Happy Birthday To Me!

 

My birthday was in February... and yes, I'm 39 again! *wink!* My sweet husband surprised me with a trip to the mountains for a weekend with our family! He couldn't have given me a gift that I would have enjoyed more! We rented a cute little cabin near my son's house so we could be with family during the day and retreat in the evening. LOTS of eating out and catching up with each other and playing with my granddaughter!... What could be better?!!

So, I thought I'd do a "Five Different Things You Probably Don't Know About Me" for my birthday post. Starting with...

1. I am definitely NOT a morning person! My husband has an "internal alarm clock" that gets him up early each morning... but that feature must have been overlooked when God put me together! It takes me a while to mellow into the day. I'm good to go about 10 AM.

2. My husband and I were high school sweethearts. I was 15 and he was 17 when we first met. After my Dad was transferred to a different state while I was still in high school, we had a very lengthy long distance relationship (I do not recommend this!). We finally got married after we'd both finished college.

3. I didn't grow up making art. When I was young, I always had an attraction to art and crafty things, but I never seriously pursued arty things until my late 20's and early 30's. In fact, it was only when my son was unhappy at preschool that I started to draw little pictures for him. I drew simple pictures on 3x5 cards to put in my son's lunch box for Lunch Bunch... and I was hooked! I've been doodling ever since!

4. For those of you who know Myers-Briggs, I'm an ISFJ... I'm introverted, so I'm quiet and a little shy. I take in information as a sensor through what I see and hear (I don't just KNOW something by intuition like my husband does). I'm a feeler, so I make decisions based on my feelings instead of by logic alone. And I'm a judger, so I like routine, organization and "everything in its' place." 

And finally... 

5. I'm a vegetarian... and I'm really not a very good (or enthusiastic) cook. Give me all the fresh fruit, salads and veggies. Throw in some yogurt, cheese and whole grain bagels and I'm a happy girl! And my favorite ice cream of all time is Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip... YUM!! 

Just a few words about the silly chicken card above... This is one of the cards I recently made for the Creative Kindness Foundation's "Cards For Kindness" program. This organization accepts handmade cards of all kinds and distributes them to people in hospitals, nursing homes, and people in crisis in order to spread encouragement and kindness. I like that a lot. 

I'm fairly new to card making, so I'm figuring it out as I go along. I enjoy mixed media, so most of the cards I've made so far are a combination of drawing, painting, collage, lettering and a little bit of sewing too. I'm having fun with this!... and I hope that the cards I create bring encouragement and hope to those who receive them!

If you'd be interested in Cards for Kindness, check out their website. They are always looking for more handmade cards!
 

Santa's Gonna Be A Little Late This Year...

 

Well, it was bound to happen eventually. In our 44 years of marriage, my husband Joe & I have always been able to celebrate Christmas with some branch of our family on December 25th. We've packed the boys up in their jammies in the middle of the night and driven to New Jersey to have Christmas with my parents and siblings... We've  gone over the river and through the woods to the Moore family farm in Virginia to celebrate with Joe's kin... We've had Christmas at our house with excited little boys who got up waaaay too early in the morning to open presents... and we've had Christmas in the mountains of North Carolina with our now grown sons and their families (including our brand new grandbaby!).

But sometime mid-November, Joe & I got out our calendars and realized that for Christmas 2023, we'd be home alone for the very first time.

It turned out that this is my oldest son & his family's year to head south to Florida for Christmas with my daughter-in-laws' family... and my youngest son and his partner had made plans to celebrate Christmas day with her Mom & Dad in Eastern North Carolina.

OK, no problem. We just needed to set expectations and come up with a fun Plan B for Christmas day. We thought about going for a hike with our dog Jake, or volunteering at the local homeless shelter. We had all kinds of options that might be possibilities...

