! I am also talking about healing of my spirit too, all the stress that has accumulated within me that makes me sick! All of it! I give it all to you LORD!

I understand the logic, I understand that God desires so many amazing, wonderful things for His people. He does not want us to hurt or to be physically ill... He wants us to live life to its fullest in health, and love and service to Him. How can we do that if we are bound by illness? I pray that the Lord fills me with Healing and Health this year so that I can serve Him. I pray that you also find that healing and that health you so desire. May 2011 be the year that we are all fully restored in His grace and His love! Amen!

And that all sounds so good... now I just have to hold firm to that for this is my desire!

Many hugs and blessings to all of you, I pray that you are all enjoying the blessings that this season brings. Remember to keep the "Christ" in Christmas and be very full of love and joy!

Don't forget to get yourself some "Happy Creating" time!

Wisdom, Heavenly vs. Worldly

I have attempted to capture what the Lord has placed upon my heart in regards to Heavenly vs. Worldly wisdom many times. In the beginning few chapters of Proverbs Wisdom is seen as a woman, and she is compared to the Adulteress in these chapters as well.

I see Wisdom from a Heavenly perspective as a woman peacefully natured, calm and pleasing to the eye, nothing harsh but beckoning with pure love and consideration of others. Like God looking down on us, Wisdom is calling out to us only desiring to fill us with Heavenly knowledge and understanding to direct our path in life to eternal life with the Father.

I see wisdom from a Worldly perspective as a woman adulteress with harsh, bold lines. From a worldly perspective she is pleasing to the eye, beauty outside but inside is death... void. She beckons out of greed, desire, and temporary pleasures much like the ways of our world. The World fills us with worldly knowledge to live this 'temporary' life but lacks directing us to eternity and instead leads the way to Death.


Wisdom (Heavenly) "She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed" Proverbs 3:18

The Adulteress (Worldly) "For her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life." Proverbs 2:18-19

In the past I have gone about capturing one thing about Wisdom at a time, but I was unable to truly capture the vision fully. I am thinking I need to do a series of paintings dedicated to this topic to examine it completely.

This is what I have so far.

I hope all of you are enjoying your December so far.
I have been considering what my WORD for 2011 will be. Last year it was BREAKTHROUGH and I am leaning heavily towards HEALING as my word for 2011. I could really use it.

Much love, hugs and blessings coming your way.

Happy Creating Everyone!

Paper Dolls For My Nieces

These dolls have filled my past time for the last couple of weeks! After learning these whimsical characters from Willowing.org I have had a blast creating them for my nieces for Christmas. I remember playing with paper dolls when I was a girl ~ they would be my entertainment for hours!





The fashion for these dolls was pretty basic, just dresses, pants, shirts and an angel outfit for Christmas. My nieces are 9 and 7 so I think they will enjoy them! Well that's one Christmas present done! Yahooey!

Wishing you all the very best fun while you prepare for your Christmas! Happy Creating everyone!

Hugs and many blessings to you!