Celebrating Snowman

                       
Here in Georgia, with our mild temperatures, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...if only in our hearts!  We're grateful for this unseasonably warm weather because we know that chilly times will eventually come to our southern state. We might even have a chance to build a snowman! 

We've also been thinking about what a celebrating snowman might actually look like.  After all, the upcoming celebration of the birth of Jesus is so magnificent, we just knew a snowman couldn't resist tilting his little pointy carrot nose to heaven and lifting his twiggy arms in praise. We think he might look a bit like the snowman above.

The Legacy Publishing Group seemed to agree with us and last year they selected our snowman to grace a set of their boxed Christmas cards for this year and they are in stores now. Thank-you Legacy! 

If you'd like to scatter a little joy with our Celebrating Snowman  this Christmas, he can be found at many Christian book stores nationwide or you can have the cards mailed directly to your doorstep from this online site: CELEBRATING SNOWMAN CARDS

We hope our snowman's frosty little face reminds you that "all the earth" has been encouraged to make a joyful shout to God. Psalm 66:1
The Velvet Lime Girls
P.S. Our Celebrating Snowman is also featured in a 2016 
Calendar @ Hobby Lobby as mentioned in last week's post.

The Greater One

This past week we've found our eyes drawn, more than once, to this graphic hanging in our studio. 

May we share it with you today as your week-end begins?  Our hope is that it lifts your heart and encourages you in your spirit.  

Live brave,

The Velvet Lime Girls

Velvet Lime Girls' Calendars @ Hobby Lobby!

We almost had a fainting spell when we walked into our local Hobby Lobby last week and saw Legacy calendars with our artwork!  Oh, we were so excited! That's what happens when you are blessed to create artwork for amazing companies like  Legacy Publishing Company.  You just never know where your artwork may go!  
So today, we're sending out a heartfelt thank-you to Legacy Publishing Company.  You all are amazing! Thank-you. This little calendar is popping up everywhere thanks to you.  We're told it's now found in many local Christian bookstores nationwide and at these links:
Amazon
Christianbook.com
Calendars.com
Jet.com
Bizrate.com

Here's a peek inside the calendar.  Legacy is an expert at calendars and they have featured a different piece of our artwork on each month, along with inspiring scriptures and ample space to write-in details for each day.  We've just hung our calendar up in the studio and are ready for 2016! If you're starting to get ready for 2016, we hope you pick up a calendar at your local Hobby Lobby or one of the online sites above!

Thank-you Legacy for making us look so good!

Grateful hearts,
The Velvet Lime Girls

Summer in our Hearts

last late sunflower bloom

Do you just hang on to every bit of summer that you can, even when it's full-blown fall time?  We do!  A few weeks ago, we walked through the sunny side of our studio garden and captured the last remnants of sunshine days. We thought we'd share a few with you today! Perhaps these final flourishes of the season will brighten up your day like they do ours.  Its amazing how a thing of beauty, held in your heart, can make even a rainy, cold day seem like a day at the beach. 

last petite bloom of the salmon colored hibiscus

It reminds us of the thing of beauty we hold inside of us, the treasure we carry around inside of us while on this earth.  The Voice translation describes it quite beautifully like this:

"But this beautiful treasure is contained in us—cracked pots made of earth and clay—so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us." 
2 Corinthians 4:7

purple coneflower fading with grace

We hope our little snippets from the garden remind you to look for the the beautiful bouquet of treasure contained inside each of you.

Holding the beauty of summer and the treasure of God in our hearts,

The Velvet Lime Girls

birth of a late blooming sunflower

spiderwort buds

last burst of color from purple coneflower

                            

Heart Thoughts

Here's a little love note from us to you today.  Just a gentle reminder to choose a treasure place that is worthy of your heart.  We like the way The Message translation sums this thought up:

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being"  Matthew 6:21.

It's so true, the place where your treasure is, IS the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

Enjoying pink-watercolor-splashed-thoughts of our treasure,

The Velvet Lime Girls

Amazing Day

We've had a rainy, drizzly Monday morning here in Georgia today and all the Velvet Lime Girls had a big choice to make when each of us woke up.  All three of us, perhaps like a few of you out there, had some challenges pop up.  Some changes in our day that we had not expected.  The kind of changes that just make you not want to skip around singing "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Da" all day.

So, we each decided to make a choice.  A good choice.  A choice to remember that the sun is really shining behind those clouds today and with God's help, we can choose to make this day great. 

We remembered that many years ago God offered a group of people a choice.  A choice to live life in a way that would result in blessing or hardship.  It was a pretty simple choice to make, but just in case they missed it, God gave them one more push in the right direction and said, "Choose life!" (See Deuteronomy 30:19 for details)

We believe He's still kind of doing that each day.  Encouraging us to choose life. 

So, we pulled out the most celebratory graphic on our studio walls, one we had planned to save for a fun Friday post ... and we're posting it today, right in the middle of this rainy Monday! A day that will, with God's help, be AMAZING.  And we'll say a little prayer for you too today, that your day turns out to be as amazing as ours. And if you happen to hear a few lines from that Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah song, it's us singing in the studio!

"Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Zip-A-Dee-A

My oh my what a wonderful day

Plenty of sunshine heading my way

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Zip-A-Dee-A"

Choosing Amazing,
The Velvet Lime Girls

No Worries

"It's wonderful what happens when Christ replaces worry at the center of your life."  

Phil. 4:7 The Message 

The center of our life is a pretty important place to guard.

Wow, it is so easy to let it fill up with worries.

In fact, for some of us, it actually seems like the responsible thing to do.

You know, to make sure that everything's thought of that could possibly go wrong and then worry about it.

It's what responsible people do, right?

Actually, wrong.

There's a much better way to live and for all you 

professional worriers out there,

here's a little nudge in a more peaceful direction. We can offer this advice because we were highly experienced, professional worries at one time.  Yeah, we all came from long-lines of worriers.

Then, one day we really let this quote sink into our hearts:

"Don't worry about your life.."

Matthew 6:25

It wasn't a suggestion.

It was more like a loving command meant to protect.

And when we did it, stopped worrying, we had some amazing side-effects.Things like: 

PEACE

CALM

SERENITY

RESTORATION

JOY

Yep, trading worry for all these was the best thing we ever did.

Today's graphic kind of sums it all up for us around here.

It's kind of how we did it.  It's called prayer.

We thought we'd share it with you all today.

Our hope is that, like us, you'll just once-and-for-all, toss all those worries out the window.

Then open-wide the doors of your heart and pray, 

letting God replace all those worries as the center of your life.

 "Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life."

Philippians 4:6-7

No worries,

The Velvet Lime Girls

P.S. We hope you'll pass along some of your favorite worry-busting verses, quotes or thoughts.  We just may weave them into a new graphic or art collection to share with others. Thanks!