A Picture of Peace In Times of Fear

"For we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind" 2 Timothy 1:7

I have been really contemplating this verse this week as I concentrate on "FEAR" in my book on visual healing through God. 

Just the words, "spirit of fear" make me think.  Fear is a spirit?  I never thought about it that way, but it must be true as that is what the Word says.  Fear is a spirit, and not only that, it also says... "For we have not been given a spirit of fear".   So... to bring it all together in my understanding, fear is a spirit that we have not been given.  Then why is there so much fear in the world?  I believe it is because we ALLOW this 'spirit of fear' into our lives. 

What happens when we allow it into our lives??? We become consumed with fear! 

God does not want this for us, that is why He did not give us 'the spirit of fear', no, he gave us a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind!  Can we have love and peace when we are consumed with fear ~ I don't believe we can. 

God wants so much for us but HE does not want us to live in fear. 

So today, if you have any fear, take a look at it through God's eyes and examine it thoroughly... if fear is not from God, then it is from someone who wants to kill, steal and destroy us.  (aka - the Devil). 

Ask God to release you from the spirit of fear so that you can truly live a life of love and of a sound mind.

Hugs and many blessings to you.

Green Pastures

The Lord is my Shepherd,  I shall not want.  He maketh me to lay down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters,  He restores my soul.  (Psalm 23)   

   

Those words are so incredibly beautiful I cannot express the amount of peace the Lord has given me from them.  When I was sick and overwhelmed with depression my Hubbub would simply speak Psalm 23 to me in its entirety and I would be able to find my way back to peace with the Lord right beside me.  He is my comfort, my happiness and my hope.

In todays world it is difficult to slow down, to breathe to take a step back from the busyness of this life... now, I am taking that step.  I am so thankful to God that He has given me this time to restore my soul... to heal my body. 

I am not working so I can concentrate on Physiotherapy and working with the Doctors on my medication.  I plan to start walking on my treadmill a little bit at a time and get some strength back in this body.  This is, once again, my time of healing.  We all need that every now and again.

I pray you are all well.  I am sorry I have been so absent from all of your blogs.  I hope I will do better soon.

Hugs and many blessings to all of you.



Within The Cross

This week I was consumed with getting the results of my MRI.  I was trying so hard to trust in the Lord but I found I didn't know what to pray for... was I supposed to pray for God to completely heal me? or was I supposed to pray that they would find something in the MRI so that I could have the surgery and would be completely healed from that???  These are the questions that were hard for me. 

In this drawing it was God leading me... I never really have a plan when I start to draw, I usually start from the middle and work my way out.  It wasn't until I was completely finished my drawing that I realized what God was doing inside of me.  I placed myself in the cross ~ and then I thought, wow, yes Lord!!!  I was giving myself permission to place myself on the Cross and realize that what Jesus did on the Cross was for ME too!  His grace, His love, His devotion to US... is sufficient for me too!  I needed to place my worries and concerns on the Cross and completely hand them over to HIM.  The words surrounding the cross are from the Psalms "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not upon your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path."  I further realized (upon completing this piece) that I was talking myself into fully trusting in the Lord, to acknowledge HIM in EVERYTHING and that HE will take care of me.

So, a few days later... I call the specialist to see if the results are in... they are.  After being forwarded from one place to another I am finally at the moment of truth; "what did they find?"  and "when will my surgery be?"... these are the questions going through my mind. 

After a few moments of listening to the nurse describe the results it took me a few moments to realize that they did not find what they were looking for, only a couple of bulging discs that would not need surgery!  Much more went on in the discussion but the sum of it all was that I would not need surgery... and what did I do when I got off the phone???

I cried and I freaked out!!!!  Say what????   Yep, I was very foolish.  You see I set myself up for months thinking and preparing myself for surgery and months of recovery and then suddenly everything changed!  I hate change, I can't process change and sometimes I just need a good swift kick in the butt to realize that it's not the end of the world!!!

I should have been praising God.  I WON'T NEED SURGERY - PRAISE GOD!!!  But I was so concentrating on the pain I was suffering that I thought I knew how I was going to be fixed and that was that!!!!  God however has severely humbled me and since than has slapped my hand (figuratively speaking of coarse) and has helped me realize how very foolish I was for not trusting in Him. 

