Landmark in History for Pope Benedict XVI

Today, February 29th,
Pope Benedict XVI
now gloriously reigning
became
the sixth oldest Pope
in the history of the Church
completing 84 years, 10 months, 2 weeks and 1 day.

The five older reigning Popes were:
Innocent XII 85 years old
Pius XI 85 years old
Clement X 86 years old
Clement XII 87 years old
and
Leo XIII
who served as pope until he was 93.

Dominus conservet eum,
et vivificet eum,
et beatum faciat eum in terra,
et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.

May the Lord preserve him,
and give him life,
and make him blessed upon the earth,
and deliver him not to the will of his enemies.

Markets - February 27th to March 4th

SATURDAY 3RD MARCH
Ballarat Town Hall
Bundoora Park
Daylesford
East Gippsland
Echuca
Golden Plains
Hume Murray
Kingston
Murrabit
Myrtleford
South Gippsland
Spotswood
Sunraysia
Tatong
Torquay Central
Veg Out St Kilda
Westerfords Park
Woodend Community


SUNDAY 4TH MARCH
Castlemaine
Flemington (ex Melb Showgrounds)
Heathmont
Hurtsbridge
Lilydale
Maffra
Mulgrave
North Melbourne
Tallarook

#308 - Modern

The prompt for this week is: modern.  Have a wonderful week.

Week #196 - 25th February - Sponsored by The Craft Barn

Good Morning, are you planning on doing any crafting this weekend? then maybe our sketch will inspire you to join in our challenge this week,which is being sponsored by our friends at...

The Craft Barn

"We are a UK based business selling a wide range of craft supplies including stamps, dies and embossing folders, punches, an extensive range of items to alter and decorate and much more for your scrapbooking and card making projects. We are committed to providing the best, most up to date craft products at great prices, coupled with first class service.


Some of the leading companies that we stock include Stamping Bella, Ranger, Tim Holtz, Crafty Individuals, Martha Stewart, Katzelkraft stamps, Nestabilities, Craftwork Cards, Copic Pens, House Mouse, Viva Décor, Eco Green crafts and Cosmic Shimmer to name but a few.


We are constantly adding new products to our range of craft supplies so be sure to add us to your browser favourites so you can pop back and see us."

The Craft Barn offer a wide range of goodies for all crafters from all things 'Cuttlebug' to grunge paper, from cottage cutz dies to cosmic shimmers, then there's your essentials like cardstock and papers and adhesives.

Not forgetting their HUGE stock of clear and rubber stamps to tantalise you!

There really is something for everyone :)

For all the latest products that have been added to the site PLEASE CLICK HERE

LOOK!

This week The Craft Barn have a special offer incorporating lots of products that add colour and dimension to your projects.

They are offering 50% off all of the following:

Cosmic Shimmer Dazzle Paints
Viva Glitter Gel
Smooch Spritzers
PSST Sprays
Viva Paper Pens
Tattered Angels Chalkboards
Tattered Angels Glimmer Glazes
Viva Glitter Liners

 Click here to find them in their Special Offer section.

and here's a date for your diary...

SATURDAY 3RD MARCH

INSPIRATION DEMO DAY

ANDY SKINNER, DI OLIVER, CAROL COCKBAIN

The demos are very informal and the demonstrators are always happy to answer any questions you have about things you are finding challenging and to explain techniques and equipment.

If you do have the time to go to any of their FREE demo days, then please do. They are very popular events, and very worthwhile, you may pick up some crafting tips and meet up with fellow crafters too

And of course you will be able to see the full range of wonderful products available from The Craft Barn

This weeks challenge winner will receive, as always, a generous prize from The Craft Barn... a whopping £15 voucher to spend at their store!

Here's this weeks sketch...

 Liesbeth made another fabby card she was our GDT throughout the month of February, thank you so much Liesbeth for being my GDT. We are honored really, especially Terry check out Liesbeth her card and what do you see.....(hihih her name LOL)
And here is her last card.....

and here are the brilliant cards by The Saturdays...

Jilli

Susie

Jen

Bente

Faye

Donna

Paula

Steph

Lizy

Tracey

Terry

Jo

We hope you can play with us again this week and make something amazing with another fabby sketch.  To be in with a chance of winning this weeks awesome prize please leave a DIRECT LINK to your creation with Mr. Linky below ......

Winner of challenge #195

The winner of last weeks challenge who wins a fabulous $10 shopping spree to spend at Stamp Fairy is...

Nicky! (SmurfsCrafts)  prize claimed

and here is her lovely winning card...

Congratulations Nicky! :)
Please leave a comment here, then EMAIL ME so that I can pass this on for you to claim your prize, Thank you.
Happy Shopping!

