I have been busy reorganizing my workspace so I haven't been able to get any art done. There hasn't been an empty space to work on! Visiting all the blogs participating in the Where Bloggers Create blog party has inspired me to do a little organizing.
I came across a wonderful giveaway for anyone who is interested in beads. Go visit Denise if you would like to have a chance to win!
My father is almost 84 years old, but one of the things he has taught me is that whatever age we are, we can still be young at heart. My Dad is still interested in so many things, still surfing the internet for new ideas and projects he can get into, still dreaming big. Here is a picture of my Dad sailing his Sunfish sailboat. He says he grows younger whenever we go to the beach!
Sometimes we think we are too old to learn new things, or to start something new but my Dad reminds me otherwise and I like to quote Isaiah 40:31 whenever I start thinking and feeling this way...
"They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
and Psalm 103:5 "your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
One of my favorite quotations for fathers is "How blessed are the children, who in their fathers see the tender Father — love of God, and find their way to thee." And as we celebrate Father's Day and thank God for our earthly fathers, let's also remember the great love that God our Father has for us. Happy Father's Day, everyone!
For "What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday," I took a picture of only one little part of my desk where there is something creative going on. The rest of my desk is a whole mess! Here is an artist trading card I am working on. I have a magazine clipping beside it. I use the clipping for inspiration and I don't worry about whether it looks like the picture or not.
If you would like to see who else is joining What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, go visit Julia's blog. And if you're interested, you can still join my follower giveaway in this post.
I spent last weekend in Baguio City, the "Summer Capital of the Philippines."
It took us four hours to drive up to the mountains of Baguio, where the temperature is much cooler than Metro Manila (Wikipedia says it is 8 degrees Celsius lower compared to the average temperature of the rest of the country). The cool air, flowering plants in full bloom and pine trees were a wonderful change from the heat of Metro Manila.
Baguio City is also called the City of Pines, and looking at all the towering Pine trees reminded me of one of my favorite Easter stories, the story of...
The Three Trees
Once upon a mountain top, three little trees stood and dreamed of what they wanted to become when they grew up. The first little tree looked up at the stars and said: " I want to hold treasure. I want to be covered with gold and filled with precious stones. I'll be the most beautiful treasure chest in the world!" The second little tree looked out at the small stream trickling by on it's way to the ocean. " I want to be traveling mighty waters and carrying powerful kings. I'll be the strongest ship in the world! The third little tree looked down into the valley below where busy men and women worked in a busy town. I don't want to leave the mountain top at all. I want to grow so tall that when people stop to look at me they'll raise their eyes to heaven and think of God. I will be the tallest tree in the world.
Years, passed. The rain came, the sun shone and the little trees grew tall. One day three wood cutters climbed the mountain. The first wood cutter looked at the first tree and said, "This tree is beautiful. It is perfect for me." With a swoop of his shining ax, the first tree fell. "Now I shall make a beautiful chest, I shall hold wonderful treasure!" the first tree said.
The second wood cutter looked at the second tree and said, "This tree is strong. It's perfect for me." With a swoop of his shining ax, the second tree fell. "Now I shall sail mighty waters!" thought the second tree. " I shall be a strong ship for mighty kings!"
The third tree felt her heart sink when the last wood cutter looked her way. She stood straight and tall and pointed bravely to heaven. But the wood cutter never even looked up. "Any kind of tree will do for me." He muttered. With a swoop of his shining ax, the third tree fell.
The first tree rejoiced when the wood cutter brought her to a carpenter's shop. But the carpenter fashioned the tree into a feed box for animals. The once beautiful tree was not covered with gold, or treasure. She was coated with saw dust and filled with hay for hungry farm animals. The second tree smiled when the wood cutter took her to a shipyard, but no mighty sailing ship was made that day. Instead the once strong tree was hammered and awed into a simple fishing boat. She was too small and too weak to sail to an ocean, or even a river, instead she was taken to a little lake. The third tree was confused when the wood cutter cut her into strong beams and left her in a lumberyard. "What happened?" The once tall tree wondered. " All I ever wanted was to stay on the mountain top and point to God..."
Many days and nights passed. The three trees nearly forgot their dreams. But one night, golden starlight poured over the first tree as a young woman placed her newborn baby in the feed box. "I wish I could make a cradle for him." Her husband whispered. The mother squeezed his hand and smiled as the starlight shone on the smooth and sturdy wood. " This manger is beautiful." She said. And suddenly the first tree knew he was holding the greatest treasure in the world.
One evening a tired traveler and his friends crowded into the old fishing boat. The traveler fell asleep as the second tree quietly sailed out into the lake. Soon a thundering and a thrashing storm arose. The little tree shuddered. She new she did not have the strength to carry so many passengers safely through the wind and the rain. The tired man awoke. He stood up, stretched out his hand, and said, "Peace." The storm stopped as quickly as it had begun. And suddenly the second tree knew he was carrying the king of heaven and earth.
