New Blog Location

Come check out my new Inspirational Snippets and Simple Treasures Blog, located at http://www.issimpletreasures.com/.  We have lots of new fun ideas and posts, so hop on over.  I'll see you there.

Flowers for Winter

I am certainly enjoying these floral arrangements that I made to use at my nieces wedding reception.  They are refreshing especially during these cold winter months.  I love using silk flowers only if they look real.  There are really some cheap looking silk flowers out there.  I found these vases (which are actually candle stands, from Hobby Lobby).  They are black wood carved and very elegant looking.  I started with a piece of floral foam for each.  Covered the foam with moss, and used a floral pick machine to add a pick to each flower, so that they would anchor into the foam real well.  If you don't have a pick machine, you can add floral wire to the stems to give you either a longer stem or a more slender stem to go into the foam.  Make sure to use the floral tape to tape over your wire, so that your wire looks like a stem.  With the lily arrangement, I placed the lilies in first, the heads facing all directions, then added the mums all around to fill in to make a round shape.  Design tip:  Odd numbers of flowers seem to balance out an arrangement,  that is why I used 5 lilies.

The silk marigolds I purchased originally to use within the flowers that I did for my nieces wedding.  Try as I might, they didn't seem to look good mixed with the other flowers we were using.  I love, love, love them all by themself in their own arrangement.  I have gotten many comments on these arrangements.

After the flowers are placed into the foam.  I just sit the foam on top of the candle stand.  You really can't tell it is candlestand.  It just looks like an elegant vase of flowers.

Take time to create with beautiful flowers, they will warm your heart and bring color to your life, especially during these sometimes, dismal winter days.

Marilyn

Simple Cure for Measuring Tools

I am loving my new solution for simplifying my measuring tool drama.  It took courage to tap those tiny brass nails into my cabinets.  But, really you can barely see them.  The cups and spoons I found at Walmart for .88 cents.  What a bargain.  The cups have an indentation inside for other measurements.  What I love, is there are just four each.  When I use them, I instantly wash, dry and hang them.  I don't have to dig through my drawer anymore to find the right measurement tool.  Love it!

Happiness

Just  came across this uplifting "Happiness Message" to send to my son serving an LDS Mission for our church.  My goal is to send a Missionary Message weekly, so that he gets a letter each week in the mail.  It is so easy to email our correspondence.  But, something different for him to look forward to each week.

Happiness

“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God” (Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5:134-35).

In this beautiful statement, the Prophet says not only that happiness is the objective in life, but he also explains how to go after it.  Lehi in writing to Jacob said, “Men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2;25).  Later in the same chapter, Lehi said, “The devil…seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27).  The purpose of man, therefore, is happiness.  God wants you to be happy; conversely, Satan wants you to be unhappy.

President David O. McKay said, “There are three means of achieving the happy, abundant life:  first, making God the center of one’s life; second, using the free agency given to man; and third, rendering service to others.”  Each of these three means is related to the path outlined by Joseph Smith:

1.      Make God the center of your life.  Joseph Smith said that you must keep the commandments of God, that you must be holy, and that you must be faithful.  Richard Wagner said, “joy is not in things, it is in us.”  The Savior said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).  He also said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25).

2.      Use the moral agency given to you.  Happiness consists in mastering evil tendencies.  There cannot be happiness without the freedom to choose.  If the spirit of man is in bondage or enslaved, there cannot be true progress.  You must find a way for your spiritual self to control our physical self.  Sir James Barrie said, “The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes to do but in liking what one has to do.”  Joseph Smith said that you must have virtue and uprightness. Horace Mann said, “In vain do they talk of happiness who never subdued an impulse in obedience to principle.  He who never sacrificed a present to a future good, or a personal to a general one, can speak of happiness only as the blind do of colors”  (in Horace Mann; His Ideas and Ideals, comp.  Joy Elmer Morgan [Washington, D.C.; National Home Library Foundation, 1936], 149; as cited in Marvin J. Ashton, “Be of Good Cheer,”  Ensign, May 1986, 66).

3.      Render service to others.  Happiness only comes to those who try to make others happy.  Robert Ingersoll said, “Happiness is the only good.  The place to be happy is here.  The time to be happy is now.  The way to be happy is to help make others so.”  Gretta Palmer said, “Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.”

The great German philosopher of the eighteenth century, Immanuel Kant, said that the great aims in life must be the perfecting of yourself and the happiness of others.  “Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy in the hearts of our fellow men” (in Eldred G. Smith, Conference Report, April 1967, 77). President David O. McKay said, “He who seeks for happiness alone seldom finds it, but he who lives to give happiness to others finds that a double portion has come to himself” (David O. McKay, Pathways to Happiness, comp.  Llewelyn R. McKay [Salt Lake City; Bookcraft, 1957], 188).

Happiness is not an external condition.  It is a state of the spirit and an attitude of the mind. (Raymond E. Beckham, How to Help Your Missionary, 150).

