Some Thoughts About Life

Here are some wonderful thoughts that I came across tonight. I needed to read them and I thought you might too.

written by Regina Brett of the Cleveland Plain Dealer  on the occasion of her 50th birthday:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don't ask, you don't get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

May 28, 2006: Regina Brett's 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on

Pink Saturday - An Apron for a Friend

Happy Pink Saturday! I don't have a lot of time today, because my dear Father-in-law has been in the hospital and much of this week has been spent with my dear Mother-in-law, helping out with her care. Fortunately, we are hoping that my dear Father-in-law will be coming home tomorrow! Praise the Lord.


So as for my Pink Saturday offerings, here is a picture of the apron that my daughter and I made for my BFF! It is so cute in Pink and Black. I think she really liked it! She is a marvelous cook and now she can look so stylish when she prepares those delicious meals.

Below is a picture of my youngest dd opening her present. We were late having our gift exchange this year, but we had fun anyway! It is all wrapped up in beautiful pink paper & a big gold bow.

And this is a beautiful photo that she took of her lampshade. She is quite artistic with her camera!

Be sure to drop by Beverly's at How Sweet the Sound to see other great Pink Saturday posts.

And I would like to highlight a special blog this week.  Take a minute to visit Collected Treasures. You will find so many wonderful things to explore.

Have a wonderful day!

Shoes for Mexico and Pink Saturday

For this pink Saturday post, I want to share a project that we do every year during Christmas at our church. We purchase shoes for a group of children in Mexico. A tree is decorated with shoe tags with appropriate size information and a family or person will take the tag and purchase the corresponding pair of shoes. These shoes are then wrapped and shipped down to be opened by the children on Christmas. It is a blessing for each of the people who are able to participate. It is a small way that we can help to provide for the children.

These are some of our Acteens decorating the shoe tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a very special honor for our church  to be involved in the lives of these children in a small way. Every year my daughter goes down for a few weeks in the summer and works with these children as a ministry. She hopes to spend a full year down there when she graduates from college. Her heart for these children has spread into the lives of all of us in our family. We were fortunate enough to be able to go down for ten days as a family two years ago. The children are absolutely delightful.

Thanks to Beverly for once again hosting Pink Saturday over at How Sweet the Sound. Take time to drop over there and visit more posts for Pink Saturday.

 

And if you would like to visit I fabulous blog, I would highly recommend that you take a few minutes to visit Stephanie over at Queen of Dreamsz. I just fell in love with her blog this week. There is so much creativity over there that you really should go visit! You'll be so glad that you did.

 

 

Blue Monday

Today, I am going to participate in Blue Monday by posting the rest of the pages in my altered book, Love Eternal. I hope you enjoy the rest of these.

Cover - I may do some altering to this, but it is scary to actually change the cover - so final!

Eternal

France and After

Dissertation

India

Rue de France

Marriage

Orders

That is it for this book. I was literally shocked when I realized that I had 24 double page spreads. I even found a couple of pages that I prepared and never finished. Guess I'll have to go back and do those two pages. I'm excited. You are never sure when these things are actually finished, but I'm getting close here. I'd like to add some sort of closure to the book so it hangs together.

If you'd like to see some more beautiful examples of BLUE head on over to Smiling Sally's place and check out the other blog posts for today. Happy Blue Monday to all of you.

Every Child is an Artist & Altered Art

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

~Pablo Picasso

What is it about growing up that tends to make us lose our creativity? Is it the harsh judgments we hear from others? Is it the perfectionism that we incorporate into our being as we try to live up to others' expectations? The old "don't color outside of the lines" routine? I know for myself I continue to replay the old song of "you didn't do that good enough" in my head, whether it was making up the bed, trimming the strawberries, baking biscuits on the WRONG pan, for goodness sakes!, get off that roof - nice girls don't climb up on roofs!, and on and on it goes!

When I go into my tiny studio with the goal of making art, it is difficult to "turn down the noise", so to speak, and let my spirit be free enough to create. Ohhhh, I see so many talented artists out there, and then I start to compare......and I am never quite good enough.

You know, I think, for me that is the appeal of "altered art" and "altered books" - there is no right or wrong.  It just "is". For me it is a time to explore, to create, to test out new techniques, to find beauty in things that are not inherently beautiful.  To create! I can just start playing and let the pieces fall where they may - literally. I love to arrange and rearrange till the piece looks good to my eye. And the great thing about altered art is if you don't like it, you can always paint, tape, paste, and cover it up and do it over. It can be so forgiving. And if you come back to it later and decide it needs something else - you can just add it. Wha la! there it is- a new piece - different, fresh and sometimes - BETTER. Makes me smile when that happens.

And so I offer a few more of my pages for you to look at and hopefully to inspire you to go make ART. Just do it!

Leaves and Juliette's Farewell

Hearth and Home

Know Life

Buttons

Let Me Hear the World's Music

Together - Windows - closed

Together - Windows - open

India - Tiger

India - Elephants

India - Longing....

That is all for today. I'll post more tomorrow for Blue Monday. I hope you have liked what you have seen today.  It really is with fear and trepidation that I post these - hoping for the best and fearing the worst. Not that I am an artist, but I expect most artists go through that sort of thought process.

Happy 2010 to all of you. I wish you the very best.

Love Eternal Altered Book -Pink Saturday

Happy First Pink Saturday of 2010! Thanks to Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for continuing to keep us going on into the new year. I hope today's post finds you all having a great start to your 2010. Beverly asked that we post a project that we would like to complete in 2010. One big thing I would like to accomplish this year is to get some of my altered art projects scanned and posted. I have so many altered books, it will take a long time to get them all posted, but I'm gonna try!

Be sure to drop by Beverly's place and check out some other wonderful Pink Saturday posts.

I decided to scan some pages of one of my very first altered books and post them. These are from my altered book entitled Love Eternal. I am pretty nervous about putting this out there. I've been doing Altered books for about 5 years, but this is the first time I've posted anything publicly. I'm posting my "Pink Pages" today in honor of Pink Saturday. This book has 24 complete 2-page spreads, but I am only posting 9 here. Hope you like them.

Mr. Knightly

Isobel Kisses Godfrey

The Garden in the Square

Madame Riennes

Roses

Earth Laughs in Flowers

Love, Art, Dream

Egypt

DaVinci's Lady

The Cover

Well, that's it for now. I'll post more later. Let me know what you think.