Back Seat Driver #1, Meet Bu Yong

Apparently, I am in a crafting mood. I have just begun a project that I plan on lasting for a while - it will be my I-don't-have-another-project-right-now project. This is Project "Back Seat Drivers". I am going to make traditional clothing from different countries for stuffed animals.

Bu Yong is going to be from South Korea. (You'll meet her at the end.) Her traditional dress was much more simple than I expected. Traditionally, these dresses (chima) and jackets (jeogori) were made by cutting rectangles - very simple. So that's what I did for Bu Yong.

Traditionally, white around the collar and neck means "purity", so I really like adding it to my projects. I added the lace and was able to save myself from hemming the neckline. I was expecting to do it all by machine (except the hemming), but my sewing machine broke so I used my fantastic hand-sewing skills. :)

I enjoyed painting fabric - I've never painted fabric - even canvas. I used some scrap material to practice and then went straight ahead to paint the sewed "finished product". (I'm always nervous to embroider, paint, or make a decorative addition to a almost finished project - I'm always curious if I really want to ruin what I've worked on.)

This is Bu Yong. She's my driving buddy for now. I'm hoping this crafting mood doesn't leave too quickly. I'm enjoying it! :) Have a great Wednesday! ("Hump day!!!") Oh, and First-to-the-First! or if you prefer, White Rabbit!

The Korean Hanbok

The latest project is completed! Since September, I've been working on and off on a Korean Hanbok to fit a four-year-old. (This is a practice run for an adult Hanbok I plan to make this year.) Last week, I finished it!

It's been a fun process, but long to be sure. I set a day to take pictures with a little girl so that I would be sure to finish it and not procrastinate. My scheme on myself worked.

"Olafina" was my first model. She was the first to try on the Jeogori.

I finished the Jeogori before Christmas and then took a break so I could work on Christmas gifts. In January, I started work on the Chima. Sewing definitely wasn't difficult as it ended up being a simple apron-like pattern. Embroidery was also easy, just time consuming. :)

My next model - I never came up with a name for. I'm just gonna call her
"Korean Teddy". She was able to try on the whole Hanbok before I brought to my last model.

 9:00 am Monday morning, I drove my younger sister to her housecleaning job and there was my model. A little sleepy, but up and ready for the day. She willingly got dressed up in the dress and put on the Jeogori even though, "I don't like the jacket." and put up with me taking some pictures of her. It was tons of fun. I'm excited to start my next project. I think it will take a bit more brain power though... :P

Picture Prompt

The other day we started a club - not really purposefully, but so it happened. Every week, we come up with a phrase and then you design the phrase in some way - anything like quilting, photographs, sketches, word art - anything.

Here's the phrase we had for last week. "Let your words be seasoned with Grace." This is taken from Colossians 4:6, "Let your conversation be full of grace, seasoned as with salt."

Here are a couple of the pieces of art we came up with:

The Picture Prompt for this week is "Sing".
I'd love to see what you think of - food - anything.

Korean Canvas

I only had one homemade craft for Christmas this year. It was quite different from normal - I had never done it before (well, doing something I've never done before isn't abnormal, but the craft itself was). I decided to do an anime embroidery on canvas.

It was fun! To start with, I actually took a picture of Madeline.I needed to know how to draw someone turning and how you needed the skirt to look. Secondly, I drew the picture, colored it in, and decided the different colors I would need.

I had never seen embroidery on a canvas before, but embroidery on paper seemed "new" too, but also possible and really cool. With this sketch, I ran and grabbed all the materials I would be needing; finally it was time to sketch onto the canvas. It was fun to do and, with a 6 hour round trip to visit a friend, I was able to make some headway. It made me laugh - at one point, the friend I was making the gift came over and saw it out (always put your crafts away). Happily, she liked it. :)

Slowly, but surely it started to get it completed. 

The boarder - what do you use? I didn't want to use paint for fear that it would run into the embroidery. By now it was December and I knew that I wouldn't have time to fix any major mistakes. I'm a bit of a cluts - I've spilled paint on stairs, and dark blue nail polish on my friend's relatives white carpet. It's good to experiment, but it's also good to know your boundaries. I had a couple of options, my favorite would have been to use pine cone petals to go around, but, that really didn't work. Pistachio shells was another option, but I didn't really want salt on it. I ended up liking my final decision. Twigs.

