Hi everyone! Welcome back! I’m going to try to get this up and going again as a craft related site. My faith related blog is His Thumbprint, so hop on over there as well, if you’re interested!
I’m getting ready to launch a line of Christmas gifts and decorations which I’m planning to sell here and/or on my Etsy site.
More to come!
I know its taken me a while to post again. I know you’re all used to this. Guess what. Same excuse. Work is crazy. That’s ok. Today we’re going to look at Ruth.
Last we left Ruth and Naomi, they were heading back to Bethlehem. This wasn’t a triumphant return by any stretch. As you’ll recall, Ruth and Naomi are both widows at this point. And childless. Naomi’s grown sons have passed away and Ruth is barren. These things make these women the most vulnerable people in Jewish society.
Let’s look at Naomi for a second. She had to flee her home with 2 children because of famine. She then lost her husband, and then her children. I’ve seen her compared to Job. She had gone through a lot of suffering by the time she headed back to Bethlehem.
When the two women made it back to Naomi’s hometown, they were greeted by women who were just amazed she was back. Naomi took this opportunity to tell them not to call her by her name but to call her Mara, which means bitter. Naomi was understandably bitter about all that she had gone through. Life was about to change for her, thanks to her faithful daughter-in-law and the God they both trusted.
Ruth was from Moab and of course did not originally believe in the God of Israel. Over the course of time, and in spite of all that Naomi had gone through, Ruth saw the faithfulness of God and the trust that Naomi placed in him. This is worth talking about for a second. If you were a non-believer and watched over time all of the things that Naomi went through, would that make you want to believe in God? I think it might give people pause to question. But, Ruth wasn’t just a casual bystander. She was family. She saw what Naomi suffered and yet, she still held fast to her trust in and love for God. Naomi’s example is a bright and shining one of knowing God well enough to know, no matter what, that he is good. All the time. Over the 10 years that these women were family, Ruth was able to see the faithfulness of the God of Israel in Naomi’s life. In spite of the circumstances that were all around her.
That’s a big endorsement, don’t you think? This woman had suffered a lot, yet was still loving and trusting of God. This is what Ruth saw and this is why she vowed to stay with her and have Naomi’s God be her God. I had thought about telling the whole story here but I think I’ll just summarize. It would be better if you read it if you haven’t.
Ruth went to work gleaning in the fields to provide for herself and Naomi. She ‘just happened to’ end up gleaning in Boaz’s fields. God had this all planned. However, the strength and boldness of Ruth is what I want to point out here. She asked Boaz for special consideration, which he provided. God was all over this situation. She stepped out in faith and God blessed her for it. She continued only working his fields until the harvest was over and then…
She was bold once again. With Naomi’s prodding, Ruth confronted Boaz. Boaz was a distant relative of her late husband. In Jewish culture, the man’s land would stay attached to the family so Ruth and Naomi would have been out of luck. Ruth asked him to redeem the land for them. He agreed. Now, there was another man who was ahead of him in line to have the right to redeem the land. Boaz explained to him that the land would include the two women so he declined.
Because of Ruth’s boldness and trust in God, she and Boaz ended up marrying and having a son! They named the baby Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David! Ruth’s faithfulness and trust led her, a Moabitess, to be the grandmother of David. She’s an integral part of the lineage of Jesus.
What I’ve learned from reading Ruth is this; faith in God can help get you through anything in life. He’s always faithful. Naomi and Ruth went through a lot in their lives. Widowhood, and in Ruth’s case, barrenness, both relegated women to the bottom of society in those days. But boldness and faith in God raised them both up to a place of honor and a place in the larger plan of God.
He has that for you, as well!
Blessings my friends!
~Nancy
The book of Ruth is a bridge between the days of Abraham’s descendants becoming a nation and the days of the kings leading the nation. It is set in the time of the Judges and is just a short little book but it tells us a lot about faith, commitment, and Jesus’ genealogy. It also gives us insight in to strength in a crisis, where to find hope, when to step out in faith, and even when to go home.
