Visiting Teaching Message, March, 2010

It's a beautiful, rainy day in the desert! Oh, I am so loving all the rain we've been getting! Rain in the high desert means snow in the mountains. Snow in the mountains means more water!

It's the end of the month and soon you'll be preparing for your monthly visiting teaching assignment. I have some things to share with you. Maybe there is something here you could use. Because of the size restrictions, the photos aren't the best. Please feel free to contact me if you need more info.

The objective of March's Visiting Teaching Lesson is to remind us to study the Scriptures daily. I admit, I'm someone who needs to do more of that. I found the lesson hard because of my own failing. Maybe what I've provided for my sweet sisters will also help me do better.

While doing some background work, I read that one thing to do to enhance your reading is to make a really big bookmark! How easy is that? Big is good (especially when you need to stick things in your toes in order to read them). I found a wonderful suggestion by Elder Rex D. Pinegar which I printed on the bookmark. Elder Pinegar's suggestion is to insert your name while doing your daily reading. What a simple idea and a way to personalize the Scriptures! Here is the bookmark:



Since it is March, everyone is a little bit Irish in March, right? Therefore, I made my color scheme green. I chose to make a booklet to help keep track of the daily reading. The booklet has three key pages inside. The fourth interior page has replicas of highway signs. Let me explain that first.

Elder Russell M. Nelson gave an analogy to using the Lord's plan to that of a spiritual road map. What do we see on road maps? We see markers for various highways. I took that concept and went with it. Here are two road signs to help us stay on track:



The second road sign states seven steps toward forming a strong habit for daily reading as shared by Sr. Becki Prengel


Here is how I fit it all into the booklet:








Here are two copies for you to use, if you wish. Just drag them to your desktop.





The recording keeping charts are not mine. I am providing the links so that you can copy them as nice, crisp images.

http://lds.about.com/library/weekly/2003/readingchart_bofm.pdf
http://lds.about.com/library/weekly/2003/readingchart_nt.pdf
http://lds.about.com/library/weekly/2003/readingchart_dc.pdf

I hope there you can use something I've shared for March. I am so glad that you stopped by. I love your visits! Why not become a follower? That way, you'll know when I've posted something new. If you have it in your heart, leave a little love! Everyone loves warm fuzzies!

I wish each of you peace.

XO,
Chris

February is Almost Over!

Where is time going? My goodness, this month only has a week left! February flew by, didn't it?

It's a rainy night. I love hearing it drip outside. I'm sure that north of us, the snow is falling quite a bit! The longer spring stays away, the happier I am. Spring is all too short, and on it's heels comes the dreaded heat of summer!

Did you have a good week? It's been a great week for me. Lots of nice things happening. I made some LOs this week and thought I'd share them with you.

The first LO has a story to it. You see, when DS was about 8 or 9, he discovered he loved shrimp scampi. Now, back then, people weren't always taking photographs of everything so they could be scrapped. However, the event needed to be documented. So, there isn't a photo of DS scarfing the scampi, but there is a plate of scampi that we had for dinner this week, LOL. Back to the story - We were on our way to Zion National Park to spend the weekend. We stopped and had dinner which was a seafood buffet. DS found he had a taste for scampi and devoured 127 shrimp! (keep in mind, he was 8 or 9) He counted each and every one he ate before he was full. These weren't tiny shrimp, either! We have never forgotten it. So, to make sure that it never is forgotten, I have created the following LO. There is a pocket behind the photo mat for hidden journaling which I will do this week.


The Shrimp Scampi Caper

The next LO is of a photo I took in the Fall in a small town called Rockville. I found this stream and thought the trees were just perfectly colored. This LO is based on that beautiful autumn day. I used pleated ribbon and lots of Prima flowers and leaves. The quote is one of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It says, "There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October." Isn't that just a marvelous quote? I thought it matched the photo perfectly. Do you see it, too?


October

The last photo is one that I had to salvage. So many of our photos are darkening with age. I did some restoration work on this one. It turned out a bit too red,but I'm not sure it isn't a reflection from inside the train in which we were riding or the jacket DS was wearing. I wanted to create a bright LO. This was the first time DS ever ate popcorn. This isn't his first bite, but maybe his fourth or fifth piece ever. I took a doily and sprayed both sides with Archival Mist to preserve it. Then, I inked the edges and elevated them quite a bit all the way around using 1/4" adhesive foam pieces. I thin cut all the circles using my Nestibilities die and glued them around the doily. Next, I machine stitched everything. Think it's a bright enough LO? LOL I think you need sun glasses just to look at it! *giggle*


Your First Taste of Popcorn

I have a couple more to share later this week. I hope you will come back and visit again! The door is always open!

XO,
Chris

Isn't It Odd?

Isn't it odd that as we get older, we forget so many little details? Then, we try to retrieve those memories and it's difficult. I brought this up because DH and I were discussing our first few Valentine's Days together. Neither of us can remember them! I DO remember the year he bought me an iron for Valentine's Day, LOL. DH won't forget that one, for sure! It turned out to be a very "chilly" evening instead of a romantic one, LOL! He never did that again. We really spent time the other night trying to recall the ways we have spent this romantic holiday. We did OK, but not great. Is that happening to you as well?

We had a wonderful dinner at a wonderful restaurant. They bring a plate which holds a very hot, flat lava stone which has been heated to about 800° F. You may opt to cook your meat/fish/ or poultry on that stone at your table. We have always chosen that. It's fun to just take your meat and do your own cooking. Before that, we had cheese fondue. After that, we had chocolate fondue. I should do a layout about the restaurant. It's a lot of fun.

It's been very springlike here already. I dread the summer. I whine about the heat way too much! I'm a cold weather girl. We should be getting more rain in the next week, so that will be fun.

