Two Little Orange Chairs

Last night we sat around a campfire with some friends, and one lady talked about a job she'd had in which she spent 45 minutes each morning praying for the people that would sit in the chairs she was setting up. I used to do that at the beginning of each school year; I'd pray for each student that would be sitting in my classroom.

As I sat on the porch this afternoon reading some poetry (Shona Cole would be proud of me;), my eyes fell on the little orange chairs my children brought out to sit on during the meteor shower (that didn't happen in our line of vision!) the other night. Those little school chairs took me back to the fireside conversation, and to those prayers so long ago -- and I found myself composing this little poem:

Two Little Orange Chairs

Before me sit
two little orange chairs,

relics from a kindergarten classroom.
Scratches and stains bear witness
to silent stories of souls
who've sat on them.
And now, decades later,
I find myself praying for those souls.

Do they have happy memories of time
spent sitting, spelling, and sorting shapes?
Did the rattle of the chairs' metal feet
distract them from the drone of days
drowned in alphabets and abacuses?
Or did it echo their dancing dreams
as they laughed and learned
of worlds beyond their own?

Where are those children now?
Are they living, and loving life?
Have they found Joy and Peace?
Do they yearn for the simple days when
their chairs rattled as they wriggled?
What have they done, and
what have they become?

Wherever they are, I pray for the salvation
of the sweet souls that sat on these
two little orange chairs.

Have you read or written any poetry lately? What simple, everyday object could you look at with the eyes of the poet in you? I challenge you to exercise your poetic license by writing a simple poem! Let me know if you accept the challenge by leaving a comment below, or by contacting me at the email address in my sidebar.

Another Name Canvas

I decided the gift for my friend wasn't complete, so I made this to go with it. As I mentioned in my Baby Art post, it's hard to make art for other people because you can't be certain if they'll like your creation. But it was a little experiment I wanted to try with using book pages as a background, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. It was fun:) Because she is musical, the pages I used were from a little music text.

(The stand isn't part of it -- it's actually part of a gift she gave me! I just used it for the photo:)

Because I knew I was going to give her the wire dragonfly I made, I included some dragonflies in the collage. And speaking of my wire dragonfly, here he is adorning the gift as I had envisioned:

 

Cute, eh?

By the way, what do you think of the new look of my blog???? I made the header myself using one of my own art backgrounds! I'm pleased that I've been able to make the margins smaller so my text section is wider and my pictures can be bigger:) I don't know that this look will be my "signature look" -- but it's been fun playing and learning how to do all this technical stuff! Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Just for fun, I linked this post to:

Freebie

I'm always looking for ways to be creative in homeschooling our children, and the ideas of Charlotte Mason have been a source of inspiration to me. Today I received an email from SimplyCharlotteMason.com offering a free e-book to anyone starting out homeschooling. So I thought I'd share the link with you: Getting Started in Homeschooling.

I hope it's of use to some of you!  Pass it along to anyone you think might be interested.

Creative with a Purpose

It's always nice when the products of one's creativity can serve a practical purpose in everyday life. I have a very creative friend who makes lots of things for lots of people, and since her birthday is this week, I decided I wanted to make something for her. So, even though there were loads of laundry and bins of things that still needed to be put away after our vacation, I spent an hour or so in the art studio last night . . .

A number of years ago, our cousin showed us a simple way to make some really cute and sturdy coasters. All you need is these:

(The tiles were purchased at Home Depot -- from the tile department. The ink needs to be solvent, and the only brand I can find is StazOn. Those little circles are felt pads with adhesive backs. Did I really spend $13.99 on that stamp?!?!?!? Doubtful.)

And you can make these -- in less than half an hour (the most tedious part is peeling the backs off the felt pads!):

Since that was such a quick job, I decided to make one of the cute dragonfly clips that I saw at CAN'T STOP MAKING THINGS. Here's what I started with:

(Oops -- I forgot the wooden kabob skewer that was used to form the body.)

And here's the result:

See -- it's just wired onto the little alligator clip. The tutorial positioned it differently, but as I didn't have the instructions handy, I just did it the way that made sense to me. I also added beads:

The tutorial suggested gluing a magnet to the back for posting pictures and notes on the fridge -- but the uses are limitless, really. DH suggested they could be used as little scarf clips, my SIL suggested lapel decorations, and I was thinking of little attachments for gifts and what-not. Here's my little guy adorning the plastic ribbons that separate our art studio from the play room:

How have you used your creativity lately to make something practical or functional?

Just for fun, I linked this post at: