Feeding Your Spirit

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. — Albert Einstein”

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I used to be all about what to give up for Lent, but in recent years I prefer to divine what I'm going to DO for Lent. Focusing on building a good habit, strengthening my spiritual side, giving back to the community, spending time with my family. Lent is a time for reflection and meditative focus (prayer is just one type of meditative focus, you can choose any route that works for you), regardless of your faith practices it's a great time to walk a spiritual path and realign yourself with what is truly important in life. Here's a fun site that will be posting inspiration and spiritual exercises each day -
Fast, Pray, Give - Busted Halo
There's no need to enter for the daily/weekly gifts, I don't plan to do that myself, but I do like the quotes, the articles, and the spiritual exercises. The quote above is from the site, here are today's exercises:

Fast from rushing through your day without noticing the beauty around you.

Pray that God might show you something beautiful that you hadn’t noticed before.

Give some time to enjoy a piece of art or a nature scene.

Today at work there was a labyrinth walk, it was great to walk the labyrinth and drill down to what I'd like to focus on this lenten season. Here's to taking time to breathe, and feed the spirit.
How do you hope to feed your spirit this year?

Splat!

Stamp Credits - Stampin' Up!
Other: Glimmer Mist (Tiger Lily), Kaisercraft gems
Spellbinders Nestabilities die-cut

Remember how fun it was in kindergarten to splatter paint? That's what these glimmer mists are like - spray and splatter and see what happens. The result is shimmery glimmery painted goodness, so much fun. These are super simple, monochromatic, monosyllabic cards, following the KISS principle (keep it simple sue!).

Applying that principle to life? Well, it's more of a challenge, but I'm trying, with varying degrees of success . . .

Dude!

I guess it's being a woman that makes making cards for men a little more challenging - what do guys like? Do they care about silly cards anyway? Could you just go to the store for a card? The answers are depends, yes, and no, in that order (well, you could go to the store, if you didn't hand make your cards for everyone else...). The fact is that receiving a card tells that person you care, you thought about them, it's a communication of good intent, and if it's personalized to their interests, likes or preferences, then it's more than the sum of it's parts. I just try to keep the ribbons, lace and girly stuff out of the picture when I'm making cards for the dudes.

Stamp Credits: Stampin' Up! and Magenta/Crafty Individuals
Ranger Distress Ink

What makes this special to the person who received it? A personal touch - a postmark from Camden, where the recipient of this card was born, and the background which has tickets for taking a dog on the bus to Castlefinn, or a bicycle to Donegal, where his grandparents are from. No need to get frilly or fluffy, but it's great to personalize wherever possible - encoding a card or project with a secret symbol, a favorite color or hobby, a personal message that only they might recognize. I kept it simple, but you can add some buttons, watch gears, pen nibs, washers or hardware if you're so inclined :)

So, let's hear it for the guys, the yang to our yin, and here's to finding balance and peace somehow in that arrangement, because life's too short to spend it battling with the boys.