...and then I came down with a doozy of a case of bronchitis & walking pneumonia. *cough cough*

So now we're on to Plan C, which includes staying home from Christmas Eve service at our church, snuggling up on the couch and watching football & movies together, drinking more French Vanilla tea with honey than I ever imagined I could, and waiting for the antibiotics and steroids to kick in. While I wait, I've been having fun creating some Christmas doodles in my sketchbook, reading a fun mystery series, and crocheting hats for little noggins for World Vision. Oh, and eating too many Christmas cookies that my husband baked!

Plan C also includes bumping our Christmas celebration to the following weekend when we'll be opening presents with my youngest son and his family.

Not the Christmas we had planned, but I'm oh so grateful for an understanding husband, wise doctors, improving health and the unexpectedly restful pre-Christmas season we've been given.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!

Light In My Darkness

 

It has been a very long time since I've written in my blog... over two years, in fact. Life has been filled with family illness and the homecoming of my sweet Dad. Now my Mom is declining rapidly. I'm trying my best to care for her well, while my heart is grieving. It is the circle of life... We are only given so many days on this earth, and then we return to the Lord, which is a blessing! But this ending of life!... It is so very very hard! I need God's grace to make it through each moment of every single day.

I've written before that I struggle with depression... and during this difficult time, it's been hard to find my way out of the darkness at times. My physician has changed my medications, and that has greatly helped me cope on this journey I've found myself on. I am truly grateful to be feeling so much better!

And painting has helped soothe my soul. I don't claim to be a terrific artist... but somehow in putting pencil to paper and then paint on canvas, peace and joy have come into my heart. This winter, as the afternoon sun has been shining in the windows of my studio, I've experienced a calm, quiet place of healing and comfort as I've painted and listened to soft, soothing music. My studio has felt like a sanctuary... and art making has felt like communion with God.

Thank you Lord, that you meet me right where I am... even when I'm in the darkness. You come to me and comfort me. You shine Your light on me and fill me with joy and gladness! I am so very grateful!!

Keeping Christmas Simple At Our House...

We're keeping things simple this year at our house for Christmas...

A large green wreath with a big red bow welcomes visitors to our home. The artificial tree we bought years ago when Ben & Jesse were little has been 'fluffed' and decorated with lights & shiny Christmas balls & years of accumulated ornaments.... Makes me smile every time I walk by! 'Handprint ornaments' we made in Jesse's kindergarten class are hanging in the kitchen windows above the sink. And the 'folk art' nativity scene I love has a place of honor on the piano in the dining room. Last of all, a gorgeous pointsetta I bought at the grocery store sits in the middle of our dining room table. Instead of the pre-holiday frenzy I often dread, in our home,

All is calm, All is bright.

2016 has been a very challenging year for me (more on that another time...). But as it closes, I'm grateful for the growth and the lessons the year has held for me. God is indeed faithful and kind and good.

Wishing You A 

Very Blessed Christmas

And A

Happy New Year!! 

Waiting For Spring

"Waiting For Spring"

We got the call one evening last February... Mom was in the hospital again and things weren't looking good. My husband & I immediately went into emergency mode, packing clothes, food, and doggie needs, gathering up hats, gloves, scarves and winter coats, getting ready to travel first thing the next day. We were on auto-pilot...

Once we'd arrived, the waiting began... At that point I realized I had forgotten to bring any art supplies along with me. I was surprised that, during this period of stress & uncertainty, I really wanted to quietly sketch and then color what I had created.

So... my husband took me to Walmart, and I bought a child-sized box of Crayola colored pencils. I started with one quilt block, and then another, not having a plan in mind, just designing one thing & then the next. I chose the Crayola colors that looked most like Spring to me, that felt most like hope. And then I filled the waiting hours with quiet prayer & happy colors. They soothed my soul.

Thank you, Lord, that you met me in my time of anxiety in a way that I could understand... through the quietness of sketching, through the hopefulness of color, through the power of answered prayer.

Welcome Home Winnie!

