Creative inspiration for your home and family
Even in the middle of getting prom dresses altered and hemmed, along with my regular teaching schedule, blogging, and keeping up with the RUBY magazine and community projects, I was able to find some time over the past couple of weeks to update my art journal. I try to create at least two pages for each month, and then if I have time to create a few more fun designs throughout the month, I like to do that, too. This month I got caught up with my April pages and even had time to get my May pages finished!
This time, I decided to create a “tip out” page, which includes adding an extra page that “tips out” from the right side to create a tri-fold surface for designing and creating. I don’t do that for every month, but it just seemed like a good idea for May! The other change-up that I did this time around was the colors . . . . I usually am drawn to more subtle, vintage-looking papers and embellishments for my art journal pages. But for May, I went really bright and bold, with bright yellow, neon green, and popping purple. I love this color combination, and it just seemed perfect to celebrate the arrival of spring.
One other fun technique that I included in this journal page design is a bit of stitching. It is always fun to add a bit of different texture, and I love stitching on paper, so I decided to create a paper patchwork page (say that fast three times!).
So with the whimsical touches of ribbons, lace, and buttons, I also added the words “With brave wings . . . she flies!” to the paper patchwork where I also stitched on a few circular designs along with a pretty purple ribbon with white flowers and green centers. The purple polka dot ribbon and the yellow gingham ribbon perfectly coordinate with the pretty papers I used for the patchwork design.
On the center page of the tri-fold “tip-out” is where I placed the May calendar with the cute watercolor picture of a yellow bike and purple blooms cascading down . . . . which is the same design I used for the fun little poem I wrote, “My bike was never yellow . . . .” which is about a time when I was riding my bike, really fast, down the hill in front of our house when I was about 10 years old, and I crashed into my girlfriend who was also riding her bike down the hill at the same time. I’m thinking we were probably racing, but I got too banged up to remember exactly what we were doing!
And then on the outside of the “tip-out” page that folds in I added a pocket with a little notebook for writing down more memories of springtimes past. This one was really a lot of fun, especially because I tried out new and different colors and added the stitching, as well as one of my own poems. I guess I’ll try that again next time! I would really like to encourage you to give art journaling a try – take time to be creative every day, even if it is for just a few minutes. I’ll be adding more photos to my art journaling page here on the Vintage Mama’s Cottage blog so you can see the process I used to create these pages. Hope you’ll check it out! And if you are working on an art journal, I would love to see what you are doing, too. See you again soon!
The digital magazine is always FREE to read online, but now RUBY magazine is also available for purchase as a print publication!
CLICK HERE
TO PURCHASE THE
APRIL 2018 ISSUE OF
RUBY MAGAZINE
In the April 2018 issue of RUBY magazine you will discover creative inspiration in the craft tutorials by Theresa Begin, spiritual wisdom in articles such as “The Sound of a Silent Soul” by Suzane Avadiar and “What If? The Intersection of Faith and Doubt” by Joanne Jarrett, MD, and “I Lie for a Reason” by R.G. Sharpe, and many more. The April 2018 issue of RUBY magazine also features book reviews by Miriam Jacob and Lynn Mosher, home and garden articles by Jehn Kubiak and Nina Newton, poetry that celebrates the beauty of spring, and our monthly special feature, “Kids’ Korner,” with a short story by Shara Bueler-Repka.
Lots of great encouragement, inspiration, wisdom, advice, and information for you and your family in the April 2018 issue of RUBY magazine.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:12-13
I am the mother of two teenage daughters. Well, I am also the mother of four other grown-up children, two sons and two daughters, but at this stage of my life, my day-to-day encounters are primarily focused on the comings and goings of my two daughters at home. Teenagers can be a lot of work, especially if you have a “high maintenance” kiddo. Not that either of my girls is particularly “high maintenance,” but I will admit that they are “high” enough for this mama to get worn out on occasion.
Teenage daughters require a fair amount of cultural and social awareness, so I can’t just retreat into my old-fashioned, traditional world where things feel a bit more “ordinary” or actually “boring.” Let’s just say, I’m quite content with “ordinary” and “boring.” But these days I’m finding that getting dressed every day can be an exercise in trying to keep up with what’s fashionable and what’s apparently so “yesterday.” Or whatever it’s called these days.
So when I discover that jeans with shredded and destroyed holes in them are the latest fashion trend, I have to ask myself, “Who thought THAT was a good idea?” But if my kiddos love the Lord, and they are diligent students, and they are kind to others, responsible and hardworking, respectful and generous, I guess I really don’t care if their jeans look like they came out of my grandma’s rag bag. If they are clean and modest, I’m good with that.