Happiness is not an external condition.  It is a state of the spirit and an attitude of the mind. 

This message was taken from the great book,How to Help Your Missionary, pg 149-150  

by  Raymond E. Beckham,

Valentines Day Gift Idea.

Looks like a great idea for Valentines Day. 

Just saw this offer for Buy One Get One Free for:  Scentsy Solid Roll on Perfumes.  Looks fun for Valentines. The cost is $18 (but you get 2 for this price)


These roll on perfumes remind me of when I was a young girl, and when the roll on perfumes were so popular.  I think I will put these on my Valentines list.

The scents that these perfumes come in are:
Coconut Lemongrass
Enchanted Mist
Love Story
Luna
Quiver
Sugar Cookie
Awakening
Be Still
French Lavender
Linger
Lucky in Love
Route 66 (hey, hey, for men)
Ru n2 Me
Satin Sheets
Simply Irresistible
Skinny Dippin'
Sunkissed Citrus
Vanilla Suede
White Tea and Cactus
Zepplin

To order online:  www, mhilton.scentsy.us/ or call me 801-782-1183.  Valentines orders would have to be submitted right away.

Results of "Sharing for Smiles" Fundraiser for Tabitha Davis

So happy to see the results of our "Sharing for Smile" fundraiser for Tabitha Davis. She now has such a beautiful smile. She is such a darling girl. The last few weeks have been full of some super intense dentist visits, but she survived, and looks so good. Thank you to Dr. Paul and his wonderful assistants Kathleen and Shelly. A special thank you to everyone who contributed; without you, all this would have never happened. Love you all so much.

To read prior posts following this story, click here &  here

Tabitha before her dental work, during our fundrasing.

Tabitha's Smile Before

Our  first visit to the dental office - Tabitaha's dental photos.

Dr. Paul Mackley, Tabitha, Dental Assistants, Kathleen & Shelly.  They did such a great job.

After Root Canals, & Temporaries, she now has her Porcelain Crowns.

Wow!  She looks so amazing!  What a beautiful young lady, and such a beautiful smile!

My Simple Solution for My Measuring Cups and Spoons

Since 2013 is my year of Simplicity, I decided to keep this project more simple than the great ideas I have seen for never losing your measuring cups and spoons.  I always seem to not be able to find the right cup or spoon that I need, and it is always a search.

So, while I was at Wallmart last week, I saw a simple set of measuring cups and spoons for 88 cents.  I liked the black color, because I have some black accents in my kitchen.  I was brave and found some tiny little 1/2 inche brass nails or (escutcheons - what is labeled on the box).  They are barely noticeable on the outside of my cupboard.  I love that there are only a few of each, the necessary ones.  They look decorative, are always in site.  When I use them, I immediately wash dry and hang in their spot.  NO MORE SEARCHING!  I love it!

Great idea for Measuring Cups and Spoons

Love this idea!  I always have to dig through everything to find my measuring cups and spoons.  http://www.cleanandscentsible.com/

  

The Abundant Life

Taken from:  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/01/living-the-abundant-life?lang=eng

Exciting Update on Tabitha - Sharing for Smiles

Just wanted to thank everyone that has contributed to our "Sharing for Smiles Fundraiser". We were able to raise a good portion of Tabitha's dental lab cost's. Today we went to the dentist for a consult to see if we could get started with some of her work from the funds that we had raised. We actually still need to raise a bit more, but  are so excited to be able to contribute what we did today.  If anyone didn't get a chance to contribute, and  would like to at this point, just let me know.

The exciting part of this day is that, before we knew what was happening, Tabitha was in the chair getting 2 root canals to take away the pain from 2 teeth, and appointments were made in a week for her to get 4 more root canals on her front teeth. When she leaves the dental office next week, she will have a new smile of temporary crowns, and in 2 more weeks, she will have porcelain crowns on her front, and will be smiling from ear to ear.  We are both still in shock!!!!!! Yeah for our wonderful dentist his contributions have been huge.... performing miracles everyday for patients like Tabitha. What a great feeling!!!!

Thank you again for your generous contributions for Tabitha.  She will undergo other restoration work as well in the near future, a couple of bridges on the bottom teeth, and one on the top I believe, and some cavities to fill.   At present, our main focus has been to help fix the smile, take care of painful, infected  and urgent needs with her teeth, and then additional efforts will be made to do what is necessary to help her have a healthy mouth.  A huge thanks to each of you, and to our wonderful dentist for helping this miracle to happen.

 Marilyn

p.s. Just found this post that was saved as a draft, but never got posted.  I enjoy reading the feelings and emotions from this story, so will add it here.

