Saturday, August 18, 2012

Crafting with Friends and a wreath

 Ducky "hello" card
 Meeow is cat talk for "thank you so much"
 Yippee!
 A tin in which to save your pennies for a rainy day!
 A can for pencils adorned with embellished clothes pins.
Christine and I had so much fun with new friends yesterday. We made three cards and a pencil can. I made a box since I only had three cans! Same idea though, just use your favorite paper to cover the tin or can. The clothes pins are basic ones which we covered with paper and then embellished with more paper. We had lots and lots of fun.



This wreath is one I made a few months ago. I had gotten an old out-dated atlas at my local library's free-please-take-some-pile. I cut out the pages, rolled them up and assembled them into a wreath. When it was all together, I painted the edges with glue and then dipped that into glitter. The center of the wreath is another page of a map that I fan folded to make a sort of medallion. Yes, I painted the edges of it with glue too and then dipped into green glitter.
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 It hangs in my bedroom now.


Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Summer Handiwork

   Christine and I have had so much fun learning some new jewelry making techniques this summer.  Here is our handiwork.  We have decided that we'll go in to business together and sell our wares! Here is our first "internet trunk show"! We hope you'll see something you like. First you'll see wire wrapped pendants, a necklace and then earrings. Happy Shopping!! Email me if you are interested in purchasing anything. I do take paypal and personal checks are welcome too.  Click on any of the pictures and you'll get a slide show of all the pieces.

This pink pendant above is wire wrapped with silver tone wire by Christine. You'll need to add your own cord or chain.$10.00 SOLD





 Here is another wire wrapped pendant by Christine. It also will need a cord or chain. $14.00


 I made this pearl bauble necklace on gunmetal chain. It has lots of heart charms as well as smoky and clear crystal baubles to go with the pearls. $10.00

 I call this pendant with cord, "Fire". It is wire wrapped with antiqued bronze wire and three orange beads. $15.00
This is my favorite pendant. I think it's fire agate. It is wrapped with silver tone wire and needs a chain, cord or neckwire. I put it on a silver choker and it looked fabulous! $14.00





 After we learned how to wrap wire, we learned how to make earrings. These green ones are called, "Cinq Pomme", made with green crystals and green furnace glass polka-dot beads. $10.00




 Christine made these dainty turquoise blue earrings.  The very top has a Sworski crystal butterfly. Click on the picture for a close-up view. $8.00




 I call these, "Grapevine". They are made with purple Sworski crystals and purple fancy beads. $12.00





 "Cranberry Ice" features red Sworski crystals, red glass beads, and silver tone beads. $12.00
"Snappy Apple" is a shorter version of "Cinq Pomme". $8.00

Monday, July 23, 2012

Finally, a Fravel Family update!

We are definitely settled in now, all the "stuff" seems to be in the right place. Since we have more space now, we did buy some more furniture for which we are still awaiting delivery. The movers severely damaged our family room sofa, so we will have to replace that very soon. We have even painted Christine's room from the awfully drab army green to fresh blue, white and purple...in true girly style! There are still more rooms to paint. The dining room and the great room both have the same green that Christine's room had.  I am hoping for something yellow....still thinking about those colors.

The weekends bring us to church search time. The first three weeks we were here we would visit 3 services each weekend; a Saturday service, and two services on Sunday. We've gone to all the Saturday possibilities now and are just down to 2 per weekend.  This week we visited Westminster Pres. for the early service and then a church called The Ransom Church for the late service. The Ransom Church meets in a warehouse! So, we saw two ends of the corporate worship spectrum this weekend.

Please do be praying for us to find the right church home. It is so hard to leave what you love behind. Sundays are most difficult because lots of memories and feelings just wash over me and leave me feeling overwhelmed. I miss CPC and all the connection we had there. I miss the sense of anticipation that I always felt each time we walked on to campus. I miss serving as a Deacon and the wonderful feeling of being useful that gave me, not to mention my "family" of deacon buddies!

