A tutorial to show you how to make this outfit! I should have all of the photos converted and posted for tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the anticipation…

Another homeschooling year has begun. I thank God that I am able to keep my children safe at home and teach them with faith and love.

Please join us later for tea. We’ll be having roast lamb chops with apples, potatoes, rosemary and petite onions, gingered carrots, green salad, Struan Bread, Michaelmas pie and dragon cake When we are all suitably full, we’ll have reading of St. George and the Dragon followed by small gifts of school supplies.

And if you are educating your children at home and would like to join us this year, I will be hosting a book discussion group on my homeschooling weblog. Please stop by and have a look.

The Song of the Michaelmas Daisy Fairy

“Red Admiral, Red Admiral,

Alighting on my daisies one by one!
I hope you like their flavour and although the Autumn’s near,
Are happy as you sit there in the sun?”

“I thank you very kindly, sir!
Your daisies are so nice,
So pretty and so plentiful are they;
The flavour of their honey, sir, it really does entice;
I’d like to bring my brothers, if I may!”

“Friend butterfly, friend butterfly, go fetch them one and all!
I’m waiting here to welcome every guest;
And tell them it is Michaelmas, and soon the leaves will fall,
But I think Autumn sunshine is the best!”
-Cicely Mary Barker

I’ve just installed a widget right there in the sidebar ————–>

If you see the bubble turn green, I’m online and you can chat with me. What fun!

Thank you new listeners and readers, honored by Blogger Reflection Award, Family News, new schedules, diaconate discernment, homeschooling, CSA and prayers for a new farm, Hearth and Home Magazine, read along with us, and beautiful roses for your garden!

I’m hoping to get a podcast put up today, and I’m also getting everything ready for our Michaelmas celebration tomorrow. I hope you have a blessed day!

I am truly humbled. This award means a lot to me since it is given by peers in the blogosphere. I am overjoyed that something I’ve written has touched another person in some small way.

Thank you Kris at CM Living Science for thinking of me!

I want you to know that Kris is a legendary bread baker, so stop by her blog and ask for some receipts!

And now it is my pleasure to pass the award on to five bloggers that inspire me.

1. Dawn who inspires me so often with her passion for God’s creation and her love of making life beautiful. She is someone I feel very in tune with - it’s funny how often we think of the same thing at the same time. I have lost count of the numbers of times I’ve been to By Sun and Candlelight only to find she’s prepared something in the kitchen or at the craft table that I did that day. Separated at birth?

2. Regina, who challenges me to look at life through a well-focused lens on the random beauty that occurs in the mundanity of my daily life. She always invites me to slow down and go to that place of stillness in my heart so that I can truly be thankful for all that I have.

3. Jewels at Eyes of Wonder helps me to remember that the little things I do for my family coalesce into a way of living that will continue to bless them for generations to come. She reminds me that we are mothering for eternity, not just today.

4. Amanda whose work makes me crazy happy everytime I visit her weblog. Her eye for light and color, for composition, her sense of sweetness really touches a chord in me. I am always inspired to go back to my own fabric stash and create something to make my home my own. She challenges me to think about patterns, prints, and fabrics in new ways.

5. … and Vicki at Turkey Feathers is like a trip to my Nana’s house. I visit when I feel like I need a hug, when I need to reconnect with the magic of childhood. The writing is down-to-earth and generous, it’s just like sitting down to tea and cake at a dear friend’s table. Her website, the PatternBee is a gift to anyone who adores kitsch and nostalgia as much as I do.

I fell in love with paper art when I was first married. It is an easy and economical way to decorate your home. Making silhouettes of people you love makes the art more special, even an heirloom. This type of home-art is the epitome of Simple Gifts, I think! Below are silhouettes of my three oldest children, done just before Christmas of 1999. Catherine was 7, Andrew “Jack” was 5, and Caroline was all of 3 years old.

Over sixteen years of married life, I’ve made simple birth and baptism certificates and complex pictures. But I love silhouettes because they are so personal. They are portraits, really. The lack of details like color and shading makes the portrait even more intimate. The viewer is drawn to look more closely at the shapes of the subject’s features, the tilt of the head, the chubby roll under a baby’s chin, or the way a stray lock curls.

I’m not a true silhouette artist who can cut silhouettes from life. That is a very high art indeed. I take my studies from photographs. It may take a bit more time and effort, but I think it’s worth every bit.

When I’m going to make silhouette studies, I first take profile photos, trying to eliminate as much shadow under noses and chins as possible. I have found that using a natural light photo with a strong light (like sunlight) shining right on the subject works well. Flash works best when shot at the exact same height as your subject, but sometimes it can be too much, washing out important features. The beauty of digital cameras is that you can take several shots and chose the best. It’s also extremely quick - no waiting for film. You can, of course, use an instant (Kodak type) camera, but you are limited to the image size it puts out. Be sure to maintain the exact same distance from each of your subjects so that they are in perfect proportion should you want to do a group study. A tripod is extremely helpful.

You can scale digital photos in your computer to whatever size you wish. It is helpful to print your scaled photos on card stock or matte photo paper to make the template sturdy. I chose to make all of my silhouettes the same size so that each one will fill its own frame. If I were making a family study, I would need to be careful to respect the relative proportions between subjects so that baby’s head is not larger than big sister’s.

Gather acid-free scrapbooking supplies including a VERY sharp X-acto knife. I like to put a foamy pen grip on my knife for comfort. I have arthritis in my fingers and they become fatigued very quickly without it. Choose whatever papers suit your decor. As a rule, you want to have a dark solid for the image and a lighter pattern or solid for the background. But experiment! It’s fun and you can re-use your template if you aren’t happy with the results.

