CELEBRATE!

Here we are at the beginning of another new year. 2014. A fresh start. We’ve spent the last few weeks of 2013 remembering the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. When God became man. We have the time wrong but really we should be celebrating the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God Almighty, every day not just on certain occasions. Daily. Celebrate. King of kings.

That is going to be my word for this year.Celebrate. I know people celebrate special occasions – birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, new jobs, retirements, etc. But I want to celebrate every day. Every ordinary day. By thinking on Jesus and praising Him. By honoring Him first of all in my life. By remembering and returning to my first love.

Some of the definitions given for the word celebrate are:

1. Publicly acknowledge (a significant or happy day or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity
2. Honor or praise publicly
3. To make known publicly, to proclaim
4. To praise widely or to present to widespread and favorable public notice

That is my intent this year. As I seek to live more in His Presence. This is where I want my main focus to be. I’m going to celebrate Jesus each and every day. In different ways. But always. Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small ways. But all ways.

I know my soul and spirit rejoice when I am in church and praising Him with song and uplifted hands. I want to feel that rejoicing every day. The intensity of it. Every day. No matter what I am doing. To celebrate. Life. Love. Peace. Joy. Daily.

I plan to delve into the book of Acts because I believe that’s what they did in the beginning. Not a solemn, quiet, controlled celebration full of ritual and routine. No a daily exuberant celebration. One full of joy and wonder. One full of gratitude and sharing. Publicly.

Social media watch out as I overcome my shyness through the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. I don’t expect a big bang or explosion. Just a slow, quiet expansion of His Presence in my life. Lord help me to be brave. Help me Lord to overcome my fear of what others may say or think. Help me Lord to focus on You and the plans You have for me.

Help me Lord to celebrate You!

Happy to be His!

Rose 

Starting Over Again

Okay let’s try this again. I started out claiming 2011 to be a year of new beginnings and truly it has been! So much so that I’ve let my blogging slip way too long so let’s give it a new beginning also.
A dozen things that have transpired so far:

1. I retired from my full time job with the County of  Hawaii. How sweet it is!
2. We (myself, my husband, and my son) spent the month of June packing, running garage sales, shipping a container load of stuff, and dumping more stuff. It was rough but we made it.
3. With the help of my daughter and her husband I started shopping for houses online. They would go look at ones we found, take pictures, and offer their opinions. Finding a house took longer than expected but we finally purchased one and moved in on August 19. Funny thing is we bought the very first house I had looked at back in March or April.
4. We said goodbye to everyone and boarded the flight that would begin our journey from Hawaii to Texas. It was a difficult flight and I may blog more about that one day. (Difficult is putting it mildly). And of course my husband and I were in tears as we left our beloved island.
5. We moved in on our daughter and husband just as they were doing some remodeling on their home and preparing for the arrival of their first child. Probably another post coming on that too!
6. After moving into our home we began fixing things up, trying to get ourselves organized (still working on that!), unpacking, and shopping for major appliances and furniture. We had no car (trying to shop for that too!) so we had to rely on others for all of our traveling needs.
7. Finally bought a car with the help of our good friend Willie (my daughter’s father-in-law) who drove us around to car dealers, lots, and spent even more time looking online. Got my wish car – a PT Cruiser with sunroof. 
8.  
   
   Went to the hospital to welcome the birth of our first grandson! Welcome Jaden Kaleo Howe! Mama Rose loves you! So does Papa K!
9. Signed up for an online embroidery class before retiring thinking I would be all settled in before it started. That didn’t happen so I’m way behind with the assignments but I am determined to do them.
10. Signed up for another online class. This one for encrusted crazy quilting with the same instructor. I love her work! This is only the second week of a six week course and I’m keeping up with it. I’ll definitely be blogging about those two projects.
11. Did not get any of my UFO’s completed as planned even though I did carry handwork with me on this journey. Did start some more works though and actually completed a few of them. 
12. Started getting back into the hang of cooking and baking. Love doing it. Well except for the cleanup maybe!

Well that’s my dozen for now. Some things may have been forgotten. Here are the items I did finish:

Birds to go in my grandson’s nursery using a pattern we found on Spool. Check my daughter’s blog out to see pictures of them and the wonderful decorating job she did.
A ruffled nursing cover-up for my daughter using a pattern from RuffledBegonia on Etsy.

Here’s some pictures to tease you about my current WIP’s (works in progress) which I will be posting about shortly!

Until then,

Happy stitching!

2011 A Year of Finishing, A Year of New Beginnings

This is really nothing new for me but a friend on Etsy who blogs as Fabric Fascinations issued a challenge to all of us starters who don’t always finish. The challenge - each week finish something we’ve already started. She encourages us to photo it in progress and then completed. Posting to our blog or flickr account or facebook will help up with accountability and encouragement.

I’m going to give it a go. I’ve tried this on my own before and had mild success for awhile. I thought maybe putting myself out there with others might be the trick. If it works I’ll have at least 52 completed projects. They can be anything that has a beginning and an end. Most of mine I think will be items either for my shop, myself, or for others. Some will take longer than others to accomplish but I hope to post at least once a week. Some weeks may only be in progress items and some weeks my have multiple finishes. But the goal is to finish the year with 52 items that were started prior to 2011 and completed in 2011.

Do I have 52 uncompleted items you ask? Oh yeah and then some! I’m not sure if I can round up all 52 projects immediately but I know they are there. It would be kind of interesting though to post all 52 in the state they are at now and then move them to a completed section as they get finished. We’ll see. Hmmmmmm - could that be a project?

One added bonus to this is I will need to post at least once a week to my blog and keep it active. Not like 2010 where it wilted in July! And yes I still have more hints and tips to post.

One final note for today it might be interesting to see how the 1st half of the year compares to the second half as I plan to retire from my full time job the 1st of July.

And I do know that I’m getting a late start on this. The above was actually written out on our way back from a nice vacation in Texas. One item I thought I would complete was stuck in my suitcase that was delayed. Another item I considered I remembered that I needed to find the scraps of fabric I was going to use as the binding and even if I did find them my sewing machine was still in the shop for servicing. And on it goes. I know excuses, excuses! But I did remember these sweet vases I had started and never finished so they are my first item (three of them, can that count for three items?). They were hand crocheted around the empty glade bottles. I just needed to finish the ends, starch the ruffles at the top and make the flowers. They will be listed in my Etsy shop soon. I love to recycle items. These bottles have been in my stash for awhile but it was just recently that I got the idea to crochet around them.

And so we begin 2011 the year of finishings and of new beginnings!

Happy stitching!
Rose