Monthly Archives: March 2015

Painted Petals

I have been MIA for a short while.  I’ve been busy, but I don’t remember what I’ve been busy with.  I guess that is another sign that I might be loosing it!  LOL!

Seriously, I’ve been substitute teaching two days a week for the last few weeks.  However, in all honesty, last week was Spring Break, and I didn’t do any subbing.  I did spend most of last week cleaning out my basement.  Unfortunately, I am not finished with that project yet, but it does look a thousand times better.  I did a little baking last week as well.  That is something that I don’t do all that often.  It isn’t like we NEED that kind of stuff, but I got a craving for something home-baked.  I made chocolate raspberry orange bread on Friday.  I had some raspberries in the freezer from our bushes and decided to use them because I know I will get more to freeze this summer.   It was quite tasty, even if I do say so myself!  I’ve also been stamping and this is one of the cards I came up with.  Thought I’d better share it since Sale-a-bration ends today and I used a Sale-a-bration product on it.  I also used a pencil eraser to make the yellow polka dots and flower centers.  I read somewhere that someone had done that.  I thought it was pretty neat!

paintedpetalsNot much more going on here.  Hope you like the card.  Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2

 

 

Five Signs You Are Loosing It

You  know you are loosing it when you ask where your cell phone is while talking on it,  or you mistake a kitchen cabinet for the refrigerator when you are putting away milk.  You also know you are loosing it when you put something away for safe keeping then can’t find it when you need it.  (This is true stuff here!  I’ve done all of these.)

You know you are loosing it when you walk around the house for 10 minutes looking for your glasses only to discover they are exactly where you left them…on the top of your head.  Honestly, I get so used to having them up there sometime, I don’t feel them after a while.  And sometimes, when they aren’t up there I think they are and reach for them.

I used to do the same with my classroom keys when I was teaching.  No, I didn’t wear them on my head; I’d wear them on a lanyard around my neck.  I would on occasion find myself teaching and keeping 35 kids in line, while looking for my keys to open my classroom  closet only for one of my students to say to me, “Mrs. Cauler, they are hanging around your neck.”  Invariably, the class would erupt in laughter, and so would I.  You just have to learn to laugh at yourself!

I think the root cause for having these kinds of memory lapses is having children and a husband!  They are also the reason for gray hair and wrinkles.  A colleague once told me of the time she asked a 97 year-old nun in Colorado Springs  her secret to such beautiful and wrinkle free skin.  Sister’s response was, “I’ve never been married, and I’ve never had kids.”

You know your husband is loosing it when he can’t figure out why his socks are too tight and you have to tell him he inadvertently pulled a pair of your socks out of the laundry basket; not his.

Here’s my card for today.  I used the Sheltering Tree stamp set by Stampin’ Up!

sheltering tree

Hope you enjoyed your visit here today.  Until next time…

Happy stamping!

Josie2

 

 

 

 

Lotus Blossom

I never knew much about the lotus flower until I decided to post a photo of one of the cards I made using the Lotus Blossom stamp set by Stampin’ Up!.  After reading this article, you will probably say I still don’t know much, but I was at a loss as to what I should write.  Surely, you want to read about more than what paper and ink I used, right?  So, in my brief research (enough to make me dangerous) about the lotus flower, I found two websites that were helpful in giving me information about the symbolism and meaning behind this beautiful  plant.  You can click HERE and HERE to go to each of these websites for more in depth information if you are interested. However, this is a little of what I’ve learned about the lotus from my reading.  (Don’t you just love the internet?  We’ve got a world of information right at our fingertips!)

The lotus flower has significance in Hinduism, Buddhism and the ancient Egyptian culture.  A lotus is a water lily.  DUH!  I didn’t realize that so please don’t laugh too much at my ignorance.  🙂

In ancient Egypt, the lotus is associated with rebirth and the sun.  It is a symbol of rebirth because Egyptians believed the blossom closed up and sunk back under the water from which it grew at night only to re-bloom  (reborn)  the next morning.  They associated the Lotus with the sun because the sun also disappeared at night and re-emerged in the morning. “Therefore the lotus came to symbolize the Sun and the creation.”

In Buddhism, lotus blossoms are symbols of purity, spiritual awakening, and faithfulness since the flowers grow from the bottom of ponds where dirty water, pond sludge, plant debris dirt, etc. surrounds them. They are symbols of purity because they grow up from all of this muck without a spot of dirt on their petals.  From looking at the blossoms, one would never be able to tell of their “dirty” beginnings.  How often do you think of all of the “stuff” that is in the water they grow in when you see the blossom?  When I see the flower that is just what I see—the beauty of its perfection and its purity, especially if it is white.  Different colored flowers symbolize different things. Red represents love and passion; the pink lotus is considered sacred. Purple even has a specific meaning!

The lotus in Hinduism symbolizes beauty, fertility, prosperity, spirituality, and eternity with the white lotus having special significance. You can read more about the lotus on both of the websites where I got most of my information.

 

So here’s my card…

Lotus Blossom-1

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

Josie2