A LITTLE UPDATE

First and foremost, thank you my friends for your concern - my cousin has been finally rescued from the 2nd floor of the house she was trapped in. Thank God! This is how high the water was in the house she was stuck in:





And although I have relief from the concern and worry over family's safety, a majority of my countrymen's plight sits foremost on my mind. It is so heart-wrenching to witness all the destruction and its accompanying despair.

Today, we sit on the cusp of another impending Category 5 storm rushing to seek even more damage than its predecessor. It is said this super typhoon "Parma" is even stronger that Katrina with sustained winds of 195 kph and gusts of up to 230 kph and is expected to make landfall by Saturday noon. This in the midst of relentless and heroic rescue and relief efforts from the ravages of Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana). The work is unending and yet, to see the resilience of my countrymen and the "bayanihan" spirit makes my heart swell with pride. Truly, I am proud to say I am a Filipino. The country has come together - Filipinos here and abroad giving, going out of their way to make time to volunteer, to send boxes of relief goods. Giving even when sometimes there is nothing to give but time.

I am proud of my family - as usual no calamity is left unnoticed, they have come together once again to do their share. My aunt did a family text brigade to ask pledges for monetary help and time to repack and make care packages to be distributed to areas not reached by those giving the packages. A lot of our own help have been affected and we have made it a priority to help them and their neighbors.






My cousin overheard a woman in the supermarket while buying the goods, "Because we were spared, we now have the responsibility to take care of those who weren't." How true, how right.

We are still humbly soliciting from friends to add to these and create more bags to be given away. And I would like to humbly ask you, my readers if you would like to help our efforts, please do by clicking on the donate button on my sidebar. Your contributions will go to make more care packages for those people in the places where not much help has been given. Or if you wish, you may donate directly to the Red Cross.

After all that is being done and after all that we are still trying to do, we must rely on our God and place our faith in His hands. "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference."

Indy

Huh? I tagged my blog?? What???

Ok, I'm quite perplexed, I open my blog today to show my cousin and I can't find the navbar on top of my site - the one that looks like this:



What I get is this message: "You tagged this blog as having objectionable content". Here is what it looks like - my nav bar is missing.



What???? Why will I tag my blog as having inappropriate content? Can anyone tell me if you have had this problem before and what you have done to fix it? I can't seem to find any inappropriate content (please tell me I am not wrong).

Can anyone help me? This just happened today since I just posted yesterday. Is posting about my experiences and showing photos and links about the Typhoon that just happened in my country and trying to solicit some help for my countrymen inappropriate? There are hundreds and thousands of people whose medium is to use their blogs and social networking sites to show support and encourage others to make small donations to cause. I do not seek to represent any agency but am only passing on information and links to sites where interested parties may go and show support. One of those places is my own blog where I have made a pledge to help in whatever way I can - and my most powerful tool is my blog.

I have posted at the Blogger forum and am awaiting their response. If anyone has any idea what to do, your suggestions and comments would be appreciated.

Indy :)

WHERE'S MY MOJO?

I woke up one day and my MOJO was gone....who stole my MOJO? I have go to get it back, SOON!

It seems like I've been away for ages although my last post was just a little more than a month ago. If your trying to build a scrap design career and a following, being away for that long IS considered ages. Although I would want to call this my life, real life does get in the way and is imminently more important when children and family are concerned. When the quest to make ends meet, the daily rigors of running a household, impending projects, and trying to keep a child from flunking his subjects in school mix in with trying to design - I suddenly feel I am being fed a gorgeous mixed salad with the wrong type of dressing. No matter how hard I try to enjoy and eat it, it suddenly has lost its palatability. It still looks gorgeous and enticing and I always want to try it hoping it will start to taste better but no matter how hard I try, I can't get myself to finish it. That in a nutshell is how I've been feeling about designing. I have reached an impasse and no matter how hard I try (and I've got lots of great ideas floating around) all I can do is sit and stare at that blank sheet and nothing seems to come up right to my standards.

I hope I get over this soon and my so called MOJO is returned to me.

I have still to finish that kit I'm making, oh how I wish some fairy would sprinkle some pixie dust on me and I can be super woman and do all these with lots of time to spare. Sigh! No such luck huh? Oh, and guess what, my new 300 gb external hard drive stopped working again on me, all my new files can not be accessed - and all the files I bought from the sale of Royanna and Wetfish Designs (literally days of download!) GONE! What a disaster! I try not to think of it because I want to cry just losing all those files. Does anyone know how I can recover them? I know of one place here that does it but I just can't afford their fees. So if anyone knows or has any suggestions of an affordable hard disc recovery company, then I will love you forever!!! LOL! Seriously, I do need to recover those files, even some of my design work is in there, boo hoo!

Until next post, I just had to drop by to let you know where I'm at and what's happening.

Now on to my quest to recover that MOJO!

