One Lovely Blog Award

 This is the first time I have been able to celebrate a blogging award! Thank you very much to Hannah Mcconnell at "Daughter By Design" who was so sweet and shared it with me. For my  friends who aren't familiar with her blog, please stop by and visit! Her stunning creativity, and home/infant designs are GORGEOUS to say the least.

The privilege of this award comes with some criteria which I am pleased to do.First, seven things you may not know about me:


1. I grew up most my life a full on tom-boy. Many thanks to my mother and sister who dedicated much of their time to refining the lady in me before hubby and I met!


2. I am left-handed (I suppose this means I am either special, crazy, or both)! However, my identical twin sister is right handed.


3. I have had the privilege of traveling to Cambodia a couple times, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Honduras a few times also. I love the Nations and desire to see God exalted by every tribe and tongue. But I do however, have a particular LOVE for my family in Cambodia, my brothers and sisters in Christ and the Heritage House Children there.

4. I am one of 5 musicians in our family of 6. I have been playing guitar for going on 13+ years along with my father and brother.

5. I love the outdoors, I'd would usually much rather be out in the heat playing hard, than sitting in the air conditioning.

6. Hmmm.... running out of details!! My favorite food is Chili.

7. And I have learned that I love to cook, though, growing up I can remember spending time in the kitchen very seldom.

Ok!  Step 1 now finished, I get to share this award with other bloggers I know and love!

Constant in Chaos- Catherine is a real inspiration to me, her life is a beautiful image of honesty and encouragement.

Funky Junk Interiors- Donna is full of fun, thrilling, affordable ideas!

A Room For Everyone- A gorgeous home, just reading the blog title makes you feel cozy!

Studio JRU- Jennifer, who is a lovely artists also seeking to glorify God with her creativity. I LOVE meeting people with the same heart. Her work is beautiful too!

And last but not least:  Blushing Rose- Marydon owns an antique store, and has a lovely blog reflecting her store, and her walk with God. Beyond her blog, I have enjoyed her friendship and support of my blogging journey for as far back as I can remember starting it!

Thanks again Hannah! And Happy 4th of July to all. May we remember how blessed we are.

They That Wait on the Lord

"They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as Eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not grow faint."Isaiah 40:31

To wait on the Lord, is to place ALL hope in Him, who is the author and the finisher of our faith, the creator of Heaven and Earth. This painting was finished by Jonathan just a little while ago, and this verse, this lifestyle has been his inspiration for it.

It's a simple taste of Heaven.

Art Reflections

Well, I started posts a while back of a painting in progress. Yes, the artist is finally finished!  It has been a long anticipated, well drawn out process, but it is stunning, and well worth the wait!

If you remember we started with this:

 The blank canvas

An Idea

 The beginnings of creation

 A hint

And then.........................................

"Art Reflecting Art"- a 30"x30" Jonathan Howe Original! Isn't it lovely, and so unique? I can be guaranteed that NO ONE ELSE has seen a painting quite like this.

Hope you enjoyed the sneak peeks, and the finished work!

Hither to and Yon

My dear friends. I fear I owe you all a much deserved apology for my long absence! I spoke boldly to a friend a few weeks back that I would be posting soon, and unfortunately, this has not been the case.
I hope that I might find some sympathy and understanding after I explain what our busy lives have been involved in these past few weeks. We have had a month of shows, spent time planning for a camping trip, and returned only a little while ago.
Camping trips might seem no big deal, but truly, when you are taking 19 teenagers to camp in tents, it is a work of love! We richly enjoyed ourselves, and the fellowship we had with the teens we love so much.

Anyway, we are home, recovered, and now preparing to leave for the Dominican Republic with a few of our youth again in July! Time has flown, and caught me by surprise.

During our short time home however, I have been focusing on simplifying my home, and organizing my life, so that I can better, more effectively support and serve Jonathan through our business. (When I have accomplished even a portion of my goals I will be happy to share them ;). Today, as I was "decluttering", I was sweetly distracted by Jonathan's old stash of sketchbooks, all hidden away in a tub in a closet. I pulled them out, and found so many little treasures. Some he drew 10-11 years ago!

I just LOVE birds, I have some hand-carved, vintage frames scoped out for these beauties!

He has such natural talent. He sees an interesting character, a photo, someone on TV, etc... And for pleasure draws something this beautiful! This truly was such a fun stash of drawings to dig through.

Some of you are probably wondering what happened to our mystery "painting in progress", well Mr. Artist has finally decided to call it done, and signed it yesterday. You will be seeing it very soon!

