Cardboard Art

In an effort to get better sleep (and more energy - more on this in another post), we have been trying to sleep in complete darkness, which means no lights from alarm clocks, windows, etc.  I closed the blinds on our bedroom windows, but the neighbors behind us bright outside light still would go on and off all night long, coming in through the cracks in the blind. Night after night I would be drifting off, and a rabbit hopping by or too much wind would set off that darned light, and I would be wide awake again. Finally one night we decided to actually do something about it. I asked Pete to put this piece of cardboard in the window.

We were no longer tortured by that evil light, but the cardboard looked, well, just plain ugly. I thought about putting in some drapes, but my minimalist soul balked at the thought of extra dusting, and I would rather put any money we would spend on drapes towards paying down the ole' student loans. Everytime I looked at that cardboard, however, its ugliest jarred me so I didn't want to leave it as it was. Looking around the house for ideas, I saw this book that our friends the Moodys had given us when they moved and which I planned on using for some art project or other. Being a country girl at heart, I love barns and pictures of nature:  

Decoupage! That was the answer! This is the final result:

 I was so pleased with the result that I decided to cover the cardboard which was above the AC unit in our living room. Here are before and after pictures:

On My Mind - My Grandmother's Legacy and Homemade Christmas Presents

When I grow up, I want to be my Grandmothers. That is, I want to have the gentleness, love, and creativity of my Grandma Lindsley, who is in heaven, and the work ethic, homemaking skills, and compassion of my Grandma Owen.
         My Grandma Lindsley was the embodiment of gentleness and self-sacrifice; if she had any faults, she was too gentle and self-sacrificing. She had a very hard life, but she used her love and creativity to raise nine children on a very limited income, cooking from scratch and making handmade clothes and toys for her children. She showed this same love to her thirty grandchildren, to whom she faithfully sent presents every birthday and Christmas, despite a limited income. She  embroidered me this pillow when I was a little girl:

This pillow means more to me than almost anything anyone has ever given me because of the love that it took to make it.
         Making our Christmas list this year, I counted twenty-five kids we had to buy presents for (including nephews, nieces, younger siblings, cousins, and god-children). December happens to be a lean month with Pete's teaching, and we are commited to getting out of debt, not incrueing more! I also wanted to give something meaningful to the children in our lives, not just a toy that they will forget about in a week or month. I was trying to figure out what to do about our little dilemna when I saw the pillow sitting on our shelf of toys. Of course! Something with the kids names on them! Hmm, I pondered, I don't have the time to embroided 25 kids names on anything. But I do have time to paint! (I am not going to reveal everything that I am painting because some of the kids might read this blog, but some of the kids, the ones who do not read this blog, are getting hand-painted ornmanents).
Here is an ornament I painted for an eight year old cousin Rylie:   

I am so excited about giving presents this year!

What are your creative gift ideas?

Tip from the Green Housewife - Recreate Furniture

      Did you know, that according to the EPA, there are nine million tons of furniture in our nation's landfills? 9 million tons! I understand disposable diapers (to keep a mother's sanity!), but disposable furniture?! At least use it for firewood!
      For over, ummm, six year, ahem, I have been meaning to refinish our kitchen table. It is beautiful oak, given to us by a family I nannied for in Dallas, but it has always needed a new finish. The labor intensive process of sanding (and borrowing a sander!) and varnishing has intimidated me into years of procrastination. Then about a week ago, I was inspired. I was painting a wooden box with the "Solas" from the Reformation (another post), and had some gold acrylic paint left over. I decided to rub it into the table to cover up all of the flaws in the finish, and then calligraphy one of my favorite verses on top of it. It was an uncontrollable creative urge, a leftover from childhood when I would sneakily color designs on the inside of my dresser, trying not to get caught.  (I figured if I messed up the table, the finish was already bad and I always buy a table cloth). I typed out the words on Word, as I am still learning the font (Edwardian), put down some masking tape for straight lines, and started to paint!  Here is the final result (which still needs a varnish!):

    Who says frugal living has to be joyless?!!!