But that made me think about what I wear every day. Well, my girls would suggest that I really need to buy some new things (but really . . . there’s not much money left over for mama’s clothes when those shredded jeans are so unbelievably expensive – which is a good thing that Fashion Diva daughter has a job and can buy most of her own stuff, but still – kids are expensive!).
The bigger idea as I was thinking about what I’m wearing every day, aside from the reality that yes, I probably really do need some new clothes, is what I am wearing in my spirit. These days it can be challenging to be patient, gentle, compassionate, and express a spirit of humility and kindness because of the rising current of division in our country.
No matter the cause, as we all have our own notions of where this divisiveness originated, I have decided that I need to “clothe myself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
So when I find myself being criticized, scolded, and lectured because my opinion might be different from someone else, I try to remember that a garment of kindness can bring a sense of peace, civility, security, and love. It’s amazing what those new clothes can do for each one of us!
If you are a writer and would like to send in a submission for an upcoming issue of RUBY magazine, please visit the submissions page on the RUBY blog at http://www.rubyforwomen.com/submissions for all the details. Or you can email us at editor@rubyforwomen.com with any questions.
Recently I’ve seen a bunch of ads online, lots of them on Facebook, about how it’s time to drop the whole blogging thing and do something else. I’m not sure what that “something else” might be, although it appears that there is a movement towards more focused, interactive community sites where people who share common interests connect and communicate with one another instead of tossing one’s thoughts and ideas out to the whole wide world and hoping someone finds your blog and likes what you are saying. But I’m not sure if that is exactly what is being suggested. I just know that blogging has been around for quite a while now, and it just might be time to change things up a bit.
Since I really enjoy the whole process of creating my blog and putting stuff on it, I’m probably not going to stop blogging any time soon . . . . but I’m just curious what you are thinking about blogging and why you are still blogging – if you are. One thing that I have observed is that, unless you are pretty committed to keeping up with your blog on a regular schedule, it is really easy to forget all about it in the midst of the day-to-day events of our lives.
This is a blog post that I wrote several months ago. I decided to repost it because I’m even more intrigued with the direction of blogging, social media, and digital communication than I was back then. There are so many great things about our access to communications across the miles with people we will, most likely, never meet in “real life.” So how do you feel about blogging? Are you STILL blogging?
I remember when I first heard the word “blog.” I couldn’t quite make out what it meant; it sounded an awful lot like “blob,” but I was pretty sure that was NOT was was being said. It was a friend of mine who is a whole lot more tech-savvy that I will ever be, and at the time I was just getting used to the whole idea of using a computer to write research papers. As a “non-traditional” college student, back in the day, all those young college students were whizzing around writing their papers and doing their assignments on their new-fangled computers, and I was still wrapping my brain around the fact that to turn the dang thing OFF I had to click on the START icon (or whatever I called those little thingamajigs back then). Oh, I see . . . if I tell it to START, it will open a new window (open a window? isn’t that what we do to let in the fresh spring breeze?) that will give me more options, such as TURN OFF. Great. Figured that one out. So now, tell me about this thing called “blogging.” Please.
So he started telling me about how he had created a blog and he was writing stuff on it. What kind of stuff? Well, any old stuff that you want to write, he said. So, let me understand. We can go online and start telling the world all of our thoughts, and someone might actually care to read it? Isn’t that kind of scary? Blogging sounded like a really not-so-good idea to me, so I just moved on with other projects that I was working on at the time. Like filling out a million and one documents for our adoption and getting ready to travel to China. Which we did, and so for a few years I was pretty busy with all that goes into being a mom (again!) of a 20-month-old who very quickly became a busy toddler. And then we went back to China again, and so on and on and on my life went, all the while “blogging” was becoming kind of the cool thing to do. But I had no idea what was actually going on in the world – by that time I had a four-year-old and a two-year-old so there wasn’t actually many brain cells or energy left for anything other than just getting everyone through the day, fed and clothed, and still alive.
Eventually I returned to a place where I could pay attention to other things going on in the world, and with our girls now both in pre-school, I had some time to get back to my sewing projects. Discovering that there were lots of mamas who were more than happy to pay for me to make pretty dresses for their little girls, I was busy designing and sewing outfits to sell online when I again heard the word “blogging.” Well, once I started, there was no going back!
