Happy Fourth Everyone!

Friday, July 3, 2009

I hope you all have a wonderful fourth of July - spending time with family and friends and staying cool! Or, getting a much deserved rest if needed. Here in Texas, we have had a terrible heat wave, no rain and temps in the low 100's. Keeps me from working in the yard, but I do get time in my sewing room.

To celebrate the fourth, my DH, Mom and I went to a concert on the local college campus. They have a beautiful theater called, The Clarion, built with wonderful acoustics and comfortable chairs! A fairly large jazz group played lots of really fun songs; many from the 40's like, In the Mood, Tuxedo Junction, Bugle Call Rag, and then ended the program with patriotic songs - oh how I love those and it reminded me so much of Dad. Songs like Anchors Away and Stars and Stripes Forever. It was so nice to have people from our community all together clapping hands and tapping their feet to the beat of great music, big smiles on their faces. Warm fuzzies :-) After the show, their was an ice cream social. I just love small town life.

Even with this Texas heat, I do get outside walks several times each day .....because we have two new puppies. A brother and sister pair of basset hounds we purchased from a breeder in Dallas. Bailey (the girl, black and brown) and Beasley (the boy, white and red) Cute! Cute! Cute! yes, but, bad, bad, bad. We are definitely in the potty training and chewing phase. Our older dog, Emma (a very large great pyr) is still not quite sure about these two interlopers! They spend time with me in my studio running around my
cutting table and wrestling with each other, which is OK until they find something they shouldn't to chew on like the cord to the iron; then it's back to their pen.

Well, I have done a bit of stitching. I have been working on a crazy quilt block for this year's Breast Cancer project. The theme this year is "roses" and had to include shades of pink. I took a digital picture of a Madonna image I really like, changed the background to pink, changed the graphic lines to a deeper maroon color, printed her on silk and used her for the focal point of my block. As you can see, I have given her a large bouquet of rolled silk ribbon roses and then spread other embellishments around the block. One of the hardest things about crazy quilting is deciding when something is actually done - my DH teases me about this all the time. But I think I will declare this one finished so I can go one to new projects and/or some UFO's that have been patiently waiting for me.

Speaking of new things, I just signed up online for KC Willis' Collage Camp. For some reason I am a bit intimidated by collage, but I plan on giving it a try with the help of her online videos. Check out her site if you like collage and combining lots of different textures in making wall hangings, journals, shrines, altered books, etc. http://collagecamp.ning.com/ I also want to try my hand at collaged pillows and put together a bedspread with coffee-stained fabrics to give it an old vintage look. If you would like to see the work of KC Willis, you can visit her at www.lipstickranch.com. So, hopefully, in the near future you will see some examples of my delving into fabric and paper collage fun. Right now I am waiting on the arrival on some supplies that I found on good old ebay, then I will jump in!

---------------------------

As I strolled around outside today (with the puppies), I took notice of some simple things around me, things that are so easily taken for granted: the green of the leaves rustling in a soft breeze, an ant mustering through the dirt, cicadas singing their song in the afternoon heat. I love when I slow down and God gets my attention and opens my mind's eye to wonders of His creation. So why don't I do it habitually, continually? Pretty lame on my part not to make myself available to Him, huh? I can plan on having time with God every single day and before you know it, when I look back on the week that has passed, did I? Most oft times, not. Unfortunately for me, I do not discipline myself enough to include God in everything I do. Oh, I want to and I have good intentions, but I plod ahead each day, busy, busy, busy and fail to put Him first. Oh what a wonderful God, that He waits for me each day, patiently, until I slow down and call His name....it is like coming home, a wonderful calm, a wonderful joy. I am so blessed to know about God, and even more blessed because I know God. I know personally about His grace, mercy and love, yet I still feign to take control of my days. I have the desire to know Him more deeply, to commune with Him, but I am so selfish with my time. With the joy and blessings of time with Him, why is it so hard to give Him the time He deserves from me? After all, He has given me everything, even the gift of artistically creating for my personal pleasure. What an awesome God, thankfully a forgiving God. He opens my eyes and allows me to try again and again, and again to fill my life with the character of His son.

Blessings! Jules