Pottery Sale for the City of Hope

Planning a Holiday sale November 19th to benefit the City of Hope, an orphan home in Zambia.  I have been steadily crafting a collection of pottery to sell.   Here are a few samples;

          A butter dish

 It will be brighter and glossier once it's been fired.

"Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your altar, O LORD"- Psalm 83

 A medium sized casserole dish in the "Oaks of Righteousness" theme will be glazed in glossy white.

And a large cake stand.  The spots and rim will be bright red.


Pray all the pieces fire well!
-Allison 

Oaks of Righteousness

God whispered an idea into my head, "Make pottery for Africa".  So I set up the studio in the basement.  I've had 2 days of pottery making for a big pottery sale in November to benefit orphans at the Zambia Project. 

These are the first two pieces are part of a series I am calling The Oaks of Righteousness.  They will each have part of the scripture below carved into them.

Isaiah 61;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,^a 

2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

3and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the Lord

for the display of his splendor.

4They will rebuild the ancient ruins

and restore the places long devastated;

they will renew the ruined cities

that have been devastated for generations.

 I'm planning on making a tree stump cakestand to go with the series.
I also made a whimsicle cakestand;

 here's the basement space I've been making into a studio.  The lower shelves are full of older pieces and tiles. Dorathea's sculpture is on the top right hand side.  I think this sale is going to be great for my kids too, Dorathea wants to sell her own sculptures for the orphans. 

 I am making these pieces to bring the Word of God into the small moments of your day, when you are pouring coffee, or slicing bread.  They are meant to be a comfortable reminder of the truth, that you can hold in your hand. 

What's extra cool about them is that as Christmas gifts they will be a gift to orphans as well, with special tags letting the recipent know about the orphan care the proceeds of the pottery goes toward. 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27

I'm a little excited, can you tell?  More pottery to come!

Amanda's Baby Shower

Amanda's Baby Shower, a set on Flickr.

Secret God spaces

Sometimes I get out of my own space to get out of my own head and clean up my mental state by spending time with God.  I have looked for these secret spaces since college.  I found an attic widow's peak on top of my dorm, and studying in Italy found a couple great window balconies, as well as a few prayer rooms along the way set aside for the very purpose of  talking with my beloved.

But can I say that being a Mom and wife that it seems more important, immediate, and so very needed to occasionally run away from home?  The beautiful three I so often pour into often show me I am in need of exorcising personal demons.  So this day I took a ride around the corner to a church with an open door policy for their chapel and hidden garden (God bless them!)

First I planted myself here;

Then I dare to draw a little closer to the alter

And I lay here;

As I unload the heavy to my ultimate Father I shed a few tears too.  Just think someday He will wipe even that one away.  I let go of the baggage of who I thought I was; Angry, empty, sad.  He sees my efforts to love them so much I change into love in the process.  I turn to the face of Jesus, and I give up my ugly view of myself and those I am working to love.   I am given a glimpse of myself through his eyes; Holy Holy Holy am I!  His light shines in me golden.

I hop on my bike and ride home better for my time here.

This song has been in my head.  When I find it at home I laugh as I watch the artist's video and she takes the same ride to a little chapel on her bike.  He truly sees me :)

 http://www.youtube.com/karijobe

A reader is popping up

She wouldn't sit down for my storytimes when Daddy brought her.  And I hosted storytime for 4 libraries for 7 years but couldn't keep her attention like I could the other children.  She constantly lost stickers at preschool for not sitting still for circle time.  

But today she read a whole book, then read two more.  

My daughter is reading to me!!!

Our secret is no secret;  When my husband and I were little we heard a thousand stories through the chests those people who loved us best, our Moms.  

 

Now as parents we get to be the readers of stories with our children's warm chubby bodies leaning against our chests.

We started off when she was a baby pointing out things and the words for her. And then sounding out the letters. And for the last year pausing to let her sound out the word we point to.  She being Dorathea soaked all those words right up like thirsty seedlings soaking up water.  

And then just like my seedlings,  after days and weeks of patiently watering the dormant soil, 

  "Something popped up, just as we had known that it would" quote from-  The Carrot Seed.  

 I took out a level one book from Aunt Kristie and low and behold, our girl is a reader.

In celebration we made a special trip to the library to celebrate with her own library card.

...and tonight we will eat green eggs and ham after she finishes that book.

Here she is with her triumphant first book, funnily reading just like Mommy used to at the library, upside down.

So the sun is out at our house in the form of Mommy and Daddy's praise, We praise her because she doesn't think she is a good reader yet.  But with enough encouraging sunshine shining down and more watering of the words she will.  

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see"- Hebrews 11:1

Pendant Curtians

I was trying to find a place to store the pendant banner I crafted to decorate for family birthdays.
I couldn't think of a place that I would be likely to remember.  Out of sight out of mind.
Then I found a place in plain sight;

Spring colors! -and red of course, it's my favorite color of all.

The fabric for the pendants are from scraps I've collected from Schoolhouse fabrics old napkins and such.  I had the chair slipcovered a couple years ago.  The hand embroidered pillow is from Goodwill in Pulaski (25. cents!).  And the quilt is from my mom {>

 What do you think?  I may change the curtains again before spring gets here.

in between chasing two year olds of course :)

orange-dark-chocolate coffee and fresh wheat bread

My breakfast sang this morning.  I felt like I was in a really good coffee shop and bakery, but I was at home.  Homemade coffee creamer and wheat bread made my morning quiet time a little more divine.

Dark Chocolate Coffee Creamer

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Dark Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• (I added 1/2 tsp of orange extract)
• Non-dairy coffee creamer

Directions

In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup and 1/ tsp any flavorings you would like to add (raspberry, orange, mint extracts). Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened.  Pour into bottle until it is half full.  A old plastic liquid creamer bottle works great.  I filled the bottle the rest of the way with unflavored non-dairy coffee creamer.  I filled up three of these, put one in the refrigerator where it should keep for at least two weeks.  The other two I put in the freezer.  This coffee creamer also makes a great gift.  

You can see the recipe I used for wheat bread in the ingredients picture.  Here is the recipe I used.  I tried White-wheat flour and had good results.  

 It felt good to see my made-from-scratch bread rise in the oven. The fresh-baked aroma and yummy bread defiantly blessed my family today. I hope you are blessed too!

 The book pictured is an all time favorite; Walking on Water; Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline LeEngle