Art and Soul: A Burlap Lent Banner

Saturday we had our first Art and Soul event at First Presbyterian Church Stephenville! We had a blast! I was nervous because I wasn't sure if we would end up with anyone able to come cause of the horrible flu that has hit every household in town!

But we had a good turn out and I think everyone went home with a banner that they were proud of.

The set up was that we use burlap banners that one of the ladies in the church made. What a huge, huge help this was! Burlap is so messy I don't think Linda is going to be willing to do that again.. glad she made extras! 

I cut out the word FAITH in vinyl letters for everyone.

We strung hemp rope and a dowel rod through the top of the banner and the participants took the letters and placed them anywhere on the banner that they wanted.

They then painted over the letters and anywhere else they wanted on the banner. They had raw umber, burnt umber, black and white paint for this step.

After getting a base coat down, they painted a tree or flowers or something of their choosing.  This was hard for some as they wanted me to tell them exactly what and how to paint!

They did have my sample to look at for inspiration...

And Charlene wasn't shy about offering tips and suggestions!

I also made a few window cross cut outs.  Alisa cut one up to make a big F and one of the boys placed one in the middle of his banner.

The finished banners! I absolutely love the variety!

Even Maddie made one... under duress.  She was hoping that there would be a baby there that she would "have" to hold and take care of.  But I think she and her friend enjoyed the project too!

I love this couple. They are adorable.  They laughed through the entire project about the difference of their personalities.  They remind me of my grandparents.

And isn't this banner nice! I love that she made one that tells the story of her farm.

And woohoo! Lexi got to make one.  After being sick for three weeks and missing two weeks of school, it was nice to see her out and about!

After we painted, we shared a meal together.  

I'm already dreaming up plans for the next Art and Soul event!! I'm thinking a landscape painting...maybe with a palette knife.... :)

10th Anniversary of the Lakehouse

We just got home from the family lakehouse trip. It was our 10th annual trip! And I can say hands-down it was the BEST ONE YET!!

We had so much fun and the kids were great!

Here are a "few" pictures.

I love how in these first pictures of the little girls you can see why this was such a great trip. Aspen and Dillon were fishing. Kylie wanted too, but there weren't any more fishing poles. Watch the progression... LOVE!

1. Kylie watching.

3. Kylie touching the pole.

 4. Aspen moving the pole between them so they can fish together!

Makes me tear up. :)

Now on to the photo overload!

 

I realized that as usual, I was taking all of the pictures and not in any.. so I asked Maddie to take some. Here is her picture of one of my sisters. 

Awesome!!

And the picture of me. thanks. I'm the one under the umbrella. One of my other sisters is laying on the island. Thanks, Maddie. :/  

Guess I should have requested the glamorous shot!

And back to more pictures.... 

My mom on the jet ski.

One night there was an air show. It was really cool to watch it from the dock! 

And I can't finally, the family picture escapade! Don't you just love how I set up my camera!! It only took two cameras on timers and a few tries to get a decent picture.

And that is a quick recap of the lakehouse adventure!

The Japanese Gardens

Today I took the little girls to the Japanese Gardens. It was awesome! The price is very reasonable and it wasn't too hot. We very much enjoyed exploring the park and we even saw a "real princess"! (otherwise known as a young girl having her quinceanera pictures taken... but Kylie was sure she was a REAL princess since she had a tiara...)

Here are some pictures from today.

They loved feeding the koi! I loved the fact that it cost a quarter to get more than a handful of feed! And even better, the lady at the entrance reminded me to purchase my quarters as part of my ticket so that we wouldn't have to come back for change! Big help!! We spent $1.50 and the girls had a blast!

 And look! Lexi got me in a picture too! Yippee! Proof that I am part of my kid's lives beyond just taking pictures!

I got some great ones of Lexi taking pictures with her camera. Sadly, her camera is a piece o'crap and her pictures almost always turn out blurry and bad on her camera. She does great with mine. I've got to just make the investment in Lex!

The girls let me take lots of pictures of them and I have tons more that I'm not posting. you are welcome.

But let me end with my favorite picture from today...LOVE!

Just makes my heart smile.

And in case you were wondering... June was awesome.

I'll do some catch up posting soon!