Theme: Curvy | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll
These appeared on my blog before in a post about my collection of heart-shaped things. Hearts are pretty curvy anyway, but these little shelves here have some extra curlicues. The shelves hang next to a wedding picture and a couple of plaques about marriage.
This I made last year. It’s one of my favorite things. Not only is the heart shape curvy, but the buttons are all curves.
Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.“
I’ve mentioned that I don’t have many of the things I have made, except things for our boys’ room made when I was expecting. Most other things I’ve made have been for gifts. But this caught my eye (it should — it’s right beside my bed!! But sometimes we get so used to our things we don’t really “see” them any more) and I thought it would make for a fun show and tell.
I made this lampshade some 20 years ago at a little adult ed class at a Christian college.
This is a “cut and pierced” design. The teacher taught us how to cut out an arc out of special paper (I don’t remember what it was called. It’s firm but pliable), then center and trace a pattern onto the back side. Then we took Exacto knives and cut around the outer edges of the leaves and flower petals, then bent them back just a little so the light would show through. We had a little instrument with a wooden handle and what looked like a big needle on the end to pierce little holes in various places in the design. The we attached the arc to a top and bottom circle and glued — and we had a lampshade!
Here’s a closer look:
I’ve seen some where the designs are painted. I like those, too, but I like the simplicity of this one as well.
At the time this kind of craft was going around and we could find all the supplies at a local craft or hobby shop. I don’t know if that would be the case now, but I just did an Internet search and found kits and patterns available.
I did go on to make a couple of other lampshades as a result of this class, but this was the only cut and pierced one. I’m glad I kept it and I am enjoying it all over again.
The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:
Do you have “issues” with too much profanity or overly explicit (ahem) “romantic” scenes in books? Or do you take them in stride? Have issues like these ever caused you to close a book? Or do you go looking for more exactly like them?
Yes, I do have issues with them. Because I am a Christian, one of my principles is to be careful of what I put in my mind, based on Psalm 101:3 (“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes”) and Philippians 4:8 (“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”) I am responsible and accountable for my thoughts. I don’t want to trigger or feed the wrong kind of thinking by what I am reading.
I do come from a non-Christian home and I do know people “in real life” use profanity (and no, I don’t avoid them based on the above verses — I think those verses are referring to what we voluntarily feed our minds on). But I really encounter it very rarely in everyday life, so books that have a profusion of profanity are not only offensive to me but are unreal. Besides, there are so many descriptive and wonderful words, why resort to profanity? It seems lazy to me.
I do not object if a book contains a sexual encounter, even adultery — after all, even the Bible contains such scenes. But it is not explicit in its description except to some degree in the Song of Solomon. Even from a literary standpoint, it’s usually more effective to leave more to the imagination than to spell out every detail.
I’ve seen a couple of different great contests out there today.
If you know a college student who has a blog, they could win a $10,000 college scholarship. Deadline for entry is midnight PST Oct. 6.
I’m not familiar with ProBlogger since I’m not making money on my blog, at least for now, but my son alerted me to some birthday bash contests they’re having this week. in one, you can win TWO 20-inch FlatronWide L206WU USB-based monitors provided by DisplayLink. For that you have to write up a post about the ProBlogger Birthday Bash and link to it, then leave a comment on the post at ProBlogger about it. That one ends Friday at 8am (EST). This one features 24 blogging-related prizes in 24 hours for writing a post about blogging tips and runs until noon EST Thursday. There is another contest there tomorrow.
I had already posted a question for this week’s Backwards Day version of WFMW below, then much later on I remembered something else I had wanted to ask about, so I thought since it was a different topic I’d make it a different post rather than adding on to the previous one.
Someone e-mailed me this week asking if I knew of any Christian resources for dealing with menopause, particularly the problems resulting from lack of sleep and from depression. I don’t, but since this is something I will likely be dealing with in the next few years, I’d like to have some good resources on hand, too.
Know of any?
Again, to take this opportunity to ask for tips from the blogosphere, go to Shannon’s at Rocks In My Dryer.
There’s a twist to this week’s WFMW: we’re to ask for advice or tips rather than give any.
I know there are probably a few dozen things I could ask about, but there are only two that come to mind now that are current needs:
1) How do you get fingerprints and grime off walls without harming the latex paint? 409 and the Magic Eraser haven’t worked.
2) What ideas do you have for quick lunches or dinners? For instance, one of ours is to spread pizza sauce or Prego (or, most likely, I’ll sprinkle basil, oregano, minced onion, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese into tomato sauce and use that) on English muffin halves, add a few slices of pepperoni, sprinkle with mozzarella or provolone, and bake til cheese melts. But I need some more ideas!
To ask questions of your own, or to see if you have answers for anyone else’s questions, go to Rocks In My Dryer.
My Life as Annie’s weekly Time Travel Tuesday asks us this week about our first home:
This week we will travel back to our first home… was it your very own apartment, or a home with your new spouse? What memories do you have from that first home? How did you make that first house (or apartment) a home?
