Homegrown Hospitality

"Creating a life that reflects my dreams..Living a life that defines my Purpose"

The title of this post is part of my mission statement.

It is what I do. Create, Dream, Live (well, and laundry..) and is based around my purpose. Part of that purpose is that I share my creative passion and vision with others and in the process, I may be able to inspire others.

Today, I hope to inspire you to use what you have to create something else.  

Yesterday as I was cleaning up the flag block project, I lost focus (whoops) and happened to come across a project I had started creating a year ago (not kidding) and never finished (trying to work on that) 

This is a small file folder journal that was going to be a class once upon a time. The background of the file folders were painted using a baby wipe and paint and then a little neighborhood was created using many different patterned papers and Mod Podged on.  Poor little page sat like that for a whole year and never complained.

Yesterday, I grabbed my black Distress pen (that is really in distress because I have used it so much) and a blue Faber Castell chapstick looking paint thing (geez, I bet they would LOVE me for that amazing promo) and with in 10 minutes, my little neighborhood looked like it had been hit by Ty Pennington and the Extreme Home Make Over crew...

I am going to finish up this piece by adding these words:

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵ Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another —and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV

So now, go create something from things you already have and enjoy the process!

Thank You , Part two

You should make one for your home sweet home to ring in the summer months, as a reminder of our freedom, in honor of those who have given their lives and for those who serve our country.

Here is what I did:

Start with a block of wood measuring 5" x 5 1/2" .  Wipe/dry brush cream paint lightly/roughly over the entire surface of the block of wood with a baby wipe, paper towel or dry brush.

Using dictionary paper or old book paper, scribble Distress marker ink, Distress stain or paint onto paper and water down with baby wipe or wet brush.  Do a sheet in red and another sheet in blue.  Let dry or dry with a heat gun.

Tear red paper into strips and the blue into a square and arrange on the block of wood 

Adhere with Mod Podge and then distress the papers using your finger tip. When Mod Podge is 99% dry, use a distress pen in brown and add lines of ink above and below red stripes. Using your finger again, smudge a little Mod Podge over pen lines and blend to get a rustic worn wood look.

Using a die or punch, cut a few stars from dictionary paper and adhere to the blue area using Mod Podge.  Repeat Distress pen steps with brown pen around stars.

Use a heat gun to dry project and then add one final coat of Mod Podge to seal.  Let dry and display proudly.

Now if you live somewhere othef than the USA, consider creating your countries flag adjusting the colors accordingly, of course, I mean, I know you know to do that....

oh, and should you have a few embellishments/chipboard words or heck, even words torns from paper, you could adhere them to this as well...

Happy Memorial Day

 

Get To Work

It is our job..

Now, go get to work!

Do Something

I came home with from Pennsylvania with this and never showed you...Shame on me.

Ahh yes, wool felt, a big brand new giant stack and typically, I would have ripped into this stack and started stitching away, but I have been looking at it now for 7 days.  Amongst the greens, reds and golds, the colors I normally migrate to, the colors I call my "Life Colors"...

I see Blue...and I feel blue.

My heart is still so full of emotion from the weekend,so much that it makes me a little weepy, no, really weepy.  I am going to show you a picture that will tug on your heartstrings, maybe harder than ever. This is Erik Rees.  Pastor at my church, daddy to Jessie. A photo that was taken a few month ago:

After witnessing our small community rally around Jessie through the 10 months of her fight, the love and tears shown during the days and weeks after her death, the immense desire to keep her hope of Spreading Joy to children fighting cancer and events like this past Saturday, I feel more empowered than ever before to help...as do my boys...In fact, when Ben got out of the car this morning, he mentioned he was wearing NEGU Blue (not knowing that I was typing this)

Our family is fighting, working, walking, praying and helping to Spread Joy in memory of Jessie, for the cause, for the families

for the reason, for this dad that smiles brightly in the midst of his pain. 

I look at that stack of felt and see blue...I see NEGU colors and I now know what my first project is going to be

because this family...needs a basket of happy & joy...in honor of their girl and the amazing work they are doing in honor of her.

We all have a God Given purpose and it is our responsibility to

so again, I challenge you to Do Something.  Whether it is for the Jessie Rees Foundation or something else, please get up and do something...because as Jessie's daddy reminded me, "We Are Better Together"

and hey... show your Team NEGU pride wearing shirts like these to spread the word...

and to remind others to NEVER EVER GIVE UP!

Do Something & Pass It On

Today, I am giving you a new doodle to color and hopefully inspiring you to give something to someone else, kinda like a "Do Something" and "Pass It On" challenge.

