Fingerprint Friday - Remembering my Daddy

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:

I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

Where do you see God's fingerprints? In nature? kids? animals? They are all around us!

Thank you to Pampering Beki for hosting this each week! Everyone is welcome to join. To see how to join, as well as find links to other Fingerprint Friday posts, visit Pampering Beki's blog.

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Sunday was my daddy's birthday. He's been gone since 1995 (he died at age 79) and I sure do miss him.

I was feeling really blue on Sunday, wishing I could spend some time with him. I wished I could say "Happy Birthday, Daddy!" and see his smile ... hear his little chuckle when he was tickled about something, usually a dog or cat or baby ... and be reassured that he knows how much I love him.

I went to church and in the middle of the sermon, the priest told a story to illustrate one of the day's readings. The story went like this: it was a man's birthday, and he bought his little girl a wonderful present, had it wrapped beautifully with a huge bow, and presented it to his daughter. She opened it, expressed her delight, and then asked, puzzled, "But Daddy, why did you buy me a present? It's YOUR birthday." Her daddy answered, "Because nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing YOU happy."

That made me cry and cry. It seemed to be a message from my daddy, to live my life joyfully to the fullest because that's what makes him happiest, watching over me from Heaven.



Here is a photo of my mom, me at age 5 and my daddy on a trip to Florida. It's the only family trip we ever took (he was always so busy working), and the only picture I have of the three of us when I was a child. See what I think of my Daddy in this picture? I still feel the same.

Featured Etsy Artist - Sunnybrook Farm Design

******* Featured on Cuteable.com! *******



My etsy feature today is the shop of Sunnybrook Farm Design by Rebekah.



Here you will find adorable handmade dresses, tops and pants for little girls. Some items can be custom made in the size of your choice. If I were a little girl, I'd want this sweet dress with all the pretty roses, ruffles and shirring!



You'll also find tote bags for a little girl, teen or mom, like this blue denim handled tote that's creatively decorated with a patchwork scrapbook style exterior. It's the perfect size for carrying stuff to read, or your knitting, crocheting or cross stitch, for taking on your trip to the beach, to ballet class or school.



And what beautiful hair accessories!



Click this link to see more precious designs and don't miss the Gallery at the bottom:
ebay about me page

Click on any photo below to visit her etsy shop.

Featured Etsy Artist - PamperingBeki

Hair Flower by PamperingBeki

I've been taking part in Fingerprint Friday with other bloggers and our gracious host is PamperingBeki.



Just for fun, I thought I'd post some of the beautiful creations from Pampering Beki's etsy shop. She's been creating jewelry since 2003, has been featured in such online publications as Journal Modiste, and sells her work to local upscale boutiques and internationally as well.



Her designs feature the best of timeless elegance and trendy looks, with the end result being quality jewelry that will look as new and fresh years from now as it does today. Each piece is made on professional grade beading wire and always finished with a sterling silver clasp. Many of her pieces include natural stones.

Here's one of my favorites. This stunning "Through the Woods" necklace is made of picture jasper, chunks of lime turquoise and a hand-carved lime turquoise leaf shaped pendant.


If you need a lovely, unique gift for a mom or a young lady, you'll find a huge variety of hair flower clips, brooches, earrings, bracelets and necklaces - some with hand stamped metal disc pendants such as this "Joy" necklace.



Click on any photo below to visit her shop.

Pretty Things for Mama and Baby (and toddlers and teens and anyone who loves soft things)

I didn't realize baby blankets could look good enough to eat till I visited sewmelody's etsy shop by Melody of Ohio.

The beautiful blanket pictured above is called Double Chocolate Strawberry Minky Baby Blanket and it makes me wish I was a little kid or even the mom of a little kid getting to hold my little kid all cuddled up in this soft blankie.

There are blankets for boy babies and girl babies in various colors and patterns.
Toddlers and teens like 'em too, Melody says, and sometimes even adults will treat themselves to their very own soft blankie.

Have you ever seen a more luscious blue color? Measuring 34" x 28", this beautiful blankie is made using a luxurious blue flannel-backed satin coupled with denim blue minky dot fabric.



