Frock, Fabric and Just Fine

Frock: I found this vintage (old) tunic at our new thrift store in town.

(BTW, it's run by a pastor who is using profit from the store

to fund their new homeless ministry. 

Awesome idea and amazing little store. Has some really cute stuff.

I'll have to post later some of the other cute things we've gotten there!)

Anyway. This frock found my eye, and I fell in love.

Decided to take it home and take a stab at "re-doing" it.

Results were fabulous and I got a headband out of the deal. 

I love it now and will soon post pics!

Fabric: I have fallen in love with a fabric designer named Anna Maria Horner.

I love her cute little family, her gorgeous pictures, her spirit, but most of all her fabrics!

I recently ordered a bunch in order to make a quilt of hers.

I nearly swooned when it got here. It is SO GORGEOUS!

This is just a tease. Can't wait to show you what I do with it!

(Be forewarned....it might be a while. I've got lots of projects going.)

Just Fine: My chives. I thought they were dying 

and was so confused as to what was wrong.

They were not dying, they just needed thinned.

Oh and how I hated that. I just felt so bad ripping out 

little baby chive plants who had done nothing more than try to grow.

So sad. But so necessary. Really. It was like magic. 

I ruthlessly (not listening to their little pleads to be spared) thinned them 

and overnight they blossomed into these sturdy little spikes.

So, they are not dying, they are just fine.

Blog Redesign

So, I promised that I'd share how I redesigned my blog without knowing HTML or PHP or CSS. I've been busy, but I finally have some time now that it's SO hot in my trailer that moving makes me sweat. I don't really like sweating. At all.

The first thing I did was search Google. I typed in all sorts of things.....but didn't get a whole lot there. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Most of what I found needed you to know at least SOME coding. All I can do is change a HEX color code. That's about it.

So, I starting surfing through blogs and tried clicking on names of designers and websites and I hit the jackpot!

I found Shabbyblogs.com first where they make cute free background, blog buttons, post seperaters and tags all for free! PLUS, there are step by step instructions with how to install them on your Blogger. This is a really great site, but not really my style. I kept looking.

Next I stumbled onto The Cutest Blog on the Block. Same idea as Shabby Blogs, but not to my liking either. HOWEVER, they had this fabulous section called Free Blogging Secrets where I learned how to make my own background and how to change the font on your blog posts. Using the program Paint.net along with fotoflexer.com I made sidebar tags and my own header

To change the font on my blog posts I was directed to Amanda's site. I followed her GREAT step by step instructions and was able to change the fonts. A plus is that Amanda and her husband Kevin run a free font site where I grabbed my cute font from!

Overall, it took a while. Quite a while. But now my blog is pretty and I love it! Which makes me want to blog more often.

Ugly blog? Problem solved.

Hello there.

I worked on the yard today. All day.

....Well, not all day. But it sure felt like a long time. In truth, it was about 3-4 hours. I'm not sure what time I started. BUT I was VERY productive today!!

I went to Home Depot, realized that the color mulch we originally bought, which is down in half our landscaping beds, was sold out. SO, I bought another color similar to it. 6 bags of it. I came home, spray painted primer on a PURPLE plastic planter/bench that has been an eyesore. I then spread out 3 1/2 bags of mulch on our front, very large landscaped bed. (I think this fall, I might just plant some bushes along the back and be done with half the space! It's huge!!) Then went to the landscaped bed in the back that was a wreck. Half filled with leaves, random things that fell from the deck, LOTS of earthworms, weeds and I'm supposing (hoping) some flowers. I tried to pull the weeds and keep the flowers but cleaning it out took me the better part of an hour I think! Then I had to level it. I loosened up all the top dirt with our big shovel, then got on my hands and knees and spread it all out. By then, I was pretty tired and dirty. BUT then I went and spray painted a first color coat on the plastic primer. Then I poured mulch into the newly cleaned and leveled landscape bed. I then finished spray painting the planter/bench, but it needed time to dry, so I grabbed my gramma's old gliding chair off the porch and started spray painting it, too! I got most of it, but got tired and stopped. No mind though, I will just buy two more cans of spray paint, finish painting the chair, spray paint the swing and make cushions for the chair AND the swing. It will look beautiful, I am sure! By then, the planter/bench was dry. So I shoved it back into place under our pine tree, filled the planters with dirt, planted some little Snapdragons (praying it's not too early for them to be outside!!) and took a deep breath. Sigh. THEN I cleaned the yard and decided I was done. SO, I came inside and dyed my hair and stained most of the shower wall trying to rinse it out carefully. Didn't go so well. I'll be cleaning those walls with some bleach and rubbing alcohol. I'll let you know how it goes.

I threw dinner in the oven (potatoes, flounder fillets and veggies). Don't be impressed, I shoved fish and veggies into little foil packets with seasoning and oil and let them bake at the end of the potatoes time in the oven. Very tasty. Then I finished reading a book I started to read while I was sitting on the bathroom floor, waiting until the timer went off so I could rinse my hair out. Sigh. It was a GREAT book.

