Things to come

Things to come...

Just a quick post to let you know what I am doing and where I will be the next couple of months. I have quite a bit on my plate so I will try and keep you posted on my where abouts and what is happening.

I am excited to be going to Virginia this week and join some amazing women there.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…

If you are in the area please join us and see that the Lord is good.


Mid May I will be hosting my home to a very special lady and I will post more on that later.
Then I am loading up the SUV and heading out to Washington State to see my daughter Jody... 

 We will be a vendor at the Farm Chicks Show in June.

The show is in Spokane.
I will be visiting with Jody near Portland, for a couple of weeks and then I am home. 
But not for long because I will be in Indiana for the 
Horton's French Flea Market in July. I am excited to be a vendor there again this year!


Just to keep you up on things to come.
 I will be posting on these and taking lots of pictures also.
Hope your week is a good one, mine will be preparing for my trip on Friday.
Many Blessings
Rebecca

Easter Day

Wishing you a most beautiful Easter

When I was growing up my dad sang 
The Holy City 
on Easter Sunday. It became one of my favorites and was part of my Easter memories. 
Later, I always asked him to sing it for me.
This is for you dad... who is now singing Hosanna with the angels.





Blessings and Love to You

Rebecca

Good Friday

For God so Loved...

The world...

That He gave His only begotten Son,

that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:16,17

Greater love hath no man, than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Study by the Mayo Clinic on the  

Blessings
Rebecca

Loser Challenge # 1

Yes! We made it through 2 weeks and now we get to post how much we have lost! Please link up and post your loss on your blog. Whoever lost the most in the past 2 weeks will receive the pearl necklace. Remember to visit everyone and encourage them on!

Just as the pearl is transformed into a beautiful gem by challenging circumstances, so are you.
  

My past eating experience has been to hurry and get it over with, I do not like to take the time to eat. So under the clock I would grab something quick and maybe not so healthy. 


I have been thinking about the pure act of eating... let's just think about it for one moment. It is like anything else we do, sometimes we go through the motions and forget about the joy it once brought us. 

Let's just step back and imagine if you could not experience the act of eating again. Of course the first and obvious is that you would die because it is our sustenance, it is our life. But let us take it one step further and think about the act itself, how amazing our body is that we can take something beautiful and become apart of that beauty within us. To experience the beauty of food to the fullest.

 First to appreciate the beauty with our eyes... imagine a perfect peach tree in a beautiful garden, all our senses are alive and we walk through this garden with the fresh breeze that we can feel and smell. We take the peach from the tree and see the beauty of it, our eyes bring appreciation and anticipation, as we bring the peach to our mouth we smell the sweet fragrance of the peach and bite into the sweetness of the fruit. As the flavor of the fruit bursts into an explosion of flavor in our mouth, we then crush the fruit and the taste of it becomes even more intense... and then the most amazing miracle happens, as we take it into our body it nourishes our cells and becomes the very essence of who we are on a molecular level. 

We have the ability to become one with such beauty. 

The very act of eating can be such a sacred act, it is included in so many ceremonies as a symbol of who we are. Christ himself is called "The Bread of Life". We partake of Him in communion, it is a symbolic act of taking Him into our bodies and becoming a part of Him and becoming Christ like. We are what we partake. What we put into our bodies through our senses we become. It not only is scriptural it is a scientific fact. What we watch, what we see, what we say, what we eat influences our thoughts and what a man thinketh, so shall he be. I have always guarded my heart on what I watch on television and movies and it is now time to bring that into my eating and appreciate the miracle of it. 
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusteth in Him...  Ps 34:8

The French journalist who was so influential in Elle magazine had everything you can imagine, living the world of high fashion in France. Jean Dominque Bauby, was struck with Locked In Syndrome, it is a paralysis that strikes and you can move nothing. Jean Dominque could move only one eye lid and with that one eye, he wrote a book called, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, blinking  out the letters.  In that book he talks about the pleasures of life... a kiss on the cheek, which he could no longer feel, or the summer breeze on his face, the taste of food on his tongue. All his riches and yet it was the simple things of life he missed most. He died shortly after finishing his book. 

Today I am appreciating the simply pleasures of life, today I am experiencing the shear joy of eating an apple and appreciating the  miracle of eating it. Today I rejoice in the small things, and I am thankful for all that I have and all that I am able to do. 
Blessings
Rebecca

Kitchen Tweaking

Hello

I have some up and coming events that I need to get ready for so I need to tweak some rooms in my house. I thought I would bring you along. I will show you the before and after pictures and ask for suggestions. I think sometimes using what you have is harder than starting from scratch.

I need to give my kitchen a little face lift.

 I am cleaning out the cupboards and rearranging. There are certain things I have been needing to do for some time now. 

I have glass doors on my upper cupboards, so I need them to look good. That means every once in while they need to be rearranged and edited. 

Moving on to the bottom cupboards, they bug me. They are too big which causes them to hang wrong and they don't close tight.

I have taken them off on the other side of the room and I had put up curtains. I am going to take these off and put curtains up here also.

I am going to take these down and make curtains to match all the way around the kitchen. I am looking at maybe some French linen. What do you think? Any suggestions...

I also need to recover the chairs.

I have some old French rustic linen, I am thinking about to use.

I will be changing the window treatments also. I am looking through my stash of vintage fabric but I haven't decided on what to do yet.

I have an old world look going in there right now with a garden feel because of the table and chairs are an old iron set.

