Scarlet Returns

Mom and I had a good laugh when this Scarlet O' Hara was rediscovered. She had been in my closet and forgotten about. I probably crotcheted her when I was 9 or 10.

60 Sheep Down, 30 Shepherds To Go

Last Saturday I instructed around 15 people, mostly children, on making corn husk sheep. The goal was 60 sheep to decorate the church. We figured that people would have to take home materials and make several sheep at home, but to my happy surprise all 60 were completed within a few hours! What a good, diligent class!

Prior to the class I trained my dad and my brother in sheep making. That way they were able to be good helpers during class. They did such an excellent job. It's so wonderful to operate as a family and always have someone there to advise, encourage or help you. It was very practical for Dad to take us there and for us to work together rather than meeting up with a group of friends to teach them how to help make sheep and then meet up with them again on the actual day of teaching. God designed the family for a reason.

Now, the next step is teaching the adults how to make shepherds to go with the sheep. The goal for them is 30.

Untitled Picture

Sheep are mentioned 189 times in the Bible. Sometimes they're talked about in the context of sacrifices, but the Bible often compares people with sheep. Like sheep, we've all gone astray and are in need of Jesus, The Good Shepherd. Isn't it comforting to know that whatever we get tangled up in, Jesus, who laid down his life for his sheep, is always there to save us?

This picture is made of: aucuba, money plant, cotton, maiden grass, cattail, poinsettia, smoke tree, corn husk, cornflower, dill and basil.

Inspiration Comes From Strange Places

Inspiration comes from many strange places, but the inspiration for this picture may be my strangest yet. There are a couple of girls from church whom I admire for their butterfly like attitude. They fly about the church smiling and encouraging and cheerfully greeting people. And believe it or not, they were the inspiration for this picture.

This picture is made of: butterfly weed, aucuba, corn husk, cornflower and cosmos.

Card Prints

For a while I've wanted to get together enough cat pictures that would coordinate nicely to form a card set. I thought I had four suitable cat pictures that could be printed and that we could have ready in time for Christmas. But at the last minute I found that I didn't have one of the pictures I thought I had. It was hard for me to settle for only three cats, so I made that picture in the lower right hand corner of the cat with a ball of yarn. We got the cards printed in time for Christmas presents, and now I have another original. We ordered the cards from http://www.vistaprint.com/ and were happy with the results.

Jesus and Me

Often I turn 3-dimensional things into 2-dimensional things but this is the first time I've turned a 2-dimensional thing into a 3-dimensional thing. A good friend of mine commissioned this. It's a corn husk doll imitating folk artist Linda Anderson's painting of The Good Shepherd. I enjoyed making it and learned many things in the process.
I told my little sister that it is supposed to represent Jesus and one of us. So now she calls this sculpture "Jesus and Me."

She Let Me Pick Her Passion Flowers

Mrs. Darlene Mae Millard Spratlin had a beautiful style of pressed-flower artwork, much different from mine. She used more whole flowers, brighter colors and was very precise, as you can see in her picture above.

Mrs. Spratlin helped set me on the right road when I first started pressing flowers. She introduced me to the microwave flower press. She taught me what kind of glue to use and how much. She taught me the proper way to pick violas and answered many of my questions. She tried to teach me how to be organized, but I didn’t do so well there. She would also let me come over to pick her passion flowers. Mrs. Spratlin was our neighbor and a good one too. She let me come down and borrow things I needed, but often she just gave them to me. She even gave my brother her lawnmower and hired him to cut her grass while she was selling her house.

One of the best things she did for me was to introduce me to the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild. She hosted the first WWPFG conference I attended, which was held walking distance from my house. I also rode with her and another friend to the last WWPFG conference, which was held in Tennessee.

Mrs. Spratlin died the day after Christmas 2009. I was glad to have had the time with her that I did have. I’m glad to know I’ll see her in Heaven, but I, like many others, will miss seeing her here on Earth.