Your Divine Purpose

**This post is part of my process of moving some of my favorite/important posts from my blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com here so this can be my one and only blog. I hope you get something out of them too!**

**This particular post is from November 30th, 2008**

Here are the notes I used for the talk I gave today, in case you missed it. These notes don't contain my obligatory opening joke or my testimony, but I never strayed too far from these for the body of my talk. Enjoy.

"You are here to enable the divine purpose of the Universe to unfold. That is how important you are."
Eckhart Tolle - Writer, Spiritual Teacher

"You are here..."

Speaking about the purpose of the Earth...
Alma 42:26 "And thus God bringeth about his great and eternal purposes, which were prepared from the foundation of the world. And thus cometh about the salvation and the redemption of men, and also their destruction and misery."

Mortality and life on Earth is an absolutely critical part of Heavenly Father's plan. It is through this mortality that we will come upon salvation and redemption, or destruction and misery. This mortal probation allows us to use our agency and choose our fate.

"You are here to enable..."

Heavenly Father's Holy, most perfect plan could NOT be carried out without you. It is only through each and every individual that this plan can come to pass. You enable God's plan to unfold. There is not a soul that you will ever meet whose importance is less than infinite in this plan.

Thinking this way can help us to treat one another better. I feel like I am better able to act with love and respect towards people I meet when I remember that we are ALL sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and His plan includes each of these souls. Our baptismal covenants bind our promise to uphold the Lord's plan, and to do so requires the utmost respect for every single individual's divine purpose. Just as you and I are here to enable His plan to unfold, so is everyone you encounter.

"enable the divine purpose of the Universe"

Heavenly Father has a plan for his children, for the Earth, for everything. Every single person you meet is a CRITICAL piece of his plan. Nobody here is just coasting or taking up space.

Some people of certain faiths take God's plan and purpose for the Universe as a means to believe in predetermination - that what they do doesn't matter because they have no effect on the outcome - their fate is prewritten into the plan.

However, knowing that the Lord has a plan does not free us of responsibility. It means that we should be making a conscious effort to seek to know our place in his plan. We can consecrate our efforts to help his plan unfold.

D&C 123:17 - "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."
Do you do all that lies in your power to help further the Lord's divine purposes?

It's interesting to relate this to your day-to-day life. Think if what you're doing fits with your place in the Lord's plan. If I did more time reflecting this way, I'd probably be a little more driven to do good works. After all, I hope that Heavenly Father, who knows me better than anyone, has more for me to do and accomplish in his plan than be lazy, watch movies, or shop. Whatever your vice is that takes time away from carrying out the will of the Lord, ask yourself if the one who knows you better than yourself might expect more.

From our Heavenly Parents, we have inherited Divine Nature, with divine qualities that are our responsibility to develop.

2 Peter 1:4-7 : "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity."

Here we are given the list of divine qualities we are to strive to develop. I know that as we try our very best to develop these qualities, we will be more aware of our divine purpose in Heavenly Father's plan. By living with more faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity, not only will we be instruments in the Lord's hands to bring about His work and His purposes, but we will also partake of wonderful fruits of our efforts.

2 Nephi 2:25 - "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy"

Define this by noticing what it's not. It's not "men are, that they might have pride/things/glory/easy lives/PLEASURE"

Eckhart Tolle: "Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within"
Rightly so, joy arises from these deep, inherited, divine qualities that lie within each of us. Our Heavenly Father, through his Great plan of Happiness, has a monopoly on true, lasting joy. The world will often try to sell us pleasure and market it as joy, but things outside of us can only bring cheap knockoffs of joy. We need to be careful, as the adversary has many carefully placed and cunning salespeople trying to market us these pleasures as sources for lasting joy.

Kids say the Darndest things

**This post is part of my process of moving some of my favorite/important posts from my blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com here so this can be my one and only blog. I hope you get something out of them too!**

**This particular post includes some funny things my niece has said**

11/16/08: Em's subtlety

Em is spending the night tonight. After saying goodnight to grandma and grandpa, she makes sure the last thing she tells them is, "Be careful if you make pancakes!!" Hahaha i'm guessing we already know what's for breakfast tomorrow.

