Cup O'Tea

Although I am not Irish or English, I have to say that tea has been part of the fabric of family life for me since I was young. It is not unusual to still gather my sisters, brother and mom around the table for a "spot".
The tea at my mom's house is straight forward and to the point. Decaf, non-flavored, served in mismatched mugs collected over the years (we all gravitate toward our favorites) and served with evaporated milk or regular milk and lots of sugar. The children in my family are practically weaned on tea. When they are young, it is really mostly milk warmed by a hint of tea, and usually is only a vehicle to deliver wet, sludgy sugar to eager, waiting lips.
As I got older and decided what tea time was going to be like at my house, I had to decide if I was more of a mug, or refined tea cup kind of gal. While I had a full set of china when I first got married (the china outlasted the husband) it was beautiful, but not fussy. A Mikasa pattern that had a very modern straight up and down tea cup.
I probably stopped drinking tea with milk when I became suspicious of those large machines dispensing milk in college. I considered myself more 'low maintenance', since I only needed sugar and I was done prepping for my tea experience. I also enjoyed herbal teas, and started to collect them. I do not collect mugs from various places. All my mugs are large, look handmade (even if they aren't), match and have shapes that I enjoy drinking out of, while I curl up someplace cozy.
I acquired a taste for a type of tea in Paraguay, while I lived there for a year as a missionary, that the locals call terere. When I came back, we Americans had discovered it and made it all the rage, here, in the trendy form of Yerba Mate. You can drink it warm or cold. But the Paraguayan way is with herb flavored cold water, poured over loose tea, sipped from a community filtered silver straw. That is community... as in, we all share. It is sort of like smoking a peace pipe. It is a great honor to be offered terere. The "pourer" holds the jug, and fills the cup, passes it, that person drinks it all without a word (not moving the straw around) and hands it back to the pourer. Now it is the turn of the next person in the line or circle. This actually goes on during church services! Because there is no talking, it is very unobtrusive. It has a natural stimulant in it that is far less jitter producing than caffeine. And man, those Paraguayans can work in the heat, with a jug of cold terere nearby!
In the winter, Paraguayans drink it hot. Their preparation is Cocito. Cocito is actually the yerba burned in a pot with sugar, and tons of milk. It is an unusual smoky, sweet, delight on a cold morning. I never learned how to make it. But most families make a large pot on the stove, and leave it to be ladled into smaller, rounder shaped guampas (cups) or hollowed gourds. I was a big fan, and drank it every time it was offered to me.
I have recently started to drink all decaf teas at all different times of day. I will zap a mug of water, in a pinch. But there is something about the act of filling the stainless kettle, getting out the mug, selecting the flavor, and waiting for the glorious whistle sound, that prepares the body for the act of ingesting tea. It seems to whisper excitedly, "It's tea time! It's tea time!" And with all the health benefits of tea, what is not to like? I actually found myself choosing tea over ice cream for it's own particular type of satisfaction!
There are many ways to enjoy tea, for sure. Whether you skip the fancy pot, and go straight from the kettle, enjoy flavored or non, like yours with lemon or with milk, one thing is for sure-- the best cup of tea, is a cup shared with a friend or loved one!
The next time the chilly night air blows and you are looking for something that won't blow your diet, but will cap off your night without guilt, grab someone you love and ask, "Care for a cup o' tea?"

"Blessed are the poor in Spirit" Matt 5:3

I have to be honest, and say that anytime I take the time to ask the Lord to reveal Himself in my life, reveal Himself, he does!! As I know Him more, it seems that He delights in sharing His gigantic power, generosity, and showering His unmitigated favor and mercy on His own. If we could only stay in one truth forever, the moment that we find it.. and never struggle with it again.

I had to share another Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) daily devotional. This man's words strike straight through the heart of what I deal with, when I need it, and I know that the Lord has used this man mightily, in my life and many others. Prepare for world rocking!!!

Beware of placing our Lord as a Teacher first. If Jesus is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize me by erecting a standard I cannot attain. (This is a true Ah-ha moment for me. Perhaps a little insight into the psyche of the non-believer?) Waht is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near? I am happier without knowing it. What is the good of telling me to be what I never can be-to be pure in heart, to do more than my duty, to be perfectly devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only; He came to make me what he teaches I should be. (Wow!) The Redemptionmeans that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition.

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man- the very thing Jesus meant it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out our Lord's teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. "Blessed are the paupers in spirit," that is the first principle in the Kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ's kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility-- I cannot begin to do it. The Jesus says-- Blessed are you. That is the entrance and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.

