Me. Taken by my sister, Kelly at the end of a lovely day at the farm.

Strange to post a picture of myself, but I remember that day distinctly being in such a peaceful and trusting  place with God. 

I just needed to be reminded of that place and well, this is for my Mom too.

I woke up to my early morning quiet time with God. Some mornings He does seem to wake me up earlier than others, smile! I hope it is Him waking me at least and not me trying to win his favor with am I good enough..., yet, or just coffee calling as I could hear it in the coffee maker as I was still under the covers. I am more bold with myself in talk so pray it is more him waking my heart to his whisper of "Good morning, come on downstairs and spend a little time with me before you get in your daily schedule, and allow me to order your day". I heard these words (summarized) and I think it is brilliant to live out in a day, but fall much in my own shortcomings or A-Type personality that does not allow room for error, especially concerning myself. Thought I would put on my blog to see and remind myself how Christ is always, so hopefully I can reflect a glimmer of him and sunshine to other's souls.

Be a blessing and not a burden today. Love and don't exasperate others and don't allow others to exasperate you by turning your face a bit towards God and know that your confidence, integrity and character rest in him and that he is the one to whom you answer for your actions at the end of every day. Forgive others, as you have many faults too. Show others the same grace that God has given you, because this side of heaven we all need it. Your actions will be what turns faces towards God. Use words only when necessary. Listen big and lastly, just smile, be real and be grateful for the little things and God will certainly smile back at you.

A special thanks to my mom. I call her "Mon Amie" (My friend in French), for just being my friend, my mentor and such a good example to walk by. You are my special blessing in life and I am so grateful to know you and hope I can be as big a blessing and support right back to you.

This link below is a sermon from Joel for me to remind me of some things. If you would like click on the link. It might be something for you too. Thought this was the best place to keep it to listen to.
Living Without Crutches - Joel

Family Christmas

Family going to Church Christmas Eve. That was the best part of Christmas! OK, except for the fact that I did not have my glasses with me and from afar the angel at the bottom of the stairs looked like Yoda. But, I have to believe God has a sense of humor.

Sweet Wendy and I

Zach thought he was being cool when I jumped in the shot and kissed him on his head! Ha! He actually loved it that I did this! He actually says that I am cool.  Take that!

Peyton Grace and I on our way to feed JJ the Donkey and other horses. How every morning in life should begin!

Peyton Grace being consoled by Anthony after she and my shoulder collided, ...oops.

Kelly with her kids Zach, Gabrielle and Jake. Love this shot!

Peyton Grace being Zena the Make up artist.  My lips were quivering because I was giggling.

Can you tell I love this little girl like she is my own!

Her Mommy above (Gretchen loves her more!). I know she will not be happy with me posting this but I think Gretchen twinkles in this image. I love it and Gretchen you are beautiful, even without makeup!

 This one above is my favorite.  Everyone was resting on Christmas Day and she and I were watching a movie.  I love times like this! She is such a snuggle bunny, however during the whole movie I got play by play action prior to it ever happening.  We then went to feed her pseudo adopted Donkey JJ and the other horses there. The donkey actually cries like a baby when she walks away as if she is his very best friend in the world. I don't often like to post personal pictures of my family, but I will be posting many from the holidays of my family, home decor and Christmas for my family and people close to my heart to see. I love all of these people above greatly. Thank you for allowing me to indulge in a little personal photo show and no time for touch-ups or Photoshop manipulation. You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit. Enjoy.

Happy New Year

I am in the middle of Corporate Christmas Takedown with my families business Holly Productions. No, ....I cannot believe that takedown is happening so soon, but the good is that I get an extra dose of my family that I adore to laugh and work hard with, oh yes, and Kace too. I wanted to wish you a Happy New Year and for 2009 to hold more blessings for you than you could possibly keep for yourself. I pray you love big and are gentle with your hearts and well, truly laugh out-loud because it is just so darn good for the soul. Oh yes, and that you are prosperous in health and wisdom. Smiles and Happy New Year blessings to ya!

Image via DHC

French word of the Day

Chatouiller (shaah-twee-yay) verb

:to tickle

I ran across this in my french word of the day email and well, thought it might bring a smile.

Happy Monday.  I hope your day is worth your while and filled with joy and success.

Image:  Country Living

Still Decking...., smile

"Argue for your limitations an they are yours. 

Argue for your possibilities and they are yours as well." 

