april celebrates. and boy, does she create.

If you've been around Naptime Diaries at all, you know about April. 
Hopefully you saw the fun new print we got to work on together, that debuted yesterday. 
If you've been in my home, you've stood in front of one of my two massive paintings of hers and said, "WHO DID THIS?" and at that point, I pulled you in my kitchen, poured you some coffee and told you all about April. 


I'm not gonna steal her time to talk, but I'll just tell you. 
The Lord has really used her in my life and I want you to listen to her, ok? 

yep. she's always this cute. 

April, tell us how you think creativity and celebration play a roll in a believer's life. 

I think both of those play a big role in our lives as believers. Personally as an artist creativity plays a big part in my life. God is creator and as He created us I feel that creativity is for everyone, artist or not. Right now I think creativity and craftiness is trendy...which is good because lots of people are trying new things. But some people may still feel that it's off limits to them... I think we should feel that right to creativity as believers. That's so much of my heart as an artist-spreading the creative love. And Celebration, YES. Always, celebrate...I think sometimes in my life I get so busy trying to maintain and control the crazy that I forget to celebrate. We don't have a family yet, but I feel that when we do it's just going to get crazier so we might as well embrace the crazy and just celebrate. Celebrate the moments big and small. Jesus is a celebrator so we should follow in it. 

For the lady who says, "I'm not creative at all", what are a few first steps you'd share to encourage her? 
Well, first I might rebuke it, because I hear that from people all the time and I don't think it's true. Our God is the inventor of creativity and we have a direct connect to Him as believers...and the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us! Not to over spiritualize creativity, but let's not forget whose we are. We may not all be world renown designers or artists, but surely if we are desiring some creativity in our hearts God is able to give that to us. I would encourage you to get into God's word as a first step. The word is what often inspires me in my creativity. I try to visualize what a scripture could look like....and then I might do a #scripturedoodle, not to over preach the doodle, but that's the season I'm in :). Sometimes when I'm feeling stumped creatively I will try a new medium...like charcoal or collage to mix things up. Alot of times I am creating work for others and often I forget to just do some work for fun, for me just to get the juices flowing. 

What is something you're 
celebrating right now? 
One thing I'm celebrating right now is God's love for us. We heard a great message at our church this past week on God's love. How He created us out of His abundance of love simply so that He could love us. He does not need us, but chooses us to love. It's so easy to get busy with doing God's work and giving to God that we forget, He did not create us to do things for him, He wants to love us. We have to learn to let God love us and His love is not earned, it is a gift. I forget that often, so right now I am celebrating it!!

What's been your favorite creative project in the last year or so? 
My favorite creative project I've done this past year is probably my pea series, titled "Our Journey". I did the series for an art show back in October. But I really painted it to tell our story of wanting to become parents and waiting on our "peas" to come. I think it's probably some of my best work, not because of content but because of the truth behind it. Only God can make a story of heart ache beautiful and that's what he's done for us.

Thank you sweet friend for 

sharing your wisdom with us!

....................

((all print winners will be announced on Friday!))

it's time to CELEBRATE.

Today's the day! 
I really, really, really, really really do just want to celebrate. 
I started Naptime Diaries on a suggestion and a whim.
And now, by the grace of God and a good deal of coffee, we've gotten to be a part of putting thousands of prints in thousands of homes. 
And that makes this heart smile so big. 
Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord! 


To know that I can imagine kiddos playing beneath their life verses, wives being encouraged in the kitchen, students being reminded in their dorms, husbands being blessed at their desks. Families being surrounded by life, by the Word. 


To celebrate big today, I'm doing one more massive forty percent off sale - for today only! 
Use coupon code ONEYEAR all day today!  
You can take 40% off everything in the shop excluding completely custom designed prints and silhouette prints. Everything else is fair game. 


AND to up the fun, I've gotten to collaborate with one of my best friends to offer you my absolute favorite print I've ever made. The beautiful and talented and gifted April from Worship Artist Ministries added the hand-drawn portion to this mixed media print and I am just absolutely over the moon for it. 

john four twenty four 

Tomorrow, I'll be back with more creating & celebrating, but for today - head on over there and celebrate with us! 


Thank you friends for all your support! 

((all print winners will be announced on Friday!))

faith celebrates.

this is Faith. The beauty behind Great Smitten.

I have a lot to celebrate.

I have a handsome husband (with a sexy British accent), and a beautiful little boy who brings me so much joy.  I have good friends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and a community I love.  And I've always been pretty good at celebrating these things.  And at talking about them, and writing about them.  And I'm thankful to God for them.  I am.

But what I also have is a lot of dreams, and for a long time, those dreams have felt like that was all they would ever be.  Dreams.  Unattainable, unrequited, unreachable things planted deep within my heart.  Things I've had to sacrifice because of the choices I've made, or because the timing wasn't right, or because I just wasn't good enough at time management/organization/you-name-it.

