Yep, it is me! Look here for the article:
Yep, it is me! Look here for the article:
This venue is the perfect place for me to sponsor, because I am a woman who works from inspiration given to me my God. The beautiful thing about this conference is that everything is online... no need to travel... no need to find sitters... no high conference fees... AND if you can't "attend" during the live event, then you can download it and tune in on your own schedule. Awesome!
And find my sponsor page there as well...
http://www.handmadeincalifornia.net
The Song of Solomon is a beautiful dialogue between two lovers. It is the romance of a King and his bride. This necklace is a celebration of one of the most famous romances of all times.
Let this romantic necklace echo of a love that lasts throughout the pages of time.
"6His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand embraces me!
16My beloved is mine, and I am his;"
This necklace can be custom made to length, includes a scripture card with excerpts from the Song of Solomon, and is boxed for gift giving.
Check out some of these other "Beloved" creations too!
For a limited time only buy 3 and save on Salt & Light's LOVE inspired collections: "Abundance of the Heart" and "Door Post of the Heart." I have listed and will be listing more packages as time goes on.
Find These and more at:
I blogged yesterday about New Beginnings and Polka Dots. If you didn't catch it, I suggest reading it first so you know what I am talking about. Polka Dots???? Little gifts God has given me to remind me of the things He has put on my heart for this year. New Beginnings
After a beautiful time of worship we got into our study and one of my favorite teachers, Carol Cobb, began to give the word for the morning. We have been discussing "Discerning the Signs of the Times" and Carol said if you want to discern the signs of time, you have to know what time it is.
I was really enjoying Carol's talk when I realized about half way through that she was wearing, under her cute little cropped jacket, a black blouse with cream polka dots. I decided at that point I needed to blog about my first "Polka Dot Day." Hopefully there will be many more to share later.
I am kicking myself now for not thinking to take a picture of her in her blouse, but I am going to try to make a point to photograph my "Polka Dot Days" to share with you all in the future. Polka Dot Days will be days that God speaks to me about the 6 things I am believing he has placed on my heart to do this year, all marked by Polka Dots.
I suspect that many of the things that will speak to me about my list, just may speak to you about yours. AND I suspect that you may have your own "Polka Dot Days" if you look for them.
Below are some of my notes from Carol's talk. I think they are extremely appropriate for the first Polka Dot Day!
"If you don't know what time it is, you will miss your appointments." - Carol Cobb
Can God trust you with the list He has given you?
What is the atmosphere in my house? Order, Peace and Joy? Or Chaos, Stress and Dis-accord?
Get rid of the clutter that is holding you back. Stuff, un-godly relationships, habits and hobbies that suck your time and don't return anything for the "investment."
Get your finances in order.
Hosea 10:12 (New International Version)
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers righteousness on you.
Un-plowed/Fallow Ground - Hard, full of weeds and rocks. Water (blessing) runs off, seeds don't take root.
Pray For:
Awakening - in your church, in your city, in our nation
Wisdom & Direction - for yourself and your leaders
Discernment - what is the Holy Spirit saying to us?
The Power of God - signs, wonders, and miracles to accompany preaching
The Manifest Presence of God - His tangible presence
"Only that which can not be shaken will remain." - Carol Cobbs
Only God's Kingdom can not be shaken.
Psalm 42:5
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and 6 my God.
My [c] soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
I will remember your goodness, faithfulness and kindness.
It is time to deal with your stuff, time to stop procrastinating. Dump it all out on the table, into the light, like a purse full of garbage, and deal with it. No more excuse making.
Where victory is the norm rather than the exception.
It is the anointing to fulfill God's purpose in your life.
Isn't that term "apostolic woman" just ...powerful? It struck me when she said it and echoed in my head. I thought, "I don't exactly know what that means, but I think I want to be one!" The more she talked about it, the more I knew it was my destiny to be one.
Here's to Hoping for many "Polka Dot Days" ahead! For me and for YOU!
Phew! What a year 2008 was! It was difficult and grand at the same time. Christmas was a busy time with family and business, but now I am starting to see clearer skies ahead for a little while.
Did you make any "New Year's Resolutions?" I didn't but I did write a list of 6 things I am believing God is going to do in my life this year. It is a list of things that have spotted my heart and warmed it with inspiration, dreams and a renewed motivation to continue on. They are about my home, my family, my business, my health and my faith. I truly believe that God put them on my heart because He wants to see them fulfilled in my life even more than I do.
