Is there such a thing as destiny?

I wonder. I think we each have a lot of control over our lives and our choices, but do we have total control? Does making a choice mean things will happen in our lives that we cannot change? Is there a plan in the universe for each of us that we can twist a bit but not toslly change? See I wonder. I wanted a big family-3 or 4 kids, yet I had only one. Now, I am glad I had only one, and it has been a fantastic journey, one where having only 1 child took me is very different trip than having 2 or 3 or even 4 children. Now I wonder, was the universe only aligned for me to have 1 child even though I wanted more?

I used to want to be a fiction writer, and I wrote all the time. REJECTION after REJECTION. Got a short story published here and there and a novel short listed once, but it always felt like whether I "made it" or not was out of my control. I know that making it doesn't really mean you need to be published. And I know that it probably really wasn't what I was meant to be, as I realized once I rediscovered art since I'd loved crafts as a kid and as an adult but I discovered it as something to let go of stress and put me in a really good place. I discovered what art could do for me and how happy it made me and how it really was something my creative self was really good at ...so then I decided

I'd love to be one of these big artists...you know, be on design teams, write articles for magazines, design my own stamps, work for an art supply company and do something more creative with arts as my career than teach for a career. Like having 1 child, I love my job and it is not a regret...but was there some plan in my destiny why I am not more of a designer? Or is it just that I am not in the right place at the right time? Or is is it just that a place like that hasn't yet arrived in my life? Maybe I took a different turn at some intersection in life and by passed those options.  Or is it I am not exactly aligned to really be that? Or is it...?

I wonder. Sometimes it is fun to think about these things-can drive you crazy if you take those thoughts TOO seriously.

Maybe I wonder too much and maybe this doesn't really make sense. Maybe it is just about being who you really are and not who you think you should be. Maybe you should just let go of all your expectations about what you want out of life and just let yourself fly free in the universe and let destiny take you are to go...if there is destiny that is. Maybe it is just a random journey.

But maybe not.

ANYHOW

Let's look at some art and be a bit less philosophical. (ha-ha! I'm confusing myself.)

Dogs and cat-cards I made one morning.

I LOVE this silly cat by Postmodern Design. I collect their stamps, seeing they are a defunct company. I stamped and colored this silly guy, and then used an Inkadinkado stamp to put down the background meows, and the other words are from an Autumn Leaves set. I colored those in and then added some gold sparkles (only gold for this guy) and the outer edges of the scalloping.

Love this card above. I started by punching out a printed circle, which I attached and then ringed in marker. I stamped the little doggie (CHF stamps) on white paper and colored and cut him out and then attached him. The little dog and the bones on the background are from a dog walker set by My Favorite Things. I used more of those favorite open circles (from a Hero Arts clear stamp set) in the background. I then stamped the saying (Prickly Pear) on green and outlined it with brown.

And lastly this guy who definately has something on his mind. I started with a green cardstock card. Then is used  Sizzix/Tim Holtz embossing plate on white which distressed with some brown ink.  I stamped the dog twice because of the little grass blades in this stamp. First I stamped the dog directly on the card and then I stamped it on white paper. I colored the white paper dog and cut him out and then attached him onto the card, leaving the grass blades (which I colored green) visable. Then I stamped the saying (also CHF with the dog) on the green rectangle, outlined that in green and then put 2 cute little dogbone brads in before attaching all that to the card. Then I added some little round open circle stickers on each corner.

I think my Katie will love to get these cards when she's off to school-in just 1 more week she moves back to school. Should be easier than it was for me last year, but it is coming too soon. I don't really want her to go back, but I do want her to go, just gonna miss her!