Working for Grace?

       Remember the fundamentalist Mormon cult in Texas which was raided a few years back? One of the things that stuck in my memory is hearing how hard they had to work to meet their cult's demands - sometimes up to 14 and 16 hour days! Local cops would find some of the men driving erratically at night, and pull them over thinking they were drunk, to find out that they were not drunk, just very sleep deprived.
       This is NOT Christianity. This is quite-literally works salvation
       When I was a teenager, I had a similiar works-salvation issue going on with pro-life ministry. I felt so concerned about the dying babies I thought that my friends and I had to save them all, or we would be very bad Christians. I also was taught at that time that my salvation could be lost, and I managed to mix these two ideas in such a crazy way that I thought not "saving" enough babies could affect my eternal destiny! Talk about pressure.
       Salvation is a free gift. It is not something we earn, or keep, through heavy manual labor, or saving enough babies from abortion, or doing enough homeless ministry, or sharing the gospel (what gospel?! if this is your paradigm) with enough people, or any other zealous effort. (If you don't believe me that salvation is a free gift, read the book of Romans and Ephesians in the New Testament. If they can't convince you, then there is nothing I can say that will!)
       One of my favorite hyms is "Rock of Ages".  And I love bluegrass. So this version, posted by my friend Heather on facebook,  http://redemptionhill.com/rock-of-ages/ , is one I can't get enough of! I love this stanza:
"Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy Laws demands
Would my zeal no respite know,
Would my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone"
         You may be thinking that those two examples given above are pretty extreme and don't apply to most Christians who have their theology straight. That may be, but I think that many Christians struggle with "works salvation" at a more subtle, but still harmful level. We may not believe that we have to work for our salvation, or to keep our salvation, but what about our sanctification? Do we believe that it is God who makes us holy and produces good works in and through us, or do we think that we need to do this on our own? If we cannot make ourselves holy in the first place, what makes us (and I am including myself here) think that if we exhaust ourselves sharing the gospel enough times, or helping enough needy children, or standing up against enough social injustices, this can somehow make us more pleasing to God? This guilt-laden form of Christianity is bondage, people, that Christ died to set us free from!  Jesus says, "Apart from me you can do nothing......You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains" (John 15).
       Fruit that remains is fruit that God produces in us, in His time and in His way. Abide in Christ, and as you do, He will use you to share the gospel or help needy children or do whatever it is He has for you to do, in His strength and when He wants. Remember that if you have trusted in Christ you are "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3), and quit striving but rest in His completed work.
With these things on my mind, I painted this scarf for my etsy shop last night:

This week,  I am giving a 10% discount for any item in my etsy shop. The coupon code is "Grace" , which contrasts with God's grace that is completely free!

Here is the link to my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreedalCalligraphy?ref=pr_shop

     (20% of all proceeds from my shop this week with go to help starving children in the horn of Africa eat! The rest is going to a long-term goal Pete and I have.)

Are you striving or abiding?

When the Dog Bites, Create!

One of my favorite movies is "The Sound of Music". I love how Julie Andrews, when the captain refuses to give her money for playclothes for the children, she turns her anger into something constructive and makes (very hideous) play clothes for them out of green curtains.
         This has been one of those "dog biting" weekends, not because any captain is refusing me material for children's clothing, but just a string of hurtful occurances. Instead of moping around all day, I decided to channel my anger and hurt into creating something hopefully prettier than those hideous green clothes!:

This is an anti-legalism verse: "Nothing is better than to rejoice and do good in one's life, Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the fruit of his labor, it is the gift of God." (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)  I am thinking of selling this bowl in my etsy shop, but first I have to figure out how to get the paint to stay on when washed! If it doesn't sell, it will be a great Christmas present.

