Advent(ures) - {No. 5} Joy and Good Tidings...part 1

The Readings:

Day 12: Luke 1:46-56

Day 13: Luke 2:1-5

Day 14: Luke 2:6-7

Day 15: Luke 2:8-12

Does it ever happen to you, that when a thought, or whisper, starts to take root in your mind, that you see that very sentiment everywhere?  It almost becomes a filter through which all of life is viewed...

My thought threads, as I considered an Advent series, went something like this:

Joy -  

{and then I was led to the Joy of the World vintage image}

Emmanuel - God with us, God coming to us, 

God coming right to where I am - 

in the midst of the going through the going {growing?} through...

Born in a stable -

born in the midst of a busy, messy, noisy, lively stable...

{and so I can be comfortable with His Presence in my own busy, messy, noisy, lively life!}

My sweet friend Jennifer from Studio JRU offered this beautiful print for all for this season:

Go to her post at {in}courage here and follow the instructions to get your beautiful download...

I so love when God is speaking His message all over my wanderings...

The definitions for joy that the world offers are very shallow, and I propose do NOT even define joy, but just another facet of happiness.  Joy is presented as an emotion - fleeting, depending on outer circumstances, unstable.  But joy is not an emotion, it is a character trait...and this difference is quickly found when one wants to make the idea of joy a metaphor for the way they approach life...to find a definition of joy that can be woven into the very fabric of their being...

I wanted to define "joy" the way the Lord does.  And questions and scriptures about joy were floating around my mind - not knowing whether they were my thoughts or the Spirit's leadings, so gentle and soft they were...for instance, the following:

The joy of the Lord is my strength...Nehemiah 8:10

The chewing, the meditating on this verse, it isn't new...our strength comes from the Lord's joy, not my joy in the Lord's ways...I have known that, have heard sermons on it.  But just what is that joy?  The word translated "joy" in this verse is chedvah.  It occurs only twice in the Scripture:  here in Nehemiah as the people celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles for the first time in over 70 years and in 1 Chronicles 16:27...

 "Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and joy are in His place," 

said David as he brought the ark of the Lord's Presence into Zion, 
to the resting place he had prepared for it...

Both places that this word occurs, a celebration of the Lord's Presence with His people...

That is where our joy comes from, from His Presence with us...God is the source of Joy - He IS joy. 

And a little "Joy Treat" from my Beyond Layers class this week....

Click here to download your own copy of these tags in high resolution

Free E-book for Advent from John Piper - Good Tidings of Great Joy

Reflections on Solitude...

An assignment from Beyond Layers...everyone gets the same image to play with...and find a quote that fits with what the image speaks to each... Closely related to my One Word for 2012, contemplate, is the word solitude...and several more good quotes:


Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that's where I renew my springs that never dry up.  ~Pearl Buck

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.  ~William Penn

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir
  
It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.  ~K.T. Jong
  
Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.  ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now
 
 

And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place 

and rest a while..." Mark 6:31 NASB  

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

August 28, 2012

A peek into my day:

Looking for rectangles for a Beyond Layers challenge - and looking for them from old picture files on the computer...


I took these last fall,  when sweet tweener was having her pictures taken...it was such a good opportunity to snag some great texture...and shapes (as it turns out).

I loved the peeling paint, the crumbling stones in this old alley - and then I noticed the sign on the boxes stacked on the other side of the doors ->...
so many questions remained unanswered when I think of what that sign might mean!

 
Here are some vertical styled rectangles...and a horizontal one above and rectanglish crumbled stones around the bottom...and of course sweet tweener...I can't wait for her pictures this year!

























Outside my window...it was cloudy - and so cool for the dog days of summer here in Texas!  I love the rain we've been having lately!

I am thinking...about this school year - 6th grade already!  And so very Tween...

I am thankful...that she shares so much of her heart with me...I am honored...and for fat hummingbirds visiting our feeder every morning...

In the kitchen...just made another batch of laundry soap (recipe here).

