A little PEACE for you today!

We're dancing around our studio today at the arrival of our PEACE CROSS garden flags that we designed for Carson Gifts.  It's been an absolute joy to work with this company and in addition to this garden flag, they've selected some of our artwork for other products that will roll out in 2014.  Carson Gifts selected a soft, silky fabric for this garden flag and we are just thrilled with the quality of the finished product. It kind of floats in the air like a cloud with the slightest breeze ... very different than most stiff garden flags. Since we simply create artwork for manufacturers and companies and don't sell things on our site, we'll leave the Amazon link below, for those of you who might like to have one for your garden or a friend's garden.
Thoughts of peace flow from every garden, to those who pause to listen, and this little flag reminds us to slow down and rest in the peace God sends us everyday.  
With peace and love,
The Velvet Lime Girls
http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Flag-Peace-Cross-Inches/dp/B00FI6LTGK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382717443&sr=8-1&keywords=peace+cross+garden+flag

Transformations

 You have so much hidden inside of you. So much strength, courage, ability, gifts, love, joy and beauty to spill out in this big world.  It's easy to get focused on just what we see on the outside, or what we are feeling, experiencing or living in at the moment. Those hard, crusty times that try their best to hold us back, reign us in, and freeze us into thinking that this is how life will be forever.

This little flower sure could have felt that way all summer long. When every flower in the garden was blooming away, it stood stiff and green, encapsulated in a fuzzy, firm shell. 

Unnoticed. Hidden. Obscure. 

Stuck forever in the plain and ordinary doldrums. 

But inside, a transformation was going on, and at the right moment, that hard, compressed shell just split open and a beautiful new creation burst out. 

ALL THIS was inside that tiny bud the whole time!

This new creation doesn't even look like it came from the same plant!  It has a new nature, a new look, a new "countenance" about it...and life will never be the same for this little flower! Gone are those doldrum days when it's beauty, grace and potential were hidden. 

This flower reminds us of the "new life", the total transformation, the absolute turn-around that can happen in our lives when we connect with God. We can be completely changed.  We can become "a new species of being that never existed before". We can let the very nature of God indwell us. And that really changes everything. It's only a matter of time before things begin to even look different around you, because you'll be viewing life with a renewed outlook, a renewed vision and a transformed set of eyes.

We like the way The Message says it:

"Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!

 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Celebrating transformations in the garden and in lives,

The Velvet Lime Girls

The Jewels of Autumn

The "Jewels of Autumn" are here. Pomegranates!

Those round, plump, crown-topped orbs, that hold  glistening, shimmering, translucent, rose-tinged, succulent seeds called arils.
                 

A pomegranate tree grows near our studio and we were delighted to pick some recently.

Oh, what a thrill it is to open up a fresh picked pomegranate. It's like opening a package with a million little gifts inside.

Those little gifts, the translucent arils hiding inside, are nestled in creamy compartments and seem to explode in celebration when the outer skin is peeled back.

Like rose-colored confetti tumbling out of a piñata, they pop, back-flip and jump out, with saucy exclamations of "surprise!"  It's like they've been having a party inside there all along, and we've just been invited to join in.

What a delight their sweet, slightly tart, pops of flavor bring!  You just need to go try one, fresh from the market or a tree.  Even if it's not your cup of tea, it's a treat for the eyes with its color combinations, varied textures and "crown top" calyx.

These pomegranates have had us musing about all their lovely mentions in literature, poetry and quotes.For centuries, they've graced historic columns, symbolized favored blessings and whispered softly in romantic tales and legends.  Our favorite mention from history, however, is the simple one found below.  It's a promise, much like the pomegranate itself, filled with numerous assurances of good things to come. 

"... walk down the roads God shows you and reverently respect Him. God is about to bring you into a good land...it’s a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey.  

Deuteronomy 8:6-8

So, if your world is a little dry, your surroundings a little barren, your spirit a little thirsty...let our pomegranates encourage you today.  They grow and thrive in dry, barren, thirsty climates...always carrying the "promises" inside their hearts.

Enjoying our juicy pomegranates today...one little aril, one little promise, at a time,

The Velvet Lime Girls

P.S. A special thanks to Maria & Andreas Ladikos...
 for sharing their pomegranates.