Welcome to the World Amelia-Grey

What is it about new life that is so inspiring? Check out this incredible baby video.
You don't have to know sweet Amelia-Grey to be utterly moved. As for the fancy website? It helps that her daddy is an amazing photographer/web developer! (Previously featured on this site.)

Teacher Gift Idea

I made this Chai tea gift for Valentine's Day, but they make great Christmas gifts, too.

Handmade Teacher Gifts for Valentine's Day

Candy coated pretzels are easy to make and always a hit. Drop 'em in a cello bag and tie with a ribbon. Embellish with a heart shaped measuring spoon and tie with a handstamped tag.

Feeling more ambitious? Make some Chai Tea. (Recipe follows.) In Hebrew the word "chai" means life. Print the Hebrew symbol for "chai" on fabric and place under the jar lid. Write serving instructions on a metal rimmed office tag and tie around the jar.

Keep it simple by placing the gifts in a kraft bag. Print "To and From" information using an old fashioned typewriter style font and adhere to heart shaped measuring spoon. Tie with a gingham bow.

Chai Tea Recipe

1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 cup French vanilla flavored powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Directions: In a large bowl, combine milk powder, non-dairy creamer, vanilla flavored creamer, sugar and instant tea. Stir in cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. In a food processor, blend 1 cup at a time, until mixture is the consistency of fine powder.

To serve: Stir 2 heaping tablespoons Chai tea mixture into a mug of hot water.
1 teaspoon ground cloves1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Among the Wildflowers

My first novel, Among the Wildflowers, is complete! Wish me luck as I search for an agent.

Creative du Jour: Julie Westall

Julie Westall of Sapphire Road Stained Glass was introduced to stained glass art over twenty years as a college student in Hutchinson, Kansas where she worked part-time job at a local stained glass studio. “The shop owner taught me how to create small sun catchers and run the shop in her absence. I loved working there and really hated having to get a ‘real’ job once I graduated,” she said. “I kept several pieces of my favorite glass for years, through births of babies, a career in insurance and a move to Tennessee. In early 2005 I made the decision to return to this craft that I loved. It was then that I jumped in with both feet and began creating." Julie blogs at www.sapphireroad.blogspot.com

How long have you been creating stained glass art? How did you become interested in this medium ?

In 1986 I fell into a part-time job at a local stained glass studio while in college in Hutchinson, Kansas. The woman who owned the shop taught me how to create small suncatchers and run the shop in her absence. I loved working there and really hated having to quit to take on a “real” job once I graduated. I kept several pieces of my favorite glass for years, through births of babies, a career in insurance and a move to Tennessee. In early 2005 I made the decision to return to this craft that I loved so much all those years ago. It was then that I jumped in with both feet and began creating.

Can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey?

I can remember drawing high fashion shoes in elementary school. My grandmother and great aunt always had the greatest shoes, so fashionable, and so I would draw them out on paper and then began designing my own. I think I still have a drawing or two hidden away somewhere. Throughout high school I held on to the dream that upon graduation I would move to New York City and become a designer. Looking back, I never really took that seriously. Watching shows like Project Runway I realize just how little I knew about the fashion industry and how nieve I was. Luckily my dad talked me out of wanting to live in the big apple. I dabbled in different mediums in high school, becoming a member of the National Art Honor Society. One watercolor I did of a rose won 2nd place at the Kansas State Fair. While I drew shoes and painted an award winning watercolor, nothing captivated me like the glisten of stained glass. Life took a different direction and I had to put the creative side of me on hold. In the late 90’s a co-worker suggested I give writing a try when she saw a letter I had written. So I tried my hand at becoming a romance novelist. I had two short stories published but could never get that novel off the ground.

How do you envision creativity?
I envision creativity as seeds planted by all of our experiences through life. All sorts of things come out of a planted seed; a solid sturdy tree, a prickly wicked weed and beautifully colorful foliage. Everyone’s creativity sprouts a different form which is what makes art so diversly wonderful.

How do you see yourself in light of this picture of creativity?
Thankful for all of my life experiences, good and bad. They have made me the woman I am today.

What is your favorite creative outlet?
Pairing glass colors and textures with a pattern.

What inspires you?
My children are my greatest inspiration. I want them to challenge themselves, to know what they are capable of accomplishing if they only try it… put themselves out there. It is there that I try to lead by example.

Where do you see your creative journey taking you in the future?
The exciting part of being on a creative journey is in not knowing what the future holds! I believe there are untapped areas of my own creativity that I am unaware of at this time that will sprout in their own due time. I always look forward to what will develop next.

Do you have any creative dreams / aspirations you could share?
My dream is to create a cohesive series of work that when people see it will know it is one of my works.

