Post-makeover Pumpkins

Remember a few weeks ago before all the wedding craziness when I told you about my new orange canvas?
Well, here are some belated pictures of the finished product!

A pumpkin patch on a pumpkin. :)

 I even took some pictures of my co-workers pumpkins, just so you could see the incredible variety that half a dozen bank tellers could produce. 

An ombre creation, complete with colored glitter and spiders. 

I thought the dots looked like jelly beans. 

Definitely the scariest!

With sharpie-drawn face, this was the pumpkin version of Annie Oakley. 

The blind, purple LSU pumpkin. 

Minnie!

Currently, the cowgirl pumpkin (without her hat and gun) and the glittery pumpkin (sans spiders) are chillin on my front porch as interesting fall decor. I would have kept mine, but it got moldy. I guess that's what happens when you cover a pumpkin completely in paint?

Art Update

For those of you trembling in anticipation on the edges of your swivel chairs, wondering what I finally decided to create during Girl Craft Night (all 2 of you), the answer is NONE of the options I considered. That's life: we make our plans, but sometimes they just don't happen. 

Happy are the flexible. :)

My first choice (thanks to those who voted!) was the jewelry rack, mainly because my poor little jewelry tree is staggering under the weight of too many mismatched beads and baubles. But...I wasn't about to shell out 50 bucks for a frame at Hobby Lobby. Why can't shabby chic ever be shabby cheap?

Second choice: the painted ceiling medallions as wall decor. Same problem, only the cost would have been around $80. Also, the ones at home improvement stores are made of foam and plastic, which is very hard to paint unless you buy additional primer.

So here's the great reveal...please don't laugh. I never claimed to be a professional artist.

The idea was to create four paintings, each representing one of the four types of soil in Jesus' parable. (Obvioulsy, an evening was not enough time to finish all four, which means that I have an excuse for another artsy night!)

If you were ever in Sunday School as a kid, you'll remember that in one of his stories, Jesus described the average farmer as he scattered his seeds in a field. The farmer's strong arm would have thrown the seeds in a wide, graceful arc to cover as much ground as possible. Of course, that meant that seeds went everywhere, and that not all of them grew well.

The seeds that fell on the path were eaten by birds.

Those that fell on rocks withered under the sun because they had shallow roots.

Those that fell among weeds got choked.

But those that fell on the plowed, rich, deep soil grew and produced a crop.

But Jesus was a carpenter, not a visiting lecturer on agriculture, and he was speaking to our hearts about our hearts. The seeds represent the Word of God, and the soils are the hearts of people who hear it. 

The parable of the soils has been part of my mental library since before I could read, along with Grimms Fairy Tales and Bambi. Even though I've understood that Jesus was speaking beyond mere seeds and dirt, it's so easy to stop there and not ask the hard questions. Is my heart hard and unwilling to let God's truth penetrate deeply, like the rocky soil? Is it so full of noise, anxiousness, and other concerns that His truth is choked? 

To be honest, I have times when both are true. Just this week, God was showing me his goodness and telling me that he forgives me more freely than I do, but there was a part in me that was unwilling to believe he could be that good. At that moment, the lie, "God holds grudges like a human" was like a stubborn rock in my heart, keeping his truth from coming in. At other times, I think my heart-dirt is getting softer, and I can see the results.

Which of the soils do you most identify with?

Art Decisions

Tomorrow night, the thing we have talked of and dreamed of for semesters will finally happen.
Tomorrow night, the girls in our homegroup will have a craft night.

This is monumental! This is huge!  When it comes to the creative arts, the collective frustration among us girls  has been that there is no time to pursue them.
"I used to make stuff like that," one of us will say, and the rest of us chime in: "Oh I know!" "I have a whole bag of that in my closet/junk drawer..."
And then we would look at each other longingly, knowing that all of us wanted the same thing.

But now, we are siezing the moment! We are closing our laptops, laying aside our class notes, resolutely saying no to the call and pull of other responsibilities.  Here, on this craft table we are taking a stand for the cultivation of our hearts. Because there is something deep in all of us that must create--or die.

And now, I have a new dilemma.  Which of my pinterest dreams to make a reality?

Unique jewelry rack

I love the combination of ink and watercolor!  Maybe a different subject...

Art from rolled up strips of magazine paper

Could do with paint or the rolled paper from previous picture

painted plaster finials from Home Depot could make cute wall art

Leave your votes! I retain the right to reject all opinions in the final hour of decision. :)

A New Outlet

Blue watercolor flowers, 1/24/12

Who knew dabbing color onto paper could be so much fun!? A few inexpensive paints and supplies with Christmas money, a Pinterest picture of someone else's artwork to inspire me, and voila: pretty art to make people smile.

I feel like I am discovering a new friend.  Hello, watercolor.  I like you. :-)