My Personal Reflections, Lessons Learned & Life's Little Accomplishments for 2010

Thinking over the past year has brought some smiles and tears. The New Year is a good time to

count your blessings, recall your accomplishments and admit your downfalls.

May the reflection bring rejuvenation and redemption to your life.

Here's a few of my random Personal Reflections, Lessons Learned &

Life's Little Accomplishments for 2010. Some of these sound so trivial, but, to me, life is in the small details, not the huge accomplishments and awards.

• encouraged my daughter to overcome her first day fears of High School
• made my friends smile
• laughed more often and more freely
• focused less on finacial wealth/possessions and more on contentment
• practice giving feet to my faith
• enjoyed the simple things in life, like soaking up the spring sunshine with a good book
• slowed down a little more to find the joy of living
• told my family that I appreciate them more often
• creating homemade gifts
• took lots of pictures (ALL digital!!)
• reduced clutter and increased organization
• found that a deep breath followed by a long sigh lowers my stress and increases my patience level
• comforted a dear friend after the loss of a child
• helped the homeless        
• donated to several charities
• learned that small problems should not be allowed to overshadow the big ones
• learned that misunderstanding, anger or fear can cause small issues to escalate into something bigger
• made homemade blackberry jelly and peach jam
• survived a summer without being a Camp Lela sponsor… missed those kids
• survived a youth mission trip as the only female sponsor! HA!
• made new online friends
• created my first online blog site
• lost an uncle to a lifelong battle with lung problems
• with sigh of relief and bit of sadness, we finished the last of a 6 year string of Christmas musicals/Dinner Theater productions
• had a blast being the sponsor with the Berryhill HS Band at BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis
• entered my first children's story writing contest
• LEARNING to be a craft project "finisher", not just a starter
• started and finished two quilted table runners in the same month (for me, that's a BIG thing.)
• designed a few of my own quilt patterns
• learned the hard way that not everyone you think is trustworthy really is
• learned little encouragement notes to a worried person can lift their confidence & spirits
• learning a humble heartfelt "I'm sorry" can quickly heal hurt feelings, improve relationships and change attitudes
• learning that indecisiveness is ultimately a decision not act or take a risk
• caused a friend or family member to have a deep belly laugh at my antics or my clumsiness
• allowed myself the freedom to be me
• lost 30 lbs and gained the motivation to continue
• acted crazy with my daughter and husband
• created fun memories
• scrawled notes on napkins in a packed lunch can make my teenage daughter's day
• trying to see other's points of view a little more
• purchased lots of quilting books!
• strung a set of chili pepper lights on the top of our new flat screen TV for a substitute Christmas tree. (We never put up a tree this year. Time just slipped away. So I jokingly told my daughter that instead of "O Christmas Tree" we could sing "O Big T-V, O Big T-V, O how love your colors." So the night we opened presents, we surprised her and strung up the lights and put the presents on the table underneath our Big TV "tree". We had a big laugh over it... what a fun new memory! LOL!!)
• my hubby, daughter and I picked about 24 gallons of wild blackberries on our farm
• Mistakes can be learning tools. Laughter works better than anger to get through your frustrating mistakes and blunders
• using humor to write/blog/talk about my mistakes and failures allows others the opportunity to laugh with you
• laughter creates a common ground
• made it a full year without pop (soda to some of you.) The cravings were so intense for about 3 months! I'm celebrating my success and determination with a 2 ltr of Dr. Pepper on New Year's Eve!! *Ü*
• helped my parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary

God is Good, All the Time!
Happy New Year to All My Friends and Family!
God Bless You in the New Year!
Julie

Love Quilting Magazines?

Karin at http://quiltfrenzy.blogspot.com/2010/12/love-of-quilting-subscription-giveaway.html#comment-form is giving away a year's subscription to Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine. Check it out!

Leona's Last Giveaway.. for 2010

Hey, check out what Leona is giving away. A beautiful book called "Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin" and a couple of handy dandy quilting tools! What a great give-away! Have fun!
http://oneygirl-myquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/2010/12/bloggy-giveaway.html

Reasons for Celebrating

CutToPieces is celebrating her daughter Caitlyn's 1st birthday with a wonderful giveaway... She's such a little cutie! I would want to celebrate too. Check it out at: http://cuttopieces.blogspot.com/2010/12/celebration-and-giveaway.html

PS I Quilt is having a sponsored giveaway a beautiful fat quarter bundle of Kona Fabrics, sponsored by Canton Village Works. Enter to win at PS I Quilt's blog.

A Giveaway to raise awareness for Quilt Hope In

Tracy at http://traceyjayquilts.blogspot.com/ has been given the opportunity to giveaway a Go! You can check out the giveaway and enter here. Tracy is a special lady who has started a new charity organization called  Quilt Hope In who will make quilts and sell them to raise money for Heartline Ministries. Check out all three web sites.

FQ Giveaway

Wow! Look at the generous giveaway on http://www.sewuniquecreationsblog.com/. 28 FQ's of beautiful fabric. Go check it out!

Ho-Ho-Holiday Ornament - Finally! - No Peeking Alexis

Ornament designed (check)
Ornament completed (check)
Ornament mailed to my swap partner (check)

Ya-hoo!! One more item to cross of my growing list of projects I need and want to do. I had a difficult time trying to find an ornament pattern that was a "quilting" type of ornament that I liked. Some were too complicated and some were just too plain. I wanted to make something really unique for my partner.

I received this material from one of the other swap partners in my group. She said it's from a collection called "Figgy Pudding" if I remember correctly. The fat quarter was an olive green and she also generously sent a large piece of the coordinating material. The striped fabric's colors of burgundy, white, and olive green decorated the material with peppermints, ornaments, trees, and snowflakes mixed among wavy strips.

This material gave me the inspiration for the Christmas tree design. I tried to incorporate the different colors and designs to make the piece-work look like ornaments. I used some of the darker green for a small trunk. I layered with a small scrap of batting, stitched around it, leaving an opening to turn it. One of the small snowflakes became my tree topper after stuffing it. It looked like a teeny-tiny pillow about 1/2" across. :)

After the assembly, I hand-quilted the ornament, but it still looked a little too plain in my honest opinion. It needed something shiny, some bling-bling to add some pizzazz! What tree would be complete without a string of lights?!! Off to scrounge through my daughter's and my craft supplies.. Ah-ha! Glass seed beads to the rescue!! I think they even twinkle a little bit in the right light. What do you think? A few hand stitches to the back to create a loop for hanging completes this one-of-a-kind project.

I hope my partner will like the ornament, even though it looks a little lopsided. :D

Merry Christmas to all,
Julie

Quilters Unite to Change Lives

Quilters are some of the most caring and giving people (outside of established churches and religious organizations) that I've ever met. Recently, I've met so many amazing new quilting friends in the blogging world. One of my favorite blogging sites had a wonderful idea to raise money for one of my favorite charities, World Vision. Heather and some of her friends came up with the idea to have a raffle to win one of several donated quilts. At last report, they raised over $5,700.00 for this worthy project. You can check out the story at: http://alamodefabric.blogspot.com/

If you have never heard of World Vision, please let me introduce you to this worthy organization. World Vision is a "Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice."

You can help provide immediate needs or help provide a family with sustainable food and future income. Just a few of the many choices are:

• sponsor a child or family,
• help with emergency food and shelter needs,
• help exploited girls and women,
• give farm animals to provide food, income, and clothing
• provide clean, safe drinking water,
• vocational training and education

Please take a moment to view their website and consider including World Vision in your charitable giving this Christmas season.

God Bless You All, as we celebrate the "Reason for the Season", the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Julie