Slow progress is still progress!

Good afternoon all! Well it is almost evening time and another day has almost gotten away from me! But I have a few minutes before I start dinner to jot a few words down in my blog to keep my 2019 goal going.

I was able to get two boxes in the mail yesterday for the Summit Healthcare Cancer Center in Show Low AZ, and they should arrive by Monday. That is what the young man said, but with all the snow, it may be mid week LOL! I, along with the guidance of our angel's whisperings to my soul, have made the decision to donate our children's hats and journals to the Child Life Department at Ruby Memorial in Morgantown WV. I believe this will be where it is most needed and I know they will be overjoyed to receive them. If you remember, our East Coast Division - The Journey Continues donated there in January of 2017. I don't believe in coincidences, so isn't it ironic that this is the city that my husband's uncle used to live in just a year or two ago also. He has since moved to warmer climates, but there are no coincidences in life!

I set out this morning with the goal to have 10 journals covered and a hat picked out to start on for our children's hats and journals donation, and that goal is complete as well. Now, I only covered 3 journals today, but I had found 7 in my stash of composition notebooks already covered!! I do have lots of children's hats already made, so I may just concentrate on journals at this time so I can get them on their way as quickly as possible. My craft/office room looks like a tornado came through, but it is organized chaos at this point, and any semblance of organization is a plus right now.

My laundry is calling and dinner will be needing to get started, it has been a dreary day here with rain and overcast most of the day. Winter has truly fallen over AZ, they are normally so mild and last week it was just down right cold! I have no pictures again this week, but appreciate you reading and sharing! Until my next post, may the light of God's love touch your heart and help you to Glow from Within <3

Happy New Year!!

Good morning and Happy New Year 2019! I took a hiatus from working on hats and journals, and let me tell you, I have missed it so much! The last two years have been filled with lots of changes and joy...My daughter got married and we are so blessed to have her husband as our son in law!! They welcomed a baby boy (and our first grandchild) into this world in June of 2018 and Nana and PopPops are so in love with him! Our son continues to make us proud as he works hard and moves up the ladder into management, I pray everyday for the angels to send him that special someone to share his life with. We've had joy and sorrow as all families do throughout the year, but with each dawning day brings a new beginning of precious memories.

My goal for this year is to begin again to work on hats and journals and make a difference one hat at a time. I will remain humble,  I will keep it simple and I will always be kind. I will embrace change and strive to let go of things I cannot control. I will work hard each day to live in the moment and enjoy life's blessings even more. We are not promised tomorrow, so today live in the present. I will start each day with gratitude and a smile, I will not waste energy on anger or negativity, I will strive to always remain positive. I am grateful for the angels that surround me, not only spiritually but those angels that come in the form of friends and family here beside me.

I will try hard to update my blog on a weekly basis, no promises that I will always succeed, but I will do my best. I may not have a whole lot of news that often, and I may not have a ton of readers, but that is okay. I've always said I write this blog for me as a reminder to myself of how far I've come and where I began.

My first order of business this year is to get a shipment of hats and journals out the door and on it's way to Summit Healthcare Cancer Center in Show Low AZ. This will be adult hats and journals. I'm looking for suggestions for the children's hats and journals that I have to donate. I've somehow lost my contact information for he MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston TX. I will let the angel's guidance lead me to where they should go. As always, help is deeply appreciated and I'm grateful for each and everyone of you for your support when "nothing" has been happening on this journey, for your inspiration or donations and just for your continuing love and kindness!

I have no pictures to share in this posting, but I thank you for reading and may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within...<3

I'm BACK, finally!!!

Good Morning all!! First I must say Happy 4th of July, may we all remember what it cost for the freedoms we have! My endless gratitude for the sacrifices made to keep our country free! It has been a long while since I posted, I haven't given up, but I have MISSED working on my hats and journals! Work on hats and journals are steady in our east coast division, The Journey Continues, and it is high time I MAKE the time to get back to it! Where to even begin with all that I wish to share?! I must not only share all the news, but be sure to share from my heart and soul at the same time. So get ready to read :) and please remember to SHARE this blog with friends and family and lets try to get the word out of what a difference we are making in the world around us and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, the difference we are making in cancer patients lives!


