Busy Bees Still do What They Were Made For

I've been busy busy busy...

I've been closing out the school year and it's a busy time of year for me. I tend to feel self conscious and too busy to be purposeful or useful at this time of year. I started to neglect my posts, so I began to assume that I'd been neglecting CREATING too. I was looking for another task to add to my list that would be creative when I realized. I've been busy... busy doing what I'm meant to do! Obviously not EVERYTHING I've been doing has been for this, but it's been worked in without me even realizing. :)
So here's my summary:


This photo book didn't take a ton of hands-on creativity, but it was fun to make. Because I'm picky, I didn't use their editing tools. I used Photoshop. This is a photo book I made and ordered from Costco with a few pictures of my engagement shoot and a bunch from my wedding. It's relatively cheap, easy, and quick. It got to me in less than a week! :)

 

I've been working at a local froyo shop and they have a bunch of white boards. The writing on them, I found out, has been there for a few years with no change. I asked permission to have free reign on them and it was approved. I only got pictures of 4 of the originals, but they weren't all that great. I got to change 6 boards (only 5 pictured) and it was a lot of fun. Not only did I get to CREATE, but I got to do it while on the clock. So far, all I've done is rewrite the original messages with more color and clarity. As I get more seniority and ideas, I'll start to switch out what they say.

 

 

These are just a few doodles I did sitting around the house. The first one, I did with my mom in mind so I may frame it for her or something (ideas from my readers will be accepted). The second is the front of a card just telling my husband that I love him. :)  My goal is to incorporate some doodles into graphic design projects.

Speaking of graphic design, I have no pictures, but I'm working on remaking out church's logo and designing a few backgrounds. I haven't gotten too crazy far on it, but I'm excited for the opportunity.

 

Lastly, I have always loved writing. My old blog was focused on writing, rather than creativity in general and I loved the things I felt God had led me to. I've written for the enjoyment of it my whole life, but I've never "officially" written. However, a woman at my church began running a magazine one year ago and needed an article written for this issue. Someone told her my name, so she sent me the assignment and I thereby had my very first paid and published writing job. I was very scared and searched for a backup plan in case I failed, but God closed that door and I just had to finish it! I finished JUST in time and soon forgot about it. Then last week, the issue came out, and there it was! :) I didn't expect to feel so accomplished, but I did something that I've always wanted to do, without even realizing it, in the midst of my most busy time of year.

 

I'm grateful that God's been allowing me to CREATE, even while busy. I pray that SOMEONE will read this and be inspired to CREATE even in the simplest of ways.

I have actually done one more project that I didn't mention, but as soon as I can, I will. I'm so excited to share it with you, as I've been working on it for what feels like forever. I'll post it next week!

Until then, SEEK God and he will create something new in YOU too!





I haven't forgotten!

Yoo-hoo! I'm still here. It's been a little bit of time since I've posted. Life got busy, but I haven't forgotten the mission- not one bit.

I have a few half-done projects, so once they're done (probably all at once, by the looks of it), I'll post my finished product. My biggest one is only half-way done and I spent my entire spring break on it. That one will be a landmark CREATE for me, a bit of a declaration of "this is who I have decided to be" for me.

Another CREATE I'm pretty excited for, and honestly a bit caught off guard from, is coming soon. :) I have always enjoyed reading and writing, usually more than anyone I know. I have started blogs before, solely for writing (and on that front, they were much better than this one. This one is just a place for me to record what God does through Seek, Focus, Create.). I wrote what I felt, what I noticed, and what struck me. However, aside from high school, I hadn't been told what to write. It was all mine. And if anyone decided it was flawed, it was just a blog, so "no biggie", right? But a woman in my church runs a magazine and had an article that needed writing within a few days. Someone gave her my name as a reference and now for the first time in my hobby-writing career, I think I'm going to have my writing printed and seen by more people than I anticipated anywhere in the near future. Just days from a text asking if I'm interested in a gig, it's on its way to print. So, you could call this one a landmark for me as well. I'll definitely share when that gets in my hand.

So, if anyone's sticking around, keep praying for me! I'm journeying to be more than I am, and I pray that you are influenced by my adventure, even in the slightest. Until next time, let's do this. Ready, set, go.

