WOYWW: New Year, New Journal

Here is my desk this morning,

after I made an entry into my journal.
As you can see, I am of the
push-back-and-pile school!

It is a good time to look back through the year
and count our blessings!
I have many, many blessings!
Family, friends, community.
The fact that I can think, remember, create,
walk by myself, breathe without a ventilator....
oh, too many to count!

I also count you, those who visit
and take the time to comment,
friends I've made,
and who inspire and encourage!
Sooo many blessings! My heart is full!

I know the new year, 2011,
will also bring an abundance of blessings,
challenges too!

And I have to prepare a new journal
to write them all down, for the current one
is down to its last page!
So below is my new journal.

I sewed signatures on to a piece of leather,
then glued the leather on to a cover
of a 2010 calendar after removing the springs.
Then on to the good part,
embellishing the cover.

See other desks and projects
on Julia's every Wednesday Blog party!

And the Word Became Flesh

And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us. John 1:1-8

How amazing is this gift that
the Almighty has deigned to give us!
He gave us Himself,
He became a little baby,
a human being,
so that we might become
His true heirs!

Because He dwelt among us,
we have a chance to be like Him,
to spread His light,
to be His face, hands and feet.

"Thank you for your Christmas gifts, Lord-
Your Presence,
Your Word,
Your guidance,
Your faithful love."

I want to thank you, my wonderful visitors and friends,
for your comments,
friendship
and encouragement!

May the joys and blessings of Christmas
be yours all throughout the year!

WOYWW 81: The Joys of Christmas

This is how my table looked this morning.
I needed to push all the fabric, beads, needles and thread
to make space for my journal.
I am still crazy about making flower collages.

Since it's just a few days to Christmas,
and because I've made such lovely friends on WOYWW,
I decided to raffle away a flower collage brooch
for one of you who makes a comment here.

My way of sharing my joy this Christmas!

See other desks and projects
on Julia's every Wednesday Blog party!

The reading for today is

the Magnificat of Mary,
so fitting for the Christmas season.

Luke 1:46-55 (King James Version)

⁴⁶And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,

⁴⁷And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

⁴⁸For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:

for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

⁴⁹For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;

and holy is his name.

And here is Elizabeth encouraging and supporting

her cousin Mary.

This event celebrates family and community,

all those who love and support us,

especially during difficult times.

I’d like to thank all those who offered prayers

for my mother-in-law when she was in a coma.

She passed away on Dec. 12.

Although we are sad she is not with us anymore,

We can rejoice that she can now celebrate with

the birthday celebrant, our Saviour Jesus Christ!

May the joys of Christmas be yours

throughout the year!

WOYWW 79: Flowers!

It's Wednesday again!
And just a few days more till Christmas!
I have to apologize that I wasn't able to visit
any of you this time around.
I've been spending most of my free time
at the hospital as my mother-in-law is
still in a coma.
Still, I brought along some fabric,
needles and thread to the hospital,
and made some fabric flowers
while waiting and praying.
Last night I was wondering what I was going to do with them.
I started with a ponytail accessory.
And below is a flower collage I have yet to decide what to do with!

See other desks and projects
on Julia's every Wednesday Blog party!

WOYWW 78: Christmas Gifts

I had to dig out my papemelroti
Christmas rubber stamps
and make gift cards
for my gifts.

I was so thrilled to find
boxes of 8 glitter Christmas cards
for an incredibly low price of ?
Because it was priced ridiculously low,
I was able to buy 68 boxes-
(that's a clue, not much of one though!)

If you can guess, I'll send you a prize!

Now all I need to buy are
my major gifts.
But my desk is nothing to be proud of...
especially since I just dumped
most of the stuff on it on the floor!

Here's my journal-
I haven't finished it yet as I'm planning to
add some color and accents using
a white pen.

See other desks and projects
on Julia's every Wednesday Blog party!

Addendum:
So many asked why I bought 68 boxes,
I thought I'd explain it:
I'm part of a Christian covenant community
and have so many friends.
Every year I try to find inexpensive tokens
to give away! No mystery!

WOYWW 77: Do you Believe in Miracles?

Here is my desk this morning.
I have to confess to not being home
most of the time
and just dumping stuff on my desk.

But I always take time to pray,
and here is my journal this morning.

For those of you who visited last week,
you know that my mother-in-law
is in a coma. We've been at her bedside,
praying, singing, talking to her and
confessing healing verses from the Bible.

Today I am happy to report some progress.
Yesterday when my mom, dad and I visited,
I started singing (in my own tune!),
"You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!"
and "Though your soul cleaves to the dust, the Word of God revives you!"
"The joy of the Lord is your strength!"
My dad said, "Keep doing that! Her foot moved!"

In the afternoon, her neuro was surprised
because she moved her neck, her two feet,
and they were able to remove her respirator for a while
and she breathed on her own.
She's still "asleep" but I am sure she will be revived by God's Word and promises!
I am filled with praise and thanksgiving!

It will be a miracle if I win
Lulu Too Much's Giveaway,
but even if I'm really busy,
I'm not too busy to join this fabulous candy.


See other desks and projects
on Julia's every Wednesday Blog party!

WOYWW 76

Here's my table this morning.
I got inspired by many of you making Christmas cards
and I decided to see if I could make bookmarks to give away.
That's what's beside my journal.
It's just random book pages pasted on kraft liner board.
I'm planning to put wall putty over it and paint and collage.
We'll see!

And this is my journal.
I've been thinking about heaven.
My mother-in-law is in Intensive Care
and unconscious, after a hemorrhagic stroke.
I would appreciate prayers for her healing.
In Psalm 103, the Word of God says
He heals all our diseases.
That's what I'm claiming for her.
I truly believe His Word is medicine for our bodies
(Proverbs 4:20-22)

See other desks and projects
on Julia's every Wednesday Blog party!

