Sunday September Ramblings

Today, O God, we are
full of gratitude for all
you have given us.

    — The Blessing Candles

 (even the pine needles)

 

 Hi All,

I hope you are having a very fun and relaxing Labor Day Weekend.  I came across the picture and prayer on a favorite site of mine and thought it was a good reminder as we head into fall.  Every day I try to remember to be grateful.  For breath, for life, for the daily needs of my body being met and most of all for love and the chance to love.  Love of my cats, my extended family, my neighbors and most of all my God who invented the concept.   I remember a prayer I used to hear everywhere at dinner tables – For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly grateful – and it used to make me wonder…are we so poor in spirit that God must “make” us grateful.   Perhaps so, as it’s very easy to forget to be so on our own.   And oh yes…I’m grateful for chocolate!  How’s that for a segue into stamping 😀

And on a stamping note when it comes to pictures sacred or profane…..its funny  how as a stamper I view pictures a tad differently now than before I took up the craft.  I can’t help looking at the compostion and other features just a bit differently.  Looking at this particular one Michelle Zindorf and her amazing brayer techniques come to mind.  Not to mention my stamp inventory.  Now that I know longer bemoan my lack of ability to draw something like this my mind wanders to the stamps in my cupboard and catalogs.    I’ll have to search through my stamps and see if I can’t find some that might let me CASE this creation.   And speaking of Michelle check out her latest use of SU’s very meaningful Courage stamp set here.    Seems appropriate for a Sunday afternoon on a labor day weekend.

So what am I doing to celebrate this weekend you ask?  What else…I’m laboring!   No I’m not having a baby though trust me getting a house ready for sale sometimes feels like it.   And like having a baby the unpredictable always happens.  Last weekend I spent a couple of hours raking up pine needles and other messy yard stuff and lo and behold this week we had the winds from h-e-l-l come roaring through and so the trees dropped more and the nice mulchy piles I made here and there were redistributed back to the drive area and the recently washed white truck is now covered in needles and dust!! ARGHHHGGG!      The cats of course sat in the window and watched the whole thing like it was a show put on especially for them!  That is until the pine needles started hitting the window!  Who says Mama and mother nature can’t have the last laugh on a couple of furballs!   And I’ll let you guess what happens when you leave the tailgate down on the truck in the face of such a windstorm…anyone want some free mulch?? I can drive it right to your door!  At least it doesn’t have to be raked up – just out 😀

On another topic….for you bloggers out there –  do you ever wish that the “secret” blogging stats could tell you more!   I was finishing up a post Friday night (just barely a Friday post since for you East Coasters it went up at quarter to midnight :D) when I noticed that someone from Lompoc, California had just hit my blog.   Well that might not mean a lot to most of you but where I used to live Lompoc was just a skip away so it was like seeing a visitor from home ( I know I’ve been in Oregon for 4 years now but the Santa Ynez valley area of California was my home for way longer and I still miss it at times).  My point is that I wanted to jump up and wave my arms and say hi neighbor and by the way who are you … do I know you from way back when??   ARGHHH….not possible!   I suppose I could put a sticky post at the top of my blog saying if you are checking in from…fill in the blank…please leave your name.    Might not work but you never know.   So if Lompoc, Santa Ynez area and Santa Barbara local readers stop by do me a favor and leave a comment.  I’d love to know what’s going on in my old stomping grounds.  I can’t say stamping grounds because back then I didn’t know a thing about stamping.   Just ask my upline Cheryl.   She’s heard some pretty funny stories about me and the whole stamp ignorance thing!  She’s also to blame for introducing me to all you lovely stampers and all that lovely SU stamping product!   And to top it all off she and her customers are still teaching me how it all works!

Hi Cheryl!  And thanks once again for introducing me to this wild and wacky world of stamping!

Thought I would leave you today with this picture.  Sandycat loves to climb into my smallest puzzle boxes and its a real hoot to see her try to fit her 14 pound self into the tiniest boxes.  Don’t see the attraction myself and it’s a bit weird considering both she and Wicket insist on Dog sized beds and baskets cause they like their space.  This kitty isn’t one of mine but the sentiment remains true in most things for my rascals as well.

I just loved the caption.  Cats can expand to fill all available space….like  our hearts, our lives and our bed!   Kind of like stamping supplies.  They just tend to take over.  But boy do we get a lot of enjoyment in return.   

Have a blessed Sunday and a very fun and happy holiday weekend and of course….don’t forget to stamp!

