And Now Something Totally Different

Every sunrise is a gift from God!

Kauai sunrise 2003

Last summer I had a conversation with a lovely lady about my faith. She wanted to know what I believed about God and she asked many questions. I've thought about that conversation often since then, praying for her and praying that my words answered her questions.

As a Christian it's inevitable that someone will ask, "How can a loving God send people to hell?"
My response is, "He doesn't!" Let me explain.

Without getting into heavy theological areas where I have no business treading let's keep this to simple facts.

God is good. In Him is light, and joy, and peace and blessings. In this world we all enjoy these gifts, whether you believe in Him or not. The sun rises every morning giving light and warmth. We enjoy laughter and smiles and love and friendship. Heaven is an extension of this state of blessing, except that God will be present. It will be like the Best Day Ever that never ends!

In this world there is also evil because mankind is sinful. We have a human nature that runs counter to God's perfect will and as a result bad things happen. Consider a place where evil abounds because there is no force for good to quell it? That is Hell. Hell is the absence of God. The sun never rises in Hell. It's like the worst, most horrible night ever that never ends.

In this world we have the opportunity to choose God. To accept His gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. To live in harmony with His will. We can also choose to ignore His gift and all of His benefits. One of which is eternity spent in His presence. The alternative to eternity in God's presence is eternity separated from Him. That is Hell. God is Light so without God, hell is absolute darkness. God is Love so without God, hell is a place devoid of love. You get the idea.

Now back to the question and my answer. We choose our place in eternity when we choose to believe in Jesus Christ or not. Everyone who has ever walked this earth has been nudged by the Holy Spirit to consider God and His love for mankind. God does not want anyone to experience Hell so He communicates with us in our spirit; it's that still small voice that urges us to believe.

Hell was created for the devil and his cohorts. It was never God's plan that His beloved creation should ever know a day without His presence. Of course, He wants us to choose Him, to exercise our free-will in saying yes to Jesus Christ. It is our CHOICE. The only ones that God sends to Hell are those for whom it was created. WE choose whether to spend eternity with God or without Him.

My prayer is that you will consider the question of eternity. If you are teetering on the fence I pray that you will fall into Jesus' loving arms.

If you have more questions, please email me: nkrueger410 (at) gmail (dot) com.

blessings everyone, have a wonderful week
nancy

Quick Treat Bags

If I can't do something at the last minute then I just won't do it at all apparently. There was no time to make elaborate goodies for the little ones this Easter. The plumbing upheaval was not resolved until Friday when 2 guys were here filling in holes and patching the foundation with cement. Now we have major work to do: replace the carpet in the master bedroom and the floor in the guest bath along with all the baseboards and woodwork in the master bedroom and bath. Life is good!

I had about 10 minutes on Sunday to assemble some candy in cello bags, tie them with ribbon, stuff them into white paper bags with a chocolate bunny and create little name tags for my grandson, Uriah and my sister's 2 grandkids, Reece and Gavin. They turned out pretty cute I think.

Stamps: Lawn Fawn- Happy Easter; Hero Arts- Serendipity Letters (from 1998); Other supplies: Lawn Fawn Daphne's Closet paper, Lemon Lawn Trimmings; May Arts Ribbon; Office Depot tags; Creative Memories circle punch; Copic markers.

As soon as these were done, I packed them up along with the Carrot Cake and Strawberry Cupcakes I made, put them all in the car with the 2 dogs and headed off to the family gathering at my nephew's house.

There is just something special about celebrating holidays with little children! I had a wonderful time, so wonderful in fact that I forgot to take photos (bad grammy!). Here's a picture taken the day before Easter of my little Uriah:

I don't know how Uriah stayed so calm sitting with that giant bunny, it kind of freaks me out. 

He is 19 months old today!

blessings,

nancy

Fun with Digital Kits

I noticed that 2 Peas had some Digi kits on sale so I got a few of them and had some fun. Even though I have Photoshop, I prefer to use Publisher for playing with photos and digital elements. You could also use Word or PowerPoint. Once you are done just save your digital artwork as a picture either .jpg or .png and it will act like any other photo.

I started with this cute photo I snapped of Tia using the camera on my phone (love my new phone!) My son Ben had started clearing out his old room (yippee) and we found Tia's little sleeping hut and her Body Glove shirt. She loves wearing shirts, she shoves her head right through the neck hole and her feet through the armholes. Then she poses. Like this:

She doesn't realize that her sleeping hut has kitties on it, so we won't tell her!