WOYWW 75

Here's what's on my desk today-
a spread I made in 2005 for True North magazine.
I'm going to have to make another one for 2010 tonight.

And for those of you who have followed my progress on
Tam's
Art, Heart and Healing
free e-course,
here's the second page of my board book.

These are supposed to be my three sisters.
Of course, they look nothing like these three "whimsies",
as Tam calls them.
None of my sisters has blue hair
nor blue eyes!

But they did and still do,
make my life a joy!

Head off to Julia of Stamping Ground
to see more work desks!

WOYWW 74: Still on my Boardbook

Here we go again!

I can't believe how fast the week goes
when we're on this merry go round
of Julia of Stamping Ground's
bloghop!

I was at the beach for the three day weekend
and instead of the art materials
I usually bring,
I brought dresses to sew and fix.

So last night, I hurriedly made my boardbook
which many of you expect to see finished!

I've joined Tam's free e-course,
Art, Heart and Healing
(not too late to sign up for it).
The 2nd and 3rd week's project
is an altered boardbook.
As it's a healing course,
we were supposed to remember
our childhood
and....
But I had a wonderful childhood,
and can remember nothing I need healing for!
(Or maybe I have a bad memory?)
So here's a close-up of my boardbook page.
On the left is a picture of me and my dad.
The transfer using Gel medium didn't turn out so well
so my dad doesn't look as handsome as he really is.
His cheek got carved out!
I used to think he was the
handsomest man in the world!

I've just started the 2nd page
which is to be filled with Whimsy's,
Tam's word for people with big heads!

WOYWW 73: First Boardbook Project

There's nothing to see yet!
Just applied wall putty on the first pages
(this is supposed to be gesso
but I usually use wall putty-
less expensive).

I've joined Tam's free e-course,
Art, Heart and Healing
(not too late to sign up for it).
I'm starting our 2nd week's project,
which is altering a boardbook.

More than a thousand joined up
and it's fabulous to look at the work
that was done for the first week.
We did a journal page.
I didn't have much time to do mine-
did more than my usual touring of WOYWW desks
(excuses, excuses!)
but here is my first week's journal page:
Tam is amazingly generous and is
putting a lot of time and effort
for this e-course.
She taught how to make faces
and how to do layering for background
(my goodness, her favorite phrase-
it takes a loooong time!)
What I particularly liked
is she didn't edit her video
when she made mistakes,
so you could see it all works in the end.

See you as we comment
on the WOYWW posts
on Julia of Stamping Ground's
bloghop!

WOYWW 72: Flowers in the Desert

Doone asked me a question last week:

"Where did Ayeesha's flowers come from
and how did they/she survive?"
Sometimes we think there is no life in the desert,
but the desert is teeming with life,
and the flowers there are extravagantly colorful!
They are also very hardy,
they need to be, in order to survive.

Blooming Cactus

Saguaro Flower

Orange Cactus Flowers

Barrel Cactus in Bloom

Here is Ayeesha:
I don't quite know what to add,
if anything.
The words I decided to put are from
Hosea 2:
"I will lead her into the desert
and speak to her heart
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor
a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth."

Haven't done much
but I am joining a free e-course from Tam
called "Art, Heart and Healing".
This week we will make a journal page.
I was watching the video last night and
will start on my page this evening.

Anyway my table is a big mess
and you'll wonder how I get anything done on it.
But I do have a big cabinet beside me
(more like a dumping ground!)

And here's my journal for today:
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki.
I guess she found the "inscrutable richness" of the Word of God
because she continued to preach Christ
in spite of the persecution in Japan at that time!
She was tortured for 13 days
then burned!

On that happy note
(happy because she was able
to escape to heaven at last!)
maybe you'd like to peek
into others' work desks?
Then head over to Julia of Stamping Ground.
I guarantee you'll want to
join in on the fun!

WOYWW 71: Ayeesha in the Desert

Here's what's on my workdesk this Wednesday.
At least Ayeesha didn't wander off!
She's quite content where she is...
even if she's in a desert!

I'm reading the book,
"Celebrations of Faith" by Randy and Lisa Wilson.
On page 32, it reads,
"Sometimes God has to take us to the end of ourselves,
because the desert places
are where our songs and our fruit come forth,
and where He speaks tenderly to our hearts.
The desert can be a place of intimacy."

I don't know how I'm going to make this canvas into a desert
but I'll think of something.
Besides it's not really a desert...
it could be a desert, a scorched place, a hard place,
because you're burned out, chronically sick,
uninspired, feeling hopeless, walled in anger and unforgiveness,
despairing, etc.
We have to remember
there's always HOPE!

Isaiah 58:11 says,
"The LORD will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs
in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail."

Here's my journal this morning.
I guess the fruits come AFTER the desert!

If you'd like to take a sneak peak
at what other people have on their work desk,
head over to Julia of Stamping Ground.
I guarantee you'll want to
join in on the fun!

WOYWW 70 : Ayeesha and the Missing Vegetable Vendor

This is my table

this morning.

Unfortunately, the lady I drew last week
is missing.
She probably didn't like all the plans we had for her!
Seriously, I have no idea where she is.
So I had to start from scratch.
This is
Ayeesha.
I wanted to make a Filipino,
but of all the faces I drew, hers was the one with the most character.

Under my watercolors,
is a pile of drawings of all kinds of girls.
My son said they all look the same!

Anyway, here's to hoping Ayeesha
will be contented to stay in my canvas
and not go AWOL!

Here's my journal for today.
Sometimes it's difficult to pray,
but even in that, the Lord
helps us.

If you'd like to take a sneak peak
at what other people have on their work desk,
head over to Julia.
I guarantee you'll want to
join in on the fun!