2/16/09: Playability
Grandma: "Hey, Em, I'm going to get dressed and you should too!"
Em: "Why?!"
Grandma: "So we can go to the grocery store! Do you want to go with me in a little bit?"
Em: "Yeah!! But not right now. Right now I'm too playable!"

I &hearts iPhone

**This post is part of my process of moving some of my favorite/important posts from my blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com here so this can be my one and only blog. I hope you get something out of them too!**

**This particular post was written July 13th, 2008, and refers to the night before iPhone 3G came out**

Taking a cue from my sister, I've decided to post my iPhone-obtaining adventure.

My original plan was to head to the AT&T store here in my town at about 6 A.M. to get in line for the iPhone. I was online IMing with a fellow late-stayer-upper friend of mine, MG, at around 1:30 AM. He was bored and hungry so he decided to head out to Jack in the Box and drove past the AT&T store to scope out the situation. He called me and said there were already about 40 people in line, so I told him to get in line and that i'd be there shortly. I got some lawnchairs, blankets, pillows, a book of crossword puzzles, and some food.

And thus, I camped out in front of AT&T. Our outgoing natures allowed MG and I to befriend everyone around us in line. In front of us were two twenty-year old guys, a thirty-something of Latin descent (who we later discovered is a daddy), and behind us was a doo-rag wearer who used to be in the army. We all became friends, played cards, etc. It was kind of breakfast club-ish; a very random group of people united by one random experience. At some point, one of the twenty-year olds went home and got a humongous air mattress. it was bigger than a king-size. At this point, my outgoingness bought me two hours of sleep on an air mattress on a sidewalk. I kept safe distance from my new but still strange friends of course, and MG stayed awake.

BTW, at this point, let me point out that MG rocked as a friend that night. He wasn't even getting an iPhone. He just stayed to chill with me.

AT&T opened at 8, and workers came down the line with clipboards asking which iPhone we wanted. I told them I wanted a 16gig in black. Only a handful of people after me, and they had to announce to the rest of the line (some of which had been waiting there since around 3:30 or so) that they only had the white 16 gigs left after that point, and after another point, they'd be all out altogether. I was so happy that MG had given me the intel so I could get the phone I wanted. Lucky lucky lucky. I got into the store around 9:45, bought the phone, said goodbye to my new friends, and was on my way home by 10. 8 and a half hours after I got to the store, I left with my new iPhone. I didn't have them set up my phone, and i didn't experience any of the difficulties during activation that people have been talking about.

And now, iPhone and I are experiencing a beautiful new relationship. I think we'll be very happy together.

Featured Etsy Seller: EmeraldBlueStudio

Today I'm featuring an amazing photographer! Bonnie, from Emerald Blue Studio, was kind enough to let me feature her great work and share her talent with you! Her personal philosophies on beauty already have me looking more consciously and carefully at my natural surroundings, and I'm sure they'll do the same for you.

Bonnie describes her process: "I spend a lot of time sitting still in the backyard, with the camera focused on (usually) small insects who seem to be working hard, flying from flower to flower. Sometimes they move so fast I'm not 100% certain if I've captured what I thought I saw, and it's such a thrill to get them onto the computer to see if I did or not."


All of her photographs were taken in the stunningly beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Bonnie honors the natural beauty she captures as she refrains from digitally altering the images: "What you see is what I saw." This makes her photos all the more stunning, to know the vivid colors and textures were not digitally enhanced, but are pure talent and an eye for beauty.

"I'd never seen a clearwing hummingbird moth before he visited my petunias. I love how his back legs are crossed, looking all relaxed while he's working."


"I also spend time looking at the plants in my container garden -- they change SO fast, even over the course of a day. The cucumber plants and their curly tendrils change the most in a short span of time."

Don't miss this opportunity to check out these fabulous photo prints! You can find them on Bonnie's Etsy shop, or, check out other options at emeraldblue.redbubble.com, and more info on her website at http://www.emeraldbluestudio.com

**Want to have your shop or artwork featured? E-mail me at lazydaisymarie [at] gmail [dot] com with a link to your shop and I'll get in touch with you!**

Ribbed Knit Bamboo Leg Warmers

Check these out! I knit these a while back but haven't had a chance to take photos of them til now (had to borrow someone with legs of course). A little later on today I'll be taking more off-the-legs pictures and listing them on Etsy!

