Have Faith

Probably a high percentage of TMJ sufferers who grind their teeth are worriers.  I'm just guessing but it makes sense.  I'm a worrier and I get it naturally.  I remember often seeing my maternal grandmother look sad.  I'd ask her what was wrong and she would say, "I'm just worried, honey."  As a child I couldn't understand what she could have to worry about.  Now, unfortunately I get it.  She spent a lot of time on what might go wrong.  My husband is the opposite.  Hardly anything ever bothers him.  Oh, I wish I could be that relaxed.

Worry is helpful when it gets me motivated to do something that needs doing.  But once I've done it, then I no longer need to obsess.  It isn't very useful when I'm worrying about things I can't do anything about or things that 'might' go wrong.  That last one happens a lot.  I've always had a plan B and C for just about everything.  Just to prove a point to myself, Friday I jotted down all the things I could remember worrying about in the previous week.  For example, I was in one town when it dawned on me I had to find the title to my old van before the trade.  I had several errands to complete before I could go to another town where my safety deposit box was.  I kept thinking - "What if it isn't there, I haven't seen it in 12 years."  Well, of course, there it was right in the box.  A lot of mental energy was wasted.  Almost nothing on my list really happened.  Some of the worry got me motivated to head off a problem, but mostly it was a waste of time and a drain of energy.  What does go wrong usually isn't what I worried about anyway.

Most things work themselves out or I find the ability within myself or with help from others to deal with whatever the problem is.  It seems to me that worry is often an absence of faith.  Faith in myself, in spirit, in my family, in my friends, even in strangers.  So this page is a little reminder to hang on the stair landing - something I'll pass each day and maybe remember to lighten up a bit.  Have a little faith.

And I've been wanting to do one of those banner layouts that everyone is doing now :-), so...

For the layout, I took up Glitter Girl's challenge (2P's) to use some of my chipboard. That isn't too hard as I love, love, love chipboard.  In this case, I'm working through a bunch of tags - some were raw and a couple already had printed finishes. For the raw ones, I painted them white and stamped them or painted white  metallic finish.  All paint is Anitas from Hobby Lobby.  Typically, I do my titles with each entire word out of the same Thicker.  This time I chose different ones for each.  The flags are cut from various pattern papers and sewn on.

This photo is over a year old.  I had some other idea for it that I can't remember but it works great here.  I love this background paper from K and Company.  I have a Stampin' Up! set with each image made up of dots that really coordinated.

Lately I seem to be putting rhinestones on everything.  I just love them.  They are cheap bling.

So here's to a little faith that you have a great day and join me tomorrow for a card and a video.

Ingredients:  Stamps: Polka Dot Punchs by Stampin' Up!
DSP:  Sweet Threads by Basic Grey; Geo Floral by K and Company