I’ve read this book many times in my life but always just as a history lesson. Not as a life lesson. I know that every book of the Bible is meant to teach us something but until recently, I wasn’t sure what that was for Ruth, aside from pointing out that Jesus comes from not just Israeli blood. That is, of course, covered several times in the Old Testament, Rehab is part of Jesus’ blood line as well, but I thought that was all God was showing us here. Not that his bloodline isn’t crucial, it is, of course, and probably needs to be explored further (I think I just found another blog topic!), but there are a lot of little nuggets in Ruth about faith, commitment and just a whole lot of other great stuff!
The book starts during a famine in Bethlehem. Naomi, her husband Elimelek, and their 2 sons, Mahlon and Kilion head to Moab to be able to feed their family. We’ll stop right there for a second. This is big. Moab wasn’t a friendly place for Israelites. Not even a little bit. I’m sure it took a lot of courage for these people to go there, but if you’re a parent, you know, you’ll do what you have to do to feed your family. Am I right?
So off they go to Moab. By the way, we’re only on verse 2 of this book. What happens in verse 3? Elimelek dies. So now Naomi is a widow with 2 sons in a hostile foreign country. The Bible doesn’t give a clear timeline of how long they were in Moab when this occurred or how old the boys were when they went there.
The boys married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth and after they had been together 10 years-and no children- both of the men, Mahlon and Kilion, died. That was in verse 5. I point that out because it’s clear this book is not about the men. It’s about the women that survived them and, well, how they survived!
At this point in the story, Naomi is completely overcome with grief. She’s lost her home, her husband, and now her sons, who left her with no heirs. In the ancient world, this was a tragedy beyond what we can imagine because she was now nothing in the eyes of society. Nothing. Her life meant nothing to anyone as far as society was concerned. She had no one to take care of her, and being a woman, that was required back then. I have to interject right here that I’m glad I didn’t live back then! Hahaha!
By this time, the famine was over in Bethlehem so Naomi was going to head back there. She headed out with Orpah and Ruth but told them to go back home where they may have a future. Orpah went on back to Moab but Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi.
This is where we’ll pick up our discussion next time! I just wanted to lay the groundwork for where we’re going. The backstory.
The book of Ruth wouldn’t take you long to read so I’d suggest doing so before we dig in. In my next post we’ll look into the dedication Ruth had to Naomi and what that can mean in our own lives!
Much love to you! I hope the rest of your week is blessed beyond measure!
~Nancy
As promised, I’m going to talk about the Silhouette Curio today! This is my latest addition to my fleet of Silhouette machines. I started with the CAMEO in December of 2015, added the Mint late last year, and just in the past couple of months, the Curio has taken up residence on my desk. Truth be told, the desk was bought because of the Curio. I had run out of space on my little makeshift desk.
My original thought when buying the Curio was that it could etch, stipple, and emboss and that might open up a whole new world to me. And I’m sure it will. When I get around to that. Right now I’m using it for the same old thing I used the CAMEO for. Cutting card stock and vinyl. What I find funny is that my favorite things so far about the Curio are a lot of people’s least favorite things about it. The tray, and that it only cuts up to 8 inch width materials. The CAMEO cuts up to 12 inch materials and I admit that’s nice for a lot of things, and I still use it a lot, but…
I make a lot of onesies, and other assorted baby and toddler clothes. Those have become my main focus lately. I have one friend with a 7 month old, one who has a 4 year old and is about to have another, I have a 6 year old grandson (not a toddler, but his clothes are still not that big), and I make onesies and bibs for the Value Life Ministry at church. Because the Curio cuts smaller things, handling the tray is a bit easier than the CAMEO cutting mat. Most of the time I still can cut designs for several things at a time anyway. Also, the tray is firm and when I load it in the machine, I can often leave it in between cuttings. I just pull it out some, take off what I’ve cut, put on the new vinyl or card stock, push it in a little and hit the button. Ready to go. The CAMEO mat is floppy and 12X12 so I get things stuck to the wrong place on the mat all the time. All. The. Time. Plus, you have to line it up right. There’s no way to line up the Curio tray wrong.
