AMAZING GRACE - Not Just Soap

Amazing Grace is not just soap? Of course not. We all know about Amazing Grace ― the spiritual kind (at least I hope we do) ― but how many know about Amazing Grace soap? I just found out about it recently. So how did I find out about this amazing soap? It was at an Arts & Crafts Festival in Fountain Hills, AZ. Did I buy some of it? No. But after I got home I wished I had. And why is that, you ask? I did buy a jar of their Body Butter and I love love loved it. When I bought the Body Butter I was given a small sample of their soap. (It is so wise to give samples.) Well, I used that little sample all up and was sold on it. But the Fair was over, so I looked it up online. A little research by my dear hubby and we found out they would be at the Tempe Festival of the Arts. It can also be ordered online, of course, but since they were going to be at the Festival I thought it would be a good excuse to go to it. We always enjoy going there anyway. We were so glad we went because we met the lovely lady who makes these beautiful soaps and her husband also. Amazing Grace is just one of the choices they have. Many different fruity and flower "flavors" are also available. And they are all amazing. The problem I had was deciding which fragrance to choose. Amazing Grace was the one I finally chose, partly because of the pink color. They do have other colors. So this is one of my Christmas presents. It's under the tree now in the lovely bag they provided. Here is their website if you would like to find out more about their products. http://SophisticatedSoap.com/index.htm

As wonderful as this soap is, it pales in comparison to God's Amazing Grace. There is a reason why Amazing Grace is one of the most popular songs in the religious world. That Jesus would leave his heavenly home, come to earth, live here showing us how we should live, and then going to the cross, dying in our place. And of course just as important, his resurrection and promised return to this earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now, that is truly AMAZING GRACE.

I'm sharing this both for Spiritual Sundays and for Pink Saturday. I hope you will visit both of these links to find many wonderful posts both of the spiritual and pink varieties.

PINK SATURDAY

It has been awhile since I've participated in Pink Saturday. I do love and appreciate Beverly for her faithfulness to that meme. She makes lots of people happy with all that pinkness that is shared. Click HERE to go to How Sweet the Sound for links to lots of pink posts.

I wanted to share this very very short video (8 seconds long) today. I love pink and I love pink flowers.

Beverly has reminded us that October is breast cancer awareness month. October is also my birthday month. To celebrate my birthday on the 5th we drove up to beautiful Sedona, AZ to spend the day. I wore my pink hat because I needed to keep the sun off my face. I've started a round of Carac cream to get rid of skin cancer cells. My face is getting redder every day. It doesn't really show up in this picture. A pink top seemed appropriate for the occasion so I wore that too. Here's a picture. I also wore a pink cross. For those of you who follow Spiritual Sundays this picture was taken outside the chapel in the header picture for that blog. Such a beautiful place. When we visited the chapel this time we bought a cross made from the red rock. I'm planning to share a picture of it on Spiritual Sundays.

Happy Pink Saturday to everyone who shares there. No no - Happy Pink Saturday to everyone, not just those who share. 

Now you can click "like" to like this post on Facebook. How about that. 

MIRACLE MAKEOVER UPDATE ! ! !

A note from Kelee Katillac:

Comments Closed: WE ARE THERE!

Thank-you to each and every one of you that commented, posted on Facebook, wrote a blog story or added a link. Maybe you clicked "like", emailed a friend, or embedded the video. We thank-you for helping with this heart-felt effort. It is because of these kindnesses that we can report that we received over 5,450 responses to Charlie's MiracleMakeovertm video and story, in just a few days time. Isn't that fantastic?! See what you accomplished! (Cue jumping-up and down! Go ahead and whoo-hoo!) Congratulations and thank-you, thank-you! Team Design Gives Back has triumphed and each of you played a valuable role.

A few interesting facts: That total included 150-plus blog stories averaging 20-60 comments each. Each blogger also earned a $5 donation (5 comment equivalent) for creating the post. There were over 550 Facebook page posts and"likes", over 200 side comments, other assorted responses we are still counting. The DGB team will have a final total next week on Friday, August 26; and, also announce our giveaway winners in that same post. You will want to stop by and pick-up your blog badge signifying your participation in this great event.

Our four MiracleMakeovertm blog hosts pulled in hundreds of comments each. They averaged 200-400 comments and some went way beyond. They were tireless! Be sure and thank them, too. One passionate and big hearted blogger, Marydon of the Blushing Rose Blog brought in nearly 700 comments! Bless you Marydon. I know how hard you worked for this. Thank-you.