So much depth to this Jesus!! So many times He has to break through the tiny box we put Him in. Praise to His holy name, that He hears our weary cries for help and mercy. I am thankful, ever and eternally for a personal God who knows our struggles and bids us "Come to me" to bear up under them.

I pray the words of this incredible saint of old, have blessed you tonight!!! I know that they are exactly what I've needed...

1000 Markets

1000 Markets

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This is one of the latest "designs by Gina" just finished tonight!! There is more to come...

Walking Out in the Storm

Have you ever scampered out onto the lake after Jesus? Maybe there has been a moment in ministry or worship, where you rush out, before you realize that you don’t have the credentials, or the education, or the talent to be doing the thing you are doing? That is exactly where Peter found himself one stormy night…
Matt 14:22-33 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
So many times in our lives we get the opportunity to truly see Jesus—we know what He wants of us. We know what the right thing to do entails. Do we rush lovingly out on the water? Or do we tiptoe in and let fear overwhelm us?

This exchange between Peter and Jesus is so fascinating, to me. First, they don’t believe it is Jesus, thinking that He is a ghost. But notice that is it Peter who has the presence of mind to ask the Lord to command him to come to Him. Peter knows that even though the task is impossible in his own strength, if Jesus commands it, it can be done. He knows that with certainty or he would never have left the boat deck. Everything is going along swimmingly until the moment of “realization.” As long as his eyes were on Jesus, and on doing as He commanded, everything was a-okay. When he looked at the circumstance: dark night, stormy waves, possible death by drowning… he gets a little panicky.

We all have that moment where we can choose to give in to fear, or we can do what Peter does next, which I think is the most profound part of the story. He cries out to Jesus to save him!!And what does Jesus do? It is Jesus’ point of view that had most interested me, as I tried to imagine His perception of this whole event.

“Oh, Peter. My beloved friend. So much enthusiasm and belief. And he will struggle the most. My denial will be his near-undoing. But he will be the rock on which I will build the church. If a simple fisherman with no formal education can love me honestly, he will show the world that great love—through his flaws and weakness. There he is on the boat. Of course it is Peter who asks to come out! Good job, Peter. You know I won’t let you fall! Keep looking at me, keep your eyes right here… that’s it!! A few more feet, you are almost here!! Look at that? Doing something humans aren’t supposed to do!! Oh, he got scared. ‘I’ve got you. If you’d only kept believing you would have made it, Peter! Why did you forget who I am? ’”
And Peter’s response (and everyone who watched) is to worship the Lord!!

How many of us have watched a child learning to walk, thinking those same kinds of things in our minds? Watching how they fall, we encourage them to try again. Even when we know we will rush in to pick them up, when they have reached their limit.I am grateful for a personal God, a living Savior—who expects wholeheartedness from me. Solitary confidence in Jesus, is the only thing necessary for a powerful walk with Him. He is not there only in the turbulence. He is there encouraging us, celebrating our joys, longing to bless us in small ways that make our hearts sing. He is willing to teach anything we ask to learn. And when we ask Him to call us to come to Him—He always will. And we can charge headlong into any circumstance, knowing that what He has called us to do, He will give us the power to do.

What's For Dinner, Anyway?

So....What’s For Dinner, anyway?

My kitchen has been alarmingly clean these last few days, and as happens more often than not, I get inspired to cook, when it is ‘waiting for creating’, as it were. In that same way, I need my studio to be semi-neat before I work in it, as I am not one of those artists who thrives in chaos…
Tonight, I had an idea for something I have never attempted. Since working on the cholesterol thing (this is for your information, Dr. Murchison, if you are reading this!) I have had only one fast food hamburger/French frie day, and have been making a lot of my own stuff, eating a lot of salad—you can ask my co-workers, I promise! But tonight I felt like having something ‘fried.’ Unwilling to abandon the wagon so quickly and thoroughly, however, I cast my memory back to a wonderful thing I had, called a potato latke.
I was invited to a Hanukah celebration, one year by a dear friend. When I arrived, it was a bustle of activity, as the mom prepared these little shredded potato cakes. They had various sauces for dipping and it was my first one—but lets face it, I have never met a potato dish that I didn’t like.
I haven’t grocery shopped for the week, so tonight I had one sweet potato and one parsnip on hand, and I thought, “That is what I will do!” I shredded both into a bowl—really it was the whole potato and half a parsnip, since my arm got tired on the hand grater. I try to be pretty "old school" in kitchen tools-- still have the hand can opener, too. I didn’t have traditional bread crumbs, so I used sun-dried tomato and olive oil Triscuits—ground up in the blender. Into the shredded vegetables went 2 whole eggs, and the crumbs. A short time later, I had a little assembly line going, and ‘fried’ them, using a very minimal amount of oil. I paired the cakes with a piece of chicken on the George Foreman grill ( a single gal’s best cooking gadget) , fresh frozen green beans (the only kind I like) nuked in a Pampered Chef steam bowl with lid, and a mound of spaghetti squash with Promise spread on it for the sterol benefits. For those of you who have no idea what to do with spaghetti squash—here is the tip. Cut it in half and put it, cut side down in a dinner plate with a few tablespoons of water. Make sure you stab it a few times with a knife ( for less explosive possibilities) and microwave it for 15-20 minutes. That is my secret, and it comes out great everytime! Who said going healthy couldn’t taste great? And if you fry something in Omega-3 heart healthy oil, does it really count, anyway?