But our blogging reasons and motivation evolve over time, and recently I’ve noticed several things that have happened to the blogging world. In the beginning, there were quite a few “celebrity” bloggers. Not “celebrities” as in movie stars or musicians or other famous people, but ordinary people, mostly women at the time that I first noticed, who had a way with their writing or story telling or something, that seemed to attract lots of readers to their blogs. There were even whole conferences for bloggers (I think there still are those kinds of events) where people would go to listen to the “celebrity” bloggers talk about how and why they and their blogs were so popular. That was back when there were fewer bloggers and more readers, and reading a blog was kind of like reading a magazine or a newspaper. A few writers wrote about stuff that lots of people wanted to read – and so those bloggers got lots of traffic and interaction with tons of comments on their blog posts.
Now it seems like everyone is a blogger. And since it is kind of a truism that “there is nothing new under the sun,” with that many people writing stuff and fewer and fewer people just looking for something new to read, that many bloggers are investing a ton of time and energy into writing blog posts, and then fly around to the various blog hops or linky parties and drop links hoping that more people will find us and read our blog posts. Meanwhile, many of us are part of those parties and we visit our assigned number of other bloggers to keep the party going . . . all of which is fun, but it brings me back to my question of the day: Why are YOU still blogging?
I’m still blogging because I have something to say and this is a way for me to get all of that junk out of my head and in black and white so I can stop thinking about it. Even some really personal stuff I put on a private blog because I need to put it somewhere, not necessarily for other people to read, but because I just need to dump it out of my brain occasionally. But, for me, I don’t blog because I expect the world to read what I write, or to impress anyone, or to offer great, innovative, original, and amazing information to my readers. It is just a place for me. And I do try to interact with other bloggers as I am able, and it has been great fun and truly a gift in my life to connect with other bloggers over the years where I have made some amazing “long distance” friends.
So let me encourage you, if you sometimes wonder why YOU are still blogging . . . do it for YOU and if someone else wants to come along for the ride, that would be fun, but if not don’t despair. Say what you mean and mean what you say, and maybe, just maybe, there is still someone out there who needs to hear what you have to say. What do you think about blogging? I would love to hear your thoughts and reasons for why YOU are still blogging.
Some days we just need to be reminded that we are not alone, and that even through our most difficult times life, we can rest in God’s promises that He will never leave us if we trust in Him, and that He does have plans for our life that are always for our good. It may not always feel like that, but it it true.
If you have lived long enough to experience a broken heart, health concerns, relationship problems, financial challenges, or any number of other difficulties in life, then you know that it is hard to keep going when you are in the middle of it all. But once you come out into the sunlight of healing and wholeness, you can rejoice for God’s gift of grace.
So if you are struggling through days of weariness as a young mama, or searching for a way of escape from a hurtful or abusive situation, or worrying about a child that has gone astray, or devastated because of a broken marriage – you are not alone, and others have gone before you, who will tell you that you can get through this, too. You need to look to God for comfort, guidance, grace, and healing . . . and if you are willing . . . He can make you whole again.
I write this tonight after a conversation with someone I love dearly who is right there, right now, and afraid of the future. These are the days we need to stand up, show up, and determine to take steps in the right direction. Even baby steps will work, if you are walking towards the light of God’s love, so start moving. Take that first baby step, and just do the next right thing. Even if that is to go home and tuck your babies in, read your Bible to fill your mind with the truth of God’s Word, and get a good night’s sleep. Then, tomorrow, take a few more baby steps no matter how difficult it might be, just make sure you are walking towards God and He will guide you. He promised.
If you would like to print out either one of these Scripture verses, or upload them to your computer or your phone, just right click and “save as an image” to your computer. Put them right where you will be reminded of God’s endless love and that He will never leave you, no matter how many other people let you down, God never will. I promise.
************************************************************
The OCTOBER 2017 issue of RUBY magazine features inspirational articles, devotionals, short stories, book reviews, autumn crafts and recipes for you and your family. You’ll be inspired by true stories such as “God Knew My Name” by Nancy Frantel, poetry such as “The Queen of Long Division” by Joan Leotta and “Oak Trees Cling to their Leaves” by Rejetta Morse, craft projects in the “DIY Colorful Painted Pumpkins Collection,” and a yummy soup recipe for Stove Top Hash Brown Soup from Katherine Corrigan of Katherine’s Corner.
With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, we have a feature poem by a new RUBY writer, Caroline Emile which describes her journey through the diagnosis of breast cancer in “Another Mountain Still to Climb.” You can read about Jeanne Doyon’s journey as a young mama in “Mothering Challenge: Juggling” which is a sweet, humorous look at life with three children under the age of two. You will be encouraged by Shara Bueler-Repka’s story of “Beauty from Ashes,” and you will truly be amazed at God’s grace and provision in Sharon L. Patterson’s true story of her family’s experiences during Hurricane Harvey in “Our American Dunkirk.”
