2010 Christmas Ornament

This originally began as an Ornament for an exchange at my local quilt guild that I joined this year. We were told to bring a handmade ornament to exhange at our Christmas party. We didn't have to make it ourselves, but I did.

Ice Crystal (Roughly 2 1/2" x 2 2/1")

I've wanted to incorporate metal into my Fiber Art and got this idea from Video Workshops from Quilting Arts by Mary Hettmansperger. It's silver colored wire (about 26 gauge) and beads (6/0 size) and just twisted together. Then applied to a white piece of fabric that's sewn onto blue fabric that was covered with shiny organza (I think?) I'm not good with types of fabric, I just go to the fabric store and choose what's interesting to me.

I think these turned out much better than I expected and it was super easy and fast to make! I've decided to try and make a new handmade ornament each year. Now we'll see how long that last. It all depends on what next year holds. Happy New Year! I can't wait for several of my online art classes to begin! I've found online learning (if I actually make time to do the work) is the best learning environment for me! Saves my back from having to transport a sewing machine, materials, supplies, etc.. So stay tuned to find out what I come up with in the next couple of months ahead!

My Martha Stewart Touches

Here are my attempts at trying a few Martha Stewart touches of decorating.

I've wanted to do this one for several years and actually got it done this year. It turned out much better than I expected! I've seen similar hanging baskets like these in nearby Davidson, NC (a small college town) and always wanted to use the branches cut from my Christmas tree to make some for myself.


I use the hanging baskets that hold my summer flowers and pull out all the dead foliage, but leave the dirt for next year. Then I just cut the huge branches from the Frasier Fir tree that were trimmed to make it fit in our Christmas Tree Stand. I stuck those into the dirt first and then filled in with branches of other greenry that I cut from around our yard. There is long leaf pine, cedar, and Holly. Whoever said to "Deck the Halls with Holly" had to be dipping into the Egg Nog a little too much! That stuff is so sharp and prickley!

I intended to add battery operated lights to each of the four baskets but when I went to the local craft store (Michaels) they had already put everything on drastic clearance and there were none to be found. Oh well, maybe next year.

Next is my Poinsetta Arrangement. I've been doing this one for a couple of years now. My husband gets up the day after Thanksgiving to hit the big savings sales. I personally haven't found anything I wanted that desperately to fight the crowds for, but he loves going out and getting those "deals!" I'm glad that he does, he always comes home with $.99 Poinsettas. They're small, only 1 quart size, but I put four of them in this one container and then spend the rest of the Christmas season pointing at huge $15 and up plants and saying "Mine look as good as that one!" What fun to have a nice huge arrangements for only $4. I just leave the plants in the pots they come in and put them in the container and I'm done.


So this is about all for my decking of the halls!

2010 Christmas Tree

A few years ago I took pictures of many of my Christmas Ornaments and featured them with stories of why they are special. I think I faded out in that project, maybe if I can get my act together I'll resume that for next year. Meanwhile, I'll give you a few glimpses of the decorating for this year. I didn't get a whole lot done this year and after my granddaugther saw my tree all decorated she asked why I didn't wait for her to help. Oh boy!!! It's a deal, she'll definitely get in on that fun next year! I sure hope she's still willing then!

Each year now since our children have families of their own, we go together up into the NC mountains to choose and cut our own trees. Well we don't have to actually cut them, they do that for you after you've chosen and tagged the one you want. This give the very particular members of our family (mainly my husband and daughter) a very wide selection to choose from and the grandchildren a chance to see where the trees actually come from, etc. Overall usually a very fun family adventure. For me, this year it was a scary adventure to go up into the mountains while it was snowing. (I can hear you northeners snickering!) My husband was driving, so that wasn't bad. It's the other drivers that make me nervous with potential skidding into us, etc. But we all made it up the mountain, quickly picked out our trees and hurried back down before they closed the roads. (The road further on up the mountain was closed while we were still there.) But it was very beautiful to pick out a tree with all the snow. Here is our chosen tree just before it was cut. These are Frasier Firs.

After we get down off the mountain with our trees, we usually stop for lunch. This year we ate in downtown North Wilkesboro, NC and to our delight their parade was that day so we had a perfect indoor, in the warm, seat for viewing! We're all smiles now that the trees are bought and we're out of the cold!



