Art Journal: Godliness Is

I’ve been posting my art journal creations on the Facebook page for #ThrowbackThursday. If you haven’t us checked out on Facebook, I’d appreciate you taking a look. If you like the content, please give it a follow.

Today, our #tbt post is this art journal entry from back in 2021, featuring a quote by Alistair Begg. When I read this quote, I feel challenged to ask myself whether I do, indeed, live “with an all-pervasive sense of God’s presence.” I won’t say I’m actively thinking of God every second of the day. However, since reading The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, I have a better perspective on what it means to live with a heightened awareness of God’s presence.

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Shifted to Printify

I’ve moved my storefront from Etsy to Printify. Currently, my Etsy store is in vacation mode. At some point, I may try to create some sort of digital product to offer there. As for physical products, they are all currently on Printify.

I feel like I’ve wasted time and money on Etsy. I had a digital offering there originally, listed for about a year. Nothing sold. I let the listings expire, regrouped, and returned with print-on-demand product via a linked Printify account. I sold a few items to a friend. After a month of the design being listed on Etsy, I did a keyword search on its title: “property of the Holy Spirit.” My search returned NO RESULTS. As far as I knew, I had the only property of the Holy Spirit design on all of Etsy. The keyword search returned neither my products bearing the design, nor my store even. It was then that I began to think Etsy was not where I needed to be.

I will admit that I did not pay to advertise on Etsy, and I get the feeling that, unless you pour some money into advertising, they aren’t really going to help your store out. Hence why I got no search results. I can’t prove that, but I experienced what I experienced and draw conclusions from that.

Etsy charges a fee to list your items. If you have variations, each one gets a listing fee. Different sizes? Each one gets a listing fee. If you sell something, Etsy also takes a commission plus a transaction fee. I may well have spent more money than I made.

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Art Journal: Death Is A Part of Life

Way back on May 14th, I put up a #ThrowbackThursday post on my Facebook page. It included an art journal entry that I’d created on February 14, 2021. In that post, I promised I’d put an article here giving some insight into its backstory.

It’s been over a month-and-a-half. One reason it has taken me this long to write about it is because this piece has a tough sentiment. Death is a part of life. Not a popular thought. I think most humans don’t want to contemplate their own mortality. Death is a very unpleasant subject. And yet, death comes for us all at some point.

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Living in Community: Gifts

If you are a Christian, you are called to so much more than just warming a pew on Sunday mornings. Or your couch at home while you watch services online. I know there are those who will read this and push back because they’ve been hurt in church, by church people. The fact that they are even showing up for church on Sunday mornings is a minor miracle all on its own. Hear me when I say that I’ve been there, too. But understand that it means that you are not living into your calling as a follower of Christ. We are called to follow Christ, not people, and sometimes that requires us to follow Him in spite of others. It is difficult to function in a healthy way within a faith community when you’ve been hurt, but our mission is to follow Christ.

All Christians are called to be part of a local body of believers.

…and let us consider [thoughtfully] how we may encourage one another to love and to do good deeds, not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more [faithfully] as you see the day [of Christ’s return] approaching.

–Hebrews 10:24-25 (AMP)

As Scripture points out, believers are meant to live in community with one another. Whether your faith community is a traditional church that meets in a traditional space, a contemporary church that meets in an old storefront or movie theater, or even a small group that gathers in a private residence, you are called to be part of a faith community that breaks bread together, fellowships with one another, and worships, studies, and prays together. We are to meet regularly with one another, and we are called to commitment and faithfulness within our faith community.

If you’ve been hurt by church folk, then this will seem like a tall order, if not a downright impossibility. Believe me, I get it. But you, with all your unique talents and gifts and your unique personality are important to the body of Christ. You matter, and you are needed.

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The Sheep Rock

painted rocks for women's retreatIt’s been a long minute since I’ve done any rock painting. The last big batch of rocks that I painted was for a women’s retreat hosted by my church. That was several years ago. Each rock featured a faith-related word and some featured a simple design as well.

I have painted a rock on occasion since then. Those usually related to my word of the year (rest, grace, and listen, respectively).

My favorite rock is one of my very first. It has a large chip, so it wasn’t suitable for giving away, and I intended it to be a sample to show a friend to help them understand what I was trying to explain to them. It is my sheep rock.

rock with painting of a sheep, grass, and sky, with a purple heart over its headThis one simple image carries so many layers of symbolism for me. It calls to mind the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. I also remember that “we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3). It also calls to mind the imagery of Psalm 23, and it makes me think about the story in Luke 15:4-7  of the shepherd who leaves the flock of 99 sheep to go in search of the one who has wandered astray, to bring it back to the fold.

Above all these things, it reminds me that I an a child of God, and the Good Shepherd watches over me. If you’re a child of God, He’s watching over you, too.

2024 Word of the Year

Several years ago, I started hearing about people choosing a “word of the year” to serve as their focal point, guiding idea, or inspiration for the year ahead. The idea appealed to me, but unlike most of the people I heard about, I knew I didn’t want to be the one to choose my word, so I went to God in prayer.

I asked the Lord whether it was okay for me to undertake this, and if so, if He would please give me a word for the year and walk me through the process of using it as my word of the year.

When you pray, you should expect an answer – whether it’s yes, no, or wait. So I started paying closer attention to what was going on around me, believing God would either somehow communicate a word to me, or His answer would be a no. Before long, I realized a particular theme was being echoed in various parts of my life. That’s when I knew I was being given my word: REST.

I learned  a lot about REST that year. Not just the type of rest where you sit down or relax or give your body tie to recover, but also resting on God’s promises, resting in His Word, and finding spiritual, mental, and emotional rest.

Since then, I’ve had the words GRACE, BALANCE, LISTEN, FORWARD, and IGNORE as well. In each instance, I learned much – bout the word, about myself, about how God wanted me to apply it to my life, and how it shows up in His Word. There was one year He didn’t give me a word, even though I had asked for one. I stuck with what I was given the previous year.

For 2024, I didn’t ask for a word. I think I felt like I had enough going on. Nevertheless, the Lord gave me a word.
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Taste Test: Papier Plume Peacock Blue

Confession time: I bought a whole bottle.

I usually purchase a sample before I take the plunge on a whole bottle. However, the store’s swatch was so pretty, and the bottle was inexpensively priced. So, I went for it.

I’m so glad I did!

I was on the hunt for my perfect shade of orange fountain pen ink when I found Papier Plume’s Peacock Blue. I had already purchased some ink samples from my go-to, the Goulet Pen Company, and was browsing Vanness Pen Shop because they carry several brands that Goulet doesn’t. I’d never ordered from Vanness before, and I’d never tried a Papier Plume ink before.

The Peacock Blue was an entrancing turquoise, and the price point was low enough to tempt. So alongside some orange ink samples and a few other fun inks, I ordered a bottle of Peacock Blue.

Swatching the ink in my ink journal – a Midori MD A5 grid notebook – both the vibrant color and its shading stood out. This was a good impulse purchase.

When I decided to experiment with making my own shimmer inks to use with a dip pen, I picked the Papier Plume Peacock Blue as one of my experimental inks. I used a pipette to transfer around 3 mL of ink to a 5 mL plastic graduated vial, then added a tiny amount of Egyptian Green mica powder. The results were stunning. Unfortunately, my photography does not do the result justice.

Fortunately, Vanness has this ink available in either the 30 mL bottle that I purchased, or in a smaller sample size at 4 mL, if you’d like to pick some up to try. If you’re a fan of turquoise ink, I believe you’ll enjoy it.