Hoot Hoot, Woof Woof

97

This is a song snippet that was inspired by my friend Alyssa's painting,

which was inspired by:

Psalm 97:1-6,9

The Lord is king!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the farthest coastlands be glad.
Dark clouds surround him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire spreads ahead of him
and burns up all his foes.
His lightning flashes out across the world.
The earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
every nation sees his glory.
For you, O Lord, are supreme over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.

Anna's Dress

My friend Amy's darling little girl in an outfit I made for her.

Art Noveau Spoonflower Contest

I didn't have much time to work on this but I wanted to give it a shot so I slapped this sort of sketchy image into the latest Spoonflower contest which is an Art Noveau inspired design with a restricted color palette. A long time ago I took some photos of my beautiful friend Kelly, I wish I could find the originals, but I used a photoshopped version of it as a basis for this design. Kelly recently gave birth to her fifth child (at home, unassisted by anyone other than her husband.. amazing!) and has always been one of the most creative people I know. Here's to you Kelly! If you want to vote in the contest click here. There are some really amazing designs to look at.

Justified

A Song I wrote for church

Justified

Enter in to the courts of the King

Come in boldly and draw near the throne

Trade your mourning in for a garment of praise

The accuser has been overthrown

I have come to adore

I am walking through the veil of your chamber Lord

Through the blood of the one

Who gave Himself for me I stand before You clean

I am safe in the shadow of His wings

In His love every fear is released

Therefore now there is no condemnation for His own

In His suffering He purchased my peace

Through his blood I am now reconciled

For I cling to the victory of Christ

If the enemies of God were reconciled through His death

How much more will we be saved through His life

You are the Lamb slain before all time

You're the broken Bread, the poured out Wine

I stand before You justified

Though I was dead in sin, I have been made alive

Swatches

Some samples of fabric designs I've done. I've made a bunch available for sale at Spoonflower

SEEDS

Overheard

This is a conversation I just overheard in the hallway.

Elsie: Heidi, put this in your belly button.

Heidi: No, I'm gonna go night-night!

Elsie: Okay, but when you wake up, put it in your belly button.

Heidi: Okay.

ADENDUM:
I just discovered that "it" was a bicycle pump.

Single Eye

Happy

Please vote for my design in the spoonflower contest here if you like it!

We're Going to Make a Mess

One day I got out some watercolors and thought that Elsie and Heidi and I could have some fun painting. I started mindlessly painting some flowers on a piece of paper. Heidi had a lot of fun painting her page black, but Elsie quickly descended into a helpless mass of whiny frustration because she couldn't make flowers like what I was painting.

I tried to explain to her in as many ways as I could think of, that we were just having fun and it didn't matter if her picture looked like mine. She didn't get it and was completely freaking out. It was freaking me out too. Why is my four year old becoming such a perfectionist? Any time she cuts something out and strays off the line, or makes a coloring mark where she doesn't want it, she completely looses it. What to do? I love art and don't want her getting discouraged all the time.

My mom was an art therapist so I called for her advice. She told me that in some of the workshops she's taught, the first task she gives her (adult) class is to "Make an Ugly Picture". It frees them up from thinking they have to produce something marvelous and gets them to just have fun. That sounded like a pretty good idea.

So one day not long ago, we made some homemade finger paints. I put out a big board for the girls to paint on in the middle of the kitchen. As I was explaining to them what we were going to do, I started to say "..and we're going to make a pretty picture" Oops! I stopped myself and said, "I mean, we're going to make a mess!"

Well, let me tell you, I have never seen Elsie have so much fun with artwork. Both of the girls were squealing with joy, squishing the colors around on the board. Not a whine of frustration did I hear! Now, the finger paint did end up in hair, on pajamas, on the cabinets, but it was worth it. I realized that at these kid's ages, making a mess is the best thing to make.

Raggedy Ann finale

A dress like my Raggedy - After all these years! Thanks to Spoonflower.

David Trygg

My Nephew Birthdaying in some overalls I made him out of Rachel's lion fabric. I love this fabric! And this boy!

Like it

The beginning of something...

Move

Whale

A very simple thing becoming very complicated

Stuff I want to do

Not Resolutions or Even Goals But Just a Bunch of Art/Music Stuff I'd Like to Do This Year….Or Some Year…

• sew my raggedy ann dress

• work on updating the illustrations of my mom's book & republish?

• write more songs to use at church

• work with nikki on children's book illustrations?

• design illustrations for the story of Christ's birth, make into a book of some sort

• practice upright bass

• design more fabrics, sell them

• work with rachel on magazine idea?

• design a house

• make designs and market my t-shirt idea

• write/record more psalms

• learn more about leading corporate worship

• get better at improvisation on guitar

• sing a song such as never has been heard in the heathen world (isa 42:10 amp)

2009

Love Birds

Spoonflower design challenge. I think this motif could look cool as a western shirt.

Stick Horses

Jason and I made these for our kids for Christmas. Shh!