A Bike Ride in June and Beautiful Poppy Pictures

Today I’m going to share a few photos and some encouragement as well.  Being Sunday I’ve been fair bursting out of my skin with the Joy of the Lord!  I don’t quite know how to explain it - so I won’t even try.  I’ll let this sweet video take care of just how I feel when I get close to my God!

What have I been up to this week? 

Well, my sweet Mr. took me out on two fun dates this week.  The first was a bike ride.  Osoyoos has a great trails system but we do mostly walking on them.  We chose instead to bike some of the streets, he was the leader and I just happily trailed along behind.

 

We rode up onto the hills where the golf course is and the conditions were perfect to get a view of Hayne’s Point - the strip of foliage laying out in the water?  Hayne’s Point is a provincial park, absolutely lovely and super busy so you should make reservations if you hope to stay here.

And then we pedalled alllllll the way over to the far side of the lake and enjoyed the silky sand at the new pubic Rotary park (not a campsite)  Such a lovely day with the sunshine beaming on us.  Our weather has been up and down and all over the place from hot sun to thunderstorms with rain. Keeps things exciting.

The second date?  It was to garage sales and out to Dim Sum this Saturday. 

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I want to make a little shout-out to Betty Dish who’s blog and twitter I’ve been following and enjoying lately and who recently hosted a contest/giveaway thing sponsored by Booster Juice and I won… well everybody won something and I’m pretty excited about that. haha!  Betty Dish likes to blog about food and food being good for us.  Why don’t you check her out HERE? (and thanks Betty!)

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I’ve also been making a few cards, just some sillies using up some Stickers I bought a while ago on sale:

Just silly cards like these.  I used a real non-electric typewriter for the sentiment on each.  These are available at Indie Lulu Living on Main Street!

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And I wandered around in the flower patch yesterday and I’ll share some of the beauty with YOU. (and yes, I did lay on the ground a lot to get some of these)  I’ll call this group “Poppy Love”

Its snowing like the inside of a snow-globe here this morning - and it feels quite merry!

I’m not sure if this is my last blog post for the season... or not. It will entirely depend on if I get my list ‘knocked off’ Things are moving a TAD slower than anticipated here - how ‘bout you? Lets be real here today, there are always those last minute gifts you RECIEVE and then need to reciprocate – fast. All I can say on this end is “Thank goodness for Tim Hortons” (Famous Canadian Doughnut place)

I am going to take a good amount of time away from my computer, so don’t worry if you don’t see me for a bit – I plan to monopolize Mr. Miles’ vacation time. I’ve worked hard to finish up my projects and lessons and I want to see 2008 out being well rested – and start 2009 out that way too. We DO have a choice.

I’m sure I’ve missed responding to some of you – I’m sure there are things that won’t get done, and I apologise if I’ve left you hanging . Forgive me as I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment with life and all the season brings.

I’d like to take a moment to say a huge THANK YOU to each and every one of you who have visited me this past year – my blog would still get written even if nobody came by, but it would not be the same. I can’t tell you how many times your comments, feedback and encouragement have lifted my spirits. Many of you have become dear friends – the internet is amazing!

The biggest blessing of all has been to be able to have my Sister In Law Judy blog and learn to digiscrap - she's grown in her talent in every way - and to have been able to create a blog for my sister Nina and be able to see all her beautiful and tasteful card designs. I love that we share this bond! Their links are always in my sidebar - definately worth visiting (plus it makes me warm all over when you visit them too!)

We Celebrate Your Birth

Dear Lord, as we celebrate Your birth,
let us remember that You are the true reason for Christmas.
Let every sparkling light remind us how You illuminate our lives,
a shining beacon to guide us in our thoughts and actions each day,
and how You light us from within
in the knowledge of Your love and truth.

Let the Christmas trees, standing straight, tall, unbowed,
remind us of Your uprightness, Your goodness, Your perfection,
and Your refusal to bow to worldly temptations,
no matter how great the challenge or trouble.
Lord, as we feast on Christmas treats,
let us remember that You are the sole provider
of everything worth having, that all good things come from You.