More Sunday Musings

Hi All,

 

And a blessed Sunday and end of week (or beginning depending on your calendar and view of life :D). 

 

Had a lovely surprise this week.  Totally out of the blue a prayer group friend from twenty plus years ago contacted me.  The funny thing was I had just come across some old photos and had been wondering what he and his wife were up to these days.  Funny how items and people from the past walk right into the present when we least expect it.  Being a bit of a pack rat I’ve held on to lists of prayer group participants and their addresses and phone numbers from the last 30 years or more as well as old address books from my childhood and any number of other bits of ephemera with long out of date information.  While they do take up space I suppose the ties those old pieces of paper have to memories are often priceless.  Reminders to pray for people I haven’t thought of in years or whose names I’ve forgotten also spark pleasant memories that make me feel good and of course remind me once again to pray for them (always a good thing).    And now in the days of the Internet I sometimes think I should see if I can find any of them and see how their lives have turned out.  The pleasure I had in talking to Charlie today may just be the boot I need to get started on that.  So pack rats of the world unite and use your collection to create new and even better memories.  After all at 51 someday may not be around much longer so I better get started on that someday list before it’s too late.

****

And for another reminder I was visiting this post on a fellow demo’s blog earlier this week and found another reminder of those someday plans in need of present fulfillment. 

http://kreateskards.blogspot.com/2009/08/you-can-make-difference-cards-for.html – Seeing this I knew it should be shared.  Not only is the Cards for Heroes a very worthwhile organization but in reading this it reminded me of the difference we can make in peoples lives by a personal gesture, word or even a handmade card that comes from the heart.

****

As August is drawing to a close and with it the unofficial end of Summer (technically and astronomically Fall doesn’t start until September 21 or 22 I can never remember which  :D) I’ve been looking back and appreciating the warmth, the lazy days and the sense that there was all the time in the world to accomplish something or nothing.   Something about being able to read on the front porch at 9 at night without a light adds to that timeless sense.  And while you got a tast of my complaining about 110 degree heat I did appreciate the days that hovered in the 80’s and made summer rains a delight.   The lightening storms were also fun though thankfully this summer they were less destructive than in the past – at least in my area of the country.  Nothing like lightening and thunder resounding from the hills to remind you of a greater than yourself.   I still remember the legends and myths I read as a child that had many accounts for the thunder.   Basically the Norse or fill in the blank Gods bowling or “throwing” a javelin contest!  

All of these random and “Rogue” thoughts led me to the following….

Now that I’ve been blogging for a little more than a month I find myself thinking of life and pretty much every thing I see in terms of blogability!  Is that weird or what!  Kind of like all the things that also filter through in terms of card designs or use in art of one kind or another.  So with that in mind I found this picture on Photobucket  in a Google search of public domain Summer images and paired it with a prayer from my favorite eCard site found here.

 I’ll leave you with this image and prayer that I offer for us all as we turn to a new season.  And as always remember that prayers like God are without time limits so consider it a retroactive one to bless your Summers past, present and future.

Summer Vacation

May we renew ourselves through this time of rest.
May we be recreated.
May we find joy and peace…

—The Blessing Cup:
Prayer-Rituals for Families and Groups

 

Hugs and Blessings my dear friends – Jean

 

 

Random thoughts on this thing called blogging

A few random observations about blogging as I’ve experienced it so far…..

It’s been two weeks today since I started and a few things still have me giggling as well as raising my eyebrows.

While I’m loving the relative versatility of the WordPress visual interface (considering its a free service and all) I’ve come across a few weird bits here and there.

This is a blogging engine right?   So why is it that the spellchecker on my blog doesn’t recognize the following words:

blog, blogging, blogger, blogosphere, hit, Photoshop, Google  and oh so many others….

(Google and Blog and it’s derivations really blow me away!   After all where would blogging be without those very special words.  Hmmm….perhaps if I offered them a dictionary of Internet related terms.)

Not to mention really basic words like the, with, etc seem to be unknown at least some of the time.  Basically anything with a th at the end and sometimes the beginning! 

Those seem like pretty basic words to me.   And unlike most other spell checkers while you have the option to ignore a word or ignore all there is no option to Add the word.   Now that’s a spellchecker that’s perfectly happy in it’s ignorance.  Crazy person that I am I actually considered highlighting each of those words and adding a link to them to wickipedia or other source just so the little bugger could learn!   Nope it’s not interested in attending Summer School this year.  Oh well maybe it’s more into HTML than the English Language arts!

Other observations…..