Isaiah 43:19
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
New things are good. New clothes, new shoes, a new child, a new car, a new perspective. They excite us and inspire us, if only for a second. I personally love when I make a new piece of jewelry. The colors, the textures, the new word, the new pictures, the new love; they all make me smile with anticipation of the purpose it will hold in my life and the lives of others it might speak to. I bet God must rejoice as He does new things in our lives, the same way we get excited when we give a NEW gift to others.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
New clothes and new cars are good, but a NEW LIFE? Now that is GREAT! I came to new life in Christ years ago. And yet, He continues to renew me daily and even seems to increase my vigor as the years go on. I'm excited to be alive. I'm excited to have a purpose here on earth. I'm excited that He has entrusted me with people to love, things to do, learn, and create. I'm excited for the mountains with their vista views of my future and for the valleys with times of growth.
2 Corinthians 4:16
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
Let's not fear but pray. Let's not hide but praise. Let's not decrease but increase. Let's not let fear overtake our hearts this year, but let HIM over take them.
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,
I wrote my list of 6 things, and several of them were BIG things. In the natural they seem nearly impossible. But with God... all things are possible... all things can be made new... I took my list to Him in Love. And I plan to take my list to Him often, to "remind" Him and remind me of what He has in store for me with FAITH.
Jeremiah 31:17
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
If God has spotted your heart with dreams and visions, with truth and love, with faith and inspiration, then polka dot your life this year.
I say we make polka dots our reminder of the NEW things ahead this year. Every time you wear them, every time you see them, think of the dots of love He has placed on your heart.
Ephesians 6:14
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist
Tie the truth about who you are and who created you around your waist, that you can stand strong this year and walk in the victory of a New Life, a New Beginning!
I have been a bit busy with holiday activities and orders, so I have not had much time to blog lately. Obviously! :) I just found this article I wrote a year ago and thought I would post it here. Enjoy!
When my husband Dennis was diagnosed with a Kidney disease 3 years ago, I got a whole new appreciation for salt. His diet was rapidly changed including a drop in sodium intake to 500 mg per day. When you consider that many breads have 200-250 mg in one slice, this was virtually no salt at all.
I had to hunt all over town for “no salt added” foods. The reason I had to hunt was because “no salt added” food tastes terrible. I found myself with a saltshaker at my side at every meal. The reality of this all hit home when I attempted to make a pot of my favorite chili with “no salt added” beans. Blech! Horrible! Salt does not just make something "salty" but it also brings out the flavors of all of the other ingredients. I was so disappointed. And no matter how much salt I added on top, it still was not the same as having the salt cooked and simmered into the pot.
As an image consultant, I love helping women discover how “salty” they are. When I was younger I constantly tried to express myself by trying to be like everyone else. Talk about an identity crisis! I did not know who I was so I tried to be everyone else. So many of us try to conform to what we see on or in others… “if I could only look like her,” “if I could only wear that,” … “if I only had her anointing.” Conforming is not being salt unless we are conforming to the image of Christ.
I was meeting with a new client recently and we were discussing her wardrobe woes. She is a stay-at-home mom frustrated with her clothing options. After talking with her I discovered that in her mind, she thought she had to wear sweat pants all of the time in order to be a stay-at-home mom. Her personality was hidden behind the clothes. I told her we were going to “let her loose” and a huge sigh of relief came across her face.
The only way to truly be salty is to discover who you are in Christ and then let that person loose. That freedom is salty because it is contagious. My client’s new-found freedom is going to make her more alive, more enticing, more appealing to those around her. She’s going be salty!
The Bible calls us to be the salt of the earth. (Matt 5:13) How salty are you? Do you flavor the earth? Are you a trend-setter, not a trend follower, a world changer, not changed by the world? And if you are salty, are you mixing yourself in the world or are you just sprinkling yourself on top a little? We are not only called to be salt but to be “in the world.” (Mark 16:15, John 17: 13-18) Yes, not “of it,” but we are to be “in it.” What good is being salty if we do not season anything? Let’s not let this world be “no salt added.” Be Salt!
And being salt is not just about adding flavor to our world. The Bible lists many uses for salt including as a preservative to keep things from rotting, as a part of offerings to God (Lev 2:13), as a source of healing from death and barrenness (2 Kings 2:20 & 21), as a sign of covenant with God (2 Chron 13:5), and as an anointing for the newborn (Ezek 16:4). So how are you being the salt of the earth today? Go on, be salty!
]]>
This one features my Living Water Bracelet.
This one features my Nobility Ring.
Many Thank Yous to my CCCOE team members who are so faithful to curate treasuries.
They are Beautiful!
I recently was talking to a couple of friends about our experiences as teens. It definitely was not my favorite time of life. I was not always the most thoughtful or respectful young woman. My parents were wonderful, but I do not envy the dramas I put them through. And I often felt like I was sort of floundering my way through, too embarrassed to ask questions about anything.
