Butterflies, Chicken, and Love Language

Some years back, Dr. Gary Chapman, wrote a book called The Five Love Languages in which he proposed that we each have a distinct love language, or maybe two or three.  These are things that others do for us in which we feel loved and cared for.  Some of them on the list are: receiving small gifts, quality time spent with you, affection, etc.  I’ve only read parts of the book, but have had lively discussions with friends about it and some fun thinking about my kids and what their love languages are.  It’s helpful to focus on things that the recipient will really appreciate.

Two Wednesdays ago, I went for my day of teaching at Redeemer School.  One of the staff wished me Happy Birthday…to which I hesitantly replied, “But it’s not my birthday.”   She said that I needed to go to the teacher’s lounge and look at the table of goodies.  She was sure it was for me and my birthday.  I was gobsmacked to find a paper wishing me a Happy Half-Birthday, a card, a wrapped present, and plates of unbelievably decorated cupcakes!!

My secret pal (who is not a secret to me now:) had made these incredible cupcakes for me and the entire staff and faculty!  We all oohed and aahed, discussed how we thought she might have made them, and yummed our way slowly through our cupcakes.  I was bowled over by the time, exquisite creativity, and care taken to make these for me on my “half-birthday”…a REAL surprise and treat!!

These days of teaching leave me exhausted.  I usually stop by Starbucks for a bit of quiet and refueling before I go home to engage with my kids and husband, and begin the dinner/bedtime routines.  On this same day, my husband was cooking dinner!  Lemon chicken was roasting in the oven along with vegetables and rice.  The smell in our home was heavenly.  I kept walking around murmuring, “thank you, thank you, thank you”.  Later that evening, he tweeted, “After 20 plus years of marriage, I’ve finally realized my wife’s love language…cooking for her.  Who knew?”

Who knew indeed?  I didn’t really even know this until he said it.  But now it makes perfect sense:  I ALWAYS feel loved and special when someone makes food or bakes for me!  I’ve always felt that the best food in the world is food I have not had to prepare!  I have never relished cooking.  I DO cook.  Or rather, I assemble food (you know… open a jar of this, a can of that, pour it all together and voila!)  But I do NOT get my goodies from cooking.  Nope.  Never have.  It feels like labor, work; even the whole deciding WHAT to cook is tedious and mind-numbing for me.

I have catalogs of memories of dishes and baked goods that others have prepared for  me.  Beginning with the incredible dishes my mom made growing up: homemade spaghetti, oven baked bass in a scrumptious sauce, artichokes with butter sauce, homemade breads, granola, cookies of all kinds, and of course, my birthday cakes-red velvet, hummingbird cake, chocolate cake.  Then there are the meals that good folks brought to us when each of our children were born…I can remember them exactly and many of them I have recipes for, but they never seem to taste as good when I make them.  And then there are the meals we have enjoyed in people’s homes…oh my those are good times!  In recent memory, there’s a birthday cake that a knitter friend made for me, complete with a lime green VW bug decorated on it (one day I WILL own one of those cars), and ALL the wonderful dishes my husband makes in the winter time.  He actually loves to cook…but mostly in the winter months.

You would think, that as much as I love food, I’d love to cook it.  I don’t know why I don’t.  Perhaps it has to do with the fact that when I cook, there are four differing and opposing opinions as to how good it is; or maybe that I’ve spent hours in the kitchen and once we sit down to the table, in less than 30 minutes, I have nothing to show for my efforts except a huge pile of dishes.  I’ve TRIED to make myself like cooking with Pampered Chef gadgets and cool, new cookbooks.  But to no avail.  I am content to enjoy the fruits of other folks’ labors…their’s tastes better anyway AND I get to have more time for painting and knitting:).

Value Show…er, Snow!

Here in the Triad, we’ve been wowed two weekends in a row with snow!  Amazing.  As I tucked in my youngest on Thursday evening, I was trying to keep her from getting her hopes up too much that we would have lots of snow…telling her they were predicting freezing rain, sleet, and more rain.  Not much snow.  Well, to our delight and amazement, we awoke to 2-3 inches of the stuff.  Well, I didn’t exactly awaken to it…I’m an early bird, 5:30 ish is when my internal alarm clock goes off, and there was a dusting of snow on the ground then.  I got to watch it come down; heavy, wet snow pouring in around 7 or so.  It seems the world is transformed into a value show, contrasts of dark & light, lots of light values, a few midtones here and there.  Gotta draw/paint that.

A year ago, during a snowfall, I made this drawing from the same view out the window of my studio.  I wanted to see if I could indicate, with line only, the values there.  It doesn’t matter whether you draw or paint them, the values are really evident in a snowfall…you don’t even have to squint.  You can, however, see the connections between the values better if you squint.

Isn’t it funny how we “see” better as artists with our eyes half-closed?

I wonder if that works the same in Life? The concept behind “squinting” is to simplify the information we have in front of us.  With our eyes wide open we simply take in too much detail, the value range is too wide, and we can’t see the “connected whole”.  Everything is chopped up into bits, whereas, when we squint, we see how it all works together to make a pleasing whole and unnecessary details get taken out of the picture, quite literally.  I’m not sure that  we have something as simple as squinting to help us with this in life.  But I do know that I get bogged down in the flotsam and jetsam of life, rather than dwelling on the pleasing whole, the forest instead of the trees if you will.  Taking a step back and looking for the grander call on my life and the overarching themes in our collective life here, helps me move forward and engage in the flotsam and jetsam that each day brings.  There has been a good bit of flotsam and jetsam these days with the kids home from school because of the snow…millions of mittens, hats, wet clothing, boots, toys everywhere, sibling spats, and “will you take me here or there?”  Today I’m going to try to “squint” at my kids, rather than seeing them as unending, “Mommy will you…” machines.

P.S.  As I re-look at the watercolor sketch I made in the wee hours of the morn yesterday, I see some values are just TOO dark…really, I SHOULD HAVE squinted!

Have No Fear

Many years ago, when I was setting about to teach myself to draw and paint, two guys who had graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design, encouraged me in my endeavors by saying, “Just have no fear…”  I don’t think they realized how much I would recall those words.  Every painting, every sketch, every knit or crochet project or design, every new creative endeavor…starts in my head with, Have No Fear Jen.  It’s only paper, it’s only canvas, it’s only string.   Somehow we can get so strangled by fear of…well, what is it, anyway?  Fear of it not being “good”?  Fear of it being a failure? Fear of messing it up?  Fear of not being original?  Fear of not having anything to say?  Fear of not improving?  Oh my, these are just a few.

Of course, I could blast through every one of these and “explain them away” for you.  I’ve read a good bit on creativity and it’s traps, I’ve learned to recognize and talk myself through them.  But somehow, when faced with a blank page, a basket full of new yarns…all our reason goes out the door, and the deer in headlights look comes over our face.  Have No Fear…just begin…one baby step at a time…just move forward.

One place this fear shows up is when we tackle something we are not as well-versed in or something we have not made before.  I faced this as I stared at a basket (remember this basket from the hexagons in Crag2Crag?) that I wanted to line with fabric so the yarns wouldn’t get picked.  Now, I can sew.  I’m fairly well equipped when it comes to sewing.  But I had a small amount each of four fabrics (which I had purchased to make these birds), no pattern, and I had never lined a basket before…or at least I can’t remember when I have.  And, of course, I didn’t want to JUST line the basket…I wanted it to have pockets on the outside for my scissors, hooks, and anything else needed for the project in the basket.  *Headlights*.  Will the idea work? Will I have enough fabric?  Will it turn out alright, or will I have butchered the fabrics so that I can’t really  use them for anything else?

Just begin. It’s only fabric.

An hour or two later…I had it…the thing I had envisioned, plus or minus a thing or two.  One MUST be flexible along the way and allow for altering the original plan.  This is KEY!  I like to think, in creative matters, that mistakes or roadblocks are merely opportunities for a wonderful new idea or outcome.  But you’ve gotta bend to it.  Life is that way too.