I have a long list of these dreams, and I add to them every day, and sometimes I get overwhelmed because there are so many and they range from writing a best-seller to traveling the world taking beautiful photos to being the best Mama that ever walked the face of the earth.

Last Summer, I was talking with some friends about creativity, and we decided to pray, and ask God what He wanted to say.  A few minutes later, my friend Kezia turned to me and said (in the loveliest Scottish brogue), "Faith, I feel like God wants you to know that He never meant for you to be gray."

She continued: "He's made you like a chameleon.  Changing.  Colorful."

Something deep, deep down inside of me broke. Colorful.  Changing.

All those dreams, popping into my head in the shower, dancing their way through my subconscious while I sleep, suddenly felt less like impossibilities and more like promises.  

This list is no longer a list of things to mourn.  It's a list of things to celebrate.  

And today I can create freely, because I'm not paralyzed anymore by my sadness, or my self-pity, or my own false belief that I was destined to draw in gray while everyone around me paints in color.   

I can run hard after these dreams, and hand them over to my Creator when they are too big and overwhelm me.  

And He takes them, faithfully, because He knows how much I can carry.  

Because He made me this way.

((all print winners will be announced on Friday!))

celebrating & creating.

I have a precious friend here that I spend a lot of time with. If this was the type of blog where I told day to day funny stories. Or day to day redemptive stories. Or day to day sad stories, I'd have been telling you lots about her lately. When we were just figuring one another out, one of the first questions she asked me was what my favorite color was. She was almost joking, but it was a sweet question. The Lord had connected our hearts on the big things, but we were still connecting the dots on the details. 


But what my favorite color is, is a BIG question. Over the next few hours, I answered her question. I cried some tears and laughed some and when the time had passed, I sort of giggled and said, "so that's the answer. COLOR is my favorite color." What I told her, in short, is that for many years I feel like our life was devoid of color. Our life was survival. It was shades of grey. It was sterile and keeping it all clean. That was partially due to babies and moving and lack of margin, but I also think it was a spiritual state too. As we were finding our place and moving around and learning and shifting and growing, being outwardly beautiful seemed like the least important and possibly least attainable goal around. 


And color just didn't have a place in our life. 


But maybe you've heard the story about how I made my first Naptime Diaries print. I was truly just in the hospital with Glory and the Lord prompted something in my heart to make a visible representation of the verse I was praying for her. And my first psalm 46:5 print was born. A few weeks later, my friend pushed me to put in on Etsy. And now I find myself a year later, having designed 100s of prints, and truly - so much more than that. It's not even about the prints any more. 


It's not about the big rings. 
The red lipstick. 
The colorful house. 
The worship/painting sessions. 
It's that the Lord is moving in my heart and showing me - while this isn't our home, this earth, this body - He has just massively blessed us with the ability to experience beauty. To celebrate His presence on earth. To feel hopeful. To watch His spirit move. 
And all of a sudden, color is all about this visual representation of God's grace. His hand moving in our life. Joy. Goodness. Eternity to come. And even the hard things, some colors make me feel like He understands our grief. Our worldly small grief that hurts Him to because He's our Dad. 
For real, a good deep tealish navy. Sometimes I feel like the Lord invented that color to say, "I love you kiddo. I'm sorry you're hurting". 


And beauty is changed in my eyes. I don't see beauty as this unattainable thing (my own or that which I can create or just view) that is pointless and only set up to make me feel separate from it. Beauty is His hand. Here on earth. And I can celebrate it and sometimes He enables us to join Him in the creating. And that's 100% of why I love running an Etsy shop, redesigning blogs, going thrift shopping, wearing lipstick, looking at art, listening to music or coloring with my kids. 


SO. Cut to the chase. 
It's been a year since I opened my Etsy shop. 
I know that in my own life, as we've moved and gotten bogged down with the daily. We've let our eyes drift off Him and His goodness occasionally, I am seriously feeling the need to CELEBRATE and CREATE. 


So I'm taking this week to go back to the drawing board and push the reset button on my heart. Ask Him to refresh my joy. Refresh my excitement. Refresh my heart. 
And while I'm doing that - this potentially celebratory and creative space shouldn't just sit here empty, AMEN? We need some excitement and I plan to deliver: 

(READ THIS PART FOR SURE) 

 Every day this week (Monday-Friday), I'm going to pick one person at random from the comments to receive a free print from the shop of their choice! True story! 

Every day this week I'll have a little tidbit from a wise, inspiring woman who celebrates and creates (woohoo!) 

- On Wednesday I am having ANOTHER massive one day sale. One day only. 40%. Everything in the shop except custom prints & silhouettes!!!

 Next week I'll check back in, after I've gotten my fill of celebrating what the Lord is doing and allowing Him more space to create in our home and tell ya'll what I've been up to. Man oh man, I'd love to hear the same from you guys. 

So - who's in? 
Who needs a little celebrating and creating this week? 
Who knows the Creator? The One worth celebrating? 
join me.