Knitting
Categories: Knitting | 9 comments
There is something so heartwarming about knitting for me.
Every year since having babies – when the weather dips down and I’m found wondering what to do in the long winter months, I pull out my yarn and get to clicking away on the needles. I can be found in my bed with blankets piled on top of my lap with a nice fluffy hank of yarn and a quiet house while the babies nap.
I don’t really knit for myself these days, I usually get the failed projects. When I knit, I knit for the people I love and mean alot to me. And with most every stitch, I’m thinking about (warning: sappy stuff here) how special they are and how thankful I am to have them in my life. Of course I hope that they will love it, but I suppose part of it is selfish too. I love doing it, and it really does get me through the horrible winter cold – and then I inevitably lose interest in springtime.
What about you? What gets you through the long winter months?
Earrings from Autumn Leaves
Categories: Fashion, Tutorials | 5 comments
I know, enough with the leaves already! I can’t help it, they are everywhere and I’m taking advantage of the natural resource. So I came up with these simple but beautiful earrings, using more of my supplies from For the Makers.
To make your own, all you need is mod podge, needle, metallic gold thread, scissors, two sequins, two beads, and a couple of earring hooks.
Step 1: Start by painting a layer of mod podge on both sides of your dried leaves. Allow to dry. This makes them plyable and resistant to breakage. (To dry leaves, try pressing them in a heavy book for about a week.)
Step 2: Take a strand of metallic gold thread and thread both ends through the needle. (Make sure it’s a single strand)
Step 3: Gently pierce a hole through the top of the leaves and thread them on your string, followed by the sequin.
Step 4: If your leaves have a pointy top, snip off the top so it’s flat. Otherwise your leaf won’t hang down, it will hang to the side.
Step 5: With both tail ends of the string, make a knot right above your leaves/sequins – double knot to keep it secure. Cut off the excess tail.
Step 6: Pinch the top loop and slide on a bead through the loop – you need this weight on the earring, otherwise it will be too light.
That’s it! Put on a pair of earring hooks using the loop and wear with care.
A Stripping of Comforts
Categories: Faith, Motherhood | 11 comments
Recently my 1.5 year old lost his pacifier – and I ran out of backups. My first son never really took one, so it was foreign to me to have a babe that desperately needed it so often. So I had the choice to force weaning him from it or get a new one. I chose the first option. Poor guy, he was having a pretty rough time.
Just a few months ago I successfully weaned him from nursing, after about two months of hard nights and days trying to get him unhooked. I started to think about why it was so traumatic for him. And it’s simple really, I’m removing something from his life that comforts him.
To which I thought, “Hmm, that’s familiar.”
God has been leading us on a journey that has resulted in comforts being removed. In the last 3 years the comforts of money, safety, friends, family, and things that were familiar have been slowly stripped away more and more. At first it was very uncomfortable. I might have even thrown a few tantrums. But by now, I’ve not only gotten used to it, I welcome it. For it’s in discomfort that often you have the chance to grow the most. To trust. To actually know who – or what – you really put your trust in.
Ultimately God has done this, I believe, to force us to grow up a little. Kind of what my little babe has to go through. But I think the big reason why is to learn:
He is sufficient. He is enough.
He is our comfort. Not our house. Not our money. Not our marriage or relationships. It’s Him. So in other words, if all those other things in life were removed (which, let’s be honest could be removed at any time), the ideal response would not be a traumatic one, but a peaceful one. One that’s totally and completely comforted by the sufficiency of Christ.
As for my baby, well…I broke and got him a new pacifier. I know – tsk tsk! Let’s just say I’m saving that battle for the road ahead. But he’ll learn soon enough that the little bit of temporary comfort that a piece of plastic and rubber can give him will soon hopefully be replaced by something far more valuable and eternal – the comfort of the true and living God.
For the Makers
Categories: DIY, Misc | 8 comments
Yesterday I mentioned that I got a box in the mail filled to the brim with all kinds of crafty things from For the Makers. For the Makers combines DIY tutorials with hand-selected materials delivered to your door so you can discover new projects and create and share your projects with others.
Here is what I got:
I can’t wait to create with this stuff!
Simply sign up for $29 and every month you’ll receive supplies for four to six projects. They source the coolest materials and deliver them straight to your door, letting you skip straight to the fun part. They’ll walk you through each project with a fun how-to on their website but they also encourage you to explore the creative potential in each package.
The most exciting part is that once you make something, whether it’s one of their projects, or your own, you’ll be able to post it and share it with friends and fellow Makers.
This would make a great gift for the creative person in your life!
Autumn Leaves Garland
Categories: Art, Tutorials | 4 comments
I recently received in the mail a beta box of amazing craft goodies from For the Makers (more on this later). In the box was this beautiful gold metallic thread that I just knew I had to use for this project.
You probably already have the materials for it right in your backyard. If you are like me, you want to bring in the colors and textures of fall into your home, so I created these garlands with colorful dried fall leaves. The beauty of this idea is that you can use all the assorted shapes and colors that nature provides and combine them to create the look you want. The photo above gives you an idea of just some of the looks that you can achieve.
All you need is:
thread (I used metallic gold, which I would highly recommend)
dried leaves (you can dry and press leaves in between the pages of a heavy book – just make sure you leave them in there for at least a week)
needle
circle punch (optional for the circle garland)
The how-to is simple: just gather and arrange your dried leaves and begin “sewing” them onto your thread, leaving a long tail on both ends for hanging. After you thread each leaf, make a knot so it will stay put and not slide along the thread.
