Inspiration Avenue

Inspiration Avenue.  What is it?  From the Etsy site, this is a brief description of this lively group:

Inspiration Avenue is an interest based global Etsy team wherein we promote, share, and encourage each other’s creative work through a positive environment utilizing the goals we set through our team blog, correspondences, and meetings. 

Our team members are comprised of a diversified selection of artists totaling no more than 25 – 30 actively participating members who work in a wide range of artistic mediums including but not limited to painting, collage art, paper arts, jewelry design, fabric & fiber arts, digital design, photography. 

Our goal is to assist our members in increasing visibility for their handmade creations. We accomplish this by mutually sharing helpful online tools with each other, promoting artisan creations through our weekly inspirational blog challenges, and participating in annual blog parties and charitable events.

Given the small size of our team all of our members are encouraged to participate by helping out with the upkeep of our team Twitter, Facebook, and blog activities, and by joining our administrative team when a position comes available. 

So if you’re looking to get involved with a small, fun, and active team that encourages positive relationships through an environment of artistic inspiration, look not further.

That being said, I am happy to become part of this team of talented individuals.  And I have even re-opened my Etsy shop with a small start.  I'll be adding more items in the near future.  My button, so kindly supplied by Jenn, a superb watercolorist and one of the team members, is on my sidebar and also here:

Jenn can be found here:

The rest of the Inspiration Avenue members are listed on the right side bar of this blog.  Each person has a blog and an Etsy shop, displaying an amazing amount of diversity in their talents.  Visit them all!

And take on an art challenge weekly through Inspiration Avenue.  This week's challenge can be found here...

Every MONDAY a new theme is announced. Participants have one week to complete their submissions. Submissions MUST be added by the next  SUNDAY NOON, EASTERN STANDARD TIME. We are a global team and we work according to EST so, please check our clocks on the front page (right sidebar) to make sure you submit by the deadline.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Potato and Farmer Sausage Casserole

Dottie: this is your dinner tonight.  We send with it our thoughts and prayers, and hope it brings comfort.

Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Potato and Farmer Sausage Casserole

Palm Sunday

The Easter Season begins today.

Palm Sunday and what it means can best be found from the Bible.

The MennoniteGirls say it all here on their website today.  Not only can the Mennonite Girls cook, they also know how to live life to its fullest!

RookiePainter Entry for March 2012

There are many fun places in blogger land to see others' artwork and challenge yourself with improving your personal art skills.  Some sites I found to peruse other works and to enter art challenges are:

RookiePainter

Sketching in Nature

The Jane Eyre Challenge at Pen and Ink

Inspiration Avenue

At the Rookiepainter, the current contest in March is to provide a sketch or drawing of this photo of a drawing of a copper pot and a silver pot:

This is my pitiful rendition:

It definitely reeks of rookiness, compared to some other entries, although I think the silver pot is pretty good (watercolor on art card).

Go go the RookiePainter blog to enter the contest and see some beautiful watercolors!

Yikes! My Blog was Attacked and Deleted

It is a scary thing.  Google would not let me into my account this morning, saying it had been "illegally hacked, misused or otherwise compromised".  It was down and off world radar for over 12 hours.

But luckily, the problem was resolved within a few hours this morning.  Whatever the problem was...who knows?

Here is a response Ann Althouse received from Google when her blog was deleted about a year ago:

Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts.

So could be that happened to me overnight.  Welcome back, viewers.

What's On Your Workdesk? WOYWW

This happens to be Julia's workdesk; she has a fun theme to follow of  "What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday".

My workdesk is not so fun as Julia shows 'cause it was tidied up a bit.  Note the monitor has Julia's blog up on the screen!

Take a picture of your workdesk on Wednesday and tie it into the theme, adding your blog post here. I'm off to see a couple of the other workdesks on 128 blogs who have linked in thus far.

Atonement: A Pause in Lent

Following up on the Theme for Bloggers put out by Floss at Troc Broc and Recup', here is an article that I find intriguing regarding Christ and the cross, which is what Lent is all about.  The article starts out with the question "what is atonement"?

Excerpts come from a published piece in RedlandsDailyFacts by Gregory Elder, a professor of history and humanities at Moreno Valley College (CA) and a Roman Catholic priest.

The term in English, "atonement," means what it sounds like, making things to be "at one," meaning humanity being made one with God. It is used many times in the Hebrew Scriptures and is found in words meaning roughly "reconciliation." 