And so now my basket is lined with fun fabrics which have places for “stuff” around the outside.  One spot that gave me pause, was how to deal with the liner where the handles meet the basket.  What came out (ribbons tied on the sides) works well and is pretty to boot.

And with the leftovers, I was able to make the birds from a free pattern found here…I’m not sure WHY I made them…just for fun…and with no fear.

Blog Anniversary! Sort of…

A couple of weeks back, I realized I posted my first entry on this blog February 2, 2009.  It was sans picture or drawing.  Just writing.  Then it wasn’t until April that I actually began posting regularly.  I remember wanting to get back into blogging, but still in a transition time where I was unsure of direction, experiencing a renewal of drawing and sketching.  For a couple of years prior to this, I endured something of a creative crisis.  I had been painting and drawing for 10 or 11 years, exhibiting, selling, schlepping my paintings hither and yon for shows, hosting shows in my home, etc.; and I ran into a wall of sorts.  Well, several walls. That would be a topic for another post, but suffice it to say, that my creative crisis found me picking up hook and needle more frequently.  They became my new paintbrushes.  I began teaching knit & crochet classes, and started my first blog.

That’s right…before Drawn2Life, there was BagsoYarnBabe.  This was a blogspot site whose title was suggested by my husband.  He often feels like he lives in a house full of bags, boxes, and bins of yarn.  And that, on top of paints, easels, sketchbooks, and all the accoutrements of a visual artist.  I loved keeping this blog…more for myself than any other reason: to chronicle my journey with yarn and all the things I love about a life in yarn.  To commemorate Drawn2Life’s anniversary, I’ve “slurped” in all the posts from BagsoYarnBabe for your perusal.  The photos don’t quite work, but at least you can see them and read the posts.  Just go to the Archives sidebar and click on months prior to February 2009.  I’ve enjoyed memory lane.

Towards the end of BagsoYarnBabe, in May of 2008, I was experiencing another creative upheaval, a good one this time. Mentioned here, drawing came back into my life.  Oh, the bliss, the joy, of renewing a friendship I had let lie for a time.  I was still discombobulated for a long time, trying to figure it all out, the whys of it all, the direction I was going, etc.  This is my achilles heel: trying to figure it all out.  If I could set that aside, try NOT to figure it all out, I would be much better off.  So, Drawn2Life began.  Many of you have seen that even this site has morphed…starting out strictly all things painting and drawing, and then evolving to include the yarn work.

I feel there is a happy blend now.  I rewrote my original artist statement to include the yarn work…they really are the same, drawing and knitting.  It is line, all line.  One is lines in pen, the other is lines in yarn…each line curving, twisting to make a pleasing whole.  Drawn2Life seems a fitting title for my blog for it can really encompass so much!  Wherever the “line” of my creative life takes me, I’m drawn to it!  Who knows what creative paths I’ll take in the future?  Right now, I’m content…content to let my creative work feed my daily life and vice versa.  Thanks for coming along for the ride!

P.S. The first image is a piece of freeform crochet I made a year or so ago…looks like an abstract painting doesn’t it?

Crag2Crag Creativity

This is me, lately!  Leaping from crag to crag, idea to idea, project to project.  With the arrival of snow, I declared yesterday, “A Making Day”…and it looks like today will be that also.  It was delightful: whirling from lime green knitted sweater, to crocheted hexagons and owls (pattern for latter forthcoming:), to sketching, to pattern writing, to ideas for some fun fabrics…to…oh my, what’s a girl to do?  Of course, interwoven in the midst of leaping was also laundry, shot-giving, breakfast/lunch/dinner-making, etc.  But all in all, it was a lovely day of crag2crag leaping!