For the circle garland, just use a circle punch to punch the shapes out of the leaf. Then thread like above.
As for the fragility of the leaves, they held up very well with all my handling, windy photo conditions, and dropping them multiple times. You will want to handle them with care though if you want them to last longer than just one season.
Note: Our trees are just now beginning to turn, so I wasn’t able to find a whole lot of vivid colors – so I did some Photoshopping to make the colors more lively. :)
Drawing Challenge & Free Download
Categories: Art, Downloads | 13 comments
I’m a full-time mom of two boys, who are now 3 and 1.5. Needless to say, they keep me busy! Yet, I think about art every day. I think about painting every day. I yearn to bust out of bed every morning not to crying kiddos who want to be fed, but to an art easel with a blank canvas just waiting to be filled with the ideas that occupied my dreams.
I know this is just a season. Art is something I’ve learned to incorporate into my very demanding life as a mother – even if it’s just admiring and soaking in the beauty around me. But recently, I’ve just been unable to shake the need to draw. To not just hurriedly doodle an idea or image, but to really sit down and take some time to sketch. So I recently challenged myself after being inspired by a friend to a 30-day drawing challenge. It was just that, a challenge. My house got really messy – chores were neglected – but in those rare moments when a baby was napping or playing peacefully I would get out my sketch book and draw. Some drawings were short and hurried, some I was able to labor over the details. I didn’t make it 30 days straight. I skipped a day or two (or five) in between, but I managed to squeeze out about 20 drawings over a period of a couple months.
I wanted to share some of them with you. One in particular I’m making available as a free download, in case you like it. :) My oldest son does love to paint, and he will sit down with me for a good 20-30 minutes to create art. The colored background in this piece in particular was done with my son’s watercolors, then later that night when the boys were in bed, I quickly sketched the peafowl over it with ink. I like the pop of color. I hope you like it too!
Even more, I hope it inspires you to make time for what’s burning deep inside you – even if it means letting your house go to pot.
Handmade: Minimalist Yarn Ornament
Categories: DIY, Holiday | 3 comments
I’m guest posting today over on CraftSnob.com – Sara is hosting a month long handmade ornament parade to gear up for the holidays and asked me to be a part. My contribution was a minimalist yarn ornament. Simple and pretty. Go take a look!
DIY Dramatic Photo Curtain
Categories: DIY, Photography | 7 comments
We recently held a little party for my son who turned three. It was simple and beautiful, with the centerpiece being 75 of my favorite photos from his life. I wanted to share the idea with you, because it was so easy and inexpensive but added so much meaning.
All you need is a stapler and photos. I used 4×6 photos developed from Walgreens at $0.10 each – which made the grand total of this dramatic photo wall a mere $7.50. I applied the same black and white filter on all of them to achieve a uniform look.
All you do is staple them together length-wise and hang as many as you want. Stapling them holds up really well, surprisingly. I plan on snipping off the top and bottom of the photos and reusing them in his memory book.
Imagine how amazing this idea would be using hundreds and hundreds of photos!
Autumn Giveaway
Categories: Giveaways | 46 comments
Autumn is in full swing now. I’ve packed up my summer clothes and unloaded my big bulky sweaters from hiding. Maybe it was too soon though – we are still experiencing 70-80 degree temps. Everything is lush and green like it’s spring time again. You won’t hear me complaining, I love warm weather. I think a part of me goes into hibernation when it gets cold.
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to have a little giveaway to celebrate the season. Earlier this month I got an email from Helen from Frances + Francis. She designs the perfect elemental Autumnal card to send your greetings. She’s agreed to giveaway some cards to our winner.
You will also receive these simple but beautiful leather bangles in Autumn colors from the Adopt Shoppe.
All you have to do to enter is leave a comment describing what you love most about the fall season. A winner will be randomly selected one week from now, on Tuesday, November 1st.
AND, I promise I will be back soon with some brand new DIY posts. Happy Autumn!
Artist Interview + Free Download
Categories: Art, Downloads, Interviews | 1 comment
I remember seeing these amazing book sculptures by Lisa Occhipinti a while back – they were everywhere in the blogosphere, and I loved them. So I was delighted she emailed me recently to let me know about a new book she authored called, “The Repurposed Library.” In it are 33 projects to transform books into works of art. She is generously offering a project as a free PDF download from her book (located at the end of this post) and she even agreed to answer a few of my questions. I hope you enjoy!
1. What is your background and how did you get started doing book sculpture? I have a degree in fine art and taught college art for many years, while always maintaining studio practices. I am painter first and foremost and have always loved books since I was a child. My book work began with studying traditional handmade binding techniques at the School of the Musuem of Fine Arts, Boston. I started to merge the processes in my painting with the structure of books by making artists books. This in turn led me to where I am now: transforming books. It is essential to me to maintain the integrity of their forms while venerating their attributes. Where others may see a stain on a cover, I see a story.
2. What is one challenge you’ve overcome as an artist? I have learned not to take criticism too seriously. It is a large task, putting your work, which is highly personal, out into the world and accessible to opinion. But if you’re going to commit to art professionally you have to detach and continue to believe in what you do.
3. What does art mean to you? Art is a means of communication. The forms and processes are a physical platform which allow me to convey to the outer world what I think and feel is beautiful and important. As I am working art is the inner dialogue I have with myself, where I explore the things I think about. Whatever I make is a bridge between outer and inner. And when someone sees my work and is moved by it that is success.
Thank you Lisa! It was wonderful hearing from you. Readers, you can Download the free PDF here to make your own sewing box out of a book!
