Here I Am to Bow Down!

My granddaughter, Kailey, and I drove to a beautiful sunflower field today.

This beautiful maized face seemed to be bowing before our King almighty--couldn't help but think of this praise song.

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that your my God
You're altogether lovely,
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me.

I had never studied myriad sunflowers up close and personal before. It surprised me how individual each sunny face was. Hope you enjoy viewing these lovely creations of our Lord.

Ascribe to the Lord!

A
scribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.

from Psalm 29

Photo taken by my neighor, Cynthia, while on vacation in Florida.

Happy Tuesday!

Just a short note to say I am wishing you a very happy Tuesday. Look for the beauty in something really simple today as in this old bowl that belonged to my MIL and the fresh strawberries. Hope you enjoy!

iron bars do not a prison make

If you love old doorknobs you must hop over to Kim Klassen's blog--you can access it here--and see her latest post. You will love it.

Her weekend challenge is to take something that is not necessarily thought of as beautiful and photograph it up close and personal--try to see some beauty in something uniquely unbeautiful.

Looking through some of my old photographs I came across this one taken up at Renewal Ranch in the old barn--some barbed wire hanging there that probably hadn't been touched in years. Somehow I saw some beauty in it especially after I edited the picture.

Hope you enjoy and hope it is a reminder to you that God's holy Word tells us it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Have a wonderful, free weekend.

Update:  And this SOOC shot--has its own texture work!

do strawberries and potato soup go together? in photography they do!

A friend of mine is having oral surgery tomorrow. I will be going to pick her up, taking her for the surgery, bringing her back home and staying with her for a while--making sure she is doing okay and has something nourishing and soft to eat. She is almost 81 years young and she mentioned potato soup when I took her a couple of weeks ago for pre-op visit.

I am not a huge "make from scratch" person nowadays--I spent many years doing that and now I'd rather spend my time painting or photographing--anyway, I went looking on the internet for a good "easy potato soup" recipe and came up with this--the link is right here.

I played with it just a little bit --

left out one of the cans of chicken broth

added a can of cream of potato soup

a can of evaporated milk

1/4 cup of half and half--actually I didn't measure this--I am just guessing at how much I used

quite a bit of white pepper

made sure I used Southern style hash browns--they are cubed, not shredded

used mexican style shredded cheese, not Velveeta

did not use the onion either

I added a cup or so of water also--you can do this to taste and to your desired consistency--I wanted it thick and robust but you might like it a little more liquidy?  Is that a word?  Guess it is now!


and came up with a delicious soup--I have two crock pots simmering right now--one for her and our family and one for the guys at Renewal Ranch.  (I keep the history blog for the Ranch and you can see an awesome post about Kyle getting baptized in the snake infested pond --I am not joking--poisonous ones at that-- out behind the bunkhouse--he has a lot of faith--smile).

How do I know it was good--well, I microwaved me a bowl and had it for lunch--yum!!  I served it to myself with a dollop of sour cream and some real bacon bits.

I decided to do one of the things I love most (besides eating) and try to take some decent food pics of this bowl of soup.  Let me just tell you, when you see glorious pictures of food on the internet and in magazines, do not take those pictures for granted.  It is not easy taking good pictures of food.

I took a bowl of soup, strawberries, sour cream and bacon bits back to my art studio where the lighting is somewhat better than my kitchen--tried to set up a simple still life using sheets of watercolor paper for tablecloth and background, used my reflector that I just bought the other day (I think I'm gonna love it if I ever learn how to use it properly) and shot with three different cameras on many different settings.

These pics were the best I could do and they were edited in IPhoto.  I can't wait to try some of them with Kim Klassen's textures.  Hopefully that will transform an okay picture to an awesome one.  We'll see!

Hope your weekend is blessed!

Oh, btw, the platter, bowl and silver belonged to my MIL which makes this still life more special to me.

UPDATE:  Just had another bowl--after this simmered for several hours it was to die for--already decided, next time I make it (and it will be soon) I'm going to put teensy baby carrots and canned chicken breast (I get it at Sam's Wholesale Club and it is delicious) in it.

