Discovering who you are

Good morning all! I hope this Saturday finds you all well and happy! :)  As my title suggests, discovering who you really are can take a lifetime, or no time at all. I'd like to think that it hasn't been a whole lifetime for me, but 47 is kind of "late in life" lol. I learn more about myself every day, and hope the journey of self discovery continues until my ticket has been punched and it is time for me to greet my loved one's on the other side. I've often said, I'm not extremely religious, everyone has their own belief's and that's what makes the world go around, but I am spiritual. I do believe in God, prayer and faith. I don't believe that you HAVE to go to church to get to heaven, and that what matters most is how you live your life. I'm no angel by any means, I have horrid habits that I would like to break, I'm sometimes mean when I have no intentions of being mean, I can be very short tempered, critical...the list could go on and on with my faults. I like to believe that at the core, I am a good person with a big heart and a huge capacity to love. My son once said to an ex-girlfriend who was really nervous to meet my spouse and I..."My Mom loves everyone". That touches me deeply, because I do...unless you give me a reason not to. I'm as real and honest as it gets (sometimes to a fault), I don't sugar coat anything LOL!

So on this journey of self discovery, I have learned that I'm extremely introverted....look it up, it isn't all bad :)! I have a strong believe in anything "paranormal", spirits, angels, aura's, the power of crystal's and the moon, astrological signs, etc. I am a work in progress, with many lessons yet to learn. A couple of recent lesson's for example.....Walking away when the chaos/noise is out of my control and I can do nothing to change it, wow, THIS one is hard and will forever be one that is constantly worked on!! The second lesson was HUGE, and I can tell you that it was almost like a slap in the face (as in WAKE UP blondie)! Those of you who follow my blog, know that in June we lost our Coco, who was just the sweetest puppy, her physical absence is still so hard to deal with. Well, since that time, I have been unable to even look at an owl's picture, let alone hear one hooting at night, it was always a knife in the heart. Someone I consider a good friend who is also a medium, with the help of our Coco from the other side, pointed out that the biggest lesson to learn is "forgiveness" and without it I would become "stuck". Well, talk about the light bulb going off over the head!! I felt I had learned this lesson pretty well, for humans. I had no idea that I should be learning this lesson for animals too! That owl was doing what it does, and how wrong of me to NOT forgive it for taking away our precious puppy. :( Things happen the way they do for a reason, and even though the lesson is horribly difficult, we still must learn it and be grateful for the blessing of the lesson. It is our cross to bear on how quickly we learn the lesson, or if it must be repeated until we do. Since this lesson, I am more at peace and can look at a picture of an owl again and appreciate it's beauty, even if the beauty is deadly, for all of God's creatures great and small are beautiful!

I must now take the opportunity to ask for prayers of peace and comfort to my surrogate second family who is going through a difficult time right now. Cancer affects us all, as I have said many, many times. My heartfelt prayers go to them as they go through what they are going through, May her journey be peaceful, and may you always know that she will be around you ALWAYS. Also sending prayers of peace and comfort to friends and family members of little Haley who recently lost her battle with cancer. She touched many hearts while she was here, and her influence is still being felt! Holding Hands for Haley ALWAYS Please remember these two families in your prayers and all those going through trials and tribulations of life in general.

Now, I do have some beautiful pictures to share with you of what we have been up to, even if I have a hard time finding time to update, I'm still busy! Please enjoy the next few pictures of some hats and journey journals!

The last beauty was created this morning for a friend's Mom who I know is receiving chemo treatments. Our total for adult hat's is at 70 right now. I will be starting to work on children's hats from here on out, until donation in April for those. I'm still working on getting our Journey Journal count up for the adult donation which will happen in December hopefully. Now, this year we will be donating to Summit Healthcare in Showlow AZ due to unforeseen challenges at our local MD Anderson. My contact is no longer there, and upon emailing them to coordinate the donation, I was told that handmade items were on hold indefinitely until a policy had been put into place regarding infection control. I don't know about ya'll, but I would think, as big as they are and as many donations they receive, that this policy would have already been in place....but the recent Ebola scare worldwide has thrown a monkey wrench into our normal donation routine. Never fear, I have been guided to donate to another place and I believe it will do the most good there anyway.

