Friday, February 26, 2010

Makeover!

I'm so excited!!!
I have someone who is going to give my blog a complete make-over.
Expect some changes, and shake-ups in future. =)
You might have noticed the title change- and that's in preparation for some bigger changes. Yay!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Me and Sugar

Oh, my.
I don't normally do this, but I had a brownie after my lunch today.
And I'm high as a kite...
I'm having trouble focusing, and spelling.
Makes me want to chatter up a storm.
but I will control myself.
(LOL. I keep having to go back and correct my spelling! Blech.)
I'm careful about what I eat, 'cuz I know sugar messes me up pretty bad.
Plus, as fun as it is to be a little sugar high, I don't like the lows afterward.
Somebody gave us a brownie mix and we haven't done them, and I just went for it today.
Fudge frosting. YUM!
I'm pre-diabetic. or hypoglycemic. Which really isn't the term any more. That's what I used to say, but now they call it pre-diabetic. Just to remind you that if you're not careful you'll end up diabetic.
Which I don't want.

My mom is insulin-dependent diabetic. My grandmother had blood-sugar problems- would be called pre-diabetic now. And my great-grandmother was diabetic. Back when you used glass syringes, and boiled them after using them.

Anyway, the way I end up feeling after having a load of sugar, means the sugar has to be worth it. And I guess brownies are worth it. Especially the fudgy ones, with frosting. And it was WARM! Yum.
But now I'm pretty much done. Gonna drink some water and see if that clears some of the buzz off ...

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Ready?

My faith is scarred and bruised. Broken and battered.
Barely hanging on.
God, where are you?
I call and hear silence.
I cry out and wait for you.
I am waiting.
So tired of waiting.
Ready for change...

Am I ready for the change in me?
Ready for painful growth?
Ready for you to bring new life to these old dry bones?

Because it will hurt again.
To clean out these wounds, I will have to take my hand off them.
I will have to let you pour water over them, and put medicine in them
I will have to let you have your way.
And it will hurt.

Am I really ready?
Ready for more pain?
Ready for more change?
Ready for true healing?
Ready to let the pain of the past go?
Ready to explore? And let you take me where you will?

Am I ready?

Saw 'Easy Virtue'

I rented a copy of the 2008 movie version of Noel Coward's play 'Easy Virtue'. I can't stop thinking about it...

From the description on the back and my previous experience with 'Blithe Spirit', I had expected a witty British comedy.
Light & comedic, "Easy Virty" is NOT.
I kept expecting it to end well, and it just didn't. Really, it couldn't.

I've now read the Wikipedia summary, and I honestly wish I'd read it before we say the play. For one thing, the movie is noticeably different from the original play. And for another thing, we would have been prepared for a biting and dark drama.
The movie was excellently done- well acted, well written, well directed- really, overall it was excellent.

But wow. Was it dark.
I wanted to cry at the end for the loss and hypocrisy...

The story centers around a couple- she's American, he's British. They arrive back at his home and surprise his parents with their married status. The mother instantly hates the American bride, and sets about to destroy their marriage. The mother claims to be supporting her son, and trying to make his life better, but she is a selfish and mean horrible woman.

I thought it would be something more like Cold Comfort Farm (a delightful little story about a high society British girl shaking up her poor country relations), where the new girl is able to change the family for the better. However, in Easy Virtue, the American girl finally leaves the her husband and his family in the grip of the poison they have made for themselves.

Very dark story. Very sad ending.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Good Answer!

I saw this at EveryStudent.com and thought it was a good answer- I've got friends who are Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Assembly of God, and a bunch of other flavors of Christian. So here's what we've got in common:
********

Q: "Is there a difference between being Catholic and being a Christian?"

our A: There are many Christian denominations and churches: Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, and so on. Being a member of one doesn't determine whether a person is a Christian.

The real issue is whether the person individually has Jesus Christ living inside of him or her...if they actually have a personal relationship with God.

In the Gospel of John, we are told, "to all who received him [referring to Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God."1 Why do we have to become children of God? Because until then, God is distant. We may know he's there. We may know we are supposed to worship him. We may even know that in times of need, he's the one to pray to. But there is a distance we are aware of, and it is because of our sin.

Now, as long as we live and breathe, guess what, we're going to sin. We're going to do things our way instead of God's way. But our sin need not remain a barrier between us and God. Here's how.