Here is the tree, all decorated. This year we put the train around the bottom for the enjoyment of the grandchildren. It takes up a bit of floor space, but it's been worth it to see them play with it.

Final Fabric Inking Lesson 3

I finished my last lesson with the fabric inking. We're suppose to make a journal cover as well, but that will probably have to wait until after Christmas. Here are some of my latest pieces with the class.

This first piece was actually a piece from the last lesson that didn't work correctly. I redeemed it by crumbling it up while it was still wet and stuffing it in a cup. I left it on the shelf to dry all week and then ironed it out. All of the marks and wrinkles are actually marks from the ink.

This next piece was another attempt at marbling the fabric with the ink. I again had a few problems, but I think this technique takes practice. I did use a shape that matched the fabric shape so that there wasn't so much white space around the edges.

This is another marble technique piece with green added.

I again used the extra marbling ink and used a foam brush to paint this fabric. I love this piece and plan on using embroidery stitches, beads and other embellishments to adorn it.

This next piece was an experiment that I tried. I drizzled the ink on the fabric that was wet and then after that I added rock/ice cream salt, the big pieces. This caused the ink to wick up into the salt. I left this to dry overnight. It does have a small crystal effect, but I was expecting more. I'll try this again with a smaller piece of fabric and not use so much salt, or put it down in piles. Also, I may not start with wet fabric. I'll just drizzle on the ink and see what happens. But the main lesson learned with this piece is to try experiments on smaller pieces of fabric since I don't know for sure what's going to happen.

This last piece was wet fabric that was fan folded. Then I drizzled on the ink and used a plastic spoon to rub the top layer. This caused the ink to seep through all the layers and blend as well. It looks very much like fabric that uses regular procion dyes. I've made some very similar and it can be purchased here at ArtFabric But I like the way this turned out.

I've enjoyed this class. I had never used pigment dyes before and this was a great way to play and try new things! I've learned that I like the stamped and rubbing effects. I like the fact that they can be used very quickly and on fabric that is commercially dyed or printed. That makes these dyes a great tool in altering fabrics that may not take dye or are already saturated. Overall though for many of the techniques I'd probably use dye when possible. Dyes are tremendously cheaper than these inks. A very small bottle (only an ounce or less) cost about $4 before taxes and/or shipping. I originally bought 6 bottles and they are almost all gone. I would use these dyes to paint and draw on the fabric and plan on doing so more experimenting with that. I already bought more colors and certainly plan on keeping them on hand to use as the need arises.

I hope you've enjoyed following along with me in my classes. I've already signed up for another online class that begins January 14th. It's with Ellen Lindner called Instant Art Quilts. There's still time to sign up for it, so join me in this new adventure! I'm also planning on taking some more classes through Joggles, but their schedule doesn't come out until December 16th. We'll have to see what's offered and I do have to pace myself! I have learned that I get so much more from the classes when I actually do the work and participate in class discussion forums. Not always easy, but well worth it!

Fabric Inking Lesson 2

Warning: This is completely a fabric post, so if you're not into fabric and such you may want to skip this post all together.

This is lesson 2 out of 3 of the Fabric Inking with a Journal class. This week we were told how to use Shaving Cream and Ice to apply the ink to the fabric. I began with 10"x 42" lengths of fabric but quickly cut those up into smaller pieces as it was much easier to control.

These first pictures are of the shaving cream technique. It was suppose to give the fabric a marbled look and I was a little dissapppointed to find that the iron actually smeared the colors a bit because the shaving cream was still there. I think I should have either wiped off the shaving cream first or used a hair dryer to heat set the ink first before using the iron. Oh well, that's what a class is for, to learn as you go.

Actually three pieces were made from the same shaving cream and ink setup. These are two of them.

Next time I'll use a tray that holds the entire piece of fabric and try to cover all of the fabric so there isn't a white border all around.

This piece was created with the leftover shaving cream and ink. I used a foam brush and painted it on a 10"x10" piece of fabric. I can see this having hand and machine stitches added and perhaps some beads. It should be fun to play with.

This piece was made with crushed ice.


This piece was made with chunks of ice in a slightly different method than the crushed ice.


These samples don't look nearly as nice as the teacher's, but I think they can be cut up and used. We'll just have to see where they turn up in future art pieces.