First I edited the photo using PicMonkey.com, adding the text and lady bug while re-sizing and cleaning up the exposure.

Then I opened it in Publisher and started adding digi elements and WordArt. Here's the result:

Digital Kits used:

February Storyteller 2013 Flair

Old Type Font

My Life 365- Wishi Washi Tape

September Pea Soup

Thanks for visiting!

blessings,

nancy

Princess Birthday

My sister has adorable grand-kids. Need proof? Check out this photo:

Gavin and Reece

The family celebrated Reece's 3rd birthday with a party on Sunday. Of course it had a princess theme!

I paper-pieced the sweet castle from Lawn Fawn's Critters Ever After using Echo Park Country Drive papers. Those papers are so sweet and girly, they were perfect!

The inside was decorated as well with Lawn Fawn stamps: Critters Ever After, Year One and Sally's ABC's and some more Country Drive papers.

For the gift bag: I stamped some white tissue paper and die cut a layered flower to add to a clothes pin. 

The "hi princess" is an older Hero Arts sentiment stamp.

I had so much fun designing and making this little gift ensemble. My mojo seems to be making a come-back.

blessings,

nancy

Baby Shower Card

So in the midst of our plumbing woes I attended a baby shower and my great-niece's birthday party over the weekend. It was so nice to see some of my dear {long-lost} friends at the shower.

For the card I took my inspiration from the cute gift bag I found at Target!

The colors and stamps were chosen based on the fun bag design! 

Stamps: Lawn Fawn-Critters on the Savanna and die, Sharp Backdrops, Critters Down Under (sentiment), Bannerific stamp and die; Hero Arts-Hexagon Background. 

Inks: Hero Arts-Soft Pool, Butter Bar, Soft Granite, Orange Soda, Green Hills, Black Dye ink.

I included this adorable Gift Card on the inside of the card by cutting slits for the corners to slip into.

I'm so glad you dropped in for a visit! I'll have a cute Princess birthday card for you tomorrow.

blessings,

nancy

So sorry it's been so long....

....since my last post. To say life intervened would be an understatement but I'm back with some fresh projects to share with you this week!

But first here is what has been happening at Casa Krueger:

That is a man standing in a hole in the middle of my bathroom (the one that didn't flood). Jose and Jose (yep, 2 men named Jose) fixed the major plumbing catastrophe we experienced last Thursday. Our savings took a major hit! We are now forced to move up the remodel of this bathroom 'cause there's a hole in the floor. And because of water damage we need to replace the carpeting in our bedroom and all the woodwork in our master bath. Waiting to learn if our homeowner's policy will cover the water damage (unfortunately insurance doesn't cover plumbing catastrophes).

Here's a tip for all you owner's of older homes out there, you may want to consider replacing your old cast iron pipes with new more durable pipe before it becomes an emergency. We were unaware of any risk when the main pipe that connects to the sewer collapsed while I was in the shower. Since the water had nowhere to go it backed up into the bathroom causing the formation of a  lake in the bathroom which meandered into the bedroom and onto the patio. I don't take long showers, this happened in less than 5 minutes!

Anyway I took a break from insurance claims, city inspectors, the Jose(s) and the rest of the stress to make something to remind me of who is in charge. This little wall hanging is titled {trust} and it makes me happy!

I did a watercolor technique with Distress inks (Peacock Feathers and Mowed Lawn) and Hero Arts stamps (Luscious Patterned Flowers) on Bristol board. Then I over-stamped with my favorite Hero Arts "Old Letter Writing" stamp and some Soft Granite ink. I blended on some Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress inks. Finally a favorite verse, from Stampendous, was stamped with Hero Arts black ink. This panel was trimmed, matted with black cardstock and foam mounted to a patterned paper (Echo Park Country Drive) covered panel of thick chipboard. Just a simple project that took almost no time at all to finish.

Thanks so much for visiting!

blessings,
nancy

A Quick CAS Birthday Card

I saw the stamps sitting by my desk, they were just asking to be inked up. I didn't have a lot of time but I wanted to make a card. Out came some pretty inks, a punch or two, a bit of ink spray and a couple minutes later, here's what happened:

It took longer to photograph the card than it did to make it! And I'm really happy with the CAS look of it too. I love that it's just stamping, nothing fancy. I layered the stamped panel on a Hero Hues Pool card base. The butterflies were punched out of stamped cs then spritzed with Mister Huey's.

And here's what I used:

Thanks for stopping by!

blessings,
nancy