Oooo, look, here's one that comes with a matching bear! This blanket is 28" x 35" made from lavender dot minky/chenille coupled with leopard print lavender flannel-backed jacquard satin. The blankie arrives with a matching minky chubby 6" bear.


I could go on and on. Each blankie is prettier than the next. Why don't you visit the shop and see for yourself? Click on any photo below to visit sewmelody:

Featured Etsy Artist - Cinnamon*Sticks

Simple, elegant, whimsical, eclectic and sentimental cover the wide range of beautiful bracelets, necklaces, pendants, earrings and rings available in the etsy shop of Cinnamon*Sticks.

Among the many attractive stamped-on-metal designs and sentiments, you will find special pieces for mom or grandma -- such as a charm bracelet with names of your choice, and things that can be sized for women or girls, or personalized -- such as a sterling silver forged bangle bracelet with stamped charm.

Here are a few of my favorites:


Reach for the stars stamped sterling silver moon necklace




Hand forged sterling silver hoop earrings with hand stamped stars




Sterling Bangle Trio, forged and stamped bracelets with heart (Faith, Hope and Love)


Click on any photo below to visit her etsy shop.

Fingerprint Friday - Wispy Travelers

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:

I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

Where do you see God's fingerprints? In nature? kids? animals? They are all around us!

Thank you to Pampering Beki for hosting this each week! Everyone is welcome to join. To see how to join, as well as find links to other Fingerprint Friday posts, visit Pampering Beki's blog.

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My fingerprints this week were quite a surprise and very magical. Last weekend we were outside enjoying the beautiful cooler fall weather, when suddenly, it looked like it was snowing!

Hundreds of the white, wispy dandelion seeds (technically called "achenes" or sometimes "dandelion clocks," according to Wikipedia) came floating through the air all around us. I didn't have my camera at that moment, but later found some that had landed on a bush in our woods, and while stuck to the bush, were blowing in the wind.

Oh Deer

Here are some sweet photos that came in an email this week.

Words of Inspiration

Wee Folk Mushroom House Brooch

"Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb." - Sir Winston Churchill

This makes me think of my artistic progress. The ever-lengthening, ever-ascending path is the quest for perfection which I can never attain. However, I learn and grow better with each piece I make, and the new ideas that constantly pop into my head bring both challenge and joy.

Here are some new creations I've made this week...available in my etsy shop.


Birdhouse and Bird Brooch

Striped Pendant (brick red, olive green, creme and salmon)

MEOW Pendant

Autumn Face Brooch

Fingerprint Friday - Natural Enemies?

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:

I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

Where do you see God's fingerprints? In nature? kids? animals? They are all around us!

Thank you to Pampering Beki for hosting this each week! Everyone is welcome to join. To see how to join, as well as find links to other Fingerprint Friday posts, visit Pampering Beki's blog.

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Who says birds and cats can't get along? These photos came in an email this week and I thought they'd be a perfect Fingerprint Friday post, showing some of God's precious creatures. Don't you love the teddy bear's shirt in the background?

Yoda

I read about a four-eared cat named Yoda in our local newspaper and found him in the Sept. 8, 2008 People magazine also.

From the Chicago Tribune:

A photo that started with a little Flickr has turned a four-eared cat from Downers Grove into an instant Internet celebrity.

Yoda, a smoke-colored feline whose four ears give him the appearance of a horned devil, this week became the toast of several high-profile Web sites, including the popular gossip blog Dlisted, after his picture appeared in the British media. His star has risen so quickly that his owners say they're fielding phone calls from "Good Morning America," "Fox News" and "The Tyra Banks Show." He has an agency taking photo requests.

"It's amazing," said Ted Rock, who owns Yoda with his wife, Valerie. "For the past few days, our phone has just been ringing off the hook."

Yoda's path to Internet stardom began after his owners' son, Glenn Olsen, posted the cat's photo on Flickr, an image and video hosting site. The picture caught the attention of English photo agency Barcroft Media.

The agency bought the photos and sold them to British tabloids. Once the photos were published, the blogosphere quickly pounced on the story of a 2-year-old cat who had been a barroom oddity before he was adopted by a suburban couple.

"We're just blown away by all of this," Olsen said. "We didn't expect it, but Yoda is an Internet sensation."

