Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Amazing.


Today i am celebrating El-Ohim...another name for God. El means mighty, powerful, strong. Ohim (my favorite part) means The Creator - He who brings something into being from nothing.

In the last few days, El Ohim has made Himself known to me. One of my favorite things about the character of God is the element of surprise He places into ordinary everyday things. You know it's Him, because He twists up the order of things. This is my latest example:

I have been working quite abit for the Vote Yes for Life campaign. It's been on my mind, so when i woke up with a crazy thought in my head last saturday night, i was not that surprised. it was a headline, or a statement: Life is good. now, if you are in a creative field like me, you know that often ideas come this way. you wake up with them in the middle of the night, and the next morning you go, duh...and the idea seems silly.

I actually got up for about an hour on saturday when this headline woke me up. i sat at my computer and found a visual that i felt "went" with the headline. only thing was, i had no idea what i was going to do with it!! i decided on sunday morning, i might make myself a tshirt, or maybe do a blog post with that title. i figured that was the end of it, no big deal.

then, late yesterday afternoon i got the call. it was from a client of mine who is also working on the Vote Yes side of things. He said to me "Bobbi, i hate to call at such a late hour, but do you think there is any way i could get a FULL PAGE AD done by tomorrow morning?

Again, you almost have to know marketing to know how difficult this is...not necessarily to MAKE an ad, but to get approval. this particular ad would have to jump through the hoops of the Vote Yes legal office PLUS the 175 DOCTORS that were sponsoring the ad. nearly impossible.

immediately i remembered the silly "idea" that woke me up in the middle of the night...i asked my client if he liked that idea for his ad? and he immediately responded with "that's so perfect - YES!"

Long story short, i made the ad last night in no time at all. and we got approval this morning with NO CHANGES. So, God gave me the heads up on a quick rush job without me even knowing about it, and used me to create "something from nothing" for whatever reason He has!!!

wow. thank you El-Ohim.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

See, God likes to knit too


As the election looms nearer, i have been thinking about specific scriptures that speak to us about life. i believe that all of God's Word affirms life, and choosing life at all costs. over the next few days i will post some of the scriptures as they lead me, this is my favorite one!!!

I pray the Spirit of the Living God will lay His hand over our state and all those in it today and in the future! We bless your name, Lord!

Psalm 139:13-15
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

me and my mags


you know, one of the good things about blogging is that it kind of forces you to think about where you spend the most of your time. there are several scriptures related to this, i think maybe Matthew 6:21 says it best: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So, sometimes my heart is in questionable places. For instance, at the end of a hectic work day, one of my favorite escapes is to my magazines. i am sort of addicted to magazines, there, i have admitted it. this has been the case for many many years, i guess i found them an affordable treat back in the days when i was young, and single and dreaming up a better life for myself.

somehow, the comfort of crawling up with a new magazine has really never stopped wooing me. i get excited when one comes in the mail!!! sometimes, i don't get to read them for a few days, or even a WEEK, but oh boy, i am happy when i finally sit down to a new one. To get the point across, here are the mags i currently subscribe to, in somewhat order of my favorites:

Country Living
Mary Englebriet's Home Companion
Better Homes and Gardens
How (a design magazine)
Print (another design magazine)
Cottage Living
Home
Every day with Rachel Ray

And as if getting EIGHT magazines a month is not enough, i also usually buy on the newstand:

Martha Stewart Living
Midwest Living (that's alot of living i'm doing)
Any gardening mag i see
Family Circle
Womans Day

And my mom gives me her old:

Good Housekeeping (which is difficult when you have 1700 magazines laying around)

i'm sure there are more. the thing is, i usually don't even read most of them. i look at the beautiful pictures, and daydream that i am in those perfectly kept, warm, cozy, yummy smelling, full tummy, craftily perfect surroundings.

oh Lord, someday won't you bring me there?

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

ahh. is it summer yet?


among the many things i love about summer, is that i actually take more lunch breaks when it's nice out.

not that i am a slave driver boss or anything, but somehow, when the weather turns yucky, i just sit here at the computer til i drop. oh, i EAT lunch, i just usually end up slurping soup on my keyboard, and surfing blogs...

but, today i decided to make a break for it, and go outside for a little bit. Been and i did a trek around the yard. i was dying to find something lovely to photograph, alas, the best things to look at are just sitting on the step :))

so, here is my ode to wednesday, october 25. it's a beautiful sunny day, birds are chirping loudly, and summer is just around the corner, in my dreams.

enjoy!

