Happy days...happy Christmas!

Finally! The first grade Merry Matisse videos were published. The second grade clay ornaments were fired, painted, glittered, and sent home. All the other grade level projects were put on the shelves for our return in January. At last! I am finally home for Christmas!!

The past week was a flurry of activity both at home and at school. My sister, Rosanne, and her husband, Wayne, came from Georgia to stay at Mom's for the week. Our evenings were filled with delicious dinners and plenty of laughter as we caught up on the events in our lives since our July family reunion. Mom, my sister Kathy, and I provided the meals, but the highlights were the desserts, thanks to Rosanne's week long baking and candy making efforts back home in Georgia......yum!!

Now, with two weeks of vacation ahead, it's time to prepare for one of my favorite times of the year...Christmas! Lights and carols to enjoy, presents to wrap, cookies to bake, and the joy of anticipating a visit with my two precious little grandsons.


The recent warm weather and rain have left our landscape a bit sodden and dreary, but here's a glimpse of the backyard as I left for school earlier this week...so lovely as the moon was setting just before sunrise.


I hope that wherever you are, and whatever your weather, your heart and home are filled with the warmth and blessings of this sacred season as we anticipate and celebrate the birth of our Savior so many years ago. Merry Christmas to all!

 

 

Snow Days bring Christmas joy!

 

Of course, too many snow days could mean going to school longer at the end of the year, but for now, I'm taking my December blessings as they come! This week I'm scrambling with my second graders to get their clay Christmas ornaments decorated and ready to take home, so I have to admit that I didn't mind sloshing my way to school in the unexpected (at least to me!) snow early this morning.
   

Freshly falling snow is so peaceful, especially early in the morning or later in the evening. With the Christmas lights glowing softly and the hush that comes when traffic is stilled, there is a beauty that we often miss in the rush to complete our Christmas shopping, baking, house cleaning, and other holiday chores.


A snowy day, whether during the week or on the weekend, gives us time to slow down and savor the moment if we will let it. It's so easy to worry about chores not done, lessons not taught, or errands not run, but those things will still be waiting for us when the flakes stop falling and the roads are cleared.

 

So wherever you are and whatever your weather, as we get closer to that magical time of Christmas, take time to breathe in the quiet joy of the season. Let peace, joy, and quiet expectation replace the hustle and bustle, if only for a moment.
                                                                          

 

 

 

December already???

Here it is, December 7, and it's now been over a month since my last post! With the combination of teaching, taking care of a house and yard, and travel to visit family over Thanksgiving, it's been quite a busy month. All this, and still trying to get my Etsy shop up and running by the first week of January. What was I thinking anyway?

The leaves were slow to fall this year, and the snow a bit earlier than usual, so we actually had some piles of leaves raked up that were frozen before they could be hauled back to the wooded area behind our yard. As a matter of fact, when I was shoveling the sidewalks this afternoon, it seemed that I was shoveling as much leaf debris as snow!

I am making some progress on the Etsy shop, although at a much slower pace than I had hoped. Right now, I'm listening in on The Thriving Artist Summit, an online seminar for artists and crafters who are either running a business already, or planning to do so in the future. It's been an inspiring series, although I am a little bit behind on listening to all the interviews with successful artists and business coaches. Fortunately, each interview is available for three days after the first time it is scheduled, so I've managed to hear most of them and I've been able to download all the great information that each of them is offering...for free, which is great for someone on a budget.

 

The highlight of the past month was my visit to Rochester, NY, to see my daughter and her family for Thanksgiving. The boys, Aiden and Jackson, are growing up so fast! I saw them last during the first week of August and it seems that Aiden has grown at least an inch taller and Jackson is now actively crawling and beginning to pull up and cruise the furniture. Aiden generously gave me some of his latest artistic creations, which I will be framing for our family room here in Ohio...so cute!

Even more fun was being able to watch Aiden helping to decorate the Christmas tree. He loves all things Christmas, especially Santa, so just watching the joy on his face made my heart sing!

