Strength, Wisdom, Peace

We created a little mid-week encouragement for you.

A bright-faced graphic that just seems to say it all.

So walk in strength, wisdom and peace today and have a wonderful Wednesday!

The Velvet Lime Girls

Chive-Talking

A tousled-head of garden chive caught our eye this morning. It's spiky, feathery, petal tips, still tossing around drops of dew, were just beginning to stretch in the morning light and awake to the joy of today.  What an inspiration!

Chives aren't used to being seen so up-close and personal, and they're kind of just known for those slender, savory stems that infuse our food with flavor. Mmm, your tastebuds should be humming right now at the thought of a few minced wisps of chives.  A tiny sliver can change the whole palate. And this slender chive strand changed the whole palate in our garden today, as it stood up and overflowed with hope in the morning light.  If a little chive can do that, we can too.  We can choose to lift our tousled heads and let hope overflow in our lives. 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13

Overflowing with hope,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Never Give Up

Here's a little encouragement just for you today.  A reminder that with God nothing is impossible. Absolutely nothing. He's actually able to do more than we can even ask or think, and He's concerned about the things that concern us. (Ephesians 3:20 and Psalm 138:8)

We hope our Grace-Graphic™ lifts your spirit today and gives you the kind of tenacity, that says in the face of any challenge, "Never, never, never give up." Winston Churchill 

Churchill had it right when he refused to give up, and you can do the same. You can tap into the strength, determination and reassurance that God offers to you. He's right here, ready to help you.  We like the way The Message conveys the kind of care He offers:

"Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds." Matthew 6:26

So let the little bluebird above, peeking down to a powerful promise in our Grace-Graphic™, be a reminder that you're cared for and absolutely nothing is impossible for you, with God.

Careless in the care of God,
The Velvet Lime Girls

FAITH

Faith DOES thank God!  Right smack in the middle of the story. 

"Like an arrow that's already been shot, it reaches forward to grab hold of God's promises." Rick Renner

If you're in the middle of a story right now, facing a challenge, an impossibility or uncertainty, we're sending this graphic out today to encourage you.  To remind you that your faith in God is powerful.

While reading Sparkling Gems From the Greek, we found out that the Greek word for faith is pistis, a word that "denotes a force that is forward-directed and aggressive - never passive or backward-reaching, but always reaching forward to obtain or achieve a specific target or goal."

Wow.  Faith is never passive.  It's always reaching forward to obtain a goal. It's actually the evidence, "the confident assurance, that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead."  Hebrews 11:1

When you let this confident assurance, this evidence, this faith, really build up in your spirit, it becomes a powerful force.  A force that enables you to believe God for the impossible, and thank Him in advance.

So take your confident assurance, your faith, and let it fly like an arrow today, piercing through to the promises of God.

Walking by faith,
The Velvet Lime Girls

LAUGH

We've had this uplifting graphic hanging in our studio for a couple weeks and we wanted to share it with you today. 

The idea of laughing without fear of the future is absolutely liberating.  A really-good-laugh, that spontaneous sound that rises from the heart, spills out through a smile and fills up your whole being with a carefree, uplifting, lightheartedness, is so, so good for your soul.

When was the last time you had a really good belly laugh?

You know, those kind that little children always seem to have just under the surface of their cute, flushed cheeks. 
The kind that are barely contained and about to spill-out into endless episodes of non-stop, hearty gales of laughter. 

Oh, a deep, heart-felt laugh is so good for your soul.
And so good for your future.

What a refreshing way to look at things in the future. 
          To laugh, rather than fear.  
          To smile, rather than worry.
          To rejoice, rather than dread.
When you're clothed with the strength and dignity that God offers...you can do this.  You can laugh without fear of the future.

With love & laughter,
The Velvet Lime Girls

The Color of Light

Lighthouses are slipping into our studio each week.  It's true.  A fresh new one seems to have appeared weekly over the last month.  They've been bringing a little color and light into our studio as we prepare our portfolios for the Surtex show in New York.  These lighthouses, created by Laura's husband, James Rhodes, are quite different from our whimsical, inspiration artwork, and they just seem to fuel our creativity.  We thought we'd share a little of this color and light surrounding us today. So, step into the studio and take a look around with us!

All the lighthouses began with strokes of pigment from Sennelier soft pastels that lie in casual piles along the edges of our studio. Chalky containers holding color, light and life.

At first glance, one might think these simple sticks of earthy substance were just stubby chunks of color. Nice to look at, but not much potential for anything beyond lying in rows.

But in the right hands, these chalky, earthen vessels are transformed into beautiful works of art. 