Friday, October 20, 2006

jammy day

my old co-workers back at the machine would laugh if they saw me today.

i am so happy, because it's "jammy day" - a very good day indeed!
here's what it consists of:

• A 32-page project that is due by Monday, i have a bunch of dvds with photos, a 30-page word document, and nothing but empty pages to fill :) yeah! that's what graphic artists love best!! the project is a farming brochure, so lots of photos of fields and corn and elevators. perfect for a back forty girl like myself.

• no need to go outside whatsoever. sure, i have to get a shower gift for a wedding shower i am going to tonite, but i can always pick something up "on the way" ;)

• coffee and snacks. i might even bake some apple bread later this morning. it will not take long, and hey, i'm the boss!

• the knowledge that a weekend is just around the corner. i can almost smell it already.

• my fave stretchy pants, stretchy socks, stretchy shirt, and even a semi-stretchy blanket ;)

happy friday everyone, whether you are in your jammies or not!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

daily ritual


ummmmm, nothing like a good cat nap on a blustery day! actually, been takes his cat naps very seriously whether it is blustery or not - but pretty much every day when i peer over at the perch underneath the window, this is what i see.

he is living day to day now. several good days in a row are great for both of us! the bad days are coming more often than i care to think about, but somehow, the cat naps still seem to be pretty peaceful. he is coming up on the two year mark since i found out he has kidney disease, so every single day actually IS a miracle! and we have made a deal that he can go whenever he is ready, i will be okay.

i love him so. i swear, if i did not have so much to do i would just squish up next to him and take a nap right now too!

Monday, October 16, 2006

funny things to be happy about


okay, i must be going nuts. lately, housecleaning is just making me SO HAPPY!!

i guess i finally hit a wall with cat smells and dust and stuff falling out of the closet all of the time. i have been doing "fall cleaning" for a few weeks now, including my basement, which was absolutely atrocious.

so, i have a new discovery! i have been very loyal to the mop and a bucket of mr. clean, til the new man came along. yep, i finally gave in and bought a swiffer. phillip told me to do it LAST SUMMER and i chewed him out for needing a fancy schmancy mop, when an old-fashioned one is just fine.

until i tried it! my new one is purple, the first thing to love about it. secondly, you just velcro on the cleaning pad, so even i can figure it out. thirdly, it's so easy to use!! yeah, it's battery operated, and that is just insane for a MOP - but last night beener had his bi-weekly furball on the floor, and swiff!!! there it went.

it would be absolutely perfect, if not for the fact i had to hear phil tell me "told you so." :))

Friday, October 13, 2006

my new favorite thing!



i have had a new obsession this week ... i have been eating Hutterite popcorn for supper every night! yes, you read that right. The sort-of-long short story is that i bought this bag of popcorn at a fundraiser in Montrose in august for my friend out there with cancer. She taught part-time at a colony last year, and some of the Hutterites came to the benefit with produce to sell and donate to her! i ate the veggies i bought right away, but threw the popcorn in the cupboard because i had plenty of microwave popcorn to eat, and that is easier.

then, i ran out. so i decided to give this stuff a try. the biggest challenge is that you have to make it on the stove ... scary. but it was super easy, and it brought back memories of how mom made popcorn when i was growing up, before the air popper was invented (we had the yellow one). oh my goodness, it is SO YUMMY. soft and fluffy and buttery and just ... well, it shouldn't be a substitute for supper, but it is :)

now, the other favorite thing i am talking about is Hutterites. i admit to kind of fantasizing about being one. i mean, they look so happy when i see em. and the older i get, the more i wish i could just "lock myself in" to a safe haven where the cold, mean world cannot get me. but would i really make a good Hutterite woman? i did some research on the web to see what it is all about.