HE is MY GOD, my creator, my maker, my sustainer and my provider; HE is my healer and redeemer and my shelter and MY GOD.  HE knows me so much better than anything or person in this world will ever know me and HE certainly knows how to heal me.   

It was such a GOD THING that my son was home from school when I received the results.  He prayed with me and His words were filled with wisdom that I never could have grasped had he not been with me at that moment, he prayed "God please heal my Mom, God you are the maker of it so you know how to heal it, so we just ask that you heal it in Jesus name!"  Simple prayer really and he prayed other things but those words were like a light bulb going off in my head (TRUST IN GOD - they said to me.)  Yes God, I will trust YOU.

I will continue to see the Doctors and the Chronic Pain Clinics and the Physio for my pain, but I will trust in GOD to be the healer of my body and that He will bring me to my healing whether it be by His direct hand or through the Doctors.  Oh how I love my GOD.

I hope all of you are doing well and are finding the joy that God so richly gives.

Hugs and many blessings to you all.

Finding Joy

What does it mean to find Joy?   Is joy lost that we should need to find it?  Actually, I believe it is!  The way of our fast-paced highly technological busy world makes it rather a difficult process to experience true joy.  I believe we have moments of joy that we grab here and there while we are living our busy lives but are those moments TRUE JOY?  or are they just little bits of happiness on the go?  When was the last time you took time out of your day to go off in search of finding some real "JOY" for your day? 

I have been very guilty of closing my eyes to the joys around me because I have busied myself with too many other things I think needed to have my attention. 

It helps not working now... for I can see the light that always surrounded me.

God is with us always, He is everywhere all the time and He has such Joy waiting for us to grasp!  We need only ask; we need only open our eyes.

Today the sun is shining brightly and I could hear the birds singing outside my window, a rabbit happily bounced up and down making me giggle.  Then he tried to force her body through an opening in our fence and I literally laughed out loud when she didn't fit and had such a chagrined look upon her cute bunny face.  I believe she was full of babies and that is why she didn't fit through the opening.

What an amazing JOY it is to think of Spring and to think of new life happening around the world, this very moment, every moment really.  God is constantly creating new life all around us.

I found my JOY for the day by just opening up my senses and being aware that God is with me.

I encourage you to take this on yourself... seek and you will find!

Hugs and blessings everyone!

Hello Again My Dear Friends

Well hello again!  I know I have been extremely absent from my blog for awhile, but guess what?  I am back.  I was on a 40 day fast from my blog for Lent and now it is done.  So much has happened in these last 40 days...  I am no longer working but concentrating on my healing of my body from FM and Hypermobility issues with my joints.  I will be doing a lot of Dr's visits in the next little while and praying for good results! AMEN!  My Sister is out of the hospital and at home recovering, although frustrated with the slow healing process, I think she will eventually be okay.  She will most likely feel the effects of this tragedy for the rest of her life in her body and soul but I know that with God she will find her true healing. 

I made her this Angel as per her request (she has always wanted a red-headed Angel because she has beautiful red hair herself).  I drew her as a very serene look to her face, one of almost deep concentration within trying to reveal the power of healing the Angel was giving to my sister from God.  I hated seeing my sister in so much pain, it truly broke my heart, but hearing how much joy she received from receiving my Angel for her I was blessed indeed.  I wrote her a long letter to go with it that it might entertain her and she loved that too!  She told me that when she feels well enough to sit up and actually use her hands to write, she is going to write me a long letter back:)  I had the biggest smile on my face due to her words!  I cannot physically be with her but I can certainly send her things to cheer her up!

I will share some more work that I have done during the 40 days later this week.

Many hugs and blessings Dear Friends.

New Tree Of Life

It seems like every few years or so I am inspired to create a new "Tree of Life".  This time for some reason I chose faces... I was thinking of the past generations sleeping while they wait for the New Jerusalem.  Come Lord Jesus, Come.

This was my "Tree of Life" in 2011

I'm not certain why I did two trees in 2007, one (the top) is my crazy tree of life, and (the bottom) is my "Tree of Life" with all the different fruits.

The "Tree of Life" symbolizes something so precious that we often take for granted.  It is a gift from God and when we accept His Son into our hearts we become apart of the Family of God which is blessed to partake in the fruit of the Tree of Life.  So beautiful.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I'm off to celebrate my son's 17th Birthday.

