Ever Abiding

Fondue and Fun

2012-02-13T13:38:00.002-06:00

Our family has decided to host a Fondue party at our house at the end of every month for our friends and church members. Pretty cheesy, huh :0)! So I sketched out little invitations for everyone with my copic markers. The cute lettering comes from a doodle class that I took from Homegrown Hospitality.

Each month we will be inviting over a new group of people. Hopefully, we can be a blessing and establish a sense of community. As we say in our congregation, "mishpachah" (family - Hebrew).

One other cute idea for this evening, that I stumbled upon in the Taste of Home magazine, is to have a tablecloth that our guests can sign with wash-out fabric markers. After the guests leave, their signatures or greetings are hand-stitched and the ink is washed out. What a fun way to remember all those visited our house on Fondue night! I will have to take pictures.

Sketching with Copics

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-06:00

I'm getting a little behind with my illustrated journal. I will quickly sketch something out in pencil from my day, but then it takes me a while to go back and add some color. Here is one from a few weekends ago.

I am beginning to use my Copic Markers for the coloring. I don't have very many, but I would like to learn more about them and get a little bit better with blending the colors. So, I was pretty excited when I learned that two Copic certification classes where being held near me in a few weeks. I signed up and I am ready to go!

Instilling a Love for Drawing in Kids

2012-02-07T09:00:00.000-06:00

This weekend I participated in a Project Fair for kids. This was a time for the kids in our community to come and explore different hobbies, crafts, and life-skills. I hosted a table for drawing and sketching. It was a lot of fun. I tried to have some make-it and take-it projects for them to do. Most of the kids would tentatively step up to the table, very unsure of themselves, but then end up sticking around for quite awhile just doodling away. I wish I had someone to encourage me in my drawing like this when I was younger. I might have stuck with it instead of waiting until I was much older to give it a try once again.

I think the best part was watching some of the parents sit down and draw with their kids or even just on their own. It was a great day, and hopefully, some of the kids will choose to continue on with drawing.

Painting a Family Canvas

2012-01-31T21:38:00.001-06:00

We moved from Alaska about 6 years ago to the Midwest. However, if you were to look at the decor in our house, you would never have guessed it. We still have picturesque scenes of log cabins, moose, and mountains adorning our walls. I figured it was about time to take our Alaska pictures down and embrace the place we now call home. A place where the wind frequently blows across the prairies.

I didn't want to just throw any old picture up on the wall since all our previous ones held so much meaning for us. So, for my birthday this past weekend, I thought it would be fun to have the whole family paint a large canvas to hang up in our living room. Not knowing where to begin, I stumbled across this online class by Donna Downy at Simply Me.

To start out, I gathered all the ingredients, our four kids (ages 3 to 14), and my husband. Grab your brushes and let the fun begin!

Here is my 3 year old, taking first dibs. I really did want them all to paint away with free abandon...well, to some degree. If you can see, my hand is just inches (centimeters) away to help steady the brush (just in case). She did beautifully!

Next...

I like the way it turned out. It was pretty good for our first canvas. There are probably a few things that I would have done differently. One of them would have been to take better pictures of the process and the finished piece, but here you go....

It is now proudly hanging on one of our walls in the living room. We were all so happy with the way that it turned out that we even rearranged our furniture to center around it. That is a big deal in our house because once we set the furniture down, that is where it stays. We have moved over 13 times in the past 17 years, so we move things as little as possible.

This was a great memory maker, and it will always be a cherished birthday gift.

Floral Borders

2012-01-22T21:17:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite illustrators is Tasha Tudor. I remember the first time I stumbled across her children's books and was immediately inspired. At the time, I was selling used children's books online, but I could not part with her beautifully illustrated books filled with quaint scenes of flowers, animals, and children. Each time I found one of her books, it was placed on my book shelf instead of the 'For Sale' stack.

The carefully drawn floral borders around her illustrated scenes fascinated me. Each border had its own unique details and was overflowing with greenery, flowers, and ribbons. So, in Tasha Tudor like-fashion, I thought I would sketch a little scene inspired by her floral borders.