There is so much more in the October issue of RUBY magazine that will be a blessing to you and your family and you celebrate the joy and beauty of autumn. I hope you will take time to slow down, grab a cup of tea or coffee or hot cocoa, and read the inspiring words of all of our wonderful RUBY writers.
To read the October 2017 issue of RUBY magazine, click on the image above and you will be taken directly to the digital document that you can read online for FREE. The print publication will soon be available to purchase – every magazine that is purchased helps support the ministry of RUBY to a worldwide audience of women who need to hear words of blessing, inspiration, and encouragement to know that God loves them is sent His Son the Lord Jesus to be our Savior. Pass it on!
Actually, I didn’t know I was really “looking for” anything, but there was a sense that life is simply flying by pretty fast, our girls are growing up WAY too fast, and I can’t seem to keep up with all of the “stuff” of life that seems important. If you are one of those moms who can keep everything running smoothly, all of the time, I am in awe of you. But I have finally admitted to myself that I never have been able to do it all, no matter how hard I’ve tried. I guess I could just give up and acknowledge that I’m a failure . . . but that somehow just doesn’t seem right, either. And so I carry on, everyday striving to create a home environment where my family feels safe, loved, nurtured, and (occasionally) fed.
Well, it’s OK, I’m not saying I’m just one big mess (all of the time), but lately with all of the home renovation projects we’ve been working on, that’s exactly how it feels most days. In order to get the living room painted, the dishes piled up in the sink. We had grilled cheese sandwiches for supper, and there’s a basket of laundry that needs to be folded. At least it’s clean, but it still annoys me when I have to choose between finishing the painting project or scrubbing the bathroom. I just simply run out to time and energy to do it all. I’m looking forward to having the BIG projects finished, so that hopefully I will be able to face each day and only have to choose between washing the kitchen floor or writing a blog post. Well, something like that.
In any event, I’ve been doing some reading about a whole bunch of stuff when I’m just too exhausted to wash the dishes, fold the laundry, or paint one more wall, and I came across this concept called “hygge.” Couldn’t even pronounce it much less have a clue what it meant. But there seemed to be something about the articles I read that mentioned creating a home environment that is “cosy, comfy, intimate, and homey.” Sounded good to me, so I dug a bit deeper and learned a lot. One thing I discovered, more about myself than anything else, is that “hygge” is what I’ve tried to create in my home and with my family for a very long time. I just didn’t know it was a “thing” and that I wasn’t weird for longing for the comforts and security of “home.”
Here’s one of the websites that describe “hygge” and it is written by a woman who understands and explains it in a way that makes sense to me: http://hyggehouse.com/hygge
“Some also refer to hygge as an “art of creating intimacy” (either with yourself, friends and your home). While there’s no one English word to describe hygge, several can be used interchangeably to describe the idea of hygge such as cosiness, charm, happiness, ‘contentness’, security, familiarity, comfort, reassurance, kinship, and simpleness.
Danes created hygge because they were trying to survive boredom, cold, dark and sameness and the undefinable feeling of Hygge was a way for them to find moments to celebrate or acknowledge and to break up the day, months or years. With so many cold, dark, days, the simple act of a candle glowing with a cup of coffee in the morning or a home cooked evening meal with friends can make a huge difference to one’s spirit.
By creating simple rituals without effort {such as brewing real tea with a little china cup every evening to stopping at the flower shop every week} the Danes see both the domestic and personal life as an art form and not every drudgery to get away from. They incorporate hygge into their daily life so it becomes a natural extension rather than a forced and stressful event.
So whether it’s making coffee a verb by creating a ritual of making it every morning to a cosy evening in with friends where you’re just enjoying each others company to the simple act of lighting a candle with every meal, hygge is just about being aware of a good moment.
When I think back on all of the years that I invested in raising my older children, I remember doing things like making a pot of tea, lighting a candle in the evenings, putting on a pretty table cloth just because, or creating a cozy reading corner with a pretty rug, cuddly chair, fluffy blanket, and soft lighting. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I guess I have always practiced a form of my own “hygge.” But for lots of reasons, I think I forgot that part of my soul. Only one of those reasons being that life can get pretty hectic, and who’s got time to slow down long enough to cuddle up in a silly reading corner?
