Delight in His Creation

Recently, in an art video in a class by Sheila Atchley, I was reminded to take delight in God's creation as He does. To delight in something is not to worship it, but rather to take pleasure in it, to find joy in it. Nature shows us the beauty and creativity of God. My favorite way to delight in God's creation is through nature walks with my camera in hand.

"Worship the Creator; delight in His creation." ~Sheila Atchley

Today I am simply going to share some of the photographs I have captured of God's creation over the past few months.

Loons at my sister's lake.

 

 

Time Between the Old and the New

I really love this time of year. For two weeks life slows down for me. I enjoy taking time to look back over the past year and reflect on the happenings of my life, while at the same time looking for the direction God is pulling me in for the new year. I love the crisp, clean edges of a fresh new year, a chance for a fresh start. A year full of empty and clean white spaces on the new calendar.

Shelly Miller, of the Sabbath Society, calls this time at the end of the year, "Sabbath margin - a sacred stretch of time between what was and what is yet to be". What an apt description of wonderful time of year. As I move from a year of "Rest" - my 2016 word for the year, it seems that the word "restoration" is calling me to spend the next year journeying with it. Restoration feels like it is flowing out of my time in rest. So I'm sticking with it. Let's see what the new year holds!

"Sabbath margin - a sacred stretch of time between what was and what is yet to be."

But I'm not quite ready to leave 2016 behind. This past Monday the day was overcast but in the mid-50's -  a treat in the Midwest winter! So we decided to get out of the house a bit and went to explore our city's newest park Middlegrounds Metropark. This park is located in downtown Toledo on the banks of the Maumee River on ground that used to house the roundhouse for railroad shipyards. So while it is on the river, it is also planted in the middle of old industrial buildings, which made for some great scenery for those of us who love paint-chippy, rusty vintage things - including buildings! On our way out we passed the old Oliver House Hotel which now houses The Maumee Bay Brewing Company and a few other restaurants. They have great old-school advertisements painted on the brick exterior. Enjoy the photos and have a Happy New Year!

Meandering 2.26.2016

"Meandering: adjective; the act of following a winding or indirect course. Ramble, roam, zigzag, circuitous. A blog post about a variety of things; a little bit of this and a little bit of that."

I have a "thing" for office supplies. I love to walk into an office supply store and wander the aisles and ponder all of the new crisp papers and folders; the variety of planners and products to organize my life; labels, dividers, envelopes, pens, pencils - the list goes on and on. I don't exactly get what the appeal is, but I'm hooked! It is no great surprise then, that office supplies have made their way into my art practices. I shared previously that a stop on day one of our sisters road trip provided a wonderful supply of new and vintage office supplies. So once I was home I started playing and using these new found items in my art journaling projects. One of our great finds were two dusty boxes of old ledger paper. I had fun the other day stamping and stenciling on it.

Along with the ledger paper I have used some other office supplies in my art.

Hole reinforcements decorated with ink and paint

Mailing label, plus ledger paper as a background page.

These office supply goodies have made their way into my Etsy shop too. I now have a few Office Supply Ephemera Packs available here.

I have written posts about my recent road trip with my sister  here and here. I didn't get much of a chance to visit any parks and do any birding while on vacation, but I did see some birds. One of the highlights for me was on a walk on the trail behind my daughter's when I spotted an Eagle!

I saw a few birds that we don't have in Ohio:

Northern Mockingbird

Best I can tell this is a female Boat-tailed Grackle

And then it was just nice seeing some of the water birds again since they have migrated from the north for the winter.

Last Sunday after church Sai'Vion and I and my friend Rox went to the Window on Wildlife to watch the birds for a while. Sai'Vion is very interested in animals and is really enjoying birding. He is doing a great job of remembering the birds names and how to identify them. I, of course, am a biased god-grandma, but I'm pretty impressed with how engaged he is for a nine-year-old! We're ready for Spring to come and bring the migratory birds back to our area.

Well, that's all the meandering I have for today. 

Thanks for stopping by!