These are hand-knit from Bamboo Natural Blends yarn (86% Bamboo, 12% Acrylic, 2% Polyester). They're cream-colored and 19.5" (about 50cm) from end to end. The bottom end (for the ankle/top of the foot) is about 8"(20cm) around, and doesn't stretch too much so the warmers will stay put securely. The top end is about 10" (25cm) around and allows you to slouch the legwarmers to your liking. I can easily add elastic at the top if you'd like. The wide knit will let these legwarmers stretch to fit many sizes.

In case you've never heard of bamboo yarn before, let me tell you, it is AMAZING!! It's very soft, sleek and smooth, and has a very nice sheen to it. And, I feel a lot better about using bamboo than sheep's wool.

So, what do you think?

(P.S. HUGE special thanks to KG for letting me use her legs/feet for these pictures)

A Trip to the E.R.

**This post is part of my process of moving some of my favorite/important posts from my blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com here so this can be my one and only blog. I hope you get something out of them too!**

**This particular post was written September 15th, 2008**

My body is all out of whack.

While I was in disneyland (July 27th-31), I developed a pretty bad ingrown toenail. I've gotten them over and over again in my big toes for the past year or so.

After seeing doctors and getting antibiotics to treat infection and blah blah blah, I finally saw a podiatrist, who performed a double matrixectomy (sliced off little bits of both sides of the toenail on both of my big toes) a little over 2 weeks ago.

After 2 weeks of soaking my feet 3 times a day, I went back for her to check on my recovery. She said there was a chance I would develop an infection, so she prescribed me Azithromycin (a generic for Zythromax), a 5-day antibiotic course. This was a just-in-case measure.

Anywho, yesterday, my body started feeling a little crazy. I was getting these spurts of numbness, tingling, and pins-and-needles feelings down my arms, shoulder to fingertip that lasted for 15 seconds or so each, and were recurring pretty often for many hours. Each time I got that sensation, I would also get really dizzy. When my arms weren't feeling asleep, I was feeling generally lightheaded.

After consulting my typical health sources (WebMD, and facebook chatting with friends who have moms who are nurses), I decided that I should go to the ER.

The doctor at the ER did all these weird neurological tests to make sure my brain was okay, which it is (you don't have to joke about this statement). When I told her about the antibiotic I have been taking, she said that many people have problems on that particular antibiotic with things like vertigo, out-of-body experiences, and numbness. The doctor felt confident that the antibiotic was responsible for all of my symptoms. And since I was on it as a "just-in-case" measure, it's no problem for me to just stop taking it.

The last time I took one was yesterday afternoon, and I'm just waiting for it all to be out of my system. I still have some twitchiness and little bouts of the tingling, though they're not as intense as they were yesterday. I really hope that it's all gone by tuesday, the next time I'm scheduled to work =/

On the bright side, my toes seem to be healing nicely!

It's Funny Because It's True

**This post is part of my process of moving some of my favorite/important posts from my blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com here so this can be my one and only blog. I hope you get something out of them too!**

**This particular post wasn't originally written by me, but it was too funny not to share. I originally posted it on April 9th, 2008**

Dear Tech support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I’ve tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate.

**************

DEAR DESPERATE,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and don’t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) Also do not attempt to reinstall Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,
Tech Support

Source: Amy

Amy's Source: e-mail forward

Why I don't shop at Best Buy

**This post is part of my process of moving some of my favorite/important posts from my blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com here so this can be my one and only blog. I hope you get something out of them too!**

**This particular post was written January 17th, 2008 (i've changed a few things to make it make sense now)**

First, this concerns the exboyfriend, whose name (if I'm not mistaken) I have managed to keep out of blog posts thusfar. For blogging sake, he is now known as Elvis.