Having a Bad Day?

Having a bad day?

Discouraged?

Look to God! Who cares for you!

For He loves me with an everlasting love. And will supply all my needs!

 

Baby Portrait

Well, I told you all last night that I'd post Jonathan's project... But blogger seemed to have a bit of a hiccup!  Anyway, we're back online and happy to say hello!

Last night was my brother-in-laws graduation ceremony, he has his Masters now. We are so proud. Since Sunday is his and my sister's 2 year wedding anniversary and next week is his birthday, we has a party and celebrated his month of big events!

And as a gift Jonathan has been working on this:

Ain't it cute ya'll?!

Day #3

Well, today Jonathan has ventured into other projects, for some special people in our lives... After tonight I will be posting all about it!

Jonathan has still found time to do some work on the painting however,  so here is my third hint of a picture!

The Process Day #2

Good morning!  Jonathan's already been working away in the studio.  Something about "new subject matter" really excites him... So he wakes up to paint!

Here he is in process, this was yesterdays preparation:

He's "drawn off" his canvas, laid out the size and placement, this is his first step with the canvas.
Then it's time to begin to paint away!

It's blurred on purpose!  Can't give away any more details, then this! You will have to wait until it's finished.
 This is just part of the first layer... This painting will go through several layers before it is complete.

Here he is today working some more on the first layer:

I have made most of it black and white, but there's a little more to keep you interested.  Stay in touch... There's much more to come!

Starting Creative

After a busy couple of weeks, it's time to begin creating again. We have been running and gunning, holding our heads just above the vast sea of "to-dos".  But today is the day Jonathan calms himself, and begins to make something beautiful.

So here he is, planning away on his sketch pad, in his studio. Our little room in the back of the house.

The blank canvas waiting to come to life (I love how he surrounds himself with beautiful works he's done in the past while he paints, see the portrait?)

His studio is scattered with the artist's gems...

... Looks like we're going to have a painting of some beautiful birds soon.. A new kind of painting from Jonathan Howe, so stay in touch!

Amber says "Come back again very soon!"

We Did It!

You know we all have those weeks where you begin to pull your hair out, and find a way to beat it's memories out of your brain? That was my week last week. But even in looking back, after feeling heavy of heart for the longest time, after my little "storm", I can now see clearly that it wasn't all that bad!

Monday last, Jonathan and I drove up to Alabama (I can see you're already thinking "oh-no!") to visit his grandparents. Two lovely, wonderful people. They have the gift of making you feel so welcomed. We spent Monday, through Tuesday afternoon, and left later with a HUGE aluminum boat of the top of his grandfathers old van. He was letting us borrow the van to haul the boat home.
A little over 100 miles out on our journey home (in Chattanooga),  the vans transmission went out... on the interstate... during rush hour. We were stuck in Chattanooga for four hours trying to transfer the heavy boat to our car to get home. We almost got a hotel that night, because all the mechanics were closed, but we were thankfully pressed to move on and go home, this made possible by Granddad who offered to pick the van up. We drove through rain the remaining 3 hours home, to a tree that fell across our yard! LOL So we stayed with my parents Tuesday night, cut down the tree Wednesday (many thank to my father-in-law Tom who beasted it with the chainsaw!), just in time for the nasty, heavy, string of storms to hit.

I thought to myself.... could this week get any worse?!  Well, after a couple more events through the week (which I won't bore you with further details), I was OVER it!

I began to look back through the weeks events (ready to complain some more), and realized:

I had the most delicious Pecan Pie, the biggest breakfast, and the funnest time of fellowship with my grandmother and my grandfather (in-law). We caught up, and enjoyed our time thoroughly.  We left for Alabama, the evening before the tree fell, and it fell exactly where we park our car!  We would've lost the only car we have. THEN we were able to drive home Tuesday instead of Wednesday, which, enabled us to miss all the Tornadoes. WOW! So somehow, through "disastrous" events, God was protecting us from disaster! I also have an amazing father-in-law who will bend over backwards to help us out when we need it. Who will cut down a tree in our front yard to keep it from doing more damage, WHILE IT'S RAINING.  And then Saturday.....

 We got to enjoy our blessings.

 We soaked up the sun...

 Enjoyed the views....

And allowed the Lord to reveal his sovereignty to my heart... It really wasn't all that bad... In fact, Jesus saved us this week from what could have been really bad.

My prayers go out to those who were truly impacted by the storms...

God is good, all the time!