Happy 4th USA

 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD;
and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Psalms 33:12

I love this post I did in 2023, and am running again for the Second on the 2nd over at Altered Book Lover hosted by Bleubeard & Elizabeth 

I wish all in the U.S a wonderful Independence Day!  I am proud to be an American and I am proud of my country.  I am thankful for our freedoms!  Celebrate!

T Stands for Patriotism

 ​¹ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1

Good evening!  It is time for TSFT, and we post early because it is already Tuesday over the pond.  Tomorrow, we celebrate the 4th of July or our Independence Day in the USA. On that note, I thought I would share some patriotism from my neighborhood.  As you all know, sometimes on the trails I walk they decorate them for the different seasons and holidays, so I thought I would share a few photos. The didn't go overboard, but here are a few.

Because this replica of a Keeper of the Plains looks patriotic, I am including photos of it.  This one is at Cambridge Market right in front of one of our favorite diners, Livingstons.

As Elizabeth explained these replicas were commissioned to celebrate Wichita's 150th anniversary, I believe.  I now have a complete list and plan to find and photograph all of them.  So far I have visited and photographed this one and the one at Cozine Memorial Group, which I previously posted on my blog.

Parting shots:

And for our TSFT ticket over at Altered Book Lover:

I wish all in the U.S. a happy and safe 4th.

Thank you for stopping by.  I love reading your comments and visiting your blogs.  It is so fun to get to know bloggers from all over the world as we visit each other.

June is Over!

   Enter into his gates with thanksgiving,

and into his courts with praise:

be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  Ps. 100:4

Between Doctors appointments, twice a week trips to physical therapy, and doing physical therapy at home three times a day, Bible study, and just life, June has flown by quickly! I did however get some crafting into the schedule.  I even took part in a 4 -day Prompt and Play Zoom with Tracy Sundue and Heather from Fun Scrapbooking Circle and Scrapbooking Summits.  Each day we had different prompts, but also, a 30-minute time limit.  I finished them all.  We could do any project, card, journal page, scrapbook, just any project.  The first day I did a card, but the other three days I did a scrapbook layout.

I will share the last one we did because the prompts were so interesting.  They had a wheel with National Days for June 27th on it.  They spun it 4 times, so we had our choice of four prompts or could use more than one.  The choices were Nation Helen Keller Day, National Onion Day, National Sunglasses Day, and National Big Dreams Day.  We could interpret it literally or in any way we wanted.

I went with Helen Keller Day, thinking of what this woman overcame in her lifetime.  I am not saying I overcame like she did, not comparing myself to her, just using the overcome for the inspiration for my layout.  I scrapped photos of me, thinking what I had overcome, a bad shoulder, surgery and recovery, at almost 80.  To me that is big accomplishment.  Then I went ahead and incorporated the sunglasses, red for red skinned onion, and the word dream.  I even printed the photos from my Selphy in the 30-minute time limit!  We all showed our end result on the Zoom.  I couldn't believe I could do it that quickly, but wow, what the others did, too! It is amazing how quickly you can do a project when you don't overthink.  I used what was out on my desk, and this swirly cut out paper, as well as the vellum sentiments, I had just run across in my stash and it was fresh in my mind.  So another win was using stash!

 I do want to say I could not have come through this ordeal without the many prayers that were prayed for me and for the strength and healing touch of the Lord.  I am thankful for all the encouragement and help from my husband.  I am thankful for the surgeon, the nurses, and physical therapists.  I am so thankful for the prayers and for how the Lord is healing me.  He after all is the Great Physician.  I trust that eventually I will be completelly healed and able to lift my arm above my head.  One thing I know is I have no pain, unlike before surgery!

My giant cup of water in the hospital photo is my ticket to the Tea Stands for Tuesday party over at Altered Book Lover where our hostess and host are Elizabeth and Bleubeard. They have this party hop every Tuesday (or Monday evening) where we share what we are doing over a beverage of choice.  That is the only requirement, to have a drink reference in your post.  You can join if you do that!

Thanks for stopping by.  See you next time, whenever that is!

Man on the Moon

   Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

These are Bible verses I try to pray each day.

I have decided to do a blog post today!  I know it has been a while, but I do feel I am on the road of recovery!  I am in physical therapy and am gaining my range of motion back.  Next will be strength building.  So, thanks for the prayers and check ins while my blog was on hiatus.  

