12.31.2013 My last post ... for a while ...

Belief is a wise wager.

Granted that faith cannot be proved,

what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?

If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.

Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.

~ Blaise Pascal

[ known as Pascal’s Wager ]

The purpose of life is to listen –

to yourself, to your neighbor, to your world and to God

and, when the time comes,

to respond in as helpful a way as you can find ... from within and without.

~ Fred 'McFeely' Rogers

Never again clutter your days or nights with 

so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept 

a real challenge when it comes along. 

This applies to play as well as work. 

A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. 

You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability

to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. 

No more busy work. 

No more hiding from success. 

Leave time, leave space, to grow. 

Now. 

Now! 

Not tomorrow!

~ Og Mandino

This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
~ Psalm 118:23

2013.12.20 Project - Christmas stocking

I make a Christmas stocking for each of (sister) jan and Greg's kids.

This year, Hannah joined the family.

Here is her stocking and also a photo of Hannah and me

when I gave it to her on Thanksgiving.

Each stocking is designed especially for the recipient and

is made from felt and extra embellishments.

2013.12.16 The way you see them

Take a photo of what something is, then take photos of what else it is.

~ Minor White.

Photography is an art of observation.

It has little to do with the things you see

and everything to do with the way you see them.

~ Elliott Erwitt

Teaching them {disciples} to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age

~ Matthew 28:20

2013.12.13 Project - 2013 Christmas ornaments

Every year, my sisters and I share Christmas ornaments

between ourselves and families.

Most years we craft them, but there isn't any pressure if we buy them instead.

This year, I made owls from paper tubes, paint and a black Sharpie.

These don't hang, but go over a branch or just nestle in somewhere :)

2013.12.09 We see light

What makes photography a strange invention is

that its primary raw materials are light and time.

~ John Berger

To love beauty is to see light.

~ Victor Hugo

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.

~ Psalm 36:9 

2013.11.29 Project - recovering a footstool

What I've been up to ... recovering a footstool.

This is a footstool originally from Vince's Uncle Ray.

I have no idea how it came to us, but we've had it for decades.

I forgot to take a "before" photo,

but I still had the fabric so I laid it on the completed footstool.

An interesting note on the bottom of this stool

says that Uncle Ray re-covered it in 1981.

He must have used the gold and blue fabric I removed.

It feels "right" to update the things we already own,

especially when there is a family history.

It's a simple procedure to re-cover a footstool.
Here is my "how-to" ...

Remove the old fabric if you need to.

Usually the fabric is stapled or nailed to the bottom.

There may be decorative nails around the lower edge.

For this footstool, there were both nails in the bottom

and decorative nails along the lower edge.

Use a hammer (the prying end) to remove the nails on the bottom and

a prybar, hammer, and pliers to remove the decorative nails.

Using the removed fabric as a guide, cut the new fabric.

If you are adding fabric over the existing fabric,

turn the footstool upside down and add several inches all around the shape.

Tape (masking or painter's) the edges so the fabric won't fray.

If you have a sewing machine, run a stitched line around the edge instead.

Center the fabric and begin stapling.

Put one center staple on the long side,

then one center staple on the opposite long side,

then a center staple in each short side.

Pull somewhat tightly so the fabric is taut, but not over-stretched.

Turn the footstool over to check how it looks.

Turn it upside down again and begin adding staples.

Put one on each side of your first staple,

then on each side of your second staple,

then on each side of your centered staples on the short sides.

Turn it over for a visual check.

Keep adding staples a few at a time

until all the fabric on the bottom is stapled in place.

Fold the fabric around the legs as necessary.

Just use your judgement.

2013.11.25 The doors of perception

Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru;

if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are things known and there are things unknown,

and in between are the doors of perception.”

~ Aldous Huxley

I know your deeds.

See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

~ Revelation 3:8

2013.11.23 Project - making new seats for dining room chairs

What I've been up to ...

covering the seats of 4 dining room chairs.

We have multiple tables for eating as well as crafts and projects.

One table seats 6, the other 8.

However, we don't have that many matching chairs.

So, we have 4 pine chairs, 6 oak chairs, and 4 chairs painted green with caned seats.

At least the green chairs used to have caned seats.

Each table has the natural chairs along the sides and two green chairs at the ends.