-Various Authors

Happy Thanksgiving week!

So, how are you today? How is your heart? I hope you are well and peaceful.

I am still decking the halls along with my family, Kace right by our side everyday and other people for our corporate decorating business "Holly Productions". I got home early to a slew of real job work... What is that? I am on vacation...., okay a working vacation. Never the less, there is work to be done and people still there doing it while my boss has graciously given me the time off to take my vacation all at once during this time of year, so respond quickly to their need I will. I have to pick up my car tomorrow to a new tune of $997 some odd dollars. Keep in mind that I just got it out of the shop last week to a tune of $1200. Eeeeeek! I quickly set my heart and face to my heavenly daddy above and said "God, you are bigger than this, your money here on earth is just a tool, and I can trust you to help me through this beyond all my other financial responsibilities, so I will not worry." I sighed and smiled back at him and back to work. In my heart I am thankful that I have a car. I am thankful that I have a job that wants to call me while on vacation to do work for them. I am thankful for the Christmas business. So, this season I am thankful for so much, but most of all just thankful that I can have this amazing relationship with my creator beyond my skinning my knees often in words, or actions and feel like the luckiest girl in the world that he is working faith in me, so I am blessed. This decorating season has really been the best yet. It has been filled with amazing hard work, but so much laughter that my stomach has hurt most nights. I was scared that something might be wrong with my innards (smile) only to finally realize it is the deep laughter muscles. I am going with that and believing at least and speaking that. So thankful for safety, kind words, great friendships, excellent health, tenacity in every person involved in this business and even working through some tough communication challenges. Thank you for my family, my dear friends and people that have just smiled in the halls of where we are decorating. Hopefully we have shined his light a bit! One can hope!

So, back to work tonight but shortly after a hot shower I will be doing a little "Now I lay me down to sleep", action like below.
Oh yes, thankful for sleep too and a body that is so very healthy and strong.

I wish to post something Thanksgiving. So in short, I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving with family within breaths distance, even if by phone. I pray you well, healthy and whole and I pray you much, much laughter as it is so amazing for the soul.

Happy Turkey Day, Happy Life!

Images via DHC and an old save file.

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly.....Since October 15...

October 15, my families Corporate Christmas Decorating began, as we started to weave the beauty of the season along with other Decorating companies too. We have been behind the scenes making wreaths, boughs, bows, fluffing, relighting trees up to 30ft, lighting outside....and anything else that glitters and shines during the holiday season that you see in corporate buildings during the holiday season with our version of fa, la, la. At any rate. I will be taking my vacation from my web design job to begin full time installation of the magical beauty next week.

Since we begin in the weeeeeeeeee hours of the morning and stop back into the late hours of the night I will not be blogging until December 04, once I am back to work on my full time job. Unless I am asleep at (or under) my desk back at work, wink! At any rate this is a great time of year for me because I get much family time. Certainly it has its points of, "If I wasn't attached to you by blood birth I might not ever talk to you again!!!", over where a decoration should be displayed or timing of a project. However there are many, many more moments of believing in one another and knowing what tenacious souls are able to accomplish (It is crazy, trust me!), and moments of sheer laughter be it that we are so tired we can't see straight or the fact that my sisters, Mom and the rest of the great crew are quite the hilarious types. I love it that Gretchen my sister and I have been calling one another to cheer each other on with a Christmas singing in one another's ear since start date (Which is strange in October!). Ok, my sister Wendy can make me laugh until I cry, but that is on any other normal day that she does that too, not to mention as well Kace and Angie that make me laugh so hard I cry. If I had a penny for all the times you all made me laugh I would be incredibly wealthy!  Then there is my Mom. I love it that my Mom heads this up and works with physical strength and is just positive.  She is amazing to me and my angel and is tenacious to the core and I love her and so proud to be her daughter. To make this happen with my family and the fact that we still adore one another after is so great to me. There are also tender thanks to go out to the many others that are just a part of this every year and we wouldn't be us without them, so know Kace, Angie, Jenna, Liz, Tom, Davey, Joe, Maggie, Kelly, Kathlene and many, many others how grateful I am to each of you. Kace, I think I am going to have to find a way to take you to work each day with me because working along side you is a true joy. Angie who by the way is just short of 7 months pregnant just gets in there and works so hard and brings so many giggles with her and just is my precious heart friend. For each person in this business I give my holiday thanks to along with the personal support systems we have outside of this too. God speed, a smile, a wink, great health and safety, a big dash of laughter and Amen!

