Comfort Dog Ministry

When listening to K-Love radio yesterday morning, they interviewed someone from Lutheran Church Charities. They were plugging their vision for the use of "Comfort Dogs" in disaster situations, such as Katrina. It was absolutely the best idea I'd heard in a very long time. We've all heard of pets in retirement homes and nursing homes, and how wonderful they are for the residents, but I'd never thought of how comforting and calming a dog could be in a disaster situation. It honestly just made sense.

I just wanted to share their website with you - it looks like these people are doing wonderful things. Click to go to Lutheran Church Charities..... enjoy their site.

Tyler's Tree

I haven't been to the cemetery for a very long time, and with all that has been put on my plate lately, it just felt like a good idea to go this morning on my way to work and re-read the scripture reading for today. We tease within the family that the tree by Ty's grave site always needs a 'shave', just like he usually did. :) This morning only proved that it is still a fact, and the tree needs some pruning as you can see in the photo. And what an awesome site this was and brought out some pretty healthy laughter, yes, outloud in broad daylight!

Sometimes one just has to sit, ponder, reflect and get straight with what God is putting in front of you. And just look how luscious and full his redbud tree is today! And yep, it needs a 'shave'. :)

Sale at TygerLily's

Click here to visit the store - back to school special going on.

Sunday Sanity

I should be further with these projects by now, but I guess I just did a little more messing around yesterday than I should have. We went to the Farmer's Market and Licorice International along with going on a job interview for a part time job and renting a couple dollar movies. By the time I actually sat to get those needles flying, I was more drained from the week than I'd anticipated. But anyway, here are the projects on hand for this final week in July:

1. The gorgeous fern green skeins are for a special order I received from a virtual Canadian friend to work up my Wishbone Cable Bag for her! YEAH for Etsy!

2. An idea POPPED into my head for a design while we were waiting for the little folk to get picked up by their dad and this is the beginnings of a new design of handbag. I think it will be a really fun one when finished. This color with bamboo handles is going to be very eye catching I believe.

Friday evening we got another shot of adrenaline going around here when an e-mail came in from the Lux Center for the Arts. The director is interested in seeing my handbags up close and personal for possibly, I repeat POSSIBLY having them for sale at the gallery! If that falls through, I will still be pumped just because they inquired!!! That in itself is an honor that I'll never forget.

Another blessing came Friday morning when going into a meeting at a local cafe/coffee house and who do I run into? Tyler's old basketball coach!! And even though he is getting up there in age, he still remembered who I was. And then I got to run into another parent of old LCS students who I hadn't seen in over 4 years, and HE even remembered who I was. So it just goes to show me that I haven't fallen off the edge of the world as it had been feeling!!!!!!!! :)

It also shows that there are some prayer warriors out there who have been praying overtime on our behalf.

I JUST WANNA KNIT!!!!

Duh

Updated 7-26-08: Yes, I am knitting and designing when I should be doing more beneficial things for the family. But I'm being CALLED to do it. Only hoping for the better. :)

Make Or Break

Romans 8:26-28:
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

I was incredibly blessed that this was the reading for today, because we don't know what today will hold with the meetings that are happening and whether they will end up good, or not so good. We just don't know what is in store for us. It makes it hard to know HOW to pray, and this verse reminded me (as it did after Ty's death) that the Holy Spirit is taking over for us today. We just know that God has a plan and we can only hope for the best.

Calling ALL Knitters! Is This Not True?

In catching up on my fave blogs tonight, I ran across Jane's post with a YouTube link that is great!!!!

Kris - this one's for you.

Click to get to "Never Not Knitting" song!!!!

Open for Business

The new Etsy store is open for business!!! Check it out and think CHRISTMAS! OK? :) I've been incredibly pleased and shocked that we have had the number of hits in the store that we've had, and as of right now it's not been live with product for even 24 hours.

You can click on the mini-banner at the top of the blog, or click on the store name in the left hand column. Would love your feedback everyone.

Prayers for Family

We are babysitting two of the grands today and we are trying to find something to do, which isn't easy now that our house is so bare. Here we are messing around the pond and Raegan loves flowers and is modeling an Oriental Lily. This little family is under a great deal of stress right now, so please offer up a prayer for them that peace and serenity will surround them. God has a plan, we just don't know what it is yet. :)

"I Made It Myself" Saturday

Here it is Saturday already and was afraid I wouldn't have anything completed to show this week. But somehow I pulled it off and here are two baby blankets that came off the hook and ready to place in the store.........

Make sure to check out Christy's blog to see what everyone who is participating in "I Made It Myself" has been up to this week!

Last Weekend's Eagle Fun Days

I totally forgot to post some cute photos of the grands from the Eagle Fun Days event last Saturday.

Dylan loved the boxer pups that were running around and Raegan adored the kittens that someone brought.

These two definitely LOVE animals!

Etsy Treasury - Mary Poppins

I don't make it into the Etsy Treasuries very often, rarely in fact. But I got notice this morning that JewelsOfLuxury did a Mary Poppins theme Treasury and the carpet bag I designed was one of the 12 items listed. If you want to see it, you'll have to look quick as this grouping expires tomorrow evening. And while you're in Etsy, take a look around at all the neat things people think of to make!

