Hope is the thing with feathers...

Hope.
Is it an elusive thing, there one moment, gone the next?

Or does it remain, steady, constant, a slowly enduring flame in the embers of our hearts?

Read the rest of the post here:
As We Hope In Thee.

Tally-Ho! I'm Off...

I'm off to Florida to visit my Grandma. Daddy and I are taking the truck down to her city, stopping on the way to go out to dinner with my Uncle Russ and his family. I'm also going to be giving my cousin Katie her wedding present a bit early. :) (Pictures will be coming soon...)

Sadly, the weather will not be conducive to swimming at the beach or basking in the sun. It's going to be a little chilly, just like it has been here in north-ish Georgia. Perhaps this will allow more time for me to take pictures! :D

Uh, speaking of chilly, it was 27 degrees when I woke up this morning. A little COLD. I grew up in Florida, after all, and when it dips below freezing, I begin to feel like a cold-blooded creature that desperately needs some warmth flooding into it's veins!

Anyway - Daddy and I leave tomorrow morning at no later than 8:00 AM, leaving Mama and the boyz to hold down the fort. (hey, that'd be a good band name, Mama & the BoyZ.) ;) Don't worry, we went grocery shopping today and picked up a couple new movies and some special snacks (Oreos, anyone?) to keep them happy while we're gone. :D

I will be internet-less for three days. So if you're expecting an email from me (as several of my friends are at the moment) I'm sorry, it might not happen until Saturday! :(

See you when I get back! Oh, and there will be a post popping up from me on Meditations of His Love on Friday morning that I'd love for you to read! Check back then to see it. :)

2011- It's been good.

I almost let the last day of the year slip by without a blog post to mark it. But then I noticed some of my sweet friends doing posts and thought it would be a beautiful experience to write my own on the last day of 2011. :D

First, a neat picture I snatched that perfectly captures the changing tides of these years...

This year, I.....

• Became a better blogger! My total of posts for this year (including the articles I wrote for MOHL) is 102! Counting this post. :D Last year I only wrote 34 posts for Julia's Journal, mostly due to my old XP computer that didn't work very quickly.
• Got a new very cute laptop that helped greatly in becoming a better blogger, email-er, and writer.

• Nearly finished my novel, Lissie, set in Jane Austen's Regency world and with a similar but completely different plot line than Miss Austen's works. (I almost finished it this year, but I'm not quite at The End yet... but I'm only about 5 pages away, which is pretty close!) I'm very excited about it and have lots of ideas for the sequel swimming around in my mind.

• Went to two beautiful weddings, my cousin Kristen's on January 1st, and my friend Lauren's on December 3rd.
• Learned of two delightful engagements, my cousin Katie and my friend Allison H.
• Crocheted an ENORMOUS - thing. For Katie's wedding present. :) I will share pictures of it after I give it to her... don't want to spoil the surprise. :D

• Became even closer to my infinitely sweet friends in the group of MOHL writers! They are the sisters I never had. The weekly IM chats we've started doing refresh my soul and make me laugh so hard that tears run down my cheeks. There's nothing like Godly sisterhood.

• Improved my homemaking skills!
• Enjoyed fresh produce from our garden all year long!
• Hid under my bed while my parents butchered our first batch of meat chickens. ;)

• Went to the GHEA convention, and ran a booth in the exhibit hall for my jewelry and ebooks, which was such an amazing, thrilling, tiring, enriching experience. Met so many nice people that I don't even remember them all - sigh.
• Began regularly homechurching again with a great group of friends 30 minutes away from us.
• Found more fun blogs to follow and read! A list might be forthcoming.

• Discovered Perry Mason! ;)
• Started reading the "At Home in Mitford" series aloud to my family in the evenings, and reading the Bible and discussing it for a short time every morning at the breakfast table. I have so enjoyed this and I feel like my family is more closely-knit than ever... such a warm and cozy feel! It's truly wonderful.

