I Love NY

You probably are thinking that this blog is about New York or New York City. That would be the assumption I would make from a title like this.

One day recently I found this phrase on my 10 year old granddaughter's top and commented about it, asking her how she could love New York if she had never been there.  (She's been many places including internationally but never been to New York.)

Juri Romanov of Orange Optimist
http://www.etsy.com/listing/98098863/custom-ny-city-poster-custom-new-york

At which time. . .

she informed me that 'NY' didn't have to mean New York.  "Nana, NY could be anything that starts with NY!!

And . .

she continued by informing me about other things it could mean. 

We were making cookies and were at the standing-around-waiting-for-them-to-bake point, when this conversation started.  Anna is a list maker so after batting a few NY phrases around, she washed her hands, got out pencil and paper and started writing them all down.

The list is now on my 'this n' that' board.

 

 

NY List:

New York (but, of course)

New Years

Neat Yards

Neon Yellow

Night Yawns

No Yelling

Nifty Yo-yo's

Next Year

Nerdy Yarn

Jeroen Teunen of blackspecs
http://www.etsy.com/listing/71927853/i-love-ny-dog-painting-24x30cm

Naughty Yorkies (she loves dogs - has an encyclopedia of dogs so heavy I can hardly lift it)

North Yellowstone (a favorite vacation spot)

Nine Yellowjackets

Nasty Yams (hum, I wonder what she could mean here :))

Nifty Yachts

Newfoundland Yelps

No Yes (love this)

Norwegian Youngsters (what can I say, she is an only child)

Native Youth

Nice Yacks (I think she meant Yaks, but I have had some pretty nice ones of this kind on the phone.)

Judi Sunday of JudisArtwork
http://www.etsy.com/listing/88127173/beach-babes-iv-an-original-oil-painting

 

Nice You

Nutella Yearround

Natural Yards

Nascar Yesterday (daddy is a big fan)

Nothing Yucky

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Meghan Narayan of mnarayan Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/listing/91769161/original-quirky-and-vibrant-abstract

And there you have it!  Next time you think someone loves New York, they may secretly be checking out your yard or just love that big bright round yellow thing that sometimes appears in the daytime sky!!

Nancy at DoodleGraphics
http://www.etsy.com/listing/76617490/subway-art-city-or-state-custom-artwork

I added this item just for me. It's tagged 'New York City' and I think it is one of the the prettiest photos I have ever seen!

Sue Anderson of MYSAVIOR
http://www.etsy.com/listing/58971574/gown-reflections-blank-greeting-card

This blog is written for the Etsy Christian Artists Street Team (Castteam) Mid-Week Blog Blitz.  See http://www.etsy.com/teams/6326/christian-artists-street-team-cast/discuss/10306041/ for other blog contributors.

Nautical Inspired

Within a few days of joining the Etsy Beadweaver's team, the May challenge theme "Nautical Inspired" was announced. My mind began to visualize every seashore experience  that would inspire a piece of jewelry, from the beaches of Oregon to Virginia and Hawaii.  Because we live so close, we've spent many weekends camping along the Oregon coast, walking along the shore, watching the waves crash against towering boulders in record storms, touring ships and museums.

One of my husband's favorite things to do is to go crabbing with everyone we know.  Through many of these beach picnics and crabfests I am very familiar with the anatomy of these beautiful delicious crustaceans.  But interpreting a crab into a beaded jewelry item was not something I had given much thought to until now.  Their main body is a broad oval, with a slightly raised bumpy rim.  My mind kept putting two tiny beaded ovals together for the base and proceeding from there.  When the thought of using two oval glass pearls as a center, the beautiful little crab charm came together.




It has been a long time since we have found a glass float wash to shore. It seemed a simple shore, find an appropriate 'float' bead and put a net around it!  In a stash of vintage family heirloom beads I found one I would use for a glass float.  I was most surprised with the difficulty of getting my 'net' of beads to fit around this bead.  Many nets were made and torn out before this feat was accomplished.




Next was kelp.  These 7-10 foot long whip-like stuctures are very familiar on our beaches here in Oregon.  They are the dead stems of a certain type of seaweed. 

Then came seaweed. They or something very like them are frequently depicted in beadwork.   I researched to find what kind it is I see waving about just off shore in the ocean and seaports  and could not believe how many types of seaweed there are.  One website sold prints of ancient drawings of these that were exquisite.  The research was great fun but I decided to do a ragged and non-symmetrcial specimen from my own imagination.

I thought I would strangle with all the threads coming out everywhere!!

