Not so Monsoon~y this year!

Good evening all! Thought I would try to update my blog for you all while awaiting dinner to get done cooking. So yeah, as my title indicates, monsoon season in AZ has not been the greatest this year :(  Praying for rain every day because AZ desperately needs it! Yes, it does get humid this time of year around these parts, but the rain is always worth it. Without the rain, it is more than HOT!!! You tend to stay indoors where the air conditioning keeps it bearable!

I am sending prayers up constantly for the health and well being of my Florida family...a very ill Uncle in the hospital, and an Uncle who was diagnosed with throat cancer. It is so hard to live so far away from those that you love and care about when something happens, you are unable to be there to offer your love and support or just your shoulder to lean on. You do the best you can from a distance and you hold strong to your faith that God knows best in all things, and send all the prayers you can up for His healing touch, His love, His comfort and His guidance for your family far away. You ask for prayers from your friends, coworkers, and face book friends....knowing that everything happens for a reason and in God's timing, what will be, will be. To ALL my family and friends, I love each and every one of you, pray for you all the time and with this posting reach out and send my love always, whether I see you all the time or rarely....KNOW that I love each and everyone of you, and thank God for the blessing of having you in my life from near and far!! <3

I have met (maybe not in person, but on face book) so many beautiful kind people since I have started this beautiful group Hats from the Heart/My Journey Journals, that I could live to be 100 and still not be able to express my thanks and gratitude enough to everyone who has contributed in some way in helping it grow by sharing blog posts or donating yarn or supplies and even monetary donations for supplies. I am so blessed to be able to do this and MAKE A DIFFERENCE in someone's life by making hats and journals while they are fighting their battle. Each and every one of you touch my soul and restore my faith in humanity itself. For instance, this beautiful soul I met online through my cousin's wife, she has created an event to collect 53 skeins of yarn for her 53rd birthday, TOMORROW!!!! First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATSY, and may you have many,  many more and continue to bless those around you by continuing to make a difference on your birthday by giving back to someone or some organization that helps others! Her total this evening is 23!!! So blessed and grateful for her generosity and kindness!!!

Keep up the AWESOME work Patsy, I know I've not met you in person, but sending HUGE hugs and lots of love your way!!!

Now I do have three hat pictures to share with you....the pictures were taken with my new fancy camera that my wonderful hubby bought me for my birthday (yes, VERY EARLY)!!! First up is a ladies fuzzy brimmed hat that my sister made on her loom. The brim was made with some "eyelash" yarn mixed with the normal yarn, and I absolutely LOVE it!!!

This next hat is a lovely pink ladies hat that I made over the weekend from a pattern that another friend I met online sent me the pattern on. I love the lacy look of this hat, and will probably use it for a few more!!

And the last hat I have is a man's zig~zag hat that I finished up yesterday morning while waiting to go to work. I found this pattern over at Idea Ivana and it worked up fairly quickly! Next time I make this one, I may have to make an adjustment on the brim row, as it seems a little loose and not snug on my glass model :)

 

 

My daughter and I were unable to get anything done on Journey Journals this time, as this past weekend was a "rest and recuperation" weekend for us. Sometimes you have to take that kind of weekend despite what else is going on so you can recharge for the upcoming work week :)

 

 

Well I guess I am off to locate a pattern for a man's hat, maybe some other color than blue, yes? LOL Have a blessed evening everyone and until my next update, much love and gratitude and...may the light of God's love touch each and every one of you and help you to Glow from Within......<3

Everyone can be creative!

Good Sunday Morning all! A beautiful start to the day, finished up a ladies slouch hat this morning with some button embellishments and the day is off and running. I sure do wish my weekends would go slower than my work week :) Looking back on my previous post, I realize that I have not added links to where I found the lovely patterns for the hats that I shared. Arghhhh, this oversight will be corrected at some point today! It is so frustrating to have all of your links saved on your laptop, but unable to post a blog update from there because it won't upload my pictures. I think we all have little and probably sometimes BIG annoyances with technology! LOL

I've stated before that my beautiful daughter says she is not creative, to which I say "hogwash", because seeing her create Journey Journals is pretty awesome! I love each and every single one she has created (and God bless her for catching that creative bug and helping make a difference), and she has created a lot!! I believe her total is 11 so far, and I encourage her to create as many as she wishes! My sister's response to seeing all of her journals was, "Well, shoot, by the time she gets done, we'll have to cover a ton more with fabric and paper LOL", and we both know that is fine because the more we get created, the bigger the difference we make is!! So let me just share her creativity with you, and then we have a few pictures of hats created. I'll let you all guess which is my favorite.... :)

What a fantastic job! Now I haven't taken any pictures of the back, or inside covers...but some of these have been decorated on the inside covers, back cover or even the spine. See, now isn't that cool? My sister and I tend to try to keep it simple because primarily it was us doing the majority, but Baby Girl has just gone above and beyond. I'm so eternally grateful for the blessing of having her as my daughter! <3

Now let's see if I can share a few shots of hats created since my last update. I seem to be stuck on the number of 3 hats per update, WTHeck?! :/  Sincerely trying to get better/faster at making these, but cannot find the energy after work anymore :( which leaves only the weekends for me to created hats....grrrrrrrrrr...yeah, this is a source of frustration for me! Now on to the first hat (will add links later today to the pictures I don't have links attached to)...a man's hat is what it should be, but it turned out rather small, so a lady could wear it also, and I like the natural colors of this hat.

Next up is another man's hat, and these blue's are just fantastic! There is a twist in the stitching, but because of the variegated color of yarn, you cannot really see the detail of it.

And the hat I just finished this morning is a ladies slouchy beret style hat. I tweaked the pattern here and there for my own liking (took out a few rows only), but I found the pattern over at Cat's Rockin' Crochet where she has some fabulous free patterns!! Added a couple of gold buttons instead of a flower for embellishment, and it is good to go!