 Dream...big dreams

Create..something

Love..one another

Believe..in yourself

Practice..good deeds

Give yourself 20 minutes to color and think about the things above WITHOUT thinking you should be:

1. unloading the dishwasher
2. folding the clothes
3. sweeping the floors
4. cleaning the bathroom
5. ________________

Taking 20 minutes (more or less) of quiet, being still, or in this case, coloring.  It will relax you a little and add a little JOY to your soul...and reboot you, and if you are a mom, a girl, a lady, etc.....I know you could use a little reboot...

then..."Do Something" like 

1. Pass on the doodle to someone else to color and inspire someone else 
2. Bake some cookies and deliver them to your local firefighters and/or police
3. Take your shopping cart all the way back up to the front of the store instead of leaving in- between cars
4. Go to Jessie's Facebook page to "Like" it (PLEASE!)
5. Take your neighbors dog for a walk
6. Offer to make or take dinner to someone

and you will find that 

"There is more happiness in giving than in receiving" Acts 20:35

Directions on how to print this doodle out because Typepad will NOT cooperate with me therefore making this an example of being "Simply Complicated" (dang it!!!):

1. Right click on doodle above
2. "Save Picture As" (save it to your computer)
3. Either insert it into a "Word Document" and print it or simply "Print" it as a picture.

Make Something

I am still being inspired by the February issue of Oprah and again, in the same article that I quoted from the other day, I read more really good stuff...

so today, I am going to be making things.

it is raining so I am making soup...

it is a sport free weekend so I am making art

and I am a mom so I am making piles of laundry to wash...

What are you going to make?

Insert: Purpose

Yesterday on my way to the post office, a new sign caught my eye. I drove by the building that is the new home to the "Joy Factory", the Jessie Rees Foundation. I can NOT imagine being a mom that would be putting up a sign on a building in honor of my child, but that is exactly what a family in our community, a family in our church is faced with and is doing..and has vowed to keep their precious Jessie's dream alive.

INSERT Purpose.

I am on team NEGU..

NEGUstands for Never Ever Give Up and is something we have really started living by in our little home sweet home.  It was what Jessie did in the 10 month she fought...and ultimately lost.  It is her story, the will of a 12 year old girl that taught us to NEVER EVER GIVE UP and will continue to be a force in our house.

KEY WORD: House

So what in the world can I possibly do to help besides pray? 

I can paint and I can run.

(NOT a the same time, duh!)

What can YOU do?

1. You can Join Team Negu and help spread the word
2. You could simply "like" Jessie's FB page (they are trying to get to 200,000 likes by April 8th, which would have been Jessie's 13th birthday)
3. You could sponsor me and Team NEGU for the 1/2 Marathon by clicking that little red scrolling box up there in the right corner because I am training and will run that race for her and for all of those little love bugs that are fighting with that DAMN cancer (excuse my language).
4. You could go to Ebay and bid on this new 12x12 canvas that I just finished last night:
   

I am auctioning this handpainted 12x12 Mixed Media canvas that reads "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" Joshua 24:15.  All proceeds from this auction will be donated to the Jessie Rees Foundation.

GOD gave me the skills and abilities to paint, doodle...and run so that is what I'm doing...in between laundry, carpool and painting base boards...you know, stuff like that.

So..what are you waiting for???? I just listed the canvas on EBAY...as an auction..for 5 days and I sure hope that I did it right...

Happy Friday!

Random Non-Creative Reminder

Little random things that make a big difference...

Take a little time to clean out the shelves in your refrigerator door today.

Doing Something...

I am going to take a few days off from the ol' blog to catch-up on some things I have been needing to do, wanting to do and have been thinking about doing..

I won't be long and will be back soon...in the meantime, is there something YOU should do or be doing?

Common Threads

Our world is a GIGANTIC place but because of my faith, hope and love for God and my wildly translucent desire for all things creative, I believe that wherever my creative journey leads me in this world, either via airplane or air-wave, when I find myself with true creative souls, I feel completely connected, understood, accepted and empowered to make a difference.  

THAT...the "Accepted, Connected & Understood"  is what  EVERYONE needs and what everyone should be able to feel but sometimes, is like being a  "Needle in a Heartstack".  We feel like a little needle with a thread, in a big, bulky, overstuffed, overcomplicated world.

Here's a thought: We are each an individual make, model, shape and size. Our backgrounds can be similar or completely opposite. We may speak different languages and be in far away places but we all have a heart that needs to be fed...and in my opinion, a common thread of creativity. 

Okay, so it may not be the "creative" as in making a heart shaped pillow, a sandcastle that is shaped like the sinking titanic or a ball of cake that is dipped in chocolate and decorated to look like Lady Gaga BUT...we are ALL creative.  Now, if we could just connect the common threads that tie us together, could you image the community we would be and when nurtured, what we could do to change the world and make it a better place????

Hey...just dream'n big and typing outloud.

That is what I believe...

How bout you?