Women on Hutterite colonies are typically housewives, cooks, gardeners, teachers (German, English, and Nursery), seamstress, and secretary for different business.
Work in a Hutterite community is usually done together in large groups. For example, gardens cover a few acres. When hoeing, there are often in excess of a dozen women helping, so large jobs are made small. Cooking is done in weekly rotations, e.g. two women would be the cooks for the week, in addition to the head cook. Also, unmarried ladies often teach school on the colony. Some have teaching degrees, others take informal training. Older Hutterite women take care of children in the Kindergarten, teaching them religious songs, prayers and cooperation.


yeah. i think i would be good at being a Hutterite! i would get a little sick of the long dresses and hats, but as long as i had some in different colors, i think i could make it work. the only thing i am wondering is, do they have HGTV and blogs?

:)

Thursday, October 12, 2006

save your time and just go here


today, i had lunch at the mall with a friend. not my idea, but since i had not been there in awhile, it sounded fun.

w r o n g . malls are bad now. i did one quick "buzz" up and down the main aisle and was preyed upon by no less than THREE of those people hawking crap from their kiosks. i don't know how much you earn to swoop down on a person and MAKE THEM TAKE YOUR HAND CREAM, but it would have to be alot. not fun, not fun at all.

so, i am just going to get everything i need at the places that i enjoy from now on. like good ole Target. you could live off stuff only purchased at target, i think. although i would still want to go to menards. and my sunshine downtown. and gordmans. and i really actually do like wal mart.

oh nevermind. shop where ever you want, just beware of the mall unless your hands are looking kinda crusty.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

up then down then up then sort of down....


Ever notice how every day is completely unpredictable? i wish i were more free in spirit, because sometimes a simple day can make me crazy...

yesterday was kind of that way. everything started out pretty routine - had my coffee and blogs and emails and a fairly simple schedule of tasks to complete and meetings to attend. then the first "quirk" of the day, my computer went funky on me. it wouldn't print. then it wouldn't run programs. then it gave me messages like "serious errors have occurred. go to nearest store and purchase new machine immediately" or something close to that :))

so, i ran, not walked, to my nearest mac doctor and he guided me thru some repairs. in between meetings, i ran this and that software and did a few things to try to fix it. oh, and i scrambled in to buy a $180 250 gig external hard drive so that some of my projects could have a chance at life outside of this machine!! finally, it looked like all was well, and everything was back to normal.

then, in the nick of time, i went to see the Bebo/Aaron Shust concert at usf. it started kinda rough, with an inexperienced "MC" who told us with not much grace that Aaron would not be coming to sing tonite! arrrrrrrggghhh. yeah, his wife had a kid in Georgia or something and he had to go home, but what about ME?!!!

later tho, the show turned sweet because bebo has a really good spirit about him...and my company of friends was pretty sweet too. nothing like ending the day on a good note, literally.

then, this morning, i attempted to turn on my itunes to continue the mood with some bebo songs, and i get the message "itunes disabled" and cannot be located...or something like that.

hhhmmmmpppppffff. looks like another roller coaster day ahead!!

Monday, October 09, 2006

fe fi fo, BEBO, baby!!!


actually, i like aaron shust better :))

today i am listening to BOTH bebo norman and aaron shust on itunes, in hopes of getting in to see them tomorrow night at usf.

please, please, please, PLEASE God!!

i have "will call" tickets reserved, now i just hope a few Christians get the flu or something before tomorrow night...he he he.

just kidding.

happy holiday



i almost forgot today was a holiday. phillip had to remind me and was disappointed that i forgot, because he wanted us to spend the day together. That is the crazy thing about having your own business, nobody tells you when you officially have a "day off" and sometimes, although not often, you forget to take one.

that being said, i'm trying to be more deliberate about how i spend my free time. the older i get, the more i seem to have to do! so this weekend i was a careful watchdog of my time, and it was great.

saturday was a "me" day. i cleaned house and even went shopping - my semi-annual "let's redo the house again" spree :) I bought some pumpkins for the door, a new picture to hang in the bathroom, and a great new fuzzy throw that Been claimed as his own right away. it was fun, and i didn't spend a whole lot. mostly i just moved some stuff around until it seemed "new" to me, and now i am content. i also made MORE apple butter, still have a few apples left, but did away with quite a few of them in the last couple of weeks.

