Heart, Hounds & Hobbies

Author: Marita

  • Daily Devotional 1/11/22

    Daily Devotional 1/11/22

    Verse of the Day

    “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” John 16:33

    Read or listen to today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread titled: Escape Or Peace?.

    Reflection

    The word escape often makes me think of a relaxing vacation, getting lost in a good book, or just a nice weekend with husband to “escape” from the stresses of the daily life. At another time in my life, escaping meant turning to drugs, alcohol, and at one time, suicidal ideation, to “escape” things I had done or that were done to me. Both kinds of escaping, though one is healthier than the other, are and were fleeting, temporary, and the latter, harmful.

    Eventually, the vacation ends, the book closes, Monday arrives, and drugs or alcohol only bring more problems and dangers. There is no true way to escape the darkness of a fallen world. What I can escape from is eternal darkness. Through my faith in Christ I can escape the perils of a sinful life and eternal darkness. I can escape temptation and sin by calling on the Holy Spirit. I can escape regret and shame by knowing my Father in heaven loves me. I can escape from anything, into the arms of my savior.

    Share your thoughts & reflections in the comments.

  • Daily Devotional 1/10/22

    Daily Devotional 1/10/22

    Verse of the Day

    “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

    Read or listen to today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread titled: Etch A Sketch Forgiveness.

    Reflection

    God’s judgement is absolute. No one can live up to His judgement, save the Son, Jesus Christ. It is only through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross that God the Father can forgive me of my sins. When the Father looks upon my life, He no longer sees my sin and wrong doing. Instead, He sees a blanket of blood covering my life, given by His Son for the forgiveness of my sins. Christ’s blood covers me & my life, so that I may enter the kingdom of God, despite my sinful nature. Although I can never live up to the righteousness of God, in thanks for the gift Christ gave, I strive to live a life further away from sin and closer to the kingdom of God.

    Share your thoughts & reflections in the comments.

  • WIP Check In 1/8/22

    WIP Check In 1/8/22

    Happy New Year! I hope you’ve had a better start to 2022 than myself. I’ve been sick for quite some time and it has really thrown things off, so I barely know what day it is, let alone what I need/want to get done. Somehow I did manage a little bit of stitching, a little bit of housework, and a little bit of WIP organization.

    Let’s start with my start of the year list. (I haven’t gotten use to the BNS planner yet, so I went back to my ZinniaPlanner to get started.)

    It appears that I am entering 2022 with a total of 18 WIPs. Technically it is 17 WIPs and 1 new start, because Maple Lane is already kitted up and ready to be started. Also included in the list is Fabulous Women in History, but I’m still not sure if I will continue that one or abandon it, so I left it on the list for now. I am also including my smalls on the list; these are typically no bigger than 4” x 4” projects that I work on in between big projects, over a weekend, and/or when I’m sitting up in bed. Currently, I’ve started on some mini-art patterns from The Stitch Patterns on Etsy.

    Sick in bed with Criminal Minds & Spring Flowers.

    In addition to getting my stitching lists and plans figured out, I also got my WIPs organized, physically. For my less frequently rotated projects I got the clear zipper pouches off of Amazon and made tags using card stock and a label punch from the craft store. The WIPs I am more actively working on are in my BitzyBobs from That’s So Kelly.

    Now that I’m all organized my stitchy bug has returned with exuberance, unfortunately I am still too sick to focus on stitching for a long period of time. I actually fell asleep stitching the other day. But I did make some progress on Animal Almanac.

    Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

  • Daily Devotional 1/3/22

    Daily Devotional 1/3/22

    Verse of the Day

    “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” Psalm 145:8

    Read or listen to today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread titled: When Love Never Ends.

    Reflection

    The first step in being able to make & prioritize time for others, is to make time for the Lord. He is always available when I need Him, but do I make it a priority to spend time with Hime when I’m not in need? I set aside time in my day for so many things, but do I set aside time to just be with the Lord; meditate on His word: worship? A good start is my daily devotional time. May it lead to increasingly more time spent with and made available to the Lord, so that I can truly extend that to others.

    Share your thoughts & reflections in the comments.

  • Daily Devotional 12/30/21

    Daily Devotional 12/30/21

    Verse of the Day

    “[Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.” Proverbs 3:18

    Read or listen to today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread titled: Better Than Gold.

    Reflection

    It’s so easy, especially in today’s culture, to define success by material and monetary standards. The desire for financial security, for today and the future, is probably the worry that occupies my mind the most. The truth is no one knows what the future holds, except the Father. Rather than worry about temporary monetary concerns, I should spend that energy seeking the Lord. Trusting He will take care of all my needs, as He has done so many times before.

    Share your thoughts & reflections in the comments.

  • Daily Devotional 12/29/21

    Daily Devotional 12/29/21

    Verse of the Day

    “…The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed…” Revelation 5:5

    Read or listen to today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread titled: Lion, Lamb, Savior.