New Etsy Store in My Life

I've been toying with this idea for awhile and just decided it was time. There are way too many ideas in my head to just keep them there so I've opened another store on Etsy called ThePaperTyger! There's nothing in the store yet, but please keep a watch out for some interesting things to pop up.

Now all I need is a banner for the store and I have no ideas for it. None, nada, nil, empty, totally blank. I could sure use some feedback from anyone who wants to throw an idea my way. Or even design it!?!? Come on you computer gurus - throw me a bone!

Mosaic Meme

I found this on Grammieknits blog this noon and thought it was a rather neat idea. This is what you do:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image for each question.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

1. Roses for Karen/Teyacapan! Happy Birthday!, 2. Tuna Steak, 3. 08 01 12_0413, 4. Soft purple, 5. Barechested Glory, 6. coffee & the city, 7. Fraser Island sunset, 8. Super Bowl SUNDAE Cake, 9. one with the sea, 10. Cherry Blossom Way, 11. celebrating the last minute of singleness, 12. Aqua Cables & Lace Baby Blankie

Side Note: I picked the first pic in the group, not one pic from the first pages of photos.

Reflective Sunday

After having one of the most incredible visits with my Sister-Sister this week, and seeing the peace, love and acceptance in her - - - it only makes sense that THIS particular story was put in front of me this morning. What an inspiring little tidbit of history.

Taken from Our Daily Bread for 8-8-08 (yes, that's where the booklet opened up to today)

As the Olympic Games open in Beijing, my thoughts go back to Eric Liddell, a former champion immortalized for his surprising gold medal victory in the 400 meters during the 1924 Games in Paris. A year after his triumph, Liddell went to China, where he spent the last 20 years of his life as a missionary teacher and rural pastor. There he ran the greatest race of his life against opponents we all know - difficult circumstances, war, uncertainty, and disease.

Crowded into a Japanese internment camp with 1,500 other people, Eric lived out the words he had paraphrased from 1 Corinthians 13:6-8 - "Love is never glad when others go wrong. Love finds no pleasure in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. Love is always slow to expose, it knows how to be silent. Love is always eager to believe the best about a person. Love is full of hope, full of patient endurance; love never fails."

Eric served the others in camp, whether carrying water for the elderly or refereeing games for the teens. When he died of a brain tumor in February 1945, one internee described him as a man "who lived better than he preached."

In life's most difficult race, Eric Liddell crossed the finish line victorious through love.

- David McCasland

"I Made It Myself" Saturday

Thanks to Christy over at the Crafty Conservative, Saturday will get to be a day where I can show off something I've made. (I didn't make this THIS week tho, I was blessed with my sister who was visiting.)

I've been trying to push the journals that have original design knitted covers lately. Here is one of my favorites......

.........and you can have this or one like it in my Etsy shop. Want a special color or size? Let me know!!! I make these all by myself. giggle

Ta DAAAAAAAAAA

It was SO cool to sit down at lunch today and see that someone purchased the bridal bible I was so proud of. Extra dollars are always nice to have, like for gas and stuff. :)Then it was time to finish up the project to ship off for my hopeful inclusion in an upcoming publication. The first photo is bad color, the second photo is more realistic. Thought I'd send a little mini-notebook in with it as a thanks for looking at my design. I absolutely ADORE this lining!!! It was so incredibly perfect for the bag. Was able to fit about 4 pockets in this one, including a pocket for a pen which I always seem to never have with me. :)
It was a great weekend all the way around. Super display of fireworks at our daughter's house which outdid our neighborhood by a LONG shot on Friday night. Saturday we went and got our Guitar Hero Aerosmith and that kept us busy most of the evening. Oh MY this one is FUN FUN FUN!!!! (and very very difficult, but I play expert just because it's more fun that way. I'm so mean to Bill.)

LATER EDIT: Watch out everyone for "Back In The Saddle" - OUCH!!! It's a wrist wrecker! But what fun. :) We believe this to be the most difficult of ALL Guitar Hero games released so far and that makes it all the more fun.

Long Time No See

I know, I know. It's been a long time since I've written anything on here. But life is just that, LIFE! Since I've last talked here a few things have happened, some not so great, but some good stuff happened, too.

#1 - Had to reduce the price of the house already. That's a bummer, but we gotta unload it.

#2 - DD#1 got the pool table out of our house and into theirs.

#3 - Dartboard went to DD#1's house, too.

#4 - Went fishing for the first time this year last Sunday. I was on the phone most the time, but DH caught a teenie bullhead. We had a good laugh about that.

#5. ALL the materials are now in my possession to get the project done and shipped to New York for hopeful publication.

#6. Joined a local group of artisans to push our products and creations locally. New blog, nothing there yet, but keep an eye on it! http://www.lincolnhandmadeteam.blogspot.com/ We are gunna push and push ourselves into the public eye around here, one way or the other.

#7. It's the Fourth of July this weekend and boy, do we need a BREAK! Do you?

#8. My Sister Sister is coming to visit next week for a couple of days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!

Enjoy the 4th, be safe, be thankful for where you live, and just plain HAVE A GREAT TIME!