Happy New Year, 2012!

Hello there!!  We are home again from such an amazing trip, one that I know God shined upon in many ways :)   And I send to you wishes for a beautiful, blessed and bountiful new year ahead! I am still so amazed at how fast time always seems to go, and I welcome - and embrace - this new year.  For me, I always start out the new year with a scripture that I keep close to heart and chose a word for the year that I try to incorporate into what I'd like the year to include.  On New Year's Eve, I knew exactly what it would be because I know how much He is at work in our lives, even when we might not see or feel it - that's when He is there the most :)   I hope to take this year as time to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses in my faith-filled journey, one of those is learning not be discouraged when faced with things that are out of my control.  

 So for me this year, my word to carry me along is grace.  I know that as I journey through this new year, I want to conquer all things with grace in my heart and the strength to do all things he asks of me, even in moments of despair, humility, discouragement. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." Hebrews 4:16  I look forward to sharing many joyous, grace-filled moments with you this year!

Now how about a card to go with?  Hee hee!  I am so late in posting the Calendar Girls 28th of the month card due to our travels :) This month, our hostess was none other than the founder, creator and owner of the Calendar Girls idea - Miss January, Jeanette!  Her theme for this month's card creation was secrets! In other words, she asked each Calendar Girl t0 send a card creation word to the assigned person and create with that idea!  Here is her idea:  December - Who loves a secret? I know I do! Let's have a secret ONE-WORD challenge. This is how it will work. Each Calendar Girl will come up with a one-word challenge for the Calendar Girl who follows her on the list. It can only be ONE WORD, but it can be any word (glitter, three, apple, blue, holiday, sponging, friendship.... whatever word you choose!) Then secretly email or PM that ONE WORD challenge to the next person on the list and she will create a card that in some way represents that word. And guess what word Jeanette sent to me?  Hospitality!  Oh the possibilities!!  I actually had to google the word to come up with some ideas ad my mind only drifted to Pineapples, lol! :)~ I have an old SU stamp set with a pineapple in it but it wasn't working for me, so I regrouped and remembered my neglected Penny Black Teddy Bear set which I just LOVE!!  I inked it up and knew I wanted to go with a floral sentiment to match  - get it? Thanks a bunch?  LOL!!

But the original card prototype had the sentiment on the front in the corner and just didn't look right either ....... regrouping again, I finally managed to make my idea sort of come to life on paper!  And here we go - Teddy Bear flowers being ever so thankful :)

So sorry for the blurry pictures, but I'm in desperate need of camera repairs!

I have many pictures to share from our trip, which I'll be doing soon. I quickly realized that most of them were coming out not so clear and switched to my phone and wow, it was one less thing to juggle ;)  Be sure to stop in and see what the other Calendar Girls created!

I'm entering this card into: StampsRUs Challenge - Anything Goes

Big hugs,

Bigger Blessings :)

~Kelly