snow

Let it Snow

/ Jodi / 29 Comments

PP274 snowflake card

This week’s Paper Players’ Theme Challenge is “Let it Snow.”

pp274

Well – no snow happening here in Mars, but we can dream, can’t we?  I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…

My design team inspiration card this week is stamped and heat embossed with a glittery embossing powder for the snow and snowflakes to sparkle, and I added some miniature pearls for an extra special touch.

pp274 inside

Stamp sets used are StampinUp’s Endless Wishes & Gorgeous Grunge.

Time to get this card in the mail, and Celebrate the Season!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Winter Wonderland

/ Jodi / 34 Comments

PP271 winter wonderland

I’m not pushing for this white stuff just yet!  But….

Our challenge this week at The Paper Players is just that:  Winter Wonderland, so I had a lot of fun creating this blustery scene for my Design Team Inspiration Card.

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For this card, I simply stamped the images from Recollections Winter Wonderland Clear Stamp Set onto watercolor paper.  I then painted some blustery cold snow with turquoise blue watercolor paint and some other small details like the scarf, carrot nose, stars and a teensy bit of shading.  While the blue paint was still a bit wet, I sprinkled on some silver embossing powder and heat set it.   I then added a little silver bow and matted it in matching SU Tempting Turquoise card stock and adhered all to SU Pumpkin Pie orange card stock. I added a few turquoise snowflakes to the inside also. I love how blue and orange look together, and now I have a card ready to send to someone soon.

Hope you will join in on the Winter Wonderland cardmaking fun at The Paper Players this week!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

March Came in Like a Fluffy White Lion

/ Jodi / 15 Comments
March Lion 2

From the front porch – the shrubs are nearly buried in fluffy whiteness

March Lion 3

Even this weeping cherry tree is barely above the snow piled up near it from clearing the front sidewalk

March Lion

There really ARE shrubs under that pile of fluffy whiteness on the other side of the front porch railing

March Lion 5

I never tire of this sunrise view from the back deck – no matter the season

march

or watching views like this… Mr. Cardinal clearing the snow off the seeds while Mrs. Cardinal waits patiently

If March came in like a lion in Mars, it sure is a beautiful fluffy white one!

And Bonus…. if legend has it right, it will go out like a lamb.

Looking forward to daffodils and tulips and crocuses and forsythia and all the delights that Spring brings, but for now…

I’m still enjoying March’s majesty.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Winter Morning Moon over Mars

/ Jodi / 21 Comments

winter morning moon over mars

Dawn yesterday morning brought a fresh dusting of snow, single digit temperatures, and the brightest beautiful full moon.  I threw a coat on over my pajamas, slipped my feet into my rubber crocs, and set my tripod up on the side porch to capture the scene (and oh what a scene it would have been if you would have seen me!).

When my dad called for our daily chat at approximately 7:05ish (he’s a school bus driver in his retirement, and we are making up for lost time, so we talk every morning between his high school and middle school run), he commented on the beautiful moon he was looking at while we were talking.

It made me smile to think we were chatting and sharing the same moon together, if even for only a few moments.  Our morning chats are so special.  Sometimes I talk the whole time, and sometimes he does.  Sometimes we have lots to stay, and sometimes not so much, but it always makes me smile and is such a wonderful way to start my day.

Dad reads my blog every day, but since he gets up at 4:30am and is on the road before my blog posts each day at 6am, he always comments about the post from the day before.  I think it’s sweet that he always reads it (and sometimes finds typos for me to fix).  But it makes me smile, because he reads every single word – even every ingredient in my recipes (wondering if he would like it as he’s a pretty picky pop).  I’m so fortunate to have him in my life as one of my guys.

Hopefully he is smiling reading this (and hopefully there are no typos).  🙂

Happy Friday everyone!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

PS Look for a yummy cookie recipe post tomorrow: Chocolate Sprinkle Cherry Kiss Cookies!

Don’t Fence Me In

/ Jodi / 18 Comments

don't fence me in

The wonderful thing about taking a walk with my camera

is that even though I may take the same route every day,

when looking through the lens,

there is always something new to see.

Don’t fence me in!

 

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

The Little Log Cabin

/ Jodi / 14 Comments

little log cabin

Oh Little Log Cabin on the edge of the woods, what is your story?

What tales would you tell if you could

of life now and life then?

Are we doing it right?

You stand so solid and sturdy and beautiful.

You remind me to slow down, breathe deeply, gaze intently.

You do speak…

to my soul.

 

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Our Children

/ Jodi / 25 Comments

winter front yard bush 020115

My copy of “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran arrived a few days ago.

And what a treasure it is.

It is a book to be savored in small bits and pieces,

with words to be read over and over.

Several people told me about the section on Children, so it was the first place I went…

On Children by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

I love this.
I hope to think I have raised my boys this way…
respecting that they have their own thoughts…
not forcing mine on them.

It was the greatest privilege of my life to house their bodies,
but I will never own their souls.

I’m so proud of the men they have become.
Sometimes we have different opinions, sometimes we disagree, but I have, do, and will always respect them immensely…
and love them all the same.

This was not necessarily the way I was raised, but that only makes me feel all the more convicted about it.
I am honored to bend my bow with gladness, and shoot two blazing, sharp, strong arrows into the world.

May all of our children be as unique and individual as they desire, like each snowflake that falls and blows in the wind and catches on thistly bushes.  And may we love them all and cherish their beauty.

With much love and pride to my Jake and Nick,
Your Mom

Freeze, Thaw, Melt, Drip, Repeat

/ Jodi / 3 Comments
icicles dripping

icicles glistening and dripping from the back of our house 1/31/15

Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge:  Depth

On Joy and Sorrow

/ Jodi / 30 Comments

joy and sorrow winter pine snow icicle

A dear friend shared this amazing piece with me yesterday, and I had to share it.  It was in response to yesterday’s post,  Untold Story.

And this photo I took on a brief walk yesterday afternoon seemed to perfectly align with the message in the poem.

On Joy and Sorrow
Kahlil Gibran

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Monday again

/ Jodi / 21 Comments
cardinal winter

I swear this cardinal is blowing a raspberry at us saying “Na Na Na Na Poo Poo – It’s Monday Again!”

Oh Monday…

You are a beginning,

and you are an end.

Like a glass that is half empty to one,

and half full to another.

You are just another day,

but oft with dreaded suspension.

Let us hang on to the hope,

that comes with your inception.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi