Swimming along nicely as I get ready for next month's craft show!

Internet still not working at home....so I grab a photo available here on the library computer. Don't know how to download from internet sites....if anyone could help and explain how to do that in "simple" terms, I would appreciate it. As for now, I will just have to make do with Tommy the Turtle here....

Am so excited and feeling as comfortable in my craft room these days as Tommy here probably feels in the ocean. I have gotten so many things done for the craft fair next month. My friend Peggy and I are trying to stay focused here and GET THINGS DONE!!! I just finished working almost 12 hours yesterday making pincushions and doing this in a way as far as repurposing items such as planters, cups, metal shoe forms, etc. It has been fun! I will take some pictures and put them on here as soon as I can.

With the fun also comes sad times as I helped and attended a funeral today for a dear friend in our church. Al was 80 years young and knew where his eternal home was which does bring some peace in the midst of sadness. As I layed awake this morning thinking about the day, the Lord gave me another craft idea....angels. Angels made from the teardrop crystals of a glass chandelier that I have had for sale for a couple of years at the store. A beautiful chandelier and I decided to take it home and use the glass teardrops for something. Well, this morning, forming in my mind was music from the old hymns shining with glitter from behind those teardrops and making angels....it is fitting today to make those angels and remember the blessing that Al was here on earth to so many.

Well, only have 30 minutes at the library....sure do miss the internet at home. My hubby and I talked about doing away with the internet, but (after a night's sleep on it) I really thought we should continue with it and get our modem fixed.....just keep our priorities right. God's Word first to start the day and we can handle anything the day brings! Don't you agree

Happy crafting today. Will be glad when I have to time to enjoy others' blogs, too.....debbie

Need this reminder once in awhile....about crafting/working etc.

Read this in the devotionals for Women of Faith. I struggle with this very thing every day. I love creating yet it doesn't pay the bills. My wonderful husband takes care of that. My two part-time jobs wouldn't handle everything. What I create and sell, well, there are good months and not so good months and now preparing for a major craft show next month....and is it all in vain in the big scheme of things? No, but it does wear on me....not pulling my weight, not working full-time even though "full-time" is really a figure of speech in the large picture (a women's work is NEVER done)....for she sees things that always need to be done, down to the tiniest speck on the carpet!!! HAVE been busy in so many other areas....it is often a fight within to get upstairs into my craft room. There are other places I want to be, too, like at the weekly sing along and devotional at one of our nursing homes, maybe helping with bingo, painting nails, visiting someone, reading to the little ones at the library....always calling my name and I love it....but the balancing act is SO HARD. That struggling catepillar turning into a butterfly!!! I'm 47! I should be that beautiful butterfly by now, but most times, I feel as though I am still struggling out of the cocoon! Anita Renfroe from Women of Faith shares about all of this in a much more eloquent way than I can say.....

My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. — Ecclesiastes 2:10 niv

I saw Anderson Cooper (of CNN) give an interview recently, and in it he responded to a question regarding the best advice his mother (Gloria Vanderbilt) ever gave him. He responded that she advised him to follow his bliss and the money would come. He had a dream to be a reporter and he now anchors each weeknight with his own news show. I don’t know what your “bliss” might be, but I urge you to find a calling in life and attach it to your work.

Whether you have a job and wish you didn’t, or don’t have one and wish you did, or if you wish you had different people to work with or report to, the dailyness of your workplace can become a mental drag if you don’t choose to see it as a place of purpose and mission. The Bible gives us clear principles regarding whatever labor we undertake. Read Colossians 3:23, Luke 9:62, Romans 13:1, Matthew 7:12.

These scriptural principles allow us to see that we are working for more than a paycheck, that we are committed to endurance and excellence in any undertaking, and that our Real Boss doesn’t inhabit the corner office, but has it all in his hands.
— Anita Renfroe
Excerpted from A Grand New Day © 2008 by Thomas Nelson. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Used with permission. All rights reserved

Feeling like Fall!!!

It's feeling a lot like Fall around here!!! We all are so excited as we have had some crazy hot and humid summer. Yes, this has been prime for growing. My friend Peggy....her tomatoes have been lovin' the hot humid weather and she is having a great harvest with the tomatoes and oh, to see her sunflowers....they are huge!!!

I have been super busy with the two jobs. Trying to wind down and get busy with the craft fair in October. Peggy from Prairie Pastimes blog and I are going to have booths next to each other! We are so excited! I just need to get focused and busy!!!!

I have been exploring blogs and having fun. My computer is down at home so am at the library. We have a wonderful library here in our small town. Our is one of the Carnegie libraries and had an add on in the last couple of years....something we are all enjoying.

Treated myself today and found some great items to alter and have fun with and had the leftovers of a fancy iced coffee drink to boot at Simply Charming here in Redfield. Don't do the fancy drinks very often....just not in the budget. Have curbed my coffee and newspaper everyday as I am not sponsoring a child through World Vision and figure that money can be better spent supporting Festers, a 13 years old boy from Zambia. My son Isaac, well he wanted a brother as he is the only one home yet and will be the only one for the next 5 years....this is the best I could do!!!

Well, I want to get some things done and hope to be posting some creations soon. Have a fabulous day!!!! debbie

Women of Faith Conference in Omaha!!! Nothing like being there!!!

You just never know how your days will change.....you think you have your schedule all figured out!! I was singing recently for a Sunday service at a church in our community and was approached afterwards about the Women of Faith conference coming up. Patrice asked me if I had considered going. Yes, I had, but the cost is what discouraged me. Well, someone wants to sponsor someone anonymously ad would you like to go......oh, my goodness!!!