Pray for me! Our house is only 10 minutes from town....however, we really do live out in the country.  The road our house is on is a dirt road.  I can see 7 homes from my office window, but they are not connected by sidewalks and I do not see people out walking. There is a golf course right next to us, so there is a lot of action around....it's not like we are out in the wilderness! There is a neighborhood behind us as well with about 20 houses and families. There are three houses for sale...so I keep praying for new neighbors! I feel really isolated in spite of all of this. I'm sure it has to do with summer and busy families just as much as it has to do with the "just moved syndrome". I am a person who needs connection!!! and I'm not finding it very quickly. Pray that I would find comfort in God Himself, that I would personally experience His tender care of me.

I can't tell you how much the Danville summer Bible study group meant to me when I lived in Danville and how much more it means to me now that I'm unable to be a part of you all!! I praise God often for your gracious inclusion of me for three summers and praise Him for knowing just what I needed when I needed it.  I pray too that you will continue to be open to new ladies in the community.

Pray for all of us to find friends. The kids are doing fine....but they miss little things like being able to walk to Yogurt Shack with friends and stop in at the library. The weather here is so hot that we are forced to stay in doors with the AC blasting! I know that as soon as we find a church home connecting with friends will be easier.  Our neighborhood here has lots of children...we just have not met any of them.  I have been praying about what to do to meet folks. I still can't believe that no one has rung our bell to introduce themselves to us! Then again, I have forgotten that here in the Midwest lots of people live really close to family and have deep roots so they have no desire to make new friends. We did notice that across the way from us some new people moved into a new house that had been empty.  We practically ran over to them with cookies and a welcome! My kids were funny..."Let's be sure to go welcome them since no one welcomed us!"  And, then after we met the new family my kids said, "Oh, we feel better now! It's so nice to welcome people!" This family is from North Carolina and has family of the mom in the area.

DJ has started a summer job at the plant where David works. David does not work in the plant part, but is in management doing new product development, which is not new to him, as well as sourcing--which is the new part of his job. DJ works as a "factory worker" as he likes to say.  He is really doing light industrial work. He works on getting products into packages and then boxed for shipping. The plant has no air conditioning...so it's pretty draining work. Today the high is supposed to be 100 with a heat index of 105! DJ has only been working a week and already has interesting stories about what goes on each day. He only works 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He carpools with David.

Christine and I found a local bead shop and have already taken three classes.  We were hoping to meet new people when we go...but so far it has just been the two of us.  We have one more class this month...maybe that will be the class!? We have really enjoyed learning how to make new things.  I think I'm going to post pictures of them here tomorrow. We have this idea that we might be able to sell some of our things.  We'll see!  Stay tuned for that!!

David is glad that he doesn't have to travel as much as he used to.  He still has to travel to Boston for three days once a month and to China once a quarter. His next trip is to China. He'll be leaving on this Friday and returning on the 4th of August. He seems to be settling in to the new office pretty well. Pray for safe travels for the China trip.  I think he is enjoying having DJ at work, at least in the same building, with him 3 days a week.  They get to eat lunch together besides carpool. Together they are working on trying to find a Scout troop to join in.

The last prayer request I have is for rain. We really need it here. We live in the middle of a golf course that is burnt to a crisp and corn fields that are parched, bean fields that are wilting. People's livelihoods are being threatened, not to mention the ripple of cost effects that will be felt all across the country. I heard an example about corn: the price of corn is going to go up because the corn will be scarce. Corn is what pigs are fed, which then means that hog prices will go up, which means that bacon is going to cost even more this fall.  So, it's all related! The severe weather conditions are being called a drought now. Pray for relief from the heat, for rain to come steady for a couple days!

OH! I almost forgot!! Our house in Missouri is officially on the market now. We'd love prayer for it to sell super fast with no glitches!! Here is a link to the listing
Click the following URL to see the listing:
http://portal.heartlandmls.com/DE.asp?k=213885XW3HV&p=DE-8587544-791
Here is a beautiful Prairie Sunset for you to enjoy! I took this picture in De Smet, home of Laura Ingals Wilder. We went to see the pageant that the community there does every July. Funny, the story of this year's pageant was "The Big Winter" all about an enormous blizzard one winter that almost did the town in.