In summary, if you’re thinking of getting a cutting machine, go with a Silhouette over a Cricut and the CAMEO does have a larger cutting ability. But, if you think you’ll just be doing small things for small apparel or maybe scrapbooks, I think I’d start with a Curio.
Here are a couple of shirts I made for my friend’s daughter on the Curio-just so you can see some of it’s handiwork! (yes, I know they need ironing)
Thanks for stopping by again today! Have a great week!
~Nancy
I’ve been on ‘vacation’ for the past week and I go back to work tomorrow. This is the first chance I’ve had to actually post something here! That makes me sad. However, I’ve spent a lot of time reading some books that I want to talk about on here. One in particular on the book of Ruth, but also a couple others that are intended to help with blogging for Christians and inspirational writing. We’ll see how all that goes! On my list of things I wanted to get done this week was to write several posts and schedule them out some. Yeah, nope. Didn’t happen. I did, you may notice, if you’ve been here before, upgrade my site and change the theme.
As I mentioned in my last post, some cool things have been happening as far as teaching. My small group leader has asked me to teach at our retreat in the fall! That is a big honor for me and I’m very excited! So, if you’re a praying person…keep that in your prayers!
Also, Alpha will be starting at church next week and I’m going to be a table leader again! I haven’t for a while because of work and location. It has always been on a weeknight and that’s just too much for me these days, with work being exhausting. It was also downtown for one session so that would have put me home pretty late. They’ve moved it to Saturday afternoons at the church (5 minutes away) so I’m totally available and really excited!
Back to life being crazy…yeah. What can I say? I’ve felt so out of control lately. Like everyone else is running my life-and I don’t mean God. He’s allowed. People pull me in this direction or that and I haven’t any time to get things done that I want to do (such as this). I’ve battled depression my whole life and I swear it’s felt like it’s been winning lately. As I type that, I stop and think about the things God is doing in my life and wonder how I can feel depressed. But honestly, I know as well as anyone that depression doesn’t always make sense, nor does it always coincide with life events-although they do tend to have some baring on it. I believe Satan tries to use depression/anxiety to derail me from God’s cause. I’m holding dearly to that fact while I wade through this current storm.
We’ll talk more about that later! Just glad to be back on here and I’m PLANNING on being here a lot more!
(oh-and for my craft and Silhouette friends-my next post is going to be related to that!)
Love to all of you!
~ Nancy
Good afternoon and happy Sunday! As I said in my last post, I’m making some changes here. Changes seem to happen slowly in my life! But, progress behind the scenes is still progress, right? I’ve been doing some planning and some other ministry projects that I wanted to tell you about!
First off, the picture above is of some onesies I made for the Value Life Ministry at church. It’s a beautiful ministry that helps women make actual choices. Few women would choose an abortion if they had the support and means to care for their baby. That’s where this ministry comes in. I just love it. It’s been close to my heart for many years. To that end, I’ll be supporting it with things like these onesies and these bibs (and similar things) till God tells me to stop. I love giraffes, this is not April the giraffe related.
Also, I’ve been reading a book about quitting (or how not to) that follows along with the story of Ruth from the Bible. I love that story and I’ve decided that will be my first ‘teaching’ blog on here. I’m planning on a series to start next weekend at the latest.
Another great thing that happened this weekend was a woman in my small group had a dream about me yesterday and how God was going to use me. A few of the ladies prayed for me and as it turns out, one way he wants to use me is my teaching ability. My first thought was this blog. I was sure that’s what He meant. Nope…teaching in the group…that’s what he meant. Or at least part of it. I love to teach God’s word. Whether here on the blog, in person, or in a book that’s been rolling around inside me for years, it’s such a joy to spread his love. I’m so excited about that. The funny thing is, at work I had a chance to apply to be the trainer for my department. In an official capacity, since I do that some now as it is. I was all “oh heck no! I don’t want to train people”. This all took place last week and the group prayed for me about that as well because I couldn’t get it out of my mind so I really wanted to be sure of what God wanted me to do. The training, as it turns out, isn’t work, it’s God’s word. MUCH better!