Hugs and blessings

Inspiration From a Lovely Artist

I discovered a lovely artist named Dorina Costras today.  I found this painting of hers and it really spoke to me of the emotions in the girl with the mask.

I wanted to use the exact same pose but do this up "KELLY" style to speak to women who have just come off the streets.



There are sayings all through her hair and the words on the drawing are;

I Choose Love

I Choose Joy

I Choose Freedom

Open my heart and allow wonderful things to flow into my life.

The idea of the mask spoke volumes to me as I went through a period in my life where I felt like I was always wearing a mask of some kind ~ unable to find myself.

Just sharing some inspiration with you all.

Have a wonderful week.

Hugs and many blessings!

I Will Worship

I started this piece last week when Hubbub and Son were in Arizona.  It is a 16x20 Canvas done using Copic Marker Inks.  I am in love with the way these inks flow down the canvas!  It is called "I Will Worship".

Have an absolutely lovely weekend!

Hugs and blessings

Building Foundation

This piece was inspired by an urging of the Holy Spirit. I was inspired to bring my markers and journal to Church on Sunday and this is what I drew during the service.  (Normally I would not be able to do this as the seating at Church doesn't really allow for me to journal during Church, but this Sunday morning God prepared a place just for me!  Our Church is in a highschool gym, as I walked in that morning I looked to my right and was so blessed to see two leather pieces of furniture, one being a big leather chair with plenty of room for my supplies and the best thing was that it was off in a corner so that no-one would really notice me journaling ~  God is so good!
Lately God has been pressing on me the importance of prayer; for our children, for our spouses, for ourselves, for our homes, churches, work places, cities, and Country...  I picked up this book on my Kobo called "The Veritas Conflict" and this book literally brought me to my knees in prayer praying for my teenagers.  It describes in great detail what happens all around us as we pray, a Spiritual battle that we cannot see but that we are VERY much a part of.  The vision I had for this piece was in seeing people praying for each other and being on fire in the Holy Spirit, being surrounded and enveloped, protected and made stronger as they prayed.  Their words were building a strong and solid foundation in God.  This vision came to life in me as our Youth Pastor called the Columbia Missions Team to the front of the Church for prayer and a young teen prayed over them. 
I love, love, love it when God speaks to me in images and allows so graciously for me to develop the vision onto paper.  I love being close to God as I put color on the page.  I cannot express enough the delight I have in this process. 
So, keep praying peoples because great and mighty things are happening for the Kingdom, be encouraged.

Big hugs and many blessings my dear friends.

Journaled in some of my journal tip-ins

These journal tip-ins look so different when they are filled in with journaling.  I am going to tip them into one of my journals and then work outward by coloring in the backgrounds in a subtle way as not to take away from the tip-ins themselves.  I really like the faces as it looks like they are talking to each other.

I hope you are all having a fabulous Friday!  It is cold, cold, cold here in Calgary and half of my family is in Arizona at a wedding (Hubbub and youngest son).  I had the option to go but chose it would have been two quick of a trip for me, darn it!  However, I get to spend the whole weekend with my eldest son who just started driving!  He loves it and is doing really well.  Hold on tight to your seats and stay off the sidewalks!  Just kidding.

Happy weekend to you all, hugs and many blessings.  And for those of you going through tough times... remember I am praying for you okay!  With much love.

Learn From Me

Monica from an All woman's school in Texas contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in creating something for their pamphlet for their annual spring retreat.  Their theme would be "Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart" - focusing also on forgiveness, trust in God and humility.  I told her I would pray about it and see what God would give me for it.

The above drawing is what I saw.  I saw Jesus hands holding His healing streams of living water with a reflection of a woman (representing all women), being in the knowledge of our hurt, pain and unforgiveness within us.  The rocky background being His foundation.

I hope this is the vision they are looking for, I haven't heard back from them yet.

Well I wanted to share with you this blessing.  I love it when people find my blog and I am able to bless them in this way and especially when God gives me a vision for them.

I hope and pray you are all enjoying your week. 

Hugs and blessings dear friends, with much love.