If I hadn't already designated this beautiful creation for donation, I would probably even wear it myself when it cools off around here! :)

I've titled my post today "Everyone can be creative" because I believe everyone has creativity in them. You may think that you have no talent for this kind of thing, but we all have talent! I encourage you all to find your creativity and put it to use in some way. It may be making jewelry, creating greeting cards, home décor, decorating cupcakes, or any number of other things!! It is so satisfying to watch something come to "life" from your own hands and know that you created that. I must also throw this in here, it is even a greater feeling when you make a difference in someone's life by donating or even spreading kindness to someone else :)  I truly believe that kindness and love can make all the difference in someone's life no matter what battle they (or you) are fighting, we all fight harder and better with a little help from our family, friends and even complete strangers!

My housework is calling my name (I tend to ignore these chores when I'm focused on creating) today, so I must get busy on the chores.  Until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.......<3

Some routines are hard to find..

Good Morning all! It is bright and early here in Arizona, and humid as all get out this morning, the air is so thick I feel like I'm back in Florida without the convenience of a beach anywhere around LOL. I am STILL trying to get into a routine, wow it is hard to find when you aren't used to working until 5...by the time I get home, I'm so tired I have no energy to do anything but sit and enjoy my honey's company!! Trying hard to get into one, but it is really hard to find right now....my weekends have been so busy since the last part of May that I feel like I'm not getting much accomplished. I am positive this will change and soon (I hope!)

This past weekend was filled with covering journals with fabric and paper to get them ready for a Journey Journaling party, that I still haven't figured out when I'm going to have LOL. My sister was here for a good long 3 day visit, and we got a lot accomplished. My beautiful daughter helped cover the inside pages with paper, as she has been wanting to help and she also knew that my wrists couldn't take much of squeezing that glue bottle. We did use a spray adhesive on the outside for the fabric and it went way quicker than I expected!! We were able to cover 34 journals in fabric to add to the 10 I covered before I discovered this cool spray adhesive. So here is our stash so far...

I received a surprise thank you card in the mail from the Houston MD Anderson, and it is always cool to get little surprises in the mail like this, warms my heart and lets us know that we ARE making a difference, no matter how small!

Eventually I will take some time to make a scrapbook/album with pictures of the hats and journals that have been created and these little thank you cards. I try to make sure I document here in my blog all of the exciting things happening, but I'm sure I have probably missed something here or there :/.

I have created hats to share with you, but I feel like I'm not creating enough...again, that time thing and getting into a new routine is tough. I am determined to start getting more created and I WILL succeed in this, with God ALL things are possible, and my faith is great!! Here is a man's hat that I created, and my daughter says it reminds her of "Harry Potter" colors...or perfect for a Florida Seminole's fan... :)

Then I decided to create a couple of patriotic hats to celebrate 4th of July for the ladies...this first hat took a little longer than I expected but I LOVE how the stitch looks on it. I may have to make a couple of more in this stitch..

And the stars on this "country" colored patriotic beanie....even if they are sewn on a tad crooked LOL! I think it just increases the charm of this hat ;)

That's it for the hats right now, I have picked out my next hat that I'm going to make and will get it started as soon as I'm done updating in here. Oh (slap to the forehead), I almost forgot to post the cute hats my sister made on her loom, AND I believe I have forgotten to post a really generous donation of yarn by the beautiful MaryRose (whom I met through facebook and Robert Welch). A huge THANK YOU for that donation, I just sent half of the donation of yarn home with my sister so she could make more hats on her looms....We could not do this with out all of you helping with donations and supporting us on our journey, so with deepest gratitude we thank you from our heart and souls!!

My sister (who was here for a short visit), created this lovely ladies hat from her loom...I don't know how it is done, but I love the stitch on these hats.....

She also created a man's hat, and I really do like the little roll brim's on them...aren't they just the cutest?! :)

I will have to watch her one day while I'm visiting at her house to see how it's done and maybe purchase one of these looms for myself or my daughter...we shall see. Oh, speaking of my beautiful daughter, she created 4 beautiful Journey Journals for us (she has been wanting to help, and she did a marvelous job)!! I think they look fantastic, and she always says she isn't creative.....well....let me just say (And I am bias) she is and these are beautiful!!!

This one above was created on Sunday afternoon....and the ones below she created after I went to bed and was sleeping (she and her dad are awake at night, while I'm the morning person). What a way to start the day seeing these beauties lying on the table.... :)

She did write over in black what this purple journal says, I just haven't taken a better picture of it yet... "Motivation is what gets you started, Habit is what keeps you going~Jim Ryun".  I'm so excited that she is able to help make journey journals, even if she can't crochet a stitch LOL. The littlest things get me excited about our group and journey.

Ohhhhhhhhh (another forehead slap)....and let me share one last picture with you.... this is another beautiful soul that I have not met yet, but I am so very grateful to her and her friends for wanting to help and join our group...can not express my gratitude enough!!! <3 You all make this journey possible and for that I'm eternally grateful!!!!

How blessed I am, that each and every one of you has touched my life and an integral part of my life that makes this all possible. I thank God each and every day for my blessings and for my struggles. Last month was really rough and filled with far too much sadness for me personally, but I'm still grateful for that struggle and the lessons it has taught. One day soon, I will share a poem with you that my sister shared with me when I was struggling a few years ago and it still gets looked at and read, especially when I struggle....for it is....In the valleys where I grow..... <3  I don't have the full poem with me right now, but I will bring it home and type it up to share in my next update. See the beauty surrounding you, acknowledge it, be grateful for the love you have in your life (for even if you think you have none, you DO!!) and thank God for your many blessings and struggles...until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.....<3