Winter Wonderland

Old man winter has finally made his way to my neck of the woods (or so I thought! A look at the window and I see rain now, not snow!)  I don't particularly care to be cold, but to look out the window and see the snow always brings a smile to my face.  Seeing the sun sparkle on the snow and snow-covered branches is quite picturesque.


These scenes always reminds me of Currier & Ives winter prints.  I have a collection of Currier & Ives Christmas villages that bring their lovely prints to life.  Though - I failed to display them this year!

American Winter Scene

For those of you unfamiliar with the works of Currier & Ives, they were the Thomas Kinkade of the 19th century.  The partnership was founded by Nathaniel Currier and James Ives in 1857.  The company specialized in lithographs and employed artists, lithographers and colorists.  Currier & Ives described their business as "publishers of cheap and popular prints".  By 1907. the firm created over 7500 titles and over one million prints in a wide range of categories, including sentimental images, sports, humor, religion, city and rural scenes.



A Ride to School



American Homestead Winter

Enjoy the day!

Re-Purposed Christmas Decor

My goal for the craft show this year was to re-purpose as much as possible.  This seemed quite impossible at first because I had no inspiration whatsoever!   I headed down to the basement to dig through my craft bins to see what could inspire me and possibly be turned into a masterpiece. First round I came back up with some old Christmas wreaths and a set of decorative boxes a gift came in a few years back.

Apparently that was all I needed to get the creative juices flowing!  I cut apart the wreaths and made each decorative box into an arrangement.  Second trip to the basement and I found some Christmas flowers and small decor I had purchased at a garage sale earlier this year.  Voila!  I had 3 cute arrangements ready to go without having to buy any new materials.  Perfect!

Since the muse was now at work, I headed back to the basement to see what other treasures I could find.  On a shelf was an angel candle holder that has been collecting dust over the years.  I tried to sell the candle holder in several garage sales with no luck.  Maybe it will serve a better purpose as a beautiful winter centerpiece!  The old Christmas wreaths were cut up some more and added to the candle holder, along with some pinecones and red hydrangea.  So far, this is my favorite piece I made and is sitting on my living room end table. 

Overall I created 12 repurposed arrangements from random material found in my basement.  I sold about half of them at the craft show, kept 2 for myself, donated one to a church and will give some as gifts!  Not a bad start to frugal crafting.

Enjoy your day!

December - month of the Poinsettia

Here we are in December already!  Christmas lights, family traditions and the exchange of gifts abound.  Poinsettia's are one of the most common plants used during this season.  These beautiful plants have been associated with the Christmas holiday for centuries.

During the 16th century in Mexico, a legand began of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for Jesus' birthday celebration.  An angel inspired the young girl to make a bouquet of weeds found on the side of the road and place them in front of the church altar.  Beautiful dark red blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias - causing the congregation to believe they witnessed a Christmas miracle.  Today in Mexico the poinsettia is known as "Noche Buena", meaning Christmas Eve.  The star-shaped pattern of the leaves is symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem and the crimson color represents the blood sacrifice through Jesus' crucifixion.

This cheerful plant is available in a variety of colors, with red being the most popular.  Blooms can also be found in cream, lemon, peach, pink and white.  Being native to Mexico and Central America, this plant is really a tree.  Over the years it was cultivated into smaller plants for more commerical and home purposes. 

The ancient Aztecs also prized this wonderful plant and considered it to be a symbol of purity.  They utilized the sap to control fevers and the leaves were used to make a red dye.  The Aztec king, Montezuma, had hundreds of poinsettias brought to the highlands since they did not grow there naturally. 

May the Peace of Christmas

Fill your heart from day to day

May the Love of Christmas

Show in all you do and say

May the Hope of Christmas

Now and always light your way

Finding Art Ministry - Norman Rockwell

While continuing my journey towards art ministry, I was drawn towards representations of Thanksgiving.  Historically this autumn harvest feast was celebrated to signify religious freedom.  Over centuries this holiday has lost some of it's religious intent and was replaced by a focus on family and home. During this time of the year many of us look back at all we have to be thankful for.  I feel absolutely blessed to have my two girls and loving husband and am extremely thankful for that.  My goals for my children is to teach them truly what it means to be thankful for what they have. 