•  Turned 20 years old in the lovely, fresh month of April. :)
• Gave my bedroom a stunning makeover to celebrate my birthday. Thanks for doing such a stellar job on my curtains and pillows, Mama!

• Watched a million (or so) movies with my brothers. :D Love you guys. I am so glad I have brothers who enjoy an intelligent movie (like a Jane Austen) as much as a just-for-fun one (Like Cars 2)
• Helped abovementioned brothers sort their vast collection of lego bricks by color.
• Went to see Courageous in the theater! (It was awesome.)
• Improved my frisbee skills with a lot of practice and sweat and dirt, spending quality time with my brothers and our friends up in P.T. city.
• Read a bunch of books, finding a few new favorite authors and a few authors I didn't care for. Dee Henderson was one of the authors whose books I liked tremendously, especially the Uncommon Heroes series about Navy SEALs.

• Drew a little closer to God, for which I am unutterably grateful and thankful.
• Began rising earlier in the mornings, and discovered I get much more done in the day when I do.
• Went through 2 months of Daddy not having any work, and learned to trust that the Lord's provision will always be there for the things we really need.
• Kept scribbling in my current little real-life journal, continuing the record of my life thus far that I started at age 11.

..... And did many other things that I don't have room to share. (Well, technically I do, but super-long blog posts get a little old...)



Winter is here, but so far it's been mild. I am looking forward to the coming of Spring, and yet knowing there are some hard days ahead sprinkled among the easy ones. January's frosts and February's cold winds are coming, but so are March's blossoms and April's soft breezes.

 Next Year, I'll....

•  Take my driver's license test on January 10th. And finally be able to go places and run errands on my own. A sobering, yet exhilarating thought.
• Go to three homeschool conventions to sell my jewelry! I'll be in Spartanburg, South Carolina for the Teach Them Diligently convention, Atlanta, GA for the GHEA convention, and North Carolina for the NCHE convention. If you're going to be at any of those, I'd love to meet you!
• (hopefully) start going to a ladies' gym with my mom. We're still waiting to decide on that, weighing the pros and cons.
• Play some more Ultimate Frisbee.
• Visit my Grandma in Florida
• Get to meet my sweet friend Rachelle in person! Still working on the hopeful details of that, but I am praying 'extra hard' for it to work out.
• Participate in the His Word in Our Hearts challenge that Meditations of His Love is doing this year, all year!
• Read more,
• Work more,
• Laugh more,
• Love more,
• Live more.

I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be another beautiful year.

 Happy New Year!

I am thankful for... Internet!

Day 19! Wow! I've made it this far... I won't stop now. :)

Today I am thankful for... the Internet! :D

The internet is a powerful beastie. Either you harness it and bend it to your will, and amazing things are accomplished... or it sucks you in like a big black hole! :D I try not to let the former happen to me. It's easier now that I quit Facebook.

The internet has introduced me to some very special young ladies! Including the sweet, dear girls who also write for MOHL! :)

So, I am thankful today for the internet. :)

I am thankful for ... Projects!

Today, I am thankful for fun and wildly creative and lovely secret projects. And graphic design. And God's word. But that's all I can tell you. :D

*HINT*
...it has something to do with the beautiful devotional blog I write for. ;)

I am thankful for ... Encouragement! :)

There are some days when I stare out the window at a dripping, dreary scene of melancholy woods and wonder ... "Does anybody really care?"

Once in a while I wonder if anybody enjoys this blog but me. But then something happens that reminds me...

I have friends! I have followers who care. I have people who have been blessed by what I typed with my ten little fingers and then clicked "publish" for with my mouse!

And that is such a huge encouragement. It gives me the energy and the inspiration to keep on blogging.

And today... I have been awarded! By my oh-so-sweet and oh-so-nice fellow friend, author, and blogger... Rachelle!

Ahhhh! This award is so sweet! What a compliment...

I just wuv this little bumblybee...

The Official Blog Award Rules:

the same for both awards.

 

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

(Thank you, Rachelle! You have touched my heart today.)

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Give the award to 15 other bloggers.

(ugh. That's a lot. Plus Rachelle already awarded many of my sweet friends... but I'll do it!)

 

So, for 7 things about Julia:

 

1. I cannot go anywhere  now without somebody commenting on my hair, which is so long it falls to the top of my thighs.

 

2. I am currently in love with the Breyers' Blasts Oreo Mint ice cream.

 

3. I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK! Oh my goodness! Where has this year gone? It seems like life gets faster as I get older. (I'm 20 going on 21, if you must know).

 

4. When I swapped out my winter clothes for my summer clothes, I organized them by color, and now my walk-incloset looks like a big rainbow. ;)

 

5. I love mechanical pencils.

 

6. I wear Bath and Body Works fragrance mist almost every day, whether I'm going somewhere or not. ;)

 

7. I prefer warm weather to below freezing weather. 75 degrees is my favorite temperature... and when it's only 29 outside, you will find me in about 7 layers of clothing huddled in front of the woodburning stove in several blankets with a mug of steaming hot chocolate. ;)

 

That was fun! Now, for the bloggers I am going to award.... (I hereby jointly award all the MOHL girls along with Rachelle, by the way!! She got to it first...) :D

 

1. Lindsay

2. Melody

3. Lauren

4. Allison

5. Jennifer from Dear Lillie (love this blog and shop, so creative!)

6. Bailey

7. Polka Dot

8. Madison

9. Charity from Austenitis

10. Sarah T

11. Vicki

12. Disney from Ruffles & Stuff (best craft-y ideas ever!)

13. Shannon

14. Bethany

15. Laney

 

So, today I am thankful for Encouragement!

Don't forget to check out the 30 Days of Thankfulness challenge

at Young Homemakers! :)

This post took me a ridiculously long time to put together! Whew! :D
Have a beautiful day!

A Man that Chose God

What do you do when there's a huge fork in the road? You can't keep going straight, it's impossible. You have to turn to the right or to the left. You have to make a choice.

I just wrote a blog post over at Meditations of His Love that I think you should go read. Please come back and tell me what you thought of it! :) I am always eager to hear your comments.

And DO NOT WORRY, my dear, sweet readers, just because I happened to get a facebook page does NOT mean I will stop blogging here. On the contrary! I will be blogging just as much as I ever have. So never fear, I'll still be here! :)

What are you all planning to do this weekend? I'd love to hear about it. We are hoping to have an Ultimate Frisbee game near our house, for a change, instead of driving an hour away this week. :)

Finally NOT Wordless... on Wednesday

Yes, my poor, beloved, neglected blog readers! THIS is the dread reason I have not posted for a week and two days! I got a Facebook.

Wow, what an experience! I found so many long-lost acquaintances (including the girl I grew up living across the street from) that it fairly made my head spin! And there's always so much happening. People are way more current with their FB pages than their blogs.

I promise I will not desert you all for so long again. I still plan to blog as often as I can ... there's something so much classier and personal about a blog post than a one-liner Facebook status update.

Oh, and please don't bother looking for me on Facebook unless you know me in person. I'm not friending anybody I don't know in real life. Sorry. :(

 

A wonderful thing is that all the other MOHL authors were already on Facebook! So now we're all on Facebook together! We even have an inside joke.

^That's the inside joke. But I can't tell you any more about it... because then it would be an "outside" joke! Lol!

As for what else I've been up to besides Facebook... I've been cleaning the house! But that's boring. So I won't go into detail about how my fab housecleaning skills are improving.

I've gone to Ultimate Frisbee Friday and then played the game again the next day at Bible Study... wow. I have not been so stiff and sore for a really long time. Not doing that again any time soon. :D

I've also been.... designing! Blog headers! For friends and family. :) Take a look-see!

My mom's yummy new header. Ah! I love this one!!!!!

My sweet friend Allison's new header... so cute/vintage/country! It fits her lovely personality. :D

Our good friend "Frisbeeman"-s header! I was really happy with how this came out.