Eureka!

Hello world! Nice to see you again. If this is your first read, welcome! But I recommend you read my first post. It is basically the point of this whole blog. Otherwise, here's a little catch-up for ya. Since 2010, I have felt that God kind of gave me a few words to remind myself of whenever I have questions or don't know where to go next.

SEEK, FOCUS, CREATE

Specifically in that order. Seek God. Focus on whatever that may lead to. Create something-anything.
This blog is my way to keep myself accountable on that last part, mostly. This is where I can create, or at least show that I have been. If you're reading, thanks for helping with that. :)

I have often said that I think this is my own little motto. Maybe a tiny tip just for me to carry around. It's not directly the bible and I would never claim it is nearly as credible as the Good Book itself. Never. However, I do have a relationship with God, and I believe it is from him. So, if it helps you too, that's groovy. If not, okay then.

So, I have this friend. She was actually my roomie. And she had a little adage that she felt was from God too, a bit like mine. Pray Listen Receive. I always thought it was cool, but I eventually noticed something. Now maybe it's a stretch- it's very possible- but here's what I think. When you pray, isn't that the primary method of seeking God? I'd say. And when I'm listening, that's me focusing on the results of that seeking/praying, right? And the way I react to Receiving what he sends my way is to take on what he would do- create. And you may say you're not crafty, but we are all made to create. Maybe not in the "artsy" sense, but even if you just speak it out, you've created something out of nothing, words out of thin air. So, in my humble opinion, all of us appropriately respond with creating when we receive from God.
So, "Nifty," I thought, "How strange that her little message would be so similar to mine." But it's not significant enough to stop me in my tracks. So, I moved on.

Then, Jeremy Johnson (You may have heard of him; he's a pretty popular pastor. He was a youth pastor at this time though.) started promoting his little battle cry: Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild. This one's a little bit more of a stretch, but play along. Infiltrate and Seek both have the "begin here, dive deep into God" feeling to me. Destroy and Focus both bring me to "simplify, get down to the basics, get rid of distractions". Finally, Rebuild and Create go without explanation.
Strange, right? But whatevs, maybe I'm crazy.

Aaaaannyway, my husband's one of three youth leaders at our church, and I attend the youth services as often as I can. This week, the sermon was done by one of the other youth leaders. He had three notes. I would summarize them like so: Build your relationship with God, Have expectations, Be Confident. That's as similar as I see it getting, especially with the way his commentary went for each note. Here's my summary. Seeking God is clearly identical to building your relationship with God. Having expectation, the way he put it, is actually looking forward to what He leads you to and pushing toward it- zeroing in, if you will. Focusing. Lastly, being confident. Now, he never used the word "Create", but the idea of Creating is to do something with what you've got from the last two steps. The idea of being confident, according to this sermon, was to be brave, step out, and do something with that newly-strengthened relationship with God.

(UPDATE: I just saw "Lights Camera Action" on an ad and thought. When I'm searching for my keys, phone, etc. or when helicopter cops are looking for their criminals, we have to shine light in the dark. And cameras just plainly don't function well at all unless their focus is adjusted. And action is just about the simplest way to communicate "do SOMETHING". So, another one is here!)

So, here I am with this.
Seek Focus Create
Pray Listen Receive
Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild
Build Expect Be Confident
Lights Camera Action
And I can deny one, but not four five, so similar. Maybe this is the skeleton of how to approach life. Again, I'm NOT saying this is anything close to the merit of the Word of God. But maybe it's the summary, a quick idea of what the Word would have us do. Maybe it's a little mnemonic device to just remind me, you, us to go to the King- to find him more. My point in all of this: Word it how you like, God wants us to find him, and he wants us to share him by doing something. And that's the gospel truth.

So, choose your catchphrase as you please, but do something. And with this, I bid you adeu.

Ready
Aim
Fire

Our Opposing Shifts

Guys, my Husband got a new job! :) Let's take a moment to backtrack into why that's exciting...