There was also a method that involves using snow and letting it melt and move the inks around on the fabric. I already know this can be done with snow. My dye class friend, Judi Yakab, already does an excellent job with that and had an article in a magazine describing how it's done. (Sorry Judi, I can't remember the magazine, but if you comment with that it would be wonderful!) (Thank you Judi, see the comments below for the magazine information!) I think I'll just use the dyes for that, since this ink is much more expensive!

I'm definitely going to try these methods with fiber reactive dyes. I'm thinking that they may work on pre-soaked soda ash fabric, but we'll see. Stay tuned for that in the spring when it's warm enough to leave it long enough to batch.

New Joggles Online Class Lesson 1 - Fabric Inking with a Journal

So I've finished up one class and started another one. This one is only three weeks long. It's rather abstract and uses fabric and inks. We're learning how to use Tsukineko Pigment Inks on fabric which after heat set with an iron are suppose to be permanent. The pros of using inks over dyes is that it's very quick set up and clean up with the inks. They basically are completely washable in water as long as they haven't been heat set. This means they can be taken out and applied very quickly without worries about temperatures and batching times. The cons are that they come in very small quantities and applied with a very small brush. This means it takes a good deal of time to cover a large piece of fabric. But for a quick small project it's a great choice. The other possible con is the longevity after it's applied to the fabric. It's suppose to be permanent after it's heat set, but time will tell. With the dyes I use, there is an actual chemical reaction between the dyes and the natural fibers in the cloth so the result is much more permanet. Well as permanet as anything on this earth. But so far I like these inks and they seem very easy to apply and control which might translate into painting directly on the fabric at some point in the futre, we'll see. Here's what I have so far.

These first two pictures are of the same piece of cloth. They are detail shots and the letters are there for the class to identify the different items I used to place under the cloth and rub the ink on to get the texture. (Similar to what kids do with crayons and leaves to make the rubbings.)

If you are interested and want to know what is that I used, just comment with the letter and I can give you the item that I used to get that texture.

So this is the piece after I added another layer of texture. I used stamps, both commercial and handmade. Also such things as a plastic coaster, an end off a big roll of aluminum foil, etc. Again if you're interested I can give you more details.

It measures 10" x 44" on cotton and these are details shots of the same fabric.

I used some acrylic rubber lettering stamps to create a few words. They turned out rather faint, but that seems to be a nice effect. This one says "Discover" which is what I was doing with the inks and the various stamping and rubbing tools.

After I was finished with that piece of fabric, then I found what I considered to be an ugly piece of my hand dyed fabric, an army green camo color. I used a nice tile that my daughter-in-law's mother (nothing is safe when I visit and see interesting textured items that can be used) gave me and rubbed the design from that onto the cloth in a couple of different colors. It's already turned this very ugly fabric into something that I might actually use.

Final Online Sketch Class - Lesson Six

Yeah!!! I made it all the way through without giving up! If you've been following along, you know I've been taking a six week online sketching and watercolor journal style class. This was done through Joggles and it was great. For those interested, Jane LaFazio will be teaching this particular class again March 3 - April 7. I'm sad to see this class end, but she will also teach a "Journal Style on Location" class in January through Joggles and I hope to take that one. So we'll see how that goes.

This lesson was to sketch a machine made item that was meaningful to us. So I chose a Dutch Oven because I have many fond memories of my Girl Scouting Days and then family camping trips (both growing up and with my own children.) The Dutch Oven was always a center of attention and always held something very delicious to eat. I've amazed many a guest camper with cakes, biscuits, and assortment of casseroles and stews. My family has grown to expect it and they now do their own Dutch Oven cooking when they go camping.

So this brings this official class to an end, but I'll continue to sketch and draw and will occassionally post more here from time to time.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Five

