Shout Out

I just wanted to give a shout out to
Pauline
from UKS. Thanks for stopping by and
i would love for you to come again.

Giving

I love giving gifts to people. Little unexpected treats for no reason at all. This is what i bought off of eBay for Stu - an XBox 360 game that he has been looking for. It came through the post yesterday, i wrapped it up and left it on his keyboard for him to find sometime later today.
Yesterday, I finished my Pencillines # 42 challenge. I really enjoyed using my new making memory items and also the orange.
Last week i put a post on UKScrappers asking them how they organize their paper scraps. I hold onto every little bit of paper and have piles of it on my table. Its difficult to find anything in particular and i spend hours looking through it only to find that i have somehow managed to bend the edge in half...argh. So after some reading on what people do, i decided to sort them into primary colour and then put them into 12 x 12 clear bags. I have a red, blue, green, yellow, pink and earthy colour bag. This is working so well and makes it so much quicker to find what i am looking for. Plus i now find that i am using a lot more of my scraps. Such a great idea!

During my lunch hour i managed to nip into my local yarn shop. I only went to pick up a row counter and some more yarn for my Tomatoe but this is what i came out with on top of what i went in for.....Don't you just love the colour. Oh, and let me tell you how soft the yarn is. I could lay in it all day.......
And a closer view.

I did some work on my art journal last week and decided to make my own paper. This is what it ended up looking like.

I know that i got some of the items , definitely the bird, from 2peas but i cant remember where i got the flowers from.

I have a few other projects that i want to start but this is all for now. Happy Wednesday!

A new woman.....

Yup that is how i feel....like a completely new woman! I spent Saturday cleaning and reorganising my home. I sorted out the lounge, sorted out my kitchen cupboards and fridge, gave the bathroom a good scrubbing and sorted out my scrap room. I feel organised. I feel inspired and i feel in control.

Friday night started off with a trip to Waterstones, to stand in the Que for 135 minutes so that Stu could get his hands on the new Harry Potter book. This is the photo that was taken early hours Saturday morning so i apologise for the bad lighting.....

He has had his nose in that book ever since.

After all my hard work on Saturday i managed to do this layout for this weeks Scrapjacked challenge.
Journaling reads:
" Your days off are just not complete if you don't manage to get an afternoon nap in"

After doing this layout i went downstairs to show Stu and low and behold there he lay fast asleep again.....i just had to laugh!

Sunday evening we made some flapjacks. Back home i would call these crunchies but over here in the UK they seem to call them flapjacks for some strange reason. Anyway, these turned out so nice and there was hardly any mess to clean up afterwards.

I also managed to fit in a lot of knitting time during the evenings. I am now onto my third ball of yarn and need to get myself to my knitting shop to pick up some more yarn and also a row counter. Here is my progress so far.......
I am so pleased with how it is turning out and hope to have it finished by the 13th August.

The week ahead has a lot of studying in it as well as some knitting time and hopefully enough sewing time to make myself a skirt. Hope your week ahead is looking good!

My Secret Place

Do you ever wish for a secret place to just rest awhile? Somewhere that you can just sit and relax, somewhere that you can be alone with your thoughts and sort out of of the things going on in your life. I do! This is something that i have always done. I am a big thinker and often i find that when i have a lot going on, a lot of big decisions to make....i get this feeling of needing my secret place.

When i was living back in South Africa i had a spot, a spot just for me out in nature. When i moved to the States i found another secret place, once again a place out in nature but here in the UK - i am still looking for my secret place. Sometimes i feel very lost without it and so in the last six years that i have been over here I have started to keep a diary. Somewhere for me to write down my thoughts, to just explore myself and my situations.

A little over a week ago i finished my current journal. I hate starting new journals - they are so clean and perfect (i always worry about putting that first lot of writing in them) Weird i know. So this time i decided to do something a little different. I decided that i would give an art journal a go. I don't know if i will do something arty every time i write in it but what i have done so far I have really liked.

So for now, this is my secret place. The spot i come to when i need some space, some clarification. I hope that soon i will find some place a little more to my liking but for now, this will do.

*** I wrote this entry a few days ago and this is what i received in my inbox today. And people question whether God still talks to His children - He definitely does. This is an excerpt from the Christian Woman today email that i received.

"God has a quiet place for us. It's called the secret place. It's a shelter, a place to sort out the day's happenings with His perspective and with His wisdom.It is the secret place of His presence.

Psalm 91:1 says "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."

God's secret place is not hard to find. His promise is for rest right under the shadow of God Himself. It is a place to sing your praises out or cry your heart out; a place to ask the things you do not understand or to pray deeply for needs He puts on your heart. It is a safe place. A place to release your spirit from the tight hold of controlled emotions; a place to let His calm envelope you and His strength fortify you.

It is truly a place of rest. A place where, once you have found it, you want to return over and over. It is the well of spiritual refreshment for a thirsty heart.

How do you get there? How do you find this place of rest for your soul? Psalm91:2 "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'"

You can only arrive at this place of refuge when you have put your trust in God. Oh, not only trust in His grace to save you, but trust in Him completely and absolutely. Trust in Him for the details of your life even when the pieces of the puzzle don't seem to match up.

"My God in whom I trust!" This is personal, confident trust. If you doubt God's goodness toward you and believe He is somehow out to default you or simply doesn't care about you...you will never find the secret place. The secret place can only be accessed through trust in a very personal God who shelters you under His wing and is your refuge from the storm.

Are there any details in your life you feel you cannot trust God with? Why?Where can you go to spend some time giving God your cares and your emotions? Find a quiet corner and get on your knees or go for a walk, sit in the tub...it doesn't matter where you are physically. Find a place to release your emotions to God and allow His Spirit to calm you. What would you like to tell God as you sit under His wing of love? Write it out to Him. Give Him the cares of your world completely. Sit in His presence, be sheltered and fortified and leave with a peace that the world does not understand (John 14:27). Leave with a rested soul."

Wow, God cares enough to send me this when this very thing has been sitting on my heart. What a wonderful God I serve.