Here’s what the backside of your silhouettes might look like. Be sure to mark the subject’s name and the date the study was taken. You may want to pack away your template for later use. Maybe you want to make a page with successive years’ studies of the same subject. It’s nice to do baby, toddler, child, teen. You could even make a study of your entire family and place the silhouettes together to form one family portrait. And when you get more skilled, you can use a still-life photo of your family and create and silhouette portrait!

And here is a close up of my study of Louis. Notice that lashes, curls and chubby rolls can be enhanced lending more personality to the study.

Here is another close-up of a study I’ve done of myself (my daughter Cate was the photographer). Notice that the glasses have been carefully cut out and provide some interest.

Next, you will want to trace your template onto the back of your scrapbooking paper. Most scrapbooking papers are colored on one side and white on the other, which makes the tracing very easy to see. For my project, I chose to use a black card stock, which is colored on both sides. I’ve used a light colored pencil to make my tracing. Be sure to trace the mirror image, that is, the opposite, to what you want in the frame. And make sure your pencil is quite sharp for the finest possible lines. See how nice the white templates look on black?

Carefully cut out your image *just inside* the tracing lines, paying special attention to the small bits. In fact, do the smallest bits first. It is extremely important to have a *very sharp* X-acto so that your paper won’t tear. Avoid tugging to separate the silhouette from the paper. Careful cutting will also prevent the white from peeking out from underneath. If you do get “fluff-its”, just go back and nip them off from the right side very carefully.

You will notice that my templates have a flat bottom. Your silhouettes will be much more attractive if you trace out the contour of the near shoulder and cut it away, sloping elegantly towards the chest and back.

Mount your image onto your background paper (which you will have cut to fit in your chosen frame), being careful to position it so that the effect through the glass is pleasingly even. Another rule of thumb is to leave more head-space than at the bottom. This grounds the image nicely. You can use a glue stick or mounting tape. Please do not use liquid glue of any kind, you will surely be disappointed in the results. Tip: Leaving the edges of the image free gives more dimension to your image after framing. It appears to float.

Finally, you can embellish your compositions with journaling, or elements as desired. Be sure, at the very least, to sign and date your work. It is a good idea to mark your subject’s name on the finished piece somewhere, even on the back of the frame.

If you are going to mat your work, be sure your silhouettes will fit comfortably inside and that the mat is a good compliment to the overall composition. You can also embellish your mat-board if it’s plain white or cream. My recommendation is to let the piece live in the frame for a little while first to allow the piece to speak to you. Then you will know just what to do with the mat. Of course, you may already have a clear, complete vision. In which case, zhuzh away! In the event that your mat board and backing board are not acid free, you can purchase a spray-on product to neutralise the acid.

It’s also fun to mount the silhouettes on a letter, copywork, or essay hand-written by your child or spouse. Use a copy, of course! You could use the silhouettes to decorate scrapbooks, photo albums, notebooks. They can be used to make unique name signs for children’s bedrooms, or to assign a coat hook or cubby. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Silhouettes are a beautiful way to preserve a precious moment in time. Have fun, and send me pictures of your projects!

I am in love with these little houses, and the blog where they live!

HT: Dawn

was spent here at Bury St. Edmunds, near where we lived. We enjoyed visiting the ducks with bags of day-old bread and walking among the old stone walls.

The Abbey Gardens are situated on the site of a 7th century Benedictine Abbey, now in ruins. It’s really striking to see the old and new together.

You can see here the “Chicken and Teapot”, just two of the interesting structures left to wander through. In the previous photo you can see two columns that stand side by side like sentinels.

Inside the cathedral, there is a feast for the eyes, as well as for the soul. These prayer cushions are hand-stitched. Not as lovely as the ones at Ely, but beautiful all the same - and each one different.

Imagine the choir filled with starched white ruffs and crimson robes on Sunday morn, the angelic sound of voices raised in praise. I always think of the boys choir heading acroos a market square for vespers at another Cathedral in Peterborough, what a beautiful sight.

The sunlight streaming though these Victorian stained-glass windows, depicting the creation of our first parents Adam and Eve, is breathtaking. I especially love all of the curving lines used in the pieces, something that older glass pieces could not seem to achieve.

This tapestry tells the story of the Martyrdom of St. Edmund, who refused to deny his Christianity after being captured by Vikings. He was beheaded and later laid to rest on the site of the Cathedral which now bears his name.

The altar cloth is an exquisite example of needlework, using quilting and embroidery together. The colors are deliciously jewel toned. Notice the lilies, or perhaps they’re daffs?

After a visit to the Cathedral and Abbey Gardens, it’s time for a lovely Sunday lunch at The Angel, directly over the road.

I’ve enjoyed sharing with you some of my memories of England. I cherish them. They are wonderful gifts that I can pull out, and be transported by, anytime. These images and my reminiscences are a window into my heart.

Bittersweet. My baby girl has just started walking down the stairs all by herself. She has been able to climb up for quite a while now, but the getting down on her own is a huge achievement.

And Louis has begun to cut teeth at a rate of two a week. He’s working on teeth #s 7 and 8. Don’t let the smiling face fool you for one minute. Louis is accustomed to sumptuous living and the discomfort from teething is a major irritation for him - a fact he is all to apt to share with anyone within earshot (that’s about a country mile).

Bless their hearts!