Monday, August 29, 2011

Hats


This first hat's flowers are made from my favorite shirt that David finally retired. I figured making some flowers with the shirt would allow me to sort of keep the shirt around without having to complain that it was so worn out it should not be seen in public! I learned how to make these flowers from a book I checked out at the library.

The second hat has butterflies that I made using the BigShot Butterfly die. I had to stick the butterfly on the brim with sticky strip, I couldn't stitch it on the brim. The buckle is blingy, encircled with rhinestones. The hats are from Target. I bought a bunch of them on sale for 2.58!! Original price was 9.99. I'm going to try to sell these on etsy. I've got three more to make. I gave one away for a birthday gift yesterday.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Golden Gate Photo Essay

View of the bridge from historic Fort Scott parade grounds built in the 1910s.

Historic Fort Point, pre Civil War, beneath the bridge...which had to be built around the Fort.


Monday, August 22, 2011

Deus Ex Machina

In ancient Greek Theatre there was an element called, "Deus Ex Machina". It meant "god in machine" and was utilized by Sophocles and other Greek theatre guys. Sometimes the plot would get sticky and the main characters would find themselves in a situation that was truly impossible to escape or resolve. The play-write would then write in this marvelous machine which would bring a god down from on high to magically sort out the situation and restore all things aright. It was one of my favorite Greek devices because it was so handy to resolve any and all theatrical problems. I distinctly remember in college talking with my theatre buddies about how useful this would be in real life. We would make up situations, many times including exams we didn't study for, which were impossible to come out of smelling like a rose...and then we'd introduce our crazy god-machine and a beautiful resolution to our glitch.

Today in my quiet time something I read made me think again of Deus Ex Machina. This quote is from "Streams in the Dessert" by C.E. Cowman. The reading was talking about how the apostle Paul was often in dire straights. Onetime in Damascus, he had to flee for his life. In order to escape from those who would harm him, Paul's friends hid him in a basket (!!) and lowered the basket over the wall of the town. Once on the other side, Paul clambered out of the basket and ran for his life! Paul also survived a treacherous shipwreck, none of the passengers on the ship died either!

Read here what I read about Paul's shipwreck: "Again we find {Paul} left for months in the lonely dungeons; we find him telling of his watchings, his fastings, and his desertion by friends, of his brutal and shameful beatings, and here even after God has promised to deliver him, we see him for days left to toss upon a stormy sea, obliged to stand guard over the treacherous seaman, and at last when the deliverance comes, there is no heavenly galley sailing from the skies to take off the noble prisoner; there is no angel form walking along the waters and stilling the raging breakers; there is no supernatural sign of the transcendent miracle that is being wrought; but one is compelled to seize a spar, another a floating plank, another to climb on a fragment of the wreck, another to strike out and swim for his life. Here is God's pattern for our own lives.....God's promises and God's providences do not lift us out of the plane of common sense and commonplace trail, but it is through these very things that faith is perfected, and that God loves to interweave the golden threads of His love along the warp and woof of our every day experience." (emphasis mine)

God is not the god of the Greek Deus Ex Machina! God is the very wise God who knows that if He were to come and remove us from the sticky situations of life we would be none the wiser, no more mature, no more faith-filled, and no more trusting of Him than before we got into the sticky situation!

I loved being reminded this morning of my theatre knowledge, but I loved even more seeing how faithful my God is. He allows me to be sticky in the sticky messy situation so that I can grow all the more beautiful in Him. He is not absent, He is not ignorant, He is not malicious! He loves me so much that he allows me to be sticky in His presence. He equips me to get un-sticky through the power of His very Holy Spirit.

Praise God for my Jesus who did come down to earth and does know all about sticky messy lives, yet loves us in spite of that, even died to save us from the eternal consequences.

Amen!


Friday, August 19, 2011

Less...Control


I'm taking a fun class at Big Picture Classes dot com. It is a 12 day class. Each day we are assigned a word to scrapbook, the end result will be a 12 page book of "Words to Live By". So far the words have been: Share, Wonder, Less, and Enjoy. I haven't finished the page for Enjoy yet. I think my favorite page so far is what I created for Less. I wanted to talk about having less control of things in my life. For some reason the idea of an acrostic of "C O N T R O L" seemed like just what I wanted. I used a picture of a crazy looking flower that I took at Legoland for my background paper. Then, I used my digi scrapping program to do the rest. I am striving for less control, not less childlike faith.....

Sunday, August 14, 2011

August Already?


I should go back through my blog since I started and find out how many times I've said something like, "Wow, where has the time gone!?" I'm thinking it would be something I've said almost as many times as I have posted.

Time has flown this spring into summer and on into school planning already!

I have taken hundreds of pictures since last I posted. The above monogram was a door hanging that I made for my friend Carla for her 25th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. I collaborated with a local guy for the wood letters. Carla's instructions were "something with silver and Jeff's and my letters". So, pretty wide open instructions! I liked how the end result turned out. I ended up hanging it on Carla's door on the 4th of July weekend.

Since then, well, a month has gone by. A month crammed with lots of stuff. I was describing what's been going on in my life to a friend by saying that it rather felt like someone picked up my fruit basket, tossed it up in the air and yelled, "CATCH" at me. So much fruit was flying above me that I couldn't seem to grab just one piece of fruit and I ended up missing most of the fruit. AND, I don't juggle!

My husband has been going through some job stress for some time now; who hasn't been there lately? My children are growing at a predictable, but scary fast, rate. High School is half over for my eldest already! Our lives are on a path that we've never been on before. I find myself saying, "It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out".

I'm going to remember Summer 2011 for a long time. So much has been happening. I hope that someday really soon I'll be able to say that it was a real turning point in our lives and that we have seen God clearly through all of the turns.

Hopefully the fruit has all quit flying for a while and I'll be able to pick it all up and return some to the fruit basket for eating, some to the compost heap, and maybe even share some of the remaining good fruit with friends.