         I also created this banner for my etsy shop: 

     
Now my day is beautiful.

What do you do "when the dog bites?"

Simple Living and Entprenurial Experiments

When I was a kid, my 3 younger sisters and I (I have four sisters, but the youngest was born right before I went to college) were constantly trying to start little "businesses". We sold everything from "coloring book calendars" that we put together ourselves, to flower bulbs, to wrapping paper, to popsicles, to chocolate bars. The business I remember the most was an "art sale" we put on in our front yard when I was seven years old. We drew pictures of random stick people and very sloppily glued together popsicle sticks and called our creations "bird houses". We also were selling an assortment of rocks and pinecones we had collected. We made a grand total of 25 cents! Ha!
       Since "coming home" a month ago, I've been toying around with different entreprenerial ideas.  On the top of my list are:
1) Calligraphying Wedding Invitations
2) Baking Healthy Breads with organic ingrediants/ veggies from my garden
3) Tutoring women in Greek (women communicate better with women!)
I am not sure which, if any, of these enterprises will turn into a real business.  And I have a lot of research to do on how to start a business, getting a license, etc. I've been feeling a bit stressed, a bit panicky, not sure which route to pursue, which one will be a success, and how to even go about doing everything legally, not "under the table". 
       But since my main reason to have quite my job was to focus on my health so we can have a baby, I've decided that this stress-laden attitude will not do, but neither do I want to just give up. After a lot of  praying and thinking, I've realized something huge - THERE IS NO RUSH! We don't need the money to live on, the profits would just go in part to paying off extra on student loans so we can be more financial stable for our future children, and in part to helping children in crisis. This doesn't have to be done tomorrow! Or next month! I ... can... take... my .... time.... what a relief! I can take all the time I want to think, to pray, to research, and to experiment! I do not have to prove my worth to the world by bringing in a big paycheck tomorrow - as a stay-at-home-wife, I am FREE to put God and my husband and health and ministry first, and pursue what brings me joy instead of feeling pressure to make lots of money now!
           So I am experimenting. Today I baked some biscuits and carrot bread to give away as free samples at church tomorrow - maybe I will get some orders, maybe I won't, but if not, at least I have discovered in the process a quicker way to make carrot bread (cook and puree the carrots instead of grating them) and got my Grandma's recipe for biscuits.  Maybe I will get some orders, but not a huge amount - thats OK! Even if I only make 20$, I can use that money to buy socks for homeless kids I couldn't otherwise afford. But maybe, just maybe, it could be a business that could grow, and I could afford to get a baking license and pay off thousands of dollars in student loans!  And if that doesn't work, maybe I will pursue calligraphying wedding envelopes. I may find that I hate calligraphying that many envelopes, and not do more than one order (this fear is holding me back!), but maybe I will find that I love the practice, that my calligraphy just gets better and better, and the balance on our student loans are going down so fast, so why not take the practice and make money at the same time! And if that doesn't work, maybe I could advertise for tutoring women in Greek at the seminary Pete teaches at, and could really be motivated to keep up with studying Greek that way (this would be my dream job but the one I see with the least chance of making a profit).  Or maybe I will get occasional work in all three of these enterprises, and will just take it as it comes. We will see! But there is so much joy in there being NO PRESSURE! 

Calligraphy Fundraiser for Kigen

My blogging friend Penny is trying to raise money for a little boy named Kigen. He is a little boy who lives in Kenya who has been getting medical treatment for a painful skin condition. Now he has gotten treatment, and they need money for the trip home. Here is a picture of Kigen:

Picture used with permission by Missions of Hope

You can read more about him here: http://snapthatpenny.blogspot.com/2011/05/waiting-on-our-miracle.html
      I have gotten out of the habit of selling calligraphy on my blog, somewhat because I need to make more pieces and take pictures of pieces I have done. But this sweet boy's needs has given me the kick in the pants I need to start again! The proceeds from this week's calligraphy sales will go to help Kigen return home from the hospital. This week's featured calligraphy is from Isaiah 26:4-5:

Each 8"by10" inch print is ready to frame and is 6$ plus shipping and handling. You can email me at andymichelle.vik@gmail.com, or buy from my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/people/CreedalCalligraphy?ref=si_pr.

