~Merry Christmas~

It has definitely been one of the strangest holidays by far.  Lots of emotions running around my house.  Those of teenage heartbreak (hurt and forgiveness), memories of loved ones lost (both past and present), the EXTREME joy of blessing upon blessing, the rampant gathering of pumpkin, sugar and spices, the flurry of ribbons and packages and tape and scissors and tissue

paper, all to come to this...  Him.  Just Him.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Him.

I tend to loose that sometimes.  The simplicity of it all.

The pure, sweet, gentle, calm, simplicity of...  Him.

May Jesus pour His peace over you no matter what your situation is this holiday.  May He give you such quiet peace and wrap His love around you so snugly this season that, well...

that it just plain boggles your mind.

Merry Christmas!

Jen

One way to spice up a boring ole' money gift... ORIGAMI it!  :D

Five $1 bills make a $5 star :)  I feel so smart right now, haha!  Thanks youtube :D

 

(sorry 'bout the icky phone pic)

A Corinthians Christmas...

A friend of mine emailed this to me and I knew the minute I started reading it I needed to share it.  I wish I knew who the author was but alas, the email said "unknown".
Whomever you are, thank you.

A Christmas Version of 1 Corinthians 13

As you prepare your heart and home for Christmas this year,

consider the following words of wisdom and have Christ be the

center and essence of your celebration.

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of

twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my

family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas

cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully

adorned table at mealtime, but do not share the true meaning of

Christmas, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and

give all that I have to charity, but do not demonstrate

kindness to strangers, it profits me nothing.

If I attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir but do

not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child. Love sets aside the

decorating to kiss the husband. Love is kind, though harried

and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas

china and table linens. Love doesn't yell at the kids to get

out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the

way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return

but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,

and endures all things. Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf

clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

-Author Unknown

Becky Kelley - Where's the Line to See Jesus - OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

Beautiful song!  Perfect message!  Glorious reminder!

What are the odds?

What are the odds, that we pray for rain all spring and summer, only to get nothing.  Nada, ziltch, not a drop, absolutely nuttin. We arrive at our fall season, continuing to pray for rain and what do we get?  Nuttin', unless it's a day that I want to take the fam out to get a family pic, lol!!!!  I want that elusive, glorious golden hour but it just ain't happenin' with the cloudiness we've had lately.

The great thing about it though... this is cocoa drinkin' weather and that my friends, is a glorious thing!  We don't normally get to wear sweaters here until January 31st and we pack them back up around Feb 2, haha!  It actually feels like Christmas here in the hill country :)  Enjoy whatever weather you are having today, give glory to God for it ALL!  Oh, and have some cocoa with the fam and don't take ANYTHING for granted, we have a lot to be thankful for!

The mechanic with the broken car...

One thing that breaks my heart the most, is the fact that I have become the mechanic with the broken down car in his driveway; the lawn guy with an overgrown, dead, patchy lawn, and the photographer that doesn't have any of her own pictures processed and hanging on her walls.

Scoping through the hard drive tonight, trying to find pics of the kids to use for the grans annual Christmas calendars, and what do I find????  Pictures from LAST Christmas that have yet to be processed and posted :(  Waaaaah!

I decided to take a mini-break from processing my precious client photos to play for a few minutes on one of mine.

I recently purchased a texture action and texture pack from Florabella and decided my teddy bear pic(s) were the perfect thing to try it out on :D

I LOVE this action!  It makes applying texture EASY and adds several adjustment layers to play with and tweak :)  AWESOME!

The original images...

This is very close to the original but does have a slight texture added.

Same pic, TOTALLY different look!  I liked it, but it wasn't quite what I had in mind...

This one is my fav!  (I think)

Kiss n' Tell: Homeward Bound style

Hey all!  Haven't posted a kiss n' tell for a while so thought I'd do one on my recent action pack I got from Paint the Moon :)

I just purchased the Fresh Wonderland 2 set and decided to play a little.  I never thought that Annie could get any better at what she does, but she has officially knocked my socks off.... again!

I started going through some archives and found some pics of our trip home from Maryland and New York... from CHRISTMAS!  Ugh!  A*N*Y*W*A*Y.... We had decided to drive all the way through the night with as little stopping as possible.  Translated to a photographer... NO stopping to take pics.... WAH!!!  I was in the primest (ok, so I'm using my own dictionary, sue me) country for barns, rolling hills, silos, and just plain gorgeousness touched by our Heavenly Creator and NO stopping!  Kill me now! :(  I decided to get creative (working on my problem solving talents) and see how I could capture stuff while flying down the highway at 70mph.  No, I wasn't driving and shooting at the same time, though temptation did set in occasionally.

Well, caught this barn and wasn't thrilled with it SOOC (straight out of camera).  I applied two actions and a texture!  I could NOT believe how fast this changed!!!  I LOVE it now!  I even played a little bit more and added a verse and some birds, teehee!  Photoshop.... some amazing stuff!

ran the "Serendipity"action, NO tweaking :D

Thought it needed an aged feel so added "Time Worn" texture

Still felt like it needed a little pop.... that reminded me of the "Pop My Flare" action.  One of the MAIN reasons I bought the set.  I ran it, and adjusted the whole action (a new feature from amazing Annie!) by setting the opacity to 75%. 

Added "Pro Edge Vignette", something I'm addicted to!!!  Voila!  LOVED it!  It screamed for only two more things...

Birds.... Yep!  Birds :D  A brush by Shadowhouse Creations

and the "piece de resistance"... One of my favorite verses!  I love this stuff :D

A Snippet :)

I don't have much time and I'll be gone a lot tomorrow so the Miracle Vacation will have to wait.  Again.  BUT!  I can, maybe, give you a snippet of one of the "before" moments.