The soft pastels are quiet reminders of how beautiful our lives can become when we place them into the hands of God.  The master creator will pick us up, regardless of how ordinary we may look lying on the sidelines of life, and transform us into beautiful works of art. His strokes shape us into little earthen vessels that carry His light into the world and spill reflections of His color and life on to everyone around us.

Oh, you can be so beautiful in the right hands.

"Get away with me and you’ll recover your life... Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.  Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30

Grateful for the colors surrounding us today,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Diamond Girl

We love real people. People who are brave enough to say yes when God directs them to do things far beyond themselves.  Lysa TerKeurst is one such person.  And her yes has inspired us lately.  We call her the diamond girl around here... because her life just kind of sparkles,  really sparkles, especially when you hear her story.

They say a diamond is formed in some of the darkest, deepest places on earth. Places that are hot, filled with pressure and so far below the surface they can't even be reached. It takes a "very deep-seated volcanic eruption" to even bring them to the surface. Only then, can they be gathered and shaped into brilliant, dazzling, multi-faceted jewels that bring a sparkle to our lives.

Lysa's life story reads just like a diamond's journey.  A beginning that certainly had a few dark and deep places, a lot of heat and pressure along the way, and a shame that kept her so far below the surface,  it was a miracle that she was even able to come up and live again. Her life also had more than a few deep-seated eruptions and, as one Velvet Lime Girl observed, (with eyes puddled in tears, watching Lysa tell her story recently),
all one sees now is a brilliant, shining, beautiful, diamond girl... "catching the light" of God and letting it sparkle all over the audience.  Yeah, whole rooms just hush and fill with a sparkly sheen when she speaks, as her story reflects facets of God grace and puts God's love on full display... in the life of a woman who just said "yes" to God.

If your life happens to be in a rough, dark, or desperate place today, reach through any little crack you can find and pull some hope into your life from Lysa's website and blog.  It's a healing place.  It's a little multi-faceted jewel filled with all kinds of freebies, fresh-faced honesty and a story that will touch your heart.  Go ahead. You're worth it.  You're that valuable. Treat yourself to a little treasure for your soul today @ Lysa TerKeurst.  If you want to load up a bit more, dip into another treasure chest @Proverbs 31 Ministries



Feeling quite sparkly today,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Laura Rhodes, Kelsey Rhodes, Lysa TerKeurst, Judy Benson

One of the Velvet Lime Girls had a chance to meet Lysa TerKeurst recently.
Pictured above,  l to r: A Velvet Lime Girl- Laura, with daughter-in-law- Kelsey Rhodes,
 "diamond-girl"- Lysa TerKeurst, and Kelsey's Mom- Judy Benson, @ A Beacon of Hope Gala
We talked about this event last week @ Velvet Lime Girls

Restoration

Need a little restoration today? A little renewing, recharging, recreating, refreshing, repairing, or reviving? We have something to give you then... it's kind of like a soothing balm for your soul. It's a collection of healing words straight from the promises of God in scripture, the whispered prayers in our hearts and random thoughts on restoration.  This is for you today, just soft, encouraging words spoken straight to your heart:

We'd like to give this to you. Please click here for your free printable:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4R8A0B0RLCjLW1IbFIzZU5GTW8/edit?usp=sharing

We hope this brings a little comfort to you today... a little refreshing, renewing and restoring.


There is something so transforming in seeing and saying these healing words and letting them soothe away the cares, challenges and weights we've picked up along the way. We hope it becomes part of your restoration today.


Refreshed and Renewed,

The Velvet Lime Girls




Loving Places

                             Loving places.  

Those simple, ordinary spots in a day that leave a
deposit of love in your heart and a memory to nourish your soul.  

They're moments framed in time by the season's beauty
                    

    softening the walkways of life ...   






settling gently on the windowsills of the soul









Cup your hands and receive the loving moments that surround you every day.

 
Look and see all the ways you are surrounded by love ... and let your heart dance today!

God's put on a show out there 

     
                                                     



                                        and invited you to play!                                

                                          



Living in loving moments,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Daphne Life

It’s the dead of winter. Flower beds are forlorn and forgotten, trees are stripped to skeleton sticks and the landscape is zipped up in a winter coat of frost. The garden has a cold shiver to it that seems to have snatched away all movement and stilled any life among things green. Is anything even alive out there? Can this garden live again? At first glance, it seems impossible that anything could grow, and yet, in my father’s garden, a burst of flowers has appeared. A wintery bouquet has come to life, sporting a creamy pink blush and a fragrance that envelopes, surrounds and chases you down in the garden. There’s no escape from its permeating presence. It wraps itself around everything in the garden and seems to shout out loud, “I’m flourishing! I’m alive!” New life has come into what appeared to be dead. If you inhale the heady aroma of a daphne odora in full bloom in the cold depths of February, it will take your breath away and make you believe in miracles again. You’ll realize that new life can come out of things that look as if they’re all dried up. Perhaps you’re walking through a dead of winter season with only dry bones on the landscape of your life. If so, let this daphne bush, that flowers and flourishes in winter, encourage you to remember that new life can be breathed into the most barren of landscapes. It’s a truth echoed in a story found in Ezekiel 37. Take a moment to read it and you’ll find new life being breathed into your circumstances. It will make you want to jump up and shout to the “dry bones” in your life to “Live again!” 