I am wearing...a black T with little ruffles across the yoke and a "carpenter" style smokey blue long skirt.

I am creating...an image gallery on my Wordpress site!  I finally figured it out! (Keep checking back to see the progress).

We are going...to visit David over Labor Day weekend; it will be interesting I am sure...

I am wondering...what will happen with the elections this year - illegal immigration, the health care bill, and the ever extending Federal government's reach...

I am reading...the Audiblox manual (a program for correction of all sorts of learning disabilities).

I am hoping...that the Audiblox program will also help Gary's slight TIA issues...

I am looking forward to...field trips, Texas State Fair, and an upcoming "stitching retreat" with the smocking guild!

From the learning room... from an article here...

Are geniuses really only better stewards then the rest of us? 

What would happen if every Christian used the 4 hours daily spent in front of the television a day (more than 126 hours a month!) or the near hour a day the average American surfs the internet and spent two of those hours developing their skill in a particular domain (woodworking, quantum physics, photography) and one hour more on the spiritual disciplines that lead into a deeper relationship with God, (prayer, memorization, Bible meditation, fasting) – only repurposing three hours a day from the five we spend on passive entertainment

Around the house...I finally have all the paper off of the refrigerator and proper "mini" magnetic whiteboards installed inside the kitchen cabinet doors.

A favorite quote for today...

I carry your heart with me; (I carry it in my heart); I am never without it; (anywhere I go you go, my dear)...E. E. Cummings

 One of my favorite things...white T's trimmed in lace...

A few plans for the rest of the week...going to the Birds, Beasts, and Beauty art exhibit on Thursday afternoon...

A Scripture to meditate on from this morning: 

Salvation belongs to the Lord; Your blessing be upon Your people!  Selah...Psalm 3:8

Lectio Divina:
We read the passage slowly: lectio
We meditate on the Word or phrase: meditatio 

A life of beauty is to be like a psalm, and a psalm needs many selahs. Our selahs will allow us to consider and reconsider what is most important. Our selahs will allow us to be refreshed, to receive and take God to heart, soaking in his love. The Voice of the Lord for Elul 4

We talk with God: Oratio
We are silent: Contemplatio - (Selah)

Joining with the Simple Woman's Daybook community here
and
Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers here

Painting with Light - Sneak Peek Friday

Using a technique of "painting with light" in Photoshop to try to produce a halo effect...I can "see" using this on photos of sweet tweener!

Sorting,

Sewing,

Contemplating,

Deciding,

Reading,

Creating,

Gathering,

Preparing,

Nurturing,

Adorning...

All these things are working within and without this week...

May your weekend be full of the blessings of He who watches over you...

Joining with Jennifer and other creatives here at Studio JRU this week...

Beyond Layers "Instagram-ish" week images

 
Something borrowed image: I am borrowing this book "The Original Sanctuary" from my best friend because it sort of reminds me of, well, the sanctuary of the altar of the Lord in His temple *sigh* - and the swallow that builds her nest there....so I am revisiting "Book Spine" poetry as a way to feature my borrowed item..I simply processed this with Daniel Box's "Early Bird" action - with a layer mask to take down some of the brightness over the dove...
 

Water image:  Clark Garden's in Mineral Wells - processed with Kim's texture "Red" at softlight blend mode+a texture to add a distressed aged edge that I found on Flickr (here) and applied at multiply blend mode...

I'm linking this creation up at Beyond Layers...

Sneak Peek - Recent work and a show

Fronts and backs, ready for words

I still find nests, eggs, and birds so charming - and I am thinking about the fall edition of the Finding Sanctuary e-course...with a few minor changes, including a sub-title change (stay tuned ☺)...I was inspired by some of what the Lord is speaking to me to make some little (recycled CD) clocks reflecting that there is a time to gather, a time to build, a time to nest (think "rest") and these make us ready when it is time to fly...are you hearing the Spirit speak to you already?

