Where I've Been

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry for my "disappearance." We have been away on Hilton Head Island celebrating:

Yes, it was hubby's 50th birthday. We surprised him with lots of great things, and my prayer was that he know just how much his family loves him. He knows that but on his 50th, I wanted him to feel it in a special way. Let's just say that my prayer was answered in a mighty way! It was so fun to watch our surprises unfold during the day for him and watch him enjoy. We truly had a wonderful family vacation and birthday celebration.

So, now it's back to the daily routine. Tomorrow I will have another layout to share so I hope you will join me. Blessings,

Wednesday {Reflections}

This week, God has really put the word "reflect/reflections" on my heart. I have been focusing on that word a lot as I ride my bike and see God's beauty surrounding me. What does my attitude reflect? Do people see God in me or a heart filled with "yuck"? How do I reflect God's glory each day? If I don't, why not? Am I actively praying about reflecting Him to those around me each day?

Proverbs 27:19 "As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart."

How will your life reflect Him today? Blessings to each of you as you live for Him and His great purpose!

{Faith Journaling} Challenge #89

As I prayed each morning on the beach for the last 2 weeks, I realized it is where I have my very best prayer time. I don't know why. I think it's because it's where I feel closest to God. It then hit me, why don't I use an ocean CD for my prayer time at home each day. Oooh, I ordered one, and I am so excited to see how I like it! I know I have heard of others using music during their quiet time too so today, please share:

**When sitting down for your quiet time with the Lord, do you sit in silence or do you play some sort of music in the background?

Acts 4:24b ". . .'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'You made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.'"

How awesome that He give us His amazing and beautiful creation! If you want to see our Prayer Tree and hear the waves, this is where we go each morning for our prayer time:

Remember, to find all previous faith journaling questions, please see this post here. Blessings to each of you,

Tuesday's {Tip} Uploading ALL of Those Vacation Photos

Today I wanted to share a post I did back in 2008. I know I have many new subscribers, and I am not sure how many of you remember this one, and it is something I STILL do with my vacation photos and love. Click the link below to read it:

**Vacation and Photos

I hope you find it helpful, and I will leave you with a couple of photos from this morning's beach ride. Eeek, and this alligator was mad! I think he thought I was going to take whatever it was from him. Do you think it was a rock? That's what my girls and I thought but we are still not sure.

Well, have a joyous day, and to see all of my older Tuesday's {Tips}, look at the link list here. I do need to update it but there are still some great ones there for you. Enjoy the day!

You Guessed It--RAK Winner!

Okay, y'all are just too smart! I thought for sure I would stump you with my little challenge I posted the other day (look here). The very first answer and the majority of the answers posted below were correct!  Here was the challenge photo to be identified:

And here is the actual photo:

Yes, it is from a Palmetto tree from my home state of South Carolina! I even have it on my car! It is our state tree and even on our beautiful state flag!

Just a beautiful tree and always makes me feel at home! And so now onto our random winner from the correct answers posted. Our winner is:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
4
Timestamp: 2011-08-14 11:39:40 UTC

And number 4 belongs to Cassie! Cassie said:

"Cassie said...
It looks like the bark of a palmetto tree. What a lovely bike ride you must have had :)
AUGUST 12, 2011 8:46 AM"

Huge congrats Cassie.  Please e-mail your address to me, and I will get your prize off to you when I return home. :) And thanks for making me laugh everyone. I will have to stump you much harder next time! Blessings,

A Little {Friday Fun}

Today, I thought I would share a few photos from my morning bike ride but also give you a challenge! First, here are a few shots from this morning's ride:

The gator was only a baby but he sure was moving fast. :) And it was high tide this morning so we didn't have a lot of room for riding like we usually do. Guess I better check the tide schedules. LOL!

Now for your challenge. Identify what these photographs are from:

I am looking for a specific name. :) Each correct entry will be entered to win some crafting goodies including a Unity stamp handle, some ODBD stamps, and whatever else I can find and put together once I get home. Sorry I don't have a picture. I will have to share that once I am home. :) You have until tomorrow night (Saturday), 8/13, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern to enter your guess in the comment section. :) Have fun guessing, and have a joyous weekend ahead. :)

One Bike Ride

What a morning! In one bike ride today, God blessed us with so much of His beautiful creation.  We saw:

*An alligator sunning itself. So far I am better this year. I am staying away. Most of you know that I tend to get a little too close to these guys. :)

*Two cranes in the tops of pine trees making LOTS of racket. They truly sounded like monkeys. He is the white "blob" in the middle of the pine tree.

*We heard a woodpecker pecking but we could never find him.

*And we road along side a pod of dolphins. There were at least 12 that we counted but I could only get a photo of one or two at a time.

*And as we head back home, this is the house two houses down from us. They have a bike cut through we use to get to the path to the beach. :)

Yes, a beautiful and glorious Monday morning. God so richly blessed us today, and I pray He blesses you in the same way in this week ahead! Yes, this is truly divine nature! Blessings,

Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."

Picture Heavy Monday {It's Hilton Head}!

Yes, I have been quiet. Yes, I haven't posted. I have been relaxing on Hilton Head Island, SC. We took our annual trip home, and it was wonderful as always. Now it's back to complete craziness, full calendars, and a never-ending list of things to be done! But before I dive into work, I thought I would share a few of our photos with you.

First, most of you remember that I LOVE my morning prayer time on the beach riding my bike. Well, we took one family bike ride to the beach and of course it was amazing but a little later in the day than I usually like to go. But hey, with family, anytime is right! Then, we always love going down to the lighthouse and seeing the wonderful boats and shops. And then we always love going down to South Beach Marina to eat, shop, and look at the parrots. It was hard to peel the girls away from the birds because we should have our precious parrot home with us soon--maybe even in 2 days! We will find out today when she will be here! Yeah!
And my absolute favorite are the alligators. Why, I don't know because at heart I am a HUGE chicken except around these guys! Ugh, what's wrong with me? The first guy was across the street from our house in a pond there. I was maybe 5 feet from him. He wasn't too happy with me. You can see his mouth open has he threatens me. Ooops! And the second photo is of a guy in the pond behind our house. I love how you can see is back feet and tail through the water. Well, I hope you enjoyed my photos. I can't wait to print them and begin scrapping a few! Have a blessed week ahead, and thanks for stopping by!

Hip Hop {Thursday} Stamp Inventory Binder

Hip Hop everyone! Do you smell something sweet? Well, you are almost to the blog candy! :) You should be joining me from my amazing friend Chelsea's blog. If not, hop on back home to the Unity blog so that you can start from the beginning!

Angela has such a fun new release today called You + Me = Happy! Well, one thing that makes me happy is riding my bike in the very early morning and watching the sunrise back at home in South Carolina on Hilton Head Island. I love being alone, listening to the birds, watching the sun rise, hearing the waves on the beach, and praying. It is an amazing time that I treasure. Here are a couple of pictures from one of my morning bike rides.Now, that's heaven on earth!!! And after re-organzing all of my stamps, I am ready for one of those bike rides! LOL! Tomorrow I will share my new unmounted stamp storage. And of course I needed a binder for my inventory pages that go along with my new storage system. So, that is what I have created for you to look at today. To decorate my binder, I used the new Unity March KOM Simple Life. I used the journaling tag and the word "sweet" from the sentiment "You & Me Simple and Sweet." I love just using parts of a sentiment. You really can get more use out of your stamps that way! For the spine, I used the Unity Just My Type alpha, and the papers are Basic Grey Sultry. Gotta love all of that pink! :)

Now, hop on over to see what sweet Laura has created for you today. I am sure it will be amazing! And enjoy the rest of your hop!

Tuesday's {Tip}

Vacation and photos! I don't know about you but those two words together always mean work. It's a good thing but I always take a zillion photos on vacation. I think most of us probably do. And by the time I weed through them all to delete the ones I don't want, then upload them to my favorite photo service, get them printed, etc., I have spent several hours getting it all done. Well, I have found a few tips over the years that have really helped to turn this "work" into an easy task. Let's look at what I do to make this less time consuming.

First, I always take my laptop on vacation with me. Then, I have found if I upload my photos every single day from my camera to my laptop, that really helps. Then to streamline it even more and make it less painful, I go ahead and delete the pictures I don't want, and I even upload them to my favorite photo service. I don't send them to be printed just yet but I do get them uploaded to their server. It accomplishes a couple of things. First, it is one task I can check off as "done," and second, it serves as a backup if something happens to my laptop. My photos are now safe in a second location while I am away. As I do these things each day, I know that I won't have to do this when I get home.

Then lastly, the day we leave for home I always have all of the photos printed by my photo service. When I get home, they are ready to pick up, I am ready to scrap, and I don't have to mess with my pictures at all! That was all done on vacation! Yeah! This has made it all SO very easy for me these past few years. You can do this anytime you take a lot of photos--Thanksgiving, Christmas, family vacations, etc. It really does make this task so much easier and less painful.

I pray this has been helpful, and I will leave you with a few pictures I took this week on my bike rides:
Blessings, and have a joyous week!