SAMPAGUITA - FIRST OF PHILIPPINE SERIES

In honor of my homeland, the Philippines, and gearing up for a vacation next year, I will be creating art based on this beautiful country of my birth.

I hope that you will follow the collection.  This particular one will be available to purchase here http://fineartamerica.com/featured/sampaguita-anamarie-fox.html at Fine Art America. 

LIFE AND SOUL PORTAL

If you think that life is three dimensional, you might be wrong.  Life is multi-dimensional.  It is the happiness, the sadness, the anger, the excitement.  We are not just matter, we are also energy.  Energy is unseen, but definitely felt.  No one knows it's shape, color, or state.  Every part of our own bodies have no edges.  As an artist I am aware of this, the curves and features of every part of the human body cannot be achieved by perfectly curved lines.  An artist only hopes to capture the likeness of his/her subject.  It can never be the exact visual image because the body is perfectly fluid and ever changing.   Again, multi-dimensional.  This is what makes up our entire individuality.  We are identified by our thumbprints.  Do you realize that each and every one of the infinite number of human beings on earth has a signature and it is God's intention to define us this way?  So for someone to question the validity of God is preposterous!  

In my own personal premise, I own a dimension.  I call this dimension my Life and Soul Portal.  It is the refuge I've created in my heart wherein only God and I can exist.  There is a portal in which I enter and within that portal God awaits.  It is where I seek answers and guidance when in trouble and a place of peace engulfed in protection and security.

I encourage you to do the same.  We all have happy places, happy places we draw up in our minds and hearts when trouble is around.  Make it a place of peace where only YOU and GOD have the key.  Enter it everyday before you go to bed, or when you first wake up.  You can decorate it anyway you want, with whatever furniture, color, shape, items that purposefully bring you closer and closer to God.  

Till my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!!! Love you, mean it!

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE!

Surely we've all had illusions of grandeur with hopes of a better life.  We think "IF ONLY" I had the perfect spouse, the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect life.  We are only human when we reflect and compare ourselves to the Joneses.  The thought that money makes life easier to handle most of the trials of our imperfect world justifies our desires to attain more and more each day.

And then there are those who have absolutely nothing but literally the clothes on their backs, yet seem to be happy and content.  I often wonder, what makes them tick?

Problems follow great wealth.  The love of money, not money in and of itself, is the root of all evils.  The love of money breeds greed and their lovers forget that the quality of life comes solely from the quality of their faith in God.  Money lovers often think they are indestructible, unscathed even by any illness whose cure can be bought by their money.  They are self-dependent and often ignore the fact that when they die, and we all do, not only can they NOT take their wealth with them, they have no clue whatsoever what lies beyond the grave instead of working towards such a goal in the afterlife.

No one can deny the existence of God.  If this is so, as this world evolved into an abyss of sin in its current state, don't you think that God should have been long forgotten by now?  The reason He is ever present is because He is not just a lie.

Life to me at this point is wonderful.  It is not problem-free, it is not trouble-free not even stress-free, but there is one thing that keeps me in a constant state of hopefulness, and that is God's promise that at the end of this physical life, there is eternal life. For me, I would rather work to be wealthy in life eternal rather than this life because the latter will never end.

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!!  Love you, mean it!

PRESERVING BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS

These are the flowers that I got from my son last Mother's Day and

these are the ones he sent me for my birthday!

It's awesome that my boy is very thoughtful lately so I wanted to preserve these moments by drying the roses since those are the only flowers that can be preserved, really.

So I gathered all the roses, tied them up with a rubber band and hung them upside down in a very dark closet.  

After sometime, they are dried, I carefully dipped them in Mod Podge, making sure that the stuff got into the cracks and crevices.  The Mod Podge dries clear and shiny something like varnish.  At this point you can spread the petals back to their natural state since the mod podge will moisten the petals for a bit.

Once dried, I cut a block of flower arrangement foam to fit into the smiley face cup the flowers came in and cut the stems and arranged them. A sheet of gift wrap tissue was placed in and around the stems.  Ta da!!! It now sits in his room waiting for him to see when he comes in from Massachusetts tonight with his Lady Love!

BE NOT AFRAID

In our hour of need is when we are most encouraged by God to come before Him and ask Him for his guidance and assistance.  Yet, when those needs arise, and made more complicated by the guilt we feel from past sins and failures which we have not previously set ourselves free from, it  is when we are least inclined to come boldly before God.

However, God sees it differently.  This is the time God invites us the most.  He encourages us to confess our sins, pray for help and not let the past sins, guilt and failure get in the way of our relationship with Him.  Put the pride aside and let the Word and the truth of Jesus' death on the cross, His blood, and God's mercy set you free.  

There is always room for you in the throne room of heaven!  Hebrews 4:16

WOOD CRAFT KICK - UNIQUE BOXES

During my birdhouse kick, I've discovered little trinket boxes in my stash and so a new wood craft kick started.  I only found 5 so this is 3 of 5.  Still trying to figure out what to do with the last 2.  So here they are to share with you.  Hope you like it!

Until my next share... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

CONVICTED

Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit, before ascending to heaven, to guide us through our life on earth.  The Holy Spirit is basically our conscience.  Our understanding of what is right and wrong is a personal decision.  Our conviction is a convinced conscience.  The Bible tells us that God uses the conscience to know right from wrong according to our personal gauge.  As we grow to submit more to God and exercise ourselves in His word, we are to keep our consciences clean by establishing convictions in our lives and by avoiding offense to our consciences.  Others may have their own personal gauges and we are to respect them in their convictions as long as they don't directly oppose God's Word.

Constancy to God’s Word brings success in life—the success born of obedience. Faith is not so much the power to acquire or to bring something into my life, as it is the power to obey God’s plan for my life. To walk by faith is to stay on God’s ordered paths, which naturally lead to the things He has planned—things that will fulfill us and make us fruitful servants.   The more we allow ourselves to be engulfed in God's Word, the higher our gauge grow.

Faith isn’t an effort to acquire things by bursts of spiritual energy. It is simply staying on track in the pathway God’s Word has blessed. Faith isn’t a spiritual of speech as much as a response in obedience. God’s promises are already there in the path of His will for your life. Faith simply walks forward, moving in His way. 

Until my next rant... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

MUSIC

There is no other way to explain this except that music in and of itself is another phenomenon that was given to us a gift from God.  How our voices, instruments, even everyday objects can create tones and melodies are absolutely majestic.

When we fail to describe to ourselves how we feel, music has a way of comforting us with its ability to understand exactly how hurt, happy, sad, or even angry we may be at times.  Music is a form of worship that God entirely appreciates.

Think about it the next time you hear your favorite song of a time when that very composition helped you through a time of need, sadness, or even given you a lift!

Until my next rant.... LOVE ONE ANOTHER! And as Ursula the sea witch says... "KEEP SINGING!!!"