For Christmas 2007, part of the gift I got Elvis was the game Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360. Just the game, not the bundle pack with the guitar controller (he already has one from GHIII). Unfortunately the disc was warped. In both his xbox and mine, it would vibrate and make a lot of noise when it spun, to the point where the game would start to skip. Naturally, we took the game back to Best Buy and exchanged it for another disc of the same game. I could already tell from some other experiences with their Customer Service and this first GHII experience that they weren't very easy or polite people to deal with.

The disc we exchanged for turned out to be warped, too. So we took it back again. Exchanged it for another disc. Oh, I guess it's a good idea to mention that each exchange occurred with the same customer service girl, who's pretty rude. During this third try of getting a disc that worked, we noticed that the girl peculiarly took the plastic wrap off of the new game case and threw it away. We didn't really think anything of it, so we went home.

Did that disc work? Of course it didn't. So we took it back to Best Buy for what I hope is my last time ever going to that store. We were fed up with GH 2, so Elvis wanted to return it and put the money toward the new Lego Star Wars. At customer service, the same girl as always looks over our GHII. She asks us "did you buy this in the bundle pack?" We say, "no, just the game" She tells us that there's no barcode on the game we brought back, which should mean it was from the bundle pack. We reiterate that we didn't buy the bundle but have just exchanged the game itself. She says she can't do anything without the barcode. We look perplexed. She calls the manager over.

The manager's pretty rude in her communication skills too. She tells us that she can't exchange GH for a different game, but she can grab a new copy of the game, exchange our warped disc into the new box (with a barcode) and send that box with the warped disc back to the warehouse or whatever they do with returned stuff. Elvis is nice and says that's fine because he did want that game, after all, but we had just been fed up with the poor product quality. Unfortunately, this put us in another pickle because that meant we still wouldn't have a barcode in case this new disc sucked too.

So the manager leaves and the original girl is completing our transaction, and she cuts open the plastic wrap on the new game and throws it away. It takes about half a second for my brain to realize what happened. I turned to Elvis and said, "that's where the barcode is. They threw it away last time." He realizes it too. The girl at customer service clearly hears our observation, and you could see it in her face that she realized what she had been doing. They were telling us they couldn't complete the transaction the way we wanted because there was no barcode. There was no barcode because the jerk had unwrapped the game "for us" (which we were never asked if we wanted her to do when she did this before, btw).

Instead of calling the manager back over and explaining that it had been their mistake, the jerk says nothing. Elvis is pretty nonconfrontational, so he just wants to leave, but I start to get pretty angry. I tell him we should tell the manager. So, we go up to the rude manager, and Elvis says (very politely), "Hey, I don't mind having this game since this is the game I originally wanted and all, but I wanted to let you know that the reason the barcode wasn't on our game was because the girl at customer service has been cutting off the plastic wrap and throwing it away with the barcode on it."

Any good manager would have realized it was Best Buy's mistake and taken care of getting us what we wanted. Did she? Of course not. She rudely sneers, "oh, um.. yeah, sorry about that" And we left, and I was pissed off.

I haven't yet written a letter or e-mail to corporate, but I intend to. I'm really never ever going to buy anything from them ever again.

Oh, and for the curious, the new disc is warped too. And now Elvis can't take it back because he lives in Georgia, and there's no barcode on the package.

And So Can YOU!!

**This is the first of what will be many posts that I am copying over from my old blog at http://yummyjessicake.blogspot.com . I'm in the process of making this my one and only blog, and I want to hold on to some of these posts. Plus, you may enjoy them!**

**This particular post was written on November 13th, 2007**

I am currently trying to listen to the conference talks that I missed this October. I recently got to listening to the much-talked-about talk "Mothers Who Know" by Julie Beck. If you haven't heard it, you can read it there to know what it's about. I don't really feel like getting in to how I felt about it and all that jazz, but I will admit that as I listened to it, I was reminded of this portion of I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert (funny book, by the way).

"The mother-child bond is a fragile thing. That's why I didn't let my mom out of my sight until two years after I married. Buy while time apart is hard on the kids, it's devastating for Mom. There's something I call "The Maternal Instinct." It's a natural part of every female from the paramecium all the way up to our female human woman. Females need to nurture constantly, so they hate any time alone where they are left to think, shower, or sleep. For a Mom to be happy, every moment away from her children must be filled with the soul-wrenching thought, "Am I a bad mother?"