Julia Cameron speaks of this in her books on creativity.  She probably mentions it more than once, but here’s what she says in her book Walking in this World (my favorite that I read over and over):  “The creative imagination leaps crag to crag and does not chug up the mountain like an automated chairlift.  If we treat the creative self like a young and curious animal, we will get the right idea.  A young animal pokes its curious nose here and there.  Our creative animal must be allowed the same freedom.” (pg. 80)

I’m not sure I feel like an animal, but more like a kid:  going from markers, to doll-making, to clay, to dancing, to…oh goodness, there’s just so much I want to/love to make!!  Julia says elsewhere in that book, “The truth is that as children,…We had dreams and desires and inklings of delight and full-blown passions.  We practiced ballet in the living room, we sang wildly, we loved the goo of finger painting.  We loved, period–and love is a passionate and energizing force…Instead of chiding ourselves or allowing ourselves to be chided into an “adult” solemnity, we must regain our right to be goofy, earthy, even silly.” (pg. 97)

So here are each of the crags I’ve been leaping to and from lately:  *my favorite color (lime green) in an inexpensive yarn to make a knitted, knock-around-the-house sweater, oversized, big & bulky.  It is near finished…I might finish it today:)  *Hexagons, made according to Lucy’s tutorial, in Bernat Cotton Tots yarn.  I had a bunch of this sitting around and I’m dreaming of spring and the colors of spring.  Perhaps it will be a baby blanket, perhaps larger…no need to have an end in sight…just enjoying making these shapes. *Owls…oh, my these owls.  I’ve made four of them thus far, with other variations as well.  I’ll have a pattern up for these soon–they are SO cute, SO easy to make!  *The fabrics (intended to line my basket and for birds:) under the owl, I found at Hobby Lobby in High Point.  I went last week for the first time, and it is now a favorite haunt for all things crafty!!  They even have their own line of yarns which are just begging me to make them into something.  Well, I have to finish some things first before that *In the square pottery vessel (I made a while back with my potter friends in Reidsville), are various buttons, brads, and clasps which are just waiting for things I plan to make soon.  Of course, I’ll share…

I’d just love for you to join me leaping from crag 2 crag!

A Place for All of Them

Well, almost all of them.  There are several of them still sitting in baskets or bags of in-progress projects and, I’m sure, there are stragglers in the sofa cushions and maybe out in the bowels of our cars.  Seriously, do I really need all of these?  But of course!!  Can you guess what they are?

Yep, crochet hooks of all kinds, aluminum, plastic, Bates, Boyes, unknown origins.  Lovely things when all put in a row like this, don’t you think? I got the idea to make this from another crocheting blogger favorite of mine, Handmaid Liset.  She makes these colorful pencil/marker holders and sells them in her shop.  I just loved them!, but needed something for my hooks, not for my pencils…well, not yet anyway…I AM thinking of another holder for all my drawing supplies, both pencils and pens and brushes…oh my!

Anyway…I used stuff I had on hand:  bits of Cotton Classic in various colors and a button.  In a couple of cases the amount of yarn I had dictated how wide the slot was going to be.  I briefly considered lining it with fabric…I may end up regretting I didn’t.  Nor did I make the top long enough to fold over the hooks, which I may regret later also if they all drop out of the holder in transport.  But I do like how it turned out!  So much more cheery than the one I had before, which only held a few of my hooks.  If you crochet, it is simple to tailor make this to suit YOUR crochet hook needs…I could have made it much smaller, to hold fewer hooks.  Likewise, I could have kept on going (since you crochet this side to side) to make room for more.  Simple single crochet is all we have going on here.  Oh, and weaving in ends.  Of the weaving of ends, there is no end!

But it’s worth it in the end, don’t you think?

To Hogwarts and Back Again

Well, not quite Hogwarts.  Our family went to the Grandover Resort & Hotel in Greensboro on Friday for a JDRF family conference.  JDRF stands for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  We had been telling our older kids (I call them The Teens) all week about this, trying to cast the very best light on it, and still met with resistance as we were driving over on I-40.  Maddie couldn’t wait.  She knew that a friend from school, who also has diabetes, was going to be there with her family, and that there was a pool indoors.  Even the pool didn’t seem to be too much of an enticement for The Teens.  But as we rounded the corner, one of The Teens, said, “Is it that castle over there?” And we all turned and said simultaneously, “WOW!”  Someone dubbed it Hogwarts.  It was indeed Grand, with lush interiors, beautiful rooms, lovely pool (but so packed with kids, The Teens refused to swim until late at night:), and good food.  ANY food is good when I have not had to make it.

Coming home late Saturday, my head and heart were full!  Head was full of information, some which I could absorb and some which I could not.  My heart was full from meeting so many people, so many families from across our state who were living with diabetes just like us.  It was encouraging to say the least.  There were blood sugar monitor kits, pumps, insulin shots everywhere.  What has seemed so UNordinary to us in these first weeks was so ordinary there.  Everyone there had walked this path, was walking the path, and facing the future with the same hopes and fears as we were.  We were amazed at this organization called JDRF.  All of what our Maddie receives today, is a direct result of the fund-raising and research that JDRF has done over the years… from the types of insulin, to the blood sugar monitors and test strips, to the knowledge about carbs and exercise, to the pumps, and even to amazing things in the works for the future: a once-a-day insulin (called Smart Insulin), an artificial pancreas, and SO much more.  Incredible things are happening in the research area for Type 1 Diabetes.  We are so thankful to be living in an era where so much is available for Maddie’s health and vitality.

But the icing on the cake was to come home to all your lovely comments and thoughts you left for me in my blog “mailbox”.  I had sent out that last post about Maddie’s quilt just before leaving for Hogwarts the Grandover Hotel, and had no idea so many of you would visit and be moved to comment on that lovely gift.  Your comments were yet another lovely gift to help settle my overwhelmed head and heart.  Thank you so much!

A Honey of a Gift

Last Sunday, my youngest daughter received a gift that nearly knocked me over…in a good way, of course.  A lady in our church family, whom I knew to be a quilter, made an “I Spy” quilt for Maddie.  I came upon the two of them after the service, over in a corner, with the quilt spread out on the floor, and Maddie’s head bent over the quilt earnestly searching for…two tinkerbells, a row of only Christmas, a teacup, four princesses, etc.  This dear woman had spent countless hours making something beautiful, engaging, enjoyable, and hoping it would be a needed distraction from the daily diabetes routine.  Wow!

When someone gives a gift to your child, it feels like a gift to you, the parent.  It meant so much to me, that she would love my little girl in such a tangible way.  But when another creative person gives a gift from their creative wellspring…it means more than anything!!  I KNOW that every stitch was woven with love and prayers.  Every piece sewn together with thoughts and well-wishes for my daughter.  Every “tumbler” chosen with Maddie in mind.  It is not just fabric, thread, and batting…it is tangible love.

Maddie carries this bit of tangible love around with her just about everywhere.  In the car, she drapes it over her lap.  At the table it sits on the back of the chair.  When she gets her shots, she sits on it.  When she goes to sleep, she asks me to put it on top of her and her covers.  She is constantly asking someone in the house to play “I Spy” with her.  She now has all the tumblers memorized.  She loves to give you just three chances to find what she spies.

I know a little of what goes into making a quilt.  I made one many years ago, before children, using up some fabrics from which I had made dresses for myself.  But I would not claim to be a quilter.  I had never heard of an “I Spy” quilt.  I had never heard of “tumblers”…I had to ask what she meant by that word.  Definitely a word quilters use to refer to the shape of each piece of fabric.  But what I DO remember about making a quilt, is how time consuming it is!  Hours bent over a machine, adding batting, basting, hours making teeny tiny stitches with bleeding thumbs (until I learned to wrap them in bandaids), and then the edging…goodness me, the edging!  I think it takes just about as long as the rest of the quilt put together!  This dear woman thought it worthwhile to spend that kind of time, effort, energy, and creativity…on my daughter.  Wow.

A honey of a gift…a perfect example of how our creativity impacts others…I’m so glad to have been the recipient of this tangible love.