I am a bit grateful that I won't have to deal with some of the dramas of pre-teen and teen age girls. But if I did have to face some of those issues, there is a new book out that just may help me breach some of those topics we mothers need to talk to our girls about.
The book, written by a friend I met networking and doing business online, focuses a lot on the physical changes a young girl goes through as she transitions to a teen and then to a woman. She talks about everything from how to shave your legs and deal with acne, to sexuality and suicidal thoughts. She also addresses the spiritual and practical challenges of raising a teen girl, including, nutrition, modesty and dating, all from a Christian perspective.
I'm happy to own a copy of this colorful book. I'm sure it will be good reference material for helping my friends with girls. Plus, it is fun to see that she quoted this very blog in her chapter "I Want You to Wear White at Your Wedding." She used an excerpt from my post "Don't Let Slips Slide."
Enjoy!
]]>
As you begin to mix the primary colors together you get secondary and tertiary colors. The secondary colors are green (equal parts yellow and blue) orange (equal parts yellow and red) and violet (equal parts red and blue). The tertiary colors are red–orange, red–violet, yellow–orange, yellow–green, blue–violet and blue–green.
The first basic way we can categorized colors is by dividing them as “warm” or “cool”. We can consider the true primary colors along with true green (equal parts blue and yellow) as neutrals or swing colors in this discussion, they by themselves are neither warm nor cool.
What colors do you think of when you think about things that are physically hot or warm? Think about the sun, fire, a red hot burner on a stove or the desert. These colors in general have a lot of yellow to them. When we look at the color wheel, the “warm” colors are colors that are mixed with yellow. On our basic color wheel they are orange, red-orange, yellow -orange and yellow-green. These colors convey sort of earthy warmth.
Just the same, the colors that we tend to associate with being cold or cool, with things like ice, snow and water, are blue based colors. On our color wheel they are violet, red-violet, blue-violet, and blue-green. These colors convey a sort of cool conservative classic quality.
So by the very definition, virtually any color can be warm or cool, simply by adding a little yellow or a little blue to it. You can have warm grays and cool grays, warm navy’s and cool navy’s, even warm violets and cool violets. Warm “pinks” (salmon) and cool pinks. So when someone tells me they can’t wear… green for example… I have to guess that they just have not found the right green for them yet.
Our skin, hair and eye colors cause us to be predominately warm or cool in coloring. Our coloring is based on three pigments we have in our skin:
So depending on your ratios of these three pigments you would be predominately warm or cool. Any skin tone from light to dark could be warm or cool.
Now here is where it gets a bit complicated for people to understand. We want to compliment the under tones of your skin, not necessarily the surface colors.
This is extremely difficult, to nearly impossible to do online. To truly determine, you would need a professional to drape you in colors, but I can give some guide lines to help you analyze your own coloring.
And before I go any further I should mention that we are talking about your NATURAL coloring, NOT the color you die your hair, or the color of your contact lenses etc. Just changing your hair color will not put you in the category you want to be in, it just confuses the matter.
Warm colors worn on someone with warm coloring will cause a lift to their face and eyes and a brighter appearance. Cool colors will wash or fade their skin and cause white areas and drag in their nose, mouth chin & jaw line.
Warm colors on someone who is predominately cool in nature will give a sallow or faded appearance with dark areas around the nose, chin or jaw line giving an aged, unhealthy appearance. Cool colors add lift to the face with focus on the eyes, giving a brightened, younger and healthier appearance.
Obviously we can not group the entire world into only two categories of color. Next time we will break it down a little further by the four seasons, and then we will fling some fun and flow into the mix. See you then!
]]>
See her blog here with all of the contest details:
Entry deadline is October 31st at noon pacific.
]]>
I have not gotten to review every piece yet, so some pieces may still drop later. Feel free to convo me if you have questions on any of them.
Happy Shopping!
Since we humans are so visually oriented, color is one of the first elements of our visual communication. The colors we wear say volumes about us before we ever have a chance to open our mouths.
So you may want to consider what kind of messages you want to convey. Dark colors, for example, are good choices for women who frequently work with men. And very strong personalities may want to consider softer colors to make themselves a bit more approachable.
You have to admit, looking around this great big wide world, there is much diversity amongst us all. From the milky white skin with white blond hair to the darkest brown with deep black hair, not everyone can wear the same ranges of colors.
One color on one women will give her an attractive, healthy rested appearance and on another woman will make her look sick and aged, and on another will simply wash her out.
This applies to the clothes we wear, the make up we put on our faces, our choice of hair colors, and even the lighting we are standing under.
When you learn which colors work for you and then "limit" yourself to a certain range of colors you will experience a new freedom in your wardrobe.
Tune in next time as we go deeper and start to talk about colors more. Next time I will be discussing some of the ways we can categorize colors using the seasons as our guide
]]>