I'm still at it, and we've got one more lesson to go! Yeah!! I love this class, and I'm really pleased that I've done each lesson even when I really didn't want to. It always seems so hard at first, but I've surprised myself. This week we were instructed to draw shoes, or a shoe to develop texture techniques. I wear, plain black shoes, white tennis shoes, and Crocs. Yes, still wearing Crocs. I wore Crocs before anyone else was wearing them. I was stopped all the time by people asking me if they were as comfortable as they looked. Yes, they were and they are still so easy to slip on and run an errand. But I don't wear them as much as I use to. I've found the draw backs of wearing shoes with holes in them in the rain. Your feet do get wet and after the shoes get old, they are very slick in the rain, which leads to lots of slipping and sliding. I have several pairs in an assortment of colors, but these are my current pair. Yes, the color is very close to what you see here. A pinkish color that is dirty. This turned out much better than I expected when I picked up the pencil to draw. The writing at the bottom says that my son called me the "Original Rubber Shoe Lady." I was wearing rubber shoes before Crocs became popular. I had found a pair of white rubber garden shoes at the grocery store for $1.00, yep one dollar. That was a deal and they were great to wear when running quick errands. The teenagers in my house thought it was horrible! Well, when Crocs came out, I got a pair from my future son-in-law who was wearing them. After they became so popluar, my son gave me the nickname, "Original Rubber Shoe Lady." Now I need to find a new comfortable style of shoe to wear to start a new trend.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Four

I'm still at it! Yeah, I haven't given up yet....I wasn't sure if I'd get time to complete this week's lesson. First it was a BBQ contest to get ready for on Thursday and then the actual contest on Friday and Saturday. Then Sunday, my grandchildren came for a two night "Spend the Night" party! What fun, but no time for sketching in a journal. Today, I finally had time to go get some flowers to sketch for our assignment. With the recent freeze all of mine had died off. Flowers are harder than they look to sketch! These are Alstroemeria which are often in mixed bouquets, but I'm cheap and just bought one bunch. There were sunflowers so I might go back and get one of those to try later on when I have a bit more time on my hands.

The photographs above don't accurately reflect the colors, which are more purple/red than pink.

What I like is the blend of yellows into the purple color.

So I combined two of the blooms and a couple of the buds. After I photographed the flowers I realized I should have left the edges much more light than I did. Oh well... I may try to redo these tomorrow. I do like the lettering I chose. Again from the computer and then basically traced on to the piece. I explained my technique for this in lesson two.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Three

I'm still at with my lessons in the online sketch class. I really didn't look forward to doing this one, so of course waited until the very last minute! Our next lesson comes out tomorrow. So this may make you think that I've regressed a bit, but actually it's suppose to be a continuous line drawing. With the previous sketches, we were to use a pencil first and then go over it with a permanent marker. Then use watercolors to paint them. So with this sketch we were instructed to start out with the black permanent marker and draw without lifting our pen. We could backtrack with the pen, but not lift it. This means any miscalculations in proportions or placement of lines cannot be corrected. The activity is intended to make our drawings more loose and therefore giving the sketch more character or fun. For some reason, mine was still a bit stiff, so maybe next time I'll try to draw more quickly.

This is of a watering can that my son and his wife gave me for I think Mother's Day or something. I loved it, and over time as it has sat outside on my patio it has rusted and the paint has faded, revealing the silver color underneath. I love the colors and while the drawing isn't accurate the colors are pretty close. I had trouble with the inside rim of the top, but that will be something to work on for the future. The shadows cast forward worked out better for me this time.

The main thing is that I got it done! Yeah, I haven't quit or given up yet! There are six lessons so I'm half way there! So far it's really be a great class and I highly recommend it!

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Two

I got lesson two finished! For this lesson we were to focus on mixing greens from blue and yellow and adding red when needed to change the tone. To apply this knowledge our objective was to draw leaves, three to a page. I struggled with getting three leaves to fit on the 5x7 page!

This first one reminds me of scouts! I love camping and use to be pretty good at identifying trees from the leaves and bark.



This second piece is a rose hip from one of my rose bushes. Rose hips are the seeds from the rose blossoms when they aren't cut off.

The course is Watercolor and Sketching Journal Style and the pictures are suppose to have a journal feel to them. So far I'm really loving this class! Jane LaFazio is the teacher and she is really great! You can check out her blog here for lots of tutorials and helpful hints.

Here is my own hint for nice lettering: I found some fonts that I liked on my computer and typed out the words and date. I printed these out and colored over them with a fine tip sharpie. This made them visible on the reverse side of the paper. I then colored the backside with a regular pencil, making them fairly dark. Then I just layed the print down where I wanted the words to appear on my piece. I rubbed them on the top with a coin and that made the pencil rubbing appear on the art. I then colored in the pencil with my black permanent marker. I'm sure there might be an easier way, such as printing in reverse, etc. but this was pretty simple for me. It made the lettering fairly straight and gave me an opportunity to preview the letters before inking them in. If I don't like the way it looks, the pencil rubbing is very easy to erase.