During my research, I came across a quote that intrigued me:

"The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts.  No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving."  - H.U. Westermayer

What a powerful message!  Those early Americans, possibly your ancestors, had none of our modern conveniences.  They buried more of their own than we can even imagine.  Yet, they still were grateful to God for providing food, shelter and the ability to worship the way they wanted.  Today a lot of us might consider these to be very simple basic needs and often times take them for granted. Reading this quote really had the wheels in my mind turning.  Too many of us (I will admit, myself included) have become focused on being the best and having the best. I really started to think about this and realized that when your time comes to take your place in Heaven - it will not matter one bit that you owned a Louis Vuitton or drove a BMW.  It's crazy to think how materialistic we have actually become.

Now - while these thoughts were going through my head, I was still searching for my Thanksgiving art ministry reference.  An image of a Norman Rockwell painting came to mind and turned out to be perfect!
Norman Rockwell is such an iconic artist who simply painted what he saw.  He enjoyed showing the America that he knew and observed.  Most of us are familiar with his Saturday Evening Post covers.  I love that the majority of his art showcases "down home" America and ordinary people in everyday life.  His paintings depict such a vivid narrative one almost feels as if they are a part of the scene. 

I am completely encouraged by his work and am inspired to take my first step in art ministry.  My plan is to create some paintings that display my interpretation of God's glory and donate them to local shelters and hospitals.  I feel this will be my way to share God's love to those less fortunate. 

Please enjoy the following Norman Rockwell paintings which show his interpretation of Thanksgiving.

    Enjoy your day!

My Thrifty Thursday Meal!

Recently I decided that I really need to budget and adhere to it.  My husband and I have been married for 9 years and I think I only actually stuck to a budget during our first year. As time went on and we steadily increased our income, my budgeting went out the window!

        With two small children and the economy in it's current state, I am 100% dedicated to get back on a budget and live a bit more frugal than we have  :)

Meal planning was the first step I took on this journey. Thursdays have been dubbed my Thrifty Thursdays.  Today I made a simple, yet inexpensive, chicken dinner that I like to call Garlic Chicken Noodles. 
       5 ingredients are the only requirement:

Chicken ( I use fryer chicken strips )
Egg Noodles
Olive Oil
Garlic Powder
Grated Parmesian Cheese

Boil the chicken and egg noodles in separate pots.  Drain the egg noodles.  Cut chicken into small pieces and add to the drained egg noodles.  Mix in olive oil, garlic powder and parmesian cheese to your liking.  Voila!  Very simple, inexpensive and very yummy thrify dinner. I usually add some bread and butter and a side of veggies.

Enjoy your day!

Crafting Time - Doll Tutu's

It's that time of year again - craft show time!!  Dilemma - I am having some serious crafty / artist block right now.  On top of that, I can't seem to find any extra time to work on anything!

The craft show is next weekend, November 12 and 13.  To date, I only have 7 doll tutu's, 5 child size tutu's and a handful of doll outfits and embroidered washcloths left over from last year.  AAAHHHH! What to do, what to do?!  My goal for this year was to create princess costumes for the dolls, tutu's for both children and dolls, and some quilts.  Needless to say I did not quite meet this goal!


So - for the next week I am going to set small goals and try to accomplish as much for the craft show that I can.  Tonight and for most of the day tomorrow I am going to make as many doll tutu's that I can ( or until I run out of material! )  These are actually quite simple, so I am hoping to make a good number of these.

I started by tying elastic around the doll's waist.  The first tutu that I made came out very full, so I decided to use slip knots on the rest of the tutu's. This resulted in using less tulle and the skirt's were not as full as my original - but they still look adorable!  I plan on embellishing the tutu's with some ribbon and small flowers. Now I just hope they sell at the craft show!  If not, they will be the first items on my Etsy page.   :)

Happy crafting and enjoy the day!

Elmo Birthday Outfit

Time is going so fast!  I can't believe my little Caitlyn is almost one.  *Tear!* 


We decided to do an Elmo themed birthday party for her since she absolutely loves Elmo and Sesame Street.  Of course - I had to make her the perfect outfit to go with this theme.  Since I take every opportunity to make my girls look as girly as possible, I made her a birthday tutu.  I made this tutu the same way I made her black tutu a few months back for Mother's Day.  This time, I alternated red and yellow tulle, then added a few strands of blue tulle and some ribbon.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out, it is so happy and cheerful looking - which mirrors her little personality perfectly!


For her shirt, I thought I would experiment with making a felt applique of Elmo and the number one.  I am very much a procrastinator, so I left myself very little time to get this part done.  I was rushing to make it the morning of her pictures!  I bought various colors of felt and pieced together Elmo's face.  Had I spent more time on it, I know I could have captured the image of Elmo better.  However, considering I threw it together in less than fifteen minutes I was ok with it!!  I also threw together a simple four loop bow on an alligator clip.   :)