Placing the words at the hours

Ready for the mechanism...

Others feel this affinity to swallows and sparrows, the smallest and humblest of our feathered friends...I can't help but notice blogs with names like "Sparrow Song" and "The Feathered Nest", or just go to Etsy.com and you can find shops like "Swallow and Twig", "Swallow Comes Spring", "Sparrow Hills", "Sparrow and Bellflower" - and there are so many, many more...










Of course Pinterest has so many images of sparrows and swallows (I've got two "Finding Sanctuary" boards here and here) -

And then there is Flickr (just type in swallow or sparrow in the search window)....

Hey, what's Jack Sparrow doing in my sparrow search!?!?

So many ideas for the word picture in Psalm 84:3 - of being a swallow building her nest at the altar of the Lord!

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

My table display at the show and luncheon the other weekend - it was great fun and I made great new friends while selling a little art...(see the clocks near the front?  And I made a few nest necklaces, too, in the very front.)   I don't do very much jewelry, but I do keep "seeing" ideas for it...so I will carefully move forward in that as the Lord leads...

now waiting for a new resting place and available at the shop here

And now, it is time to "gather, build, nest and fly"...{smiling}

Linking up with Jennifer and other creatives at Sneak Peek Friday at StudioJRU

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY

July 25, 2012

A peek outside my window:

Playing with photoshop again, trying to get an image to look more painted rather than a photo...

my sweet dh took this picture earlier this spring - looks like the bushes need trimming!

 (mouse over to see the before)

I used "Canvas Magic" from Kim's collection on this image, along with several adjustment layers...play, play, play!

Another image - I am amazed at how photoshop can be used to take a really bad photo and transform it - doesn't that sound like what the Holy Spirit does in our lives!  I am happier with this picture than with the one above...I think I am getting the hang of the procedure for painterly effects, but I definitely need more practice, too!

I used Kim's "Fall in" texture along with several adjustment layers + the kanji brush and Haiku font for the wording.

I am thinking... about how we learn so much better by example rather than by lecture...by being invited to "walk along beside" a person and gaining access to their lives - witnessing the moments strung together and how those moments are embraced or missed...how honest vulnerability is more impacting than something like "do x, y, z for a closer walk with God"...

I am thankful... for sweet tweener's sweet disposition, for the telephone, for airconditioning!

In the kitchen...I made this recipe last night with a pile of tomatoes from the garden and dh loved it (so did I) - Fresh tomato spaghetti sauce. 

I am wearing... A black tank and wind shorts (it is hot in Texas!)

I am creating... a T-shirt quilt out of sweet tweener's old shirts + headbands and bracelets out of the remaining T-shirt scraps...I am enjoying being back in the sewing mode again!

I am going... to the free movies with sweet tweener later this morning...

I am reading... (actually just finished) a book on creativity by a pastor - an interesting thought from here is that we are responsible to use our creativity just as any of the other gifts He has implanted in us.  The book: CREATE: Stop Making Excuses and Start Making Stuff, by Stephen Altrogge.  He covers all types of creativity and offers us all a holy kick in the pants (really!).

From the learning room...Science summer camp online - ROBOTS!  I am so impressed with sweet tweener as after just one lesson she is now putting together her own robots...
 
I am pondering...  a question a friend and I were discussing this week - how the church presents worship and the differences...how some churches worship with freedom yet order...it is intimate with gifts flowing and no different than what one does at home in their private times with the Lord, and then how some churches worship with a different...what?  Goal?  To lead others into worship or instruct/teach the "how"?  It seems less vulnerable, less risky?  Especially in a corporate setting?  Still listening to what He is saying...

One of my favorite things... the charm of clotheslines.

Instead of a scripture meditation, this is from an old children's book we (sweet tweener and I) found this week.  I love these words from God's heart - it is worth reading all the way through as it sums up beautifully the entire Bible(!):

You're looking for answers?

Then here's what to do:

Just turn to the Bible to find what is true,

And listen to everything I say to you.

You won't find a picture of Me in a book.

There isn't one person who knows how I look.

But don't be upset that you can't see My face.

You can look at My work in this beautiful place.

I've been alive since before time began; 

I made the whole world by My very own plan.

I'm as tall as the heavens; I'm as wide as the sea.

But even your hairs are all counted by me.

My voice can be gentle and silent and still,

And also like thunder that roars through the hills.

I sing with the waves and the whistling breeze.

And joining my song are the hills and the trees.

I'm strong as a fortress, a rock, and a shield.

But as gentle as rain falling softly on fields.

When you are unhappy that makes Me feel sad.

I'm filled with great joy when I make your heart glad.

My anger comes slowly and fades like the night.

There's no darkness in Me, just goodness and light.

I live in the world and in heaven above.

I live in the hearts of My people who love.

For I AM the Maker of heaven and earth.

I spoke, and My Word brought all life into birth.

I AM like a mother who comforts your fears

And tenderly wipes away all of your tears.

I AM like a father who wants to provide, 

 to care for your needs and to stay by your side.

I AM the Creator, the first and the last,

I'm God of the present, the future, the past.

I AM the good shepherd, who cares for each lamb.

I AM the Almighty, I AM WHO I AM.

I'll love you forever, whatever you do,

For nothing can separate My love from you.

I've loved everything that I made from the start.

My world and My people I hold in My heart.

Kathleen Long Bostrom

Joining with the Simple Woman's Daybook community here 

Beyond Layers here

and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday here

Making vintage style photographs~

I am doing a little "catch-up" for my Beyond Layers class - we just finished up a wonderfully full and fun weekend...and I am ready to get back to creativity of this sort {smiling}...

The image to the right is the original... 

The image to the left is the original...

I am enjoying learning all the different features of photoshop - tho' my images (having had a different beginning point than the class image) do look somewhat different from the example - I did deviate from the recipe just a little for the topmost picture, and the recipe was followed exactly for the one immediately above...

Let me know what you think of them!?

Color Palette fun + Sneak Peek

We have been busy with summer fun over here - the 4th was spectacular with lots of friends joining us for all the fun! I am busy getting ready for a show next weekend, but for a little peek into the "fun" I had to take a break from preparing - here is an assignment from my Beyond Layers class:

 I learned a super easy way to do a color palette with a picture this week...I love learning new creative ways - I think God must so enjoy watching us have fun creating...did you realize that we humans are the only created life that He gave the gift of creativity to?  How can we NOT create?!

More color palette fun spots (you can generate your own palettes on these sites):
Colourlovers
Color Palette Generator
Color Hunter
Kuler
DeGraeve Color Palette Generator
ColRD

Joining with Jennifer and other creatives at Studio JRU

and 

sharing at Beyond Layers

Combining both projects for the Beyond Layers class this week:  an image of my ABSOLUTELY favorite cup for drinking coffee processed to look like an old polaroid photo. 

I have had this cup for probably 20 years and tho' it most definitely is appropriate for the winter, I also use it year round!  After this long, I really don't even notice the painted design...but what the cup has going for it is:
       that it is just the right size to wrap my hands around,
       the handle is the perfect size to slip two or three fingers through,
       it is a bit on the large size, so it holds more coffee,
       it is just the right weight,
       it holds the coffee at a perfect drinking temperature...
*sigh* - I will be lost when it comes time to break in a new one!

What I've Been Up to This Week ♥♥♥

 Using the lessons learned for softening images with gradients and altering text in my photoshop class...
the verse was on my mind, as "gentleness" and "softly" are the words the Holy Spirit have floating through my being as I consider and talk with Miss Sweet Tweener right now...

friend heart-aches, blossoming womanhood, in the angst of becoming...

she is entering the grand adventure we all are walking in!