50 Things in 77 Days

 

With all of the changes that have taken place lately in my life (slowly getting back good health and quitting work in order to do so), I have decided to re-evaluate my goals for this year. Some I am modifying, but most I am keeping, and their are others I may add as well.

 As far as writing goals:

1. Blog six days a week - is just too much, because I don't have something to say 6 days a week. I would rather write three really good posts a week than 6 mediocre ones!

2. Write 16th and Island (story about homeless family) - this goal I plan to keep, because I really think this story must be told. But as I will have more time and energy to work on it now, I have a new goal of working on it every day before I forget some crucial details about what happened!

3. Try to get 16th and Island published - this will be a huge mountain to climb, but I intend on giving it my best efforts!

As far as spiritual goals - I just need to get back on track, and I will, starting tonight! I want my relationship with God to be the most important thing in my life, but I tend to work and worry, like Martha, instead of pray!

As far as health goals - #18, Walk 60 miles a month, is just too much right now. So I am revising this goal to thirty miles a month, for now until I can get my stamina back. So far I have walked 19 miles this month!

Gardening goals - are being hampered by birds, earwigs, field mice, and gophers - uggghhh. But I am NOT giving up the dream of having my own garden, so it is time to go to war with these critters!

I have managed to cross # 34 -Learn 3 new calligraphy fonts off my list - I've learned Spencerian, Latin, and Uncial.

What are your plans/ goals for the week?

Calligraphy Fundraiser for Kigen

This weeks featured Calligraphy is from

Each 8''10" ready-to-frame print is 5$, plus shipping and handling. Usually the proceeds go to buy socks for homeless kids, but this week, my friend Penny at "Snap That" raised my attention about a little boy in Kenya who is in need of emergency medical attention.  He lives in a village, far from any doctors, and could die if the funds are not raised to help him. Here he is hiding from the sun:

This next picture, I warn you, is very hard to see. The skin is literally falling off Kigan's face.

This sweet boy is in horrible pain, and may die if he does not get help soon. Please consider doing what you can to help him. You can email me at andymichelle.vik@gmail.com if you would like to order some calligraphy (from this week or any previous week), and the proceeds will go to him. Or you can visit my friend Penny at http://snapthatpenny.blogspot.com/2011/03/about-boy.html and contact her about giving money directly to the mission that works with him and his people group, the Pokot people. Please open your heart to this hurting child.

Calligraphy Fundraiser for Homeless Kids

This week's featured calligraphy is from Isaiah 26:3-4:

Each print is 5$ plus shipping and handling. All profits (up to 100$!) will go to buy socks and underwear for homeless kids at the Monarch School in downtown San Diego. These kids need socks and underwear as people don't think to donate these items very often!

You can email me at andymichelle.vik@gmail.com, comment below, or check out my etsy site at http://www.etsy.com/listing/68889912/810-isaiah-263-4-calligraphy-print.

Calligraphy Fundraiser

This week's featured calligraphy is from Psalm 48:14:

I really enjoyed making this one, as I am still new to the Gothic font, and I am learning how to do shading with pastel chalks.

Each 8"11" ready-to-frame print is 6$; shipping is additional. The first 100$ I make selling calligraphy is going to buy socks and underwear for homeless kids in San Diego -already at 30$ thanks to your generosity! After that, 20% of all proceeds will go to homeless children, and the rest for a special project Pete and I are planning for our future family ;).

If you would like to order, but would prefer not to leave your address listed below, you can order through my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/68396117/811-psalm-4814-calligraphy-print  or send me an email at andymichelle.vik@gmail.com.