Lately, however, I’ve been thinking a lot about what this all means, and it just seems the right time for me to return to my roots, to re-connect with that part of my soul, and bring back some of the intentional, focused determination to live out every day with a sense of “being here.” Maybe technology is part of the problem, too. How many families spend their evenings with everyone watching a different movie, news channel, or scrolling through Facebook? Not that any of those things are “wrong” but I think, at least for me, we are missing each other. Maybe the Danes have this figured out. Maybe having long, cold, dark days of winter will force us to return to one another and discover the joy of “hygge.” Or whatever you want to call it, but it is interesting to me to realize that something I’ve been doing most of my life actually has a name. And it’s not “crazy.” That is big news to me!!!
I’m curious to know if anyone else has discovered the concept of “hygge” – and I would love to hear your thoughts and what you and your family do to stay connected. What do you think about all this “hygge” stuff?
PS here are a few more websites that describe and explain the concept of “hygge” just in case you are interested in learning more about it:
http://www.countryliving.com/life/a41187/what-is-hygge-things-to-know-about-the-danish-lifestyle-trend/
http://www.visitdenmark.com/hygge-denmark-coziness
(Aaaannnnddddd . . . unfortunately I also discovered that there are those who would turn this into a political conspiracy. Well, I guess if my taking a cup of tea on a wintry afternoon wrapped up in a cozy blanket in front of my fireplace creates some political statement, I certainly can’t figure out what it might be. Just being connected to family, friends, and my own soul are enough for me. No politics intended.)
Most of us have a bit of a challenge juggling all of the things in life that we do. As women we wear lots of different “hats,” and most of the time we manage to switch out our “hats” numerous times each day and keep everything running smoothly. But then there are other days. Days when it is just almost impossible to juggle everything that comes our way and calls our name and needs our attention. That’s why I’m working diligently this autumn to re-focus my time and energy in the directions that I really feel passionate about – and that of course means my family is first, but then after that . . . what? I’m pretty sure I’m not the only woman who faces this challenge every day. How about you?
One of my projects that I continue to be passionate about is RUBY magazine. Although this project came to me when I wasn’t looking, God continues to impress on my heart the need to create a platform where women can be heard. RUBY magazine is a place where your voice and your story are welcomed, respected, and encouraged. I’m not really sure why this project kind of “dropped out of the sky” (so to speak) into my life at the perfect time. I had just lost my job at a bank when the economy crashed in 2009 and I really, really wanted to be able to work from home so that I could be here with our girls who were eight and six at the time.
So when I received an email from a woman I had never met, asking me if I would be interested in helping her with an online Christian women’s magazine, it just seemed like a good thing to do. This wasn’t a “JOB” so I wouldn’t get paid; it was a volunteer opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself, reaching other Christian women with encouragement and inspiration, and I could do it from home. The internet can be a wonderful thing! I said “YES,” not having the slightest idea what it all meant.
Once we got started, and I got to know her a little bit, she shared with me that she was having some health problems and she wasn’t sure she would be able to continue the magazine project, and she wondered if I might be interested in taking over the whole thing . . . again, since writing and editing is what I have done for many years, it seemed to make sense to me. So the journey began. That was eight years ago and the ministry and work of RUBY has grown and developed into a monthly online as well as print publication with readers and writers from English-speaking countries all around the world.
As I approach the autumn season this year, and as I take a serious look at how to find and keep balance in my life, I know that RUBY magazine is definitely going to remain an important part of my life for a very long time. The other stuff? Well, I would love your input and ideas on how you keep things from becoming overwhelming. In addition to the editing and publication of RUBY magazine very month, I have my other creative projects which include my Etsy shops, and we are currently in the middle of a huge home update project. With two teenage daughters who are regular ol’ kids and like to do lots of fun stuff, that helps me get out and about and do other things occasionally besides work – so I’m in the process of re-evaluating and reorganizing my life.
I think I need to make a list of decide which three or four things are the most important right now, and then get myself re-focused and re-energized. Because, really when you are trying to do everything the pops up on the horizon, no matter how good all of those things might be, it will wear you out and you won’t be much good at anything. I know, because I’ve tried it. How do you find balance and focus in your life? I’m surely open to ideas!
PS if you would like to read the September issue of RUBY magazine, just click on the image above and it will take you to the digital document. If you would like to purchase the current issue of the magazine, here is the link: https://www.createspace.com/7529230
AND if you are a writer and think you might like to consider submitting an inspirational article, short story, poem, book review, craft or recipe for an upcoming issue of RUBY, please stop by our blog and get all the details here: http://rubyforwomen.com/submissions/
Would love to hear from YOU!
