Oh, gosh - this will never be my habit!!

I am in such a creative lull right now that I hesitate to post.

I did help my daughter create a beautiful event a couple of months ago. Here is the link to her amazing photos: http://rachelrobinson.zenfolio.com/amyandpaul/e24f9f5e4

Oh, wait - you want to go here:http://rachelrobinson.zenfolio.com/amyandpaul

The other was Darcy the Idiot. We all love and adore her, but really - it wasn't her day then was it.

A word about the photographer - Rachel Robinson was the most amazing to work with, and then she up and moved to Houston!! She was like a shower of peace and calm in the middle of all that was going on and she took such phenom photos! And she took so MANY photos! Wow, I think Amy and Paul are about the best looking couple around - but by photo 372 I was waning. What kind of mother am I ? But here is the beauty of our photographic hero Rachel - SHE PUTS THE ALBUM TOGETHER FOR YOU! You can weigh in with favorites you must have, but the overwhelming responsibility of choosing - I could never handle it. So, she is my favorite photographer ever -

The glorious weekend

Ah, the weekend here and I am full of the goodness of slow mornings to read and packing a valentine package for my little college girl. I am in zero-creativity mode, so I have nothing festive to share that way BUT I do have about the best post I have seen in a long time link for you. My new favorite blog-dog Charlie finds purpose in life!

Of course NO DOG can replace the the idiot Darcy as my favorite dog, but Charlie is such an inspiration. You must camp out on his master's website thepioneerwoman.com and stroll around her excellent cooking advice (do you chuckle as you read recipes? you will here) and my favorite, confessions. Search for the one about Charlie and the yellow string. I mean really.

The big tie-in, we are studying in earnest Crazy Love by Francis Chan - all in all, about purpose in life. I found Charlie's philosophy of purpose profound. Get off the ottoman and do something!

I am a new (not nude, new) woman.

New year, new Bible Study and new empty nest. I can do this now. I will keep up, I will be a good blogger and I will - most importantly - make sure you have good blogs to go to as I list my favorites at the right. Remember, I have no original thoughts, but I am a great connector to genius whether creative or intellectual. I will post pictures of my little Amy Lou's wedding when we get them from the photographer. Who doesn't want to see that? And while the wedding was NOT about me, I kind of had a nifty dress I would like you all to see! Peek back. . .

Can't do it without a picture for you. This was a house in downtown Philadelphia. I mean look at the color, look at the plants, look at the festivalness of it all. I want to live there.

.

Eight weeks and we will be perfected.

I am kind of excited because I am starting a Bible Study today - "The Fine Art of Creating a Home" - doesn't that sound majorly important? I mean, it's elevated to the level of art - bypassing craft and job and drudgery straight to the top - we are artists. I think I will summarize on the blog as I learn. We are figuratively building a house from the ground up. Both the spiritual and the physical.

1st week we look at choosing the site, house plans and making the choices that will affect our house every day until we sell it or pass it on to our kids. Paralleling this to our spiritual life, this is where we choose to fall in love with God all over again. Not only know Him from the Word, but experience Him as we live all day long. I stumbled over Psalm 40 - has that always been there?!?! WOW! Then the physical will focus on ways we set the tone in the home. Atmosphere and attitude. I was inspired by Alexandra Stoddard's old book Living a Beautiful Life (go here for website) - where she makes life fun! She focuses on rituals and making daily jobs enjoyable. Here's my favorite take-away:

Slow

down.

Calm

down.

Don't

worry.

Don't

hurry.

Ahh--h-h-h

You know I am the picture of calm when my kids presented me with this plate (for my vintage if-i'm-not-eating-out-I-may-as-well-pretend-I-am resturant ware collection):

I may have a lot to learn. . .