So. Life has been fun and full and rich for me the past week! And we've even had some rain fall on our parched ground... thanks be to God! I'm secretly hoping for gorgeous Autumn colors this fall, and the changing leaves are their prettiest when there's been plenty of previous rain.

Have a lovely week!

I wrote something I'd like you to read...

Isaiah 58:11… And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought… …and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

I just posted my part of the current topic we're writing about on Meditations of His Love.... the title of the post is "Our Prince of Peace". I'd love it if you hopped on over and took a look at the post... and you get double brownie points if you come back here to Julia's Journal and leave me a comment telling me what you thought. :D

Tomorrow my family and I head up to Bible Study, where an intense game of Ultimate Frisbee, a cool, refreshing dip in a lovely swimming pool, a delicious and varied potluck meal, and a thought-provoking study of Nehemiah 5 are on the menu. What are you doing on your Saturday?

Have a beautiful weekend!

What I'm doing this Summer

Summer can sometimes tend to be a lazy, laid-back time of the year. And there's certainly nothing wrong with taking a rest now and then. But it's definitely a good thing to keep aiming for something and have some idea of things you want to accomplish in the near future.

So what am I doing this summer?

#1 is pretty much in full swing. I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to blog again! I am so thankful for my new laptop with really fast internet. *sigh of utter bliss* God is so good.

#2 - I have until March to get this afghan done so I'm taking my time and enjoying the process. I think I have about 6 blocks done out of 35... but it'll be so beautiful. It's going to be a wedding present for my cousin and her fiance.

#3 - Yep. I'm writing a book. It's inspired by the works of Jane Austen. I've mentioned it before. I'm surprised how vulnerable my feelings are towards this endeavor... I want people to like it, but am aware that not everybody will. I do, and my family does, so that's good enough for me. :) I have about 280 pages written out of 300+. The end is in sight, so I'm hoping I can finish it before this autumn.

#4 - My poor camera needs to be sent in for repairs, so I'm going to clear off my old camera card and try to use my dinky little Kodak something-or-other for 'emergencies'. :D But one of my goals is to take a lot of pictures this summer, particularly of my family. My brothers are growing and changing and maturing so rapidly that I don't want us to forget what they used to be like at 15 and 17... and I always love looking back at pictures I've taken of past events and reliving the precious memories. You can't have too many pictures! :)

5 & 6 - Pretty simple, after all. I can choose to enjoy my life and everything going on around me, or I can be dissatisfied and discontent, overlooking the many blessings God has given me and my family. I choose to be happy, and enjoy life. :) And I also choose to be a blessing to the people around me.


Sorry today's post was such a shortie. But guess what? I wrote an article over at Meditations of His Love that I think you might like to read. Click here to read it.

And here's a hint of what it's about:

Curious yet? You should read the post. Really. :)

Oh, and I got the cute notebook image from ShabbyBlogs.com under their 'post freebies' section and added my own text.

Annnnd, if you have not gotten my brand-new blog button yet...

 ...it's right over there on the sidebar! :)

Home from GHEA 2011

We had a wonderful time at GHEA 2011 - although the week afterwards I was the most exhausted I think I've ever been in my life. :D My mom has written a post here with more pictures of the event, if you'd care to read that too. :) (Check out her new blog look while you're at it! I designed the header for her to go with her cute new background)

On Thursday morning we left the house driving my dad's truck and pulling the trailer full of stuff... we had to cart along a truckload of duct tape weapons, jewelry paraphernalia, and our luggage, since we'd be away from home for 3 days.
Being in the truck meant me and my two strapping brothers had to squeeze into the back seat, 3 in a row, all the way to Atlanta. :P It worked, despite legs going numb and stiff from the long trip with no wiggle room. Lol!

We were able to stay with some friends during the weekend and eliminate the cost of a hotel room, which was a huge blessing and one we very much appreciated! Their apartment above their garage was absolutely gorgeous, a light and airy space with two huge round windows at either end that poured in sunshine on the gleaming hardwood floor, and with walls painted in sunny lemon yellow and a cool periwinkle blue. So pretty! I can't believe I didn't take any pictures.

