Mar

25

sometimes the beauty is in believing

To tell you the truth, butterflies kind of creep me out.

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When my best friend was in Ecuador years ago, she sent me a photo of her at a butterfly farm absolutely covered in butterflies. She said it was amazing; I said it was way too close to a nightmare I had as a child of being covered in grasshoppers. Butterflies and grasshoppers may be nothing alike, but they fall in the same category of insect in my mind and I don’t want either of them touching me.  Which is really a shame, because butterflies are quite pretty.

And what they symbolize is even more beautiful.

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The newest collection of JDC|Monthly has just been released and it’s full of these lovely vintage butterfly graphics.

My favorite item in the collection this month is the art print.

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 I had this idea in my mind of all different butterflies sort of escaping and floating upwards all together. I’m not sure if butterflies fly like this, but it felt symbolic of being free and light and joyful. Designing the butterfly part was easy; then I was stumped on what it should read.

I prayed about this one – wanting it to be just right – and the answer came through my best friend.  She is fun and wise and is taking a big step in hosting her first women’s retreat in just a few weeks.  She texted me the other day saying she had finally decided on a theme: believe.

I knew right then that was the perfect word for the butterfly print.

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We all know about the life stages of a butterfly – how they transform from an ugly caterpillar and then wait for days or weeks in a cocoon before emerging as these graceful and mysterious creatures. They are often the illustration of transformation and rebirth and sometimes that can be a bit cheesy. I truly don’t mean for this print to be cheesy.

What I wonder is: do we really believe God has our best interest at heart? Even when things are hard or sad or bleak, do we truly believe that He is good? Do we believe in his promises even when our lives don’t make sense or look how we think they should? Do we believe in our value – our unique purpose – that He has put within us? Do we believe in our beauty not because we fit some cultural standard, but simply because He made us so?

Even though butterflies are a little creepy to me, I love that they represent that beauty can come out of ugliness. I hope we can see the correlation between this little creature and ourselves and somehow be encouraged to believe. Even when life looks ugly. Even when our current circumstances are not where we want to be. He doesn’t promise that our lives will be perfect, but he does give us hope and peace and freedom in the midst of it all and that usually ends up with our hearts being transformed and we become more beautiful people because of it.

I want to be free and light and graceful and the only way I can endure the hardships of life is by believing that God’s promises are true: that he is at work in my heart, refining me daily, transforming me, covering me with his grace so that I can fulfill the unique purposes he has for me.

Even though I don’t want to touch a butterfly, I sort of want to be like one.

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The new collection is so pretty and brings springtime cheer to your everyday organization and seasonal decorating.

As always, here’s what’s included:

* monthly calendar
* weekly calendar
* menu calendars
* chore charts
* spring cleaning checklist
* grocery lists
* note cards
* scripture memory cards
* an art print exclusive to jdc|monthly members
* a video project tutorial {this time Audrey joined me} with templates for the project

You simply download the pdf, print on your favorite paper and fill in the details. My sister has these calendars/chore charts/menu plans all over her fridge and I love to see how she uses them!

JDC | Monthly is $9.99 per month and your first month is free. You are welcome to give it a try. If it’s not the right fit, you can cancel at any time.

Plus, all JDC | Monthly members receive 50% off all printables in the shop.

Click the button below to sign up:

APRIL-FREE-TRIAL

When you sign up you will be directed to the current month’s link immediately. Billing is done on a 30 day cycle {so if you join on the 15th, you will be billed the following month on the 15th}. On the 22nd of each month, you will receive an email with the link to download the collection of pdfs, as well as the project tutorial.

Please let me know if you have any questions … and be encouraged today that no matter where life has you, you are being made beautiful.