The most daunting and time consuming of all was the ocean wave.  I originally wanted it curled around the crab as the 'high' point and center of my bracelet with added ripples throughout the bracelet.  I researched technique of increasing and decreasing peyote.  I put in clear beads, wishing to show ocean spray.  In the end it was too distracting in the center and became part of the closure.









All through the other 4 charms I kept thinking of a starfish.  Starting something with five points was throwing me a little.  My experience with doilies and other bead work made me think it would always turn out round in the end.  Finally my experience with picot edging came into play and with a combination of sewing and tear out I was able to accomplish a very life-like starfish - what I mean is he or she is not perfectly symetrical but looks like he or she is moving.

Next was placing the charms on my peyote stitched backdrop.  The crab, starfish, glass float and kelp are 'at sea', with the starfish finding the nearest rocky tidepool and the kelp nudging up to shore.  The seaweed has freshly washed over some exposed boulders.














Closure was a hurdle I would think about as I progressed through the other elements.  I had thought of an anchor and rope of beads but when the ocean wave did not work elsewhere it became part of the closure.  In the anchor charm I reinforced the point of the anchor is with a metal finding.  It is flexible enough to roll up when brought through the wave.








Lastly the width of the bracelet made it keep shifting on my wrist.  So a couple of boulders on one side and a strand of beads became part of stabilizing the bracelet.

In certain lights it is like looking into a sparkling clear ocean on a clear night - the light shimmers on dark waters.  Depending on style the wearer, it would go exotic, bohemian, elegant, casual.  It makes me think of light, gauzy summer fabrics.  It looks fabulous with medium heather blue, also with yellow.

All in all I am very pleased with this bracelet.  There are a couple of other  techniques I will try if I do it again but it is truly an original - not made with the complexity and skill of the Master Creator but with the imagination and resources He gave me.

 You are invited to VOTE on Etsy Beadweavers May Challenge entries on the team's website:

http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

 May 9 through May 16!!

 

Vision and Forgetfulness

Having seen the movie "Hotel Rwanda" I wasn't so sure I wished to read a book on this same dark subject.   During a conversation a friend and I were having about current affairs in Africa, she asked if I had read the book "Rwanda - A Walk Through Darkness into Light", published in 1995 barely a year past the terrible events of April 1994.  She had just finished it and it was right there on her sofa table. 

It is written by Carl Lawrence who is a Christian and who is blessed with the ability to interweave personal stories with outside perspective in a very compelling and understandable way.  It took me several weeks to get through the book and I finished it yesterday.  Here are a couple of excerpts from a book that are just precious, which I do not want to forget.

I share them here with you and hope they bless you as they have me.

By this time in the book the author has the reader follow the journey of a Tutsi woman from miraculous escape from death and hiding, to a refugee camp.  At the time the author visits this camp, the Hutus who had carried out the atrocities were also refugees at the camp because the once exiled RFP army was gaining control of large parts of Rwanda and the Hutus needed a place to hide.  Lawrence writes:

It has been said that in the Bukavu area . . . the refugee men from the ages of 15 to 25 have killed about 40 people each. 

While reaching out to these people, the thoughts, the sneaky little demons, enter your mind:  This man has probably hacked a whole family to death.  I wonder what he would do to you if he had the chance?  I wonder if he would do it again?  He's looking at you.  Look at his eyes, he hates you.  He wants to kill you.  Those thoughts are perfectly human and normal.

It's hard to remember we serve a God who has the beautiful attribute of forgetfulness.  He is capable -- and would love doing it -- of saying to a Hutu murderer who has been redeemed by His Son, "What murders?  I don't remember any murders.  Gabriel, do you remember any murders this man committed?"  Gabriel, of course, would look in that vast and wonderfully forgetful book and reply no.  If the God we serve chooses to forget all the wrongs done to Him (for each wrong done is really directed to Him), then we must learn to put aside our humanity and look beyond sin to the soul.  It is absolutely necessary if we are to survive and excel in a sin-filled world.  We must look at every person as God would see him.  We must remember to forget.  Somebody called this philosophy "flippant, given the gravity of the situation."  I would much rather think of it as biblical -- not easy, but a command to be followed.  It is easy to remember, for we are human and never forget.  It is hard, and a test of godly character, to forget. . . .

Later in the book, Carl Lawrence talks about lessons we should learn and our responsibility toward these types of events, referencing Isaiah 6:1-5:

In rather simplistic, non-theological terms, what are some of the lessons we are to learn from Rwanda and other crisis areas?

