To Be Honest Tuesday....

I'm a woman.
I'm a wife, a mother, a friend...a florist...and I've got an anxious mind.

It's a strange thing...these minds of ours.  Mine...just seems drawn to worry.  I feel like a little hamster running on my wheel of anxiousness somedays.  It gets tiring.  I get tired.  All I know is that when I finally realize that I'm there...in that place...like a shadow dark and smothering over me and I'm exhausted from all the work...of worrying...I know then, that it's time for me to get off that wheel.

I know what to do and how to do it.  It's just that when I get into that shadowy place...it's like deep down inside me, I wrestle with, if I really want to or not.

I've learned that I can't stop worrying about the things that make me anxious,  just by telling myself not to.  I have to do a little work to gain my freedom.  Kick something bad out and bring something good in
to take it's place.

About 5 years ago I started making something for myself and some of the girls in my Bible study group.  Something to carry around with me in my purse, sit on the window sill while I was washing dishes, or lay next to me on my bedside table if I needed a quick reminder.  Within that first year, I gave away over a hundred verse cards to encourage sisters that were struggling in the same areas that I was.  And for a couple of years, I made verse cards to sell to anyone who wanted them.  But as it does, life got busier for me it seemed and I stopped making them.  That was about 2 years ago.

And then it happened, I got asked....for more.  And I realized, that I needed them just as much.  I'd given away all that I had.  I was in that place again myself...tired, frustrated, worried...anxious with the future, anxious with the now.

So Here they Are.
They're not my words.  They're God's words.  Comforting.  Restoring.  Reminding.  Refreshing.

Words full of Hope and Life and Light to drown the shadow.  Words like water....living water to  quench deep thirst in a dry and anxious heart.  I've been prompted to make more for other thirsty people like me that want to live in practical faith, fighting the anxiousness and don't know where to start.

I'll be meditating and praying through these words myself.  If you'd like a set of laminated 'Sweet Freedom' verse cards on 'The Anxious Mind', let me know.  You can email me at
sweetnothingsfloraldesign@gmail.com  or contact me through Facebook Here

Blessings on you all,

Julie

To Be Honest.....

Being young at heart can make me afraid of stupid little things sometimes.  It can also make me feel brave and daring...on the rare occasion.  It's no secret that I'm not really the daredevil type but I'll stand up to the truth that I'm not entirely a chicken either.  So when I say that making this blog has stretched me somewhat in the fear factor zone, I'm not exaggerating.  In fact, I wouldn't be working on it now if it weren't for Lily and Rachel, the sweet, talented and lovely girls of Birch and Bird Vintage Home Interiors  and the fabulous opportunity to be a part of their seriously sweet vintage markets...including the next one, Scout Handmade and Vintage Market coming up in May.

They've linked me to this lonely space that I have called a blog and forced my hand to make it a place that feels a little more homey...a little less intimidating (for me:) and a place where you can get to know me a little better and see what I love and what I do.

To be honest, I guess I've been a little embarrassed to hang out here.  It's kind of like buying a fixer upper and living in it too long with out doing a lot of fixing!

So here's the start.  I've spent hours trying to make it pretty....pulled out some of my hair...because I like trying to figure it out myself...and being tired of fiddling with it now and reverting back to a very impersonal template for the time being, have decided to just invite you in for a cup of tea regardless.

My neighbor told me when we first moved on to the street that you have to make memories in a house before it feels like a home...so memories we will make and the housekeeping and decorating will come!