Tell us about your studio at the Row. How long have you been there? Can people watch you at work?
I opened on The Row @ The Factory this past July. It is a fabulously creative environment and I’m loving every minute I am there! I do work at the studio on commissioned projects and pieces to be sold in the studio. People can come by and watch or ask questions. I also have a limited array of glass and supplies that students and hobbyists can purchase.

The Row @ The Factory is located at 230 Franklin Rd., Ste. 12-S; Franklin, TN 37064

Creative du Jour: Debora Coty

Debora is a prolific writer whose latest book, Mom NEEDS Chocolate, tackles topics including marriage, children, depression, aging and more with humor and grace. (She had me at chocolate.)

Tell us about your journey to becoming an author.

Well, the seed was planted early but the fertilizer didn’t kick in for a few decades. I didn’t start writing until my youngest chick flew the coop; I was 45 and busy in a 25-year career as an orthopedic occupational therapist and a 20-year stint as a piano teacher. Not exactly recommended training for a writing career.

I was an avid reader growing up and always dreamed of writing an inspirational young adult novel like Christy by Catherine Marshall (I devoured it nine times as a teen). Christy had a huge impact on my life (the escaped hatchling referred to above is named …can you guess? Christy!). I wanted to touch someone else’s heart and faith the way Christy touched mine. But alas, life, as life tends to do, intervened and college, marriage, career, and babies back-burnered my dream about 20 years. Then one day in the dentist’s office I saw an ad for a writing contest and heard a divine still, small voice whisper, “It’s time.”

No, I didn’t win the contest, but The Distant Shore, my first novel (based on an amazing true story), but birthed. Six years, later, I’ve been blessed with over 80 articles published in international magazines, newspapers and trade journals, and eleven book contracts. My newest releases, Mom Needs Chocolate (4/09, Regal) and Everyday Hope (8/09, Barbour) are numbers eight and nine.

How do you envision creativity?

What a cool question. Hmm. I think people are like baggies. Yup, quart-sized, ziplock baggies. Alone, we’re wimpy, shapeless, colorless, and transparently empty. I see creativity as the substance that fills us, giving us the characteristics, the personality of that substance. It becomes our shape, our color, our identity. Our transparency becomes a good thing because the substance that fills us shows through.

How do you see yourself in light of this picture of creativity?
My baggie is filled with purple Kiwi juice and raisins – fun, fluid, natural, almost sweet but with a surprising tanginess. In my case, creativity flows from my reserves of faith. Although I’m not sure where that warped humor tributary flows from.

Besides writing, what is your other favorite creative outlet?

I lie a lot. No, really, I enjoyed creating fun, girls-night-out events called Choc-OUT Parties in conjunction with the 2009 Mother’s Day release of Mom Needs Chocolate. I’ve written music for fun: scripture songs, instrumentals, kids musicals. In my job as an occupational therapist, I create customized splints and adaptive equipment to help physically challenged people live more independently. Nothing’s more invigorating than creativity that enriches a life!

What inspires you?

Chocolate. Love. Sunbeams (to me they look like Papa God’s fingers reaching down from heaven to caress His beloved creation).

Where do you see your creative journey taking you in the future?

I’m currently working on a new book, Too Stressed to Feel Blessed: And Other Feminine Fairy Tales. I’d love to invite your gal readers aged 18-65 to contribute data by jogging over to my website http://www.deboracoty.com/ and filling out a short time management survey. They’ll be entered in a drawing for a wonderful stress survival kit and their data will be included in the book!

Do you have any creative dreams/ aspirations you could share?

I’d like to travel and spend a little time in Europe writing an inspirational romantic novel. While plowing through a case of Swiss chocolate.

As a mother of two, how do you incorporate creativity into your daily life?

a.) How do you find TIME for your own creative outlet(s)?
I gave up sleep. You have to be careful what you pray for. I asked God for more hours in the day and He sent me early menopause. Now I have all night too.

b.) How do you [attempt] to spark creativity within your children?
Turn off the TV; limit the computer; read, imagine, pick wild flowers, make up songs, and create plays. Face-to-face time.

c.) Do you manage a and b AND keep a clean house? If so, do tell your secret.
As I discuss in Too Stressed to Feel Blessed, I lowered my cleanliness standards years ago when my kids were babies. I’m neat but not immaculate; orderly but not obsessed. Clean enough for health, dirty enough for happiness. I mean, really, who can withstand the relentless forces of what I call Spontaneous Degeneration? That’s another Coty near-fact of science (one of many in my books) that states that when left in an unnaturally clean state, matter will spontaneously atrophy into indiscriminant disarray. An hour after you triumphantly finish slaving over a clean house, mold begins sprouting on shiny faucets, green slime oozes from the vegetable crisper, tiny hairs creep up from the drain and imbed themselves in the bathroom sink, and dust bunnies proliferate for a closet reunion.