It was a great day off. I am tired, sore and SO very happy that our outside is looking more and more beautiful!! I can't WAIT to get some fabric and sew new cushions. It'll look snazzy.

Ok, I am tired and should go to bed now. AFTER I fold my laundry and wash my dishes from dinner.

....totally should have waited to finish that book, but it was SO GOOD! It's always hard to put one down once you get past the mid-way point. Sigh.

Justin's 14 Layer Birthday Cake!

If you cannot see the delicious cake pictures, click here.

Freedom

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galations 5:1

This has been running through my mind a lot lately. I'm finding freedom in my life in a bunch of small and new ways. Or perhaps just ways that I've forgotten lately and am recommitting to.

Freedom to not blog for days when I don't want to.
Freedom to try new things and not be afraid of failure.
Freedom to trust the Lord with all the little things.
Freedom to take a break when I need to.
Freedom to trust the Lord with all the big things.
Freedom not to worry.

I've been working on a yellow quilt lately. It's been fun. I've never made a quilt before. I've done some research and am now taking my first attempt at it. I love working on it, surprisingly, as I don't much really like to sew. It's not just any quilt. It's the first quilt of many that the Lord has given me ideas for and asked me to make. That makes it a slightly bigger deal. Okay, a much bigger deal to me.

I feel okay when I am working on it, but convincing myself to sit down and start working on it is hard.

Thoughts run through my head like, "I'm going to mess it up." and "What am I thinking? I can't do this." and "Oh, guess I'm not really good at this after all." All lies and we know from where. I've really been having to stand on HIS truth lately, that I am His, that He equips, that if He's called me to do it, He'll help and it will probably take some failures to get to a really well-built quilt, but that's ok. And in standing on that, I've found freedom lately. It's a beautiful thing.

The doing is always harder than the imagining.

As for new hard things, I am making Justin a double chocolate 14 layer cake today for his birthday dinner tonight from a recipe I found on Bakerella.com. Pictures will come.

Boxed In or Open Prairie?

Basically the story is, for the past two years or so, I'll be in church, prayer, worship, whatever and something will click in my head and I'll get an idea. Sometimes it's an idea for a painting, other times a paper collage, furniture, greeting cards, knitting, once a mural and recently blankets. When I get the idea, I'll write it on whatever I have handy. It usually ends up being on my sermon notes, which quickly fill up with more drawings than notes.

A few months ago, I decided to put them all in one place and bought a beautiful wonderful sketchbook that I love. Let's call her Ann, cause it's fun. I titled Ann "My Sketchbook" and filled it up with all these wonderous thoughts, ideas and plans, all with meticulous notes about the finished project. Then I put it away. I thought about actually doing these things, but not seriously.

Then, at the Women's Retreat with my church a few weeks ago, when I was lamenting to the Lord about how predictable, boring and busy my life is, He challenged me. I was seeing myself boxed in all around by my life situation right now and I felt a bit trapped and therefore unhappy. Over the course of that retreat, God lifted away every side to that box. He asked me a lot of "What if this or that?" questions and I began to realize, yet again, just how wide open my life options are or could be. One of things He asked me was what if I started making all the things I had dreamed about in my sketchbook?

It was amazing. I was scared and excited all at the same time. I knew it would be hard. I'm a perfectionist and when I get an idea in my head, I want it to end up just that way. However, it usually doesn't go that way! The creative process must be flexible and yielding as the project forms. One thing doesn't work, so you try another and it's ok. I try to tell myself this over and over in my head as I work.

All of my life right now, this process, handing it over to the Lord, working out the kinks, bumps, trying to answer all the questions that come up in my head....it's overwhelming. I have the nights where I've worked 5 hours on a few different projects and nothing is panning out like I wanted it to. I also have the nights where I sit down and in 2 hours have a perfect project that I love. All in all, I'm learning to be flexible. Flexible with myself, the process and with the Lord.

He is never done changing me.

the price of creativity

a living room you can't walk through. :)

This is why they call it "class"...

...and why they refer to me as a "student"

Waste of Paint

I went to painting class today.
I put paint on three different canvases.
I feel like I pushed paint around all evening trying to achieve a certain effect.
I was not successful.
sigh.

I am tired. :)

Rudy Tootie!

This is what Rudy looked like last week!


Here he is this week! Pretty much finished.
Just have to add some final touches next week. I love him.
Sorry there is so much glare!

And this is my dirty face from painting. (!!)
lots of blue there. ::shrug::
I'm just a messy painter. I can't help it.
Everyone in class was laughing, though.
love it.

Rudy!

So, the little plastic horse that we've all had to paint over the last two weeks at class is named Rudy. It says so right on his side. lol.

