Saturday, February 14, 2009

With Love on Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Hello to all my sweet friends on this lovely Valentine's Day! I just wanted you to know I was thinking of you, wishing I could give each of you a big hug and say...

Thank You!

thank you for sharing your life and loves,
your inspiration and creativity,
your ups and downs,
your sorrows and joys,
your encouragements and pet-peeves,
your family stories and thrifting adventures,
your sweet pets,
garden projects,
delicious recipes,
decorating tips,
crafting ideas,
business acumen,
silly goof-ups,
Spiritual insights,
and more...
In short - thank you for sharing...
YOU!

We are all the richer for it!

May God Bless each and every one of you!

Monday, February 09, 2009

Outsourcing and Downsizing

(click image to enlarge)
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I'm finally able to share what I have been wanting to tell you for weeks now: after 10 and a half years, this is my last week at my full-time corporate training job...my role and responsibilities, and those of my teammates, have been outsourced overseas. We were given a somewhat open-ended amount of time to find another position within the company, but I have to tell you, as soon as I found out this was happening (in late November), I KNEW this was my opportunity to take a big leap of faith...



...and step into the life I know that I was created to live...a "quiet life" of working with my hands...the life of an artist...

However, this change definitely required downsizing our budget, our lifestyle, and our home. And the first of many miracles surrounding this change happened the very next day after I found out my job was going away - we found a buyer for our home! He would be ready to move mid-late February. Now we had a date; now we knew what to do next...

...LOTS of work to re-furbish my sweet hubby's old bachelor pad - a circa 1982 3/2 , 14' x 80' mobile home on a beautiful wooded acre in the country, west of Houston, that he owned outright. Our fully paid-for blessing from God! We kept the place after we got married in 2007, but never did much to it. Suddenly, now, this trailer was to be our home, and boy, did it need a lot of work...structurally as well as cosmetically...






...and we are still working on it...every spare minute...working against the clock...trying to finish everything in time to move...and trying to simultaneously pack here...that's why I've been so out of touch...

The transformation is coming along great - but it will be a work-in-progress for some time. I CAN"T WAIT to share all the before and after photos! And I will...

...but first...I have a whole lot more of this to do...

And of course, I will have much, much more to share with you very soon about my new artistic adventures! And who knows - with more time on my hands, I might actually become a more consistent blogger! Hey, miracles CAN happen you know!
I am so very excited and so very blessed to have this opportunity to pursue the dreams and desires that God has put in my heart, and my husband's heart as well. I can't wait to see where He takes us!!
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“To enjoy your work and to accept your lot in life – that is indeed a gift from God. The person who does that will not need to look back with sorrow on his past, for God gives him joy.”
Ecclesiastes 5:20 (TLB)