Loose-Leaf Bible

Some of my close friends who might read this know that I'm a Unitarian Universalist, but most of you will probably go "what the heck is that?!"

Unitarian Universalism is a religion, though there are some people out there who would disagree. I'll try to give a brief description, because I usually can go to great lengths about it haha.

Often times, I find it hard to describe UUism well. We don't have a holy book or commandments, but we do have seven principles that we're all supposed to adhere to. From the UUA website:

There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and promote:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

I'll be honest, and say that I never memorized these... The kids in my church are doing more with them now, but when I was in Religious Explorations (Religious Education back then) we actually learned quite a bit about other religions and cultures, and when I was in Youth Group we spent a lot of time on other things, like planning our service trip to New Orleans and doing the Our Whole Lives (OWL) program. BUT that doesn't mean I didn't learn them. They've shaped who I've grown to be, and I try to live my life by them.

A ritual that I believe is universal in UU congregations is lighting the chalice - a special candle or flame which is our symbol of faith. Below is the iconic image of our symbol, the two circles representing the separate faiths of Unitarianism and Universalism that were joined to become Unitarian Universalism.

Something that we've done as long as I can remember in my church while we light the chalice is say our affirmation:

We believe in love.

We believe in truth.

We believe in helping others.

We believe in the sacredness of life.

I don't know if it's just our church or if it's common to do, but I've always kept these words dear to my heart and try to live by them as well.


But anyway, the reason I'm writing this blog post is because today was a service that we have every year, called the "Loose-Leaf Bible." Again, I don't know if this is common or just my church... I just know we've done it for awhile.

Since we don't have a holy book, the Loose-Leaf Bible service is made up of people reading various poems, stories, lyrics, quotes, and whatever else they've found that inspires them. They used to put together folders with clippings that people submitted ahead of time and we could take them home. I've always loved this service and hearing what inspires other people.

I didn't know that today would be the service, so I wasn't prepared with anything to read, though since I don't like talking in front of people I probably wouldn't anyway. But I did have a quote that kept running through my mind that's helped me a lot the past few years and that I've shared with a few people I love dearly recently:

Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end.

I try to believe this as strongly as I can, to persevere through bad times knowing that it will get better. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better, but it will get better.

I also find many hymns inspiring, with words that I hold close to me. One of them I found myself singing over and over again while I worked on my rose beads this past week. It's very short and meant to be sung in a round:

I know this rose will open.

I know my fears will burn away.

I know my soul will unfurl it's wings.

I know this rose will open. 

Here's a video of a children's choir and then the congregation singing it. It's not a very good video audio-wise, but it kind of gives you the idea:

Since this is getting pretty long, the last one I'm going to share with you is a song I learned in the youth conferences I went to (affectionately called "cons"), and have sung this to myself through the years as a pick-me-up:

How could anyone ever tell you, you are anything less than beautiful.

How could anyone ever tell you, you are less than whole.

How could anyone fail to notice, that your loving is a miracle.

How deeply you're connected to my soul.

So, now I ask you:

What inspires you?

What poems, stories, quotes, lyrics or anything else do you have tucked away to read again and again that inspire you, hold you up when you're down, show you the light at the end of the tunnel?

I'd like to make a Loose-Leaf Bible part of my blog, so if you would like to email me text or a link of some sort, I can post it for you! Also let me know if you would like your name as submitter, like I would put "Submitted by Kristen S, Maine" or something like that after something I did :) Email kristen.kreative.studios@gmail.com!

Senior Seminar: Ways to Find Articles to Write...

2nd post in from my Senior Seminar's blog...

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So, places that I would like to look at for a paying job is at a craft magazine - writing... something. I don't know what yet. My mom said I should have some pieces to show them, but I don't have much to show them except fiction, and unless they want to start a short story series about crafting... I have a few things from when I took Feature Writing, but nothing about crafting. But I don't really want to just pick something and write about it, I'd like to have a prompt that may be something that a craft magazine would want. Thoughts? Suggestions? How do I find such prompts?

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And of course, if you have ideas, you're welcome to comment and give me ideas too! I've been looking into where different craft magazines are based, but it's hard to find, especially since I don't really have a way to have a list of craft magazines to look up. Meant to make a list last time I was at Joann's but forgot -_- I did look on a website called elance, and there was one listing for some articles that I might be able to do, but it didn't really have any "prompts" except subject matter, so I couldn't think of anything to write! Maybe this weekend I'll force myself to write... I could write something for here! What would you like to see?