Indy

USED VS. LOVED

The past week has been quite a slow week for me, scrap-wise, design-wise.  I've been trying to play catch-up with a lot of deliverables that I can't seem to finish on time because of so many other things cropping up and pushing their way up front.  I have two kits I'm making - sitting on my desktop waiting for me to give them the time of day.  A sketchpad full of doodles I need to scan and vectorize (that's something I still have got to get the hang of - especially creating the vector doodle kind - help! anyone?) and a wonderful and exciting collaborative project I'm doing with my sister that I can't elaborate on yet - just that it involves me illustrating.  None of the things I'm doing at the moment seem to be bringing in any hard cash (which I badly need) and so there lies my dilemma of whether to pursue this lofty idea of graphic design as a career or succumb to the call of the "cubicles" (that's what I call the "corporate" office) - not that thats bad, just that I wish I could sort of marry both and get the best of both worlds - working and doing what I love best (and of course getting paid very well for it too, LOL!)

Yesterday I turned in a job application - this time for a company that deals with Children's Portraits (they have outlets at the major malls) - this seems to be the right fit "career-wise" because it would be dealing with what I feel I excel at the most - hopefully my bio would stand-out from the rest (I scrapped it!), I'd love to show you but would hate to divulge any personal info over the net...

Lets just hope this is the right one for me.

Some time ago, I received an email containing this story that I would like to share.  It is very sad but speaks so much truth about how we sometimes forget that we put love of material things over our love for our fellow man.  It speaks of anger and regretting how we use it, especially to our children, our spouses or loved ones.  Let us not make haste to say and do things we will regret one day or make judgements before we accuse someone of wrong-doing. 

Used vs. Loved 

While a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr. old son picked up a
stone and scratched lines on the side of the car.
In anger, the man took the child's hand and hit it many times; 

not realizing he was using a wrench.
At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures.
When the child saw his father.....with painful eyes he asked, 'Dad when
will my fingers grow back?'
The man was so hurt and speechless; he went back to his car and kicked
it a lot of times.
Devastated by his own actions...sitting in front of the car he looked at
the scratches; the child had written 'LOVE YOU DAD'.
The next day that man committed suicide.

Anger and Love have no limits; choose the Love to have a beautiful, lovely life.
Things are to be used and people are to be loved, 

but the problem in today's world is that, people are used and things are loved.
Let's be careful to keep this thought in mind: 

"Things are to be used, but People are to be loved".
Be yourself.... This is the only day we HAVE. Make it a great day!

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

The Will of God will never take you to where the Grace of God will not PROTECT you.

Stay FAITHFUL and Be GRATEFUL. 

Have a blessed day.

A WOMAN OF STRENGTH

I just had to post this poem, I have been sent the shorter version which I found to be very nice and inspiring and had been prepared to post it (it was already in my saved drafts folder) but could not find who wrote it. Its so funny because today, I stumbled upon this longer version in Simply Yin's blog (if you haven't stumbled upon her blog yet, I suggest you do - she has got lots of wonderful templates which I find so useful when I'm in a scrapping funk, in fact she has several templates I've used over and over again with different backgrounds LOL! Thank you Yin!)

WOMAN OF STRENGTH

A strong woman works out every day,
Pride in her appearance she portrays,
But a woman of strength kneels to pray,
Keeping her soul in shape, God leading the way.

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything,
Looking forward to challenges each day will bring,
Women of strength show courage in the midst of fear,
Knowing triumph through faith because the Lord is near.

Strong women won't let anyone get the best of them,
So skilled in defense even if they have to pretend,
Yet a woman of strength gives her best to everyone,
Being anointed with divine blood from the only begotten Son.

A strong woman relies on the physical attributes making her tough,
In her search for power and money she will never have enough,
A woman of strength understands that it’s not about material stuff,
Knowing that before becoming a diamond first she’ll be in the rough,

A strong woman sometimes disguises her feelings shadowed by clouds,
Unhinged when challenged on her policy becoming boisterous and loud,
A woman of strength concerns herself not with judgment from others,
And will not let business interfere with commitments as a wife and mother.

A strong woman is easily impatient back and forth she will begin to pace,
Counting on her holier than thou attitude instead of depending on faith,
A woman of strength is assured trust in God will always carry her through,
And at the Creator’s appointed time she’ll receive all that is justly due.

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same for tomorrow,
Refusing to take time looking back with reverence and Godly sorrow,
The woman of strength realizes life's mistakes no matter how slim,
While thanking God for the blessings as she capitalizes on them.

A strong woman walks head first with no doubt in her mind,
Again, no matter what, she’ll not make this mistake a second time,
But a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls,
So when a situation arises again, she’s not afraid to answer the call.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face,
Always doing whatever it takes to finish, seeking only first place,
The woman of strength competes with an emotional sense of grace,
Understanding it’s more important to run a Holy Spirit filled race.

A strong woman has faith that for the journey she’ll have enough,
No matter how uneven the terrain or roads being rocky and rough,
A woman of strength knows it’s in the journey she will become strong,
And the love of God is forever with her, no matter how difficult or long.

A strong woman when uninformed thinks that she is being mistreated,
In the end her physical attributes fail causing doubt to become seeded,
A woman of strength will compromise as a little give and take is needed,
Why? Because a lesson not learned the first time is soon to be repeated.

© 2006 by Luke Easter & Dee Cheeks
www.LyricsByLucas.com