Listers Gotta List: Days 15-21

Hi all :)

I must start with a confession... I have fallen behind with this challenge. *insert shame face now*  But, I have been a busy little bee and caught up on all the missed ones! Hurray!  Feast your eyes upon my craftiness ^.^

(15) If I could have only 5 things on a deserted island.

(16) Three major goals for 2015 & (17) Things I never thought I would do

(18) Things I want to try & (19) My planner essentials

(20) Ways I de-stress

(21) Things I have learned

That's all for this week :) Oh and so sorry for the sub-par cell phone photos... I wanted to get this post up before I got to far into the next week.

Cherie's Wedding Waistbeads

Hi there!

Years ago, in college, I had a bad break-up and to get through it I started making waistbeads.  The meticulous stringing of the seed beads definitely helped take my mind off the negativity.  It helped me redirect my energy and I loved deciding on an emotion or theme to convey in each set.  Every color choice ws intentional and each gemstone was used for specific properties or meanings.  All the thought gave me a sense of control and peace that I really needed.  After I'd been making them for a while, one of my friends told me she'd like me to make her a set for whenever she gets married.  For some reason, after like 8 years later, I remembered her request. :)

Her wedding was a couple weeks ago, and I was able to make her that wedding waistbead set.  In true Caleisha form, the finished strand was chock full of symbolism.  From their birthstones to beads representing God's love.  I gave them to her the night before her wedding and I'm glad that she really liked them.

Cherie's Waistbead Meaning:
Light Green & Clear in sets of 7:  Peridot (her birthstone) & Diamond (his birthstone)
Sets of 7: the number of completion
Pink: Love
Sets of 3: the Holy Trinity
The cord: They are strung onto a 3-strand cord. One strand is blue (something blue).  A 3-strand cord is not easily torn apart.

I pray Cherie & Kwame have a wonderful married life.  I hope they experience many good times and learn to weather the tough times.  I want God's love and presence to permeate their home and overflow onto all their family and friends.  Much love guys & congrats again!

Their First Dance ^.^

These Nerds... changing facebook statuses :) How cute.

Garden Update: Cucumber Teachers

Hey there!

The hardest part, so far, about gardening is perseverance.  For instance, yes my cucumber plants have grown... they have big leaves and everything... they look good I suppose, but they're not flowering.  So I find myself wanting to go to the store and buy new seedlings to just start over because they MUST be dying.  I'm feeling discouraged and I want to throw in the towel on these current plants.

My 2 cucumber plants are having a struggle & need to be replanted.

But, I know that I can't just give up on them just because they're not flowering or producing the cucumbers when I want them to.  I have to be patient and let nature take its course.  I can't rush it.  I can't make them grow faster.  I can't make the cucumbers appear on the vine.  I have to suck it up and wait.

In their new home. Hopefully, this will work better for them.

So I guess that's what I'm learning from the garden experience right now.  Perseverance... seeing it through to the end... and patience to wait and see how they will develop as I try to problem solve.

This is a bit of the reason I'm feeling discouraged. Discolored leaves showing a nutrient deficiency.

Oh... and I'm also learning the importance of prior research.  Had I been knowledgeable about various plants and their needs, I would've known that fertilizer is really needed for container gardens. *shrug* You live and learn.  Onward and upward!

 

Listers Gotta List: Days 8-14

Yello there!

Here are my finished pages for the second week of the Listers Gotta List challenge.  I am really having fun with this challenge.  It gives me a quiet moment to sit and be artsy.  And that artsy time is very relaxing.

(8) Favorite Stickers, (9) Favorite Breakfast Stickers [then & now]

(10) My Strengths, (11) Best Things About Being A... Creative!

(12) Favorite Words

(13) Current Shopping List, (14) Things I Need to Improve

It is Good

"God saw all that He had made, and it was very good."
Genesis 1:31 NIV

Some nights I get caught up in one creative endeavor or another, and end up not going to bed until after 3 am...  I find my mind gets full of ideas and I just have to get them out.

The most recent "midnight crafting" session started with me working on the daily Listers Gotta List prompt.  When I finished all the decorating and whatnot, I sat looking at the notebook I was using.  I thought "I can totally make this..."  So I set out to make a pocket size saddle stitched notebook and spent the next hour or so planning and executing a design. 

Sometimes I'm amazed by the ideas I'll get and the things I've created.  I honestly believe that creativity is a gift from God because it is truly awesome.  And not awesome like totally cool but awesome like full of awe.

I think that the feeling I get when I see the finished project is some small form of what God felt when He looked at the world and said "it is good." I'm so grateful to God for giving me this gift of creativity.  I love losing myself in the act of making and letting my ideas and hands flow together.  There are very few things that I do these days that allow me to reach that 'everything falls away' level of flow.  So discovering that midnight crafting is the doorway is a welcomed experience.

I love that when I'm submerged in making, I regularly drift into thoughts of how great God is... Has creating become a quiet act of worship?  I think it's on its way there :)

Listers Gotta List: Days 1-7

Hey there :)

Recently, I've been watching plan with me videos on YouTube.  Those videos led me to Cori/TheResetGirl's channel.  Her videos are really fun to watch and you can tell she loves to create and decorate.

Anywho, this past April, she started a challenge called Listers Gotta List.  In it, you're given a daily prompt to write a list about and then you can decorate your pages if you like.  I really enjoyed watching people do the different lists, but I was unsure if it was something I wanted to try.

At the end of April, I found out that she was planning to renew the Listers Gotta List challenge for May, and I have decided to take part! Huzzah!  One thing I really like about doing this challenge is the fact that I'm actually using all the crafty bits I've collected.  So yeah, on to pictures!

I hope you enjoyed my crafty listing :)  I'm having a lot of fun with this challenge so far and I'm kinda treating it as an introduction to scrapbooking.  I think scrapbooking has been calling my name lately... we'll see.  Have a great week!

W.I.P. Wednesday: Bellatrix Baby Blanket

Hellooo there ^.^

I have started yet another baby blanket.  One of Lamar's friends is expecting a little girl in July and he asked me to make a blanket for her.  Of course I obliged :)  I love it whenever I'm asked to make something and I have just about all the necessary colors in my stash.  Or maybe my stash is too big... nah!

This is the color scheme. Monochromatic purple :)

After doodling a bunch of different pattern ideas, I decided to just use the same striped pattern from the gender neutral blanket I recently finished.

I'm loving how the colors are working together.

I've named the pattern Bellatrix and it is the first confirmed product that will be listed in my etsy shop. ^.^ huzzah!  I hope to be finished with it by next week.  Then it's back to the drawing board for new designs and ideas!