I pray your next weeks well and full of smiles and excellent health!

Oh, Can I please request if you do pray, to please pray for me, kind words, patience, much strength and that I will be sunshine to the souls I come in contact with, encouraging and graceful with words, wise in decision making and just a big sweet sappy blessing!

Which does not include me using this statement...
Ahead of time Thanksgiving blessings to you.

I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be
honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to
count, to stand for something, to have made some difference
that you lived at all.

-- Leo C. Rosten

Images via: TK Home

Thank you ahead of time for Voting!

Courage is grace under pressure.

 - Ernest Hemingway

Because, "America IS worth fighting for!"

- John McCain

..., and worth praying for and doing our part in this great country of ours.

God speed, and God bless America today and always. 

Yes, as a matter of fact, I am humming the national anthem while I type this!

Image: J. Crew. A bit altered by moi, yes, me.

Happy Halloween!

Have a fun, creative and safe Halloween and I hope your weekend is beautiful!

Image via: C. Harvey

How my Morning should have started... to Whisper, Surrender, Blessing

This is a verrrrrry long story about my day and about a girl (me) that took a long time (ALLLLL DAYYYYYY), to Hear his quiet whisper and surrender her day and time to Christ and just think of someone else and to realize that love can win big in the end. Soooooooooo, Once upon a time (last night) off to bed for sweet dreams after the Debate (Wed. night).

For this...

and this...

Zzzzzzzzzzzz Ahhhh sweet sleep....abrupt wake up! To, out-loud no less saying to myself and what I have seen in movies...."What was that noise!" Do I go downstairs or not? Do I have a bat? Would I use a gun if I had one? Cold Mountain baby...(My sisters and Mom will get this!). I have never experienced this so yes, a small incident, but I was half asleep.

Okay. So, in my mind, my morning-to-be I wished for looked yummy like this....

This is what it ended up looking like as the morning proceeded...
Sweet image below, but in truth I felt like this. Between my sweet dreams and the present moment, I could not get out of my thoughts to wrap my mind around what had happened as I had just gotten to sleep at around 3am. I just don't sleep well and I live in a lovely, sweet, safe new neighborhood, right? Why do I now feel surrounded in this? I refuse to fear!
I got a 4am-ish wake up call by a squad (Yes, a squad.) of cop cars and 4 cops banging at my door and in my culdesac. Mind you, I have never come across a cop living on the cusp of the city and I move outside the perimeter and they greet me at 4am-ish at my door.
I would have become awake much quicker had they used the doorbell.
More action this way I guess!
And I thought my floor fan was making some strange noise! HA!

Someone had gone through my new, sweet and very safe neighborhood and 2 surrounding
Million dollar neighborhoods (Are they $$$$$ in this new economy?) and broke into cars.

They even stopped to share in this event in my driveway and take things of mine too. No windows broken, thankfully. They were pros.

The blessing: The police came to the door to bring the items back, take pictures and get information. Bigger blessing: The accused and now caught perpetrators never entered into my home. Thank you God for that protection!
They came back through today to make certain all was well.

So, I tried for some time with God after this event to count my blessings.......and proceeded to fall asleep with my coffee in hand. rrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
So I took a shower and put on clothes.... ...and off to my desk for a very long work day as they are all these days. 

Yes, what I had on was similar to this. Love the crisp color of black in a big way.

For the rest of my Morning conversations did not go well! At all!
Blessing: I thought quick enough to get quiet and got to work.
Sometimes it is best just to remain silent in kindness
to keep myself out of later regret of words.

You know. If you don't have something nice to say....., shut your pie hole!

"Be amusing: never tell unkind stories;

above all, never tell long ones."

~ Benjamin Disraeli

...Ok, my story/blog is long...., I get it, sorry.

"To speak and to speak well are two things.
A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks."
~ Ben Jonson

"Of those who say nothing, few are silent." ~ Thomas Neill

Then off to get new tires during lunch. "That will be 90 minutes and $$$$$, Mamm (What in Sam Hill? Mammmmmmmm?)...please."

Blessing: I finally had time to finish reading the Shack (A must read.).Each page of the middle of this book unfolded delightfully and changed my soul as it talked directly to my circumstances of the day good vs evil and how we view it.

and then....