When we started courting, He was already a very hard worker. He didn't need to prove himself in that area. He was already willing to work as hard as need be to take care of his "future wife" whoever she may become... ;)
Once we got a little further in to the relationship, he stepped up even more moved to a job that had a better chance of getting him to where he dreamed to be. I admired that. :)
Leaving out everything else he is amazing for that I just don't have time to mention, when he proposed to this lucky lady, he chose to give me the wedding He felt I deserved- by getting a second job.
Our entire engagement, he was a zombie. He worked nights at the first job, and days at the second.
Black Friday meant working almost 3 days straight, with no sleep and only a few small breaks in between.

When we finally got married, he let go of the extra job, and soon after got a promotion to even more night hours. Oh, sarcastic joy. :/

For one year, one week, and 6 days, we have lived with opposing schedules. This is not including the few week-long trips when I was away from home for ministry. For over a year, we were newlyweds who rarely saw each other. And when we did, one of us was halfway asleep. All this time, we've slept apart. I've eaten dinner while making his breakfast. I've stayed up far later than I should have, hoping to receive one more text, to get one more digital moment together.
He's given up opportunities, dreams, and ministry moments, to take care of our home, allowing me to do ministry. He has lived many days only partially awake so as not to miss something in an afternoon where he needed sleep. I imagined it might be rough being one of those couples I never thought I'd be, but I can't describe how many nights I avoided falling asleep in a house alone, kept awake by the distractions of the TV, so that I wouldn't have to feel lonely. It was more undesirable than I anticipated.

But we fought through it and prayed through it that GOD would open the door and that we'd be able to trust him to do so. And FINALLY a door swung right open.
This Monday, I made my husband's lunch at the same time that I made my own. I woke up in the same time of day he did. We were both conscious at the same time of day. Today, for the first time, when he left for work, saying, "Goodbye, see you in the morning," it was a mistake!
I am more than excited to see how much more time we can spend together being on the same schedule for the first time in years-- in over a year of marriage. But I hope I don't forget what this year was like. I don't want to forget to appreciate every moment I have now. I don't want to forget waking up to Him getting home and kissing me on the cheek. I don't want to lose the "newlywed" feeling of how much I'm in love- the sacrifices I'm willing to make for even a chance of seeing his smile. I pray that with this blessing, I don't forget to thank God every day for the life He's given me. I am a blessed girl. :)




On this last note, pray with me that I won't fail to be who I need to be.. to SEEK, FOCUS, and CREATE more. Even if it means to CREATE a blog post about my groom. :)

Easy Encouraging Gift Idea

If you are a regular church goer, you've probably heard of the Five Love Languages. If you haven't, get a quick read here (http://www.5lovelanguages.com). Most people that I've talked to about these love languages, spend most of the time talking about how they prefer to receive love. That is only a small portion of the purpose. Most of the purpose is to know how to give love. So, I like to try to focus on creatively giving love.
I have a theory: no matter how you tend to receive love, everyone needs it! Even if it comes in a different language, we were made to love and be loved. But I think, personally-maybe it's because words actually are my love language- that sometimes people from each of the languages sometimes just needs to hear it plain as day with the language they actually speak. That's why Hallmark can stay in business; every holiday has a card! So, no matter how I decide to give a gift, I just can't help but to say it with words. :)

My pastor has been more of a father figure in my life, and since Christmas, Pastor's Appreciation, and his birthday are all so close together, we keep him on our Christmas shopping list. But we definitely had to include our words.

So I bought a 12 pack of his favorite soda, got some duct tape and a few permanent markers from my craft stuff, and just put it all together.
Six of them were just little honest encouragements from me and six were from my husband. Just for kicks, I did them in different marker colors. and somewhere on each can, I wrote "Happy Pastor's Appreciation, Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas", the note, and who it was from. Then I repackaged it back in its box and wrapped it.
It was probably our cheapest gift to give, but fun to make and pretty encouraging. I've been getting texts about once a week with how encouraging they are.

 

I've actually done this before, a few years ago, with the same gift, except I used white labels and neater handwriting. It looked much cleaner, but I don't think that's the part that mattered. :)

 

If I wanted to, I could do water bottles, juices, Arizona's, or maybe even a snack food, like Pop Tarts.

