February in my EveryDay Journal

I have kept my EveryDay Journal going throughout February.   It's a mix of planner/diary/journal etc etc.  Anything I want it to be really.

I used an unfinished gelli print for the month page.  I coloured round the edge with gelatos.

I love the washi tape I bought for the days of the week.  I'm just hoping there's enough for the whole year as I haven't been able to find someone who is selling it.

I had a blank page so I printed out 4 of the 5 photos I used for the winter theme for my ladies photography group: Snapshot Girls.

Ash Wednesday brought Mary Brack's Lent Words project.  I decided that I would write out a Bible verse for each day.

I joined a free 7 day online Winter Writing Workshop.  I wrote days 1-3 in my journal.

As you can see I haven't really done anything much with my word of the year, Gratitude, this month.

I loved the Marianne Williamson quote so I put it in the journal.

 I printed out days 4 & 5 of the Winter Writing Workshop and stuck them in.

I didn't do the writing for days 6 & 7 as I didn't feel they were relevant to me.

Here's the month page for March.  I used some scrapbook paper and drew the boxes on for each day.  I haven't decided yet how I will finish the page.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

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Mary Brack, Valerie Sjodin and I are using one journal to record events, experiences and relationships and to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We are each blogging about our experiences and our art. If you would like to connect with others about creatively organising your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one journal, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals – Living Your Word of the Year.

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Check out the other blogs:
Mary: http://www.foundonbrighton.com/
Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

Steph Redfern workshop

I recently attended another workshop by Steph Redfern at the RBSA.  I did a couple of workshops there with Steph last summer.  This one was called Fabulous Forests.  The inspiration was trees obviously.  I was really taken with an example of Steph's work.

Collage on Khadi paper by Steph Redfern

We had been asked to take fabrics and a variety of papers with us.  Steph provided some bark and some other bits and pieces including a canvas each.  I started by choosing the 12x12" canvas and some rust dyed fabric that I had bought.

Then I began to make up little collages to go onto the background.

I sewed a few straight stitches on each small collage to ensure they were adhered to the background.

And left the workshop with the whole piece at this point.  We had decided that it would be best to put the piece onto calico before attaching it to the canvas.

At home I painted the white canvas a calico colour and found some suitable beads.  When I came to attach the finished piece to the canvas with the calico behind it I ran into all sorts of problems.  The rust dyed background isn't square.  The calico wasn't square.  The frame is square!  So I gave up on the calico and stuck the piece directly to the canvas.

Done is better than perfect!   If you have any tips on how to get square pieces of fabric when you want to be able to fray the edges please comment below.

Thanks for joining me today. 
Bernice

Lent Words: Compassion

Following on from Mary Brack's Advent Words last December, Mary was asked if she would lead a similar study for Lent.  Unsurprisingly it's called Lent Words.

Mary asked me if I would like to write a post about one of the words and I chose today's word: Compassion.   This blog post also appears today on Mary's blog: Found on Brighton.

I have been following along with Mary's Lent Words and writing one verse each day in my EveryDay Journal.

Compassion

Read Psalm 103:8-14   &   1 Peter 1:8-9

My church doesn’t follow the church calendar very much apart from Christmas & Easter. So apart from having pancakes as close to Shrove Tuesday as I can, I really don’t have much experience of following a Lenten tradition. However I feel that the word Mary chose for today – compassion – is a year long, lifetime word. A bit like the ‘A dog is not just for Christmas’ campaign, I believe ‘compassion is not just for Lent’.

God is a God of compassion. One of His names is Rakhum which is sometimes translated as Merciful God but can also be translated as Compassionate God.

In Deuteronomy 4:31 (NASB) we are told ‘For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them’.

Psalm 103:8 (NIV) describes God this way: ‘The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love’.

Throughout the Old Testament we see God showing compassion to His people. We see people struggling through hard times but God always shows compassion and comes to their rescue. And then the most spectacular rescue of all is Jesus dying on the Cross for us. I find it really hard to grasp the depth of compassion God felt for us that He sent his Son to die for us. I could hardly bear to see my son hurt in any way and nothing that happened to him compared with what Jesus did for us.

We often use other words for compassion: pity, sympathy, feeling, empathy, understanding, care, concern, solicitousness, tender-heartedness, soft-heartedness, warm-heartedness, warmth, love, brotherly love, tenderness, gentleness, mercy, tolerance, consideration, kindness, humanity, kind-heartedness, benevolence.

But when we feel compassion (or any of those other words we use) we need to do something. We can give money to aid charities and think that is enough. But we need to act. We can show compassion in the way we live our lives, in the way we speak to and about people and in the way we pray.

We are made in God’s image so compassion is a trait we should embrace. 1 Peter 3:8 (TPT) says ‘Now, this is the goal: to live in harmony with one another and demonstrate affectionate love, sympathy, and kindness toward other believers. Let humility describe who you are as you dearly love one another’.

Everyone needs compassion.

It's not too late to join in with the Lent study.   Today is day 9 of 40. Find out more on Mary's blog.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

There is a free class available 'Redefining Normal' by clicking on the tab at the top of this post.  The class may be of interest to those who need to show themselves some compassion.