On being thankful...

BiscuitForBlog, originally uploaded by Velvet Lime Designs.

So, my “then” 8-year-old wrote a persuasive essay in school a few months back on how she REALLY wanted a guinea pig. And she gave REALLY great reasons and I believed she would take care of it. But I put my foot down..."NO rodents in my house!!" Besides, we already have an 80 lb yellow Lab who would probably not take so kindly to small animals. My daughter never bugged me about it...she'd mentioned it a time or two. Her birthday was coming up and her friends asked what she wanted. I guess she resigned herself to the fact that she would not be getting a “real“ guinea pig so she asked for a Webkinz guinea pig (that's an expensive stuffed animal for your newbies). A few days before her birthday, my husband found a gift card on my desk that we hadn't used yet. God knows we could have used that on other things right now but he wanted to get her a guinea pig.

On her 9th birthday (yesterday), we surprised my daughter! We blindfolded her and told her we were taking her somewhere special to celebrate her birthday. We took her to the front doors of Petco and took the blindfold off. The look on her face was absolutely priceless and she had big tears in her eyes (which in turn made me tear up!). She couldn't believe it! She got to choose the guinea pig she wanted...and after throwing some names around, she settled on Biscuit.

Of course, she and her sister spent the rest of the day playing with Biscuit. She came downstairs THREE times that afternoon to tell me how HAPPY she was...“Mommy, I am SO happy!” with the biggest grin on her face. And each time, she'd give us a big hug to go with it. It made me happy to see that she got something her heart really desired. And it's just this little ol' rodent...you can see how happy she is by that grin!

She's got that “old soul” in a kid's body. She wrote us a note earlier this year saying she was grateful for food on the table and a roof over our heads. And as challenging as the last year has been, I am grateful for that, too. I think we could all benefit from standing back and thinking about the little things that most people overlook....the stuff that most people take for granted...And realize how lucky and blessed we are for what we have because there's a lot of people who aren't so lucky.

So, my big 9-year-old girl, you are MOST WELCOME for your guinea pig. Thank you for putting it all into perspective...

*Marybeth*

Letting The Light Shine Through ...

WhatIsASaint, originally uploaded by Velvet Lime Designs.

A little child on a summer morning stood in a great cathedral church. The sunlight streamed through the beautiful stained glass windows and the figures on them were bright with brilliant color. A little later the question was asked, "What is a saint?" and the child replied, "a saint is a person who lets the light shine through."

Letting the light shine through is what we aspire to do each day ... in our lives and in our work. We're nurturing this thought and plan to bring it into a new design image.

Here's a view of the original source of the above quote ... an inscription in a book from my husband during our engagement. The pencil lines are courtesy of Rebecca at the age of 3.

Laura

Our Wall of Promises©

WallOfPromises, originally uploaded by Velvet Lime Designs.

One more post today...we just recently had a photoshoot at Laura's house. We’re calling our collection a “Wall of Promises©”...after all, if you read all of them, they really are promises to you. "He will send His angels...", "Having hope gives us courage“, “the smallest seed of faith...” There's more coming. We have notebooks full of ideas and our brains are brimming with even more. We’d love to have feedback on our artwork. What are some of your favorite PROMISES????

The girls of summer

GirlsOfSummer, originally uploaded by Velvet Lime Designs.

My two daughters and a friend, Olivia, yesterday in the backyard...on a beautiful, sunny day. They love running barefoot (who doesn't??) in the backyard on the zoysia grass that my husband so loves to take care of (seriously!). I made them gather around so I could take a quick photo. They make me laugh. They are like those comedians on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?“ They can play with or make a game out of anything. No jump rope? No problem...we'll use the garden hose. Doing a TV interview? Let's move around the deck furniture to create the studio and we'll have Oprah show up to do the interview. Seriously creative kids here and they can do this for hours (thankfully). I wish it were as easy for adults to get that lost in creativity and no worries for a while. Some good lessons to be learned by watching them...

When you’re at the beach...

....take photos of your bike ride instead! Well, I did take photos on the beach, too. But I decided to take some early morning bike rides when the sun was coming up. The sun was shining through these GORGEOUS trees along the bike path! I felt like God was shining His light right on me that morning so I stopped and snapped a few photos... This is the kind of continued inspiration for our artwork that I don't even go out looking for. It's right there in front of you when you slow down to take it all in. I went a little farther down the bike path after this and fed the horses at the stable some carrots. I wish I had gotten some photos of them, too.