I should probably stop rambling and get busy taking care of a few things around my poor neglected house LOL! Have a blessed day everyone and until my next update...........may the light of God's love touch each and every one of you and help you to Glow from Within....<3

I really need a BIGGER craft room!

Good evening and much love! I am finding that I'm having a hard time finding a place to put everything...you know things like, yarn, scrapbook paper, composition notebooks, etc...:) Thankfully, I have an awesome hubby who came into my office/craft room and helped me a little bit this evening and now I have a little bit more space. It was getting a tad claustrophobic in here, what with a chair (for a lack of a place to put it) in the middle of the floor, and a box of yarn next to it, and then a case of composition notebooks beside that...LOL Needless to say, everything has now been rearranged and moved into it's proper spot. Now, I have to figure out how to get a certain "spot" on my shelf vacated so I can use that also (we won't name any names on who that spot belongs to, who NEVER comes in here anyway). ;P We are still a really LONG way from where I would like this room to be, but it is slowly getting there and a little more organization will keep my OCD'ness in check ;) , mostly.

I have finally set a date for our Journey Journaling event, and have sent out invites. I am super EXCITED to finally be getting this set up. A couple of weekends ago, I covered the inside pages of all the fabric covered journals that I had, and also stamped them with a little stamp that my sister in MD gave to me. I will share a little picture of stamped pages below. I want whomever decorates a journal to put their name in the back, so that the patients who receive them KNOW who's creativity they are looking at (no last names, just a first name).

Cute right?! I must send my unending gratitude to my friend who is allowing me to have this at her house, as my house just isn't big enough! She has such a huge heart and I'm eternally grateful for all her help in organizing our event. I just hope more people will want to attend than just a handful of us ;) It will be November 1st, so we have plenty of time to get Halloween out of the way (you all do remember this is my FAVORITE holiday, right?) and it is before we really start gearing ourselves up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. :)  May have some wine to go along with our finger foods and desserts...so it promises to be FUN!!!! :D

I have been busily creating hats, so I haven't been sitting still...well, at least my hands have not been still anyway LOL I have several pictures for you to enjoy of the latest creations, and please remember that I get my patterns offline and they are normally free, I just have decided that I really don't have a lot of time to put links in here, as I don't think anyone looks at them anyway. So credit goes out to all those who offer free patterns online, I appreciate them very much!!! I am always looking for new designs to make hats with, and these hats are donated to cancer patients. So enjoy the next few pictures of a couple of men's hats and several ladies hats!!

I don't know how I got so off with my ladies hats vs men's hats, but somehow I got my creativity wires crossed LOL  I LOVE them all!!! The last hat pictured was inspired by a beautiful bouquet of flowers that I bought to brighten my kitchen table, I loved the colors so much that I just KNEW I had to make a hat with those colors. :)  Inspiration comes from all over the place, and most of the time it is just the simplest thing that has inspired me. I'm so grateful for the blessings of being able to create hats and journals and for the beautiful people in my life that support this wonderful journey! I leave you with an angel, this is a beautiful work of art and it inspires me and makes me think of the many angels surrounding all of us. Until my next update may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within...........<3

Ooops, was I supposed to be cleaning?!