Hurting For The Lost

If anyone asked me what my GIFTINGS are I would have to say one of them is definitely COMPASSION.  I usually take peoples pain into myself and hurt deeply for them.  God sends people into my life that need comfort, compassion, encouragement and I am THERE for the task.  I do everything I can for them... but honestly... it HURTS so much!  To see them hurting, to see them making wrong choices, to see them not turning to GOD ~ WOW!    I know that God has His reasons for sending these people to me, I guess I wish that I could believe in the strength HE obviously believes that I have.  I LOVE these individuals as if they were born of my own womb, they become apart of me and when they HURT, I HURT, when they CRY, I CRY.  The most difficult thing for me is after I have done all I can do to help them through what they are going through and they no longer listen to me... then I MUST walk away and allow them to go down the path they are going to go.  Although I am praying all through this journey, it's at the end of the journey for my part that I pray to be able to let them go and leave them at the foot of the CROSS.  To TRUST in Jesus to take it from where I NEED to leave off.  When I do this it feels like I have lost a limb... I mourn for the loss of their presence in my life as I have come to love them so deeply.  However, GOD comes and fills that loss with HIS love and with HIS peace and I know that in a little while I will be okay.  I trust the Lord to take care of them now. 

For all the people God has placed in my life... each and everyone of them has an honorary place in my heart and I am forever changed from having them in my life.  I thank God for using me in some way to hopefully touch their lives so in the future when they think of me, maybe they will see Jesus.  THIS is my prayer.  I know it's not for NOTHING!  AMEN!

Be blessed my Dear Friends, be very blessed indeed.

Why Worry?

I am a self-taught artist and I am teaching myself how to use watercolors at the moment. I am also taking an online class of how to draw these 'dreamy dolls' (just at the beginning stage of that one so more to come later).
I think I am self-taught mainly because I am stubborn and impatient and fear I will lose my creativity if someone teaches me how to do something the 'right' way. Do any of you feel that way? But on the other hand I lack the basic knowledge of certain things like how to mix colors and what to use with what to make such and such flow nicely. I easily get frustrated and much of it is of my own making.
I have the desire to learn more but the lack of time right now I guess. I have heard that when you are 65 you can go to University for free ~ maybe I will go then:)

No, just kidding. I will learn and take classes when the opportunity presents itself.

I really enjoy some of the online classes because I can use what I am comfortable with and skip what I know I will not use (for example, if something is not my style)or go back to certain things and view the video tutorials over and over again until I get them right! They are wonderful tools and in this instance I am thankful for current technology that makes things like this available ~ as for the rest I will not admit anything further:)

Today's piece of art is called "Why worry?" I am trying to teach myself how to draw different emotions for the sake of expressing the emotions I went through in my depression and placing them with the scripture that I turned to during that time. Emotions are difficult to capture actually, I tend to make everything look really sad whenever I try to capture a particular emotion. I will research it further.
This was done on watercolor paper with watercolor crayons.

I Pray that your brand new week will be a very blessed one! See the sunshine for what it is, God's light shining over you!

Hugs and blessings Dear Friends.

Fearfully and Wonderfully

I hope you are all having as wonderful of summer as we are here in Calgary, Alberta. It has been beautiful, sunny and hot with the occasional thunder/rainstorm now and again. We spent all Saturday at a lake not too far away as my boys experienced Banana Boating (basically a banana-shaped inflatable device towed behind a boat) and Chariot racing (which is basically the same thing but the kids kneel and hold on for dear life!) It was an awesome experience for them and for us as we were able to spend time with the youth group and some parents.

Today I am having a very quiet day and was able to get out some watercolor crayons and watercolor pencil crayons for this piece I call "Fearfully and Wonderfully".

Here's to a good night sleep and fabulous new week to everyone in blogland.
Hugs and many blessings.

Father's Day and a Princess

Hello and happy weekend to all of you! I hope you are all having great weekends! We are! I entered my husband in a Fathers Day contest with our local radio station and HE WON! We all can't believe it... so this weekend we are moving all of our furniture around, from one floor to another to make room for two brand new leather theatre recliners!! I am so excited because not only does it bless my wonderful hubby and father of our sons, but it also blesses me too because I will have a relaxing place to lay, sit while watching movies or listening to my new relaxation tapes from the Chronic Pain Clinic! Thank you God!!

He also won some "Extreme Dad" prizes like throwing the first pitch for the local Vipers Baseball game (he's a little nervous about that one thinking he's going to hit the batter! LOL), some golf games, scuba lessons, river kayaking, zip line (which should be interesting considering his fear of heights! LOL! I may give that one a try!) Our summer is planned out for us with all these fabulous activities, again, thank you God.