First Portrait in Graphite

2012-01-18T20:12:00.000-06:00

I finally finished my first portrait for my drawing class. This is it before corrections. I am sure that I will have a few things that I need to touch up, but I am so happy with the way that it has turned out. My class is rigorous, but well worth the hard work!

Now that this is done, I am looking forward to taking the free webinar, My Journey with Maps by Jill K. Berry, tomorrow. I hope to add few personal maps to my own illustrated journal this year. On my wish list is her book, Personal Geographies. It looks like a good one to add my ever expanding library.

A New Tangle Pattern Book

2012-01-12T13:27:00.001-06:00

Here's a little sketch based on a pattern in the book Zenspirations by Joanne Fink. I recently picked it up and have been enjoying thumbing through the pages. The section on lettering is great! I am excited to try out all of her cute ideas.

Using Apps for Sketches

2012-01-11T13:18:00.000-06:00

So, the other day I stumbled across the Tacing Paper app in the iTunes store, and I thought I would give it a try. I love the thought of being able to sit down and whip out a drawing, just a few sketches here and there, and viola! - a beautiful piece of artwork.

However, I still need a lot of hand holding, and I honestly do enjoy using grid lines for drawing. That is especially true when I am drawing a portrait or something with many small details.

The Tracing Paper app provides the gird lines that I need for my drawing. It is simple to do and saves me time by eliminating a few steps. I just snap a picture and load it into the Tracing Paper app. Just a quick side note, I have no connections with this company; I just wanted to share my little discovery.

Here is what I did:

1. Downloaded the Tracing Paper app. I can't remember how much it cost. I tend to stay away from high dollar items, so I am sure it wasn't much.

2. Snapped a picture. I took one of this cute bird that we have sitting in our living room.

3. Opened the Tracing Paper app and loaded the desired picture.

4. Placed the girdlines to where I want them to be on the picture. The gird size and transparency can also be changed.

5. I then lightly drew in girdlines on my drawing paper, and I was set to go.Here is the end result.

It really is pretty easy and saved me a few extra steps. Now, I can snap a picture on the go and within a matter of seconds have girdlines in place to create a drawing.

Giving Thanks in Every Season

2012-01-10T08:30:00.000-06:00

We are off to a bumpy start in 2012, but I am learning to give thanks in everything! In four days we have had:

2 flat tires. Thank you, Lord, for spare tires and two new tires.
2 dead batteries. Thank you, Lord, for the ability to buy two new ones.
5 family members down with the stomach flu, and one sent to ER. Thank you, Lord, for doctors with wisdom and medicine to cure our illnesses.

Rejoicing in Him in every season of life.

Art Journaling in 2012

2012-01-09T14:31:00.000-06:00

So...I am going to try this blog thing again. It has been pretty much an off and on kind of thing, or maybe, a love-hate relationship. I am not really sure which one.

About 2 years ago, when I first dipped my feet into the blogging pool, I wanted to share about homeschooling, baking, crafting,...and so I on. I couldn't really find my voice, so I stopped. But somewhere in the midst of all that, I discovered art journaling and fell in love with it.

I knew that was what I wanted to do. I have always loved creating and making new things; especially when it came to drawing and painting.

So, off I went with a sketchbook and pencil in hand. After the first few attempts, I wasn't too thrilled with the results. We are talking about a bunch of bald, stick figures marching their way through the blank pages of my notebook. To remedy that problem and to make my drawings look "better", I enrolled in an online art class. I love the class and it is superb, but it is rigorous and challenging. It always pushes and drives me to achieve heights I never imagined. But...I miss my doodling days, my carefree stick drawings.

For that reason, I am returning to blogging and to the making of an illustrated journal. I do miss the carefree doodles and the times of quiet reflection. Often, drawing becomes an act of worship for me and a way to glorify God with my talents.

I have a long way to go before my drawings look recognizable, but on this journey, I have learned that it is not about how great my drawings look. It is about glorifying God with the talents He has given me. I am so excited to share my little adventure and all the wonderful aspects of art journaling. Thanks for joining me!