Because Design Gives Back committed to donate $1  per comment from you, Friends of Kids with Cancer will be receiving a check to help serve families with seriously ill kids.  Also, another Miracle Makeover for someone in-need now has the wings to take flight. 

Thank-you to all of our sponsors. Most of which we have featured previously. Especially, though, thank-you to Guideposts Magazine that brought Charlie's story  to eight million readers in the August issue. For the past 50 years Guideposts has been committed to publishing  true stories of hope and inspiration. At www.guideposts.org you can now see inspirational video stories, as well.  

                                        Approximately 5,450!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I want to add my "Thank You" to all who participated. You're the greatest! And thank you Kelee for initiating this wonderful occasion and for all your encouragement.

P.S. I'm sharing this for Pink Saturday. I changed my blog to feature even more pink. I do love that color you know. I want to also acknowledge Beverly and the wonderful job she did encouraging and commenting on the Miracle Makeover. Beverly is such a blessing to so many who share on Pink Saturday and also Spiritual Sundays. 

NEW PROGRAM

Thought I was going to pay $5.00 for a new program I just downloaded. Guess what? It was on sale for 99¢. So what is this new program you ask? It's called iSplash. It's a Mac program so don't know if it is available for PC. So what does it do? It turns a color photo into black and white and then you can color in the part you want colored. The picture of me in the header picture is an example. I just colored my hat pink. The rest is black and white. (I did add a little sepia tone to the whole header.) Here's another example. This time I colored my blouse and left the rest black and white. (Faded frame added with another program called Flare.)

And the next one I just colored my necklace and top.

It just occurred to me this would be good to share for Pink Saturday. Maybe I will.

OK. So I decided I will share this for Pink Saturday and add another photo. This one is pink bougainvillea in our back yard growing by a palm tree. I just colored the pink part. 

The bracts (not blossoms) start out orange and then turn pink.

HAPPY PINK SATURDAY!

Thanks again to Beverly of How Sweet the Sound for hosting Pink Saturday each week.

MY SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS POST IS ON MY OTHER BLOG THIS WEEK: http://char72.wordpress.com/

I LOVE US

It's that time of year again when people are thinking "Love". As I mentioned in my introduction on Spiritual Sundays this week, the newest thing to tell the one you love is not "I love you", but "I love us," meaning I love us together.

So, what does God say about love? Many books have been written about it. The greatest book written about love is the Bible. In fact, the two most important commandments are both about love. The first one is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and the second one is to love your neighbor as yourself.

I love I Corinthians' definition of love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (New International Version, ©2010)

 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

So, back to the subject of this post ― I LOVE US. I love us together, meaning my blogging friends. To think that just a little over 3 years ago, I didn't know any of you. Well, maybe one or two or three. Most of you I had not met. Now there are so many of you out there in blogland who have blessed my life. I love all of you. 

Thought I would also share with you this picture of hubby and me over 52 years ago as we were leaving the church after our wedding. I LOVE US.

Of course I'm sharing this on Spiritual Sundays, and since Beverly has included red in Pink Saturday, I think I'll share this for Pink Saturday as well. Here is the Spiritual Sundays link: http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/ and here is the Pink Saturday link: http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/pink-saturday/

PINK SATURDAY

I am posting this on Friday. Today would have been my dad's 98th birthday. In looking for something pink to share for Pink Saturday, I ran across this picture of the pink lamp in my doll room. Since the picture to the left of the lamp is one of me and my dad taken when I was a young girl, I thought it would be a good one to share today. The little picture in front of it is a picture of him when he was 16. Let's see⏤that picture would have been taken 82 years ago.

Here are those two pictures that are framed.

This is one of the few pictures I have of the two of us together. In all the other pictures there are always other people in the photo. 

Thank you for letting me share my Dad's birthday anniversary with you. I miss him still. He left this life in 1998 at the age of 85. 

Thanks again to Beverly for hosting Pink Saturdays. Click HERE for lots of pink posts.

PINK SATURDAY

I haven't posted anything on this blog for Pink Saturday in a long time. I just finished posting my Pink Saturday for this week on my other blog. You can click HERE to go see the post on Charlotte's Weblog. Since I love pink so much and just got finished decorating this blog in pink, I decided to put a little preview right here. So, here it is.

IS TODAY PINK SATURDAY?

No, today is not Pink Saturday. It isn't even Saturday but since I just changed my background to pink I thought I should post something pink here. I love pink you know.

I made this cross stitch pillow right after we moved here - about 19 years ago. I keep it in my doll room now but it was originally in the family room.