Good Morning all my friends! I hope my update finds you all healthy and happy on this beautiful Sunday morning :)  I took a week off from work, with the best intentions of getting my fall cleaning done, but only got about half of it done LOL My goal was to create a hat and clean a room for each day I was off and at home. Ha ha ha, yeah...okay! In my own defense, it started out that way ;), then I went to my sister's house (as planned) and stayed a day longer (not planned) than I was going to. Well, we DID get 60 composition notebooks covered in fabric, so we WERE busy! I think I may have dropped my cleaning motivation off on the side of the road on the way back, because I absolutely have none to finish my fall cleaning. I'm SURE I will get back to it, as it is still kind of driving my OCD brain a little crazy having dust and grime all over everything, but this weekend it is not going to get done :D I am going to enjoy my last day off before it is time to go back to work tomorrow. I still have to cover the inside of these journals with pretty paper, but here is a picture of our additional stash of journals.

I have another case sitting here in my office/craft room to cover with fabric and paper also. Right now, I believe our stash count sits at 94 journals covered, with 34 ready to decorate!! Now add the 11 that my beautiful daughter has already decorated, and a case of 20 still left to cover and.....you do the math, it's too early for my brain LOL :)  WOOOHOOOOO for our little group!!! :) I have enough to create a Journey Journaling party/event so we can get them decorated. I think this will be fabulously fun and I hope that I get a few people who want to come and join us! Here is another shot of the most recently covered journals and a shot of a donation by my beautiful friend Rhonda of yarn, thank you from the depths of my heart and soul!!!

I have quite a few pictures of hat's that I have made and a couple that my sister made also. So let's just get to it shall we? The last hat I just finished up this morning and I created it without a pattern or picture, just started crocheting it last night because I just couldn't find what I wanted to make online. :) 

There you have it, all the hat's we have made so far for this update! Still keeping busy with making the adult hats, so that we have plenty to donate at the beginning of December!! Ahhhhhhhh, this date is fast approaching, this year is just FLYING by!!!

I had promised a couple of updates ago, that I would find my poem that I look at when I'm feeling sad, or low, or just struggling in general. My sister sent this to me when my honey was unemployed and we were struggling to make ends meet and staying positive. It has helped me immensely whenever I have needed it, hopefully sharing it with everyone may help out someone else that needs it.

It's In The Valleys I Grow

 

Sometimes life seems hard to bear,

Full of sorrow, trouble and woe.

It's then, that I have to remember,

It's in the valleys that I grow.

 

If I always stayed on the mountain top,

And never experienced pain.

I would never appreciate God's love,

And would be living in vain.

 

I have so much to learn,

And my growth is so very slow.

Sometimes I need the mountain tops,

But it's in the valleys that I grow.

 

I do not always understand,

Why things happen as they do.

But, I am very sure of one thing,

My Lord will see me through.

 

My little valleys or nothing,

When I picture Christ on the cross.

He went through the valley of death,

His victory was Satan's loss.

 

Forgive me, Lord, for complaining,

When I'm feeling so very low.

Just give me a gentle reminder,

It's in the valleys that I grow.

 

Continue to strengthen me, Lord

And use my life each day

To share Your love with others

And help them find their way.

 

Thank you for the valleys, Lord

For this one thing I know

The mountain tops are glorious

But it's in the valleys that I grow.

 

 

Sending my love out to each and every one of you, and thank you for supporting us and following us throughout our journey~ until my next update...may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.............<3

 



Beyond ready for winter!!!!

