My Computer's Back!

Well, it was about a month without our iMac and I sure did miss it, but it's fixed and back home. They say "once you go Mac, you never go back!" and I sure felt that! Anyway, I have a whole list of things that I want to blog about and I'm about to do a compilation blog to catch up on some of the list.

First up some digital design show 'n' tell. I had the pleasure of designing a new year's card and gift certificate for our favourite friendtographer, Twila. It's always a fun challenge for me to do digital work for other people, because I'm pushed out of my usual styles and it stretches my creativity. Twila found a design she liked and sent it to me for the general idea of what she was looking for and we went from there. I love how they turned out.

(5x7)

(4x6 to be cut in half)

Twila's designs then became springboards for doing Abigail's birthday party invitations and thank you cards. These were a quick design and lots of fun.

In other news, we've been redecorating our apartment. After the initial disappointment of not being able to move, we decided to make this apartment more homey. (Did I mention that here? - it's a bit of a story, but the result is that we will be staying here for at least another year) We're picking one room at a time to work on and it will take some time, but I will show you bits and pieces as we go. I mentioned on facebook that my darling husband painted our main wall in the living/dining room a yummy chocolate brown (the paint was a gift from friends of ours). Its amazing what a difference it makes in there! I love it. I'm afraid that I don't have pictures of it yet, as I'm waiting to hang our family pictures, but I will reveal it soon.

It's been a funny winter here, with unseasonably warm days followed by stupid cold ones. I have enjoyed the view from my window while drinking nice hot cups of tea. I really love our city in the winter, despite the cold. David and I are thinking of adding reviews of places we visit here in Winnipeg. We are trying to explore more of our city and will share what we find. I am looking forward to this a lot. I found a great city guide on Design Sponge and hope to visit several of the places listed there.

I have some projects on the go and am looking forward to some sewing time. I've got this pattern, and this one, and this one... all of which I am itching to try. I finally renewed my Fabricland membership and got some interfacing, so it won't be long now. I'm also waiting on my fabric order from here... my first designer fabric (this will be blogged about when it arrives). I've heard rumors that the birthday girl liked her present, and I'm so glad.

Well, I'll sign off for now. This isn't my whole list of things to catch up on, but it's a good start and it won't be a month between posts now that my computer is back. Oh, and just in case you can't get enough of them either...

When You No Longer Own Anything

David and I have taken a view of our belongings as not being our own. God has gifted us with everything for His purposes and His glory and should He decide to take things away or allow them to break down, then that too, is for His purpose and glory. This helps us not become too atached to stuff. We hold on to things loosely and without strings and pray that God's will would be done. Having this perspective really helps when things break down, especially things that we really like and use regularily. This week God's car and His computer both crashed on the same day. Do we laugh about it and say "no big deal"? Well, no. We are human and do get frustrated and even worry. When we calm down from the inital shock and worry of things like this, we remember to turn to God and say,

"Thank you, Father. It's your car.  It's your computer. If you choose to fix them for us, great!  If you choose to take them from us, we praise you. We know your plans are higher than ours and your purposes are better than ours. We don't necessarily understand, but we accept your plan as the best plan for our lives and we submit to your will."

You know what, if you don't own a car, then it's not your responsibility, right? Well, guess what, God fixed our car. The mechanic bill was $950! Yikes! In human perspective, with no job, this would be impossible.Well, in faith and under God's care, He provided! We received two financial gifts that payed for the car's repairs. You may be saying to yourself, well then, the people who gave you the money are the ones who provided for the repairs. Again, in our human understanding, it does appear to be the case. Who compelled the people to give the gifts? I choose to believe it's God's kindness shown to us through people. This doesn't take away our gratitude toward those who have given to us, on the contrary, we are extrememly grateful. It takes courage and generosity to give such large gifts to others. We hope to be able to pay it forward to others in the future.

All this to say, that our lovely computer (our iMac) is out of commission at the moment and I am currently typing on another of God's blessings. This little netbook was a freebie that David earned at a company conference about a year ago. With our wireless internet, I won't be completely without access, though it might be intermitent for awhile. I'm sure that I've spent far too much time online lately and having to use something that takes a bit more effort to use, will help me to spend less time in front of a computer screen.

I don't have easy access to all the pictures of things that I want to blog about, but I did upload the following pics off of my camera to show you. This lovely clutch is a birthday present - if you've guessed that it's yours, pretend to be surprised when you get it, okay? I am in love with the buckle, a spur of the moment idea. I used the gathered clutch tutorial from here again. I will be making more of these, I am sure.

I hope you like it.