Four years ago this month, Winnie, a gentle black lab, came to live at our house... The moment I saw her, I totally fell in love.  :)

My husband Joe & I don't know much about Winnie's story... If only she could tell us! She came to us through the Lab Rescue of North Carolina, found by a caring stranger somewhere near a beach in eastern Carolina. She had recently had a litter of puppies, though we have no idea what happened to them. All we know is that Winnie was very sick with heartworm disease when she was found and she needed lots of love & care.

The kind folks at the Lab Rescue named her Winnie... and my husband decided she'd been through enough... she shouldn't have to get used to a brand new name too. So 'Winnie' it was.

When we first adopted Winnie, the lab rescue guessed she was somewhere between two and three years old. But after our family vet needed to x-ray her, we discovered that our young dog was actually a whole lot older (which helped explain her very laid back personality).

Winnie's the first dog we've adopted since my sons have grown up... and she's been the perfect companion for me. Nothing makes her happier than a walk around the neighborhood, her chewy 'Kong' & her favorite toy duck (now looking a lot worse for wear!). She follows the sun around our house & is content just to 'be' with me... my super sweet studio buddy!  :)  Without a doubt, Winnie helps make our house a home!

The doodle above was drawn on a 4x6 index card, just for fun, using a black Micron pen, Copic markers, Prismacolor markers & Prismacolor pencils.  :)

Greetings From A Corn Field

While visiting our family farm this past June, I began to wonder whether it might be wisest for me to focus more of my attention on growing my Zazzle shop during this season in our family life. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Etsy! (I really do!)... and I plan to continue to list my art there as much as I'm able to. But my husband & I are finding we need to be at the farm more often these days. It's not as easy keeping in touch with buyers when I'm out in the middle of a corn field, away from the internet!... and mailing art while I'm on the road has proven to be a pretty big challenge too!

Now, admittedly, I am not the best at making changes. But, with all the back-and-forth we've been doing between our home in North Carolina & the family farm in Virginia, I finally decided that moving to "Plan B" just might be the best option for me right now.

And so, I've started to design t-shirts for infants, toddlers & elementary-aged kids. It's really been lots of fun!... something I've always wanted to do, in fact. Maybe I just needed a gentle nudge from the Lord to move out in a brand new arty direction. The t-shirts join my growing selection of prints, cards & stamps that I offer in my Zazzle shop, PholkartStudio.

I'd sure LOVE to have your help in brainstorming new design ideas for baby & kids' tees! My sons are all grown up now, so it feels like a lifetime ago since I needed to be "in tune" with what little guys like to wear! Leave me a comment!... I'd love to hear from you!! :)

Happy to be a Mom Of Boys :)

"No Girlz Allowed"

Somehow, it's May already!... and the neighborhood is starting to fill up with the sights & sounds I remember so well from my two sons' growing-up-days! I love seeing little boys out riding their bikes on the sidewalk... kids with dirty knees playing "trucks" in the front yard... hearing the sounds of skateboards down the street as "the big boys" practice their jumping skills. Pretty soon there will be kiddie pools & sprinklers & squirt gun fights... kids catching fireflies after dark... and best of all, the sounds of children laughing & playing!

I have to admit... I have a BIG soft spot in my heart for little boys! Our house was full of them!... our two sons with their whole gang of little buddies... playing legos by the hour on rainy days, eating drippy popsicles on the front porch when the weather was hot, making forts & playing with flashlights... a constant noisy parade of little guys in search of snacks & bandaids for scraped knees... and sometimes hugs & kisses too!...  

I loved every minute of it!! 

Sometimes now it's hard to believe that those "little boy days" went by so quickly!... I remember wondering back then (on my more "challenging" days!) if time had stood still! Now I know that I was especially blessed to be home with our boys & be there for all their growing-up minutes!... 

Such a gift from God to me!... and I am so very thankful!

Thank you so much, Lord, for the wonderful gift of being a mom of boys! Thanks for the good days & the not-so-good days of growing up together as a family. What a JOY & a PRIVILEGE to have been there to nurture them along!... Please help me to treasure these memories & to encourage them on as they continue to grow.