The Biggest Blessings are Often Small

 

Have you ever made a vest for a Halloween costume?  Well neither had I.  When your grandson needs a vest to complete his Woody character from Toy Story, what does one do?  They come up with a little Nana ingenuity.  

A random 101 Dalmatian costume from Halloween's gone by, hanging on the thrift store rack was calling out my name the minute I walked through the door.  The thing with me and a piece of fabric or article of clothing, I can transform it in my mind into something totally repurposed and wonderful.  The tricky part is actually making the dream a reality.   

My goal was to do it first thing this morning, and about an hour later I had produced something that would pass for a Woody vest.  I had Teddy model it for you, but I think it clashes with his fur.  At any rate, I probably won't be entering any sewing competitions with it but it surpassed my grandson's expectations (and his mother).  I was delighted to hear the excitement in his little voice when he saw it for the first time and tried it on.  This was definitely the top blessing of the day and will be recorded as such in my blessings journal. 

Although, I don't consider myself aged (I'm a young nana), I like this scripture. Children's children are a crown to the aged.  Proverbs 17:6a.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Sing and Give Praise

 

This scripture graphic was digitally made to share with you for your personal use.  Since I always have a song in my heart for the Lord, I thought it would be fun to make this using the scripture from Psalm 108:1.    

The word art was done by Karen at Papercraft Memories.  She offers her talents by sharing lots of scripture word art, free for your personal use as well as many other bits of encouragement and ideas that will inspire your papercrafts.   With her permission, I'm offering this as a freebie for your personal use.  You can click on the image for a larger size.

If you haven't seen her site, please do check it out with this link Karen's Papercraft Memories .  She is a very busy homeschooling mom who in her "free" time shares her inspiration with us.  I'm thrilled to have found her and plan on using more of her word art.  Thanks Karen, you're one of my blessings.

 

Be Still.....and Know

I live in a beautiful coastal area of Maine, which provides me many opportunities to walk along the ocean, or in the woods and see the beautiful things God has provided for us.  I'm often reminded of Psalm 46:10 when I look around, breathe in fresh air, and hear nothing but the sounds of nature, the waves, trees rustling, or birds singing. 

The images above, are some scenes I've photographed over time, as I was still, and soaked in my beautiful and peaceful surroundings.  You may not live near the ocean, but I bet you can find a place that you can.........Be Still.......and know.....that I am God.     Psalm 46:10

Here are a few vintage tags I made recently using Psalm 46:10 as the scripture on two of them, and I Peter 4:10 as the scripture on the last tag in this group.  

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.  

All three of these tags were given out to friends I felt inspired to make them for.   I had fun making them and using scraps of my vintage lace stash.  I'm inspired to make some more and hope I may have sparked an interest for you to make some scripture tags as well as finding some time to be still.  Thanks for stopping by, and God Bless.

October ~ Vintage Postcard

I love this old postcard for the month of October.  I digitally cleaned it up a bit and had a little fun in the process.  I kept the pumpkin orange in one of them and the rest is black and white as you can see.  The other has the original colors with some cosmetic corrections as the original card is damaged.  Your choice of which you prefer to use in your artwork or digital creations.  Click on the image to make it larger.  Hope you enjoy it.  Thanks for stopping by.

Whatever is true...think about such things.

I was inspired to create a graphic for this scripture.  I've been studying "Loving God with All Your Mind" by Elizabeth George.  She encourages us to memorize this scripture in the first section of the study.  It is one of six life changing verses for her. 

Our lives our filled with lots of things that can clutter our minds, cause worry, or we dwell on things that haven't even happened, or dwell on things we think might happen.  This is one of the verses we need to unclutter our minds and focus on the wonderful blessings that God has given us.  Focus on what is true and real, right and pure, lovely and admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.   When upsetting thoughts come into you head, meditate on this scripture, and seek God's peace.

I created this digitally using a vintage postcard from my collection, with a yellow rose.  I hope you enjoy it.  I'm offering it to you to use in your artwork or digital creations.  Your comments make me happy.  I'd love to see some of the things you make using any of my images.  Thanks and God bless.

Vintage Postcard Freebie

Here's another vintage postcard freebie for you.  Click on the image for a larger size.  The postcard is from my personal collection.  I digitally added the border, and had to change the reference as it was printed incorrectly all those years ago. The scripture is from Matthew 6:33  Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

I thought I'd dig a little deeper into this scripture and find that Matthew 6:25-34 is about worrying, or rather not worrying.  Who of us couldn't use a little help in that area from time to time, I know I sure could.  

The scripture on this postcard instructs us to seek God's kingdom and righteousness FIRST, and all those things will be added unto you.  What are all those things?  They can be found in verses 25 and 31 of that passage.  God tells us:  do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

We are also instructed in verse 31 not to worry about food, drink and clothes, repeating what was told to us in verse 25.  HE will take care of us, just like he does the birds of the air (verse 26) and the lilies of the field (verse 28).  This passage closes with God instructing us not to worry about tomorrow.  

My husband has a very laid back personality, if I would ask him a question about the following week or a few days ahead of time, he'd always respond that we hadn't even gotten through today.  Sometimes he said it jokingly, sometimes not.  I could always tell.  Over the years, I'm a lot more like that than I used to be.  Obviously there are some things that need to be planned, but I perceive through this passage that we are not to fret, stress, worry, lose sleep, or have anxiety about things that haven't even happened yet.  Lots of energy gets wasted.  If I could view the mental energy I've wasted over the years by worrying, I'd have a mountain to look at.  Thankfully and prayerfully, my mountain of worry doesn't grow as fast as it used to.  Seek ye first the kingdom of God.... by doing this He'll relieve us of unnecessary worry. 

I hope and pray this passage of scripture will be as meaningful and helpful to you as it has been to me.