One Friday morning, the third tree was startled when her beams were yanked from the forgotten wood pile. She flinched as she was carried through an angry jeering crowd. She shuddered when soldiers nailed a man's hand to her. She felt ugly and harsh and cruel. But on Sunday morning, when the sun rose and the earth trembled with joy beneath her, the third tree knew that God's love had changed everything. It had made the third tree strong. And every time people thought of the third tree, they would think of God. That was better than being the tallest tree in the world.
Isn't this a wonderful story? Whenever things don't seem to be going the way we want them to, we can think about these trees and how God's plan for them was far greater than their dreams for themselves.
When I first joined WOYWW, I had just cleaned up my desk and it looked oh, so neat and organized! I could almost believe it myself that I was such an organized, neat person. A place for everything and everything in it's place! Well, I wouldn't want to deceive you that my desk always looks like that and this week is an example!
This is the desk of someone who wants to get so many things done all at the same time. At first, I thought I would just work on my computer. I'm assigned to prepare a sharing about passing on our faith to our children (any advice?). Well, I started doing that but before long I decided that I also wanted to do some sewing. So my sewing machine, which is usually pushed into the corner gets into place towards the center. My daughter just got back from a few days in India and she brought home some kurta tops (you know, the embroidered long sleeved tops they wear). The seams weren't finished so I decided to finish the seams with zigzag stitches. I also wanted to cut off the sleeves of one or two of the blouses since it is quite hot in the Philippines and a short sleeved blouse would be more practical.
But wait, even before I had started, I caught sight of some old books and magazines that were supposed to get thrown out for recycling. But of course, I had to look over them first and clip out whatever I found useful.
Any pages with...
...nice patterns and pictures got saved for collages...
...portraits got saved for inspiration for art...
...colors got saved for paper beads (almost all the colored pages!)
Then, I also got the pages with interesting articles, mostly about health and beauty, diet, exercise, parenting, marriage, interior design, etc. Poor recycling bin, very little of the magazine's pages were left for recycling after I got all the pages I wanted.
What a mess! Oh, and look what my sister found while she was cleaning up - this painting and in the back, my name and my high school year and section! I wouldn't have even known I painted this if my name weren't in the back! Hmmm, not bad for a teenager, don't you think?
Well, when my desk is this messy, I can always hide it and pretend I am neat and organized...
If you would like to see other work desks and their state of neatness or disarray, head on over to Julia's blog. And if you would like a chance to win one of my ATCs, I'm having a giveaway for my followers in this post. Happy blog hopping!
Philippine Independence Day is on June 12 so I decided I will have a giveaway for my followers to celebrate with me!I will be giving away an original hand drawn ATC portrait of a Filipina, in traditional Filipiniana attire.
I made this card using a combination of collage (for her hair ornament and the embroidery on her dress), and pen, colored pencils, watercolor, and gold poster paint on a card coated with wall putty. For a tutorial of this technique using wall putty, please visit this post.
If you are one of my wonderful followers, please leave a comment on this post if you would like a chance to win this ATC. If you would like another chance, you may post about my giveaway or put it in your sidebar and leave me another comment to let me know.
Whenever I make ATC collages, I like to add a bit of colored pencil, watercolor and maybe some gold poster paint to them. I took a few before and after pictures to show you what I mean. Here are some examples of ATCs before...
and after...
Before...
and after...
(this one looks so much better in person.
The gold poster paint doesn't show in the scan)...
Before...
and after... (plus a wallpaper flower on her hair)...
I like adding a darker edge (with colored pencils) to frame the collage. Sometimes I also sand some parts with some fine sandpaper to give a more distressed look. Then, I finish the card off with a fixative spray. It looks so much more "finished" to me. Hope you like the cards!
I am from the beautiful tropical country of the Philippines and I like to think I am sowing seeds around the world as I make my blog - seeds of faith, or hope or maybe, creativity. I am blessed to have a wonderful husband and three great children and I spend my work days designing paper products, gifts and decorative accessories for our family gift shops, Papemelroti.
I spent last weekend in Baguio City, the "Summer Capital of the Philippines." 
It took us four hours to drive up to the mountains of Baguio, where the temperature is much cooler than Metro Manila (Wikipedia says it is 8 degrees Celsius lower compared to the average temperature of the rest of the country). The cool air, flowering plants in full bloom and pine trees were a wonderful change from the heat of Metro Manila. 
The first tree rejoiced when the wood cutter brought her to a carpenter's shop. But the carpenter fashioned the tree into a feed box for animals. The once beautiful tree was not covered with gold, or treasure. She was coated with saw dust and filled with hay for hungry farm animals. The second tree smiled when the wood cutter took her to a shipyard, but no mighty sailing ship was made that day. Instead the once strong tree was hammered and awed into a simple fishing boat. She was too small and too weak to sail to an ocean, or even a river, instead she was taken to a little lake. The third tree was confused when the wood cutter cut her into strong beams and left her in a lumberyard. "What happened?" The once tall tree wondered. " All I ever wanted was to stay on the mountain top and point to God..." 
Philippine Independence Day is on June 12 so I decided I will have a giveaway for my followers to celebrate with me! I will be giving away an original hand drawn ATC portrait of a Filipina, in traditional Filipiniana attire.
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