Upcoming plans…

I’ve grown quite fond of each of you who reads my blog.  It is a bit mind boggling that anyone would want to read my musings, thoughts, and ramblings, much less see images of my paint and fiberwork.  But you are here, whether it is by stumbling upon this site, or whether you are an EDM artist, or a yarn lover, or  you just like visiting, I’m so grateful you do!  And I hope you keep visiting!  And if you leave comments: an extra THANK YOU! to you.  I do love hearing from you and I realize it takes precious time to leave a comment.  I do read each and every one and wish I could comment back to each of you.  Those of you who also have blogs, I really enjoy visiting YOUR space in the cyber world!  Please keep dropping in from time to time…I have several things in the works for you.

First up is to offer sets of cards created from my artwork over the years.  I’m starting with a set of 4 images (2 cards each of 4 images…one of which is the above ice cream painting:) that will be purchasable through the yarnworksbyjennifer shop.  I will let you know when that happens (my hope is in the next couple of weeks) AND to offer a free set to a randomly selected person who places a comment on the day (or couple of days after) I offer the free set.  So please keep checking by…even if it’s just for the possibility of receiving something FREE! (I love free stuff, don’t you?)

Also, stay tuned to see the first of several fiber paintings! I have, at long last, completed the first of these babies.  The idea has literally been swimming around in my head for a couple of YEARS!  A few feeble attempts, and now I’ve got one to show you, and offer for sale.  They are so fun…images painted with yarn!

And, last but not least, I do plan to return to pattern writing!  I have so many designs that are scrawled in sketchbooks just dying to be shared with you!  Pattern writing takes a tremendous amount of time and concentration, so I haven’t had much of that recently what with all the family goings on…but soon, I’m hoping to have some other patterns, both for sale and for free (there’s that great word again:)

In the meantime, I’ll keep drawing and blathering on about art & life, and frivolous things too.  I do  believe my little brain tends toward the philosophizing too much…you’ll just have to bare (bear?) with me.  At any rate, thank you again, for visiting my little space here.  I do hope each of you have a perfectly marvelous day!

A la Lucy

There are certain folks whom I think are pros at recognizing and recording the unexpected and unforecasted lovelies in life.  In the drawing world, Danny Gregory is one of my favorites who continues, through his books, to inspire me to chronicle the little things of my world in images.  Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy is another who chronicles the simple beauties of everyday life through photography.  I have visited her blog for a couple of years now and I always enjoy seeing the lovelies in her life, both big and small.  Another gal who inspires me to see the loveliness of every day, is Lucy of Attic 24.  She has a rainbow palette with which she both views the world and infuses into her world.  Everything from the socks she putters around the house in, to her Little People’s artwork, to buttons, to papers, to decorating, to baking, and of course, to crochet.  You can’t help but be infected with the colors!  Infection it is…in such a good way…bright, bold color to cheer up the dreariest of winter days.  You really must visit her slice of the world in England!

So the other day, when I needed a pouch for some 3 x 5 cards, I pulled out all my leftovers whose colors were in Lucy’s palette.  Bits of Noro, Lamb’s pride, etc.  Simple single crochet, a button I made a year or so ago, and voila!  Instant joy!  The pouch sits with my daily writing journal (which is also littered with line drawings) and greets me each morning with its sunny colorfulness.

Isn’t it funny how we affect each other like this?  Even though I’ve never met her in person, her creativity impacts mine.  And my creativity impacts others.  And your creativity impacts those around you.  I continue to think about snowflakes and their individual uniqueness.  Part of what makes up our uniqueness is what we find ourselves fascinated by.  Snowflake Bentley was fascinated with snowflakes. I’m so glad he was, because we have all benefitted from his fascination. We have been enriched by his individuality.  Our individual uniqueness is MORE beautiful in community with others.  So share your unique creativity with others…share what fascinates you…either through blogging or exhibiting or teaching or just showing it to a friend…it is infectious and you may never know what an impact it will have!