We were still in college when we got married: I had one semester left and Jim had two. So our first home wasn’t too far from the college. The semester before we got engaged, we were looking for housing and heard about one of the professors who had a few mobile homes that he rented out to students. When we contacted him, all of his available housing was already occupied, but he was considering buying another. When we left for Christmas break (and our wedding!) we weren’t sure if that would all work out, but thankfully by the time we were married and came back to Greenville, he had purchased the home and made it available to us.
Our very first day in our new home, though, which happened to be Christmas Day, we heard loud banging on the door early in the morning. It was the man who owned the trailer park. Somehow no one had told him we were coming, and he didn’t allow renters! We contacted our landlord and they got together and worked things out.
The trailer park landlord was a small elderly man, but he ran a tight ship and drove through the trailer park several times a day to check on things. He didn’t allow for loudness and partying and junkiness, so it was a pretty quiet, pleasant place. So many trailer parks are treeless and sterile looking, but this one had an abundance of trees and felt more like a cabin in the woods.
The home itself was a typical mobile home: pretty nondescript on the outside — white with green trim — and inside all the typical (for that time) dark wood paneling. The kitchen area had a cute bay window where I could display a few knicknacks and hang potted plants. The sink overlooked the living room, so we could be together even if I was working in the kitchen. There were two bedrooms, one of which we used for storage, and one bathroom. The kitchen was yellow and brown: yellow is not my favorite color, but our dishes had yellow flowers, so it all went together. It was furnished except for the spare bedroom. Over time we added to it in newlywed style with a lamp here, end tables there, a bookcase my husband made, a rocking chair he bought and put together, a few wall decorations we had received as wedding presents, adding a few more things we purchased or I made over the years.
We had thought we would be moving out of the area after graduation, but the Lord kept us in town for 14 years. Our first son was born almost five years after we were married, and we transformed the storage room into a baby’s room. We then bought our first home (a fixer-upper, which is all we could afford, but that’s another story) when Jeremy was about fifteen months old. So we had six years all together in the little mobile home. Though far from a “dream house,” it was cozy and safely nurtured a beginning little family.
Alice at Hello, My Name Is Alice tagged me for a meme in which we show what’s on our desktop on our computer. I usually have a flower, often a photo from my pink rose bush. But one day looking at Snapshots of Joy (whose graphics I love — beautiful paintings or photos with quotes or Scripture) I saw she had some desktop wallpaper, and I loved this one:
If you can’t read the quote, it says:
“If I did not see the Lord kept watch over the ship, I should long since abandoned the helm. But I see Him! Through the storm, strengthening the tackling, handling the yards, spreading the sails — aye, more, commanding the very winds! Should I not be a coward if I abandoned my post? Let Him carry us forward, let Him hasten or delay, we will fear nothing.
— Martin Luther”
Here’s how you play:
A. Upon receiving this tag, immediately perform a screen capture of your desktop. It is best that no icons be deleted before the screen capture so as to add to the element of fun. You can do a screen capture by going to your desktop and pressing the Print Scrn key (located on the right side of the F12 key). Open a graphics program (like Picture Manager, Paint, or Photoshop) and do a Paste (CTRL + V).If you wish, you can “edit” the image, before saving it.
B. Post the picture in your blog. You can also give a short explanation on the look of your desktop just below it if you want. You can explain why you preferred such look or why is it full of icons. Things like that.
C. Tag five of your friends and ask them to give you a Free View of their desktop as well.
D. Add your name to this list of Free Viewers with a link pointing directly to your Desktop Free View post to promote it to succeeding participants.
I’m tagging the following bloggie friends:
I think I am going to refrain from tagging anyone specifically, but if you’d like to do this or already have, I’d love to see it. Let me know in the comments.
List of Free Viewers:
iRonnie – I Set No Corner
Thess – Thesserie
Rebecca – Skippy Heart
Knoizki – A Dialogue With K
Beng – Kauderwelch
Tina – My Good Finds
Rachel – Heart of Rachel
Alice – Hello, My Name Is Alice
Barbara H. – Stray Thoughts
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth.
9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
This is one of my favorite Psalms. I remember one time trying to envision what it would be like verses 2-3 might be like — perhaps an earthquake, literally seeing mountains fall into the sea. Even then God is a refuge for us, God is with us, God will help us. And since He is with us, helping us, being a refuge for us even in a terror-filled situation like that, can’t we trust Him for whatever it is we’re going through?
Even when the heathen rage (v.6) we’re don’t need to be troubled: ultimately He will be exalted among the heathen (v. 10).
The NASB translates the “Be still” of verse 10 as “cease striving.” That so struck me: part of my problem in any trial is that striving in spirit with the fact that I don’t want this to happen, I don’t want to deal with it, I can’t see any good reason God would allow it, what am I going to do about it, how will I cope, what about all the repercussions and possibilities….just cease striving! Rest. Know that He is God. He has everything under control. He knows what He is doing. He is our very present help and our refuge.
For more meditations or to add your own, see our Psalm Sunday hostess, Erica at Butterfly Kisses.