“I’ll breathe new life into you and you’ll live” Ezekiel 37:14

Laura 

P.S. A special thanks to my father, Clarence Skinner, for his photograph of the fragrant daphne blooming in his garden ...in February.

THIRSTY

Thirsty

Early each morning before the sun wakes up the elephant ears are still cradling little liquid jewels. They are nestled in the valleys of the broad plains of each green expanse. These diamond drops dance across the surface. Hovering, floating in a mercury motion, their slightly suspended form seems to shimmer a call to anyone who is thirsty … “drink me, I’ll quench your thirst!”

These water drops of morning dew make me thirsty each time I see them and remind me of Rebecca’s favorite verse, “As a deer thirsts for streams of water, so I thirst for you, God.” Psalms 42:1. We like the way The Message says it:

“A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;

I want to drink God,

deep draughts of God.

I'm thirsty for God”

Thirsty. These little dewdrops carry a refreshing message. Our thirst can be quenched and filled with living water each day as we drink in time with God.

The Velvet Lime Girls

P.S. Thank-you to my sister-in-law, Sarah-Lynne, for reminding me of the beauty of dewdrops (and these photos taken in 2008).

Sweet Inspiration

Sweet Inspiration

Layers. We’ve been creating, dreaming and thinking of layers lately. We’re working on a new collection of artwork and developing the background layers that will accompany each piece. So much fun!

We find ourselves noticing the intricate layers that surround us each day in the ordinary things of life. This one caught our eye. A last vestige of summer that was reluctant to leave. Its slippery lazy layers beckoned us to slow down and enjoy the last moments of a sunny day. In the south, these layers are always sweet, dark and draped in condensation on a porch. Encased in glass with ice cubes lazily melting in a sweet nectar of summer, it’s a layer you just can’t pass up… and we didn’t! We captured it in photos and in long slow sips. Mmm… a glass of ice cold southern sweet tea. Just drink in its layers.

We’ve noticed the layers in ourselves lately too. The wonderful intricate ways in which we have all been created, woven together and formed. We are layers of walking wonders and a psalmist expressed best … "Nothing about me is hidden from you! I was secretly woven together as if embroidered with various colors" Psalms 139:15

So celebrate your layers today and enjoy a sip of some southern sweet tea.

The Velvet Lime Girls

A Season of Greater Things

The seven foot tall swamp flowers in our summer garden are bent over now. All the way to the ground. Along with the other flowers in the garden, they gave everything they had in a show of color and fragrance all summer long. Hosted hummingbird visits, bumble bee sleep-overs, caresses & sniffs from granddaughters.

The flowers in the garden have a burned-out kind of beauty. Their show is over. They gave every drop of color, fragrance, and effort they could give. They think the best days in the garden have passed.

Right in the middle of this weary expanse a fresh new flower emerges. It thinks it’s springtime! It wraps and curls itself around everything in sight and it’s little green bud ends burst into hundreds of delicate white flowers. White puffy clouds of blooms envelope the entire garden. Floating over the skeletons of rose bushes, dried up trellises and anything that hints of fading. This autumn clematis blankets the garden every September bringing a fresh burst of life just when things looked faded and finished.

It brings multiple messages. A reminder that there are seasons for everything. Seasons to grow and seasons to rest. We captured this sentiment in an earlier piece pictured above.

A second sentiment has emerged now, with these white clouds of fresh flowers bringing new life to a garden that was spent. The latter state of the garden is far more glorious than the beginning… It’s latter is greater than it’s past.

So if you’ve gone through a weary patch, felt like you’ve given your all and the landscape of your life still looks a bit barren, let our artwork remind you that a new season can come. Good things are still ahead and your latter can be greater than your past. (Job 8:7)

The Velvet Lime Girls

Clematis climbing all over everything is a pass-along plant...originating in Pattie Lee Smith's garden, Laura's great-grandmother, dug up and passed along by Clarence Skinner, Laura's Dad.