1.  Isaiah's eyes were put on God, 'high and lifted up."  Seeing the holiness and glory of God completely changed his perspective of his nation's crisis.

2.  When Isaiah saw God, he cried out, "Woe is me...I am undone."  I have been looking at the problem through my own eyes.  No wonder my vision is blurred.  "I am undone!"  Everything I was so proud of, those things I put such trust in have fallen apart.  My talents, my dedication, my "compassion," my abilities, my "pure" motives, have been seen as "unclean."  I thought I was collecting jewels for a crown, but I am really little more than a garbage collector! 

There is nothing quite so sad as having sight but lacking vision-- having sight but not seeing.

We now see that our responsibility is not to solve all the problems of the world, but to see God, to be reminded that they are His problems, and if we want to participate in solving them we must see them through His eyes.  But first, we must see Him.

It will make a difference when someone looks us in the face and spits out the question, "Where was that God of yours when those young hoodlums killed my family?"  We can reply, tearfully and humbly, "He was in the same place as the day hoodlums like you and me nailed His only Son to a cross.  He was there, high and lifted up, with outstretched arms.  Stretched out not to rescue His son from our wickedness, but to hold back His armies of angels until in the fullness of time He could redeem our wickedness.  God is concerned not only with a temporary rescue from suffering, but with eternal redemption.

I love this emphasis that we are to look to God, otherwise these things are so discouraging, debilitating, overwhelming!!  He wants us to see with Him!




I hope this encourages you to praise the God

 . . . who has called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.  I Peter 2:9b

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, enighter the present nor the future, nor any powers, neighter height nor depth, not anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39

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Scripture excerpts from New International Version of the Christian Holy Bible.

April in the Yard

It is a pleasure for me to walk through our yard right now! God is so good to give us such a temperate climate, so many lovely things spring up from the earth year after year. Lots of rain but, oh my, when the sun comes out . . .

As you drive up and park . . .

walking up our front walk

WELCOME!!

Coming in the north side . . .

back yard, accompanied by Slippers . . .

Columbine volunteer!  Beautiful basket of gold.

Lavish rhodie . . .

So pretty!!

Sunlight creeping into the back garden . . .

Solomon's Seal in front and fennel's

feathery fronds in the raised garden

Heighth of the season for Epimedium . . .

Garden gate from back to south side yard . . .

Beautiful volunteer under the front window . . .

Deadheading needed but love the bridal veil

spirea, dark red of peony, tulips, narcissus and

grape hyacinths at the base of the Crepe Myrtle.

I see a rhubarb pie in the near future  . . .

Thank you for stopping by.

Piecing Together Words in an Easter Hymn

One of my favorite things to do as a church choir member is take the words of special occasion music and see how they are based in Christian scripture. It never ceases to amaze me at how blessed I am with this exercise. As we practice and perform the music the words become so much more than just beautiful phrases - they become life and light and nourishment to the spirit.

Here are a few phrases from our church's 2012 Easter music with scripture following:

From SohlfulPrint Shop
http://www.etsy.com/listing/95412788/christian-art-bible-quote-fine-art



Beneath the Cross of Jesus I find a place to stand,

And wonder at such mercy that calls me as I am.

For hands that should discard me hold wounds which tell me, "Come."

Beneath the Cross of Jesus my unworthy soul is won.

 Beneath the Cross of Jesus I find a place to stand,

Near the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas and Mary Magdalene. John 19:25

And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus, heard His cry and how He died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" Mark 15.39

The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, "He saved other; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

thedovestop
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94379497/the-three-crosses-matte-print-mat-and

And wonder at such mercy that calls me as I am.

. . . stop and consider God's wonders. Job 34:14

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Luke 5:32

For hands that should discard me hold wounds which tell me, "Come."

Then Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. John 20.27

"All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."  John 6:37 

Beneath the Cross of Jesus my unworthy soul is won.

I am unworthy. How can I reply to You? I put my hand over my mouth. Job 40:4

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. I Corinthians 15:9

LisaMDSkinnerArt
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67163826/born-to-live-art-print-8x10

He says that we must be born again.

Did you know He's even forgiving sins?

Would He do that for you and me?

Come and see.

He says that we must be born again.

Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." John 3:3

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belong to it forever. So if the Son set you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:34-36

From Prayer Notes
http://www.etsy.com/listing/73470448/childrens-bible-bookmark-matthew-19-let

To all who received Jesus, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God, children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will but born of God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. John 1:12-14

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Did you know He's even forgiving sins?

