LIFEWEAVINGS: A CREATIVE JOURNEY
Life is a Mystery… We only have one time on earth to live and to…
DO–activities, hobbies, work, and service;
Be–who we are, what we can be, and our spiritual self;
Experience–sights, tastes, smells, touch, sounds, and movement;
Love–self, family, and others…
Life is a Mystery… May we live, do, be, experience, and love to make the most of our time– Today!
Families are being challenged these days in many ways. On virtually every level, we are being affected in ways that require creative solutions. For example, I think of buying groceries sometimes as a treasure hunt or an investment…some of the once inexpensive staples, such as shortening or powdered milk, have become expensive.
Returning home to NC in the summer thrills me, in part, because I can find fresh vegetables and fruits earlier than where we live…and at good prices! Near my mother’s home is a garden/pick-your-own strawberries business. It was great getting to pick beautiful fruit to freeze now and eat in the cold of December! We also pick blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries at a farm near our home here in Virginia. Finding ways to gather and put up food for later in the year, reminds me of how people used to prepare for winter by harvesting, preserving, and storing foods. This website talks about How to get the most bang for your buck at a pick-your-own farm.
Many of us live where large home gardens and growing our own food is no longer possible. Finding local sources is not always easy or affordable but good quality food is important to the health of our families. Shopping the weekly specials and comparing prices at several stores helps me lower the overall cost of food. Weekly farmer’s markets are available in many towns and cities. Many local communities also share resources with people through programs such as community gardens, food banks, and churches. An example of this type of program can be seen at http://feedingamerica.org/.
On-line recipes and information about food, nutrition, and health inspire me. At no time before have we had such instant access to information, including educational material on nutritious foods to help guide our food choices. For example, the American Cancer Society’s guidelines for health and nutrition can be found at http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/News/new-dietary-guidelinesfocus-on-balance-better-food-choices. The Mayo Clinic posts these guidelines to consider for healthy eating at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dietary-guidelines/MY01594.
Finding different ways of gathering and preparing food requires extra time that may create an additional challenge to an already hectic family schedule. But, I believe using creative solutions to obtain food for myself and my family to eat well is worth the investment of my time and one way to meet life’s challenges…
*Do you have any favorite creative solutions for families to share?!?* [I’d love for you to leave a comment!]
Image Credit: Foods via Wikipedia, Public Domain, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vegetarian_diet.jpg
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At the first of the week I wrote about a new beginning for the new week…part of the plan was to begin new artwork in the studio. And on Monday I did! This photo of the bottom side of a flower that I photographed in a garden a few weeks ago has intrigued me–the vibrant yellow, red, and green colors, as well as its line and shape.
In a college art class I experimented with Photoshop, editing a photo and making a resulting sketch from it, but I have not taken the time to do the same in making an art quilt. I have decided this is a perfect technique for a wall hanging using this photo as inspiration.
Since I do not have Photoshop on my computer, I tried its more simple Paint feature. After downloading the photo, the brush was used to outline the main lines in black.
Dotted lines were used to remind me of shadows, variations, and underlying petals.
This image was then printed out onto several sheets of paper as large as I could get it using this software…
Hopefully, I will be able to get a bigger image with the poster setting on my printer. While this is not a new technique, it is not one I have used with my equipment. As with any creative process and new art project, experimenting and improvising is necessary–of course this is also the fun part!
Laying out the sheets of paper, trimming, and taping them together will give me a pattern from which to copy pieces, cut out fabrics, and construct the wall hanging. That will be phase 2 of this project!
Joni Beach 