Now just tell me, what in the world would I have done today without parentheses??  :D

al fresco revisited

When I designed the picture above and was pondering what to name it, I imagined the crabapple blooms floating on the wings of spring breezes. I knew I wanted to incorporate a foreign term in the layout so while looking up foreign terms used often in english, I came upon "al fresco"--al fresco (Italian): Fresh; painting on fresh or moist plaster; in the fresh, cool or open air.

The second meaning seemed to just fit what I was seeking for my textured photograph so I named it "al fresco."

This morning in my Bible reading I came across this passage from Psalm 104 and did a double take when I read:

"He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers"--

My heart rejoiced because I knew this was exactly what I wanted to pray for you today. Below the scripture, I am including the prayer I prayed for my descendants today and for YOU. I place these prayers under the "Pray With Me" section of my blog.

I have been lax posting these lately but need to make a new commitment to that. The enemy has really tried to discourage me about this portion of my blog because I realize what the Bible says about "going into your closet" to pray and not praying on the public square, so to speak, for attention, or for any other reason than to voice your true requests from the heart to God.

That is one reason I have placed the prayers over on the sidebar and do not broadcast them on the main portion of the blog. However, today, I want to do just that--to encourage you once again to join me in praying for our descendants as we did during the month of December, 2010.


Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.

The prayer:

Good morning Lord, here I am again asking, seeking, knocking for my children, my grandchildren, the men of Renewal Ranch, my extended family, the children of precious friends, my blog readers and their families--

Lord, when I read of Your awesome power in the scriptures above, I know that You can be a messenger today to those for whom I am praying. I pray that the cool breezes of your conviction, affirmation, love, mercy, grace and salvation will be carried to the hearts who need to hear them.

I pray that they will have ears to hear and hearts to discern the message from Your precious Holy Spirit. You know what each individual one needs to hear so I pray that You will speak on wings of love the Words that are most needed by each.

I love You Father and give You praise for what You are going to accomplish this day, this hour, this minute, on this, the wings of Your cool, refreshing breath--the breath of life. How we need Your life today.

And I pray this in Jesus' Name and for His sake only. Amen and amen.

This post is dedicated to Kay Taylor--for your encouragement--thank you!  One of my goals today, Kay, is to get the Tulsa trip recorded on the Renewal Ranch history blog--

al fresco

Here's hoping your week is filled with cool, fresh breezes from God. It is hot here--supposed to be in the upper nineties!

For those of you stopping by way of Kim's blog, here is the recipe:

1 layer of pumpkin grunge, soft light at 55%

1 layer of bentedges, soft light at 54%

1 layer of she loves you, soft light at 35%

1 layer of paperstainedmusic, soft light at 100%

1 layer of paper stained, soft light at 62%


Courier new font with drop shadow

and the original photo I took last year--

Why change of font? Some of my foreign readers were having trouble reading the script I was using so in deference to them and hoping to make it easier for everyone, I am changing to something more simple. Hope you like it!

Abby's Trunk

Thought you might like to see what I've been up to. Just painted a footlocker for my next door neighbor's little girl, Abby. I spent two sessions painting which probably totaled an 8 hour day in all. It was great fun and she really liked it. So she is ready to head off to camp soon.

Hope you enjoy!

And hope your day is filled with rare and beautiful treasures!

Weekend Worship-Immortelle Fleur

Immortelle Fleur came about because of all the time I spent designing this flower from a photograph I took last year. I thought, "Maybe this flower will last longer than I will."

Of course we know flowers are not immortal--well, only one--the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley--May your weekend be blessed worshiping Him who has never ceased to be and who always will be--the great I AM.

I am linking to Spiritual Sundays! You can access it here.

I used Kim Klassen's texture, Pour Vous.

Be Refreshed!

It's seldom that I watch a video someone sends me but today I did just that and was so glad I did. I hope you will take just a few minutes to enjoy the incredible vastness of God and some beautiful music. Be refreshed and blessed my precious friend! Please pause the music at the bottom of the page.

In the Garden

One is nearer God's heart in a garden
than anywhere else on earth.
quote by Dorothy Frances Gurney


I used Kim Klassen's stained linen texture and the Photoshop dodge and burn tool.

You can find Kim's free textures here.

Here is the untextured version of the picture.