My biggest decision is do I take this arbor out or not? It is from a theater in Texas and it was a stage prop.

I was thinking of putting in a fireplace and maybe an architectural piece above it instead of the arbor. 

I am also thinking of changing up my Majolica and trading it for Transferware or Ironstone.

I will keep you posted on my progress and I can always use some suggestions.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day and I want to thank all of you for your kind comments on my last post. You are all such an inspiration and you are appreciated. I am trying to get around to all of you but my plate is very full right now. 

I also will not be posting Studio Sundays for awhile as time is an issue. 
Linking with Kathleen at Faded Charm for her White Wednesday. She has some fabulous whites there today!

Thank you so much.

Blessings

Rebecca

Blogging and Who I Am...

At some point in time someone will ask you,

 who are you? 

Who do you consider yourself to be? I have been asked this question in magazine articles and in conversations with various people. I have been told this is a difficult question for many people. It is not for me. I have no problem answering  it quickly and honestly. 

I am a woman seeking the heart of God. 

Pure and simple. 

All that I do comes from that phrase. I also believe that my whole purpose in life and why we are put on this planet  is for one purpose and that is to glorify God in whatever we do, so that He can reveal His love for us and through us.  

I am also a person that makes many mistakes on a daily basis. I am strong headed and jump into things whole heartedly and suffer the consequences later. I have been married 3 times and raised my children as a single mom for many years. I have not lived a fairytale life but I have lived a good life. Through all my choices God was there. I always knew that. I have a strong relationship with Him. I am not a religious person, I have an intimate relationship with my heavenly Father through Christ who lives in me. He is my daily companion, we walk and talk together no matter if I am making art or making dinner. 

I love sharing His love with others,

 it is my passion. 

I am not trying to push my beliefs on anyone they are just intertwined in who I am. I do not belong to a certain denomination, in fact I do not go to church at all right now. I haven't for years. If I found one I was comfortable in and I felt I was to be there, then I would join. I was active in a non- denominational church for years  but I no longer am now. 

I do not live a perfect life, but I am perfected through Christ. 

I started blogging 2 years ago this June. I started it to journal my life and talk about my work.  My blog has always been a mix of family, art, the shop, my home...my thoughts. My blog is me. It was always meant to be fun and to inspire others. It was not meant to be just a pretty blog. Oh, I love eye candy too but that isn't my focus. At one point I thought of having two blogs, one for the art and one for the spiritual side but I didn't know how to separate the two. I didn't do it with my shop or home or friendships, how could I on my blog which records my thoughts and life. Through this blog the Lord has blessed my life with lovely friendships that I would have never thought possible. I truly love many of you. I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you. But I realize it is hard to really know someone from reading bits and pieces of there lives written in a few posts twice a week. That is why I am writing this now, because I care about you and what you think. I will support, pray, read and talk with you but I will not change who I am... I will just try to paint a better picture, a realistic picture and if that no longer blesses you then please take me off your blog roll. This is not about PR for me or getting my numbers up, this is about real life, real people, being real and sharing that. Whether it be fixing up the bath, losing weight or sharing my passion I would love to have you journey with me but know that somewhere down the road I will preach after all I am my fathers daughter...

:)

Blessings

Rebecca

Loser Challenge

We can do this!

Hello my beautiful friends, today is the first day of our loser challenge. Together we are going to live a better, healthier lifestyle.

This is what I have so far...

Every two weeks we link up from here and post our loss or gain (I am being realistic) and talk a little about how the week went or some tips you might have picked up that helped that week. Maybe some fun exercise you found... anything that you want to talk about pertaining to our goals. The first 2 week link up will be on Thursday April 21.

I will be posting tips from my daughter who is a certified trainer and marathon runner (she did not inherit those genes from me) and anything else I think is helpful. 

Every two weeks when we post our weight loss, just for fun, the girl with most pounds lost will receive a small gift from the girl with the least pounds lost. If you could post ounces that would help but if not and there is a tie, I will throw the names into a hat. 

This is not a race, this is a lifestyle change. This is meant to be a little push to accomplish some goals and feel better about yourself. I want to stress the importance about loving yourself and seeing yourself as beautiful as God sees you. He calls you "my beloved". I want you to get on the scale and have it reflect how beautiful you really are no matter what the pounds say!

It really is about feeling energetic and living positive with a clear mind. I really don't think we can do that while stuffing our bodies full of junk. 

This time of year is such a great time to start new, every morning we get up and we start a new day, yesterday is gone and we don't worry about what was. With new life all around us, let us start a new beginning here together as we journey together towards this goal of a better and healthier life.

Today, I would like you to join in and commit to your goal with the linky below. I think putting it out there will help you commit and be accountable to your goal. If you want to post about it I think that would be great and help you and others. So to join just link up, if at this time you are not able to, you can certainly join at a later time.

For the first two week prize, I am going to give it. 

I will give this chunky pearl necklace, that I made to the person who lost the most. As a reminder of how beautiful you are, just as a pearl is made beautiful by adversity so are we.

Please link up and join me on the Loser Challenge Journey...

If you have any questions please feel free to email me.

Blessings Today!

Rebecca

PS... I am linking up with Kathleen at Faded Charm today

Sunday Studio... Guest Post

Studio Sunday

This Sunday I am at

Please join me at Everyday Elegance

where I am doing a guest post with Donna

Please link up here and join us at

Everyday Elegance