Wishful Watching Waiting and Roses

Here is another entry for Layers of Color Challenge -Roses. Enjoy!

Layers of Color Challenge- Roses

Here is my entry for this weeks Layers of Color challenge. I know this isn't the traditional way to use roses but I thought that I would try something different. I was too excited to use this thriftstore find! It only cost me $2.00, a real steal! It already had this wonderful gold and cream patina to it. My kind of treasure!
I used some old hardware and of course added one of my signature roses to it in antique
brown-blue. I am using this treasure box to house all my ATC's. I used the fleur heart stamp and pearl boarders from LOC too, I think they add a wonderful textured detail to the edges.

In My Garden

My goodness...I have been having a very successful season with my roses this year and I thought you might enjoy seeing this years blessing. Boy, do I love roses! There is something about them. Maybe it is the old fashioned nature of this flower or that it is considered by many to be the queen of all flowers! It is the sweet luscious scent some would argue, I would say, "Yes!" It is for all of those reasons that I love the rose.

This flower also represents life to me and I would like to share my thoughts with you on this. Life is filled with beauty and things that are pleasing to our senses! It is easy to be caught up in the sweet aroma of a rose, isn't it? To many the smell of a rose will take them captive and fill their mind's eye with lovely memories of places and people, and of love. It can represent friendship and congratulations. It often fills our churches and places of worship during weddings and funerals. It's oils have been used for centuries to beautify many a Lady and Queens.

However, there is also a dark side to the rose. If you have been pricked by it's thorns you know what I am talking about. Life too is thorny. We get prick and poked all the time and sometimes we even...bleed. There are seasons in life where we feel like we are bleeding sometimes physically, other times emotionally, even sometimes spiritually. The thorns of a rose are a caution, slow down, please handle me with care. I have felt the need at times to be 'handled with care'.

My roses are a great reminder that in order to enjoy the sweetness of life and all its loveliness we also have to be willing to take the thorns, to get pricked and poked on this journey. But most importantly, my roses remind me of a scripture from the Word of God:

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 15For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?