Lasso The Moon

An Art Show

I have been sucked into a spiralling vortex of adoption sites and fund raising ideas for adoptive families, and I have Jen Hatmaker to thank for it.  Ok, maybe not just her.  This has been weighing heavily on me for a while now. 

So when my dad asked me to enter a piece of art into the 2012 Southwest Dallas Arts Festival, I didn't have to look far for inspiration--especially since the theme this year is "Discarded / Reclaimed."

Here's a shot of the finished piece, right before I popped it in its frame.

But the finished piece isn't really the whole picture.  I treated the canvas as a prayer journal and layered thoughts, prayers, hopes, fears, and more onto the surface while I prayed (and wept) over them.

I've done this a couple times before, and I've always been a little sad that the first layers are forever covered by the later ones.  So this time I took photos along the way--a lot of photos--and compiled them into a video.  I'd love for you to take a look!

Throughout the process, I noticed a circular effect of overwhelming grief followed by hope and rejoicing.  Over and over the Holy Spirit took me through this.  I found I was spending a lot of time looking at the faces of waiting foster children in Texas. And when I told some people this, many of them told me I needed to stay away from that sight--it's just too sad.  But doesn't that seem a little strange?  Is avoiding the problem ever going to help find families for these kids? If I look away, it might prevent some pain in my heart, but those children are still living it every day. 

Finally, I realized that this was the final message I wanted to get across concerning the orphans and adoption.  Don't look away; don't close your eyes.  In fact, do the opposite.  Seek out an orphan, find out a little something about her, and pray your heart out.  Ask your adopting friends how you can help.  Maybe you can have a garage sale in their honor to help with legal fees? Lastly, don't let yourself forget that they exist.  They do, and we are responsible to help.  Deuteronomy 16 talks a lot about feasts. "...and you shall rejoice in your feast...and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst."  Don't you know that we are all sitting down to our own feasts--yes even in this difficult economy--and we all have something we could share.

Here are a couple of resources you might want to check out.

Show Hope

Texas Adoption Resource Exchange

Jonathan's Place

H.E.L.P.

The Miracle Foundation

 linked to:

hmcw, primp, FJI, bdan, TDC

 

Thank You

I am humbled.  When I decided to donate some money to Davis' adoption fund last week, I hoped that maybe maybe I'd be able to squeeze out 50 bucks from the week's sales.  But with the help of customers who chose to shop during our fundraiser, we were able to raise the 50 PLUS another $20.35!

I don't always share the details of our family's giving, but when I ask for the help of readers and customers, I like to show that the money went where I said it was going.  So here it is!

It says, "Thanks Anna" but it should say thank you to all of you.  Thanks for coming by the shop, and thanks for helping make a difference in this family's life.  It is truly an honor when He lets us see some of His work, isn't it!

And we were just a tiny bit of the efforts.  The Jupin family has raised over $6000 from donations, and I can't wait to see that number climb higher and higher.  Remember, until little Davis is home with his new family, 5% of sales will go to this project.  So, thank you in advance for that!

Oh, and that melty-bead heart with the initials in it up there?  That was the souvenir my husband brought me from camp last week. LOVE him!

 

Purpose

pur·pose --  the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.

There are few questions in life that will keep a person awake at night the way these will:

What is my purpose?

Why am I here?

Why do I exist?

If you are a believer, you may have been told that your purpose is to glorify God--to make Him known.  But what does that mean from day to day?

If you are a parent, you know that your purpose is to prepare your children for adulthood.  But that is a seriously long-term goal.  Is there something you can complete now, accomplish in a shorter amount of time, that gives you purpose?

It's funny that this question has come up several times in the last few weeks. 

And in my life, the answer is always the same:  Serve others.

One of my favorite projects is a fund-raiser.  I don't have a lot of money to freely give, so if I want to give BIG, I have to find a creative way to do so.  A couple years ago it was for Heifer International.   (We raised $500 for that one!) And then it was breast cancer research. ($325 and still climbing!) And there have been a few little projects in between.

I have to say, there is nothing like the feeling of giving.  There is nothing like the way I have felt when I finally am able to sign over that big check for someone in need.  To give without the promise of getting anything in return.  The feeling of purpose is enormous.

I know I'm not the only one out there continually asking myself, what is it I'm supposed to be doing with this life, so I feel compelled to share this with you. For the next couple of days, I'm dedicating 25% of the sales from ROPE to the Jupin family fund-raising effort.  If you have not read their story, please do so now.  But in short, they have decided to adopt a little boy from Russia who has down syndrome--the same age as their birth son, who also has down syndrome! 

Their story is about doing something BIG for His kingdom.

Something you cannot do of your own power. 

Something WITH purpose, ON purpose. 

Something that might even hurt a little. 

And I'm fired up and inspired to do the same.  And at the very least support them in their efforts!

Through Wednesday, I'm giving them 25% of the sales from ROPE.  But I want to do more than that, too.  So!  Every time you buy something from ROPE or LASSO THE MOON, I'm going to give 5% of that sale to YOUR CHOICE of the Susan G Komen foundation, OR the Jupin family!  They have a huge amount to raise ($25,000!) before they'll be able to bring home their little boy, and until he's home, I want to help out.  Thank you in advance to all my customers who will help me do this.  And please also consider donating directly to the cause. Imagine how quickly their financial burden would be lifted if each of us pitched in 10 bucks.  Who doesn't have 10 bucks?

Here's the link.

Where do you find your sense of purpose?

**the photos from this post are all links to The Adopt Shoppe.  The jewelry is beautiful, and all of the proceeds are going toward their own adoption!**

 

Sleepless

It's about 1:35 am here at the Lasso house, and I cannot get to sleep!  So I thought I'd let you in on some of the things that have been going on around here. 

