Checking in

Our cable that downloads pictures from our camera is missing, so although I have a few (very, very few) cards made, I can't do anything!

I'm still working on my room. I have made incredible progress, but it's been an incredibly busy month! I'm not sure I'll finish, but at the same time, I was much, much more thorough than I had intended to be, lol!

Happy 4th of July!

Wanted to stop in and wish everyone a great day & weekend!

Half our family is off to Indiana to celebrate my mom's 75th birthday. My son, who is in corpsman (medic) training at Great Lakes, IL, was able to catch a train to my sister's house there to join us. Great fun! It's a nine our trip for my family, as well as my mom and sister's family, so my mom is going to be so shocked to see not only us, but my brother and half of his family, and a few of her neices and even her sister. We love surprises!

Unplanned absence

I had no plans to stop blogging for this long, but for various reasons I have not been able to do much with cardmaking - part of the reason being sheer boredom with my cards: I feel very much in a rut. Added to that, my wonderful cutter is broken, and I am awaiting a part that hopefully will fix it. So, I'm taking this time to organize my stamp room, which is in serious need of it! Actually, it's somewhat organized, but upkeep has fallen by the wayside, and I don't really have all the room I need, so it's time to get aggressive in prioritizing space. In this old photo, I still had homeschooling books in the room (see bottom left), and since then I've gotten a bind-it-all, a cuttlebug, more discontinued wallpaper sample books (huge space eaters!), and various small additions that add up; ink pads, paper packs, etc. Added to that, several small boxes of cards and journals from the closing of the store at which I sold them.

So, I'll be back when my cutter is repaired and my room is clean and organized. :-) I may pop in for the occasional challenge, but steady posting may not be until the end of July.

The Community of Faith - Salt challenge

I haven't managed to participate in a challenge at the Salt/Faith blog in awhile; I've missed it!

This is the current Salt Challenge:
For the next challenge I (Lythan) wanted something that followed in some way from the last one - the work of the Holy Spirit. So I have chosen to focus on one element of the Spirit's work - the community of faith. In Acts 2:42-47 Luke describes the amazing first congregation and how they share their lives together totally. It is quite something to try and live up to. How do we become Acts 2 communities today?

I also thought about Matthew 18:20 (where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them). Being a Minister I feel I have to point out that this reading is not just a reminder of Jesus being with us when there are just a few of us there, but that the context is actually when people are falling out and how to deal with it - but that is part of being a community of faith too.

Community of faith could be a church, a group, your family, your area. You may want to focus on the highs or lows of trying to be the people together that Jesus has called us to be. I'll leave it to you and the Spirit to mull over as you create.

I chose to post this card, with the focus on serving those in our faith communities. I've been blessed to be part of a church body that is strong in this area. In a culture that trains us to think "It's all about me," to look for churches that will best meet our desires, it's easy to forget that we are called to be servants, to seek to be a blessing, not just receive blessing. :-)

Blog Candy winner

Well, I was a little surprised that not many participated, but only one person can win. :-) Congratulations, Amber!

Here is Amber's beautiful photo card:


I hope you'll have lots of fun with everything! Please e-mail me your mailing information, and I'll get your stuff out to you next week.

Last day to try for Blog Candy!

I've only got a couple of entries so far, so the competition is very small! Click HERE to be taken to the Blog Candy Challenge post!

Ephesians 5:1,2

This is a card I made for my son while in Navy bootcamp. With little, if any, time for Bible reading, I wanted to at least offer a scripture on a card. However, I received a letter from him just as I finished it that the spot he had to keep his mail was getting too full, so he needed thin. :-) So, it still is here, even though he's now in A school, and has lots of space. Now that he has computer, letter writing, on both sides, had definitely fallen by the wayside. I think I'm going to work on that, lol!