Tuesday, January 31, 2012

polar bear party

What would a polar bear party look like?
 Would they dance in front of a sunset?
 Eat a snowflake or two?
 Love the silhouetted trees?
 Be in awe of the colors
 and ready to sleep after so much fun?

wish I could party with them...
How about you?

Saturday, January 28, 2012

please play with your food...

It's been a hard week...
After the storm ended our heater went on strike,
so we got a new one ($$$ sigh)
and then the power went out again.
Our yard looks like a bomb went off in it - 
looked kinda nice when it was covered in snow,
but now the two broken trees look really sad.
Well this link to the photo above and many more
cheered me up so take a look if you need a smile -
and who doesn't?
I will be back later with two new kiddo projects
and some happy art news too.

Friday, January 20, 2012

34 degrees and rising...

I so want to visit Anthropologie to see their new windows...
but must patiently wait for the snow and ice 
and extra layer of snow on top to melt.
Maybe tomorrow I will get to see the glorious color in these displays
instead of all this whiteness...
 7 inches of snow, then 1 inch of ice and then more snow -
never seen anything like it.
And of course no power too,
 but thankfully it came back on in the night.
 Two poor trees couldn't handle the ice...
You wouldn't believe how loud it is listening to the ice come off these trees -
it thunders and tinkles and just sounds so odd.
And I hope he hasn't cracked in the snow and ice.
I should have been a good mom and brought him inside.
Hope you are somewhere warm and sunny 
or staying cuddled up inside
just like this guy...

for some odd reason he hates the vacuum
when it is running,
but adores curling up on it to sleep.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

outside, inside?

the grass is always greener...
or should I say 'the snow is always whiter?'

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

snow day - yay!


It all goes by so fast...
Oh earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you...
Do human beings ever realize life while they live it  - 
every, every minute?
Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Sunday, January 15, 2012

a Sunday blessing - One Thousand Gifts

I am so enjoying this read
and her beautiful poetic thoughts
on faith
and grace
and thankfulness
and joy
 and how important it is to enjoy and love
where we are right now...
These very real lungs will breathe in more than 11,000 liters of air today, and tonight over our farm will rise the Great Hexagon of the blazing winter stars - Sirius, Rigel, ruby Aldebran, Capella, the fiery Gemini twins, and Procyon, and in the center, scarlet Betelgeuse, the red supergiant larger than twice the size of earth's orbit around the sun -  and I will embrace the skin of a boy child that my body grew from a seed.  The low heavens outside the paned windows fill with more snowflakes then stars, no two-stacked crystals the same; the trees in the wood draw in collective green breath to the still of January hibernation, and God in the world will birth ice from His womb, frost of heaven, bind the chains of the Pleiades, loose the cords of Orion, and number again the strands on my head (Job 38:31; Matthew 10:30).

Isn't it here?  The wonder?  Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it?  Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with binding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur?  The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here.  Who has time or eyes to notice?
Ann Voskamp
Who has eyes or time to notice?
That line really gets me...
well today I will notice.
 so I get up and take a photo of the snow melting on the branches
 and I adore this photo taken at the coffee house yesterday
(we only have to look around in our every day for 
incredible beauty right?)
 and sitting next to me is this metal table
of my dear grandmother's
that I painted in gold leaf -
 for I know the plans I have for you 
declares the Lord...
and even last night's sunset looks beautiful in greys.

I hate to admit it but I have been coveting homes 
and wondering where we will live next.
I never dreamed I would live 25 years in the same place
and we have been feeling a tug to do something different,
but what?
So I started looking and then drooling...
and then today I innocently tried to put in a realtor's disc of a home
that is twice as much money as our home and...
ahem...
it jammed and I could not get it out or in and it was stuck for several hours
and needless to say - 
I had to shut down my beloved computer.
That got my attention.
Only God knows the plans he has for me and
I am sure there are plans
and if it is to stay put right here
then I will relish in 
His grace,
His abundance and blessings,
and find joy in the beauty that surrounds my every day.
amen



Friday, January 13, 2012

come 'Create with Me' on this winter day

 Well Matteo may not be very happy ,
but I am so thrilled to have my art clubbers
featured again in this wonderful magazine.
 So run - don't walk - to the nearest Barnes and Noble
to check out their brilliant birdies on pages 94-97.
Or even better - order one from Stampington here.
And most importantly
 find the nearest child and start creating
right now
 on this snowy winter day...
 go for it!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

instant architecture

 the art clubbers constructed some homes
 using simple shapes
 stamped with foam,
 then added outlines with cardboard strips
and more stamps for trees and house
 so that we were able to tour
 their villages
 full of color.
I don't know about you but I would move right in.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

a Sunday Blessing

How?
 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you Lord;
teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount all the laws
that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
Psalm 119:9-16
On this Sunday 
my blessing is my son, Jonathan,
who is in his ordination year.
 He was given this Psalm to meditate on for the year,
and I thought a visual of the verses 
would help instill in him a sense of his part.
So I stamped the brown highlighted words in the verses
onto the background of the painting.
Then I liked the idea of different tools 
to represent how each of us worships God in our own unique way.
Finally I pasted verses from an old Bible 
that was falling apart on to the edges.
Thanks for being such a blessing Jonathan!
Hope you all are having a blessed Sunday.