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Mar

22

art with kids: rollercoaster names

Now that my kids are a bit older, doing art projects with them is becoming a more enjoyable activity. We have always left crayons, paper and scissors out for them to create at their desire, but all of the fun and messy stuff made infrequent appearances. Where once I wouldn’t dare pulling out glitter and glue {unless I was willing to clean up the entire bottle and find specks of sparkly dust for days}, now I feel like they are at an age where not every project becomes a practice in controlling chaos. Well, actually, it still is sort of chaotic, but much more manageable.

I am no art expert, but creating is an activity that we all enjoy doing together and so I thought I’d start a new series sharing fun art projects to do with kids.

I’m calling it Art with Kids. Very clever, I know.

For the first installment, we’re making rollercoaster names.

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My way of being involved in my older sons’ school is by being an art docent mom. Basically I go in once per month and teach an art project to first graders. I love it.

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Just the other day we created these rollercoaster names {as shown on instagram} which was a hit with No. 2′s class. Yesterday morning when my No. 3 needed some mommy-time, we made another. I was amazed at how good his 5 year old skills were.

Here’s how you make one:

Start with a large piece of white paper and draw three or four horizontal ‘rollercoaster lines’ across the paper.

Next, have the child write his name in CAPITAL LETTERS starting with the top rollercoaster, being sure to touch the top of the paper and the rollercoaster line with each letter.

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Continue writing the name, moving to the lower lines as you reach the end of the paper.

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Then trace over the pencil lines with a black marker.

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Now is the fun part: fill in all the spaces between each black line with a different color.

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We used markers, but you could also use crayons, oil pastels or paint.

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When you are finished, you have an abstract and colorful piece of art.

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  If you’re looking for a project to keep your kiddos busy for a while, I hope this is a fun one!

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Mar

20

behind the scenes of a photoshoot

If you’ve been following along on instagram, perhaps you’ve noticed we’ve been doing lots and lots of cleaning, purging, painting and polishing all in preparation for our kitchen’s big day: a photo shoot for Better Homes & Gardens Kitchen & Bath Makeover magazine.

setting-up-the-kitchen-shoot

We’ve pinched ourselves a few times … our diy kitchen in a real magazine? Now that’s crazy.

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We’re completely flattered and it was just the motivation we needed to finish all of the almost finished projects in this space.  You know, those lingering things like touch-up paint and deep cleaning and a new bench slipcover. And while you’re at it, you might as well clean out the pantry and reorganize your cupboards and paint the back door. Needless to say, we’re exhausted. But our kitchen has never looked better.

Since this whole magazine-photo-shoot thing is new to me, I thought I’d show you behind the scenes and share how it works.

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The crew {Linda the stylist, John the photographer and Mark the assistant} arrived bright and early and got right to work setting up equipment and adding props. Linda wanted the shelves to be organized with mostly our things so I had them set up ahead of time and was so surprised that she pretty much left them as I styled them. She did switch out our clear glasses for pink goblets {clear glass does not read in photos – who knew!} and added flowers, produce and a few counter top props. The art director asked for accents in pink and green which makes the space look so pretty and springy.

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Linda set everything as she wanted and then John and Mark went to work snapping photos.

preping-for-the-kitchen-shoot

Another thing I never knew about photoshoots: all of the lights are turned off.  John explained that the difference in tone between artificial and natural light is hard to merge and so he only shoots with natural light.  His camera is set up on a tripod with a remote and he views everything from his computer, making adjustments to his camera settings via the computer. That was fascinating to watch.

kitchen-shoot-with-computer

We did a total of seven shots and it was an all day process. If you do the math, that’s about one hour per photo. John is a true artist who pays very close attention to every detail to get the shot just right. They would take a photo, test the color, make little adjustments to props {move a pear, smooth the curtain, turn the cake} until the photo was composed perfectly.  I think that’s why I love magazine photos so much: they are very intentional and meticulously styled.

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The day went very smoothly and the photos turned out beautifully. It will be such fun to see our well-used kitchen grace the pages of a real magazine.

cheers

And when all was said and done, a celebratory toast was in order.

We will keep you posted on the exact issue but it’s looking like spring/summer 2014.

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