    Reflection: What is your favorite name for Jesus?

    My favorite name for Jesus is the Good Shepherd. In my early adult years, I followed many false shepherds and wandered away from Christ’s flock, tempted by wolves in sheep’s clothing. I am eternally grateful that my true shepherd, the Good Shepherd, sought me out and led me back into the fold.

    Share your thoughts & reflections in the comments.

  • Daily Devotional 12/28/21

    Daily Devotional 12/28/21

    Verse of the Day

    “Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear.” Jude 1:22-23

    Read or listen to today’s devotional from Our Daily Bread titled: Great Wisdom.

    Reflection

    I am one who often speaks before thinking. My tongue can be quick and bitter. It is vital, to me, that my words, responses, and actions, reflect who I am in Christ and not my human nature. There will always be those times when my human nature seeps out, but I have no chance of holding it in check on my own. Therefore, I must seek the Holy Spirit to curb my tongue and give me words of love and mercy.

    Share your thoughts & reflections in the comments.

  • WIP Wednesday Check In

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    WIP Wednesday Check In

  • This Week I’m Just Getting By

    June 16, 2021

    Hello stitchers and happy WIP Wednesday! Usually this would be my weekly Stitches & Pages post, however it’s been a rough road the past couple days, so this week I’m just doing a simple WIP Wednesday update. A little explanation on why it’s been rough is that I had a small medical procedure on Monday. I’ve been having them regularly for over a year, that’s a longer story, but the lead up to the day has me very anxious and then because of the medication I take for the procedure I’m pretty wiped out for a couple days afterwards. So I haven’t had a lot of mental energy to dedicate to stitching and reading.

    Since I realized I did not have the energy to work on any of my larger projects, or anything that required large amounts of attention, I thought that that I would try to see if I could finish up I Love You Deerly this week. There’s not that much more to stitch, and I can work on it in small increments throughout the week so that’s what I’ve been doing. Here are a few progress shots I can share, sorry about the glare from my iPad I was watching a movie one night while stitching.

    Night before procedure and I couldn’t sleep.

    This past week I’ve also been doing a lot of coloring. Coloring for me has always been a therapeutic outlet when I didn’t have the time or motivation to stitch. While I love to use the medium of colored pencils and paper coloring books, I have found that coloring on my iPad is a very similar mental release for me. I’ve been using a coloring app called Pigment and I really love the different textures, color palettes, and the variety of images to color. Also the ability to either color every thing freehand or use a simple touch to fill technique is a great option so your coloring page can be as complicated or as simple as you need it to be. So I thought I’d share a few of my completed coloring pages this week.

    That’s it for this update, thanks for reading and have a blessed week.

  • This Week’s Stitches & Pages

    June 8, 2021

    Hello my friends and thank you for returning to my blog. Summer is in full swing here in North Carolina and I have been busy making friends with the deer and feeding the hummingbirds. My hope is that this year will be the year I finally get a doe to take an apple from my hand, and there is one in particular that has been coming by regularly for apples. So far she has come as close as an arm’s length away. Unfortunately, I am not going to have any video or photo evidence because I discovered that she is very skittish when it comes to me having my phone out for pictures. Maybe if hubby is home when she comes around I can get him to snap a few shots. Now to move on to what I’ve been stitching and reading.

    Monday Morning Rotation

    This week I’m rotated off Morning Dog by Joan Elliot. I am really happy with how this cute little basset beagle is coming along. The more I stitch, the more details start showing up, and the more he looks like my sweet dear Duke who we lost this past Christmas. In fact my husband got this for me as a little Christmas present this year, because he thought it would remind me of Duke. Usually, I avoid patterns or kits that utilize fractional stitches because I work on Aida and it can be difficult to work those stitches of Aida. However, I really wanted to stitch this and I found a hack that makes stitching the fractional stitches much easier on Aida and shared that with my first cross stitch TikTok.

    On The Frame

    This week I made solid progress on Animal Almanac blocks 9 & 10. It feels a little weird stitching something fall themed right now, given that we’re having 80+ degree days, but I still love the pumpkins and fall leaves. Now I don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I should be finished with these two blocks by Thursday and ready to rotate. By rights I should move on to what’s next in the rotation which is Midnight Way, however everyone sharing their pictures of Cozy Café is making me want to pull that one back out. We’ll see if I stick to my rotation or give in to the desire to stitch up some cute cafe cups.

    Bookmark Status

    Currently I’m reading The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. I am reading this along with a another bibliophile friend who is reading it for a book club. Unfortunately, we live in different states so I can’t attend her book club but we thought it be fun for me to just read along with one of their choices. I’ve only just started reading so I have no thoughts, yet.

    That’s it for this update, thanks for reading and have a blessed week.