How To Cultivate A Home And Heart Of Thanksgiving

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. -Psalm 107:1

I know...it's a bit early to start talking about Thanksgiving...Or is it?
Thanksgiving... How do we create or cultivate a home and heart of Thanksgiving? As the season of Thanksgiving approaches we may find ourselves pondering this topic. Actually it has been on my heart alot lately for a number of reasons.
A dear friend discovered in the earlier part of this year she had stage 4 colon cancer.The same friend has been supporting her husband through his own battle with lung cancer this past two years and thier daughter has been having seizures from an unknown cause. Our friends have been an amazing example of "What do I have to be thankful for"? Through the pain, chemo, medical bills, changes the future has brought I witnessed a spirit of joy, Thanksgiving and gratitude. How did they manage to do that? We will be celebrating my friends life this week and saying our last goodbyes...it is on my mind as I prepare a talk to honor her. It won't be easy and yet it won't be hard. We have so many great shared  memories. Her life and legacy are in the lives she touched, sometimes just the simplest of gestures... a hug, a word of truth, an idea for our business teams. She will be sorely missed, I wish it could have been longer and I feel so privileged for having had her in my life.
One thing I loved was visiting her home during seasonal holidays. Her home showed off her love for beauty in the small things whether with people or the beauty within her home.
I found this website a while back, it inspired me. How to Create a Home and Heart Of Thanksgiving
She talks about tangible ways to create a home and heart of Thanksgiving...not just in this season but throughout the year.
I liked this idea from Denise's post:

• Have a visual way to leave encouraging notes and verses for the entire family. Use a chalkboard or whiteboard to write a daily scripture or thankful note.

I already have a cork & whiteboard up so I'm going to add a scripture  and note daily.  I also am going to start a series of Thankful For posts beginning today to remind myself and cultivate gratitude. These are not in order of importance but rather what is most on my heart today.

Do you like my digital paper and font? Here is a link so you can make one too. The one I used today from Shabbyblogsblog, Thank You Keren!Thanks Photobookgirl, I love the font links and digital paper she shared.

As we enter this special season it is my hope and prayer that you and I would take time to count our blessings. If you've had a difficult season could I encourage you to like my dear friend make it a choice to put on a spirit of joy, Thanksgiving and gratitude for whatever you can.

The Art Of Life and

Looking back on my week, a sense of accomplishment and joy fills me when I can say "My art has affected the quality of my enjoyment of life and the lives of others", it is such a  rewarding feeling. Henry David Thoreau said...

To affect the quality of the Day, that is the ART of Life.

This past few days I have been creating digital ATC's. I've made two for a Digital ATC Swap on Swap-bot. It is a fun diversion from, and change with tools and techniques I had been using. The two ATC's are quite different but I was pleased with the outcome on both. Above I started with a cool bohemian floral image then blended the quote and woman fanally adding the accent flowers. On the ATC shown below, I practiced grunge layering atop of a fun reptilian image.



Other swaps I've been working on include an ATC Pansy, and ATC that features elements that go over the edge of the card, an ATC using a book page as a main element, creating a postage stamp ATC picture, decorting an envelope with bees and finally a card with bees, butterflies or some other summertime critter. All of the swaps are on thier way and I'm on to other swaps but one thing remains... The quality of my day/week has been affected :)

 

Creative Dilemma and a Solution

For those of us who so-oo need to create, perhaps you can relate to my dilemma. I have been busy in the kitchen for days making apple butter, apple pies, videoing the process and generally having a giant mess in my kitchen (which is also my office space).  It has been fun and the resulting products have been enjoyed by my family but to tell you the truth I was sick to death of the sticky floors, counters and canning paraphernalia setting about. I was so-oo due for no mess!


A few years back I discovered another wonderful creative outlet but this creative outlet made a mess in a very confined area, my hard drive on my computer. I found the Digital World! In case you are just discovering the world of digital scrapbooking or haven't yet discoverd it ...here is the “condensed” version :) Digi scrapping is basically the same thing as paper scrapping...only you create your layouts on your computer using software. The software varies...from the simple to the super complex...and from the inexpensive to the very expensive.Today is a digital day, yea...no cleanup mess!!

So what have I been up to?? Ok...I'm getting to that :)


I have been offering bags of apples to my friends and since my friend Greta requested my Apple Butter recipe I wanted to make it "pretty" for her. Before I show the recipe card off though I owe a "Thank You" to Shabby Princess for the great designs from their digital collection called  "HOLIDAY RECIPE COLLECTION". 

So my secret Apple Butter recipe is out...If you decide to vary the recipe in any way you may discover what makes this recipe so special.

Happy Cooking~Happy Eating~Happy Creating!