Joggles online Class

I'm taking an online Sketching and Watercolor Journal class. Often times I sign up for online courses and then never get to the assignments. I actually got Lesson One done and posted! Yeah me. So here is the first product.

5"x7" Watercolor and Ink on hot pressed watercolor paper

I wish the shadows on the apples weren't so dark and that I had left a little more white space on the apples to show highlights. I do like the use of ink and outlining to give it the journal feel, I would like to improve my lettering skills. Oh well, I'm learning.... that's what the purpose of the class is all about anyway! So tomorrow I'll buy some more vegetables and fruit and try again.

NC Farmer's Market in Raleigh, NC

I just love a good Farmer's Market, and the one in Raleigh is fantastic. I only wish I had remembered to charge up my camera battery before we stopped. Oh well....it was still very wonderful!

These pumpkins were huge and had price tags in the $50 range. I've never bought a huge pumpkin like that, so I was very shocked!

The Indian Corn was so harvesty looking! Aren't the colors marvelous!

Silk Scarves and Cotton Hand-dyed Piece

Yes, I'm still around and still working on art and dyeing! I finally got a chance to dye up some scarves. This is the Fall Series and based mostly on fall earthy colors with undertones of jewel colors. They are all for sale. The sizes listed are approximate. Enjoy and if there is anything that you would like to purchase please contact me by private email. All prices include shipping. (Double click on the slideshow to go to the album and view pictures individually.)

Wonderful Textile Art Week-end!

This week-end I attended the NC Quilt Symposium which is 2 and half days of workshops and lectures and lots of fun. Unfortunately I didn't stop long enough to think about pulling out my camera and taking pictures so I'll have to refer you to Susan Brubaker-Knapp's blog. She was in my class and she was pulling out her camera often. I just checked and yes, she did a wonderful job of photo journelism. In fact she has a good picture of our instructor Cynthia Corbin critiquing my work in progress. The picture of me isn't the best, but hey, I was busy at work and not worried about being photographed! Thanks Susan for the wonderful job of taking pictures for us! The one thing that she did not include was the added treat at our closing ceremonies! There were door prizes, so very nice door prizes which included a felting machine, and scholarships for next year's symposium, and even a week at John Campbell Folk school scholarship! While I didn't win any of those grand prizes, I did win a prize!!!!! I was so excited when they called my name for a gift certificate and guess where of all places...................... PRO Chemical and Dye company!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I love to dye fabric and I buy all my dye chemicals for them, so this gift certificate will be used in a wonderful way! It was a wonderful week-end with wonderful ending. So I apologize for no pictures, but run on over to Susan's blog for the details!

After all these years, I think my Grandmother was right!

Well, sorry I have no pictures to post with this, wish I did! It would be proof for my case, but unfortunately I put off the pictures and now, I have nothing! Ok, well to the story! I really think there is someone or someones (I think it might be a conspiriacy) in my family who is trying to make me look senile so they can go ahead and put me away somewhere! Or my other theory is that my grandmother may have been right, the neighbors do come in and steal things! She's been gone for over 30 years and I'm just now realizing that maybe she was right! I remember vividly being at her house in Malden, Massachusetts and watching while she looked all through her pantry for peanut butter. She couldn't find it anywhere and finally declared that those horrible neighbors of hers must have stolen it. She wasn't kidding either! I was a teenager at the time and thought that was a ridiculous thing to think that a neighbor would come in to just steal peanut butter of all things. Well, it's happened to me! Or perhaps my family is setting me up to think I'm loosing my mind. I made a perfectly nice child's size apron to keep here at my house for when my grandchildren come to cook. If you look at older post you will see a similiar one that my granddaughter and I made. This one is almost identical except no name and no star buttons on it. But now I can not find it anywhere!!! Even my granddaughter helped me look all around for it, and we can not find it! I've spent two days looking for it. Well, ok, not two days, but a couple of minutes for each of the past two days. I'm also missing a set of pink star buttons. The ones on the pictured apron in the older blog. Those went missing as well. They were gone for so long that I had to purchase a second set so we could finish the original apron project. Those have still not been located! So now I'm thinking that my family is taking these things and hiding them from me so that I'll go willing into the place they want to put me. Or just maybe my grandmother was right! Someone, probably my no good neighbors, are coming in and stealing from me! So far they've taken my star shaped pink buttons and now the child's apron to match! Never can trust people that's what she always said!
(NOTE: Now while I don't seriously think my neighbors read this blog, just in case, I AM KIDDING about the no good neighbors part!!!!! I have very nice neighbors and a good neighborhood and so far I don't think they've stooped to stealing child's size aprons yet. And to my family, no I'm still hanging on here, regardless of how many things I can't easily find!) Now on to day three of my search..... I'm sure it will turn up someday, I just hope it's before I'm long gone and the family is cleaning up my stuff!

