Birdie Friends - Tweaked

Original

Another Fabric Design

I think I'm cured.

Tonight I got to spend an hour alone with the fancy shmancy keyboard that belongs to our church. I think I tried every single sound on it. I realized something. I don't want to make electronic music. No matter how realistic the instrument sounds are, there was still something weird about plunking the keys to make those sounds. It felt...cold. So there's got to be another way for me. I don't want this thing anymore. And I thank God, because I hate thinking about things I want and don't have.

So many times, God has answered my prayers by changing my question...

It was, "How can I get this thing and do this all by myself?"
Now it's "How are you going to do this God?"

I've wanted to be in a band for about 20 years (If anyone is interested, ask me and I will write a long post about "The Hamburgers"), but I always knew deep inside me that the timing was never right, so I never tried to make it happen, and I know that when it is the right time, God will work it all out. But I'm starting to feel it may be near.

Reaching

Made with Mr. Sketch Scented Markers! Tweaked in Photoshop. Lean in real close and you can smell it....

I didn't mean for this to look like the cover of Tell Another Joke at the ol' choppin' block. But that is one of my favorite pieces of artwork. I guess it's in my subconscious.

Throne of Grace

One of my favorite worship songs.


By John Barnett

Oh my Lord you are so kind
Oh my Lord you are so kind
Morning to morning, day to day
You reveal your righteous ways
It's your kindness that leads to repentance
It's your blood that brings forgiveness
It's your mercy that leads me here
To your throne of grace
In your kindness I find repentance
In your blood I find forgiveness
In your mercy I find myself
At your throne of grace
Your throne of grace

Here

Another fabric design

My Guitar

This morning I was reading the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. I was thinking, what was so wrong with that guy who was scared and buried his master's money in a hole, what was the big deal? I sat there and started to analyze it, and I realized why his master called him wicked and lazy and cast him away. It was because he let his life be paralyzed by fear. He had the same master as the other two slaves, and he was given the same substance as them (money). But he did not have the same understanding as they did. He did not know his master. He saw him as cruel, hard, unfair, unjust. And rather than take the chance on doing something that might displease the master, he did absolutely nothing. He was scared and lived his life in passivity for fear of failure. Unfortunately, I can really relate to this man. I've been timid in many areas, and rather than take a chance and doing something, so many times I've taken the easy way out and avoided the consequences of possible failure by doing nothing. Especially when it comes to my creative dreams. For years and years and years the desire has been growing stronger in me to create music. I've been playing rhythm guitar for church most of this time, and it's not satisfying my desires. I want to create music of my own, that expresses what's in my heart. It's not enough to sing someone else's lyrics, to play their chords. There's something new within me. I found a keyboard synthesizer at a music store that I want. I've been drooling over it in my mind. I fantasize about it every day. It can do anything. It can sound like anything, record, sample, sequence, it's the top of the line. I totally can't afford it at all. And I've been thinking, I will start making my dream come true when I can afford this thing someday. Then, and only then, I will be able to truly express myself, write beautiful, powerful music. When I get this keyboard. It's going to be great. Someday. This morning after reading that parable I realized I have been waiting on a pipe dream to do what God wants me to do. Why can't I do what I'm supposed to do now? Why does it have to be way off? And I had a change of heart. I want to start now. With what I have in my house. It may not be much, but I have an instrument. I have my guitar. Maybe I should just (and this is a new idea for me) learn how to play it better....maybe um...practice? A little? Maybe I can learn to use this thing I already have, instead of thinking it's not worth much. And I started to get excited about it for the first time. And I looked at it in its case and I thought, wow, I have an Instrument! Not just some thing I carry back and forth to church, but an Instrument! And when I took it out, it looked different to me, and it felt different, like something I had never seen before, and I started to play it, and it sounded different too. And I thought, wow, maybe I can play this thing unto God, and I realized that even one note played on one worn-out guitar string is more blessed than an amazing song written on something that I don't have, because once I have it, I would want something else. And I don't want to be discontent. I want to use what I have.......then I started thinking about an upright bass, and how intriguing they are, and wondering how I could get my hands on one of them, and maybe if I had one of those I would practice all the time.....Oh my.

Paper Towel Holder

I really like the design on this old paper towel holder in my kitchen and I've always wanted to do something with it, so for art time this week......

Waiting

A motive in the human heart is like deep water, and a person who has understanding draws it out. Proverbs 20:5

I did this piece of artwork a while back when I was having a frustrating "Art Night". I didn't really think that much about it at the time. It wasn't until I got a package in the mail a few days ago that I realized what I was feeling when I made it. God had directed a friend of mine to make this picture into a dress and send it to me, along with a message that pierced my heart.
It was encouraging on many levels. One of the neatest things about it was that God showed me how he can use very unusual things to touch somebody's life. I mean, a prophetic dress? Who has heard of that? Yet this is one of the most meaningful things anyone has ever given me.

I've discredited a lot of creative ideas that I've had because I thought they seemed too weird. "No body else does things like that!" But I am slowly learning to be okay with the way God made me and to operate in the gifts He's given me without always trying to figure it out...

elephants!

My husband thought that the horse fabric would look neat with elephants so I decided to try that out. I like it!

Sewing foibles

I think that the people who write the clothes sizes on patterns are smoking something. I made these trouser jeans for myself, strictly following the chart on the back, which always seems to be 3 or 4 sizes off what I actually wear in storebought clothes, but oh, well, I trusted they knew what they were talking about, they made the pattern. But alas, now I have a very cute pair of pants that does not fit... Even after adjusting and adjusting. Foo! Hopefully I can find a friend that they will fit.

New Business Launched

After many many days and weeks of labor, I have finished all of the preparations for my new medical website business at http://www.mdsitecraft.com/.

A huge sigh of relief! It will be first introduced to doctors starting October 22 in San Diego at a conference hosted by Practical CME.