It's all on account of the quilt

Admittedly I have been delinquent in my blog postings. I can't seem to

finish the quilt and therefore am ashamed to post. Well, now it's been so

long who cares? I WILL finish the quilt - I was determined to in the 12

hour car trip to New Mexico and then again in the 400 hour trip to

Virginia (I rounded up on that one - it SEEMS like that long), but I was

in reading mode and the creating hit the wayside. Don't think for one

minute that I didn't pack everything to work on though - yes siree I did take

up all that space!

Oh, well. I will post my new fav books so that you will have some reward

for coming to my blog. . .

The Glass Castle, a delightful memoir that will make

you feel better about any parenting mistakes you

might have made.

Waiting for Snow in Havana tells the story of Cuba

from the viewpoint of child growing up there during

Castro's rise to power. Wow! The language is a little

rougher than I like, but the real life story will amaze you!

Best-for-last scenario. This book takes a look at the Parable of the Two Sons and explains why God himself is prodigal. Really made me think. . .
Prodigal God by Timothy Keller.

Now to finish my collage adventure. Amy - daughter #1 - finished hers and here are photos of her masterpiece as well as my second one. OoI in hers - the little bouquet of bead flowers in the sweet girl's hands. I hope you can see them, look closely!

My word was serenity - nothing says serenity like blue and white!

Link to book of inspiriation: Vintage Collage Works Artful Ideas with Antique Ephemera

I hope all these are inspiring to those of you who missed our Thursday night group, because I am thinking our July class will be "catch up." Bring projects (pincushions, aprons, whatever. . .) that you have not been able to complete or that you didn't get to attend and you will have a night to work surrounded by friends and I think we should include a little food as well. Oh, and surrounded by love above all else.

Up next . . . a most excellent baby quilt.

Breathtaking collages - I marvel at each one!

I don't need to say much - these pictures speak volumes! My favorite project so far, you can see how inspired we all were. With a huge counter-ful of treasures, a coffee table full of bonus and enough glue and paint to keep us going, I am amazed at the finished products. Why is it so relaxing to cut, combine and glue? Some did not finish yet, will post those and mine in the next couple of weeks (I will be off to PA for marketing school this week- can I make it fun?), but here are most of the masterpieces from Thursday night's class (Object of Interest pointed out on each one - denoted by "OoI":

Tess used the vintage wallpaper she plans on using in her house as the background. Those huge blue flowers on the milk chocolate background from the '40's! She added the "M" for Murphy, vintage jewelry pieces and a verses her grandmother had written on cards and saved. OoI, the little drops of bling she worked into the background
.

Rachel and Jarrod with Brooklyn - this photo surrounded with Rachel's grandmother's (or maybe great-aunts) vintage buttons. OoI: The button with two birds under an umbrella - where do they come up with these things?

Lindy (my workout master) created a pretty romantic montage of her and Zach, her firefighting husband. OoI, the french sentiments were taken from a card accompanying flowers that he sent her-I can't remember what it means, but you can never go wrong with a little french!

Eloise will use this in her class as she teaches about Van Gogh - the words you can barely see, the OoI: "What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" V van G said it!


Katie, my sweet daughter via Andy - Perfection in black and white shell/ocean motif with matching hymns. Vintage anchor buttons in a truly sea-ish green bring in the color. And the final pop of just right green ribbon. OoI here has to be the vintage transparent seashell button!

My own little Jill created this collection of all things fab. Beginning with her original drawing on the right and making a pretty delicious background wash, I love the combo of goodies! OoI has to be the boy running away at the bottom right. So clever!

Dee collages photos of her and sisters. I love the lettering, wonder at the Mona Lisa and OoI is the crown on Dee's head. She has earned it!

The sisters of creativity - Angie goes with a peacock tail floating crown motif. OoI : The pansy vintage jewelry in the upper right - perfection!

Angie's sis Casey - takes a vintage family color chart (raise your hand if you have a family color chart handed down for generations). The small print are the (OoI alert) "rules" of using color. Of course I can't remember what they were, but man they were strict. I do remember laughing heartily as we read them.