 

If any of you try this, I'd love to hear about it. :) Regardless, I'm having fun learning to SEEK, FOCUS, CREATE. :) Until next time, *tips hat*.

 

Encouragement can be a Piece of Cake!

I've spent a lot of little moments SEEKING God lately and I can hear his voice so much more clearly than usual. I'm loving it! My little friend at my church had a birthday this weekend and I felt God reminding me about it over and over. She is the most overtly loving and caring kid I know. When we have a visiting kid, she is the first one to introduce herself, show them around, but most importantly ask about them, and show them she cares to hear what they have to say. I could learn a lot from her. :)
So I found out her favorite cake flavor and had at it.

 

I got these a while back because I liked the idea and they were like 10 cents. Lucky me! :)

Self proclaimed "not-crafty" people think it's too hard because places like Pinterest make it seem like you need to buy a bunch of stuff. But I honestly just keep an open mind and let myself be a little bit of a packrat. But not much! I have a corner of a closet with stuff that might come in handy, but it all stays there and if I haven't used it after a while, I toss it. :)

 

So, I baked her favorite cake, frosted it, and sprinkled some valentines sprinkles from my pantry (again, I set it aside for "one day" and that was this day!)

 

 

I tried to write something with some frosting with food coloring but it was hideous so I covered it up and thought of something new.

 

I found a white paper, folded it over, and cut triangles out.

 

 

 

Then, I found some string from another project, and a few of my favorite Sharpie markers.

 

 

 

I tied a knot on either side of the string, glued the papers on, and made my little banner. :)



When it comes to crafts, anything teeny is cute.

 

I stuck a toothpick in each knot on the string...

And assembled my final product. :)

 

 

 



Because this little tray is so small, one cake box made four of these, so I got to thinking, who else could I share some kindness with... So first I delivered my gift to the birthday girl...

 

 

 

...Saved one for my husband because it's his favorite flavor, saved one for myself, and remembered this post I had from last year.

 

 

My little sister liked it way back then, and she and I share the same dessert-loving genes in our blood, so I saved the last one for her.

 



 

 

She was staring at it during service and reminded me a few times that she wanted to eat it. Score!

Moral of the story: Even in little ways -or little cakes, as it were...- share love! :)

Everything I used, except for the cake and frosting, I already had, and I got four blessings to share out of the deal. Sounds like a win to me. :)

 

Keep me in prayer as I continue to SEEK, FOCUS, and CREATE.











DIY Cake Toppers

Here is a CREATE I did a year ago, but it's only a few days until my anniversary so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. :)

I never liked the idea of an ordinary cake topper, so as a kid I decided the little statue guys would be having a cake fight-frosting on her face, frosting in his hand.
Once my handsome groom proposed, I did the "bride" thing and looked around at a few store bought toppers. They were exactly as I had thought. Most were faceless and had the most typical hair and clothes to be sellable. But now that I knew my Mr., I also knew he was tall and none of these toppers looked like us at all. And worst of all, they were very overpriced. So I got thinking and this is what I came up with. :)

And here's how I did it...

My husband is 7 feet tall (well, technically 6'11" but whatevs...) so I printed a 5x7 photo with him 7 inches tall on the long side. I am 5'5" so I printed a 5x7 with myself as 5.5 inches tall on the long side also.
When we practiced my hair and makeup and stuff at my friend's house, I put on my dress and had a friend take the picture and had her take one of him in his tux also.

Then I bought one of these Styrofoam posters at good ol' Wallyworld.

I started it out and had my mom finish because the tux pic had to be the day before the wedding to fit within the rental time.
But I painted glue onto the poster and stuck the picture on.
I used a razor blade and got this...

 

 

I stuck toothpicks in the bottom and they were done. :)

 

 

 

Ta-Dah!

 

 

 

Now, we keep it on a shelf in the sand we used for our sand ceremony. Here's that...

 

 

 







In the end, it looked JUST like us, height difference and all. AND it only cost the amount of the two photos ($0.26) and the poster (~$2ish) and the toothpicks and glue (free).

 

See you soon, friends! In the meantime, pray for me. I want to keep up with my SEEK, FOCUS, and CREATE, even if it means a post about a year-old craft. :) Thank ya.