Lots of Shares this week.

What a busy busy week it has been - lots of visitors, and lots of afternoon teas, and meetings, but I did manage to find some time last night to scrap three of the August challenges for Scrap of Faith this month, and I was really happy with them too. Nice to get a bit of paper scrapbooking done again. I now just have a huge mess to clean up. I also managed to finish a double layout that I started at our last scrapbooking crop day a week an a half ago.

Ro Fields (Willro&Co Designs) has a new kit coming out and I had a play with the yummy new Sorbet Dream kit which is due to be released next month. I love this kit, Ro has excelled herself with this one- It is definately one you want to keep a look out for and well worth the investment cause you will use it again and again.

Have been playing around with Photoshop a lot these last couple of weeks, I love this layout of Steve and his new camera. I had a lot of fun playing around with editing the photo and combining two photos to make one.
Credits for this layout are
Patterned Papers by Bassinet Designs
Frame - Designs by Dawn
Title - Willro&Co "Typewritter Alpha Kit" and Beyond Wonderland" font.

Another busy weekend coming up, Steve is off to Brissie to go visit the International Boat Show. This is something he has been looking forward to going to for a number of years and heis finally getting to go. He and a mate are flying down for the weekend and staying at Sarah's place, although she won't be home - they are flying to Mackay for a wedding.

I am a little behind with my "JOY Journal". I have several photos that I need to have developed before I can keep going, but I came accross this article on a blog this week - thought it was definately worth sharing.

THE GRATITUDE JOURNAL

It is the beginning of the list season: lists of menus, lists of hand-made projects, lists of addresses, lists of baking goodies ... lists of gifts.I too begin... but only, currently, one list: A List of a Thousand Things, beginning with #1. I am daily jotting down items on my Thousand Gifts List, working, one-by-one, up to a thousand gifts. Not of gifts I want. But of gifts I have.
As the moments slip down the hour glass of time, I am scratching down the gifts---just as they happen, as they arrive, as they are unwrapped---that God has given that make my life grace, the daily graces that He gives in an infinite number of ways, that stir me."...windmills lazying in twilight's last breeze.... soft wool sweaters with turtle neck collars.... the faint smell of cattle and straw...."I am seeing things I have never seen before, atuned and aware of this constant, endless stream of gifts from His hand. I am one waking from slumber....from the stupor of indifference and ignorance. I have sight, fresh and keen---the world is new and full of His gifts.
Too often I miss Him, oblivious, blind. I don't see all the good things that He is giving me, gracing me with, brushing my life with. True, He is everywhere, always. But maybe, before The Gift List, I thought of Him as further off, not so close. When I started to see all the things that I love bestowed upon me, I started to see Him as near, present, everywhere, showering me with good things. Seeing the things I love all around me gives me eyes to see that I am loved, that He loves me.It is happening to me as John Milton wrote: "Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world."Everyday epiphanies everywhere, indeed: gifts....Grace."... the smell of the florist’s... the sound of kernels of corn streaming, tinkling.... leaves floating in puddles..." Just writing them down as they happen.Yet my list is different than another's for a reason: God has made me uniquely me. The Gift List is about gratitude... but it is more. It is about what defines me and my own personal identity. Reflecting on The Thousand Gifts List... "...cracking open a new book... pushing children on the swing.... old men looking at cards in the stationery aisle..." I am thankful for the things on it, yes, but I am also thankful that He has given the gift of me; that God made me who I am and I am one who sees and experiences the world in a way uniquely her own. The Thousand Gifts list
is about the gifts Abba gives this child every day... and, ultimately, about the very gift of self, life as I know it.George MacDonald wrote, "No gift unrecognized as coming from God is at its own best...when in all gifts we find Him, then in Him we shall find all things."it is the season of lists. Care to begin a list of a Thousand Gifts? You’ll find Him in all things….. the very best gift of all.

Father, You are the Giver of all Good Gifts. They are everywhere. I can hardly jot them down fast enough. How You love.

Will you too begin your list of a Thousand Gifts? It will change your life. Guaranteed.

Researchers studying those who kept gratitude journals concluded:

At the end of the 10 weeks, participants who’d kept a gratitude journal felt better about their lives as a whole and were more optimistic aboauat the future than participants in either of the other two conditions. To put it into numbers, according to the scale we used to calculate well-being, they were a full 25 percent happier than the other participants. Those in the gratitude condition reported fewer health complaints.

People who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling more joyful, enthusiastic, interested, attentive, energetic, excited, determined, and strong than those in the hassles condition. They also reported offering others more emotional support or help with a personal problem – supporting the notion that gratitude motivates people to do good. And this was not limited to what they said about themselves. We sent surveys to people who knew them well, and these significant others rated participants in the gratitude group as more helpful than those in the other groups.

Hope that this has been as much an encouragement to you as it has to me. Don't forget to drop in and say Hi - I love hearing from you all. I am planning on putting the names of all of you who have visited and left comments in this and the last post in a hat and sending out a little RAK to some lucky person.