The Bible says that there is a penalty for sin, and it might be greater than you'd expect. The penalty for sin is death. It's not just the penalty for sins like murder. It's God's judgment against any and all sins. The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death..."2 So that we would not have to die eternally separated from God because of our sin, Jesus died in our place. He fully paid for our sin. And offers us complete forgiveness. Not temporary forgiveness. Even for the sins we will commit in the future, we can have his forgiveness now, because Jesus died for all of our sin. We can immediately begin a close, personal relationship with him, that barrier of sin being gone. It isn't that we become perfect and no longer sin. But we become forgiven when we see that Jesus died for our sin, in our place.

"Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us."3

When we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, God declares us "not guilty" and he says that we are now "made right with God." Our relationship with God has begun in a real way, where we no longer know God is "out there," but instead we know that he lives inside of us. We have God's forgiveness, a relationship with him. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."4

Lent

So, after reading this blog post http://mylifeisapieceofcake.blogspot.com/2010/02/fat-tuesday.html at Piece of Cake about 'Fat Tuesday'.... I've decided to do it.
I've thought about it before, but never gone for it.
I wanted to try fasting from something in my life. Something that steals time from everything and everyone else in my life. Something that takes time from me, and from God.
So, I'm giving up the two internet games I spend so much time on: Enchanted Island on FB, and Mobsters on My Space (which is really the only reason I check my MySpace account anymore).
And I'm gonna see if I sleep any better, hear God's voice more clearly, or find more time to spend with my family.
I'll report on how it goes.

Sleep? HA!

I love watching the Olympics! So, that's what I've been doing at night. And not really sleeping. Not that I sleep anyway, mind you...
I love the skiing, and the snowboarding, and the bobsled craziness. But my favorite is the ice-skating. Yup, I love watching them jump, twirl and dance. LOVE it.
All the Olympicans work so freaking hard all year, and then have one or two or maybe three chances to have a go at it, and get scored to go down in history.
It's exciting. And fun.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

ETSY!!!

It's happening!
We actually have an Etsy storefront with real jewelry for sale!
We are so excited. =) I think both of us are feeling very exclamation-point happy!!
(Although we are trying to control those urges.)
We don't have much listed yet, but we will continue to add new things.

Check out our Etsy store!
www.etsy.com/shop/twosistersbeadwork
You can bring up our store by looking for us under the sellers. =)

Thank you!
(I know. Those pesky exclamation points! They just keep sneaking through...)

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

My first Metal-smithing project!

I have completed my first project for my metal-smithing class.

They are NOT perfect, and I'll look at them in a year and want to make tons of changes. But right now, I'm feeling very satisfied.

First, I drew a flower shape on paper, kind of like a daisy or a sunflower. Then I drew the cut-outs inside the petals.

Then, I taped the flower drawing onto metal and cut it out using a jeweler's saw....














Which sounds so simple when I write it, but is torture. I've now been told two pieces of helpful advice for using a jeweler's saw. The first is, "Better learn to enjoy the process, 'cuz you'll be doing it a lot." The second bit of advice was to treat the saw like a baby bird... Gently, and with very little pressure.

The third step was to file and sand the sharp edges and make them pretty. Which took forever.... and ever.... Then I pickled them in an acid to clean them.

Next, I annealed the flowers. Which means I heated them with a torch to soften the metal so that I could work with it. After that, I was able to gently shape them into lovely little flower buds.







Finally, I used all my other jewelry designer skills, and turned them into pearl earrings.






Monday, February 08, 2010

Metal-smithing & Sick Kids

I have been so busy.
Too busy:

Sick kids at home.
Attending the metal-smithing class.
Reading metal-smithing homework.
Dealing with more pain in my back & neck.
Putting together our Etsy Shop.
Running the girls around to the stuff they can do.
Attending drama stuff at church.
Working with Kid's choir at church.
Regular house-cleaning/laundry/meals/dishes...


Anyway, I haven't posted in MUCH too long.
I want to post.
I want to blog.
I want to be consistent.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Our Completed Sign!

Our sign is completed! YAY!
And we are happy with it. Double YAY!!!









We've got a problem, though... The pic we took is too wide for our Etsy banner. I've got to figure out how to get a smaller picture that looks good. The sun has gone down for today, so I'll have to work on it tomorrow.
Might have to take the picture from across the street! LOL.