"Super" Markets!!

I would like to share that I had a VERY successful downtown Roanoke farmer's market experience.
I was trying to determine what it was EXACTLY that made it spectacular. The financial part, of course. (I hadn't done that well previously, but last year was a crazy summer and all-- with my dad... me being brand new with no online presence, either.) So now I have sold a little online, at work, home party, and I am feeling more comfortable with 'the process.' I offered up a prayer to the Lord, that He would bless this venture, and reminded Him that this business is His to bless or not bless as He sees fit. Needless to say, I was blessed.
The other AMAZING thing was that I had a repeat customer from last year who was super excited to find me again! What an honor to be remembered-- but not just because I was an artist. She told me that she had told all her friends to come check out my stuff, because I had been a missionary. She supported an idea that I've had for a while, that I maintain personally. When I have the option of choosing, in business, who I want to deal with, if there is a Christian option, that is what I want to choose. (It's part of the reason I like Chick Fil A). I also felt great about having some unique Christian gifts. Not only the believers in Christ, but non-believers as well, were exposed to His Word-- and the Bible says that will not return void. So Praise God about that!
Plus, the weather was nothing short of GLORIOUS!! 70's and no rain! I almost didn't know what to do. That was all God, too.
Also, I received God's favor-- got one of the stalls on the market proper. No that may not seem like a big deal, but you are talking to a girl who has only ever had the tent/table option. Set up was a BREEZE! And my car was in the space behind me. I couldn't believe what a difference that made in the overall experience. No tent to deal with, no wind to fight, a feeling of comraderie with goat cheese vendors on either side of me-- it was fabulous.
I had fantastic rapport with the customers-- everyone seemed happy and enthusiastic. And one of each thing that I made-- necklace/earring sets, bracelet, box, earrings sold. I was especially excited about the sets, because I don't usually show those at work. It was just confirmation that my designs really spoke to someone's heart, enough that they had to have them, and that made me feel great.

The other super Market is the long awaited Christian market-- at the 1000Markets website (which is now Live). The rapport in the market is wonderful-- the name is Marketplace of Blessings. It is blessing lives, as we have opportunity to get to know each other, and write back and forth and pray for one another. It is what I've been waiting for in an 'online community' experience. I hope you will stop by and support those lovely artisans for all your Christian gift giving needs!

I will be at the farmer's market every Saturday that is sunny and above 65. Look for me! :)
* if you live in the Roanoke area, and purchase something online, please let me know, in the message box. I will refund your shipping and you can pick it up at the market. Because items are one of a kind, I want to tell you that if it is online, it is for sale. When I sell the item, it is immediately removed. Please do not be disappointed-- if it is online and you want it, buy it. Don't assume it will be at market the next sunny Saturday. :)*

1000 Markets Going Live Very Soon....

It is only fair to say, that I think I am going to love my new home at 1000 Markets. It is another online venue that sells only handmade things. I love that it is small and just starting. (It has been in the "sneak preview" stage for a while. But pretty soon (weeks) they will begin driving online traffic into the site, and the vendors have to be ready....
To be a part of this, you have to be approved. Then, within the site, you can be a part of various Markets. I am currently in Handmade Haven (boxes, some jewelry), Jewelry Artisan's Market (JAM- for all of my jewelry) and Captured Image (photography.) I think the site is lovely to look at and easy to use.

For those of you interested in handmade Christian gifts, there is a new market being formed, which I am going to help found. I will do a lot with their outside blog. I hope you will bookmark it, and go there when you are looking for something special and unique. We will have a variety of things and various artisans to appeal to everyone's taste! I will keep you posted as it unfolds!

My Etsy shop will continue to receive orders, but I will no longer be listing new merchandise, there and will gradually phase out when listings expire. I will maintain my account so that I can continue to be a buyer there. It has been a great experience, but 1000Markets is a better fit for me! Blessings, everyone! Gina