Good afternoon everyone! My it is so HOT and sticky outside, that you just don't want to be anywhere out there! As title of this posting states, I am so ready for winter and cooler weather. :D I have been remiss in posting again, so I must apologize and tell you why. In my last update I was sending and asking for prayers for two of my Uncle's and Florida family (still asking and sending those constant prayers). I had received more sad news on the morning and evening of the day (Sunday, August 3rd) I was going to post an update. My Mom's husband had been taken to the hospital for what they feared was a stroke, and that evening it appeared my Uncle who is still in the hospital was doing worse :(. I had been praying constantly already, so added names to my prayer list and prayed even more fervently.  I continued to receive daily updates from my oldest sister who lives near my Mom...now, we had found out in March that our Mom's husband had lung cancer and as it turned out it was Stage IV lung cancer, and after they got him to the hospital, discovered it was not a stroke, but a brain tumor.  I am the type of person, who not only prays, but sends positive energy to the people I feel is in need of it, so needless to say I was getting pretty drained of my own energy by Tuesday. Wednesday morning dawned and I was energetic and bubbly and wondering Wow, where did this come from? That evening my beautiful daughter asked me how I was feeling because she had prayed for me the night before. Yes, I get teary eyed just typing about it, because she KNEW exactly what I needed. That night, as I lay down to say my evening prayers and sleep, my phone rang...I looked at it and knew what it was about. My sister called to let me know that my Mom's husband had passed on his way home (Hospice had allowed him to come home) in the ambulance, this was August 6th. I got up, made a phone call to my other sister in MD to inform her and she stated she would call our baby sister in WA (as neither of us knew if she had been contacted yet). I dressed and packed an overnight bag, my family needed me and I would be there. My beautiful daughter, once again, KNEW what I needed, she packed an overnight bag and made the drive with me. I was up for a full 24 hours and my sister was up for closer to 36 hours. My Mom is doing beautifully well, she was able to say goodbye and make her peace with his passing, she is a strong woman! I'm grateful he gave my Mom love and happiness, that is all that matters. God in His infinite wisdom, ALWAYS knows what we need and touches the hearts of those around us to give us what we need. I'm so eternally grateful for my many blessings of my family, my faith in God and the power of prayer, and the many struggles I go through!

I have stated before that this is not a blog filled with sadness, however, sometimes things happen that are sad, and I feel that I need to share what is happening in my life to keep me from updating. :) Now, just because I have not updated, does not mean I haven't done anything...LOL :) I have lots of pictures to share with you!!  I have so many, that I don't know where to start first :D Well let's just go with it shall we?

First up is a man's hat that was fairly easy to make, I still am intrigued by the different textures that are made by different stitches or a different technique that is used. I love trying them out on men's hats, because I don't want to make just a "boring" hat LOL :D

Next up is a ladies slouchy styled hat with little hearts around the brim. Hopefully you can tell they resemble little heart shapes :)  I couldn't see it when I was done with it, but a great friend said she could.

 

Next up is a ladies pink hat (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE) and a man's hat from my sister's loom. I'm still debating getting one of these little things. :)

 

We have a couple of knitted hats from my Mom, I'm going to say that these are both men's hats :)  Which is more than okay, as I think I may have gotten my routine mixed up (make two women's hats, make two men's hats) this last round.

The next hat is a ladies hat that I dearly love the colors on! Well I absolutely love the orange and yellow slouchy hat above too, it just says CHEERY all over it!!!

Last but certainly not least is a ladies pink and black/purple sequins beanie that I created today. Even with a fancy dancy new camera, I just can't seem to get these sequins to show up to their brilliance! :/  I think I need one of those fancy lights so I can make sure it is shining directly on my hat to really do it justice....okay, well I can still dream....LOL I am still learning about my new camera too, so maybe when I finally get the hang of it, the pictures will be awesome!



 If you were looking for links on this update, I'm sorry I have not provided any. I'm not sure that it is necessary in here, but if I get any kind of feedback on it, I will start adding them again. I just don't know if anyone click's those links or not....and I'm definitely NOT a professional blogger, you don't see any "ads" in here, just the basic pictures and blogging about the wonderful happenings in our group.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this important little gem.....while my daughter and I were staying with my Mom for a couple of days, I taught her how to crochet!!! I'm SUPER EXCITED by this fact, as I have tried to teach her before and was unable to. I think it was just the fact that she wasn't ready to learn it quite then, but now she is working on a baby blanket for a friend of hers, and before too long, I hope to teach her how to make hats also. <3  I would include a picture, but she may not appreciate it as much as I do, so I will behave for now. :D  I'm sure by now, you are more than ready for my update to end....so until my next update, may the light of God's love touch your heart and soul and help you to Glow from Within.....<3

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