Another image of playing around with gradients and soft effects...sometimes I like to mix things together that you normally wouldn't see - like this daisy from the Mother's Day bouquet with the image of the sky and tree line as it looks from the mailbox at the end of the driveway...I don't know why this appeals to me - any ideas?  Sometimes the meaning comes after the art!  Maybe it has to do with Sweet Tweener, too...

Finally, I had the delight of doing a custom order for a friend (VERY similar to the image above)...I liked her idea so well, that I will be putting several of these together myself, as two other verses came to mind that will work well with weights and balances!  Yes, they will eventually find their way to the etsy shop!

Joining with Jennifer and other creatives at Studio JRU

and 

showing homework images with the Beyond Layers students 

(check out the flickr group - the artful photographs will so inspire you!)

{Inspired Quotes} - Intention and Focus + Sneak Peek

I'll have to try this again on a different day - the image had a blue tint that I just couldn't get rid of except for black and white mode...(sometimes my little point and shoot does that) - but I want to put it in the inspired quotes link-up with the Beyond Layers group...

Those big brown eyes look so deep, and the intentions of her heart are only for good...and I wanted to play with animation again with all of her expressive eyes...ps - she got a haircut for the summer, the stylist swept up 2 1/2 wastebaskets of hair off the floor and there is still plenty on her head!

Joining with Jennifer at Studio JRU 

and

the group at Beyond Layers

Change - {Inspired Quotes}

A little playing around with images and words for Kim's word prompt "change"...the quote by Leo Tolstoy seemed to fit the image and verse from Zechariah 4:10 - I like the thought the Lord rejoices when He sees us "begin", no matter how small the step we take is...

Available in my gallery shop here as a digital download... 

and here as a print ...

Peace - {Inspired Quotes}

The photo is one I snapped on a quiet foggy morning in April - my favorite view over the driveway where the hill beyond drops down to the road below...

For Kim's Beyond Layers class - Day 2 - word prompt: peace.

We Are Like Eggs - {inspired quote}

My "Monday" inspiring quote for this week's "A Week of Inspired Quotes" assignment in Beyond Layers.  Today's word prompt is Life.  I immediately thought of this page I made for a journal I am preparing for the shop -

In life, we often want to remain in our comfort zones, our "egg" so to speak.  But just as a bird must hatch in order to eventually fly, so we too must get out of the comfort zone in order to stretch, to be strengthened, to find new skills, abilities, relationships or ? that will allow us to go further than we could even think or imagine!

The alternative to not hatching?  As C.S. Lewis puts it, we "go bad" - this doesn't mean we become unredeemable, but that we stagnate...

To hatch, we have to break forth from inside the egg - it has to be our effort...yet a voice from without can call us, encourage us, lead us into

breaking out into life!

Birds and 3 Eternal Words

Learning more in photoshop this week...using my own "Eternal Words" art backgrounds for new applications.  AND I learned how to make my own custom shapes - I used the little birdie from 

my "...and sing" piece.  I am loving the versatility that photoshop gives!

I never tire of the three things "that remain" (1 Corinthians 13)....

Joining with Jennifer and other creatives at Studio JRU

Taking a Chance/Changing

This post is really a response to this week's lesson (challenge?) for Beyond Layers...a sort of "get YOURSELF out of the box you have put yourself in" sort of thing (my paraphrase)...we are asked to shake things up a bit:  take a new route, try a new recipe, do something totally out of the ordinary for you, take a photograph -not your usual style...

For me, being in this class, doing anything photographic is a challenge, out of the box per se.
I am an artist (Yes!  I can say that!)  I am learning to approach my life as an artistic expression -
I know my life is an expression of my faith, my relationship with my Creator, too...when I lose myself in creating, becoming collaborator with the greatest of Creators - I feel content, complete...

I am in this class to learn Photoshop, not photography - yet I can get caught up in competing with my own skills in trying to get good images out of that little point and shoot...I know:

it has stretched me artistically...

it has distracted me artistically {smiling - when I get stuck on trying 50 different ways to make one photo - is that bad?  ☺♥}...

it has caused me to look at my life in more detail, as I look through the the view finder of the little black rectangle that is my occasional instrument of art.

it has caused me to think and to desire to teach what I am learning to others (but I don't know how to fit that into the online counseling site....)