Before I jump into2012's illustrated journal, I will share a brief glimpse of last year's art journal. Some of the drawings are based off of Zentangles because they were easy and a relaxing. It was a great way to end the busy day.

Tool Turn About Carrousel

2010-03-24T07:36:00.000-05:00

I recently attended a friend's Pampered Chef party. I didn't want to buy much, and happily, I left there with the perfect purchase for my ~~kitchen~~ homeschool.

I found this Tool Turn About Carrousel which is supposed "to keep kitchen tools accessible". It has a large base that rotates evenly and can hold up to 10 pounds. It would be nice to put all my spatulas, whisks, and ladles in here, but I found a better use for this little guy.

It has now become a home for all of our stray and wayward writing utensils. Just looking at it makes my creativity juices start flowing. I hope it does the same for the kids!

No more loose crayons laying around ... No more hunting for pencils and glue. Now, let's hope it stays this organized!

Embroidered Buttons - Punch Needle

2010-03-18T07:08:00.000-05:00

I just finished making this set of embroidered buttons for the Feeling Stitchy Embroidered Button Swap. I decided to try something new and embroider my buttons using a punch needle. This was my first try at it, and I am pretty happy with how they turned out. My swap partner said she liked brown and turquoise, and so I came up with this little design highlighting those two colors.

The stitching for punch needle embroidery is always done on the back side of the fabric. Since I was doing a fairly small design I decided to go with the 1 Strand Punch Needle.

I think the biggest key to having your stitches turn out properly is to use weavers cloth. I tried several other kinds of fabric and the stitches would not stay in place.

Here they are all packaged up and ready to ship out. I hope my partner enjoys them!

More Hedgehogs

2010-03-01T10:43:00.000-06:00

As promised, here are a few more hedgehogs. We had quite a few at my daughter's birthday last month. First up, is this little guy from Apple & Eve.

I have been admiring her embroidery for quite a while, and this one was too cute to resist. She personalized it for me by embroidering my daughter's name on the back side.

Next up, is this hand embroidered bag with a little girl and hedgehog skating on ice. I found the pattern for it at etsy from Follow the White Bunny. I thought it would make the perfect gift for my daughter, who loves to ice skate.

Hedgehog Chocolate Cookies

2010-02-11T20:01:00.000-06:00

Love is in the air....at least for these two!

Our oldest daughter's birthday is on Valentine's Day, and each year I like to come up with a new treat to celebrate the two events. This year it's hedgehogs!

To make these hand decorated cookies, I used:

a Porcupine and heart cookie cutter
Chocolate rolled cookie dough
Marshmallow Fondant
and Royal icing *remember this needs to set and air dry for 24 hrs. before the cookies can be stacked

I doubled our batch so that we would have enough to share. We are providing snacks this Friday for the Legos Robotics Team. I ended up with 26 of these little critters and about 12 hearts.

We have a few more hedgehogs popping up in future posts...until then Happy Valentine's Day!

Mini Cookies on a Stick Bouquet

2009-12-17T07:15:00.001-06:00

Have you seen those cookie bouquets where all the cookies are on a stick in a nice container? Well, I decided to try making my own version.

I have a lot of cute mini cookie cutters lying around that I rarely use, so the other day when we were making our Christmas cookies, I decide to pull a few out. Mini cookies on a stick came to mind.

I just rolled out the dough a little thicker than normal and cut out the cookies with the mini cookie cutters. A toothpick was then stuck into the base of each one. I made sure to cover the toothpicks with aluminum foil and then baked them according to the directions on the recipe. After they were done baking, I decorated the cookies, tied a ribbon around the toothpicks, and placed them in a mug.

This cookie filled mug will make a special Christmas gift for someone I know.

Family Cookbook A to Z

2009-12-16T07:43:00.000-06:00

I love homemade Christmas gifts. There is something so unique and special about each one. Often there are many memories attached to them. One such gift was the Family Cookbook that we received from our friends when we lived in Alaska. We no longer live near this family, but each time I open their cookbook I think of them. I wonder how they are doing and remember all the good times that we had together. It was such a neat idea that I decided to copy it and make our very own family cookbook. The next Christmas our friends and family received our Family Alphabet Cookbook. Not only was it cheap and inexpensive, but it was also fun for all of us contribute to its creation.