SO, after a WEEK of drying time, I went back into my (still slightly wet) painting and upped some of the highlights and such.

I took this picture halfway through class, so there's a lot more progress than what you see here. Until next time.

<--- RUDY!

Exciting Picture Update

Thursday morning, Jeanne and I went to the Art's festival downtown.
We walked across the Fort Pitt Bridge. It was lovely.

Thursday, I went to my brothers to meet his wife Kim.

These are the cute presents I wrapped for the babies.

Thursday night, I had my first oil painting class.
This was my view of the subject we had to paint. It was a lot harder than I expected.

This was my first attempt at oil painting.
The lines and perspective are a bit off. I am going to fix it. It's not finished yet.

Saturday, today, I had a "Painting Party" to paint my entry way.
This is the before.
Steve helped.

So did Maria.

And Ricky.

After. Six hours later, the finished project.
Thanks for helping me everyone!!
(Can you believe I actually painted something white?)

I'll post a picture post-decorating that is upcoming in the next 14 days.
(After Tuesday I'm off of work until the Forth of July. Whoo-hoo!)

the end.

Sailboats and Raincoats yet again

Here are the finished products from my art splurge Sunday night before I went to bed. I finished them up today. Hope you like them.

<--- "Sailboat 001"

They are both hand crafted by me. I used scrapbook paper, a few magazine pages and a lot of rubber cement. (I like cutting things out much more than doing them on the computer. It's easier for me.)




This one came about because I made the rain drops for Sailboat 001, and then decided they made the picture look sad. It is definitely a happy sailboat. BUT, the raindrops were entirely too cute to throw away, so I made another picture for them!

<--- "Ducks in a Puddle"

The funny thing is, I was not planning on ducks being a part of this picture. I finished it and stared at it. It was missing something. Hence, the ducks and the flower's in Mae's hand. Yes, her name is Mae. SallyMae. I just named her.

I like them. They are cute.

P.S. - I know, the names are not very original, but what can I say? I'm really bad at naming things.

Sailboats and Raincoats

I was very sleepy all day today.
I got home late even, around 10pm.

But I just couldn't resist. I had a picture in my head that just had to come out. 2 1/2 hours later, I have a cute little picture of a sailboat on the high seas and a half done picture of a little girl in a puddle. Yay.

I had fun.

Now I am going to bed. :)

"greenspeak" by k.lorenze

I sketched out a painting tonight in colored pencil that I've had inside my head for the last 15 or so months.

<-------

(I know, that's a long time. I've just been....busy. lol.)

It just makes me feel so satisfied to see what's been in my head on paper.

This isn't quite the version I had in my head, but it's what works in colored pencil. The painting of it would be totally and completely graphic. No shading, much like stained glass windows. Blocks and shapes of color.

It would/will be cool.

But, for now, this is what I have and I like it. Mostly. :)

P.S. - I not so hot at drawing faces....I know. I do defend myself for this one, though, because the photo I was copying it from cut off the left part of the girls face, so I had to make it up. I not good at making things up. I need a photo. the end.

Dreams

I went to my high school's annual art show this year. Besides seeing an amazing, cool and inspired installation art piece by Garrett (which won BEST OF SHOW! Way to go Garrett! WHOOO!!!), I was able to talk with my high school art teacher.

I love her a lot.

Art was my favorite and most frustrating class in high school. I loved and hated it all at the same time. :) In my junior year, we had to draw a still picture and I chose a variety of random objects from the art room and started to draw in soft pastels. Four weeks later, I was only a 1/3 done. Ugh. I HATED that thing. I actually gave up on the project. However, my teacher informed me that if I didn't finish it, I'd get a less-than-pretty grade. Ever the perfectionist, I decided to finish it. It took 12 weeks, working on it intermittently as I could stomach looking at it. It was beautiful when I was done (even though I rushed through the frame in it...sad.).

I eventually entered it in some local/state competitions and it won a couple of awards. I was happy. When I graduated from high school, my art teacher asked if she could keep it, and I agreed. I hadn't seen it in 5 years. I thought she might have thrown it away by now.

However, tonight she informed me that she still had it. In fact, it was part of the permanent display of artwork in the library. There's only about 20 pieces there, out of the last 20 or so plus years of students coming through the art program. Mine is one of them. It makes my heart really happy. And excited. Especially since I was able to get into the library to see it and take pictures.

It's amazing that she kept it. It amazing that she thought it was good. Even looking at it today, I see things I wish I could change, or fix, or would have done differently. A student teacher even designed and taught an entire lesson around the piece. Students had to make a sculpture of random objects and draw it monochromatically in pastels. I saw some of that artwork tonight. Again, it made my heart so happy.

I inspired that....and that inspires me. :)

P.S. - my artwork is the image in the post. Sorry it's not the best picture, there was a lot of reflection on the glass from the fluorescent lighting. yuck.