I am doing several challenges with this journal page.  One is the "people challenge" by Matilde on **Art*Journal*Journey.  The other two are challenges on ACOT for the art journal sketch and the In The News Challenge to remember circumstances that you might remember when news happened.  I chose when man walked on the moon, and made One giant step for mankind.  I will always remember it because I was pregnant with our first child.  And because of that I always remember when it happened!

 It was fun to do this page and remember.  I used old book pages as a base, and then stenciled TCW Sea Glass Stencil butter through a My Favorite Things brick wall stencil.  I printed off the photos from the internet, because it was all on TV just like this.  You can go online and listen and watch it all again.  I used 49 and Market rub ons, Washi tape, and ephemera

Finally, I will join Elizabeth over at Altered Book Lover for Tea Stands for Tuesday!

Here is my entry.  We recently ate at Bagatelle's again.  We had wonderful talapia with rice and lemon sauce and the best chicken and rice soup I have ever tasted!  And it seems every time we go they bring us and everyone in the small dining area a complementary desert.  This time it was cheesecake!

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It is good to be back!  I hope to visit you all and see what you are doing this week.  Thanks for stopping by and welcoming me back!  See you next time.

T Stands for Totals from CalvinBall

  Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

These are Bible verses I try to pray each day.

Even though I could still do another project for CalvinBall today, the 31st, I am done.   My total points were 1020.  Right now, I am 14th in the standings.  First place has almost 4000 points!  My totals included 17 scrapbook layouts, 2 journal pages, 25 place setting favors for our Bible study (with help at our church craft day), 1 junk journal project, 21 cards.  I call that pretty good for one month, and there are some things I didn't bother to count.  I call it a good crafty month.

Since I featured this event in a blog post, I thought I would share this two-page layout I did, about the Chinese New Year event we attended.

I used the place mats on the layout as well as the chopstick sack and fortune, and the invitation.

I am in 14th place now, and sinking lower, but here it was in first place at the beginning. LOL Here is proof, a screen shot. 

And again, it was all for fun, the points don't mean anything!

My ticket for TSFT is in the layout photos.  Be sure and stop over at Bleubeard & Elizabeth's at Altered Book Lover.  They are the host of T Stands for Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by, I don't know what I will feel like after surgery or whether I can stop by and see you, but will try. 

Happy T Day.

Chicken, Chicken!

  Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

These are Bible verses I try to pray each day.

No, we are not playing Chicken!  I had recently taken a photo with my phone from the car of a chicken, a giant chicken, and had to look up what it was all about?  What is this chicken doing, and why is it so large?  It turns out it is an advertisement for a Chicken Chicken Drive thru soon opening in this location.  I had never heard of it, but it turns out it is the second one to open in this area.  Probably that sign that I didn't notice or include in the photo, tells us this info.  But I had to research when I got home.  Anyway, giant chicken siting! For Elizabeth, it is at the corner of Mosley & 13th.  She has probably seen it already.

We were on our way to eat that day at Copper Oven, one of our favorites.    He ate a Rueben, and I ate a healthy chicken salad, although I helped him with his fries.  And of course, we had lemon with water for our ticket to TSFT over at Bleubeard &  Elizabeth's Altered Book Lover where we all get together once a week to celebrate with our beverages. 

As I ate, this is what I was looking so, I had to take a photo of the pretty mural but had it on movie.  So, I have been down a rabbit hole to figure out how to just have a photo out of it.  Googled and found how to use the snip it on my PC.  Took me a whole bunch of tries.  Now, I have to go figure out where they are and how to delete the ones that were wrong!

You can see it was not busy, because we usually go in the middle of the afternoon when restaurants are busy.  We like it that way. :) Actually, there were two more areas that were full. 

This excursion was back in February.  I do have a photo below of how Spring has Sprung in our neighborhood.   These people even decorated their tree. Most the balls are on the ground however as it is so windy!

 No craft blog is complete without a craft, right?  I watched vidos on the four day Card Makers For Success Summit (CMSS) over the weekend.  One of the presenters gave us some free digitals, as many did.  Then I watched her class and made this card.  Her digital was really for children's cards, but I don't have a need for those at this time. So, I adapted it to be an adult card.  It is a special fold, to be slightly interactive for a child.  I think adults like interactive cards, too.  It just opens a few times.  The crafter was Alicia McNamara of Paper Craft Secrets.

Bottom right is what it looks like closed.  Bottom left is with one part opened, and top is open all the way.  I also submitted to CalvinBall and got 50 points, because if you had less than ten on Twisted G.R.O.S.S Day, then you automatically got 50.  LOL  All just for fun!