yesterday, i decided, would be a true sabbath day. so, i didn't make plans to get anything specific accomplished. i went to church, and came home for lunch, then met a couple of friends for the annual Life Chain here in SF...i had never done that kind of thing before, and it was not what i expected, but more than i hoped. the idea was to stand with other believers on 41st street and hold signs dedicated to the sanctity of life. sounded pretty easy, a little weird, but not a big deal. it was raining, but i have a cute fuzzy hat and a warm jacket, so no biggie. when we got there, we ended up standing by my church, which is at the extreme west end of 41st street. luckily for me, there were instructions on the back of the signage that told us how to conduct ourselves! the main message was "don't do anything, just pray" - so i started to dialog with the Lord, pretty casually and easy. oh, forgot to mention that about 10 minutes before the chain began, the clouds parted and the sun peaked thru, it was abslutely still and peaceful....ahhhh.

so anyway, here i was, standing out on a street corner, praying like i was in my back yard. it was glorious! God reminded me of my childhood, of growing up and playing in the sunshine, and being loved and happy. he reminded me of how grateful i am for my life, for the experiences i have had and the people i have known and loved. he reminded me of how precious every life is to Him, and how much He wants us to experience life as He meant it, not the fallen world stuff, certainly not "politics" or "religion" but the true meaning of living and being in relationship with Him!!

so for that brief hour, standing in the light on 41st street, regardless of what it looked like to anybody driving by or standing around, i had a great time with the Lord...what a blessing.

i guess that is what a real holiday is all about!

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

mama needs a new pair o shoes



i had a bunch of meetings today. i ended up with a half hour to spare and Gordman's staring me right straight in the face...what was i to do?

i am glad i stopped, cause look what i found! these slippers are probably something only a designer could love, but i am one, and i love em. they are basically mary janes made out of yarn!!! they had lots of colors, but i got a basic black pair and a funky pink/brown combo. the best part? $3.99 a pair. looks like my shoe wardrobe for winter is pretty much taken care of, unless i do actually want to step outside!

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

take a designer to work day



oboy, today i have to go out of the house. i agreed to be part of a "panel" that is speaking to some college students here in town. the other three panelists all own their own agencies - including my former boss, so i am feeling kind of out of my league.

the biggest issue isn't what to say, it's what to wear. this used to be of the utmost importance to me, since it's part of my job that visual things matter. i would pore over outfits in my closet and try on clothes endlessly, searching for just the perfect look.

these days, i wipe the grape jelly off my tshirt in the morning and say "good to go."

so, on the rare occasion that i have to be with "peers" i freak out. luckily, i was busy yesterday and last night, so i just had to pull something together this morning. wha la! i hope i did okay. i still had some knee high boots and tights left over from back when i worked in an agency. i think these might still be in style?!

i'll know when i get there. the last time i spoke at this particular college campus, a student was walking into the building right ahead of me (it was late november) and she was wearing big fuzzy pink slippers. not sure what i'm in for today!

Monday, October 02, 2006

lotsa luck



this morning i found a big cat whisker on the floor by my chair. a long time ago, i heard they were a sign of "good luck" so i kept them in a little tin. after a few years, i had a couple dozen, and it started to be kind of a weird collection. so i threw em out.

now, i am just thankful to still be finding them! been is having a good day, and obviously we are both "lucky" to still be together.

He and i are a bit alike, except that he is getting skinnier all of the time and i am not. His latest habit is like a "voluntary time out." he goes and inserts his head in the space between the doors to the outside. Since he cannot speak, he does his best to try and communicate to me that he wants OUT. ha. it works for now, but in a few months it will be kinda sad.

today though, i think we'll both get our wish and go outside for a little while :)

Sunday, October 01, 2006

color my world


I was reading my friend Kirsten's blog, and she had a great picture of the afghan she is knitting. i got to thinking about how some brains totally think alike.

Kirsten and i are both addicted to color. we like to wander around craft stores, and just look at all the pretty color combinations. we like to think up new combos in our heads, and then look at them. we apply these color combos to everything we can, from our betta fish to our gardens and houses to our craft projects.

And then i started thinking about Heaven, since it's sunday and it would be nice to dedicate some time to the Lord. WHAT IF there are more colors than the ones we see? WHAT IF God has a whole new "palette" waiting just for us? Wouldn't that be just fantastic?

As much as I love all of the colors here on earth, I am secretly waiting for the day when there will be more :_)

happy sunday!
b