By The Fireside: Paper-cutters & Photographs

By The Fireside

Who hasn’t sat around a campfire and watched how firelight changes the faces that surround the glowing embers? There is something so mysterious and lovely about the dancing flames and the charcoaled smoke as it rises into the evening sky. The flames - the light - transform ordinary logs of wood into a picturesque bonfire. As indigo ash whispers through the night air, we breathe in a new aroma, resigning ourselves to the blaze.

When we think about community, we often reflect upon the wonderful times we've shared by a fireside...a warm hearth in a friend's home, Christmas morning with precious family, or sweet sharing and song around a bonfire. Perhaps this vision most reminds us of our great cloud of witnesses; the inspiration behind this page. As we share our stories & photographs here, our hope is that we may renew, refresh, and rekindle our friendships by this fireside...

Kenny & Jenn Sinclair

"...if my fire is not large, it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame." — A. W. Tozer, foreword to The Pursuit of God

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Paper-cutters & Photographs

Happy March to you! Our forecast promises abundant sunshine and 50 degree weather this weekend...and I am ever-so-hopeful :) Kenny is working a 64 hour work week and I'm keeping busy at work and with some additional freelance design work. I've been doing a lot of that recently, and, after spending way too much time mooching off of Kinko's and the church, I finally talked myself into purchasing a decent paper-cutter! I'm probably more excited than I should be about office equipment, but I'm okay with that :) Here she is:

...and I got the cutter just in time to finish up these Baby Shower invitations for my dear friend, Kim (Greer) Barker who is having her first in May! She is decorating the nursery in a woodland animal theme, and came up with this cute idea!

Other than paper-cutters (chuckle), another thing that brings me joy is shopping at Trader Joe's! I always set aside lots of time when I shop there because I enjoy meandering around, tasting their coffee samples, and checking out their new products and packaging! One item they had two weeks ago was this Weeping Pussy-willow, which I plopped right into the cart with little arm-twisting ;) Kenny and I have enjoying watching it bloom over the weeks and here it is today...almost through blooming, but still whimsical!

I've also been enjoying the Scentsy plug-ins given to me by Kenny's family and friends from the west coast! They are the coolest inventions...and have saved us a lot of money on candles! They come in plug in or table-top warmers and you can buy packets of various scents to go in them. Currently we have Holiday Chai in our bathroom and Mochadoodle in the kitchen! Visit their site here for a list of their products: www.scentsy.net. If you're interested in purchasing any, let me know, and I'll direct you to a sweet friend of mine who is a seller!! (kind of like Mary Kay.)

Kenny gave me an early birthday present today, too: a "Life is Good" tire cover! Now I'm really representing the West Coast with my LIG gear, Human Bean and Multnomah Falls bumper stickers ;) (Please disregard my disgusting winter-beaten SUV)...

And of course...here are my girls - they are getting tired of me following them around with a camera - they wonder what that strange "clicking" noise is ;)

LEONA: