Dec 31, 2014

Getting back

Just thought I would share what a gift prayerful art can be. Here is a little something I made tonight. How refreshing it is to get it all out. 

A Bought of Drought

I know it has been ages from my last post. It seemed this year drained me of all I had to share all the love and patience I could muster. It left little room for much else. My creative endeavors quickly feel by the wayside. Then when I was ready to come back fear crept in to only keep me away longer. 

In love teaching and would never want to give up or trade it for any other vocation. This is where I believe God truly wants me, but I must say there is a reason why teachers have the summers off! We would completely lose our sanity without the summer to recover. Here I am as July is coming to a close and I am finally starting to feel refreshed.

I recently visited my good friend, who is more sister than friend, in Albuquerque. We both went to separate colleges and now she is out at grad school in the southwest. We hadn't spent more than a day or two together in years and the week together was truly a gift! 

During my time their I felt the fear lift as we spent more and more time together in fellowship. It was amazing to just see Christ work in and through the two of us that week! He built us us more and more in encouragement and growth. Showing us how even at a distance He preordained us to do ministry together in a way that glorifies His Holy Name. 

I wanted to share with you some of the work I did while I was in Albuquerque.

Do you have a similar friendship? I would love to hear about it. 

Soon to come: More about Albequerque Adventures and learning, Creativeity in the Classroom

Teaching Dignity

Many of my friends and blogging buddies pitched a word of the year back in January. Now I have finally come to the place where I think I have a word I need to focus on. Instead of a word for the year I think a word for the school year.... 

Dignity. It is defined in my old red Merriam Webster dictionary as:

the Quality or State of Being WORTHY, HONORED, or ESTEEMED.

As I get to know my students there is one thing I want most of all for them to know and learn this year, to treat others with dignity. I tell them to show each other kindness and respect because they are made in the image of God, this is a big deal I say, as I look back to blank faces, before leading them in a folk dance. The reason for treating others with dignity comes from their Creator.

As I take a step back I wonder how much I have to learn this before it can impact my students. Do I let this knowledge affect how I view the people around me? Do I let it affect how I see myself? Does it influence my speech, actions, thoughts, teaching, listening, and art? Does it influence those around me?

Getting lost in Busy

It seems like so long sense I last wrote. Life has become a blurr with my first year as a K-8 general music teaching career has begun. As a result so much has been put on the side, with the long list of school to do's piling down on me. 

My paintings lay scattered about untouched since I started the school year. Calling out asking just to be finished and sent out to their new homes. Others lay with all of the plans neatly organized ready to put paint to canvas. I tell myself each week I will come back I will paint I will listen, I will create, I will just be. I want to do so much but then I do what I don't want to do.

I tell myself I'm too busy, too tired, too....

I loose myself in some lesser thing. My mind craves creating. It craves playing my saxophone,sitting and journaling, just writing, painting, quieting. The change surrounds me, I love teaching, I live kids. But when I breath it I eat it, I dream it, talk about it there seems sometimes no escaping it sometimes. So I numb and tune into the Tv. What's going on in the world? Hmm... I forget the things I mean to do, to be.

How do I stop and find them again? Now as I have taken so much time away I must admit I am afraid to come back. What if it won't happen the way I thought. What will happen if I let the painting be what it wants to. Will they like it! Will it have any meaning. I'm afraid to know what I sound like on the saxophone now that I have been away so long... My tone will be awful... What if I have nothing to say...

But then I sit in my car and listen to Tango's by Astor Piazzolla, or now to iTunes contemporary classical radio, and I find joy, I find me in the middle, it seems to unravel a bit. 

So here I am saying that I am committing to facing the fears from the time away in busy. I am going to commit to making a healthy choice for me, not to allow myself to take an easy out of nothingness. That I will choose to do what is best even if it may be scary, and try again. Finish what I have left undone, to find the next new path. 

I would love to know if you have any suggestions of how you get back into the habit.

Your Friend,

Carliann

Some Bible Bling

I like to make thing beautiful, as I'm sure many of you do, and my Bible goes without exception. I want to make it a home for me to go to, to learn, be challenged, seek comfort, and find grace. I originally got my little pocket black NLT Bible because I liked the simplicity of it. There aren't any commentaries, except the small foot notes for alternate translations, or any other frills.

I soon made a small band, that all my Bibles have, to go around the outside to hold in all my bookmarks, or flyaway notes. My original band has sense been replaced from over use and much stuffing, but the original message remain the same, "Start Fresh," my reminder that I can always start anew with Jesus, no shame needed when I come before Him.

After awhile I got tired of just stuffing things in the back empty pages and decided to create a pocket in the back out of some velum, magazine paper, and a photo I had taken of our spring yard, and ta-da a nice neat place to keep my notes and things!

I also keep a page of notebook paper with a Brene Brown quote that I love and record scripture behind it that matches up with it. I attached it to some of the blank white pages in the back.

I also find the presented too portion in the front to be somewhat awkward when I bought it for my self so I redid the page with a photograph I took of my favorite flower.

Lastly I like to decorate with my bookmarks. I can never have enough book marks, in my Bible the one ribbon that is provided never seems to be enough. Each bookmark carries a little reminder of what I have learned and carries me forward. The dove is the model I used in my Freedom painting, for example.

I just wanted to sharewith you a little look into my world. Do you decorate your Bible or journal space? I would love to hear how you do.

 

Adventures with Graphing Paper

This summer I have been a little addicted to trying out new fonts and looking up typography on pintrest. I like the slow process of training my hand to try something new, or flying my pen across the page for a flowy free look. I think what I like most about it though is making the ordinary beautiful and bring about more visual meaning to my words.

Generation Word Bible Study ~ notes 7/23/13

I noticed as I searched many images on pintrest that many people practice on graphing paper. Before I always thought of graphing paper was for math classes, like finding the length of a side in geometry, or finding the slope in trig. So I tried it out by printing off an online template... and loved it! There are so many less restrictions than that of college-ruled notebook paper that I was using. I found it so much easier to experiment.

Ever sense trying it I have been eyeing a graphing paper notebook, and trying to deside if it would be a frivolous expense. Would I really use it enough to make it worth it? I often have the problem of I start a notebook and am excited about it, and then only fill half the pages. Well I finally caved, when I was out school supply shopping at OfficeMax, (office supply stores can be a dangerous place for me, all the beautiful new school supplies...), and I just couldn't resist.

I have enjoyed the notebook so far and have found it helpful to keep notes from church and Bible study in. Thinking about the font choices and meandering my pen over the letters many times seems to keep my mind focused and free of clutter. I also find I go back and read my notes now as well (which I never have before) because I think they are beautiful. Though in the moment of note taking there are many mispelled words and my dyslexia comes out of hiding. I try to just accept spelling mistakes and enjoy what I have.