Here is how we put it together:

We titled our cookbook - The 'Ever Abiding' Family Alphabet Cookbook: Our favorite recipes from A to Z. The cover page also included a picture of our family.
We then sorted through all of our favorite recipes, and made sure we had one for each letter of the alphabet. Of course, we had to change some of the names of the recipes. We had Elias's Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes, Yummy Southwest Star Dip, and Zesty Oven Roasted Veggies.
Each recipe had its own page. At the bottom of the recipe page, we would assign one family member to draw an illustration. You might want to include actual photos. I will say that with the hand-drawn illustrations, it was fun to see the "masterpieces" from the younger family members.
To complete the cookbook we just punched holes in the side and tied it together with pretty ribbon. We actually made this cookbook several years ago. If I were making it again, I would definitely take advantage of all the creative scrapbooking supplies to finish it off.

Here is one of our favorite soup recipes. Enjoy!

Word Art

2009-12-15T08:46:00.000-06:00

I recently discovered wordle and thought that this would be a fun art project for my two older ones. We are going to be making Christmas word clouds.

If you give it a try, be sure and print out your creation. It might make for a nice Christmas gift!

A Little About Ever Abiding

2009-12-10T20:35:00.007-06:00

Welcome to Ever Abiding! I hope you can sit back, relax, and find a cozy nook while you are here. Our little family lives on the windy plains of the mid-west, but we have not always called this place home. Before this, there was MO, WY, and Alaska.

In 2010, I began keeping an illustrated journal, and I have enjoyed every moment. I have always loved to create, but I was pretty new to the whole drawing and illustrating thing. Each new drawing gives me the opportunity to "practice" and to get better. But then again, I have learned that my drawings are not about magnifying myself. Rather, they are about glorifying God.

When I am not sketching out the small moments of our lives, I can be found homeschooling our 4 kids, baking cookies that vanish all too quickly, running in the mornings, and ever abiding in God's love.

Thanks for stopping by and may your day be a brighter one!

Build Your Own Gingerbread House

2009-12-07T13:17:00.000-06:00

I found this cute site, by Jenny B Harris, at allsorts. My preschooler had fun building his own gingerbread house, and I didn't have to clean up a single drop of frosting! The image was a little large for our screen, so I zoomed out (ctrl -) to make things fit without having to scroll up and down. Have fun!

Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Biscotti

2009-11-13T11:27:00.000-06:00

This is an all time favorite with our family, especially, this time of the year. We love to dip the biscotti in hot chocolate or coffee. I made a batch earlier this week for a cranberry unit that I was doing with E. Needless to say, the cookies did not even make it into the next day. They were gone!

Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Biscotti

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 Tbsp canola oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 C sugar

2 3/4 C all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 C dried cranberries, chopped

1/2 C miniature, semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a small mixing bowl, beat the eggs, egg whites, oil and extracts; beat in the sugar. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; beat into egg mixture. Stir in cranberries and chocolate chips. Divide dough in half. With lightly floured hands, shape each portion into a 12" x 3" rectangle; place each on a baking sheet coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned. Carefully remove to wire racks; cool 5 minutes. Transfer to cutting board; cut with a serrated knife into 3/4" slices. Place cut side down back onto the baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes. Turn and bake 5-7 minutes longer or until firm. Remove to wire racks to cool. Store in an airtight container.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Gingerbread...

2009-11-10T15:13:00.000-06:00

....everywhere you go, or at least in our house. It's that time of year when we break out the Christmas music, rolling pins, and royal icing to prepare for our annual gingerbread house. Each year, our family makes a gingerbread house that we submit to a local charity for their fundraising event. We have a lot of fun, but it is definitely a lot of work! This was last year's entry:

Our Gingerbird House

This year we are making a wilderness chapel based on a miniature log cabin church that we saw at my mom's house. We design our own patterns and figure out the measurements for all the pieces. Everything on it must be edible.