Sunday, June 17, 2012

Happy Fathers' Day

 How cool is this!? It was so amazingly RED! I took about 8 pictures of this as we zoomed by.  I have no idea what it's called...it's so amazing that it must have a name.  It can be seen in Custer State Park...I believe.
 Such massive, impressive rocks and formations!
 And then, the prairie begins to encroach on the Badlands.
 My gang at Mt. Rushmore.
"Big Head Mountain"...so named by David!
Happy Fathers' Day to all the Dads out there. (don't forget to click on the pictures for bigger versions)

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Hi! We're here!

Between my last post and this, we have left the Bay Area for the wide open Prairie of South Dakota. We've been here a week now.  All the boxes are unpacked, the school room is all set and already functioning for Summer School. We've been to the grocery store twice, but haven't successfully gotten our drivers' licenses yet. I have been to the DMV three times, but the wait is over 2 hours! So, I'm waiting at home instead.  I've been calling this new state, "Slow Dakota" because it is just so much slower here than it was in Northern California.  I'm sure you're not surprised by that!

On our trek, by car--not wagon!, to our new home, I took a few pictures.  I didn't take any pictures until we hit Wyoming though.  I was just too sad to take any as we left Cali and still sad as we drove through Utah.

Here are the pictures I took...starting with one last one at the Presidio with the kids by our new State flag.

 The Plains of Yellowstone with thermals
 Why it's called, "Yellowstone"
 At Old Faithful
Picture by DJ of "Old Faithful and the Geeser"
I think this is Lake Yellowstone. Doesn't it look cold!!  This is on June 2nd!
More pictures tomorrow! If you click on the photo you can view them kinda like a slideshow, much bigger and better quality that way!


Sunday, May 27, 2012

Our last trip to the Presidio

   
A photo essay from the Presidio.
 
California Poppies in two colors.


 Mystery Orchid-like flower
 Calalilly showing what it looks like to "Bloom where you are planted"...even if it means right in the middle of the weeds!

 I believe this is a Hawthorne.
 Pomegranite
 "Ice Plant"
 Busy Bee
 View of Alcatraz with Crissy Field in the foreground.
 It was Memorial Day weekend...so the National Cemetery was all decked out.
 A Robin acting as a sentinel on a tombstone.


 Can you see the battleship in the background?
Happy Memorial Day. And Happy 75th Birthday to the Golden Gate Bridge!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

One Little Word Updates

My journey with One Little Word 2012 has only been going on for just about four months. "Share" is a difficult word to live with! 

February I was supposed to find instances of my word in signage around me, or in pictures that I might take of something that my word might symbolize.  I sort of struck-out on that front.  I tried to find cool individual letters from the word and take pictures of those.  But, I only ended up with an "a" and an "e"....

March was supposed to be a month where I picked a day to "do" my word.  I was struggling with that because when I looked at my schedule for the month I realized that I had a lot of sharing going on already.  I shared walks with friends, taught someone how to use a loom to knit, shared dinner with my Deacon friends at church, had tea with my three support group friends, shared necklace making with another friend, shared the Lord's Supper with others, shared cookies with Joni Erickson Tada, shared a parenting seminar with friends, and shared tea with more friends.  I almost felt "share"-d out!

But, on the 16th of March David flew home from Boston and surprised me by whisking me away to Napa for the night and all of Saturday before he flew back to Boston on Sunday night.  He had arranged for the children to have a sleepover with friends and took care of my Saturday morning responsibilities.  So, I was the recipient of my word!  We shared a lovely getaway in Napa and Yountville.  We window shopped, tried on furs, tasted wine and had lunch at Bottega--Michael Chiarello's restaurant. It was lovely!

So, now in April the assignment is to write a "Note to Self" letter.  This letter is to be written to my by me as if I were someone else writing the note.  I'm to answer the questions, "What do I hope for myself? If life went just as I'd like it to, what would my life look like next year? Generally, am I where I want to be at the moment of writing this letter?"  I have a feeling it will take me a bit to write this letter.