In the Hebrew writings, it is made clear on a number of occasions that sin separates people from friendship with God, and the ultimate penalty for human sin is death, as God promised Adam in Eden. (Genesis 3:3)  But God is also merciful and allows people time to repent their sins; death is not instantaneous. In the Mosaic covenant, this separation from God caused by sin was remedied by animal sacrifice.

Father Elder talks about three different theories of atonement: the "ransom theory", the "satisfaction" view and the "demonstration" theory.  Regarding the ransom theory, I found this quite interesting, spurring me on to purchase the old C.S. Lewis classic on my Kindle for a re-read: 

The ransom theory was very popular in antiquity, and is often expressed by my patron saint, St. Gregory of Nyssa. It is a theme of the atonement used by C.S. Lewis in his book which was recently made into a film, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

This ransom theory, that Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of mankind by giving his life for those who accept his divinity, and canceling out moral debts of humans, is the one I was taught from the cradle.

But as Father Elder postulates, no matter the theory behind atonement, all give pause.  And all views have been excellent fodder for homiletic points for Christ's work on the cross regarding His forgiveness of sin.

 As  As Floss says in relating to the horrific killings in her own backyard in Toulouse last week  

One thing I do know is that people who spend more time forgiving the little things are better practiced at forgiving the big things. 

 To be at one, to be forgiven, and to forgive, to be at peace...atonement.

Green Man Show & Tell

A follow-up on Wednesday's post:

##

Green Man Forest Legend

That ubiquitous symbol of the Green Man is prevalent in European countries.  He is found on doorways and pub walls, in hotel entrances and outdoor venues, and of course, in the forest.  He comes in many forms and looks quite different each time you spot him.

(pinterest)

The Green Man

...is that spirit, energy, presence, inherent in every cell of the vegetative realm, and transmitted to the animal/human realms through the foods we eat, the flowers we smell, the trees we hug. He is Pan.

The Green Man I found online is cast iron and is weathering nicely on our back yard gate where he has kept company with the outdoor creatures for just over a year.  Here is our green man, guardian of the gate,  ready for a bit of artificial ivy to be twined around his head when the weather turns a bit warmer.

Yesterday I laid in a supply of green acrylics and will paint our garden shed door with a green man face so that he can keep the dogs company while they play outdoors.  This is a rough picture of the green man I'll paint on the shed bi-fold doors, starting today, hopefully:

Look for an update next week on the Green Man permanently residing on the outdoor shed.  Those acrylic paints last a long time.

Poppies on the Wall and Piper's Journey Shawl

First it was Sheep on the Wall, now it is poppies directly underneath the sheep:

Width: 40"; Depth 36" (acrylics on wall)

And a finished Piper's Journey Shawl:

Now to just frame the poppies with that last rough firring strip of wood.

The Little Box of Socks

Schurch and Parott's The Little Box of Socks was one of the first knitting books I purchased several years ago.

The box is literally a cardboard box that snaps open (and shut).  Included are twenty different sock projects; each of the sock patterns are laminated on heavy stock paper for easy portability.

A favorite pattern in the little box is the "Lace Rib Sock", constructed in such a way that knitterly skills are shown off to good advantage.  It is a tightly woven sock and designed for a solid color yarn project.  The yarn is from Blue Moon Fibers, a popular supplier for specialty dyed yarns.  I subscribed to the 2012 Rockin' Sock Club where...

Each Kit that is delivered to your door every other month includes: 

400 yd skeins of Socks that Rock® lightweight or mediumweight yarn in a unique club colourway. (Working from shaded solids all the way through the spectrum to multicolourways.)  

2 (that’s right, two) patterns developed by two different designers for color, form and function. We promise one will be a sock, the other—who knows? Both the patterns and colourways will not be available to the general public for a full year after you receive it. Tina’s Dyer’s Notes explaining each shipment’s inspiration(s). 

Notorious Sock Knitter gear like mini skeins, buttons, stickers and a swag surprise or two. 

A blog and forum for sharing and support. A 15% off coupon good until December 1, 2012. A community of Notorious Sock knitters just like your self. (Priceless!) Each package leaves the Blue Moon barn and heads your way during the last week of January, March, May, July, September and November. Let’s rock the rainbow together!

The first shipment arrived in a beautiful colorway called "HRH Crown Princess of Purple, Violetta."  I got busy on the Lace Rib pattern and completed these:

close up of heel:

 The second of six shipments should be mailed out in two weeks.  It is always fun to anticipate a UPS package from Blue Moon Fibers and to guess the clues on what color and new patterns will arrive.