So our incredible Christmas story continues to unravel.  Earlier I posted about a gal that I met through random circumstances, and how miraculously I was able to nominate her for a free dental service day at my dental office.  We attended the initial visit together.  She had 4 bottom teeth removed that were abscessed, broken, etc.  We were given the diagnosis, to replace her front teeth, and do 5 root canals.  This takes care of the urgent needs of just the top.  The cost of this is about $8,000.  The dentist offered to take care of about half the expense, and requested that I might try to look for donors or fundraise to help come up with the funds for this service.  He also asked if the gal. Tabitha would be willing to try to earn or save $1,000 to have ownership in this project

Living our Current Dream with Joy

I love to read a good book to get me motivated, and inspired to do that things that will make a difference in life, and give me the satisfaction and joy that I  always seek for.  I love the feelings that come with a healthy attitude; one of appreciation and gratitude.  Life always seems to present challenges that try to take me from this healthy state of mind, so I read, and pray as I gather inspiration from others and from God.

This week I have dabbled a bit in the book, "Life is Too Short for Sensible Shoes", by Connie Sokol.  This is a fun motivating read, from a gal with a lot of energy, and a good positive message.  I look forward to getting back to this book.  However, in this book she quoted Amanda Dickson's book, "Wake up to a Happier Life".  This book looked interesting so I ordered it on Amazon for $4, and have had a chance to read through part of it today.  Amanda talks a lot about finding joy in every job that we have whether it be a janitor, teacher, a mother, etc.  She states, "The easiest way to have more joy in your work is to pick work that speaks to your soul.  And this means work that speaks to our soul, not necessarily work that looks glamorous or that others would think is terrific or that makes a lot of money (although it may be all those things)".  She declares that we all make choices of how we fill our days.  We have chosen to be married, or chosen to be a mother.  These choices fill our day with responsibilities, and events.  We also get to choose if we go about these activities begrudgingly, or with a happy attitude.  We can find the smallest things of positive nature to brighten our moods, and bring joy into every situation.

Another quote from Amanda,"The soul wants to work, to be proud of the work we do, to think of the work we do with joy and energy...All work feeds the spirit, or all work can feed the spirit.  Even washing the dishes".  There is always a sense of accomplishment when hard work is done, and something hard is accomplished. 

Some of us, (and I am guilty of this), are always waiting for this project to be finished and then I will be happy, or let me meet this goal and then I will be happy.  Or maybe we fall short of our goals, and that is a reason to not be happy, because everyone around us seems to be more successful than we are.  I like this quote from Amanda as well.  "Remind yourself that this is the life you chose, that you are living your dream right now - until you have another dream - and then you'll live that one.  But for now, your dream involves this job, these kids, this car, this dirty carpet, and this weedy garden.  This is your current dream."  Let's get passed the negative dull-drums and express gratitude and find the simple joys that are occurring everywhere around us.

This is an interesting statement from Dean Sampano:

Recently in one of my seminars, I was asked the question, what is the secret to success and a happy life? I paused and took a moment to reflect on over the last 25 years of victories but some failures too and I said this:
So many people spend their whole life trying to find the secret to happiness but over the years, I have come to realize that it’s not about finding it’s about “Being!” You see, it’s not about finding the right women; it’s about “Being” the right man. I said it’s not about finding the right employees it’s about ‘Being” the right leader and perhaps most of all it’s not about finding the right friends, it’s about ‘Being” the right friend. For the truth is if you go out looking for great friends an success, they will always seem scarce but if you go and “Be” the right friend, you will find friends every where you go and then you won’t ever have to look for happiness or success, because they will be looking for you!
Dean Sampano
President, Mass Consultants Canada

 Take a minute today and look inside your own dream, and enjoy each day those things that are creatomg the events of your dream.  Remember to include things that you love and are good at.  These activities will fill you cup,  and refresh your mind as you go about your daily tasks.

Best wishes for a bright 2013.

Marilyn

Useful Advice

Some very useful advice here...  

 http://www.facebook.com/WellnessWithRose?ref=stream

Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer Newspaper, Cleveland, Ohio.

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step..

3. Life is too short - enjoy it..

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and
family will.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.

7... Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9.. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11... Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it...

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye But don't worry; God never blinks.

16... Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to be happy. But it's all up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't
save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23 Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will
this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive but don't forget.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38.. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd
grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.

42. The best is yet to come...

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift

True Charity is Love In Action

"What is charity?...."the pure love of Christ" -- to be the opposite of criticism and judging.....charity that manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient towards their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient....the kind of charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others.  There is serious need for charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted".

"True Charity is Love in Action"
                  (Thomas S. Monson, "Charity Never Faileth", Ensign , Nov. 2010, 122-23)

"Just for this week, I invite you to be aware of the available Kind Moments; smiling at someone who is rude, not telling a friend how another person was a pill, praying in the morning to know whom you can love.  Look in someone's eyes, see their story and share a kind word.  Look for the love, do the kind thing and bask in the joy."  (Life is Too Short for Sensible Shoes, Connie e. Sokol)