Sail On Trust

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I was back to 'making to sell'.  I have a big huge cloud of doubt hanging over my head so what I think I should say is 'making to HOPE to sell'  because of course, it may not go as planned or as hoped.  

It may not. 

 But, here I am, making and making and really believing that's it where I'm being led.

This small fleet of ships will be for sale at Old Cottonwood's shop through the Christmas season.  Along with a number of other items that I have been working on.

The paper I used for the sails are hand printed and hand painted on both sides by me. I made the little boats out of salvaged lathe boards.  Some from the old house turned shop from where I grew up.

I have had these little ships sitting out in our dining room for some time now and am so pleased with how they turned out.  Sail boats and old ships with sails hold a special place in my being.  Some of you may have seen others that I have made on Instagram.  This link shows two I made from a pattern from Ann Wood.

A bit of the backstory:

Our lives are going through a radical change.  My husband is leaving the family farm operation in the near future.  And his future, our future, is a great big, vast unknown.  As you can imagine our conversations over the past number of months have been about this.  About where/how God is leading us.  I think of all the things I hope to do in my life and none compare to my desire to trust.  To fully trust in God.  I told my husband that all I want to do is to sail out the rest of our time on Earth on Trust.  I want to sail on Trust.  

I sure didn't see this coming.  The farm situation for a number of reasons brought my husband to a deep depression.  Whoa.  Did not see that coming.  The answer became very clear, quite literally over night. It was time for him to leave the farm.  Literally overnight.  Had not even seriously considered it before in any fashion and then one of us mentioned that option and we both knew that was the path.  

So when I look at my life and see all that I had absolutely no idea was going to happen...could not have planned for...could not have been prepared for...except for preparing myself by loving and trusting in God, I know that is my goal.  To trust more, to trust completely, to trust so much that I'll set sail on trust.

I didn't chose a specific piece of paper when I stamped the words "sail on trust" on to the front of this sail, but just quickly picked one that appealed to me from my stash.  Later, I realized that the back of this one has a pattern I made from a rain drop stamp that I had carved.  

Rain drops seem to signal difficult times.  

And rain drops look an awful lot like tear drops to me.

A quote from St. Therese of Lisieux.  A very favorite of mine, wood burned into a pine board. ♥

If you are local, check out Old Cottonwood in Utica!  Brent and Leah are great people and they have a wonderful brick and mortar shop!!

It's Close Enough to Who I Am

Yesterday, I was working in the barn and it was chilly.  I had on layers.  But, I always have on layers.  Even in the house.  I'm always cold.  

The plaids and the layers caught my eye in the bathroom mirror and I thought I wanted to remember these beautiful layers.  So I took a picture.  A selfie if you will.  

I have to admit that I actually smoothed out my wrinkles in Photoshop before posting this, because the years have not been good to me age-wise.  But what has been good is that I don't really care.  Well, I care enough to not show you all how really awful it is, but as my sweet Gardening Friend said, "It's who I am."  ♥  

In my case, "It's close enough to who I am!"

Then I decided that it may be a good exercise to try and draw it.

I like the layers. ♥

Why am I posting this?  I guess to just share how little details are valuable.  And, that if I would have been so self conscious to not take the picture, I wouldn't have been able to spend the time thinking about and drawing the layers. 

I'm not completely over the self conscious thing. (Obviously, no face included!)  When my girls were looking at the photos on my phone, I had a small panic of my photo being on there, and had to quickly explain why I had taken a photo of myself!  Truly felt the need to explain it! 

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~Have a great week~

Focus: A Very Wide Focus

These past weeks have been filled with a focus on family and creating.  All good things!  I am making with the intent of selling again.  In the years since I let the shelves of my two Etsy shops go bare, Etsy has changed drastically.  And I think I have too.  Not drastically on my end, just a different focus.  A very wide focus, ha!  There is plaster, metal, paper, flowers, photography.  

Often times they come together.  

I'm designing a line of greeting cards. Of course the "hows" are still a work in progress. 

The cards will bring together my love of flowers, metal, vintage, and photography. 

I also have created a number of metal collages which I'm just so happy with.  Happy to live in the moments of creating them.  Happy to live in the nostalgia they emit.  The specifics of how and where to sell are also a work in progress.

Another 'finally getting started with project' is to have prints and posters made of my photos.  More "hows" there too.  So much to learn!

The above image started as a rough draft and I just typed a quick thought and I think I'm keeping it.  That's what came to mind after I arranged all the little bits of dried flowers.  I should add that the thought may have been quick, but the selection of font was certainly not! I learned what an SVG font is and how to edit it in Photoshop.  I was pretty chuffed about that new skill.  It opened up a lot of new options. :) 

So much beauty.  All depends on how we look at it from within.