With the caning on the green chairs falling apart,

my daughter-in-law, Theresa, and I decided that upholstered seats would save our chairs.

Vince (husband) cut plywood bases for the new seats.

Theresa and I picked out fabric, two different, but coordinated kinds.

With some padding and a stapler, this is the result ...

2013.11.18 Merely a strand of it

You press the button and we do the rest.

~ Kodak advertisement

Man does not weave this web of life.

He is merely a strand of it.

~ Chief Seattle

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

~ Matthew 6:26

2013.11.11 Not as a man sees

I use a camera that captures not only pictures, but also imagination.

~ rainfield61 – comment on my blog post: "2013.07.06 What camera do you use?"

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

... for God sees not as man sees,

for man looks at the outward appearance,

but the LORD looks at the heart.

~ 1 Samuel 16:7b

2013.10.28 Only a witness

The earth is art, the photographer is only a witness. 

~ Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Earth from Above

There are mysteries I will never understand.

~ Temperance Brennan, Bones character

... to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,

~ Ephesians 6:19b

2013.10.21 Full of light

No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep

and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

~ Robert Adams

The whole secret of the study of nature

lies in learning how to use one's eyes.

~ George Sand

The eye is the lamp of the body;

so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

~ Matthew 6:22

2013.10.14 Begin afresh each morning

There is no formula for a good photograph.

Mediocre pictures may follow a formula, good ones seldom do.

When the visual tools are used just right,

the design, lighting, mood, and emotion come together to just the right point,

and that point hits you

and you know what the photographer meant – that’s a good picture.

~ Ed Feingersh

Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.

~ Meister Eckhart

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

~ Lamentations 3:23

2013.10.07 Sunlight is painting

Sunlight is painting.

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly.

~ Robert H. Schuller

...but when the perfect state of things is come,

all that is imperfect will be brought to an end.

~ 1 Corinthians 13:10

2013.09.30 Lift you higher

I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical.

~ Trent Parke

Surround yourself with people who are going to lift you higher.

~ Oprah Winfrey

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

~ Matthew 5:16

2013.09.27 Five random facts about me

Linking up with A Rural Journal for Random Five Friday (five facts about me) ...

this week with a few pictures! ...

1.  I went to the zoo this week with my daughter-in-law, Theresa, and

my grandkids and friends.  I hadn't been there in many years and I had a wonderful time.

This is one of my favorite animals ... the polar bear ...

not my grandkids and friend ...

although at times, the kids do resemble monkeys.

2.  Indiana is still having moderately warm days and sunshine,

but the signs of fall are everywhere.

3.  I'm consciously spending less time on the computer, more time in reality.

And feeling better because of it.

4.  I bought the book Yoga for Life yesterday at Half-Price Books (only $2 ... yay!)

and you all can hold me accountable :)

I need to s-t-r-e-t-c-h myself out

of my folded-in-upon-itself body left from cancer treatment.

5.  I am still working on my Moleskin art journal for this year.

I promise to blog some more photos of the pages and my *super easy* way of doing it,

no photos required.

A couple of pages ...

2013.09.23 Ever-shifting kaleidoscope

Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me.

~ Sam Abbel

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

~ Adrian Guelke

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

~ Romans 12:2a

2013.09.16 Nature's most beautiful gift

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera …

they are made with the eye, heart and head.

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift.

~ Albert Einstein

You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

~ Nehemiah 9:6c

[ Lavender photo taken at Willowfield Lavender Farm ]

2013.09.13 Five random facts about me

Linking up with A Rural Journal for Random Five Friday (five facts about me) ...

this week with pictures! ...

1.  I've started volunteering again.

From the parking lot of the Boys & Girls Club ...

2.  Our made-by-Vince camper.  It has electric hook-up, beds, storage.

I took this photo while I was sitting at a picnic table prepping for a snack.

Thought it was funny that Vince's legs are showing under the open back door.

Like a Fred-Flintstone-assisted camper ...

3.  Granddaughter ... that says it all ...

4.  All the Saturdays between now and November are committed.

I may be, too, after this ...

5.  I've returned to kindergarten this year by documenting my year

with an art journal in my Moleskin planner.

More photos and info later ...

2013.09.09 Seek and you will find

The photo is a thing in itself. And that's what still photography is all about.

~ Garry Winogrand

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

~ John Muir

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

~ Matthew 7:7