Abiding in the True Vine

Art Night in Color

thetruevine — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:23:15 +0000

Before Edmund’s arrival on Thursday, we had regular Art Night on Wednesday. Using Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim, we explored color. First, we watered down red, blue and yellow watercolor. Then we made swipes with the colors. And then we had to find an animal in the swipes and bring it out with our pens and charcoal.

Eleanor found a person instead of an animal in her first colors.

Lydia’s snail.

There is a hummingbird in there. And a snake.

Joey’s rabbit. (He was a much more cooperative “student” this week.)

I’m sensing a rabbit and snake theme here.

Yep. A whole litter of rabbits.

Is Harriet finding a rabbit, too?

Levi’s first colors revealed an elephant.

This guy from the ‘hood wandered in a drew a fish.

Amelia’s cat.

Clara’s second piece was a peacock, not a rabbit.

Margaret’s lion was her second work.

Her first was this dragon who is still undergoing his transformation.

I’m not sure what this is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a rabbit.

Fun times, as always.

February Family Festivities

thetruevine — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:18:10 +0000

There have been some festive moments this past week, starting off with Charlotte’s birthday. Right off the bat, she lost her first top tooth.

We immediately moved on to mom’s house for a Hello Kitty-packed birthday party (of which, Clara has a plethora of much better photos, so you’ll just have to trust me on the amazing amount of Hello Kitty items). The party also included a surprise. We made Charlotte close her eyes while we wheeled it in.

She was a little happy.

(And here is where I totally fall down in documenting the party. I have no photos of the actual fabulous surprise: a bike, complete with punture-proof tires from her brothers and handle-bar streamers from Eleanor. This is THE gift she was hoping for, so she was really, really tickled.)

Then, on Monday, Eleanor hosted a Valentine party and Charlotte got to wear her new outfit from her birthday (thanks to Amelia and Steve) and her Hello Kitty hat that Clara knitted and her Hello Kitty rain boots from Grammy (since it was snowing).

Eleanor bought a new outfit for the Big Event.

And she bought–and made–the festive food.

We actually made a recipe that I found on Pinterest: Valentine’s Day “Puppy Chow.”

Everyone was in a holiday spirit. (I don’t know why Margaret is MIA?)

What more could you add to this fun week? Getting your braces off!

Oh, and getting a new family member!

The Son Has Arrived!

thetruevine — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:49:08 +0000

Edmund Paul made his debut last night at 11:17pm!

Joey, Clara, Harriet and I had to get firm with the nurses guarding the doors. So, what did we do while we waited for the go-ahead? Took photos, course.

We were greeted by this perky person. Does she even look like she just had a baby. No, she does not.

And, this new father was pretty darn perky, too.

Harriet was so sweet with Edmund.

She kept saying, “Edmund? Cute.”

And he IS!

Welcome to the family, Edmund!

Take a Stitch Tuesday: Lazy Daisy Stitch

thetruevine — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:46:57 +0000

This week’s stitch for TAST was the Lazy Daisy stitch. I just keep adding to my 1 John 4:7 sampler.

Progress so far:

Take a Stitch Tuesday: Chevron Stitch

thetruevine — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:20:24 +0000

Okay, I tackled the Chevron Stitch this week for TAST. I added to my 1 John 4:7 “sampler” with LOVE in a Double Chevron.

And for the word, “God,” I added French Knots between the Chevron stitches.

And here’s my progress so far:

(For those of you who read my Ten on Ten post, a couple of these photos look familiar, eh?)

Ten on Ten in February

thetruevine — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:25:46 +0000

Yea! I was able to participate in Ten on Ten this month! That means that I have somehow acquired a tiny bit of margin in my life which has been absent for awhile. Yea!

1. Jacob off to work; 2. Our family book study; 3. Huff and puff; 4. I needed a drink after that workout; 5. Excitingly loose tooth! 6. Chicken and avocado salad for lunch; 7. Working on my Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge; 8. Making progress; 9. How many millions of times over 30+ years have I looked at this handsome man driving? 10. Eeps! Is this amazing or what?!

Snowflakes

thetruevine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:00:42 +0000

Charlotte, Anne and I made these Q-tip snowflakes from an idea in Family Fun magazine.

We placed Q-tips in this snowflake pattern, globbed some craft glue at the junctions, sprinkled glitter on the glue and let it dry overnight.

(And, hey, I noticed that Charlotte is wearing the shirt I decorated for her for Christmas. I embroidered hearts on shirts for her, Lydia, Anne, Harriet and Jemima in lieu of the Scripture calligraphy I did for the older kids. I embroidered them while watching “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain” which I thought was a rather cute movie.)

Fun!

Art Night Monkey Business

thetruevine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:48:57 +0000

As I’ve mentioned, we’ve been using Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim on Wednesday’s Art Night. This week’s focus was on color. We each pre-selected four drawing utensils (markers, pastels, charcoal, etc.) and then set out to draw a monkey! Here are the results.

I’m getting Joey out of the way first since he drew his monkey with his right (non-dominant) hand (which was NOT part of the exercise), quickly (also not part of the exercise) and half-heartedly (yes, not part of the exercise). I daresay he would not appreciate these qualities in the college students in the classes he teaches.

Next, mine.

Amelia’s.

Clara’s.

Levi’s. (Yes, he did two.)

Jacob’s (with Jemima filling in for him since he raced off to participate in a stop-motion animation chat).

Tim’s.

Peter’s.

Margaret’s.

Eleanor’s.

Lydia’s. (Obviously, a monkey on Gilligan’s Island.)

Charlotte’s.

And now, I’ll leave you to dream of monkeys.

Take a Stitch Tuesday

thetruevine — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:32:11 +0000

I decided to participate in Pin Tangle’s Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. And while I admire (very much) others’ samplers, I decided that I wanted to practice my stitches in a more structured format. So…this week’s herringbone stitch launched my version of 1 John 4:7.

Oh, so FUN!

Very obviously, I stitched on felt, hence the many visible fibers. But I love stitching on felt, so that’s just one of the characteristics I live with.

I’m looking forward to adding more stitches this week!

Art Night

thetruevine — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:20:31 +0000

Before I get around to posting those last few calligraphed Christmas gifts, I’m interjecting this post about the fun we’ve been having at Art Night lately. We’ve been using Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun by Carla Sonheim as the basis for our activities each Wednesday evening when we all gather around the table. This week, we used chisel-tip markers to quickly draw the same dog over and over on 20 index cards.

At first, 20 cards didn’t seem like all that many. But by the time I got to 20, I was ready to stop drawing that darn poodle.

It was a great exercise in trying to get the dog’s features down quickly. And it was weird how hard it was to draw it much differently each time. My hand just kept doing the same things.

Anyway, she suggested that we each pick our favorite to enlarge and doodle on this week, so I picked this one.

Some of the kids whisked off their pictures, but I managed to get photos of a few of my favorites. Here’s Joey’s adorable dachshund:

Lydia’s and Charlotte’s:

Eleanor’s and Margaret’s:

And Tim’s:

These exercises have forced a different part of my brain to work, especially since the exercises are almost all done quickly. So, I’ve been learning–and laughing a lot–with the crew on Art Night. Can’t beat that!