I’m off of here for now. Rainy Sunday here. I think I’ll go read. Have a blessed week!
~ Nancy
So, here I am again, 2 months later. Work is still crazy, but I’m adjusting to that. It’s the new normal. It’s going to get even crazier again soon (co-worker/friend having a baby soon), but I don’t plan on letting it interfere with this quite as much. Let’s see how I do this time.
As I said in the last post, there are some changes coming for mgthumbprints as a whole. The main one is this…this blog will be changing from ‘business only’ to business and faith. I was going to do two blogs, but let’s face it, I’m not keeping up with one well.
Along with that, the shop will take a decidedly Christian tone. I’ll be selling mostly t-shirts, onesies, bibs, greeting cards, and tote-bags with a Christian or just positive message. I’m always up for special orders from friends and family, so don’t think those are the only things I’m doing. Shoot me an email or a message through the shop, and we can talk. I still want to do shirts for fundraisers as well. I’m not giving up that part. I’ve not updated the shop yet, though. Give me a week or two on that. Still working on some designs.
Why am I doing this? Well, I’m a follower of Jesus. That’s who I am at my core. I want to glorify God in all that I do. That includes my small business. I’m a work in progress, so if you know me ‘in person’ you know that well.
If you stick with me, and I hope you do, you’ll learn a lot more about me and about Jesus. You’ll find I’m not a Christian Right person politically. At all. I’m much more about people and love, and what would Jesus do. Pro-life? 100%. That’s really my only ‘right leaning’ stance as far as ‘politics’ goes. We won’t talk about politics on here, by the way. I’m just pointing out that I’m not a closed-minded nut who does what televangelists tell them and not what the Bible actually says. So don’t be freaked out and scared away! Hahaha!
I’m really excited about the changes that I’m making. I hope you are too. This is really what I’ve wanted to do all along but I just didn’t want to alienate any of my non-Christian friends. Well, if they’re my friends, they will be with the change as well! (they are…I’m sure of that)
That’s it for now. I hope to be back in the next couple days. That’s MY plan, anyway. Today is daylight savings day so I’m tired and probably will be for several days. I love daylight savings time but I hate the change. How about we just leave it this way? Who’s with me?
Till next time…
Love you all bunches!
~Nancy
I’ve not been here in a long time! As I said the last time I was, work has been crazy. BUT, new year, new start. I’m hoping to be back more. Not as often as when I first started the blog, but more than every 3 months!
The shop has been viewed quite a bit and I’m thankful for that! I have an order coming in soon for some shirts. I don’t know how many yet. I’m kind of excited/nervous about that! The ‘I don’t know how many yet’ is the part that makes me nervous! That’s ok, I’ll get it done. No problem. By the way, the shirts are for a non-profit so please keep me in mind if you need something. I can either discount or make a donation. Whichever you prefer. I will say though, I do reserve the right to make that decision myself if it’s a charity I just can’t back. 😉
Anyway, all that asideish, I plan to do some new things on the store as well as possibly building my own personal blog. I’ve been inspired by a friend over at functionalish and I know there is value in sharing and living in community. This is my business blog. The new one, when named, will be more of a ‘come along with me and share my crazy and my love of God and people’ kind of thing! I had one previously but didn’t put the planning into it that I need to do. This time will be different. I’ve learned a lot about blogging over the last 6 months. It’ll show. Plus, I plan to talk to Lorie about her awesomeness and get some hints (heads up!).
So….with that, I’ll be going for now! Tomorrow starts a new year at work. Same great time, same great people! Lots of stuff rolling around in my head and heart and then down on paper (or computer).