And now here it is, December, with Christmas just a little over two weeks away! I was blessed with the words every teacher loves to hear... "snow day"... on Friday, which gave me some extra time to clean house and decorate for Christmas. Although I no longer put up a large tree, I have three table top trees, plenty of lights, my Santa collection, and other holiday treasures to make up for it.


Although it has been a hectic and crazy month, I have so much to be thankful for...good health, a loving family, dear friends both near and far, and a career doing and sharing the art that I love so much. As we continue through the final weeks of Advent and prepare for the joy of Christmas, I hope and pray that each and every one of you are blessed with a spirit of gratitude for the goodness in your own lives.

What to do with an "extra" hour?

Spend it doing something I don't get enough time for these busy fall days! Since we get to "fall back" in time in the wee hours of the night here in Ohio, going outdoors to enjoy the colorful scenery wasn't an option. Instead, I opted to play with lots of colorful beads, paper, and fabrics for that extra hour last night.

 

 

Today I did get in that lovely autumn walk just before the sun began to set. There is just something so stunning about the orange, red, and yellow leaves against the dark clouds and occasional patches of bright blue! I've never quite captured the glow on camera, but not for lack of trying.

 

 

 

 

 

Peace Grows in My Garden

We've had some lovely autumn weather the past few weeks, but I know it can't last much longer, so today I went outside to take some photo memories to warm up those cold winter days that are bound to arrive!

 

Although the colors are fading on my mums and the petunias have pretty much decided that summer is over, there was still a lot of color to be found.

 

This is the last of my lovely, brilliant flag-red porch front petunias.

A few more white ones also remain, especially the little miniatures by the garage.

  
 
 The blanket flowers are still thriving and adding a pop of bright yellow and orange to the front garden, but the lovely red gerber daisies are spent for the season.

 One last lily remains...

and one last impatiens hangs on in the window box on the barn...

along with the last little happy-faced black-eyed Susan's on the vine.

 

 

But, as you can see, the red and white begonias are still looking amazing and the shy, delicate toad lilies are still thriving in the cool shade of the backyard garden barn.

 

 The little fairies are gracing the fern beds along the deck...now I just need to get them safely put to bed in the garage before the first frost of fall arrives!     

 

                            Until then, let peace continue to reign in my garden...

 

 

 

        

 

 



Rainy Day Creativity

The day started out partly cloudy and it took until almost one o'clock for the partially mowed grass to dry out enough for me to get out the mower. Then, before I could get the second half of the front yard mowed, the rain began. Nothing heavy, but enough to make me decide to save the rest of the mowing for another day. With Bruce at work, the afternoon is "free for me" time...no football, no baseball...no TV at all, just the sound of the rain, the birds, and the insects getting ready for fall weather to arrive.

So I decided to start with a little culinary creativity...nothing fancy, but an easy, quick late evening meal for the inevitable Sunday Night Football game...Buffalo Chicken Sliders. The recipe is from a Kroger coupon flyer we got in the mail around Super Bowl time last year. So easy, but so good, too!

 

Ingredients: 1/4 c. butter, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup hot sauce, one rotisserie chicken (shredded) , red onion, lettuce, slider buns, blue cheese or ranch dressing, celery sticks

Heat the butter, honey, and hot sauce in a pan until the butter is melted and the honey is dissolved. Add the chicken. Heat through.

 

 Fill slider bun with buffalo chicken, top with onion and lettuce. Serve with celery sticks and dressing. You can add the dressing to the sandwich, too, if you like.

 My personal suggestion: Use Frank's Red Hot Wings Buffalo sauce. It was the "secret ingredient" in the original 1964 buffalo wings made famous by the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. Yum!

Once tonight's dinner was safely stored in the refrigerator, I decided to pull out a long-neglected art quilt that I started several years ago when I took a summer workshop at the Dayton Art Institute. The instructor, quilter Cathy Jeffers, does some pretty amazing work, so check out her website! Anyway, she invited me over to her house last weekend to pick up some fabric and other art supplies that she was donating to my art room. Wow, I do appreciate that!