Another week flies by

Earlier this week the lovely Chris Miller nominated me for this award. I feel deeply honored Chris. Thanks you very much.

I would love to nominate these lovely ladies in return

Gayle Smith

Beverley Warrick

Carolina

Lali

Chrissy

You all inspire me and I love to check out your blogs.

You have got to wonder where this week has gone - it has been busy as usual. Too much too do and not enough time to do it. On Friday night I sat down to organise some pages to complete at our scrapbooking crop on Saturday - I ended up having a late night as I just had to finish the pages before I went to bed. Come Saturday and I really did not have anything prepared. Nevermind, I helped a friend work on her 60th Brithday mini album, and I also managed to help my friend Ann finish the kits for a mini album we are going to be teaching at a ladies retreat in a couple of weeks time.

I have a couple of paper layout to share. Unfortunately they did not photograph well. The colours are much more vibrant than they look here.I have also been playing around with brushes and maskes this week in Photoshop. Today I managed to make my own brush so check this out. I have also learned to load masks and apply them to photos. I don't think I will ever be able to learn all the amazing things these programs have to offer. My brain is suffering from overload at the moment.

I have lost my voice again - well in all honestly I probably have never got it completely back from the last time I lost it - Steve also has a cold now and is loosing his voice as well. We make a good pair. Just praying Chloe keeps well, as she has a very busy week this week. Futsal Grand finals for her tomorrow evening, She has three large assignments due in the next 10 days, plus is working or has sport every evening this week. She also has her Year 12 QCS exams in a couple of weeks time , so she cannot not aford to get sick.I came across the following article on creativity this week, and thought I would like to share it with you. Definately think there is a merit of truth in it. Lets never forget though that it is God who has given us all the gift of creativity, and that there are so many wonderful ways of expressing this gift.

The Joys of Creating

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell

Nancy was eight years old when a teacher looked at her drawing and spoke six words Nancy would never forget: “You’re not very talented, are you?”The words not only embarrassed her, they burrowed inside her, creating a firm resolve never to make a fool of herself by attempting to draw or paint again.It took more than five decades for Nancy to outgrow this image of herself as a clumsy, artless, and uncreative person. Today Nancy knows something she wishes she could have understood when she was eight: the reason we create is not for the praise of others but because we love something so much we want to see it exist.That’s what creative people do. They bring to life things that didn’t exist before.Creativity is one of the great, mysterious hungers we all have as mortal souls, and there are as many ways to express this divine drive as there are people who feel it. Some of the most creative people in the world never pick up a paintbrush, sit down at a piano, or fill a page with words. Yet because of them, the world is filled with scented gardens, warm quilts, and loving relationships. Sometimes the most important thing we create is as simple as a smile.Many of us have something we’ve always wanted to try to do but never quite got around to it—perhaps because we lacked the confidence, or maybe because we were afraid we would fail. The good news is this: when we set aside our fears and begin to create, we make not only our lives but our world more meaningful and more wonderful.One wise man put it this way: “God left [the] world unfinished. . . . He left the problems unsolved and the pictures unpainted and the music unsung that man might know the joys and glories of creation.”

11 Attributed to Alan Stockdale by Sterling W. Sill in Conference Report, Apr. 1960, 70.

It is hard to beleive that in the past 16 months almost 10,000 people have dropped by to visit my blog. It has truely amazed me that so many of you have dropped in, and I feel deeply honored that you have. If you visit I would love to hear from you, To celebrate this milestone, I thought I would love to give a RAK to one of my visitors in the next week or so, so don't forget to say hello and I will drawn one of your names out of a hat, and a little parcel will find its way to your place.
Have a great week.

Cold weather has finally arrived this winter.

I thought we might have missed out on winter here this year, as temperatures have been relatively mild most of the time. A cold snap came through last Friday and we have finally got to light the fire the last few nights. I've managed to get a little bit of scrapbooking done this past week. I must admit though, on a cold night, I am loving this little laptop. I can sit snuggled up under the doona in front of the fire and do some digi scrapbooking. It is a little cold at my desk at the moment.

Willro & Co have this new kit out and I have had some fun playing around with it. These are great kits and well worth their money - you can pick them up from the following shops.

http://www.acherryontop.com/
http://faith-sisters.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrapdish.com/store/home.php
http://www.nuts4digi.com/

http://bluebazzar.com.au/

Another digital layout. I have been using Corel Paint for all my digital layouts until now. On Friday night I decided to try doing a layout using Paintshop. Well after nearly tearing my hair out for a couple of hours, here is the finished product. I obviously have lots to learn because I found the whole experience so frustrating, but I am sure it will get better as I learn the program. There is so much it can do - I have enrolled to do a course early next year, but plan to learn as much as I can before then.

Credits for "A Treasured Friend" layout is the

Mangotango Kit by Claudia Designs.

