Back to School Pictures

 

Here we go!  They've been home since March and we truly have had very little contact with others.  They are ready to roll.  My second to last child is entering high school and my youngest is entering the eighth grade.  This was probably the most ideal age to be stuck at home for all of us.  They can entertain themselves and aren't too used to running off on their own yet.  

 

I decided with the requirement of masks in school, that now would be the time to get them contacts.  Oh dear, fighting the steaming up of glasses all day would be so hard.  I'm sure some of you are fighting just that, and I feel bad for you.

Along with no steamed up glasses, contacts mean you get to wear sunglasses!  So they bought some this past weekend.  

Earlier this week I suggested a photo shoot with the new shades.  I thought it would be fun and a boost to their confidence.

I love to shoot non traditional portraits.

The girls were very willing participants.

It was good to be shooting photos again, it's been awhile.

The summer without one visit to a swimming pool, no vacation, no fair, no 4h projects, no schedule of any kind.  It wasn't awful, that's for sure.  I'm not sure what to say about it.  No way to easily sum it up as I'm sure many of you can relate.  Moving on to the next thing certainly feels like the right thing.

Continuing to pray every day for a vaccine, better treatments, protection, and graces.  For the beautiful graces that God can bring from all of it.

Parked

Good Monday!!

I'll begin with a side note:  Blogger has made some changes and I'm having a little trouble adapting to the way posts are created.  I have to say, I'm not liking it much.  So many people have moved away from Blogger, but I've stayed because I'm not ready to pay for a site and because moving my blog seems like a really big job.  I know it's a really big job that I would probably need to hire someone to do.  It may be coming to that because I really don't like how things are now.   I had just created a post and then click---oops---it was gone.  

I took this image from an abandoned barn we had permission to explore this weekend.  The moodiness and mystery of it....♥♥

Now, I'm off to get some other work done so I won't recreate my first post and just share my image.

Remember I'm praying along with all of you for a cure, vaccine, and graces for our world.  

 

One Man's Weed...

is another man's flower.

Wow.  Am I right?
Look at those tiny little heart seed pods.  At least I'm pretty sure they are the immature seed pods or fruits as they are specifically called.

I've noticed this particular weed for years, but this year I really noticed it.  As in, what in the world is this gorgeous little volunteer and can I grow it where I want it? 

Will it last in a vase? I wondered.  Yes, it will! 

A big question: What IS it?  I thought I knew.  Pennycress.  But, when I checked, I was wrong.  It is Shepherd's Purse. Cool name, huh?  I do have Field Pennycress growing as a weed around here too and am going to investigate cultivating it for dried flowers.  

Now, if I can "harness" them and get them to grow where I want them I'll be thrilled. 

Little hearts showing up right now in the world was pretty wonderful.

♥ A very surprising gift for sure.  ♥

Sticks and Stones and Bricks

"See you make a wish and try to break some glass-you've got to be a pretty good shot these days--oh no George don't, it's full of romance that old place..."

Just in case you all don't watch the movie every year...the quote is from "It's a Wonderful Life" while George and Mary are out walking after falling into the school swimming pool.  

Not a lot of romance here I have to say.  But, it's what I thought of when we saw this room and the bricks.  We had permission this weekend to explore a couple of abandoned buildings on an old property.  I sure do enjoy photographing abandoned places.

I'll post more pictures tomorrow, but I wanted to leave this one by itself.

The metaphors are poignant here.  Life is metaphor and it's completely by design, of that I have no doubt.  Divine design.

I saw the scene and was drawn to it and so took the photo, but I didn't see the metaphor until I began to edit it.

::

The words, judgments, insults, snide remarks we cast land somewhere within.  

There is someone inside looking out.

Damage is done.

Creative Christmas Trees

The idea of an alternate Christmas tree was first introduced to me in second grade by my teacher, Mrs Bohme.  She read us the Coat Hanger Christmas Tree and the story stayed with me.

I went seeking the book in the late 1990s.  The Internet was a thing, but only the beginning. I somehow found a used book store in Minnesota and ordered a used copy.  I wanted to read the book to my kids.  

I haven't read it to anyone in awhile, but all six of them heard it when they were little.

 I made these "trees" and just photographed them instead of securing the pieces down.  I made posters of them that are for sale now at Old Cottonwood.  I was hoping to add them to a shop like Society 6 yet before Christmas, but I still need to work out some details.

You may remember this book tree from last year.  This may shock some of you, but no one who knows me would be surprised, it's still up!!  Yep.  I liked it and honestly it just looked like a tree, it didn't need to be a Christmas tree.  Soooo....the question is, do I take it down now that it is actually Christmas and put something different there?  I think I may just make some different reader ornaments to adorn it. 

Completely unrelated to Christmas Trees, but related to God, so I guess it is related to Christmas trees:  You may enjoy this series of four podcasts by Father Mike Schmitz   They are given at the University of North Dakota. The series is really good and I think it's just so true and relevant to every person.  He calls the series "Comparisin"  as a pun to Comparison.  On my phone, I find it on the Podbean App.  