Blogging is addicting.  Whether anyone is reading or not -and thanks to all of you who are – the temptation is there to want to share, share, share.   Especially when you are an info nut like me who loves to share the wealth of learning that comes through my screen daily.  

Easy too to get caught up in the ether world to the exclusion of the real world.   I’m understanding some of my favorite Sci-Fi more and more.   I don’t know how may of you remember the show SeaQuest but they had a great episode where the very cool submarine gets thrown ahead into a very weird future where everyone stayed locked in their rooms permanently online and all contact was virtual.  Granted the virtual reality was out of this world but the upshot was that computers were running things and the humans what few were left (after all virtual sex produces no babies!) had no idea what real contact was about.    So perhaps it’s not such a bad thing that my little blogging engine can’t define blog and Google.  Maybe that’s an indication that it still puts value on the real world instead of the virtual one and that WordPress has no plans to separate us all into our own little self contained box worlds. 

Hmm….time for a walk along the river.  Any one want to join me in the real world :D!

Hug the ones you love – Jean

Hello world!

Greetings from Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley!  My blogging journey has begun and with Sandycat and Wicketcat looking over my shoulder it should be an interesting experience for us all in every sense of the word.  

Here’s the skinny from my about page that pretty much says it all for those wanting to know:

My name is Jean Fitch (also known as jlfstudio on SCS and various other stamping forums). 

Welcome to the on-line version of my Stamping Studio in the Rogue Valley.   Still something of a newbie to stamping I’vebeen stamping for about 3 years and a Stampin’ Up! Independent Demonstrator for almost 2 of those years now.     I  live  in the rural spaces of the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon and share my living space with two fur faces (of the cat variety) named Sandy and Wicket.  Those of you who subscribe to my demo or customer newsletter have heard the stories of their exploits.  They have since decided that their fame could use a wider stage so they’ve encouraged me to start this blog so they can have their chance at fame and fortune.  Along the way I’ll also be sharing my own and others creations, lots of links to amazing blogs, video’s, tutorials and anything else I can think of.   I hope you will enjoy the journey with me. 

For those of you interested in the personal details:  I’m your basic Caucasian mongrel mix of nationalities, into my 50’s, a Catholic Christian and though a lover of tech and sci-fi, am also a spinner and weaver among other fiber arts and other crafting genres.  My home is filled with books, music, instruments, cat paraphernalia, crafting supplies (especially spinning wheels and looms) and of course the usual accoutrement’s of a confirmed pack rat who also likes to cook, collect folk art, dabble with computers and way too many other things.  Your basic baby boomer still in search of herself and wondering what she’ll be when she grows up.   

*****************************************************************

Many of you visiting (hopefully some of you are visiting – LoL!) will know me from the Demo Forums on Stampin’ Up!’s  Stampin Discuss forum or from the Demo side of SCS.  A few of you may know me from my SU demo only newsletter that goes out weekly with links to inspiration across the blog world as well as a bit of chat and info from yours truly.

So what can you expect to see here…hmmm….until I get the hang of this blogging, scanning, picture taking uploading thing I have to be honest mostly chat and the odd picture or project or two and hopefully some radically cool items from guest bloggers as well as RAK and some snipped bits from SU among other bits and pieces.   In addition  I will point you to some awesome posting going on out there by other more accomplished bloggers  and a weekly roundup of what I consider some of the best of the best (IMHO – in my humble (or not so) opinion).   

I’m also planning on an Ask the Demo Feature for both customers, stampers and demo’s alike.   Do you have a technique you’ve heard about but can’t find any info on?  Or do you have a general stamping question?   Or are you looking for inspiration for a particular stamp set and don’t know where to look.   Drop me a note with your question and I’ll try to post an answer or a list of links where you can begin your journey of discovery.   And along the way hopefully I’ll be able to teach you how to find that info for yourself  with some easy tips to using Google and other search techniques to find the gold at the end of the blogging rainbow.

And oh yeah the occasional bits of blog candy will be offerred so keep checking back for that.  It’ll be kind of random as are most of my thoughts 😀

So welcome to the new space and feel free to drop me a line. 

Hugs and blessings to you all. – Jean

PS:  Though it might be hard to tell from the lack of badges etc in the sidebars (still figuring those out) I am an Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator and would love to add you to my team.   I currently provide virtual support for many “orphan” demo’s but would also love to add any interested stampers to my “official” downline family.   If you are interested please email me using the link on the About Page. 

 

Email: jlfstudio@charter.net  (for now)