when i get crafty...

Photographers have dark rooms. Mechanics have garages. Artists have studios. And me? I have the floor in my bedroom. When I scrapbook and make cards, it is usually uncontainable. There is paper, adhesives, embellishments, paints, etc. spread almost to a 360 degree angle around where I sit.

So when barely anyone was home this past Sunday night, I decided to set up shop and take over the floor of my room. I hadn't been crafty in a while so I decided to challenge myself with limiting my materials and have some sort of theme since I wasn't making the cards for anything in particular.

What I was allowed to use: 1 piece of patterned paper, the brown fabric ribbon I salvaged from some store's bag, 1 other form of embellisment, paint, metallic rub-on paint, and adhesives

Theme: I attempted to incorporate different forms or shapes of a flower on each card.

Here is what I came up with!




Not the most creative cards in the world, but I had a lot of fun making flowers out of different materials. :)

twilight

I searched the entire store walking through each lovely aisle, pausing every once in a while to scan covers and read first chapters, but in the end, it wasn't there. It had to be, I thought. I took one final lap around the store before finally giving in. I knew I must have blindly slipped over it.

The salesman could tell I had a question. I shyly moved toward him, made eye contact and with the largest attempt at being casual (as if it wasn't for me) asked where I could find the Twilight series books.

"Ah, yes," he said immediately. He walked me over to a stand I swear I had circled, but there they were. All four in their glory.

"Thank you," I said. I think he could tell I was shy about it.

"You are only on the second one?" he said.

"Yes, have you read them?" I asked grasping for some hope that other people my age read young adult fiction still.

"I had to for the release party," he said. I responded with a knowing nod. He continued though. "At least, that's my excuse."

Then I relaxed and may have delved a little too much about how I am absolutely in love with the books despite the fact that they were written for "young adults." I guess I'm a young adult still, I'm only 22.

This past week I have been all too enthralled by Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. I finished the nearly 500 page book in a matter of 5 days and most likely will be making another trip for the third book in the next week. There is something about fiction and fantasy tied together that draws me (and thousands of others based on the ratings) in. Although, I may be slowly sinking away from reality more and more and fall deeper in love with the protagonists, I find reading a perfectly acceptable form of doing so.

to tweet or not to tweet

Twitter has taken the nation by storm, at least it is trying to. Bloggers and social networking buffs have taken to it like wildfire, however, the rest of the media world is still skeptical.

My good friend Michelle nearly sold me on it this summer. I decided to wait and see how many people would actually use the status-update like media to find out when "Jack is eating cereal" and "Jill is at the zoo." It didn't strike me as utterly enticing to let people know when I was getting ready for work in the morning or walking to lunch.

I found the humor in it though when my friend, Michelle, started "tweeting" updates like "In the company of hundreds of glazed eyed, Mickey-ear-wearing tourists" instead of simply saying "I am at Disneyland." I have began to view Twitter as a challenge. A challenge to create an interesting spunky sentence out of mundane moments in less than 140 characters. What really sold me on Twitter was this video. Pretty soon you just may be able to see me "tweeting."

abstinence university

'Weekend Sunrise', an Australian television show similar to America's 'Good Morning America', featured two Biola students this weekend. I had the pleasure of coordinating the short interview that was broadcast live across Australia Sunday morning (their time) with the producers of the show.

Saturday, I drove the two students, Josh and Lindsey, to the show's LA studio for the interview. We had a bit of an adventure finding the place and between making a few u-turns, illegal maneuvers and pulling into an odd circular drive, finally decided to park and walk. Luckily, we had parked right next to the appropriate building. Even more so, I didn't have a parking ticket when we returned.

Josh and Lindsey did a wonderful job and were eloquent in their answers regarding the community standards agreement at Biola involving abstinence - sexual and substance. View the video here.

Although it is humorous that we were referred to as Abstinence University, this was a great avenue for the university's message and the students' beliefs to be shared. Also, I would love to work with this show's crew again. Besides the fact that their accents make me swoon, they were incredibly courteous and simply put, nice people.

my pen stopped today

The pen is the pulse of a journalist's thoughts, the mind's object of affection where thoughts flow and turn to prose on paper.

Today, my pen stopped.

Often I am able to suppress my emotions and remain focused. It's not that I don't have a heart, it is that I am a survivor. I continue to survive through difficult situations and ignore the way I feel to move toward a more important cause. Today, I couldn't allow myself to do that. As I learned about a professor's husband who is in the ICU after surviving the Metrolink crash Friday, I had to put my pen down. This distant tragedy was no longer distant, but close to home and to my heart. It was close to my pulse, which had to stop. I didn't allow tears to flow, although I wanted to, but as I read the news stories and gathered information about the professor, I broke out into hives.

I realized since I wasn't allowing myself to react, my body was going to without my permission. It may have been stress or simply the saddening feeling of someone in pain, I'm not sure. I eventually picked my pen up again, but it made me wonder why I had such a hard time doing so. When does the pen turn from a warm heart of telling a person's story to a cold shoulder towards emotion? Or, out of respect, should I tell the story at all? This doesn't apply to the nature of this story alone, but it made me wonder today.

Please pray for the professor, her husband and their three children.

be still

The concept to be still is a tale as old as time, but something completely new to me. My efforts to be still are often far and few between because of my busy life. However, with that has come a lack of attention towards my creator.

On Sunday, Mike Erre described being still with the image of a child after a day at Disneyland in their father's arms - allowing yourself to be complete dead weight, no effort to hold your head up, comforted by arms that hold you tightly, and arms that you can trust to carry you home. That image resonates with my mind, but it is a concept my heart is still grasping.

RH dedicated this week to pursue God as they look to the holy spirit to guide the church into the next year. The week, called Awakened, has woken me up each day at 5:30 to travel to church for a "service" from 6 to 7 a.m. I only intended to attend the Monday service. I figured one day would show I was committed, but would not interfere with my schedule. Needless to say the week has interfered with my schedule more than I thought it would.

Each day, it is harder to get out of bed, but easier to make the decision to do so. The week has been a time of being still in the mornings, listening to God. When I arrive at the church, I speak to no one, but sit on the floor of the sanctuary alongside other church members. Two staff members lead the morning times. The best way to describe it would be contemplative prayer and worship. I'm not sure if to say that I have fallen in love with God again is a good way to comprehend what I have been learning, but this has been a week of rediscovery. It has been a week of deepening my understanding of my relationship with Him, my love for Him and His love for me. It has been a week of awakening.

I need to rip up my planner and allow interference in my schedule more often.