I was pretty determined to get back in the groove of making hats and journals, almost a year ago now. Somehow life happened and got in the way, or I just wanted to paint, or I just couldn't get creatively inspired, or some other lame excuse for not getting back to it! My beautiful MIL has a friend whose granddaughter is going through chemo/radiation treatments and so I made 2 hats and a journal for her to take back east to her granddaughter when she goes to help after the granddaughter's surgery. After the special request had been made, I realized how MUCH I missed making a difference by doing this! Though I may enjoy painting and creating art, and giving/selling a painting to someone, it does NOT give me the same AWESOME feeling of making a difference in some ones life. Yes, I believe my art and paintings are beautiful (that's confidence speaking, WHAT?!) and it is soothing and relaxing to let the painting flow from the brush, it is not as AMAZING as knowing deep in your heart and soul that you made someone smile while fighting a horrid disease, that you possibly gave them a ray of hope in the fight against something so devastating in their lives, that you may have brought someone comfort....THIS is why I do this, and THIS IS MY PURPOSE in this life. I KNOW without a shadow of doubt, I was meant to make a difference and THIS is how I am supposed to make it. So MAKE A DIFFERENCE I shall, and I will do my level best to allow myself time to "rest" and not get burnt out. I will allow myself creative outlets, so that I can continue this journey that God put me on. After I finished that special request, I went to work one day and found in my phone, the recording of my radio show interview by Barbara Bruce and this was finally my inspiration to get BACK to what my purpose is! My awesomely supportive hubby was talking to me that very same evening and was talking about one of his client's (he has never met her in person yet) and how his GM in Tucson had stated she was fighting cancer and today was the first time he had seen her without her scarf. So I decided to make a white hat (she is always dressed in white, perhaps medical field is why), with a purple scarf. I am including another scarf so she can change it out if she wishes to. She also receives a journal that my sister made some time ago that has just been waiting for that special recipient, Now, I will state here that my hubby picked the journal out to go with this hat and he will be delivering them probably next week when he goes to Tucson.


I have a few photo's to share that has happened in 2017, and I will try my hardest to update my blog WAY more frequently. I know some people may not take the time to read this, but I want to keep this going as a way to remind myself that when I create and write from my heart and soul it makes a difference in some one's life and maybe I will inspire someone else to BE THE CHANGE!!! <3


These are from the beginning of the year and are of my sis Vicky and her friend Ginny in our east coast division The Journey Continues. These were taken when they donated the hats and journals that they along with Sherry tirelessly worked on. I'm ever so grateful and blessed to have them working and donating hats and journals, not to mention honored that they chose to be a division of Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals. The thank you letter from on of the hospital's they donated to means so very much to us all! <3

And here are the few photo's of hats and a journal that I have made as special requests through out this year. A couple are just for the stash that I will be donating to Summit Health in Pinetop/Showlow AZ  and MD Anderson in TX.



Please remember donations are always accepted and deeply appreciated, yarn must be soft (you can test this by rubbing it on the inside of your arm). Any scrapbook supplies, charms, buttons, composition notebooks, fabric (must be 'fat quarter' size to cover the composition notebook), Aleene's tacky glue, and soft yarn are accepting with deepest gratitude. HELP is desperately needed and appreciated in our AZ division (which is me!!!), right now it is only me and I'm only one person :)


I leave you with prayers and love, gratitude for continuing to follow our journey even when progress stopped altogether on my end or is just slow to happen! Never underestimate the difference you can make in some one's life by being kind, sharing a smile or a laugh and just by loving someone else. BE THE CHANGE and sprinkle kindness to all in your path. Until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow From Within! <3

Beautiful things happen all around us

Happy Saturday afternoon to everyone, yes, it has been another 4 months without a single post from me :( I will honestly try my hardest to get better about posting in my blog, and working harder and getting some hats and journals done. I've not been sitting still by any means, I have done a couple of hats, a few journals and a whole lot of painting has been happening. I'm truly blessed and have endless gratitude for the gifts God has given me, now it's time to start getting back into my hats and journals and then hopefully donating them. I thought my long hiatus was completely done, but apparently it wasn't and I still feel like I'm struggling to get back in the groove of things. A trip to the ocean is approaching pretty fast (well, not fast enough for me)and maybe standing on the shore and listening to the waves crash and sing to my soul is what I am truly in need of :)

Our east coast division The Journey Continues has had some great things happening. We had to make a couple of changes, but hopefully now everything will be full of positivity and spreading of the love and kindness Hats from the Heart is known for :)My Sis Vicky has been creating some lovely journals and her friend Sherry has some pretty spiffy hats she's creating as well. Great things happening and on the horizon, I just feel it!! My endless gratitude goes out to everyone there and here who has helped us on our journey, whether it was a donation of supplies, helping make the hats and journals or just simply being supportive and inspirational, we truly are grateful for our journey including you all!!!