I’ve not posted a lot, I know. I was working on some projects, work has been insane, and well, the shipping fun. More important than that is that I started to question how much I wanted to do this business.
I suppose everyone who starts a business has that feeling at one time or another, especially near the beginning. It gets frustrating. Things aren’t selling like you were sure they would. Customers have complaints or ‘suggestions’ with no regard to the fact that you look at your crafts as art, not just ‘stuff’ you make. It sucks the wind right out of you. Trust me.
I decided to take some time and really give this some thought. Was it worth it to me to feel the stress I’d been feeling? Was I putting the stress on myself? Yes, I believe it’s worth it, with some change in my perspective. Yes, I’m putting some of the stress on myself.
I think most of my crafts from here on out probably won’t be ‘custom’ and if they are, there will be very little that can be customized. I want to create and if people like it and buy it, then that’s awesome!
Sometimes you just have to make the decision to make your business the way it makes YOU happy. I’m not doing this for a living. Just for fun! I need to keep it that way.
Thanks for visiting with me today! I’ll have a few more things up on the shop soon!
Have a great week!
~Nancy
Or….best laid plans of mice and men. I’m not sure which is a better title. Hold on for a story of frustration and ridiculousness!
As I mentioned before, I’m in the process of making t-shirts for my great nephew’s team for a JDRF walk that happens to be this Sunday. (The shirts are for sale in my shop if you’re interested. 50% of the proceeds from that shirt will always go to JDRF.) The closeness of the date of the walk is a very important part of this story. On September 6 my niece placed the order for the shirts for her family. I placed the order with the blank t-shirt distributor the following day. I got the confirmation of the order and the next day I got 3 shipping notices.
One shipping notice was for 2 XL shirts and the walker of honor’s (great nephew) shirt. Another was for all of the medium and large shirts. The last notice was for my adorable 3 year old great-niece’s shirt. Shipped all by itself. The latest ‘deliver by’ date was the 15th. That was for the XL shirts and the youth shirt. Little A’s shirt had an expected delivery by the 13th.
A day or two later I ordered the shirts for others that had ordered and all were expected to arrive by the 16th. I planned to get all of them done and delivered to my brother and sister-in-law’s house by the 18th. All of the shirts arrived ahead of schedule. Except one.
This is where the story turns ridiculous. I called UPS (and was, of course, connected with who knows where) and told them that the shirt had shipped and was 5 days late. Granted, I probably shouldn’t have waited that long but it’s status was “we’ll be in your area so we will deliver to you instead of transferring to the USPS.” It was sent UPS Sure Post. So, the young lady on the phone was very nice and took my complaint. She told me to contact the seller as well, blah, blah, blah, but they’ve opened an investigation.
My plan became ‘run to Hobby Lobby after work on Monday and get a gray shirt’. Much to my surprise and delight, while I was eating lunch on Monday, the UPS man delivered a package! Yay! I won’t have to go buy another one! Wrong again.
The package was a box, which seemed odd since all of the other shirts came in shipping envelopes. It also made a ‘clunk’ sound if I shook it. On the outside of the little suspicious box was what was obviously the original label from the shipping envelope-and pieces of the envelope itself, complete with the correct tracking number. Inside the box, however, was a 60 yard roll of industrial grade duct tape. Yep, duct tape. Oh, and the packing list that said ‘XS youth t-shirt, Charcoal gray’. Now, to the credit of whoever did that (obviously someone at UPS), the tape is gray. That’s the only similarity.
Needless to say I called UPS right away. They returned my call about 3 hours later and I’m waiting for them to ‘make this right’. She said she was going to call the shirt company and have a new one sent out. So, I wait. We’re down to the wire and 2 days past the date I planned to deliver the shirts. I did get a shirt at Hobby Lobby, but it’s a lighter gray.
Anyway, the point of this story is….yeah…you can’t make this stuff up.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget, sign up for the newsletter and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest!
~Nancy
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