Month: December 2010

The ornaments are now truly my gift to my girls. They are all packaged up and ready to go home with them. I’m happy I have a photographic record of them all, and I’ll always have the precious memories — especially now that they’re written down! (Having someone in the family with Alzheimer’s disease makes…

For us, Christmas is all about Jesus. He is the reason we celebrate. We believe Christmas is the time for us to remember His birth and why He came. Within a year or so of making the nativity scene, I made this sign to hang above our garage door. The sign is made from two…

Many years ago we decided that we wanted to make the nativity scene the central focus of our family’s Christmas celebration. As much as I love to decorate for Christmas, we decided that instead of having a Christmas tree, we would to put our Christmas presents at the base of a large nativity scene. The…

This year was a hard year to decide what ornaments to make. There didn’t seem to be any momentous occassion to commemorate. The year was just your average day-to-day living. DD#1 spent the year working diligently to save up money for grad school. She works for a company that manufactures electrical components, so she brought…

The pressure is on! I haven’t made 2010 ornaments yet. I have a vague idea and a pile of supplies but (other than procrastinating by writing a blog entry) I’m not sure what comes next. Time to chain myself to the desk and get to work.

2009 was the year that I filmed the “Making Faces” DVD workshop. In one segment of the DVD, I teach an easy way to create a portrait. The method is based on manipulating a photograph using a digital editing program and then use that manipulated photo as a pattern to create a fused portrait. It…

More changes — I expect the trend will continue! DD#1 spent a year away at Calvary Chapel Bible College, beginning with a semester in Murrieta Hot Springs, California and ending with a semester in York, England. After four hard years of college, this was a fun, refreshing experience for her. DD#2 began teaching severe special…

It seems like the momentous changes come quicker and quicker as your kids become adults! This year both girls graduated from college. The ornament for DD#1 reflects her time away at college. There were some bittersweet moments, but she appreciated her time there and the beauty of her surroundings. Being somewhat whimsical, there was one…

DH & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in 2006. Other than a night or two at a bed and breakfast, we had never done anything big for our anniversaries in the past, so this year we decided to go on a two week tour of Israel. Wow! What an amazing time! While we were…