In our immediate family, for Christmas, we have a unique tradition.  It's was formed out of necessity but cherished every year.  A true blessing from God.  Created through tragedy but turned to joy by the gentlest touch of His hand.  We trade names.  Yes, Greg, myself and the kids all trade names.  We don't spends hundreds of dollars on gifts, we just don't really have it to give.  We have a $15 dollar budget.  This is for one bought gift and one homemade gift.


Greg got Andrew this year and the homemade gift is always a challenge to come up with.  This is Emily's idea, it was FABULOUS!!!  She got rocks from outside and painted them for my brother and his family.  She suggested that Greg paint one for Andrew and Hannah decided to join in :)

They all did a beautiful job!  Andrew was thrilled with the "skater scape" :).  My brother and his family were truly touched and Hannah's depiction of the crucifixion is a true treasure. (Don't mind the Pringles can, lol.... it's just our brush container :)

Play Time!

I haven't "officially" been able to play yet but I have at least taken the first step.  Download.  :D


It has taken me over an hour to download about 3,000 images!!!!!!  Praise God that most of those are in jpeg and not RAW!  My computer would have blown up I think :O


I will, however, post one little image tonight (I can't resist!).  One of my favorites actually.  After we arrived to my brother's house (at 12:00am mind you) we stayed up until almost 4:00am chatting :)  We rested up the next day, well, that day I suppose and headed to the boardwalk the next day.  It was COOOOOLD!  But fun :)  They had a massive Christmas tree there so, of course, I had to snap a shot.

Tis the season!

I am realizing that I've been the victim of blogus sufferus.  My symptoms of heart palpitations, sweaty palms, nervous stomach, twitching of the eyes, spastic reactions to the word "wrapping paper" and sudden out bursts are finally starting to subside.  What was the cure?  LOL!  We are supposed to be leaving in 3hrs to head out for MARYLAND and NEW YORK!!!!   Either I can stay here and freak out or we head out and I choose to finally chill :)  Literally!

I don't know what my computer situation will be like for a while, as I am not YET the happy owner of a laptop, but rest assured I will be attempting to blog about this AMAZING blessing/trip God has given us :)

Merry CHRIST-mas to you ALL!  May you feel the love, joy and PEACE (gonna try to get some of that here in a minute) He has for you this season :)

Sorry to pull one up from the archives but I just love this one and it says it all :)

A new favorite....

I am one of those that gets stuck.  Sometimes.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  I DEFINITELY have my favorites though.  It takes something pretty doggone FANTASTIC to change my mind.

My favorite color, "peacock green" (just ask my bridesmaids).

My favorite dog, small.

My favorite vacation, ANY.

My favorite smell, lemon.

My favorite flavor, sweet.

My favorite cat, none (sorry, never have been a cat lover).

My favorite emotion, laughter!

My favorite holiday, Christmas.

My favorite dessert, ANY!

My favorite Christmas Carol singers.... Nat King Cole, Jim Reeves and Burl Ives!

Maybe it's because I grew up with these last few every year.  Their melodious voices make me feel like a child again, every year. In fact, it's not officially Christmas until I hear ONE of their songs, either here at home or out shopping somewhere.  Christmas has always been my favorite holiday.  Always!

That almost changed 9yrs ago.  My father passed away from a massive coronary, December 14, 2001.  The only thing we had been anticipating that day was getting to see them in 7 days to celebrate the holiday together.

Our family has always been very close. Christmas was always at my parents house.  Even my mother's parents always stayed the night Christmas Eve.  Every year.  It was  always a wonderful time!  That year, 2001 was going to be different.  They were coming to us.  That was the hardest thing I've EVER had to go through.   I wasn't sure if I would survive.  I did, by God's grace and love, I did.

It was a few years afterward that I finally recognized I wasn't a saint.  Literally.  Jesus broke open my heart so He could come in and make it soooo much better than it was before.  My whole life has changed.  Growing older, the switch in generation, the loss of loved ones.  Going from the child at Christmas to the parent at Christmas.  Things change.

Since then, Christmas has slowly changed for me.  Evolved in a way I guess.  Wanting less of the busy, more of Him.  I haven't fully achieved that yet :(  I've had a desire for something different though.  Peace.  That's it, peace.  True, simple, peace.

Even the old carols, though absolutely dreamy and always invoking that fuzzy feeling, didn't quite do it.  I love them, but... peace?  This year as I pulled out the Christmas CD's (yes, even Glen Campbell but he's not in the stereo yet, lol) I found one my sister had given us last year for Christmas.  It's by Casting Crowns.  A wonderful and gifted group of Christian artists.  I'm pretty much a stickler when it comes to my Christmas tunes but I thought I'd give it a try.  Hey, I'm game to try new things, besides, I can always change the CD, right?

OH WOW!  It mesmerized me.  Absolutely took my breath away, brought me to my knees and to tears.  It is my new favorite.  My favorite, my family's favorite EVER.  The carol that physically moves us.... "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day".  Never my favorite carol, by anyone.  This one, it's not a carol.  It's more than that.  It's worship.  A TRUE worship song, to the Christ Child, Savior, Mender of Broken Hearts, Lover of My Soul, Forgiver of Sins, My very best friend.

Peace.  It's captured here.  In this song.  True peace, wrapped in swaddling clothes, given as the greatest gift.  I'm so glad that He helped me keep Christmas as my favorite holiday and has given me the added pleasure of a different, new favorite.