Sunflower Smiles

Sunflowers make us smile. Every time. Their perky little faces bright with noonday sun just sunbathe you in happiness. When they first uncover their little faces, releasing their solar flare, the whole world lights up. They stand there in the rain, wind, heat and neglect … sunshine spears, unmoved by circumstances. Then, something amazing happens … they sink their roots down deep into their source and grow. They grow tall … I mean really tall. A towering presence in the flower garden, they become lighthouse beacons shooting down every melancholy thought with their shafts of light. They become bigger and bigger everyday … better and better.

We can be like them. An ancient writing of prose says, “our paths will be brighter and brighter” (Proverbs 4: 18). It means better and better. Like sunflowers, we can begin to tower over circumstances and challenges as we let our roots sink down deep into our source, our God. No matter how challenging a day may have been, we can pull from our source and become a shaft of towering sunshine in our own little world.

We hope our sunflowers make you smile today ... and shine. J

The Velvet Lime girls

The Giant Oak Inside of You

Acorns. They’ve been a tiny participant in our design studio for several years. They first arrived a couple years ago following a walk . Acorns with their little “hats” were scattered under all the trees. I picked up one of these tiny little seeds and looked up at the massive tree canopy above, amazed that this would be the destiny of this tiny creation. James & I gathered several of these “message carriers” and he placed them on Marybeth’s desk. They sparked a creative force inside of her that was first seen in our photographic acorn series and now revealed in this fresh graphic artwork.

An acorn still amazes all of us. This tiny seed becomes a giant oak. By faith it “sees” its potential. Its future is always on its mind …looming over it while it is at its smallest point. It just sinks its tender roots down deeper into the soil when times are tough … it knows its destiny. It’s a destiny that is always clearly visible. No matter how small the acorn may begin, it knows it will become a majestic oak.

We hope you are encouraged to have faith to see beyond the things that may be sleeping in your life. Things that have the power and potential to change when fueled by faith. Faith does see the giant oak in the sleeping acorn.

Let the giant oak within you awaken today.

Laura

Someone Cares

This feathery branch transcended all of its garden neighbors on Roanoke Island. The garden was filled with proud roses, boisterous bougainvillias and flowers everywhere who were absolutely misbehaving in an out -of -control explosion of color. This one though, softly spoke louder than all of them. Each tiny branch thread, covered with short strands of hair whispered a message of calm. It knew it was a creation that had been fashioned tenderly with great attention to detail. It was loved and cared for … someone had taken the time to dress it in countless wisps of smoky color.

It reminded me of us. Regardless of what is going on around us, we are loved and cared for. We’ve been tenderly fashioned with great attention to detail. I like the way a doctor named Luke said it years ago, “the very hairs of your head are all numbered, don’t be afraid” Luke 12:7

With the noise in our world today, it’s comforting to remind ourselves that there really is someone who cares for us. Someone who watches over every detail of our life … down to the number of hairs on our head.

Laura

P.S. Our landscape architect friend, Alex Brunson, believes our photo is of a Royal Purple Smokebrush. www.brunsonandco.com

Beach Trip

Some thoughts just refresh you. This one floats over the most relaxing place we know … a slouchy, comfortable chair on the beach. Just sit in it for a minute. You can feel the tension seep out through your toes as they sink in soft sand, every care melting away in a caress of sunlight.

A beach rest is a ripple compared to the overpowering wave of deep rest God offers. It envelopes our cares and pulls them out to sea with a strong rip-tide…. leaving us refreshed and restored.

We’re sparkling sea glass lying on the beach.

Washed. Fresh. Clean. Reflections of peace.

So, sit down in our beach chair today and wrap yourself up in the big thirsty blanket of thought conveyed in our art image … a thought about real rest. We like the way The Message says it:

“Are you tired and worn out? Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me … Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” Matthew 11:28 & 29

Laura

THRIVE

Thrive … it’s such an encouraging word. It just makes you want to pull yourself up and reach for the stars again … like this little passion flower growing in my garden. She’s growing in a forlorn section of my garden, an area overlooked and covered with weeds. Who would ever think that such beauty could come out of this mess? But here she is, with her perky little head adorned with enthusiasm, dressed and ready to go, as if she’s strolling into a grand gala.

Wow, what an entrance she makes! She barely notices the desolation around her and instead brightens her entire surroundings.

We’re encouraged to live this way. And we can, when our strength finds its roots in the nourishment that comes from connecting with God. Years ago, a psalmist said it this way ... You’re a tree planted by streams of water… your leaf does not wither…whatever you do prospers. Psalms 1:3

So, no matter what surroundings or circumstances you find yourself in, sink your roots down deep, nourish yourself in connection with God... and begin to flourish and thrive again.

Laura