The answer to that question is a resounding "Yes." Scientists have proven, one assumes, that every flaw in a child can be traced back to a mistake made by the mother. As adults we're all imperfect, so that means all mothers are incompetent. But some mothers are worse than others. Take women who work. I don't care if it's CEO of a major corporation or three hours a week as a teacher's aide, if you work outside the home, you might as well bring coconut arsenic squares to the school bake sale.

A mother needs to be in the home even when the kids aren't. A messy home sends a coded message to children: "I'm not loveable. Otherwise Mom would dust."

A good mother cooks, cleans, drives, organizes charity events so her children earn community service points for college, and expects nothing in return except love and breakfast in bed one day a year.

So, a word to all you Femin-Idi-Amins: Stop "liberating" moms by trying to make them join the workforce. They're already doing the job that God put them here to do: Everything."

That's what I was reminded of while I listened ot that talk. The big difference is that he is a comedian, not a speaker at General Conference.

Photographers! I need help!

I'm getting frustrated with photographing these lighter color pieces of jewelry. I won't tell you which I've liked/why I'm retaking these. Let me know if you think each one is better on the white or darker background, and if you have any suggestions of anything else to try. Thanks!

First, the Green Aventurine earrings:












Second, the Rose Garden Earrings:

Oh, did you think I was kidding?

I think it was about 6 hours ago that I posted complaining about the way my blog looked. And I stated that the redesign just got upped in priority!

Did you think I was kidding?!

Most productive 6 hours ever!

=)

What I miss most about summer. . .

Check out the Etsy Treasury I just created: What I miss most about summer...

Comment the treasury and buy from these sellers! They're making beautiful things (and making me drool a little bit. Don't tell anyone, it's embarrassing.)

Recession Proof

In the interest of listing more jewelry in different price ranges for those who can't afford the current LDM collection, I've started a project of making jewelry similar to designs I already have listed, but with a few changes that make them cost less.

Changes include using different materials and reducing the complexity of the piece to cut down on production time. I refuse to sacrifice quality, so cheap, plastic junk still will be NOWHERE in my shop =)

I don't plan to only be working on pieces within this project, so you'll also see fun, new things arriving soon! That being said...

I started listing this new line yesterday! For those who love the style of my Ladies' Night collection but can't afford it at the moment, check out Ladies' Night Lite! I used some of my favorite aspects of the Ladies' Night design while cutting cost for the consumer. Look for matching pieces coming up soon!

P.S. Also, you can expect to see a higher-end version of this design coming soon, too! =)

Look for these great items listing tomorrow!!

Hey faithful blog-readers! Here's your sneak peek! Check the shop tomorrow for more pictures and more information!

Organization Fail

I don't think I meant for this to qualify as "Scrapbooking" Material.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!



I got you this bouquet, but Zoey and Roxy like it too much so I think we're going to keep it. Oh well. It's the thought that counts, right?

Photoshop Master in Training

Hey hey! Hope you all are having a great, rainy weekend! I'm spending my time indoors, working on things like a fiend! Right now I'm slowly working through what seems like 100 different books on Photoshop CS3! The program has so many features, and I feel like I want to know what all of them do. There's so much information to take in!

That being said, over at Lazy Daisy Marie I have a new banner and avatar up. Let me know what you think of them!

BIG THANK YOUs go out to my friend Theron, for drawing up the sketch, and James, for teaching me how to color it in a not so dweebish way =) If I could soak up the artistic abilities of those two guys, I'd be freaking Picasso. Minus the facial distortion.

Other update: In order to round out my shop a bit, I think I'm going to pause on making more jewelry and try to finish up some of my knit projects I have going on. I want to make sure I don't dig myself too deep of a niche in the jewelry world and have trouble breaking into other sections =)

Keep a lookout for some very cool hand-knit legwarmers, made from silky bamboo yarn. I'm also working on some ideas for customizable keychains (no nail-breaking keyrings), cell phone and laptop covers, and a few things I'm not giving away yet ;)

Enough about me. How are you?!

Guns and Rubies

Just got done posting this awesome collection! Check it out!

Blue and Black Classic Necklace

Just listed this beauty! Check it out!