Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~Henry Ward Beecher

"Each new wave rearranges the patterns in the sand ...So we may pretend our footsteps are the first."

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.

- Victor Hugo

My Little Joys racing against the surf in Monterey...

If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!

"Observe always that everything is the result of change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and make new ones like them."    

-Marcus Aurelius

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl

Lyrics to the song "Blessings" by Laura Story...love it!

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world.  If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness.  To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline - training - is about.
-James Clavell, from his novel "Shogun"

"Our ultimate purpose in life is not physical; it is spiritual. It is to come to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That is what Christ the Lord said when he began his great prayer in Gethsemane. The gospel is given to us so that we can be guided to the objective given us—to know the Father and the Son. It is as though he said to me, “Son, here is a map and a compass. You are at this spot, and your objective is to reach this other spot. You can do it quickly, or you can take a long time. The sooner you do it, the happier you will be."

-Elder S. Dilworth Young

"If for a while the harder you try, the harder it gets, take heart. So it has been with the best people who ever lived."

 Jeffrey R. Holland

"The passage of time has not altered the capacity of the Redeemer to change men’s lives. As he said to the dead Lazarus, so he says to you and me: “come forth.” Come forth from the despair of doubt. Come forth from the sorrow of sin. Come forth from the death of disbelief. Come forth to a newness of life. Come forth."

-Thomas S. Monson

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”

~C.S. Lewis

“Genuine hope is urgently needed in order to be more loving even as the love of many waxes cold; more merciful, even when misunderstood or misrepresented; more holy, even as the world ripens in iniquity; more courteous and patient in a coarsening and curt world; and more full of heartfelt hope, even when other men’s hearts fail them. Whatever our particular furrow, we are to ‘plow in hope,’ without looking back or letting yesterday hold tomorrow hostage (1 Cor. 9:10).”


-Neal A. Maxwell

Friendship is when people know all about you and still like you anyway.
-annonymous

So thankful for those kind of true friends!

"Sometimes we want to have growth without challenges and to develop strength without any struggle. But growth cannot come by taking the easy way. We clearly understand that an athlete who resists rigorous training will never become a world-class athlete. We must be careful that we don’t resent the very things that help us put on the divine nature."

-Paul V. Johnson

Cherubic Choirs

spring charms - easter bunnies, ocean themes and flowers.....and a chocolate bunny thrown in there somewhere!

"If we constantly focus only on the stones in our mortal path,  we will almost surely miss the beautiful flower or cool stream provided by the loving Father who outlined our journey.  Each day can bring more joy than sorrow when our mortal and spiritual eyes are open to God's goodness. Joy in the gospel is not something that begins only in the next life. It is our privilege now, this very day.  We must never allow our burdens to obscure our blessings.  There will always be more blessings than burdens--even if some days it doesn't seem so. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Enjoy those blessings right now.  They are yours and always will be."
— Jeffrey R. Holland

Hot off the workbench....Domino Chocolate Bunny charms!

Low calorie and deliciously long-lasting! 

Shamrock pendants...

The last of the Valentine projects...here come the Easter designs...!

Valentine Scrabble, Domino and Pendant charms and Rings!...I love Valentine's Day!

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step - so watch your step."
- Jeffrey R. Holland

"All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!"

Lucy Van Pelt
In Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz.

I'm changing the way I name the months ahead!! Today is Snowy 30, 2011!

"The twelve months...Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery, Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy, Breezy, Sneezy, Freezy."- George Ellis

Our Boutique! Feb.5th! Caleen's House!

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

A grandchild fills a space in your heart that you never knew was empty.

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
-Thomas Carlyle