Belated Valentine

Valentine Display

Received on Time. Thanks, Mom.

But I neglected to post it yesterday. It was a busy day.

Our Valentines

My husband and I were talking this morning about Valentine's and Ash Wednesday being the same day. (Also my oldest son noticed that Easter falls on April Fools Day... interesting co-incidences this year.) 

"Here's the deal." he said.  "We can do Valentine's until noon, then we mourn."

"Should I make heart cookies with ash smudges on them?"

"Good idea!  You could use activated charcoal.  'Here, kids, it's good for you.'"

The kids spend a couple days working on Valentines to mail to Grandparents and give to friends.  I just put a pile of papers (including some old Gelli prints), glitter glue, heart patterns, and other pretty things on the table and let them do whatever they wanted.  I have been getting away from the "here's a model, copy this" idea with them for crafts.  They are very clever and have learned to create on their own.  For most of them, the wrote on the backs.

Evan's:

Evan saw an idea for these little paper springs in a craft book and devised these pop-up cards.  I was very impressed!

Andrew's:

He learned from Evan's pop-up idea and made one, too.  He said about the cardinals, "They love each other."  They cut these birds out of an old Christmas card.

Eleanor's:

The little envelope is taped up full of hearts to give to a family at church.

Levi's:

Not to be left out, Levi cut and glued, too.  I love his little efforts.


I made these simple valentines for the kids.  The colors are brighter in real life... They are just cut from some painted watercolor paper.  I put them in envelopes sealed with pretty washi tape and will give them to the kids at lunchtime.

(No, I did not make one for Jonah, the almost-13-year-old... He is not too into this lovey-dovey stuff, but he will be quite pleased with some cookies and treats later...)

And this one is sitting on my husband's desk for him to find whenever he comes home from sermon-writing at the college library.  I'm not terribly sappy, I guess... but this was fun anyway.

I am thinking some heart-shaped strawberry pancakes for lunch and a batch of chocolate spritz cookies (after all, the children will need a snack after church...) will round out the day for us. 

Happy Valentines Day

Before Lent Solemnities This Evening

“Beloved, let us love one another, for Love is of God. She that abideth in love abideth in God, and God in her.  God is love.”

Insert - Valentines

Last Minute Ideas

Before Sarah Y puts up a post (if she wishes today), I want to add these ideas. I should have posted them before, but my technicians who can make links that you can click and print are not available. So, here is the do-it-yourself version, with no links.

And who do you suppose would go out like this in the freezing night to tend his bunnies?

Dutch Art at Home

Sumptuous

This is for your table, when the king comes to dine.

Your soup pot. Yes, the king likes soup; its cold in the winter.

This is a decoration in your front hall.

The king gave this - and a whole set of dressing table wares - to his daughter.

Maybe she looked like this.

And your dinner party like this

And the view out your window like this  – a good day for soup in angel pots

Let Us

For This Week

Blessings on your Sunday, and the beginning of Lent coming up.

And VaLENTines Day. Entries due Tuesday for me to post, or Wednesday for you to post.

Reductive Drawing and Pig

First the Pig

Creative effort today was getting a Large chunk of pig into smaller chunks and into an already-stuffed little freezer. God does everyday miracles and special miracles. This was the latter. Then the fat needs to be rendered into lard. Pies, anyone? And the bones cooked for broth. And places found for everything. Nobody can say homemaking doesn't require creative energy and ingenuity.

Drawing Lesson

This was learning to work the opposite from normal: after collecting still life objects, we darkened the page and used our erasers as rendering implements to bring light to the page and reveal the objects. This is a good exercise to help one focus on tone and value instead of lines.

Charcoal is easier (and messier), but we used pencil.

Erasers bring out some shapes.

Some of the background was lightened, too, to show shapes of shadows.

To finish, additional additive lines darkened or adjusted some areas. This was just a quick demonstration sketch, but if you look up "reductive drawing" you can find some gorgeous works with strong tones.

Blessings on your weekend and Transfiguration Sunday.

Thank you, Sarah Y., for all your comments. Looking forward to seeing your works again on Tuesdays.

Tea Party Wall Quilts

I completed two quilted wall hangings as birthday gifts for my daughters while I was restricted by a back injury this winter. My girls grew up having tea parties with their friends for special occasions like birthdays. As adults we have continued to have tea parties for occasions like bridal showers and church fellowship ladies meetings. One of my daughters collects teacup and saucer sets and I knew she would appreciate a wall hanging with this theme.

 I started out with hand appliqued teapot and teacup blocks that I pieced with a strip piecing method using fabrics I had in my stash.

 I then practiced some machine quilting techniques I learned in a workshop at my quilt guild last fall.

To make these small wall quilts into "art" pieces, I decided to embellish with tea party type additions-- a pretty napkin with a blue embroidered border, tiny teacups (souvenier finds from second hand stores) and a pair of lace gloves.

This little teapot with lady bugs was found by a friend (who knew about my special project) at a second hand store. Both wall hangings for my two daughters included a tiny teapot, a lace glove, tiny teacups, napkins, a lace tablecloth ruffle and a silver teaspoon. Silk flower embellishments were reminders of the fancy hats ladies would often wear for tea parties.

I even added some silk fabric tea bags that had contained Chinese tea leaves. I removed the dried tea leaves and replaced them with bits of fabric and hand sewed them onto the wall hangings.

Each wall hanging had one little cup from a tea set that I had as a small child. How fun for each art piece to have a fifty year old tea cup!

 Alyssa recently moved into a new house with her husband and baby. She is excited to hang this above her sideboard "tea station" in the dining room.

Katie's wall hanging will take up less room but should go well in her newly painted kitchen.

Watercolor 102

Still Life

Dutch Museum Paintings

With Details

Wouldn't it be inspiring for your children to grow up with this in your house?

A large painting, with a lot of content, but very unified.

A detail of the above work

Another detail

A detail of the painting below

–

– here is a clock for your cabinet –

A porcelain painting, if I remember correctly

If you read the notes below, for this painting and the next, you get some of the drama going on in that time, too.

Poor Papa...