It was a WONDERFUL time as, of course, I fit it into my schedule! If any of you ladies have never been to one....oh, there is nothing like being there. Being there in the audience with over 6,000 women praising the Lord, moving to the groove REALLY! and hearing women and there was a man speaker share with us honestly about so many things....the insight! What I appreciated the most was the honesty and being encouraged and just letting it out for all to see that WE JUST DON'T HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER and IT'S OK! We are a work in progress by a loving Father who loves us as we are and sees us in a totally different way than we see ourselves.

I just want to share a few quotes and if you would like me to send you a copy of my notes, I would love to send them to you. I wrote it out so that even though you may not have been there, that you would understand. It prints out to 15 pages and I hope that it will bless you, encourage you and help you in your day to day walk with the Lord, your family, in your job, in your creativity!!! Thanks for letting me share....debbie's e-mail: debbie_demmers@hotmail.com

"GOD CALLS US AS HE SEES US."

"GOD MEETS US WHERE WE ARE, NOT WHERE WE WISH WE WERE."

"GOD USES OUR BROKENNESS SO MUCH MORE THAN OUR PRETEND WHOLENESS."

"HOW WE GET OFF THE PATH OF TRUSTING GOD IS BECAUSE WE LOOK AT OUR WEAKNESSES AND DO NOT APPRECIATE THE STRENGTHS HE HAS GIVEN."

"THE CHALLENGE ISN'T NOT TO DRAW IN WHAT GOD LEFT OUT BUT TO DRAW OUT WHAT GOD LEFT IN."

"WHAT IS GOD'S WILL? YOUR STRENGTHS ARE HIS WILL, SO LET HIS WILL BE DONE."

"OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD IS NOT BASED ON WHAT WE BRING TO THE TABLE, BUT IS JUST BASED ON HIS LOVE FOR US."

"GOD DELIGHTS IN ME. HE JUST DOESN'T TOLERATE ME."

"PART OF CHALLENGE OF LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS LIVING WITH MYSTERY. I'M NOT GOING TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING IN THIS LIFE."

"DO YOU TRUST THE HEART OF THE ONE WHO IS MOVING YOUR LIFE?"


Ok, more than a few quotes! I am just so excited! One more.....

"WE KEEP OUR SECRETS AND THEN OUR SECRETS KEEP US."

Life goes on......

This was just a handful of beads and a brooch that my manager at the antique store asked me to fix. It was her mother's. I added the old gold metal beads and repositioned the brooch and used all the original hardware. I think it turned out quite nice. We were thinking to make a bracelet out of the beads and turn the brooch into a pin brooch separately....but as I was looking at it and trying to rework things, it just seemed that it needed to be a necklace once again!!!

I don't know if I need to apologize for the blog before this. It is still a hurting time for me and our whole congregation and for people in this small town of ours about our pastor's wife, Marly. We still are in shock and as we work through it "life does indeed go on". There was a funeral to do for another member of our church, work still beckons, others have needs that arise and we continue to take one breath in and exhale one breath out......thank you....

The flower pin just needed to be fixed. Isn't it gorgeous!!!

Blessings this day. Always holding on the Lord and never letting go.....debbie

True Joy.....what really matters.....

I am at the library so this will come without pictures....

Just need to share this about joy because sometimes, even doing crafts doesn't give me all that I need. I am in a bit of a shock as I have just learned that our pastor's wife, Marly just lost her baby....she was due this coming Saturday. We were just laughing after church yesterday as we were preparing for a Ladies' Retreat next month about her having this baby while family members come in a few days.....having her jump on a trampoline or something! We all had already fallen in love with "Charlie" and were looking forward to meeting him soooon. It is times like this.....nothing that I thought meant so much really means anything and I read this about joy in my upcoming Sunday School lesson this morning and I can only hold onto what I know is true at this time and certainly not what I feel. It shows me once again that faith is not a feeling, it is knowing the Truth and one cannot know the Truth unless they are in the Word daily and building a personal relationship with the One who creates us.....One who so much wants to be a part of our lives. So, I share this on joy even though I don't feel much joy at this moment....

"Most people mistakenly believe that joy comes from fulfilling their every desire. But in reality, joy is a byproduct of obedience. God meets His people when they are obedient to Him, and His very presence fills them with His joy."

~Patty David

I am holding on....
Thanks for letting me share. Those of you who pray, please pray for Marly and her husband Josh and Jack who is 22 months old and was waiting for his new brother.....thanks,

debbie

Reunion and Journals....

At my Bible College reunion. Here I am with a friend of mine who now lives in Colorado....Gary. It has been a long time!!!!

Sharing with you more of my composition book journals!!!

A map of the Theatre War in North America!!! I enjoy map pictures...what a lot of work to put those together!!!

Shadowbox pictures!

Learning on the old slates!!!

The shadowbox pictures are my favorite!

Switchboard service....look at what those ladies had to sit on!!!

During the war....traveling on those rough roads!

For those outdoor kinda guys.....we sell antique pistols and such at the antique store. Some of the writings on those weapons are so small. Yesterday, I was looking at the writing on one a gentleman was interested in....had to put my glasses on AND get a magnifying glass!

A classic picture from Gone With the Wind.....even though the movie was good, the book was great and so was the sequel, Scarlett.



Busy week ahead. Hope you all have a good and productive one!!! School will be starting before we know it! It has been a quick summer for me!!!
~debbie