Gateways to Joy

I'm loving Whitney English right now! She just speaks my language y'all.  I went to her blog, today, and saw where she posted about leaving a conference with this quote stuck in her mind, "You've got to let go of the old to make way for the new." This is one of my biggest problems!   I'm a get things started and to-do hoarder ! It's hard for me to let go of a project in order to make way for a newer one.  So what do I do?  I collect and store them.  I end up becoming so overwhelmed with it all until I will get still and do nothing, nothing but dream! I often find myself becoming frustrated with myself regarding this, and told my husband that I wonder if I'm not ADHD. I don't find myself asking which project is old, as Whitney discusses on her blog, but I do discard projects I've been working on the longest.  By discarding I mean putting them aside, forgetting about them even.  This is another reason why I am so elated over my t

O kay, so we're still looking at the Day Designer by Whitney English, and discovering the fastest ways to uncover your genuine purpose. Once you began going through the process that Whitney has outlined in the planner, seeing how we get to our genuine purpose is clear.  Not easy necessarily, but definitely clear. In the Day Designer Planner Ms. English focuses on the total you, thus helping you and me focus on a well-rounded plan.  If we are true to the process that she has put forth to help us, we can become clear on our genuine purpose. This morning while having my devotions, I had my planner opened to the section,'Your Why: 3 key ideas,' and I prayed from the four main quadrants: family goals financial goals career goals spiritual goals and, personal goals In the planner English tells us to 'use the process of elimination, and cross off one goal in each category until we have our top three remaining. By doing this we can prioritize

A s y'all know, my the Day Designer came in the other day. I have really been praying about moving forward in a positive way in my life in all aspects.  I started this before the planner arrived.  Now that it is here and I've had time to go through the pages, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the planner for me. Isn't it true, God is the ultimate designer of our plans and He considers all aspects of our lives. Even leading us to the right day planner! He's in the details and He cares so much about all the plans of our lives. I have no doubt that God brought the Day Designer to my life.  It was no accident.  I am captivated by the details and the subjects that Whitney English has chosen to include. This planner is designed by heavenly influences. Praying and meditating over the pages of the Day Designer solidified my thoughts about how easy it is for me to focus on one area of my life at a time and forget about other parts. Balancing doesn

photo credit: Whitney English I just love Whitney English and her authenticity! I can sit hours upon hours and read her blog .  Not only do I love her candor, but she is the kind of creative entrepreneur I long to be like. For months now, I've been following her, reading her blog, being inspired by her quotes and her life.  I say her life because I know it isn't perfect.  She is a successful creative entrepreneur trying to balance and live her life. The best part is that she is a successful creative entrepreneur trying to balance and live her life as a child of the King! We have some very talented sister's in the Lord! For a while now I've been in need of a planner.   I never wanted to get Whitney's day planner because I thought it was to pricey for me.  They are all beautiful, particularly, to me, the black stripped one and the gold. I have been searching high and low for the perfect planner for over a year.  I have refused to get the ones that I&

Y'all I am very excited and nervous at the same time.  For about a year now, I have highly respected Amy Locurto as a professional business "blogger" woman.  I knew she did something creative with party things, but I never knew what.  It has only been recently since I started creating paper goods myself that I have come to understand what she does and how talented she really is. As you all know from me posting here.  I have a love for graphic designing.  I only got interested in graphic designing when I thought I wanted to design websites and blogs.  But when I started I knew absolutely nothing about Gimp, let alone, Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign.  Being who I am, I told myself, "Oh that's nothing.  I will learn it all in a couple of weeks.  So I set out to teach myself.  I was in for a very rude awakening.  However, thanks to Creative Live and Lesa Snider among a few others after three years of staying up 24/7, crying and having hissy fits, I had le

It is cold in Houston and I love it!  I got up this morning, ready to design. Instead of going to my office, I decided to work in the living room on the couch. When I went to check my email I saw where someone had left me a message and referred to me as Val. Actually this happened a couple of days ago, and I sent a reply asking the lady if she wanted me or Valerie.  This morning when I checked my inbox I saw where she had responded and said she wanted Valerie, so I sent Val the information. It has been a while, I think May was the last time we corresponded, since I heard from Val.  Anyway, I sent her an email and then went to FB to message her.  While on her FB page I saw a picture of Valerie and this pretty lady.  Now Valerie has a lot of pictures on her FB, but for some reason I was drawn to this lady so I clicked on the link and was taken to her blog and other things. Here's a link to Juana Mikels  and I will give you a hint: photo credit: Juana Mikels It se

download placemats here {Please let me know if there are any slight color variations with these prints. I was having trouble with Adobe Reader this morning and I think I accidentally pushed RGB color which is for online printing only.} Pretty in paper.  Yep.  I love beautiful paper and stationery, and it is my dream to one day have my own line of beautiful paper products. I don't know if you all are aware of this or not, but paper placemats have become very popular. I remember seeing them a couple of years ago, not very impressed by them.  But they have grown on me and I have even done a few designs for my family just to try them out. I always get rid of them after one use, unless I laminate them.  I like using recycle paper or of course beautiful heavy weight paper. When laminating your placemats {if that's what you chose to do} use a product that is food safe. CUSTOM ORDERS We take custom orders.  Have a favorite design,  scripture verse, quote, saying or e

Hi my friend is offering this apron for free over at who me be a leader.com .  All you have to do is go there (or you can do it here) and express your interest in the apron.  He would like you to subscribe to his blog and/or share the post with others.  Oh, and you have to leave a comment so we can email you to find out where to ship the apron.  But that's it! Leave a comment on either blog if you're interested in one.  Please note that this offer is only good while supplies last. Thanks.  Happy cooking! xo, Angela blog subscription  | twitter | facebook

I have been enjoying myself designing new prints.  I have missed coming here fellow-shipping with you all on a daily business.  Now I'm at the point where I can start sharing with you what I've been doing. Today I want to share my notepad and tags with you.  I made both of these so that my family and I could write notes to each other about what we're thankful for. What we've done here is just written down things that we are thankful for.  We only started today, and everyone had not yet written down anything, but I was anxious to share the pics with you all.  I will continue taking more pictures so you can see.   The autumn blessing art print is what I'm offering to you for free this month.  And the tags and notepads are what I made to give to you all as well.  I hope you enjoy them.  If you use them please take pictures and let me know. download here Shop Now xo, Angela blog subscription  | twitter | facebook

Today when getting my coffee it was given to me in the hallmark red cup that has become signature for Starbucks during the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays. " Wow.  November is here already?"  I thought. Once again the holiday season is among us. Christmas is on my mind.  Thanksgiving is on my mind. I began to dwell on what I've been reading all week. "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him, bless His name," "I've been disillusioned." I seem to think that more money is what my family needs; they think it too. It is true we do need more money, but as I think about what I've been reading this week, I know that what we need first and foremost is gratitude. I read that  gratitude makes what you have enough. So my question to myself and to you,  "Is more money the solution for you?" "Or do you just need a heart of gratitude?" Honestly, I ha