Who Me? Blog?

I guess it was about 2010 when a customer came in to buy some fabric.  She had picked out several interesting prints and had me cut one foot pieces and I asked her what she was making.  She explained that she was starting a food blog and that she would use the fabric to accent the dishes that she made and would photograph.  I was intrigued and asked what I could do to see the end result.  She gave me the title of her blog and became a follower for the first time.  I was impressed that a young mom would put herself out there on the world wide web and be motivated to share about food.  Now that was a subject that is still near & dear to my heart.  It was going well for a little while and then there were some issues with her platform or the web management.

About that time, my daughter had told me about The Pioneer Woman who was a very popular blogger who cooked, took pictures, lived on a ranch and gave away Kitchenaide mixers.  I subscribed to her blog as well.  I think she won the most popular/most subscribers award that year and the rest is history. My daughter entered several photographs she had taken in TPW themed photography contests even one of her parents in our back yard.  The theme was love & Rhea commented about the photo and my daughter got a $50 gift certificate.  Cool!

In 2012, I retired from my job of 18 years and became a 'what do I do with myself' person.  Since every day was Saturday now, I spent many hours reading blogs and then discovered YouTubes!  Oh My!  Where have I been?  I found that there were people out there that made their own diy videos!  Scrapbooking, cardmaking, bookmaking, stamping, mixed media.  Bloggers made their own videos too!  Well, being a long time crafter, I had gathered/collected/hoarded a house full of fabric, stamps, paper, yarn, etc. and now could make more stuff. It was a dream come true, right?  I did this 'n that with no particular purpose.

Gained some weight and then got into making books:junk journals, mini albums, paper bag albums, back to back albums, with pockets, tags, flips, flaps, embellishments, banners, die cut shapes (I had a Cricut Expression & Silhouette; Big Shot with Sizzix dies first then the steel ruled ones; punches and more punches, et al.  I've made at least one of each but didn't know what to put in them.

At my 45th Class reunion in 2013 one of the games we played was What's on your Bucket List?  Write down three of your top things on a piece of paper. Everyone stood up and proceeded to read one of their items out loud.  If someone else had the same goal, they both sat down.  I stayed standing until the end.  :)  Hmmm, it was my idea about the Bucket List, so should I have been disqualified?  Oh well.  I've misplaced that paper at the moment (that happens to me a lot) but my three items were:
1) Bless someone every day
2) See my grandchildren graduate & marry
3) Create my 'life albums' by the decades

At our Women's Conference this year, a guest speaker called out leaders of ministries, groups to come down for prayer.  I went down and received a blessing.  Yes, confirmed, me :)  As I walked back to my seat, the speaker was praying over someone else and I heard her say, "And you will write a blog..." That's all I heard and it stuck with me.  Oh, not me, but maybe...

Last month I attended a Bible Journaling class at a local Christian Bookstore.  It was just the shove I needed.  It's opened up a world that I never thought I could be a part of.  My page didn't need to look like any one else's, I had to make it my own, what was God saying to me?  I had permission to express myself and worship God and decorate the pages.  I just had to do it and not listen to the voices of doubt, fear and insecurity; that my handwriting wasn't consistently even and pretty but it was about releasing my thoughts, discovering His promises that I had heard and read so many times.  It is about the journey after all.  Documenting the places that God has taken you to and through and being able to read again and again that God is Faithful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fmRA7i8ORY

Andrea says everything I thought of too.

II Timothy 3  NLT
14  But you must keep on believing the things you have been taught.  You know they are true for you know that you can trust those of us who have taught you.
15  You know how, when you were a small child, you were taught the holy Scriptures; and it is these that make you wise to accept God's salvation by trusting in Christ Jesus.
16  The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right.
17  It is God's way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.