Category: Untraditional Work

Happy Valentine’s Day

Honestly I am more likely celebrate it being Friday the 13th than Valentine’s Day–at least Friday the 13th is interesting and different.  But since I am not a pagan and not the least bit superstitious I don’t really celebrate either.  Once upon a time I did, I longed for someone, anyone, to give me a nice, romantic  Valentine’s Day gift and was always devastated when no one did (even if I got something it never lived up to my romantic aspirations.)

About 4 years ago, maybe more, God dealt with my heart on this issue.  Honestly, there is no way ANYONE or ANYTHING can live up to such romantic twaddle as the world would have us believe and get all caught up in.  And honestly, if it weren’t for the world telling you it was important, would you REALLY care?  We are loved and cherished beyond anything by our Lord and Saviour, and HE never runs out and buys us flowers, chocolates , and a romantic card.  Instead He blesses us with beautiful wildflowrs, incredible sunsets, His wonderful Word, and all sorts of small daily blessings–so many that if we just open our eyes to see we are amazed at His love for us.

And so, nowadays instead of moping about not getting a gift I don’t really care about on a designated day that I don’t really care about, I realize how blessed I am to have a husband who loves me every single day and shows it, and a God who loves me even more than my husband, and who goes out of the way to show me every single day.  And I challenge you to do the same.  Even if you don’t have a great relationship if you are a child of God then you are LOVED.   I challenge you to find women in your life who have no one, who struggle, who need to know that they are loved, and go out of your way to show them your (and God’s) love for them.

And I offer you a Valentine’s Card just from me to each of you, and offer it to you to share with whom ever you feel needs to know that they too are loved.

Click here to view my gift to you.

Kayla comes to play

In case you are wondering, yes, life has gotten even more busy in surprising sorts of ways including multiple jobs I have had to get done  which are not worth photographing (though I must mention I REALLY, REALLY hate Windows and reinstalling because people have managed to get viruses because they have done silly things) and I did manage to join the Art Center and get 2 paintings in the show this week.   I won’t go into all of it right now–I don’t have time, but I will be sharing photos of some of the more fun to photograph bits of  craziness over the next few days.

Our dear friends CJ and Kayla came for a visit over Rachel's birthday. This is the first time Kayla has ever played in the snow.
Our dear friends CJ and Kayla came for a visit over Rachel's birthday. This is the first time Kayla has ever played in the snow.
Snowy days
At first she wasn't sure what to think of it but pretty soon she was having a hayday.
Snowy days
All three kids helped her learn to sled ride in the foot deep snow. Issac made a path.
Snowy days
Rachel was great with her (she got to babysit her a bit earlier in the day while Shamus was working in the office and Cj and I had a mom's day out. 🙂

The Last Present to Wrap

This is the last present I have to wrap.  It was a request by my brother-in-law (who never visits my blog though he does visit my husband’s and occasionally wanders into our house.:))  A few months ago he saw the gnome/elf painting I did based on Rachel’s “small” painting and not only loved it but requested a much larger version with more elf/gnomes in a darker setting.  It took a lot of thought and some study of color theory and reevaluating my palette for me to get it right but finally I am done and happy with it (and in the nick of time, I just need to get a frame.)  The painting is below the jump in case he DOES wander into my blog.Read More

New Painting

For those who don’t check my art blog often I thought I would mention here as well that I have a new finished painting and this one is for sale, though hubby is considering keeping in the family.

Those of you who have been reading a while may recognize it from the photo a friend of mine took a few years ago of the girls.

On another note, there are some decisions going on in our family right now that we could use prayers for wisdom and peace.  Not going into it right now but please be praying.

Christmas cards for fellow bloggers

In the past few years each Christmas I have sent Christmas cards to blogging friends who I have never met in person.  As Christmas approaches andas I suddenly have almost all my gifts purchased I got to thinking about my long distance friends.

If you regularly  comment here (as in more than once or if you actually read this even if you don’t comment) I would love to send you a real life snail mail Christmas card, this year I have designed my own so you may end up with a printed copy of one of my paintings or an authentic original signed Elasah Art watercolor (I say that tongue in cheek:)  saying it makes me giggle.)

If you would like to be on my Christmas mailing list please email me at gracedbychrist(at)gmail(dot)com with your name, address, and blog (if you have one).  If you do not feel comfortable giving out your address I will email you a digital greeting card instead. 🙂

***Important***

If I already have your address from last year, I probably don’t.  I lost a lot of archives when I reinstalled Ubuntu.  Long story, silliness on my part, really.  But if you resend then I will save it in my address book where it will not get lost. 🙂

Me, Myself, and I

I don’t have a recent photo (I think the last photo I have is from exactly a year ago–my brother in laws wedding which Issac took looking up my nose) since I am ALWAYS behind the camera but I do have this which Rachel took when I gave her my digital camera to play with while waiting for Grandma after dinner last week.  This is her first attempt at using the camera as a video camera and she wanted to capture everything, including her brother sister making shadow puppets in the light, and for some reason, me cleaning up the table a bit before leaving.  Don’t turn the sound up, it is rather random though in the background my grandmother is telling the pizza worker people that the kids always point out that their ceiling looks exactly like a giant candy bar–and it does.

I am posting this in response to Randi’s request that everyone post pictures of themselves.  Not that she reads my blog but several others do and I read hers and occasionally even comment, though not nearly often enough.

And that is QUITE enough posts for today thank you very much–three is definitely my limit.