On the first day we signed in and found our booth location and worked hard setting up our displays. I'd gotten some new stands for this year's booth, and was thrilled with how professional they made my booth look. :)

I know how bloggers love pictures, so here's one of my booth...

Mom sold a few aprons displayed on the back wall, and I had a few afghans for sale too... and on the last day of the weekend I sold both of them! I was ecstatic. I'd never sold 2 afghans in one place before, especially not on the same day! :D 

I was especially grateful that we did well because for some reason they stuck us on 'college row' along the back wall of the exhibit hall, right in the middle of a bunch of booths from colleges and employment stuff. (I was hugely disappointed, actually, with the location) But the Lord prevailed and despite being in the back corner we sold enough to make the trip worthwhile!

Another boost to our sales was my brothers' duct tape swords, which attracted a lot of attention once a few sold and began to wander around the hall. Little boys would see one and immediately desire to own one themselves.

A friend told us later that Mr. Voddie Baucham actually 'gave us a plug' during one of his speaking sessions, while talking about the problem of effeminate young men. "You need to get over to the exhibit hall and buy some of those swords!" He was reported to have said. "Boys need to be boys!"

We also were listed directly behind Voddie Baucham ministries and Vision Forum in the exhibit hall list, as Warfare by Duct Tape was next in the alphabetical order! (I thought that was really cool.) :D

I was able to purchase a copy of Jasmine Baucham's (awesome!!) book, Joyfully at Home, (which I will be writing a review for as soon as I finish it) from the Vision Forum booth while browsing the exhibit hall. While I was waiting for the young man running the booth to ring up my purchase, I turned the book over and pointed to the picture of Jasmine on the back. "Would you like to see something neat?" I asked him. He looked up, and I said "I made that earring." indicating the gold hoop with Swarovski crystal dangles that was visible on one side of Jasmine's face. "You made that earring?!?" He repeated, incredulous. "Yes." I answered, "I gave a pair to her at the Father-Daughter retreat one year." "Wow!" He said, "That's the picture we send out with all the advertisements and everything!" He gave me my change and receipt with awe on his face, and I left shortly afterwards. :D I thought that was a funny experience! :D

I greatly enjoyed seeing old friends I hadn't been able to see in a long time, and making new ones! I had several girls simply return to spend time at my booth because they just loved being there! :D

We arrived home at 10:00 on Saturday night, blasted, tired, and happy to be home. It was a delightful weekend, but now that the routine has settled back to normal again and we don't have the convention looming in the future anymore, it's like a big weight has been lifted off my mind! :)

I hope to be a much more consistent blogger in the future on my personal blog, and of course I will continue to write for the young ladies' devotional blog, Meditations of His Love ... I actually just posted my part of the study we're doing at the moment in the book of Ruth. Head over there if you'd like to read that. :D

For the convention, I finished 3 e-books on how to make jewelry, as follows...

 How To Create Noticebly Noteworthy Necklaces, with seven different beautiful styles of necklaces,

 How To Create Easy, yet Exquisite Earrings, with seven different gorgeous styles of earrings,

And How To Create Beautiful, Beaded Bracelets with five lovely different styles of bracelets.

All of these are available through instant download at my website,

JewelsbyJuliaShop.com!

Please check out my website and tell me what you think, I would love to hear your feedback about the look of the shop. 

Blessings!

Julia

Thankfulness for Everyday Things

I forgot to post a notice on here a while back when I wrote an article about thankfulness for our devotional blog, Meditations of His Love! CLICK HERE to view it.

MOHL Post 7/8/09

I did a post today on our devotional blog, Meditations of His Love. The title... The Straight Gate AND the Narrow Way. <- Click there and go check it out! :)

Ruth, A True Heart

Today my post on Ruth is on Meditations of His Love! Go check it out. :)

Blessings!