A Customer Review From My Beta Launch Giveaway...

What a great blessing it was to win the beta review. I could not wait for my special parcel to arrive. When it arrived in the mail I quickly opened the box to find the most unique and fun wrapped gift. First I must say that I love online shopping, mainly because I love receiving packages in the mail. However when I received this package it was better than any package I could of purchased online. The package was very personable. You could tell that time, talent, and creativity went it this package. It had great flair and warmth to it. It may sound crazy but it did. It was so nice I almost did not want to open the rest. After admiring the beautiful parcel I finely opened the rest up. 




One of the wrapping was the bracelet that read "loved" I really admired the bracelet in looks and that it had two settings for how tight it would be so that you could wear it accordingly to how it suited you or fitting if you have a petite or larger wrist. That was a winner for me. Looks may be there but if you can adjust it to what you need or comfortably then to me it is not worth it. This bracelet had both and I was very pleased. 




 The number one thing I loved about the purse is that it was reversible. What a great way to mix things up without having to buy another purse or rummage through a box for the changing of seasons. I carry a lot of items in my purse and heavy ones at that so it was nice that the straps were nice and strong as well. For my own personal taste I do prefer a purse deeper and more stiff. A few more pockets would have been nice but I know that can be more difficult to do when you are making reversible purses. I latch over piece would have been nice as well but again not sure how you can make it work for reversible. I am still using the purse right now and like it and it is great if I just out for an evening and need a few items in my purse. It does not fall over my shoulder easy at all which is great because I hate it when a purse won't stay on your shoulder. I was very pleased with the items and would love to see more of different type of purses. 




 Thanks, Rays of Sunshine.


Thank you so much, "Rays of Sunshine" for such a great review...honest and detailed!  I appreciate it so much.

Do You Have a Hidden Agenda?

‎2 Cor 4:2


We have renounced hidden agendas (employing a little bit of the law in an attempt to “balance” out grace); we have distanced ourselves from any obscure craftiness to manipulate God’s word to make it mean what it does not say! With truth on open display in us, we highly recommend our lives to every one’s conscience! Truth finds its most authentic and articulate expression in human life. This beats any doctrinal debate!

~Mirror Bible Translation (and no, this isn't a perfect translation...and no, I do not use it for study purposes...and no, Du Toit is not a universalist...and yes, repentance is necessary - mostly, repentance from dead works, whether they be "sinning" dead works or "sainting" dead works - and salvation from our sin condition is necessary, and has been accomplished through no other means but Christ.)

And The Winner Is....

...so...I prepared for the Big Moment:

We are so high tech around here.  No, seriously.  Don't believe that.  Actually, we kick it old school.

All the names...in a cute little Anthropologie-esque bowl... (if you don't know Anthro, where have you been?)

This drawing is legally certified by my daughter Hannah McConnell.  She drew the name of the winner.  Everyone acquainted with me had deep concerns that I'd draw my own name.  (Brownies were involved in this giveaway...)

And the winner is....

LIZ!!!!!!!

Liz, Maria Kear will be emailing you privately, to get your mailing address.  Sistah, your brownies will be on their way.

I'm jealous.

And hey...stay tuned.  Call the neighbors.  There will be another giveaway here NEXT WEEK!  And you will want one.  And your odds are GREAT at winning, since I haven't gone all "Pioneer Woman" on y'all.

(Pioneer Woman does a lot of giveaways, but she has, like, 30,000 followers on her blog!)

Aren't you glad I'm not a household name?

I Was Inspired...Poppies, Friends, and Brownies

Yesterday morning, I kept a sort of mentoring appointment.  I say "sort of" because she lets me coach her via Skype, and she's a fun girlfriend, so it doesn't feel so much like an "appointment" officially.

We talked about souls and their restoration.  I was so inspired by our time together.  There were tears.  There was laughter.  I then thought about the things we talked over all day long...and late yesterday evening, this popped out of my heart:

available in my shop  

I'm "feeling it" so much...this truth about soul restoration (see yesterday's re-post from 2008...you can see these are things I've long lingered over)...I'm almost sure that my next video weblog, in my series "True W.E.L.L. Being", will be full of some of the things my friend and I discussed.

Also, don't forget that tomorrow is the big day for the giveaway, in collaboration with Maria Kear and her new business, Send Out Cards!  (There are brownies involved.  You will want to leave your comment here....and then Facebook it, or tweet it, so that you can be MORE certain of obtaining said brownies...)

...a picture of  Send Out Card's brownies...not the exact ones you'll be getting, if you win.  Yours will be fresher.  Sorry if you haven't eaten yet.  Or you have, and now you want brownies, too.  So sorry. 

Well, my day has not been the cheeriest.  I won't bore you with drama or details, but suffice it to say, I need my soul restored.  Yet again.  Nothing terrible has happened...today, I was simply reminded that I am living in a state of bliss lately, and it does get interrupted now and then with some familiar sources of stress and frustration.

No matter.  Big things or small things, God is in the soul restoring business.

...by still waters, friends...he leads your soul there.

He Maintains My Soul

(a re-post from the archives...enjoy...)

"He leads me beside still waters..." a photo taken on our anniversary getaway.

I have been soaking in some old, familiar passages lately. They come to life for me, repeatedly, and bring me great hope and consolation. One of these familiar mainstays is Psalm 23:


The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.


I have been smitten by the phrase, "He restoreth my soul". The concept of stillness has been overtaking my thoughts these days - this whole idea of being still before God, and being still before my circumstances.


You cannot be still without a fully restored soul. A less-than-restored soul is a soul that frets, fears, fumes and flails about for a solution, and panics when no solution is in sight. An unrestored soul is anything BUT still.


You cannot restore your own soul. Such a dilemma...


I bring you good tidings - good news! GOD is fully committed to the full time job of soul restoration. If you look up that precious Hebrew word "restore", you will find a connotation that of "over and over again and again". In fact, I counted up the number of times, (in the mere definition of the Hebrew word "restore"), that the word "again" is utilized:  that word "again" is utilized twenty times in the Hebrew, to define the word RESTORE.


Again and again and again and again and again and....you get the idea. God restores my soul as often as necessary. This "restoring my soul" thing is a Self-designated focus of the Lord of the universe. He considers it His ongoing, daily avocation...the thing He delights to do for me. This Lord is my shepherd....oh, I shall not want!


Over and over, every day, again and again, twenty times a day and more, the Lord wants to refresh and revive you. He will, time and again, pick up your disheveled soul, dust it off, and set it to rights. He longs to breathe new life into you - right now. And then again. And then again.


Oh saint, do you hear me?


It is his avocation (not by constraint, but willingly He shepherds you, dear one!) to cheer you, enliven you, prod and quicken your spirit. He enjoys rejuvenating you, invigorating you, healing and rebuilding you, and He considers it His good pleasure to do it over and over and again and again and again.


Consider yourself rebuilt and reinstated, oh crumbled soul! Be strengthened, twenty times over, by the very hand of the Good Shepherd.


He restoreth my soul!

Don't Forget...

Don't forget Friday's giveaway...read about it here.  I will try to mention it each day between now and then, but you might want to go ahead and take a moment to give it a looksee.

These are included:

Oh.  my.  dear.  sweet.  salvation.

I repeat, this giveaway includes, but is not limited to, a box of delicious brownies.  Who doesn't want...nay, need, that?

True W.E.L.L. Being (A Video Weblog Series) "I Get That Now"...