TO DO LIST

Yes, It's me! I'm back! I've been busy trying to get things checked off my to do list. Sometime around November, I made a list of all the “To Do” projects that were waiting for my attention. Some had been waiting a very long time and others found themselves on and off the list very quickly. Here are the things I’ve checked off my list so far. (Note: They were not completed in this order.)

Hem up my daughter’s bathroom curtain
Make a Duvet Cover for my granddaughter
Sew Christmas Stockings to the Tree Skirt
(old Christmas stockings from when my children were little. I couldn't bear to throw them out, so I saved them by sewing them on a tree skirt I had made a few years back.)
Make a Foot Stool Cover
Make and Cover Dog Bone Pillows (3)
Fix Beach Umbrella for my daughter
Sew an apron with my granddaughter and make a second one to keep at my house
for when she comes to cook

It feels so good to see the list of accomplishments! I often think that I don’t get very much done, especially when I read other Fiber Artist blogs, but after looking at this list, that’s not too bad for the last several months. I’ve been trying to get my list whittled down so I can make room for more of my art projects – Yeah!! Here’s what I currently have left -

Remaining To Do List:
Three Baby Quilts
Embroider BBQ Shirts for my husband
Make a “Very Hungary Caterpillar” Art Quilt for my daughter’s classroom
Matching pillow for my granddaughter's duvet cover

So here are a couple of pictures of the fruits of my labor.

The Dog Bone Pillows - I gave them this name because of their shape.

These use to be sold in department stores a few years back, but of course are no longer in stock. I've tried lots of different types, but these are the only ones that work to support my neck and ease the pain. So after I lost one on a trip in Europe and the others got worn, I was long over due to make new ones. I used one of the old ones and made a pattern. It comes in two sizes, regular and large. (The pattern only- I'm not making any more for now!)

Here's my granddaughter debuting her new apron that I helped her sew. We went to a fabric store and she carefully picked out the fabric herself. While I could have probably dyed it up myself, I was so delighted that we had such similar taste! And she insisted that it needed pink star buttons to make it fancy. I couldn't have agreed more!

Can you figure out what items on the To Do list got added in and marked off more quickly than others? Well can you help me? When there is such delight in getting our project done? And now we need to make a matching pillow for the Duvet next! (It will have pink buttons as well!)

Hope!

A little break from those who look to this blog for quilting info or family pictures. I couldn't post all of this on facebook because they limit the space allowed. So that's why it's all here.

For those who don't know, I love art and especially fiber art, I love plants and especially orchids, I love pets and especially Springer Spaniels, let's see, oh yes, my favorite, I love my family (no especially part here, I love you all, well maybe especially my husband of 32+ years)! And I especially love Bible Study (the inductive way, see http://www.precept.org/ for more info on that) and above all else, I Love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I recently had a birthday (for ID theft risk I won't mention exactly when) and the topic of getting older came up. So here's my response to Birthdays and Getting Older...

Even though we get older with each birthday, we can still have hope! We're all growing older, that's the earthly fact! But there's hope for those who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God! Our hope is that while our bodies are decaying, our inner man is being renewed! (2 Corinthians 4:16) Yeah that's good news, especially when you've had a birthday and your body doesn't work like it did when you were in high school. (Well most of us.) It's just an earthly fact, but it's not the truth, it's a temporary condition! Now that's certainly worth celebrating! I have hope that I have put on a new self, that is being renewed day by day! (Colossians 3:10) And I have all eternity to look forward to! So I'm setting my mind on things above! And I'm only passing through on my way there because my citizenship is in heaven, from which also I eagerly wait for my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! (Philippians 3:20) Now this is the best news ever to those who truly believe! Yeah!!!!!!!!!