I don't know if I will post next week or not, but next Tuesday, I am having Reverse Shoulder Replacement.  My husband says I am going to come out of surgery with my arm on backwards. LOL

I hope not!  I hope it means that eventually I will have less pain and more mobility. Anyway, I am not sure of how much I will be able to blog for a while.  They say 6 weeks in a sling and 6 months for complete recovery.

Thanks for stopping by.  I will see you next time.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

These are Bible verses I try to pray each day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We really don't celebrate, but this year we were invited to a St. Patrick's Day event at a senior living facility last week.  We were given coins with our assigned number and a piece of paper with the names of places we were to visit, like the library, model apartment, movie theatre, cafe, fitness room, etc.  At each place spread over three stories, we got our paper stamped, deposited our coin and ate a snack.  At one place, we had guitar music and tall green drinks with fancy straws which we got to keep.  The drink was a flavor of Hawaiian punch mixed with Sprite.  The idea was for us to see all these places in their facility, in hopes we would pay them a lot of money and move into it!  Also, they would draw coins out for prizes.  We weren't called, so I guess we didn't win.  They also had a photo op where they took our photos with a lady dressed all in green.  I haven't got that photo yet, and I didn't take one with my phone. :(

I took one photo at the event but first here is one of the fancy straws because you really don't see them that well in the next photo. 

And the drinks were really green, just doesn't show well here, no matter how I tried to fix the color.  This is also my ticket to Bleubeard & Elizabeth's TSFT over at Altered Book Lover.

This particular food was some kind of potato pancake.  Other food was fruit, like berries and grapes.  In the theatre they served a tiny cheesecake thing, and we were there too early for some kind of chicken thing.  The food wasn't all that impressive.  We did get a gold coin that when opened was chocolate.  I couldn't figure out how to open it, and decided it really wasn't anything to eat, but hubby broke it and there was chocolate in it. :)

Today I also am showing a journal page I did for Art Journal Journey, CalvinBall and ACOT Art Journal Sketch challenge.

For AJJ the theme was Home Sweet Home, and on the right side of the page I show that I am thankful for my home sweet home and that it is my happy place, and I do count it as one of my blessings.

I used the 2page sketch as given on A Cherry on Top. For Calvin Ball I think I got 34 points.  Again, the points are just for fun and inspiration. 

Points: 2 pages, star, date, real or faux stitching, frame, heart, polka dot, stripes, sketch, handwriting, film strip, hexagon, circle, grid, coffee or tea, stamp, pink, flower, fussy cut, splatter, butterfly, banner, bling, 2 social media shares, 2 blogs., among other items!  We have over 100 items to choose from for points, and we can double dip which means, the circle with stitched die counts two points, for stitching and for being a circle, except on "no double dipping day".

For the background on my pages, I played with some new Distress Mica Sprays from Tim Holz.  I had picked them up at JoAnn's which is closing.  They were only 20% off though.  I am sorry they are closing, but I sure didn't think they were having much of a sale, and everything was about gone in the store where I was.

All of the items were just in my stash.  So, I just used what I had already cut and stamped.  The top stamp is Paula Best, and I don't even have it anymore, but found it in a container with pre stamped and cut images. I love using up stuff that I didn't want to toss but saved! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure and check out the links above for inspiration.

See you next time.

T Stands for Time for Warmer Weather

 ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God;

and renew a right spirit within me. 
¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me. 
¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit. 
¹³ Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalms 51:10-13

The above is a prayer I try to pray every day.

Hello!  Happy Day!   76 degrees F outside today!  I am so ready for warmer weather.  I didn’t go outside though because I have crafted all day.  I have made 16 cards using Crafty Al’s March sketch.  But I am personalizing each one.  I am trying to get my birthday cards made for April.  These are mostly masculine, as I never have enough.  I make mostly flowery feminine cards, so have some of them on hand.  I also am still doing CalvinBall as it is for the whole month of March.

Here are some of the cards I have made today.  All the little details added up to a lot of points for me today.

Can you see they are all one sketch?  Which one is your favorite?

I already know who some of these go to, and one has already been sent.  I also am busting a Graphic 45 6x6 pad of paper I have had in my stash for a couple of years!  By using all these bits and pieces, I am really using stash.  It hardly makes a dent in my “Craft collection “. LOLNow for my ticket to the TSFT party over at Altered Book Lover with Bleubeard & Elizabeth!

From the archives, here is a photo from a dinner on our last cruise.

This was taken on February 14, 2019.  It was a Hawaiian cruise.  It was fabulous!

 Happy T Day to the t-gang!  Thank you all for stopping by. See you next time.