My 6 Foot Tall 12 Inch Ruler...

The latest Goodwill find....

Ever feel like you just don't "measure up"?? *lol*

I just had to get this when I saw it at the local Goodwill Store this afternoon ...

Not sure yet what I'll use it for...although some fun object lessons for the Sunday School Class are coming to mind.




It also could go well with my other ruler assemblage I made last year... heh heh... a catholic school kid's worst nightmare...(or so I've heard) *L*

Come Holy Spirit .... Pentecost Sunday Celebration

Pentecost is a fun time at Christ Church ... we do a lot of fun and symbolic things to celebrate this Christian holy day. Since Pentecost is known as the "birthday" of the Christian Church, we have balloons, songs, after worship we have cake and goodies, and we also have a balloon and paper dove release too. We had asked parishioners to write a message on a dove cut out, then we attached them to the balloons that we decorated the Chapel and Church with on Sunday.

It was an early day for me... arrived at 7 a.m. to start blowing up the helium filled balloons for the 8 a.m. Chapel Service. ...




Following the early service, the Chapel group released their balloons with the messages on the doves... Doves are symbolic of the Holy Spirit too.






In the meantime, I was filling another 70-80 balloons to decorate the Church with for the 10 a.m. Pentecost Service and Baptism.









We also had a balloon/dove release following the late service, followed by a reception for the newly baptised (Rich), and to celebrate Pentecost.



It was fun to be able to use our new narthex and garden courtyard for the reception too!

Grandson Friday!!!

The grandsons are done with school, so today all three of them came to our house. After eggs and toast, and candy for breakfast, and making orange juice & diet coke ice cubes for later, we headed out to work, to do errands, find flowers and have fun!

The boys were a big help! They came to work (Church) with me for a couple of hours, we sorted through balloons ...getting ready for the Pentecost celebration, and making sure we had enough red, yellow and orange balloons. We also went to a greenhouse and picked out flowers for the altar that I had volunteered for this coming Sunday...the boys were a big help in that too!

Then we decided, since it was kind of a rainy day, to see what movies were playing at the Showboat in Lake Geneva. Kung Fu Panda II was the choice... a fun, 3-D movie, and what great 3-D effects they were!! I really enjoyed it along with the boys! We had popcorn, candy and pop for lunch... sooo nutritious! *lol*





On the way home, after a stop at the Dollar Store, the boys seranaded me with their songs .... a sweet sound, and great harmonizing!

It was a fun day, good time, and loved having the grandsons here!! xoxoxx

The Church Unpacking & Reorganizing Is Coming To An End... Thank GOD!

Busy week ... trying to get a lot done in this last week before Fr. Bill comes back from his month long sabbatical, and before our Open House at Church in another few weeks. Here are photos of some of the areas at work (Church)... I'm finally feeling like the end is in sight! (meaning the end of the unpacking..lol)
















And still some things left to get rid of ... anyone want any "frontals" from some pews? ... you could make a nice king size headboard and footboard with them.. let me know! Such a deal I can make for YOU! *S*

Beat the Heat!!

Since today and tomorrow are suppose to be temps near 100 or more, and since I was unpacking and organizing things at work still (at Christ Church), and was going to have the AC on for it, I decided that we (the Church) might as well share our airconditioned building with those looking for a respite from this heat wave... esp. hoping those who may not have AC will come in.

Offering free AC and a Movie at Christ Church, Delavan from 12:30 - 3:30 on Tuesday and Wednesday...movie at 1:00...free popcorn and lemonade too!

All are welcome! All the time!

MORE unpacking, organizing and purging... at Church.

This week I am trying to get a lot more done at work (Church), unpacking more boxes, getting things organized, and still purging a lot of things we had kept in the storage pods... who knows why we kept some of this stuff? *L*

I had a really productive day!! Since Fr. Bill is still on sabbatical, and Deb (the church secretary) is on vacation this week, I have the office to myself, and was lucky the phone didn't ring much while I finished setting up and unpacking the last of the Sunday School rooms! HURRAH!! It's looking pretty good, all that is left to do is hang a bulletin board and some of our pictures, bring in the TV and stand, and maybe move in the large 7 ft. pew in the hallway...if it can fit thru the door that is?





Here are before and after photos... almost two months ago, when we first moved back to our building, after a year away, this room was more like a giant storage room, even the Sunday School kids got lost in it. *L*





But now it looks great and is ready for our next Sunday School class to enjoy too!





And even the new closet area that was built is organized and still room to walk thru to get the things we might need in those storage bins for the different events and seasons of the church year...yay!!



It's nice to have a place for all our costumes too ... sooo, tomorrow it's on to another room....

Gardening & Grilling Weekend

It was a busy weekend ... Saturday I FINALLY went out and did some much needed weeding and gardening (started at 7 a.m. to try to avoid the heat), I also planted a few planters and bought some hanging baskets and more plants to fill in where some of my perenials were killed off over the winter.





There is still a lot to do, but on Sunday, after church, and staying to work there about 3 hrs, it was too hot when I got home to continue the gardening (92 degrees!!). I decided it was a stay inside day, watching movies with John, and later a fast trip to the grocery store to get things that John grilled along with some delicious chicken I had marinated. John made some yummy taters, califlower and broccoli with onions on the grill too... yummmmm!!

It was a nice weekend, I was happy to get some work done around home for a change, and enjoy time with the family too!