With lack of seating, I sat on the sidewalk with my book in the very front of a handicap parking space. Things got worse as I was almost run over by this Mom in her mini-van parking on top of me (twice), trying to finally have a "Oh yes, God I understand" moment. I get it, I must be so tiny she did not see me, or it was the black outfit I had on that was like camouflage!!!!!!!! Seriously, did I do something bad to someone last night? I mean, I did watch the debate and maybe the people in Hollywood caught word of who I am voting for so they are trying to stop my vote before Nov. 04. Plan foiled as I will be there voting with bells on (As they say in the South.)......That is when God whispered to me deep in my heart....above my yelling at him asking forgiveness, as I watched this Mom take her wee little one out of the car and placed her in her small wheelchair and off they went across the parking lot to get something to eat. Ugh, I can be such a jerk, and God quietly showed me that things are not always as they first appear.

Oh yes God, back to my book! Then in my heart was this....

"Hi, It's me (God),
Don't you hear my whisper?
I have been trying to get your attention all day.
Aren't you tired yet?
Can you give it all to me and just Surrender?
and seriously, go be a blessing!"

In reality God has tugged at my heart all day to see him and that there is good even in little storms. Good masked by yuck. Today, one thing happened after another to the point of silent tears that were so deep in my heart that I could not have spoken even if I had wished. God all the while was whispering "You will find me today, you will find me...pinky promise, but quit looking in."

Okay God...I hear ya!

"Lord, I do, I lay me down in your presence and give you the tears of my day and my praise, and joys first. Lord please, please use this day anyway through me somehow as a blessing so your people can see your light and bring a smile beyond me, through me!" And behold, the greatest quiet blessing came as I found him not by looking within, but in looking out and FINALLY being a blessing and not a burden to those around me. So, God found me a way to be a blessing. I listened with my heart and responded and my whole heart changed. 

Yes, it felt just like in the Grinch who stole Christmas when his heart grew big...I promise!My Sweet Mom has always taught me to be a blessing. Why did it take me all day to grasp what I have always learned from her about hard times and being a blessing in the midst?
Why (as I will post later with pictures and wonder) as this sweet friend Nancy, made me antique pillows by hand just last week (AMAZING by the way) did I not learn quicker?.

God thank you for your patience with me and help me realize the needs of others.
Sometimes, oh my goodness!
So, as I continue to work. I realize God was in my entire day. I just needed to...walk with Him and he will give me rest for my soul and a new song in my heart.

Psalm 37: 30, 31
The mouth of the righteous (woman) utters wisdom,
And their (her) tongue speaks what is just.
The law of his God is in their (her)heart;
Her feet do not slip.

Back to work for this chick and then off for a good long run!

So, how was your day? Was there hope in it or was it a challenge?
I pray it was blessed with smiles and just true no matter the circumstances.
Oh my, and I pray it took you less time to hear his voice than it did me!
And all God's Children said...AMEN!

To end my day. Anthony came by and brought me a hug, sushi and a Starbucks.

He only knew parts about my day, but it meant so much!

Image via dreamhouse, shhhh, Sarah Kaye, Day home, Tine K Home, BarlowGirl, Hillsong, Anne Fontaine with my own added McCain button, LeChat, C&C, Ever wondered

Side note: Wendy, my little sister always makes me laugh out loud. Angie, my sweet friend is just as funny and told me about this video of Dennis Quaid on the Ellen Show. I laughed out loud (Which always feels strange to me when I am alone!) once back at home and safely in my office.
Thought I would share Dennis Quaid on Ellen Show at Starbucks.

Hillarious!

Just good hope in the midst.

In awe of beauty in a shovel

I wish I could gather the dust bunnies that gravitate to my hardwood floors daily, (Even though I sweep every night.) and make them look like this lace dirt rug below! Now that would just be just pretty wonderful!It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is
mighty, but action with faith is mightier.

-- Thomas Robert Gaines

Like a girl in a creative candy store and well, in desperate need of 5 minutes to rest my mind in the midst of amazing deadlines with work. So, here goes and then back to it for me. These pretties have been in a folder on my desktop for many a sunrise, so I wished you to experience these creative wonders too. Who knew a shovel could be so beautiful and notice the dirt rug! Yes, the lace rug it is made of dirt! I saw this a bit ago on Ralph Lauren's site and am just amazed at the creative mind. The creator of these metal lace masterpieces is Cal Lane. Enjoy. Oh my, 5 minutes can go so quickly. Back to work for this girly and grateful for work am I!