What advice would you give to harried moms who desire to be creative, but simply can’t find the time or energy for their personal creative pursuits?

Set priorities based on your desired outcomes for yourself and your family. Ask yourself: 15 years from now, will it really matter if my microwave sparkled?

Artist du Jour: Ash K Geary

There was a girl who edited the high school yearbook. There was a boy who took the photographs for the high school yearbook. That girl edits this blog. That boy takes the stunning photographs displayed in today’s post. He is my artist du jour: Ash K Geary. He needs no editor. His photography speaks for itself. I, however, need his photography.

When did you know you wanted to be a professional photographer? Tell us a little bit about your creative journey.

I decided to pursue photography professionally less than 4 years ago, though I’ve been shooting since I was about 12.

As a child, I was very interested in drawing. When I was 7, I first made a connection between an image and the idea that there was a person behind the creation of it. I became enthralled with the idea of being able to draw what I saw. My first great work of art was the ship from the Old Spice bottle.

Drawing was always challenging for me, and I was rarely happy with the results.

My first exposure to the field of photography happened around the age of 10. I started hanging out at a print shop in my neighborhood. The owner taught me how to use the projection camera and the basics of developing black and white photos. I loved the smell of the chemicals and how the room was always cool and dark. Shortly afterward, my father bought a new camera and I would use it on occasion.

I never really saw photography as an art form. Maybe it was too literal for my taste, or maybe I didn’t find it as challenging as drawing, but somehow throughout my life I’ve repeatedly found a camera in my hand.

Ultimately I pursued a career in graphic art in the form of print, television, dvds and eventually internet/web graphics.

Being able to approach photography from a design perspective, using advanced technology for editing, and the ease and convenience of digital photography, finally helped me realize the artistic potential of photography.

How do you envision creativity?

Interesting question. I’m not really good at envisioning anything. I tend to follow attraction. If I’m attracted to something, I capture it in the way that I feel best interprets some internal emotional construct.

What inspires you?
Almost everything. That is to say, if I find it beautiful, I find it inspiring.

Conceptually, I’m attracted to concepts like “decay” and “time". I think these concepts can be disturbing to people, but I attempt to show the beauty of such things. I like a feeling of solitude and moodiness.

Do you have any creative dreams you could share?

I dream of going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Battleship Island in Nagasaki, Japan (Hashima Island if you google it). There’s a lot of decay and destruction there that I want to capture. I’m currently in correspondence with the Japanese government to get permission to shoot there.

As a photographer you’ve said you enjoy photographing concepts like "time" or "decay". You said, “I find those acts of nature to be extraordinarily beautiful. For example, I would probably find taking a picture of an old woman more interesting than taking a picture of an infant.” Tell me more.

Well, if you think about it in one way, there’s no mystery to a baby for me. It’s beautiful, like a flower is beautiful. But when I look at this baby, I’m not curious about its story. I know its story: “I was born”. The end. But looking at age, you see the marks of time. You see lines and eyes that have their own voice. They are like living books.

It’s the same with buildings for me. To see a building in decay, I get this overwhelming sense that time has passed here. The building is saying, “once I was young and strong, and now I’m barely able to stand. People walked through me once and thought I was beautiful. Now I’m alone.” I find this kind of story to be so powerful, and it serves as a good reminder to me about the temporary status of things.

What advice would you give to an aspiring photographer?

Shoot, shoot, shoot… Don’t worry about what anyone thinks about your work. If you enjoy it, that is enough. Continue to challenge yourself. Turn your concepts upside down and inside out. And if I may quote advice that I received from another photographer, “Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Take your work to galleries, put it up on the web, visit museums. Never take advice from someone who isn’t willing to do the same.”

Creative du Jour: David Arms

Repost. Originally posted Nov. 2008

How is it possible for an inanimate painting to move someone to tears? The more I learn about the emotions artist David Arms paints into his work, the better I understand the emotions his work elicits within me.

David’s close friend, Lloyd Shadrach, knows this firsthand. His daily dialogues with the artist have developed into several of David’s art exhibition including his most recent show at Bennett Galleries in Nashville entitled, “igbok” or “it’s gonna be o.k.”.

“When David and I became friends in 2003 we connected around issues of life, faith and hope. I’m a teaching pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood so David and I talked about how our respective careers are connected. We both speak about the nature of faith and hope. David uses paint. I use words,” Lloyd said.

