An exciting announcement....

I have been picked to be on the scrapbooking Design Team at Faithfully Yours! I haven't ever done anything like this before, so I'm a little nervous. But, I am so excited to be given this opportunity to share my scrapbooking pages about my faith. I was thinking about faith-booking last night and the easiest way that I can describe it, what faith-booking means to me, is that it is like saying a prayer to God using the grace of creativity that He has given me. Sometimes my mind is in so much of a jumble I can't even think straight to sit and pray, but then I can start working on a faith-booking page and pour my prayers creatively onto a scrapbook page.

I am really looking forward to this experience and especially to work on more scrapbooking pages that focus on my faith journey.

You can see some of my faith-booking pages here....

Our Nature Notebook

Gracie and I have been spending a lot of time outside lately and even though she is only 2, I am really trying to show her all of the wonders of nature that can be found in our own back yard. I can't wait until she's older and we can use these discoveries as a springboard for deeper learning about all of the beauty that surrounds us each day. We just have to take the time to look around....

I have gotten photos of 3 different kinds of woodpeckers in our back yard, but this is the first one I'm sharing. I believe it's a ladder-back woodpecker. We have also seen a golden-fronted woodpecker. The old "Field Guide to Western Birds" book that my dad gave us years ago is really coming in handy! I have it on top of our fridge and every time I see a bird that I don't recognize, I grab that book and try to find the bird inside.

The woodpecker condominium that's located in my neighbors back yard. I'm not sure if the kind of woodpecker in the above photo lives here or not.

Pretty acorns that are keeping all of our squirrels very happy and with full bellies!

Isn't the caterpillar beautiful? He was eating lots of leaves by our back porch and will one day turn into an amazing monarch butterfly. I hope he comes back to visit then so that I can take his picture. ;-) Gracie sat by him for quiet awhile. She doesn't seem to be afraid of bugs at all, but is instead very interested in them....so far. lol

I'm not sure what these are, but they have come up all around my peonies. Gracie loves that they are her favorite color, blue.

One of our trees in our back yard is already starting to change colors and drop it's leaves. It has been such a cool summer. I wonder if autumn will arrive early this year.....

I hope that you enjoyed these photos. There is so much happening in our own, little back yard! I will share more of our discoveries soon......

Restore to Me - digi layout

Here's a digi layout that I was able to do today. Once I saw the lyrics to this song, I knew that I had to do a faith-booking page about it. The song is "Restore to Me" from the Glory Revealed CD.

Here are the lyrics-

Restore to Me

Hide your face from my sins and cover my iniquities Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me

Don’t cast me away from Your presence
or take Your spirit from me

Restore to me the joy of your salvation
Restore to me the wonders of your love
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
Restore to me, restore to me

Deliver me from this hour of darkness
Through the pain and brokenness
And I will sing of Your loving kindness
And of Your righteousness

The song is based off of Psalm 51:9-12. It's a beautiful reminder of how we need to pour out our fears and worries to the Lord and ask Him for His grace in our times of need. I know that this is something that I need to work on......a lot!

a productive weekend.......

I dug deep into my boxes of photos and pulled out some oldies from 1993 and 1996! It's so fun to see and to be scrapping these pictures of my now teenagers. Wow, where did the time go?

God Bless,
di

Follow Your Bliss - digital layout

Follow Your Bliss
and the universe will open doors for you
where there were only walls.
--Joseph Campbell

lots of layouts to share!

I actually had a pretty productive week and got several layouts done in July! I sure hope to keep this up, because it felt so great to be scrapping again!






God Bless!
di

explore life - digi layout

It's been a little crazy around here.....like always. But I did get this digital layout done today!

God Bless!
di