I never worry when I sit down to create something, I know that God gave me this gift of creativity and I just take it for granted that I it happens automatically, just like cooking or driving. I just know how.

I also know how to trust God in other things, like health issues, money problems, elderly parents, etc. When I do, He automatically just takes care of everything. But that just doesn't come as naturally, without thinking and worrying first, without fretting and then remembering OH YEAH! Let me give this to God He can do MUCH better than I can. I have known this stuff for a long time. I have seen miracle after miracle in my life. I KNOW better. When will it be as automatic as cooking or creating!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Irritability and Ice

I thought it was menopause starting, this terrible impatient, crabby feeling I have all the time. Kept praying that I would be more NICE and it just wasn't happening. Had my yearly physical and found out I am anemic, me, who is always as healthy as a horse. So I google it and one of the symptoms is IRRITABILITY! So that's what I am! And I get to have an excuse for it! I also get to get a colonoscopy...oh joy! One of the other things that goes with it is a carving for ice, dirt or starch. Well I have been chewing ice like crazy for a while here and my husband yells at me constantly because he can't stand the sound of the crunching. Now I have an excuse for that too! I AM SICK HONEY! See, there is always good with the bad.

I never really feel my age, at least not until today when I was applying for new health insurance. I didn't realize that it was gonna be such a big rig-a-marole! Geez, now why did I take that Xantac 9 years ago??? And why is my left eyelash crooked?? My husband and I hardly have any medical issues but the interrogation was immense! And it seems like we are falling apart after filling out that form! BC/BS is raising our rate to $1800 a month for just the 2 of us and that's with bunches of co-pays so we gotta look around. That's more than a house payment!!
I still feel young, act young, and try to look young but this sure was a reality slap in the face!!
Oh well, if you didn't know how old you are, how old would you think you are? I think I am 32 and I am stickin' to it!

Today was a good day. I took my mom to the oncologist to get results of her cat scan and was told that the cancer has not spread anywhere else and hopefully they can remove the tumor in her colon with laproscopic surgery. Relief! Another blessing.
So since I was so relieved I felt like going to one of my most favorite stores...Silver Quill Antiques...near my house. I go often and the owner Linda has been a big supporter and encourager of my creativity for a long time. She always has new things, not only antiques but artsy jewelry and art glass. It's always rearranged in new ways, and believe me there is A LOT of stuff in there. She has a doorway that is always decorated for the season with a desk next to it that has the neatest seasonal things displayed artfully on it. I told her today that she is a display artist! One time she had the most beautiful sheer curtains with little embroidered rosebuds tastefully arranged to hang around this doorway. I commented on them and she told me they were called VINTAGE and where she bought them. I went out and bought them for my living room! Art can be done in more ways than with a paintbrush or pen or paper. This lady has been rearranging her shop faithfully on a regular basis for 30+ years and it is a work of art every time. Not to mention her eye for unusual art pieces that she mixes up with the antiques. Yep! She is an artist too.
http://www.silverquillantiques.com/home

*~*CaKe SpRiNkLeS*~*

I had a bulletin board in my room when I was a little girl and I re-decorated it every month. Of course, Halloween was my specialty. I made borders out of construction paper, put notes from girlfriends (note writing was the texting of the 60's in elementary school), photographs and all sorts of things. It was so fun to me! I really wish I had a photo of that bulletin board today to remember it by.
I was also teachers pet in 5th grade and this lady made homemade cards while the students were doing work. She always let me help her instead of working. The other kids hated me for it but I loved it! She used construction paper and cut out pictures from magazines and then covered the whole card tightly in plastic wrap. I would go home and make more just like she taught me and hang them on my bulletin board. I still do have some that I made for my parents.
So yesterday I was looking at my most favorite thing in my house, my old cake sprinkles collection. I bought my first little bottle around 1980 and very slowly gathered a collection. Then Ebay came! OMG! Now I have a lovely collection that I am in love with! So dear readers, here are my photos that I will have when I am an old lady stuck in a little condo that all my precious stuff won't fit in and I can remember the things I loved so much.

I know this will seem piddle to some but to me it was great!

You have heard me mention the magazine Where Women Create that I love and inspires me beyond belief and I always eagerly wait for the next issue. So last night I was bored and realized that the new issue was out so I bribed Kirk (by saying I would go to a sporting goods store too) to go with me to Michaels to get it.

I got all comfy in bed with the Oympics on tv and my new magazine while Kirk watched some shoot-'em-up, squeeling tires movie real loud downstairs. I like to savor this magazine so its an event with me.

Started looking at it, about the 3rd page or so was letters to the editor and I thought, I'll just skip this and get to the good stuff. Then I thought, no let me just read them real quick. I get to the 3rd letter down and IT WAS FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I realize this is not a big deal to those of you reading this. But I was so excited!

Hey! There's not a whole bunch of thrills in my life. And as I said before I think God is preparing me for a new chapter in my life so here was just another little nudge.

So there you have it, the highlight of my week!

I am so unorganized...are other creative people unorganized? I found the neatest thing at a craft/antique shop yesterday. It is an old wood framed window screen and it has different sized burlap pockets sewn onto it. Kinda big but its perfect for my bills, mail and important papers instead of the pile always on the kitchen table! I added tea stained hang tags to it and wha la! I have one little organized thing in my world!

I am having so much fun going from artist page to artist page and blog to blog, it never ends!!! Too bad I can't make a living doing it :)
People are so creative, it's amazing! Someday I am gonna buy some really expensive art piece just because I like it!!! Some day....

Today I sold my first creation on the PFATT marketplace! I am so excited. I would love to contribute to the family finances by making and selling my art regularly.
On the other hand, I think God is leading me toward this new direction because, as most of you know, I take care of my parents, especially my mom who has been sick for a long time. They have just found a cancerous tumor in her colon and the doctors say she really couldn't withstand the treatment it would require. So our good and faithful Lord is slowly nudging me over to something else so it won't just be emptiness when she is gone.
It's not that I haven't been creating all along, it's just that it is here and there, this and that. I want to be an established artist with a following! I want groupies for petes sake!!! :)
So all you pray-ers please keep her in your prayers. I really hope she doesn't suffer, she SO doesn't deserve that. And in the meantime I will plug along, give her lots of kisses and hugs and make my little Jack O Lantern people when I can.

My dream is to have a studio. A big huge room that is all mine for all my stuff to create with. And believe me, I got stuff! I absolutely adore the magazine WHERE WOMEN CREATE. It not only inspires me but I feel a kind of fellowship with the other artists even tho they are strangers. I anxiously await the next issue.

I cannot express enough how happy I am that I am a creative person. I LOVE to create, it is like playing to me. So my dream is to have a studio and time to be in it. Here's the rub: that would mean other things would have to be given up. I am responsible for my two 85 year old parents. The only way to move to a place with a studio and have time to use it is if they were gone. And while my mom is very sick I don't want to lose her or my dad. So I will just sit late at night in my crowded messy little extra bedroom/craft room and create when I can. I will enjoy my parents while they are still here, pray for more patience and know that when they are gone that I did everything possible for them and sacrificed for them. Then it will be my turn.