Happy Valentine's Day

I know I'm a few days late for Valentine's Day, but I finished my Valentine bookmarks this morning and gave them to my co-workers today.  Better late than never, I guess.

Because I'm in a year-long class with renowned calligrapher Reggie Ezell, I have been practicing the basic Blackletter hand as well as a few variations.  I decided it would be good to incorporate these into my Valentine project this year, and I can also use this as homework to bring to our next class.  These are a few of the finished ones.

These were quite a challenge to make, and I must admit that I kept only about a dozen of the over 30 that I made. One of my biggest mistakes was to forget the "g" in extravagantly, so the word read "extravantly" on many of them!   The white is Dr Martin's bleedproof white ink, and the red (which is a bit hard to make out) is Windsor & Newton gouache.  I mounted them on red cardstock and embellished them with ribbon, hand-painted paper hearts and hot foil dots.  

You might remember that I did these last year.  They seem to have been easier, but perhaps I wasn't as worried about having good letterforms as I was this year!

I think it was the year before that I made actual Valentine cards using Zentangle hearts.  It's fun to see the various projects that I have given as Valentines over the years.

I would love to see what Valentine projects you came up with this year!

Hard Week

Waiting is hard.  And I'm trying to wait for a situation to resolve itself, and it's not happening.  There is not a yes or a no -- just wait.  It's not life-or-death, just something that I've been wanting for awhile that's still in limbo.  And although God is showing up all over the place in the waiting, I'm not exactly responding with a trusting, peaceful outlook.  (Inside I feel like a 2-year-old throwing a tantrum -- there, I said it.)

This morning I read Psalm 31 in The Message, and when I got to the last verse, I knew I needed to take it to heart.  So this is it:

God is good!