Recent Projects

I have been trying to stretch myself and dabble in other artistic endeavors that interest me, but are hard.  Like sketching and watercolor.  Strathmore offers free classes, and I'm trying to work on one called Watercolor Sketching with Cathy Johnson.  She makes her techniques look a lot easier than I'm finding them, but it's fun to play with watercolors.  Here's my first two attempts at watercolor sketching.

I'm in awe of people who can just capture a scene in their sketchbooks.  I know it takes practice, practice, practice!

Happy Monday!  Hope it's a great week!

A Story of Bravery and Hope

The theme for this week's Beyond Layers class is bravery, and our challenge was to take a photo that expressed bravery to me.  The picture I decided to post brings back a sweet memory of something that happened several years ago, when we lived in a house that was surrounded by majestic, mature trees.  We ended up having squirrels chew into the woodwork of one of our upstairs windows and have raucous parties in our attic.  The parties ended when my husband mounted a live trap outside of the entry point and transported the squirrels to a nearby forest preserve.  When we were sure the squirrels had been evicted, he nailed a piece of wire mesh over the hole until he could make more permanent repairs.  But this was not the end of the story.  A few days later, I heard a commotion outside the same window, and looked out to see a robin perched outside the mesh and poking something in through the small holes.  As I looked closer, I realized that we had inadvertently sealed a nest of baby robins inside the mesh.  Unaware of their potential doom, the mother continued to faithfully feed them day after day.

 Of course, the story ended happily for the robin family.

It reminds me that there is more to my story than I can see with my limited vision.  I might see only an impossible situation and be tempted to give into despair.  But their is a bigger Realm and God is far greater than what I can discern.  To me, bravery is trusting that God holds me in his hands and I can move forward with confidence that he will not leave me imprisoned in my tiny, limited world.

Be brave, my friends!