If you live in the United States…

…today is election day. Please exercise your right…the gift…to vote.  It is easy to become jaded watching commercials that spew hatred (mostly unrelated to the issues at hand), reading articles and even blogs that make fun of an individual’s personal characteristics without listening to the message and perhaps even wondering if this system, cumbersome as it is, could ever work. But…for over 230 years, it has worked. And it has worked because people care. It has worked because, instead of attacking their leaders, they have supported them in deed and (for those who believe in its power) in prayer and where disagreement was necessary, it was couched in terms of the issues, not the individual. It has worked because ‘we’ supplanted ‘me’.

Whomever we vote in today has an enormous responsibility.  My message…my plea to everyone is to consider what it is you can do to help this man, to help our congress, to be a conduit for positive change. This nation and this world has enough of hatred, of violence and of apathy. To those of you who share my faith, join me in committing this day, the candidates and our new president to God-since both candidates claim His Sovereignty in their lives.

Off soapbox. 🙂

Just a quick note, since I am off to go vote, I PASSED my submission for the Master Needleartist Program and have been invited to commence work on the next phase. 🙂 More on that and a new link coming soon.

Have a truly blessed day!

Julie

Boy, do I feel like…

…I’m revisiting my college days. Finishing papers in the wee, dark hours of the morning.  But I did finish  the next step of my ANG Master Needle Artist program, which required me to do an open book test, covering different areas of art, stitching and color theory, some charting and submission of my needlework samples.

And the good news is I made it. I sent in the whole thing just before my deadline. Could I have done more? Yes. The topic was so big and there were so many areas that could have been related better to needlework.   But I am pretty happy with what went out…my only major regret was not adding more photos, but I was trying to keep the size of the file manageable.

One thing I will share, in case anyone out there is thinking of pursuing this designation:  The woman who chairs this program is terrific.  I have had to put submissions off several times because of things like heart surgery, deaths in the family…all the parts of life that seem to interfere with avocational activities.  However, she has been supportive, has truly tried to keep my application open and I really appreciate her encouragement.

So…now I wait and hope that I will be invited to continue!  Hope with me, won’t you?

I think I need to go to bed now.

Blessings,

Julie (who will be holding her breath until she gets a response. :-))