Oh my....I ALMOST forgot to share some exciting news of a personal nature (so yes, I will be doing my best at trying to keep up, but can't make promises lol)! My daughter is recently engaged to the love of her life Ryan....so wedding plans have commenced!!! So EXCITING!!!! Saturday evenings have become our "wedding planning" time, and though we've only had one so far (tonight is our second), this is truly a bonding time for me with my daughter and my son's girlfriend Taress!! Talk about some awesome bonding time with "my girls", it is FABULOUS!!!! Okay, okay...I've yammered on enough about my exciting news, how about some fantastic photo's of the wonderful hats and journals being created?

Here are the few that I have worked on in the past 4 months...I told you, I'm struggling LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is what The Journey Continues has been working on, such awesome creativity and beautiful work!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it, everything that has been happening with our group since my last post, and I'm hoping this works as it seems to be giving me a challenge already (meaning, Google seems to be a little stupid right now). I encourage each and every one of you to spread the kindness....a smile, a kind word, a simple hug, or just a gesture can mean so much to the recipient. Let your light shine brightly for all to see and BE THE CHANGE you wish to see in the world. Until our next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you Glow from Within...............<3

Hiatus over...hopefully!

Happy Saturday everyone! A short hiatus was taken by myself, and so totally unsure of how that came about, but I'm back and hopefully the long wait between posts are over. I guess my creativity needed to be recharged and I had to take a short break in order to do that. Sometimes, my human frustrations get the best of me and I get discouraged, but I WILL NOT let them get the best of me....onward and upward!

I'm still shaking my head over where the time went, because apparently it flew by faster than what I thought....I've only posted one time this year and that just ain't right LOL!! I know I've been doing a lot of different things lately, painting, making bracelets, drawing, etc....and I think I needed that time to get myself refocused. I have never really "lost" my focus on making hats and journals, but one of my goals this year is to NOT be so hard on myself and beat myself up so badly that I feel rotten, so no more of that!!!

I do have some lovely new hats and journal pictures to share with you, so it won't be a totally picture-less post! I'm still trying to get back in the swing of things, so going is still a bit slow. I'm hoping by end of day today to have a little girl's Monster hat made and a decision made on what my next painting will be and who it shall be for. I successfully completed and delivered my first commissioned painting, it was a simple yet challenging piece! It taught me a couple of lessons, one being that just because it "looks" fairly easy to paint, does not mean it is! The other, and this is always a learning process here, PATIENCE!! I cannot express enough, how patience is needed when painting with oils LOL

I won't be too wordy today, as they seem to be escaping my mind faster than I can type today, and I type pretty darn fast....so imagine how fast the thoughts are flitting around in my head!!! We have some lovely hats made by The Journey Continues, our division over on the east coast, and a journal as well. The first pictures I will post from them is a lovely hat and journal created by my sister for her beautiful daughter in law, yes the horrid disease has stricken our family more than once, but our prayers go to her, she is a strong fighter and God has bigger plans for her than she knows!!

 

The next few were made by her lovely friend Sherry, and I just love the colors and simplicity of them all!

This beauty was made by Ms. Rebekah, the blue colors always speak to me!!

The next couple of photo's are the same hat, I made a removable rose so it could be worn two ways. This was made for my beautiful niece in law, such a brave, strong beautiful woman!!!

The remaining photo's are some children's hats and other journals that I have been working on. I truly LOVE what I do, it is such a wonderful feeling deep in my soul!

That's all for now folks, all the photo's of what has been done in the last 3 months. I'm STILL wondering where the time went? I will leave you with these thoughts: Always strive to do the best you can do, and be the best person you can be every day. We are ALL human and make mistakes, don't be too hard on yourselves and try to always BE KIND to all including yourself, we are all fighting battles of some kind!!! Much love to you all for your continued support of our ongoing journey, gratitude is felt deeply for you all! Until our next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and help you to Glow from Within..........<3