I have done some layouts I'd like to share. Let me know what you think!

The first one is of our gorgeous DIL. It's hard to read the title because the flash reflected off the metal alphas. Sorry about that. It does say, Ma Belle Fille - My Beautiful Daughter. The orange lace has been mounted on white Bazzill CS. I wove narrow white ribbon through the slits around the center. It turned out so well, I think!




Ma Belle Fille

The next LO is of our sweet feline. She decided that being in a shopping bag made her look especially cute. I used a lot of BG for this and wanted it to be BRIGHT! I haven't done the journaling yet. She is just the sweetest animal ever and knows how to look cute. I really think she poses for the camera!


What's cuter Than a Cat in a Bag?

This LO is of DH, the love of my life (right beside my son)! I wanted a fairly simple LO and wanted to use up some embellishments. I love the clean look of black, red, and white.


All My Love

The last LO to share today is of DH and myself so many years ago. I wanted it to be romantic. I used red and white with some pink in the PP and embellishments. I love that shot of us.


Nothing Says, "I Love You," Like a Kiss

I hope you like my designs. I have more to share and will do so this weekend or early next week. I hope you will come back and say, "Hi!"

Thanks so much for visiting! I love your visits!

XO,
Chris

Visiting Teaching Message, Feb., 2010

The February Visiting Teaching Lesson was challenging for me. For some reason, after reading many related articles, I was left with a feeling of guilt. I've always been a clever shopper, but the operative word is "shopper."

I have never been one to covet the possessions of another. I have, admittedly, coveted the figures of other gals! LOL When it comes to possessions, I've not wanted something just because someone else has it. OK, I just thought of what I actually am envious of - the gals who have managed to create at home businesses to supplement their income! Since we moved to Utah, I am awed with the talents and creativity gals have utilized to create income. I have had absolutely NO inspiration! I've tried. I sometimes lay awake at night pondering what I could do. I tried selling scrapbook layouts via this blog and on ebay and it just didn't catch on. I had one absolutely precious person who bought all but one that I posted on this blog. I was basically giving them away, LOL, at prices that were dirt cheap. I don't think my scrapbook layouts are that bad! LOL. Sadly, another lesson learned was that when I posted them on ebay, I was totally demoralized! I wound up having to pay $7.00 plus in ebay fees for NOT selling any layouts! YIKES! So, it was back to square one and that is where I remain!

Because we were a family of three, we didn't really need to stretch our salaries extremely thinly. We'd certainly watch what we spent, but didn't have a huge family to provide for. It was just easier to a degree. Now, there is just the two of us. It doesn't seem useful to shop using coupons since what we do get already lasts a long time. I think it would be a totally different game plan if we were providing for a large gaggle of kiddies! LOL I am NOT an expert on the lesson's objectives this month. I felt the lesson was extremely useful and a help to me (as I sit here with this week's grocery store ads making a list of bargains, LOL!

Here are some visuals for the February Visiting Teaching Lesson. The first one is based on Elder Joseph B. Worthlin's talk on Earthly Debts, Heavenly Debts, Liahona, 2004, May. This discussion is so rich with supportive helps which, in today's world, really have importance. I chose to take the five key steps to financial freedom and convert them into a visual that is perfect for the month of February!

I used scrapbook paper and cardstock to construct the hearts. I added machine stitching to add some texture. Then, I printed out a vintage lock and added each concept Elder Wirthlin provided to a key which has been printed on grey cardstock.



Here are the keys. Because of the blog's limitations, I had to set the width at 390 pixels; however, when printed, the size was set to 450 pixels in width. I hope that helps.





The next set of visuals has a coupon theme. Oh, how I wish I were better at utilizing coupons! It just seems like so much work to go to this store or that store. When I was working, I just didn't have the time or energy to do that. Hats off to those of you who can.

I'd love to begin with a photo of a little coupon holder. Each section has a label at the top to determine coupons for that specific pocket. Some that I included are: meats, vegetables, dairy, canned goods, etc.



Now, for what I hope will be the best idea I'm sharing. Some coupons related to February's Visiting Teaching Lesson. I've created and printed each of the three texted coupons to give to my girls. I've provided a blank coupon in case you would like to use it as well.






I hope there is something here that you may be able to use in your February Visiting Teaching Lesson. Let me know if I may help you in some way! I absolutely love creating things to share. Most of all, I hope you are a better example of this lesson than I have been. It's never too late. I know that I'm going to try to do a better job!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog. I love your visits and cherish each of you.

XO,
Chris

It's a Grey and Showery Friday!

It's an Oregon day! I love, love, love days like this! I love to see clouds and rain, but only as "treat" days! It just makes scrapping more fun!

I will be back later the Feb. VT ideas I have to share. I've been working on them and haven't taken the photos. As soon as I get that done, I'll post everything to share. Please come back!

There was a challenge to do a scrapbook LO about what is on our music playlist. That gave me an opportunity to do a LO using girly colors! Woo Hoo! For this LO, I used three sheets of BG along w/ the matching chipboard, sticker, and 3-D embellishments. When I placed the strip of flowers down, it looked blah. So, I decided to place the strip on black and cut leaving a border. I think it really helped accentuate the flowers. I also added rhinestones to the centers of some flowers, but not all. I made a transparency of the music to "All I Ask of You" from Phantom and placed that on the LO. I thought it looked great and since DH and I love that song, it was a perfect choice! I painted the chipboard notes in black and then added some tiny crystal flowers to the triple note. It was just a fun LO to do.


My Ipod Favorites

Thank you so much for stopping by. If you came to view the Feb. VT message and idea, please come back as I'm in the process of getting it posted. Love you guys!

XO,
Chris