I also managed to do a little bit of paper scrapbooking as well, and scrapped a layout about the Scrap of Faith girls getting together last September to meet Lusi Austin when she came to Brissie. Lusi is an amazing scrapbooker, but I think the thing that inspires and encourages me even more than her scrapbooking is her passion for Jesus and reaching out to others. It was so nice to meet her in real life. Hope that we get to spend some time together again one day in the near future.

I also have a pile of photos on my desk waiting to be scrapped into my "Joy Jounral" so thought I would get a couple of quick layouts done - I have been pretty slack this last couple of months, so really do need to catch up.

When I was in Brisse in the holidays, my good friend Barb and I spent an afternoon together having lunch, we then went off and had a pedicure and then afternoon tea together. Just had a wonderful girlie afternoon, and both came away with Pretty Pink toes. Such a special afternoon. Anytime we get together is a special time together.

Finally thought I would share a few photos from our weekend away. We spent the weekend down at Cooee Bay for our Church Family Camp. It was incredibly cold, but we did have a great time together. The Youth, took the worship and did an awesome job - such an ecouragement to see them eager to worship and praise God.

Not a lot more to share this week - my photography course is finished, now I just need to try and find some time to get out and put into practice the things I learnt. My work computer has arrived back after being reimaged. I have lost all my personal stuff which is really disappointing, but hopefully it will have taught be a valuable lesson in backing up more regularly. I have lost years and years of records, including every Christmas Letter I have written since 1995.

Work at school is busy, but I am so enjoyin my time in the Library. I cannot beleive how much better I feel this year - even my chiroprator has noticed a big difference too. No were near the stress and it is all good.

We have a pretty busy month ahead, with Scrapbooking this Saturday, our Woman's retreat in two weeks time, then off to Toowoomba for Pete's Graduation, another Scrapbooking weekend, and then i am off to Toowoomba again for Work. Then straight after the holidays we have Chloe's formal. I cannot beleive that she only has 3 and a half months of school until she finishes. Where have these years gone. Well it is time I hit the sack. I have been so incedibly tired since I've been sick, and my voice is in the process of going again.

Finally able to scrapbook again.

After a what seems like ages, I have finally managed to do a bit of scrapbooking again over the weekend. Lost week was horrendous, I did end up loosing the hard drive on my work computer due to a virus. So frustrating, considering last week was probably one of my busiest weeks with Orientation. I mean, all my student lists, speeches, PowerPoint Presentations, student records were all on that computer. I ended up losing a lot of my personal stuff as well. One thing though, without a work computer at the moment it is pretty hard to ring students, and so at the moment I am only doing what I have too until hopefully this Wednesday when I should get it back.

My Photography class finished this evening. I have really enjoyed it, and although I already knew a quite a bit, it was good getting to put it into practice and getting some feedback on my photos. We went on a field trip again yesterday to one of the Catherdals in town, and got some lovely shots late in the afternoon which I will share. This post will be short as it is getting late and I need to get to bed.

I managed to do some paper scrapbooking on the weekend and completed a layout for the Scrap of Faith's July Sketch challenge, pity it wasn't completed in the month of July though. Also managed to do a few more digi layouts. I am enjoying doing these, as I can do them when I am out and about with my laptop. Finally I have some photos to share from our field trip. I am seriously thinking of joining the Camera Club here in town, as I am sure that being around others who enjoy this wonderful hobby can only encourage and inspire you to take better photos.

You have to check out Willro & C Designs, latest "Typewriter Alphas" Kit. I just love it and can see that I will be getting lots and lots of use fom this Kit. It can be purchased from

the following places.

http://www.acherryontop.com/

http://faith-sisters.blogspot.com/

http://www.scrapdish.com/store/home.php

http://www.nuts4digi.com/

Having some more digi fun with Willro & Co Design Kit "Bright & Funky" with the following layout. Also got to use her Typewriter Alpha kit in the "Tree Dwellers" layout .

Credits for "Thankful Heart"

Willro & Co Designs - Bright & Funky

Flower & Photo Frame: Gina Huff's "Weeds & Wildflowers" Designs

Scallop Boarder: Kyrstal Hartley's "The Sky is Falling" Kit.

Credits for "Tree Dwellers"

Kyrstal Hartley's "The Sky is Falling" Kit.

Willro & Co Designs - "Typewriter Alpha" Kit

Stitching: Gina Miller Windchimes Stitches.

Credits for "She's Learning to Knit"

Photo Frame & Flower Doodle: Alexa SH Birthday Kit.

Patterned Papers: -Kring Fabulous Kit.

Finally I have a selection of photos that I quite like from our Photography Field trip yesterday.

Well it is getting late and I need to get to bed. Another busy week ahead plus we are all off to the beach this weekend for our church family camp. Should be a nice relaxing time, and hopefully I will get to take the camera and have a bit of fun shooting some more photos. I am looking forward now to doing my Photoshop Course.