Ted and Valerie Rock found Yoda in 2006 while watching a Bears game at a Blue Island bar with fellow volunteers from the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Patrons were passing the 8-week-old kitten around, mocking his appearance and calling him names such as "Devil Cat" and "Beelzebub."

The Rocks took pity on the kitty and offered to adopt him. The establishment's owner, who kept the cat in a cage atop the bar to amuse patrons, agreed.

Once home, the Rocks named the cat "Yoda" as a tribute to the pointy-eared Jedi master in " Star Wars." They took him to their veterinarian, who gave the cat a clean bill of health and said he had normal hearing.

As the Rocks contemplate Yoda's next career move, the couple worry about the indoor cat being stolen because of its appearance and celebrity. The couple had a microchip placed in one of his four ears after adopting him to thwart would-be kittynappers.

"We have always had that concern because he is an unusual cat," Ted Rock said. "It could be more of a concern now, but I'm going to trust my fellow man."

Featured Etsy Artist - 1 of a Kind Creations

I ran across this seller last week on the etsy forum and used her awesome cat Jamie in my Meow Treasury a few days ago.

Jamie is just one of many delightful needlefelted sculptures, each designed and handmade by Deb of 1ofaKindCreations. Some are wall hangings and others come with stands for display. If you'd like a felted wall hanging that looks like your pet, she is happy to take custom orders. She also uses a rag crocheting backing in some of her creations, as you can see in the photo of Jamie.


Deb makes felted people like ALFREDO, described in this poem:

ALFREDO teaches ballroom dance
And makes the ladies swoon.
He hopes that you will take a chance
And take his class real soon!

She says, "I get my inspiration for each character from people I meet or know, and I like to pay attention to each little detail in their facial expressions."

Each sculpture is made from beautiful natural raw wool, she explains, "with lots and lots of use of the special needle that pokes at the wool thousands of times." Some pieces have taken over 20 hours to create.

I especially love IDA, because she looks amazingly like someone I know.


IDA still works 9 to 5
And loves her smoking breaks.
She wins at Bingo Friday nights
And smokes up what she makes!

Her work recently won a Vice President's Ribbon in the Ohio State University Faculty and Staff Art Show! Congratulations to Deb!

Here are a few more characters.


WALTER never left the farm
He worked hard throughout his life.
He took care of his mother,then his aunt,
But he never took a wife.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


RONALD teaches Tai Kwon Do
And tutors after school.
Some say he's a role model,
The kids just say "he's cool".


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


MANNY was a roadie
He worked for the Grateful Dead.
He's proud that it's his claim to fame
But it's all gone to his head!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Click on any photo below to visit her Etsy shop and see more delightful creations.

Fingerprint Friday - Awesome Shadows

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:

I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

Where do you see God's fingerprints? In nature? kids? animals? They are all around us!

Thank you to Pampering Beki for hosting this each week! Everyone is welcome to join. To see how to join, as well as find links to other Fingerprint Friday posts, visit Pampering Beki's blog.

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I'm the director of a teen-adult contemporary music group at my church, and we were practicing in our sanctuary last Monday night for the first time. Last year we practiced in the chapel, but now we have a wonderful drummer (a HUGE answer to prayer!) and need to practice upstairs where the drums are.

We have been asked to keep the main overhead lights off to save on the huge electric bill (our church seats 900), so we just had a few lights on over the altar and choir area. I looked up at one point and noticed the SHADOWS the crucifix was making. Goosebumps.

"It was the third hour when they crucified him...They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left..." Mark 15: 25, 27

New Creations!

I made a few new pieces over the weekend for my etsy shop.
Here's a little purple cat face pendant (1" wide)...


...a grey stamped cat face brooch with individual letters spelling the word "purr" (1 3/4" wide)...


...a stamped tuxedo cat pendant (1 1/2" wide)...


...and a sparkly moon and star pendant (1 1/2" wide).

I also handpainted a Dreamy Dragonfly on a polymer clay background that's finished as a pendant (1 1/2" wide).

Just for fun, I wrote a haiku to go with it:

fly o dreamy dragonfly
on gossamer wings
fly to magical places