Overall, I was thrilled with it and I'm kinda excited to do more Canvas embroidery. We'll see what I end up doing though... I may find something else that I think is equally fun/cool to do. Hope you all are having fun with whatever crafts you are doing right now!

Running Into 2017

In general, I love running. I feel so much better after I run and feel like I can breath and think. Some races I love, and some - well, we can say I have a love/hate relationship with. I love difficult races because they are a challenge and I love to say, "Oh yes, I ran that one." - I "hate" them though, because I don't always finish them the way I want to have finished them.

One of the races I ran this past year was the worst race I've ever run - not based on time, but based on endurance. I stopped and walked. "Therefore, we also, since we surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our race," This was the "running" passage my dad had for us when we were younger. While I walked, this sauntered through my mind. As it slowly made it's way through all the passages of my brain, I thought about other aspects:

1. When we run with endurance and do not walk or stop, we are an encouragement to those we run with and against - we each would like to win, but at least we are all still running.
2. When you stop to walk or even stop, it is a discouragement - "If they are walking, it's ok to - I mean, this race is tough and, well, I'm tired."
3. It is interesting that, even if you finish well in a race that you walked in, you will not do as well as you would have if you had continued to run. You cannot make up lost time in a race.

This "Run with Endurance the Race that is set Before You" speeds through every aspect of life. Are you wasting time right now reading this because you're avoiding reading your Bible, doing chores, or fulfilling a commitment?

I don't know how your race was this last year in 2016. I don't know where the steep hills were or if you just had a type of "plateau". You can't change what happened this year, but, having learned from this past year, you can change you race plan to hopefully be more successful this year. If you plan goals, don't make outlandish ones. Make simple feasible goals as well as goals that will push you. Don't make goals lightly either - be willing to change them, but not lazy with them. Remember, people are watching you.

The Colors of Christmas

As you know, we have two main colors that symbolize Christmas - at least they symbolize Christmas in the States: Red and Green. Occasionally, we throw in the colors of a mid-night Blue and Silver or Gold.

For sure, some of the colors are simply because they look good - they're elegant and we like them, so why not throw a silver bow on the gift?

Colors do have meaning - sometimes they change over time, but sometimes, they meaning is so much associated with the color it cannot change.

Green symbolizes Rebirth. Is there a question as to why this color suites Christmas so well? Christ came from heaven, having pre-existed from eternity, so that we could be born again into life with Him.

Red symbolizes several things: War, Strength, Passion, Determination, and Power. There is a war we are a part of - a war that we in ourselves would utterly fail at winning (in fact, we did fail). Christ never did and never will. He is all powerful. Passionate and "Determined" (that feels like such a human term) to the point of death to do the Will of God the Father.

Yes - Green and Red make sense.

Midnight blue? Angels came to shepherds at night to declare to the lowest of lowest that God had come in the flesh. It's a reminder that God doesn't just care about those who are rich or appear to ha
ve something to offer - He sent His Son for people like you and me.

Silver and Gold - wealth, but Gold also symbolizes Wisdom. Jesus told us that a greater than Solomon was among them - Solomon, the wisest man in the world - but One was greater.

Merry Christmas!

Metamorphose

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Romans 12:1-2

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"Transformed" is probably my favorite word in verse 2. Transformed means "metamorphose". Paul says don't be made like the world, but go through change. It's interesting that no one thinks a caterpillar in the middle of metamorphose is beautiful, but generally he thinks the butterfly is more gorgeous than the caterpillar. When people in the world see us changing as the Holy Spirit works, I don't think they say, "Wow, I can't wait to see what she looks like on the other side!" I think the best they can do is pity us, "That poor girl - her code of ethics won't let her go to a bar - she's missing out." In the end though, She will not be the one who missed out, but the one who soars.

I don't think a caterpillar has thought going through metamorphose to be easy - in fact, it is very, very difficult at the end. However, when she succeeds, she is admired by all.

Let's not be afraid of our metamorphose - let's look forward to it!