He also has podcasts at Ascension Press which are different than the ones he gives to the college students at University of North Dakota. So there is a lot to check out from him.  

Sail On Trust

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I was back to 'making to sell'.  I have a big huge cloud of doubt hanging over my head so what I think I should say is 'making to HOPE to sell'  because of course, it may not go as planned or as hoped.  

It may not. 

 But, here I am, making and making and really believing that's it where I'm being led.

This small fleet of ships will be for sale at Old Cottonwood's shop through the Christmas season.  Along with a number of other items that I have been working on.

The paper I used for the sails are hand printed and hand painted on both sides by me. I made the little boats out of salvaged lathe boards.  Some from the old house turned shop from where I grew up.

I have had these little ships sitting out in our dining room for some time now and am so pleased with how they turned out.  Sail boats and old ships with sails hold a special place in my being.  Some of you may have seen others that I have made on Instagram.  This link shows two I made from a pattern from Ann Wood.

A bit of the backstory:

Our lives are going through a radical change.  My husband is leaving the family farm operation in the near future.  And his future, our future, is a great big, vast unknown.  As you can imagine our conversations over the past number of months have been about this.  About where/how God is leading us.  I think of all the things I hope to do in my life and none compare to my desire to trust.  To fully trust in God.  I told my husband that all I want to do is to sail out the rest of our time on Earth on Trust.  I want to sail on Trust.  

I sure didn't see this coming.  The farm situation for a number of reasons brought my husband to a deep depression.  Whoa.  Did not see that coming.  The answer became very clear, quite literally over night. It was time for him to leave the farm.  Literally overnight.  Had not even seriously considered it before in any fashion and then one of us mentioned that option and we both knew that was the path.  

So when I look at my life and see all that I had absolutely no idea was going to happen...could not have planned for...could not have been prepared for...except for preparing myself by loving and trusting in God, I know that is my goal.  To trust more, to trust completely, to trust so much that I'll set sail on trust.

I didn't chose a specific piece of paper when I stamped the words "sail on trust" on to the front of this sail, but just quickly picked one that appealed to me from my stash.  Later, I realized that the back of this one has a pattern I made from a rain drop stamp that I had carved.  

Rain drops seem to signal difficult times.  

And rain drops look an awful lot like tear drops to me.

A quote from St. Therese of Lisieux.  A very favorite of mine, wood burned into a pine board. ♥

If you are local, check out Old Cottonwood in Utica!  Brent and Leah are great people and they have a wonderful brick and mortar shop!!

Focus: A Very Wide Focus

These past weeks have been filled with a focus on family and creating.  All good things!  I am making with the intent of selling again.  In the years since I let the shelves of my two Etsy shops go bare, Etsy has changed drastically.  And I think I have too.  Not drastically on my end, just a different focus.  A very wide focus, ha!  There is plaster, metal, paper, flowers, photography.  

Often times they come together.  

I'm designing a line of greeting cards. Of course the "hows" are still a work in progress. 

The cards will bring together my love of flowers, metal, vintage, and photography. 

I also have created a number of metal collages which I'm just so happy with.  Happy to live in the moments of creating them.  Happy to live in the nostalgia they emit.  The specifics of how and where to sell are also a work in progress.

Another 'finally getting started with project' is to have prints and posters made of my photos.  More "hows" there too.  So much to learn!

The above image started as a rough draft and I just typed a quick thought and I think I'm keeping it.  That's what came to mind after I arranged all the little bits of dried flowers.  I should add that the thought may have been quick, but the selection of font was certainly not! I learned what an SVG font is and how to edit it in Photoshop.  I was pretty chuffed about that new skill.  It opened up a lot of new options. :) 

So much beauty.  All depends on how we look at it from within.

So There Was a Third

The ideas started spinning when I began to adorn the vintage sari ribbons.  You can see the first two here and here.

After making the first two, I thought just words would be interesting. I can see this being a wonderful gift to someone!

Descriptive words or words of affirmation.  You could string it along a shelf or wrap it around a bottle or jar filled with treasures.

I used one of my vintage typewriters to type the words on to muslin.  That in itself got more ideas going, fun!!

I hope you're having a great week. I've been working now with some rusty metal assemblages and am really enjoying the process.  I'll share some soon.

Another Sari Ribbon Garland

As I said in my first post about the Sari Ribbon Garland, I couldn't make just one! :) 

 I have a small collection of vintage religious medals and bits of broken rosaries. 

The patina on them just makes them that much better.

The little piece in the back is part of a handmade scapular that was in a little box of medals at our church's garage sale.  The cross is hand embroidered on felt.

 In smaller segments, this ribbon would make great book marks!

The Garden, but Different

I set out to take pictures from the back of the garden as there is neat moss and patina that I really enjoy that isn't readily seen.  But, when I came to edit the photos I thought...hmmmm...black and white really shows the shapes which I also enjoy.  So here you go, garden photos with no color, but with a great moody feel!