So... now onto my art. I was able to work on my second piece from Julie Nuttings awesome book "Collage Couture" and this lil' gal is what I came up with. First of all her cute little face...

I had a little trouble with her hair and am not quite sure that I am fully satisfied with the results! Julie uses higher end Acrylic paint for her girls hair, I did not have that on hand... so I used Adirondack brown paint from their paint dabbers, then went over with a redish copic marker and then some gold highlights. I really love drawing the face over the typing of the magazine text, it gives the face such a different look than what I am used to.




Next I want to show you a REALLY fun aspect of Julie's designs that she shows in her book... the lace bottom of her dresses, or crinolines I guess is what it's called. I love the final look that transpires as you place the lace on the bottom! This is so feminine and what girls are all about right???



Julie suggests adding embellishments as butterflies or other feminine items as flowers and bling. It really does fit in well with fashion!


And here she is... "PRINCESS"



As you can see, I added bling and butterflies to her. I am enjoying this process so much by the time I am done I am going to have a whole book of these cute lil'ladies. I would love to see the designs you come up with, so please do share them if you get a chance!

Have a great Fathers Day Weekend... please wish all your Fathers many Father's Day blessings!

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!

Art Journaling At Work

I don't know about the company that you work for, but the one that I work for is pretty amazing! When there is nothing for me to do, when all my work is done... they let me do my art work! Isn't that just the most fabulous thing! As long as I'm there to answer the phone. So most days I am finished my work by 10am and I work until 3PM Monday-Thursday. I can't bring out my paints and set up my easle at work but I can get some art journaling in.

The above page is the result of one slow day at work. There was an old magazine that I usually just recycle at work but I decided to cut out the border for this page, paste them on and color them with my Copics. The mask is a piece of work that I have worked on a little bit at a time on my "Desk Calendar" ~ I doodle when it is slow and when the month is over I cut out my doodles and past them in my sketch book!

The mask got me thinking about people and how so many where masks, pretending to be something they are not. These thoughts came into my head because of my girlfriends experience with on-line dating. She noticed that there were so many men on the site that were simply "players" like they are collectors of women! GROASE! These men REALLY have no clue as to what real life is all about! Needless to say my girlfriend is no longer on the site and she only lasted one week until she gladly gave up!

I feel so very blessed in my life ~ I have an amazing hubby who is God fearing, loving, caring and kind. He is the man you see, not hiding anything about him. He has been like this since I met him - however we have both grown up since then too! LOL!






And while I was searching around online for inspiration I came across Milliande and her amazing zentangles. These two pictures are from one of her pattern pages.

Well I wish you a most amazing weekend. Happy creating everyone.
Hugs and blessings!

Speaking of Color - How About Color Therapy?

Color... aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! What would this world be like without color????
Would we be as artistic and creative if we could only see things as black and white? Hmmm.... I wonder? Take a rainbow for instance... if we could only see in black and white then we would only be able to perceive different shades and where's the excitement in that? Colors are vibrant, fun, juicy and eye catching but they can also be used to change moods, capture moods, bring on adrenaline, calm thoughts and promote earthly friendliness...
Colors have so many great purposes...
With the color red I think of love, hearts, blood pumping, kisses... but I also think of anger, holding tight, frustration and flames.
Funny thing: I have heard it said that when buying a car you do not want to choose the color red because you can't see red in your blind spot (I don't know if that is a fact or not ~ but it is interesting no?)
Red is a bright warm color but it can also be a cold color if mixed the right way.
I tend to choose the color red when I am angry, when I need to vent, or if I am feeling "in love" and mushy. I do not feel the emotion of anger too often but when I do it feels so good to use the color red!



Now blue is a very peaceful color... the color of the skies when the sun has burned through all the clouds. Blue is most often used to depict water however most water is clear looking to me, unless we're talking tropical. It is calming to use shades of blue and as I was doodling the above picture I did have a nice sense of calmness in me. I feel better when I see the blue sky and tropical blue water so I believe it is a definite mood enhancer! I personally do not veer too far off with blue as there are only a few shades that really tickle my fancy.

What have you experienced while using particular colors? Do you notice that some colors effect your mood more than others? What colors tickle your fancy?

As always, happy creating everyone!