I could get used to John cooking dinner more often as well!! *G*

Happy Birthday Grandson Josh!!

Josh is SEVEN already!! Can't believe how fast the grandsons all grow up. We were invited over to John and Janel's for dinner, to celebrate Josh's birthday which is tomorrow, but also celebrate Jake and Jeff's birthdays which were in the last few weeks too! John fixed DEEEEELICIOUS pork steaks on the grill, with potatoes and onions. We brought an icecream birthday cake from Dairy Queen, and a nice dinner birthday party was had by all. Josh is interestest in art, and so, I found some cool art supplies and things for him to continue to make great art...something we both like and share.

We sang happy birthday to all three boys, but forgot the candles for the cake... ahhh well, it still tasted just as good!

Happy Birthday tomorrow Josh!!! And happy birthday to all three grandsons (((Jake, Josh & Jeff))) We love you!! xoxoxo. Thanks John and Janel for the fun dinner too!

Allyn Grave Site

Part of my "job" is taking care of the stipulation of the will of a deceased parishioner, who has left Christ Church as a beneficiary of part of their trust. A floral arrangement is to be placed on the Allyn family grave site each year for Memorial Day. We are all very thankful for the Allyn family and all the many ways they have blessed the Church that I work at and we are members of. A prayer of thanks was also offered as I planted the flowers this afternoon.



The cemetery was busy with a lot of visitors and families putting flowers on the graves, in preparation of the Memorial Day celebration and ceremony that is held each year at Spring Grove Cemetery.

I am hoping that maybe I'll get a chance to plant some of my own planters this weekend... we'll see.

Squirrely Squirrels

We have some whacky acting squirrels around the house lately ... I think that "love" is in the air or something.. *lol* The squirrels are all running around acting crazy... here is one that likes to hang around our deck in the grapevines growing in the tree next to the deck...cute little things, aren't they? *S*

Pods - Now You See Them, Now You DON'T!!

Whooopppeeee!! After more than a year of these huge red storage pods on the front lawn of the Church, they are now history!

This was the view that people had to look at as they drove past for the last 13 months! UGGGHHH...

The storage pods DID come in handy for sure...storing tons of stuff we didn't have room for in other places as the renovations took place inside.




We've been working to unload all the stuff inside for over a month now, and finally yesterday, I finished cleaning up the last of the junk! Just call me Ms Clean Sweep!! *ha*... of course, now some of it is inside the church narthex (the new part) and how long it will have to stay there before we find a place for the stuff is anyone's guess....but, at least the pods are empty!

... and as of today...they are GONE!! YAY!!



All that is left is to seed the dead grass areas and mow the lawn that is left there ... (oh, btw, see that huge piece of plywood leaning against the flagpole ... anyone care to move it for me, it's waaaay too heavy! ... hoping for a magic plywood moving fairy to come overnight...*lol*)

One more project to check off the list of things to get back to normal around here...

.......but, have things EVER been normal??? *lol*

Happy Birthday to Grandson Jeff !!

Actually, yesterday was our youngest grandson's 5th birthday!! I can't believe it's been 5 years already since this loving grandson came into all our lives.

Since today is Grandson Friday, I waited till today to celebrate and give Jeff his gifts from us. Unfortunately, Jeff wasn't feeling so good ... after picking him up from school just before noon, I asked him where he wanted to get lunch from. We were going to have to go back to Church to work for a couple of hours before going to our house. He didn't want a thing to eat, which is very unusual for Jeff!




After stopping a couple of rummage sales on the way back to Delavan, and then at the store for Jeff to pick out a special toy he wanted, we headed to Church to sit outside with the open storage pods, hoping to sell off the remaining pews, and other assorted things... in hopes of emptying them to get those huge red pods off the church lawn next week!

Jeff only had apple juice while we were there and he just wasn't his joyful self. He didn't complain however at all.

But, just after we got home, he did have an episode (in the house) that rivaled the "Barf-o-Rama" segment of the movie, "Stand by Me"... ugghhh, and blech!!

Poor guy ... after cleaning up, he laid down and immediately fell asleep, and slept for the next 2 hours...



It wasn't exactly the fun birthday celebration day we had hoped for... (((hugs and love you Jeff))))... glad you felt better later tonite.. and hope the birthday party tomorrow with your friends is fun!! xoxoxox

ECVA Call For Entries: Under Abraham's Tent

ECVA Call For Entries: Under Abraham's Tent Check out the new Call For Entries at the Episcopal Church & Visual Arts (ECVA) site. Interesting topic to submit for this time around... deadline to enter is July 17th!

This exhibition is open to artists who are members of The Artists Registry @ ECVA. It's easy and FREE to become a member, check it out at ecva.org or go directly to The Artists Registry.

You may submit up to three (3) images for consideration by the Curator this exhibition.

ECVA's Latest Online Exhibition ... Open Studio 2011

About a month or so ago I submitted an entry to the Episcopal Church & Visual Arts latest call to artists. We were asked to share one work, that had not previously been exhibited at any other of the calls to artists. A favorite piece, or one of our best ones, or one of our most current pieces of art. I submitted one of my most current assemblages.



"Wherever you may be..."
Mixed Media, Found Object Assemblage

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..."

Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!

I'm honored to be a part of the exhibit online at the ECVA site. Check out the site for all the wonderful entries there!

Thanks ECVA for including my assemblage in it too!