While I was there, she pulled out some quilts she's been working on and then she asked me...the dreaded question...so...have you ever finished that mermaid quilt you started during my workshop???  Sadly, I had to admit to not quite getting to the fabric finish line. So today, I got out the quilt and my sewing machine...and discovered that I was not as close to finishing as I had remembered. Here are a few close ups of some areas, but there is a lot of work still to be done!

 

Actually, I'm a little bit glad that I hadn't finished the quilt because now I have a fresh take on the project and some new ideas for how I want to finish it up. Expect a progress report soon...I hope

Projects in Progress

During the last few weeks of August, I was able to work on a few ideas for coloring and embellishing a collection of silk scarves in a variety of sizes and weights. The scarves are white when I get them and the first step is to wash them all to get out any sizing or residue on the fabric. After that comes the fun of dying and painting the scarves. It's a messy task, so my goal is to have all the dye work completed before the cold weather sets in. I can easily do the hand-painting, stenciling, and beadwork in the house later with a minimal amount of mess.

One technique I'm using is quite simple, but makes an elegant scarf, especially on the heavier weight silks. The scarf is first dyed a solid color. The dye is then heat set to make it colorfast and the pattern is added using either stencils, as in the picture, or by hand painting with metallic fabric paints.

Some of the scarves are a very light weight, semi-sheer silk and lend themselves quite nicely to sponge painting techniques, which give them a watercolor appearance. This is my first attempt at adding a simple beaded fringe to one of these scarves. It's a little more time consuming, but something that I can easily do while watching "Project Runway" or just about anything on HGTV! 

 This scarf didn't quite work out the way I planned, but the result is still interesting. I first wet the scarf, then sponged and brushed the silk paints randomly on the surface. After that, I sprinkled salt crystals on the wet surface, sprayed water over the salty surface, and let the salt react with the dyes.

 

I'm thinking about adding some beading fringe to the ends where the color becomes softer...or would that be too much with all this color and pattern?

Reflections on days of summer past...

School starts tomorrow, so I consider today to be my last chance to do whatever I please, whenever I please...within reasonable limits, of course!
Of course, as a teacher, I have been "at school" off and on since early August, preparing my classroom, attending meetings, and getting things ready for another year in the classroom art studio. There's no way I would ever be able to jump in on the first day of school without at least a week or two of preparation!

Today is Monday, normally a work day, but we had our annual "Meet the Teachers/Open House" yesterday, so today is a well-earned day of relaxation and reflection.

All in all, it was a good summer for me!  June was a quiet month mostly at home with my husband, who was recovering from a knee replacement in mid-May.


Peaceful Center Hill Lake

July got off to a bang with my family's big reunion at Center Hill Lake in Tennessee, which was great fun! So many new additions to the family since we last gathered in 2011...new babies, new relationships, anniversaries, engagements...all the joys of being part of a very large extended family!



Snuggle time with Papa

Learning to captain the pontoon
















       In mid-July I spent five days with two of the best friends one could ever have. This was our seventeenth summer together...so hard to believe how quickly the years go by!

Celebrating 17 years of summer friendship!

When our summer reunions began, we were teaching together here in Ohio. Over the years, we have supported each other through moves and changes and watched our children grow up and raise families of their own. Although we live miles apart and lead very different lives, when we get together each summer we pick up right where we left off the summer before. It's like we've never been apart...truly long term friendships are a blessing!

Late July meant a quick few days at a Muse Machine advisor workshop, just a brief taste of school activities to come, before heading north for the baptism of grandson, Jackson, and a visit with my daughter and her family. Unfortunately, Papa was unable to join us because he was recovering from a second knee surgery...another story for another time!
 

     Jackson wore the family heirloom Christening gown, originally made for me by my great-grandmother out of the train from my mother's wedding dress. It was worn by my siblings, several of our children, and now our children's children! What a family treasure!

And now, my summer freedom is ending... 

 

...but it was all good!