...and how to balance the counseling, the therapy as art, and the art has been the constant journey of the past 16 months...and that is truly my "out of the box" challenge for myself - to package the passions, the leadings, even the Spirit's direction in a cohesive, logical and creative way that will reach the hearts of women (and men if that is to be)...

Just a "screen capture" using my little snip tool...

I keep snags of ideas on a pinterest board - that will be my "photo graphical" offering today: and you can get a deeper view as well... the "For 12Tribes" board + the two "Finding Sanctuary" boards are my places I pin things that might further the vision for my ultimate online presence...(click here if you want to go visiting!)

And you, how do you weave together your leadings, passions, callings?

1000 gifts and then some...+ subway art

8 x 10 size - available in the shop as a digital download or a print

A Weekend of Contemplating...

I had time this weekend to sort through old files - and found the above quote saved...I remember placing it on a Christmas type photo at Christmas time; the quote was found on a blog encouraging us to focus on the truly important things at Christmas time, as opposed to the "perfect" Christmas...

But I found myself considering - the way we approach Christmas probably isn't different than the way we approach the rest of our lives...perhaps it is just illuminated at Christmas, the intensity of the season causing what is already within to be squeezed to the top of consciousness, where we cannot ignore it...

And being the birthday weekend, and seeing how sweet tweener is growing, I am so aware of how quickly time can pass - I want to grasp each and every moment - to savor these days like one savors the perfect cup of coffee...to stop, look, listen - and record with images and words each gift....

So - I thought the quote was perfect for every day - and used this sweet gift of time to make subway art (which I love - a great modern way to capture words!) from the found Christmas quote - art for all year - art to remind me to choose the better path...

Pausing and giving thanks for these things:

the wonderfully restful weekend we had

sweet birthday for sweet tweener

husband spending most of Friday mowing and trimming and getting the acres of yard just beautiful

volunteer time on Saturday - celebrating birthday with volunteer friends

time to sort through old files - and organized on computer as well as papers

the life of sweet tweener!

...time...

rhythm of seasons and life

birthday cake

friends

family

opportunities to grow

being "in Him, in whom we live and breathe and have our being..."

Sharing in the community atMultitudes on Monday

and

the community at Beyond Layers

Sweet Tweener turns 11 today!

I learned how to do "animated Gifs" in photoshop this week! (above).
This was really taken around Christmas time (you can see my full, messy counters in the background!  The lighting wasn't the best in these either, because she and I and her uncle were just messing around together...I loved the different expressions!

...and, our family has a slightly weird sense of humor - and thus this video featuring the number "eleven"...what can I say - its Scottish humor!  

Linking with Jennifer and other creatives at Sneak Peek Friday 

and 

other Beyonders at "Beyond Layers"

One Picture 3 Ways - A Beyond Layers Assignment...

 

Our assignment for the past week in "Beyond Layers" was to take one photo and give it three different looks...this dianthus came out of our garden..and I have wanted to practice creating a soft effect on florals.  I'm not sure if I have "gotten" it yet or not - but I am definitely learning new skills...

I am using the trial version of RadLab, and played with the style-ettes - so I used two:  Clare-ify and  Flirt - love how they look together! 

Then, the top photo was processed using a levels adjustment + the "noise" technique that Kim taught us...

The middle photo was processed by adding a black and white adjustment layer to the first photo and then using a layer mask to bring back a little color to the blossom...

On the bottom photo I added a levels adjustment layer + 2 layers of kk_abstract; the first at color burn blend mode and the second at softlight with the texture removed from the bloom a little and of course, the text added at the end (I picked the color from the photo).

There are lots of incredible photos at Beyond Layers - check out the flickr group here (sorry, the class pages are password protected!)