FS320, Beautiful Spring Poppies

Well, this has been an interesting day. I've been blog stalked before, but not like the blog stalking I'm talking about; FB stalked, Twitter stalked, you name it stalked, down to drive by my house stalked with one delusional little boy taking the complete hit for his "awesome father," when there was really two in the car. Thank God for good neighbors. I can't believe I ate my own vomit and fell back into the trap of justifying myself against some pretty insane accusations. Fatal mistake and one that won't happen again. I don't even recognize some people anymore. They even look different. Hate and bitterness will make you so ugly on the outside and the inside is a given. The bright spot was the smell of a brand new leather sofa. I love the smell of new leather! And I'll love it even more later this week. But, there was one young man who I've always loved since the second I laid eyes on you because I knew you are special, who did not say a word that I hope and pray has the wisdom I think he does. I also hope that he realizes that with that much hate and bitterness in her heart, you will, and have, been on the receiving end of it before. Don't do that to yourself and know my world. I miss you.

Maybe that doesn't look good on the fun crafty blog. I don't care. I am me. I have life experiences that are and have been enough to share at Battered Women's Alternatives Workshops twice so far. Showing other women that are half my age and you don't want to be my age (49) where you are now has given me great strength. I've even had the privilege of housing some of these women and their children who call me "nana," that melts my heart every time. Oh the cookies we bake together, like I used to do with my own children that they forgot about. The planting pretty flowers, teaching them about life and nurturing their little souls. What a blessing. So yes, my life is better and I am happier. My little families that are here for 2 weeks or so before they become independent, it's always hard to say goodbye to them, but they are moving on to a good life. I also love it when they visit me too. I don't have any biological grandchildren, but I have 4 little ones who call me "nana." 

These women and children are so grateful. I can't say I don't know why because I'm still trying to figure it out. It's just being treated with respect, like you matter and are loved. I never got it. They never got it. But I do have the wisdom to talk to them and love them and show them a better life and I thank God daily for that opportunity. It seems to be my calling. I've been told I should write a book a lot and I think I will. Abuse is a taboo subject and it's the most insidious destruction of your soul that you can imagine. You are literally dealing with the devil. Strong words, but oh so true. Only Satan can be behind abuse in any form. My main goal is to get these women on their feet again and save their children before they become like the abuser because it will happen. I was shocked to hear at BWA that it's completely normal. All children need a mother. They don't need an abusive father who lies and brainwashes them to use them as a weapon, and that's all that they are good for. Wake up. You are being used and you also forgot to tell your part of the story too and your response to what you batter others for. 

I love to cook again now. My house smells of pancakes daily when I have a family here, fresh squeezed orange juice from my tree in the backyard. I've even made little cards for the kids' moms with their children who cherish them because it makes them feel loved. I don't have to retreat into that world anymore. I create when I want to, not to survive and hide. I don't make my families public knowledge because it's something that I do from my heart. 

Life is great! If God is for you, who can be against you? Satan still hasn't figured out that God always wins in the long run. God wins the war, not stupid battles. It's really heartbreaking when you look into the baby eyes that you used to know and don't even recognize them anymore because there's no soul inside. I don't recognize you, any of you, anymore, at all. I am not troubled. I pity you. What have you allowed yourself to become? You've turned your back on your upbringing, the Bible predicts just this in the end times where the wheat is separated from the chafe, and you're on the verge of becoming reprobate. Playing church won't help you either. You cannot love the Lord yet hate with all your being and justify abuse. You can't hate and be truly happy at the same time. It's delusional and impossible. The only common denominator you all have is one person and if it wasn't for that one person, you'd have NOTHING. Your hate, bitterness and anger is not justified at all, and you feed and strengthen each other off of it. There is nothing further from the word "family" than that.

So now that diatribe is over with, what do you think about my poppies card? I've always been a huge fan of Lisa Johnson who is with My Favorite Things now designing for them and the Featured Stamper (FS320) at Splitcoast Stampers is none other than one of my besties, Jen Timko. I've worked with Jen at SUO Challenges, a challenge blog that I started years ago that is still going strong when I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I can proudly state that blog is in its 3rd year of challenges now and is one of the most popular Stampin' Up! challenge websites out there in blog land. What a lot of you may or may not know about Jen is that she's a commercial pilot for United Airlines, hence the name of her blog. 

My father already knows how to fly but I think I'm going to ask him this summer to get me into flight school. I've always wanted to learn how to fly growing up a TWA brat. I remember Daddy teaching me how to drive a clutch with his airline terms of "taking off" and "landing." 

Okay, now seriously back to my card. I chose Jen's Convention Swap Poppies (I wish I had hooked up with her since I was at SU Convention 2012 but with 4000 crazy stamping women there, it was hard!) and came up with my one layer wonder card of Beautiful Spring Poppies. 

I used the above stamp set with Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Gumball Green, Poppy Parade, Real Red and Tangerine Tango ink. I used a Soft Suede Stampin' Write marker to hand draw the dots inside two of the poppies. My die-cut tag is from Our Daily Bread Designs Recipe & Tags Die-Cuts exclusive to them by Spellbinders. I lightly ink distressed the edges of my tag with a sponge dauber with some dark ink as I don't mark mine but it looked good and used Stampin' Up! Linen Thread to wrap around my Very Vanilla card stock a few times after I stamped my background from a text stamp from Lisa's set with Crumb Cake ink. I grabbed a pair of pinking shears and cut the bottom. The Linen Thread was eventually tied through a Designer Natural Button with the sentiment stamped in Tangerine Tango ink. I added foam tape to the back of the Very Vanilla panel and adhered it to a Classic Kraft card stock base by Papertrey Ink. 

Like I said, I don't stamp regularly too much anymore and it's showing in my work but that's okay. I think the card is very pretty and colorful. And I did make this for my kids…the ones I used to know. I pray that God touches your hearts and you go back to your first love, which is Jesus Christ.

For the rest of you, thank you for stopping by to visit me today and I hope that God blesses your day as well. Thank you again to the almost 10,000 women who left comments and who have written me personally about how much another post I made helped them and not feel so alone. You are not alone. In true Cindy Blancett style, I spoke up about it. And yes, I am proudly going back to my maiden name and my graphics should be up later this week to reflect that. I will not use or be proud of a name that stands for abuse. I am reclaiming my identity of who I really am; not what I was defined as, which was nothing short than heinous. 

I also hope that you will join me for my Clean and Simple Stamping class starting on April 22. Please click on the link in my navigation bar for more information. The site is not set up yet but I will let you know when. For $9.99, it's a great deal and you will love it. I'm especially excited about this class since clean and simple is my style. 

Make it a great day or great evening and great everything. Don't waste time. Time is a luxury that we all take advantage of. I'm not wasting another precious second. Are you? We only have one life and that life is to bless others.