At that time Lloyd was teaching a series on the Old Testament Book of Ruth. The friends would discuss Lloyd’s teachings and the images that came to David’s mind as he listened and studied. Those discussions turned into an art show held at the church. By the end of the series, the church’s arcade was filled with David’s paintings, along with written excerpts from their conversations.

This past summer the friends were having a conversation about hope when Lloyd shared the phrase “it’s gonna be o.k.”. “I told David that this phrase seemed to be the most simple, most comforting thing one could hear in difficult times. There were numerous times when David, and others, had said it to me in one way or another in my time of need,” Lloyd explained. “It’s also the phrase we use to comfort our children when they are hurt or afraid. It’s not that we can ‘heal’ their scrapes or broken hearts – but our words, these words, are like a salve to them.”

The ‘igbok’ concept is a continual dialogue for the pair. Last year they put that dialogue into action through a mission trip to South Sudan and they are returning there later this month. “South Sudan is a place of tremendous hardship and need. Since our last visit the village was attacked and over sixty people died. All of their huts and belonging were burned. There is no guarantee that won’t happen again. How do we tell these people it’s gonna be o.k?” Lloyd asked.

His answer? “We can’t tell them it’s gonna be o.k. if by that we mean they will never be hurt, their homes will not be destroyed, they will not lose their lives to other tribes or militant Muslims. We can only tell them it’s gonna be o.k. if by that we help them understand that God loves them and has provided in the gospel a hope that is real. A hope that tells them God will one day set all things right. ‘O.K.’ has to be defined as God defines it, not as we would.”

The only way to know that "it's gonna be o.k." is to know and believe God's promise. He made an unbreakable covenant to us that He will make all things right one day. In this life, His
promises come amid the darkness where we reach out in faith. -- David Arms

David added, “Ultimately, we both want to uplift and encourage. We're not saying life isn't hard, because it is, but we are saying that we are never without hope. It is a message that applies here and the other side of the world.”

David Arms original work is exclusively available at Bennett Gallery in Nashville and Anne Irwin Fine Art in Atlanta. Giclee reproductions and fine art posters are available by clicking here.

There Will Come A Day
There will come a day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together and all things will live in peace and harmony. No fear. No death. No pain.
In that place we will sit in God's sheer, sweet goodness and it will last for eternity. That's His promise. And it's in His hands.

An interview with David:

How do you envision creativity? How do you see yourself in light of this picture of creativity?

I envision creativity truly as a gift from God. I feel so close to
Him in times of being creative. I feel like a conduit for a message.

Can you tell us a little bit about your creative journey?

I have always been creative, but it wasn't until my mid thirties that creativity became so much a part of my occupation. I was a special event designer (doing corporate and social events across the country) then a visual artist (which I was doing as recreation). Suddenly I was juggling two great careers and in 1996 I retired from the event industry to become a full-time artist and a new dad.

What inspires you?

Creation inspires me. In nature - God's creation - a miracle is available at any given moment. It is necessary for me to stop, be aware, then be inspired. I started a blog on my site called "3 1/2 acres" encouraging others and myself to stop and be aware of the miracles around us. The photos on this site are all taken within the 3 1/2 acres where I live. My little heaven full of miracles.

Tell us about your current exhibition entitled, “igbok”.

"igbok" is a word I want the world to know. We must believe it. This word came from a conversation with Lloyd Shadrach when we were talking about hope and the desire we all have to know "it's gonna be o.k.". The word was birthed right then and there over a cup of coffee.

And somehow, viewing David’s art, you realize indeed, it is gonna to be okay. What a gift from God to be able to express such emotions without using words! Thank you so much, David, for sharing your talent and sharing your thoughts.

The Greater Story by David Arms
All of us are living a story. Our lives have a beginning, middle and yes, an end.
But all of us are living in a "Greater Story". The Greater Story is God's
story of creation, fall, redemption and recreation. This is the story in
process: God created everything. Mankind fell in sin. God made a way for man to be forgiven (redeemed). God promises that one day He will recreate everything...better than it ever was... never to be disturbed...or end. This
"Greater Story" is the story of hope.

I have come to use a nest with three eggs as my symbol of hope, and this painting uses that symbol to tell God's Greater Story.
Life is given, protected and nurtured in creation.
Life is broken, our hopes dashed, our world a ruin in the fall.
In redemption God's promise invites us to let Him put our life, our hope, back together.
In the recreation we experience life with God, as God always
intended...forever.
We might say the Greater Story is Hope...Hopeless...Hopeful...Hope fully realized.

All of the images in today's post are from David Arm's igbok collection. To view more from this collection or for purchasing information, visit http://www.davidarms.com/. David's portrait was photographed by Kyle Dreier. Used by permission.