Jo xx

WELCOME FRIENDS

Time to start linking again. A big welcome to all who have just recently discovered this blog and have started sharing here. And I do so appreciate all of you who have been with us from the beginning. Today I want to call your attention to one person who has been sharing with us from Day One. And that person is Michelle (micey). Right now she needs all of our prayers as she prepares to be a part

An Ancient Doorway to a Lovely Lent.

This ancient doorway

to a lovely Lent
is inviting you to enter.

If you would like to know what to do for Lent
try this:

1 Prayer:
Say the following prayer
every time you pass through a doorway of any kind.

Incline unto my aid, O God!
O Lord, make haste to help me!

or if you would like to say it in Latin:
Deus, in adjutorium meum intende;
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina!

Incline unto my aid, O God!
O Lord, make haste to help me!


Deus, in adjutorium meum intende;
Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina!

(Goal: To pray always.)

2 Abstinence:
Sacrifice eating all meat and eggs
for the 40 days plus the Sundays.

I will abstain from all meat, -but only for Lent!

I will abstain from eggs, -but only until Easter!

This was part of the Catholic Lent
for far longer than 1200 years ...
... until about 1900;
they also had the burden of strict fasting.

But you could more easily undertake this abstinence
since you are not also obliged to their strict fasting;
this is only the abstinence.

If you are looking for something solid for Lent
I would say:
Why not try it?

It is all traditional, ancient, from our Fathers in the Faith.

One clear prayer.
One full abstinence.
One lovely Lent.


Appreciate the centuries of abstaining
that brought us
the beautiful Easter Egg!


As for other things, go to Confession as soon as possible.
Remember that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday
are days of Fast and Abstinence.

May you have a blessed and Holy Season of Lent!

Fr. Michael Mary, F.SS.R.

Markets - February 20th to 26th

SATURDAY 25TH FEBRUARY
Ballarat Lakeside
Casey-Berwick
Churchill Island
Lancefield
Mansfield
Monty
Myrtleford
Newtown
Preston
Slow Food
Taste of Gold - Monash
Torquay Central
Traralgon
Yarraville

SUNDAY 26TH FEBRUARY
Flemington
Kinglake
Manningham
Mt Eliza
Mulgrave
Yarrawonga

Participate for a minute in the Forty Hours.

This evening at 5.00 p.m. we opened

The Forty Hours Devotion.
We are not many but we are all delighted to have
these hours of grace with Our Lord.

We invite you to participate in the Forty Hours,
from your computer,
by making a spiritual communion.
This takes nearly one minute.
Give Him a minute of love and desire.

Jesus waits for our love and desire.
Information on Spiritual Communions:
A Spiritual Communion consists in an ardent desire to receive
Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament
and in lovingly embracing Him as if we had actually received Him.
The Holy Council of Trent greatly praises Spiritual Communions
and encourages the faithful to practise them.

Here is how to do it and
what to say to Jesus from your heart:

AN ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus
I believe that Thou art truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love Thee above all things and
I desire to possess Thee within my soul.
Since I am unable now to receive Thee sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace Thee as being already there,
and unite myself wholly to Thee;
never permit me to be separated from Thee.
Amen.

That's a Spiritual Communion
and
here is the shorter 10 second version.

I believe that Thou, O Jesus, art present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love Thee and desire Thee!
I embrace Thee; oh never leave me.

#307 - Wit

This came to me as I was thinking about the prompt this week.  I thought about using 'grace,' which I might use another time.  Then I thought about 'wit' and then I thought about Wit and Grace and what they might be like as a human couple.  That's the kind of thinking that goes on over here.  So this week, your prompt is wit, but if you like the thought of it as human with a wife, that's something I'd like to read too.

Week #195 - 18th February - Sponsored by Stamp Fairy

Hello, happy Saturday to you all :)

Saturday morning means a new sketch challenge and this week we the first DT cards made by our new Saturday Girls, and we also have a new sponsor too!..

"Stamp Fairy officially launched on November 5th 2010.

Gerda Burghardt artist and owner creates cute and whimsical digital images for the young and old, inspired by her life, love and 4 cute cats.

You will find adorable teddies bears, young boys and girls to fuzzy little bunnies and whimsical critters.

Stamp Fairy has new releases along with a free image every Friday, a weekly challenge on Mondays and Guest Designers each month on their challenge blog.

Please visit the store and browse StampFairy’s wonderful images. We hope StampFairy’s images inspire YOUR creativity."

And if you are our challenge winner this week you will win a wonderful $10 gift certificate to spend at Stamp Fairy! Thank you Gerda xx

Here's this weeks sketch...