This is a project I've had under wraps for a couple weeks.  I haven't sent it to its new owner yet, so I'll just share a peek or two:

 

It has a handle.

And a cell-phone pocket.  Any guesses? 

My crafting style is a bit all-over-the-place.  Figuratively and literally.  Ahem.  Anyway, I like to have something simple and mindless to work on while I give my brain a break from a detailed project like this one.  Sometimes the simple project is dishes, but not if I can help it.  This time it was these:

 

These are little poppy pins that I'm adding to the shop as another Susan G. Komen fundraiser.  I get that not everyone can throw down $20 for a pin cushion, so this is for everyone else.  They are $6 apiece, and I'm donating a whopping $5 from each to the cause.  Wouldn't this make a sweet gift for Mom this mother's day?  I think so.

Now before I give sleep another try, I have to share this gift I got recently. 

 

My friend Amy moved into a new house with every original retro detail still intact, including the crazy-cool shelf paper.  I told her to save me a little piece if she replaced it, but she did me one way better.  She found an entire roll of it in her garage!  With the original price tag still on!  Part of me really wanted to cherish the packaging and keep it in its perfect roll, but that part of me lost.

 

I love 60s graphic design!  They hadn't started putting adhesive backing on in the 60's yet, so this paper makes great gift wrap. 

Thank you, Amy!  What a delicious surprise!

And in case you have hung around through this never-ending post (I hope you have!) I thought I'd let you know that since it is March, I have officially begun my annual month of no spending.  I love how this challenge seems to reboot my system and remind me to use what I have.  You can read more about past challenges  here and here.

Goodnight! ~Anna

Valentine Banquet

Every year our church youth group holds a Valentine banquet as a fundraiser for future youth activities.  Everything is done by the students in junior and senior high.  They help decorate, serve the food, clean up, and provide entertainment.  Each year they also chose a theme, and stick as closely as possible to that theme.  This year the theme was "My Funny Valentine" so they focused on the funny things about love.

I had been involved before as a student, singing in the show part of the evening, and I had also taken on the talent part as a whole several years as a college student.  But those roles were already taken when I was asked to help out this year.  And when they mentioned that no one had yet volunteered to decorate the tables, I thought that would be a nice fit.  The event was a great success, even though it had to be postponed due to huge snowfall.  Here are some highlights:

 

Unlike the hand-cut circles in the original tutorial, we opted to use a flower-like punch since we had a large number of tables (24+) to accommodate. We then folded them into 8ths to give the petals their shape.

 

An army of paper flowers.  We used paper that I already had on hand, since the plan was to sell the centerpieces as part of the fundraiser.  Along with this grid vellum, we used pages from an old German novel I had, and pages from a 2007 road atlas.

 

Since I estimated that we needed more than 400 flowers for all the tables, I enlisted the help of my friends, Carisa and Lauren.  They assembled almost every flower at the banquet.  Thanks, ladies!

 

Instead of vases, we used cylindrical drinking glasses, which we found for a steal, and wrapped them in patterned paper and twine.

 

Each place had a place card with the name of the banquet on the top and a surprise inside.

We folded 200 of those origami hearts from the Martha Stewart website.  I was really disappointed in the instructions on the site, since there were only verbal steps included.  I might have to do a visual tutorial since I pretty much have it down now.

The only photo of the room that turned out since it was so dark with mood lighting.  Overall, it was a huge success. We raised almost $2700, which was amazing with the postponement.  The bottom line is, our church loves its youth ministry.

And I'm already getting ideas together for next year's tables.

Starting a new project

 

Now if I could just find my sewing machine...

Chicken Carving

It's been a productive day.  I did some sewing, added some things to the shop, and finally got around to this:

I carved this little chicken stamp for the top of my thank you notes.  These are included with the purchase of a chicken pincushion, just as a reminder of the project.  I think they make everything feel complete and official.  Here's the card, all stamped and thank you-ed.

The chickens have already started selling, so if you're sure you want one, order quickly.  They would make such a sweet mother's day gift--even for someone who doesn't sew.  Find them here.  I'll be adding more as I finish them!

Chicken Dumpling

They're here!

These lovely ladies will be helping me raise (hopefully) $500 for the Susan G. Komen race for the cure that my aunt Sandy walks every year.  (It is 3 days and 60 miles long!)   So, why chickens  for a breast cancer fundraiser?  They have breasts, too!

These little chicks are made from felted wool skirts and salvaged beads.  They are firmly stuffed with excelsior moss to help keep the pins sharp.  They also include three handmade heart-topped straight pins.

Each one is signed and numbered on the bottom, 1-25.  I'll be adding these to the shop in the next few days and weeks, so you can order them there.  Or, if you know me, you can just order them in person.

The pincushions are $20 each, and the entire sale price is going straight to the organization.  I am so excited to be able to do this, and I hope that this project is as successful as the last one was.

Stick it to ya

I guess you can't sell pincushions without giving them their own little custom pins to top them off, right?

This is a sheet of shrinky-dink plastic from the craft store.  I used the rough-and-ready kind, because there's not prep.  (The smooth kind should be sanded lightly.)

I drew out 75 hearts--that's three each for the 25 pincushions--and a few more for me.  I was coloring them with a permanent scrapbooking marker.  It took a minute to dry, but after that there was hardly any smudging.

Then I cut them out, stabbed flat-headed straight pins into each one, and popped them into the oven.

I guess you'll just have to wait and see what happened next.  Pincushion debut on Wednesday, April 1st.

Something's Cookin'

I love the snacks stacks haha!  I'm on weight watchers.  I must be hungry! and piles that come with making lots of the same thing.  These little stacks will soon be pincushions for my Susan G  Komen fundraiser.

Can you guess what shape they'll be in??