Calligraphy Fundraiser

This week's featured calligraphy is from 1 Corinthians 13:13:

I created this last Saturday for our churches Valentine's Day party tomorrow, and I didn't get around to posting it until today! I guess it is a little last minute for Valentine's Day - oh well, there is always next year to get more organized! I also listed it on my etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreedalCalligraphy?ref=pr_shop_more
Each 8"11" print is 5$, plus shipping. All proceeds from calligraphy sold on my blog goes to buy socks and underwear for homeless kids in San Diego.

Happy Valentines Day!

Calligraphy Fundraiser

This week's featured calligraphy is from Romans 11:33-36:

Each 8"11" print, on white cardstock paper, is 4$ plus shipping. All proceeds will go to buy clothes for homeless children in San Diego http://www.monarchschools.org/ , especially socks and underwear as this is what they are most in need of!

I am having something of an ethical dilemna - how to buy clothes for homeless American kids which aren't made by kids enslaved in sweat shops in China or Bangladesh. If you have any ideas (besides a clothes drive for gently used clothing), let me know!

Calligraphy Fundraiser

This week's featured calligraphy is from Galatians 2:20-21.

My mother-in-law asked for this verse at Christmas from Kenneth Wuest's "The New Testament - an Expanded Translation". I was not able to fit all of the "expanded" parts in, but I did my best ;).

Each 8"11" print, on white cardstock paper, is 7$ (as colored copies are more expensive!). All proceeds this month will go to buy new underwear and socks for homeless children in San Diego, as this is a pressing need that the Monarch School, http://www.monarchschools.org/, always has. 

This print is also listed on my etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/people/CreedalCalligraphy. (The etsy shop says only 20% will go to help homeless children, but that is because I plan on keeping the posting up long term!)

Calligraphy Fundraiser

This week's featured calligraphy is from Ephesians 3:14b-19:

Each print is 5$ each (copied onto cardstock paper), plus shipping and handling.

All the proceeds this month will go to help homeless children. Sadly, Pete and I have at least temporarily lost contact with the homeless mother and child that we planned on helping the money with. But I want to persevere in trying to help homeless children, so all the proceeds will go to the Monarch School, a school for homeless children in San Diego,  http://www.monarchschools.org/.  We plan on buying new underwear and socks for the kids, as these are needs they always have! (God willing, if we are able to find our friends again, the money will go to helping the 8 year old boy get some adequate medical care for his ongoing diarrhea).

If you are interested, leave me a message below or email me @ andymichelle.vik@gmail.com

Calligraphy Fundraiser

This weeks featured Calligraphy is from Hebrews 12:1-2.  Each print  is 5$, or illuminated with red or gold paint it is 7$. Each print is 8"11", copied on card stock paper. Shipping is not included.

All of the proceeds this month will go to help a homeless mother and child Pete and I know, to either help fix their car or to buy medicine for the eight year old boy who has had diarrhea for over a month now!  If you are interested, you can leave a comment below or contact me at andymichelle.vik@gmail.com.

Calligraphy Fundraiser

When I was 11 years old, I had illegible handwriting. My mom, who homeschooled me and my five siblings, decided to do something about it. She made me learn calligraphy. At first I hated it - it hurt my hands and ink from the fountain pen got all over my fingers, clothes, the table, you name it! But as I got older, I began enjoying it more and more, and now I love it! I love taking a Scripture verse or creed  and figuring out the best color, font, and spacing to communicate it's truth and beauty.

This week's featured calligraphy is from Proverbs 31:8 -

and 

  

They cost 5$ each, plus shipping and handling, or 8$ for the set, plus shipping and handling.

All the proceeds this month will go to helping a homeless mother and child that Pete and I know to fix their car.  (The mechanic will be paid directly).
Having their car running will make it much safer for the little boy, who is eight years old.

You may leave a comment or email me with your address if you are interested: andymichelle.vik@gmail.com