We are joined this week by a member of Stamp Fairy's own DT, Céline, who has made this fabulous card, thanks for joining us this week Céline!

 And this beauty has been made by our GD for February, Liesbeth...

Thank you Liesbeth for another Beautifull card....wowwwzaaa

We were very kindly given some Stamp Fairy images to use this week.

Here's what the girls have made for inspiration, starting with our new Saturday Girls Jen, Lizy & Steph with their first SSDT cards!...

Jen using image from Stamp Fairy

Lizy using image from Lenny Love collection

Steph

Jilli using image from Molly Fairy collection

another brilliant card by Jilli

Faye

Jo using image from Molly Fairy collection

Donna using image from Molly Fairy collection

Susie  using image from Molly Fairy collection

Tracey using image from Molly Fairy collection

Terry

Cazza using image from Linda Fairy collection

Paula

 Bente

Over to you crafty lot ... lets see what gorgeousness you can come up with this week.  To be in with a chance of winning the fantastic prize please leave a DIRECT LINK to your work with Mr. Linky below ........

Winner of challenge #194

The winner of last weeks challenge who wins a fabulous $25 shopping spree at  Simon Says Stamp is...

Carla Suto! (Carla's Stamping Spot)  prize claimed

and here is her fabulous winning card...

Congratulations Carla :)
Please leave a comment here, then EMAIL ME so that I can let you know how you can claim your prize. Thank you.
Happy Shopping!

Jo xx

WELCOME BACK

Valentine's Day is over and President's Day is almost here. Thinking of President's Day reminds me how grateful I am to live in America. I sometimes forget (temporarily) that many people who come here to share and be blessed are from other countries other than this one. I'm so glad the internet covers the whole world and is not just confined to this one continent and this one country. I guess

Winner redrawn for #193

The original winner of challenge #193 has not come forward to claim the prize, so a new winner has been drawn who will win those 2 fab stamp sheets from Terry's generous sponsor ART JOURNEY

Shanna! it's you! (Shanna's Designs)  prize claimed

and with such an adorable card too! xx

Congratulations, please email me (Jo) with your full postal address so that I can pass it on to get those stamp sheets sent out to you.

Please claim before 23rd Feb. Thanks xx

Markets - February 13th to 19th

SATURDAY 18th FEBRUARY
Bayside
Boroondara
Buninyong
Echuca
Euroa Village
Fairfield
Gasworks
Highlands
Hume Murray
Moyhu
Myrtleford
Park Orchards
Pearcedale
Port Fairy
Prom Country
Riddels Creek
Sunraysia
Torquay Central
Trentham
Wellington
Wheelers Hill



SUNDAY 19th FEBRUARY
Ashwood
Flemington (ex Melbourne Showgrounds)
Inverloch
Koondrook-Barham
Mooroopna
Mulgrave
Queenscliff Harbour
Seaford
Talbot
Yarra Valley

#306 - Rest

You can take this in one of two ways.  You can tell us the rest of a story or you can talk about much needed rest. Have a wonderful day.

Week #194 - 11th February - Sponsored by Simon Says Stamp

Happy Saturday sketch fans!

Thank you for joining in with Terry's DT week challenge last week, wasn't it a lovely sketch? I hope you'll have as much fun this week too :)

This weeks challenge is sponsored by our friends at Simon Says Stamp!

"With over 100,000 items in stock, Simon is proud to offer the best selection of Rubber Stamps, Scrapbooking, Artist Trading Cards, Altered Art, and Paper Crafting Supplies in the world!"

To see all the latest products instore please click HERE

Their exclusive Simon Says Stamp range are HERE

Not forgetting their Magnolia range HERE

All things Tim Holtz including newly released products can be found HERE

They have yummy Copics HERE

SSS have a fab range of Hero Arts new releases for 2012 available now,
including beautiful Hero Arts mid-tone shadow inks

Did you know that you can buy e-gift cards too?

any amount from $5.00 - $100.00 is available, ideal when you don't know what to buy as a gift for a crafty friend.

A very generous $25 gift certificate will be awarded to our lucky challenge winner this week to spend on goodies in the SSS store!

as always HUGE thanks go to Simon Says Stamp!


Ok, now don't panic, take a look at the DT examples for inspiration if the circles spook you,
here is this weeks sketch...

And here is Liesbeth's card, isn't it just FABULOUS....

Here's more inspiration from The Saturdays...

Jilli

Faye

Bente

Tracey

Susie 

Cazza

YAY! Look who's back this week!

Paula

Donna

Terry

Jo

So now it's over to you talented crafty peeps, please leave a DIRECT LINK to your challenge entry blog post with Mr Linky, thank you...