And as we enjoy our gifts, let us never forget
that You are the greatest gift of all--our wonderful Savior,
Counselor, Giver of an eternal life whose wonders we cannot imagine.
So as we delight in Christmas, the happiest and brightest of holidays,
let us remember there would be no Christmas without You, Lord,
and let us our hearts be filled with joy, and love
and thankfulness, this Christmas and all the ones to come.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

By Joanna Fuchs

I was out the past few days snapping photos - I always love watching as the edge of the lake freezes up, there is always some sweet beauty to be captured! I'll share some of my latest photos with you.

I hope you have enjoyed a little peek at what its like here right now.

I have been busy creating a few layouts. The first is of our daughter Melanie - she sent me some photos so I decided to scrap them while they were hot. I'm going to be sure to capture some photos of our other daughter over the holidays too - so be expecting a layout of her too!

Melanie at a Christmas Party Layout
(click to see a bit larger)

credits:
Papers and Elements by Cuddlebee's Christmas Blessings Kit
Confetti Element (recolored) by KimB from her Time Anew Kit

Don't you just love this? I'd done the whole thing with Cuddlebee's kit, but then there was just SOMETHING missing, so I peeked in KimB's AMAZING Time Anew Kit - and discovered this beautiful confetti - the perfect touch to finish it off. You MUST have Kim's new kit for New Years. Just click HERE to find out more about that!

Christmas Greetings Layout 2008 of Mr and Mrs Miles
(click to see a bit larger)

credits:
Elements - KimB's Chrismtas Around the World Kit
Elements - KimB's Timeanew Kit
Paper and Elements - Barb Derksen's Crazy Ol Christmas Kit
Elements - Barb Derksen - Glitter Berries

Seeing as how Mr. Miles actually provided a photo of myself... LOL - I decided to make a page from us too!

Last note - my friend JanMary is on day 16 of her 25 days of blogging to Christmas - a great place to visit! Just click HERE.

And with no further ado, I'm relaunching my Crazy Ol Christmas kit - for YOU! I've added in a few extra sprigs of pine as they were missing from the original one.

Personal Use Only
download

And since its a crazy ol time, and you might be wishing for a giggle - here's a neat YouTube video Mr. Miles showed me about Hambone - a form of body-slapping music.

Our new church sign

YAY! Our church has a new sign - something that is funky, fresh and ... totally does NOT go with the look of our building at the current time LOL! To be honest, the facade of our building is aged and worn, with some of the lettering falling off... but there is a NEW spirit within and God has been blessing us - and we are beginning to dig ourselves out and bring about some welcome changes. It has been a year of great growth and renewal and it will be exciting to see what 2009 brings about. We desire to be a church that does not seek only to who comes in... but more importantly, who will 'go out' from our body as missionaries.

My multi-talented husband designed the sign - he'll be blushing I said so, but I can't help but show him off.

Speaking of churches etc...

I will link you here to an article I heard on NPR radio - did you know that (and this is a sign of our times) some churches and synagogues are planting GPS chips in their nativity displays - to help locate them when they get stolen? Truly - you can read all about it (or listen, just click on the little red speaker symbol at the top) by clicking HERE. Who'd have ever thought there would be Geo Caching for Jesus?

Layout by Judy (my SIL)
credits: Barb Derksen (me) Heart Music Kit

Love this layout of my niece Melissa and her guitar instructor strumming out a tune on the guitar Melissa recently recieved for her birthday. I am impressed how you cut her out, Judy - looks great!

Tag by Nina (my Sister!)
credits: Music note image design by Barb Derksen (me)
Burgundy cardstock from Nature Preserve Recycled cardstock,
DCWV- Clear Glitter paper,
Figgy Pudding Kringle Designer paper.
Unknown elastic cord.

It is so exciting to see my items used in a hybrid project. Really - it sort of makes it 'come to life' I always get a new appreciation for my items - seeing them used this way. Thank you Nina, for sharing! I suspect we may see more items coming from Nina's blog in the future. In fact... speaking of which, she'd asked me to make a 'gift kitty' for a project, so I whipped one up. Only... when I showed her, she said she wanted a birthday kitty, not a Christmas one, so I'm going to share this one with you.

I've put a watermark over kitty in this preview, but the download will not have it on. I do this to prevent pirating in the form of just downloading a jpg - so my terms of use are included in the download. I hope you enjoy this purr-fectly delightful little kitty.

personal use only
download

And while we are on the subjects of kitty's ... here's a quirky, funny, typical kitty video which you will get a giggle out of, I'm sure.