This year we were a little more hurried then normal. On top of making a gingerbread house, we were also sanding and staining our deck. So a few things came together a little differently than what we were expecting, but I still think it looks great and the kids did a wonderful job.

A few well placed groceries always does the trick.

One of the things that was an 'oops' moment for us was with the dimensions of the chapel. We were a little uncertain on the height and ended up with a 2 story log cabin church. Not too big of a deal, but I have learned that when making a door for a large log church like this one, the door should be proportional. I was rushing out of the house to get our kids off to one of their events when I had a great idea on how to make the wood grain in the door. So I quickly whipped out a door without thinking about its size. I was just so happy with the wood grain design that it wasn't until the next day when I noticed the door is miniature size for a very large church. We all had a good laugh. My daughter informed me that our First Place wilderness chapel just became a Third Place. Oh well...we aren't out to win any awards. We are in it for the memories.

I hope to have better pictures of our chapel once we get it to the event. So more pictures to come....(We are just hoping it holds up for the next week and a half before the start of the Gingerbread Village.)

Today I am memorizing Philippians 4:7

Fall Festival

2009-10-26T13:40:00.000-05:00

If I ever have a few moments to myself, I love to paint and create. I think making hand decorated cookies is just an extension of painting. It gives me the ability to be creative, and my kids love the end results. So I whipped up a batch of these to take to our church's fall festival. We had a great time square dancing in the barn and going on a hayride in the moonlight. The best moment of all on the hayride was when E whispered in my ear, "Mom, look the moon is following me!"

Today, I am memorizing Titus 2:1

Sandpaper Letters

2009-10-20T21:34:00.003-05:00

To introduce letters and letter sounds to E, I decide to use Montessori's sandpaper letters. I love this hands-on approach to learning and it uses many of the five senses. He can feel the letters, see the letters (red for consonants, blue for vowels), and he can hear the letter sounds as we say them. But if I wanted to purchase these, it would get rather expensive. So I have begun making many of my own things. I know...I know - this is too teacher intensive! However, I think it is well worth it.

If you would like to make some of your own Montessori materials, check out the links on the left or try several of the yahoo groups like montessorimakers or playschool6 for more ideas.

Here is a brief tutorial on how I made my own sandpaper letters:

1. I searched high and low for thin pieces of wood to paste the sandpaper letters onto. I wanted the letters to last a few years and to be sturdy. After much searching, I found the perfect thing at Hobby Lobby. They are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" x 1/8". I then got out my red and blue paint and painted away. A, E, I, O, U and Y will be blue and the consonants will be red. I am also making a red one for Y (since it is sometimes a vowel).

2. For the next step, I found a book with lowercase letters that I could copy as a template. It has been a little while since I have made these, but I think I used the book Teaching Montessori in the Home: Preschool Years. I photocopied all the letters and then glued them (with a glue stick) face down onto the back of a sheet of fine grade sandpaper. Thankfully the outline of the letters could still be seen through the back of the paper. With a pair of old scissors I cut out each letter. I had to use an Xacto knife for the inner circles of some of the letters. Once this was done, I peeled the white paper away from the sandpaper letters.

3. Before gluing them down on the newly painted boards, I first used my Crop-A-Dile punch to punch 1/8" holes in the sandpaper. Each letter had one hole punched into it to show the starting place for tracing the letter with your finger. I also drew a small black dot on the top left hand corner so that it would be self correcting. E knows to always put the sandpaper letters out on the table with the dot on the top. This way, if he is working on his own, he is tracing them correctly and not upside down.

4. While I was at Hobby Lobby, I also found this little wooden tray for only $1.99. It has three slots and seems to work perfectly. As you can see, I also made some green numbers while I was at it. There is enough room in this tray for all the lowercase letters, numbers, and probably enough for the some or all of the uppercase letters. I still would like to sand down the tray and maybe put a light stain on it. I am just waiting for those few, spare moments in my day.