Some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Take heart son; your sins are forgiven." Mathew 9:2

For God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14

Would He do that for you and me?

The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. I Peter 1:9

God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. I Timothy 2:4

Come and see.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote -- Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

"Nazareth!  Can anything good come from there?"  Nathanel asked.

"Come and see," said Philip.

CarolMaschlerJewelry
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65922918/cross-treble-clef-necklace-pendant

Sing to God a hymn of gladness;

Sing to God a hymn of praise.

Jesus Christ,the King of Glory, now is risen from the dead.

Sing to God a hymn of gladness; sing to God a hymn of praise.

They sang praises of gladness and bowed their heads and worshipped. 2 Chronicles 29:30b

Jesus Christ,the King of Glory, now is risen from the dead.

Lift up you head O you gates, 

be lifted up you ancient doors

that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord Almighty

He is the King of glory. Psalm 24:9-10

. . .listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death, because it as impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.  Acts 2:22-24

I have the privilege of hearing the beautiful accompanying music when I read these lines. My hope for you is that these words bring music to your heart!!

Wishing you joy this Easter!!

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Scripture quotes are from the New International Version of the Christian Holy Bible

Music:
"Come and See" written by Sue C. Smith, Kenna Turner West and Gina Vera
"Hallelujah!  Christ Is Risen" words and music by William Wordsworth, Tony Wood, Don Poythress and Chris Eaton
"Beneath the Cross" words and music by Keith and Kristyn Getty

Featured items are from the Christian Artists Street Team, a team of Christians who are Etsy sellers.  See blog:  http://www.castteametsy.blogspot.com/

The Other Side or Winter's Last Gasp

Laura Evans of levansphotography
http://www.etsy.com/listing/95088019/church-bleak-winter-black-and-white

It is rainy and bleak here in western Oregon.

This week's weather map shows today's jetstream as a perpendicular line across the entire United States.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63709064/world-map-showing-distribution-of?ref=v1_other_2

yellowbuttonstudio
http://www.etsy.com/listing/87257354/baby-its-cold-outside-85-x-11-print

with 'our' side having cooler than normal temperatures

AmyLucidJewelryand Photo
http://www.etsy.com/listing/78350438/this-way-to-the-beach-11x14-print

and the 'other' side with warmer than normal temperatures.

Mariana y Paula of Ciaffi
http://www.etsy.com/listing/71940499/wind-and-rain-spiral-notebook-4-x-6-you

We westers are reverting to button-up collars and hanging onto umbrellas against rainful elements pushing in from the Arctic.

kimonomomo
http://www.etsy.com/listing/83187906/vintage-japanese-geisha-doll-accessories

While ye easters are advancing into sudden summer-like weather  - seeking out sandals and fans, dialing down the air conditioner.

Laura Bauer of AlphaSoupPhotography
http://www.etsy.com/listing/72448727/melting-face-pug-blank-greeting-card

Early Bloomers

taken March 1, 2012

2012 March in the Mid-Willamette Valley has more than lived up to its reputation.  Came in with snow, which is fairly rare here any time of the year.  Then 60 degrees, now snow this morning and it's to be 60 degrees again by the end of this week.  Tonight it supposed to get down to 27 degrees, another fairly unusual low even for the dead of winter, tomorrow night 30 degrees.

Tiny baby bell pink fuschia,
a herbaceous perennial
taken March 6, 2012

In most of my herbaceous perennials, pruning should take place before the life starts flowing up the stems.  This year, it hasn't been done.  The snow has melted and the sweet green tips that are holding their heads to the sun today will have no protection against tonight's predicted subzero  temperature.  The shears will soon find them gone; I hope the cold causes their sap to return to their roots and damage will not be too severe.

taken March 6, 2012

taken March 6, 2012

only 6-8 inches tall, taken March 6, 2012

For my sweet early bloomers this is what they were created for - the unpredictable temperatures of March.  The crocus, sweet little snow drops and miniature daffodils will brave the stiffness of the cold night and come back waving in the predicted warm late winter winds.

taken March 6, 2012

Indoors, the east facing plant window comes to life with palest pink and salmon colored crab cacti and African violets.

taken March 6, 2012

 

This is reminding me of God's ministry of love and care for His children:  beauty in strength for those who are able to weather winter's storms, controlled environment for those in need of constant care and protection, and expert pruning for those ready to bring new fruit in the height and heat of the coming harvest season.



taken March 6, 2012

"Do not awaken love before its time."  paraphrase of Song of Solomon 8:4b