New Charm Bracelet Style

Back in September, as I was getting ready for the Maine State Firefighter's Convention, I tried my hand at charm bracelets. I'd never made them before, and as with all my jewelry endeavors, I was teaching myself. What I came up with looked like this:

I liked it alright, but it looked (and looks) bare to me, like there's not enough there.

I'm very mathematical in my approach to a lot of things... Which is good sometimes, but also a drawback often, especially in creative projects (I have very different parents and I'm very much like both of them haha). So, I wanted to make sure I had the same number of each color of bead, and I couldn't have two of the same color next to each other. It took me a bit to make a pattern (repeating patterns are my friend!) that I liked, and then made the same bracelet in the different color schemes I set up for the convention.

I never was truly happy with the design, but I hadn't had time to play with it until now! This weekend, while getting new items ready to sell at my school, I revamped the design...

Before:

After:

Lots more beads! I decided to help my sanity and still do a set number of each color in each type of bead, as well as use beads that I can many colors of for the same price, so I don't have to think about pricing every time :) I do have lots of other beads, especially gemstone beads, that if I use them for a charm bracelet I'll figure out the price to see if it would be more or less.

The first one I made, I used myself as a guinea pig, using two shades of green and two shades of purple:

I put temporary charms on it to use as example while selling at school because I wanted to show different options. Now, I've taken them all off and even wore is yesterday without any charms at all and it still looks beautiful :) I'm going to slowly add charms that mean something to me - first will be a little honey bee charm because that's my nickname to my sweet boy <3

Here are two of the options I wanted to showcase:

There's a heart locket, because I wanted to show that they could go great on lockets. Even the larger size I have would work well, though not for me because I don't like anything very big - I have VERY tiny wrists, so it would just look ridiculous. Also, there's a fleur de lis stamp - I have many design stamps that I could use on my 12mm or 15mm tags (I would suggest 12mm like shown so there's not awkard blank space). Also, can be stamped with initials or short names - on 15mm I could put a design stamp and probably up to 7, maaybe 8 characters. Lots of opportunities not explored! (Another idea - a Swarovski heart could be used as a charm, though it wouldn't stand out as much)

Here's one of the bracelet "blanks" (no charms) I made up to show at my table at school:

Very pretty!

The Official Stuff:
Bracelet style as shown without charms: $17 (it may seem expensive, but it takes time to put them together and it uses genuine Swarovski crystals and Preciosa druks, best quality of their kinds!)
Charm price varies, but most are $2. You can see the pictures in this album on Facebook. Eventually I'll get a picture with my design stamps...
You can pick 1-4 colors of druks beads, and I'll use corresponding crystals colors.
Options: Ruby, Orange, Yellow, Honey, Emerald Green, Mint Green, Teal, Aqua, Ice Blue, Sapphire Blue, Cobalt Blue, Turquoise Blue, Montana Blue, Pink, Lavender, Amethyst, Clear, Mocca, Smoke/Black Diamond, Opaque Red, Opaque Orange, Opaque Yellow, Opaque Light Blue, Opaque Blue, Opaque Dark Blue, Opaque Pink, Opaque White, Opaque Black.

Senior Seminar: Writer's Icons

So, for my Senior Seminar class for my Creative Writing major, we have to post in a blog for our class at least once a week. Since I have this blog, I need to post in it more, and I wanted it to be business and personal anyway, I figured I would post my senior seminar blogs here too! Here's my first:

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So, I still haven't quite figured out what we're supposed to write here and this isn't reaalllyyyy about writing, but it's the only idea I've come up with so far.

If you hadn't noticed, I knit and crochet in class... What I make are items usually for my craft business, kreative studios. I knit, crochet, make jewelry, sew... All kinds of stuff. One of the things I do is custom hand stamping, soooo I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for short quotes about writers, for writers, stuff like that. It'd have to be short to fit on the tags I have for stamping. Also, any charms I can look for that would be good - I know I can get ones that look like note paper, and probably pencils too.

Side note, I'm also looking for ideas for "geeky" items I can make, especially for guys... My brother isn't much help for coming up with ideas haha. I have Jayne's hat from Firefly, and an idea for a Mario Bros. charm bracelet though I don't know any girls that would want it, a Pokeball hat... But not much more than that.

Thanks!

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And, if any of you have any ideas for writer-y or geeky items, please feel free to comment :)