homemade paper picture matting

   I was messing around with making paper and made it a bit too thin for any use as actual paper, so I decided to use it thusly.   

     To tint it, I added leftover paint to the water when adding the mash to the tub.  I’m too lazy to use the proper equipment, so when I make paper, I only use one screen, not the approved method of a frame and deckle (or whatever it's called...)  Works for me.  In this case, I may have even poured the mash on top of the screen and swirled it around in the water to get it to even out.  Rebel, I am…

     And then there was this old Home Interiors print with water-spotted print matting…

     A trim to fit the new frame and some glue inside a penciled border…

I tore off small pieces of the homemade paper and layered it on the edges of the picture, paying attention to the corners of the picture.

     

Some of the pieces of paper were a bit thin, and the background color showed through.    

    

     You may be able to see the vegetation hanging over the wall in the center of the picture – I used some watered down paint from a wall project to give a bit of depth to the print.  (Which reminds me, I still have not posted the dining/living projects.) 

     Ya know, I think maybe I like this again.  It’s currently hanging in the office on the wall, awaiting it’s turn to be hung back in the living room.  (The office walls are the storage place for all the pictures that get changed out by season.) 

So... what do you think?

Look at That! Yarn!

Have you ever been looking for something very specific, but couldn't find it?  And then out of the blue, in an unexpected place, there it was? 

Let me introduce you to my momma.  She does the most amazing work with yarn… and fabric… and beads…Never gonna be a day I am that good! 

Here is one of her latest creations.  She posted this on facebook for all the world to see (and rightfully admire), and then she sent it to me for Christmas!

Now, listen to her very own Watchin’ God story.

Tell me God doesn't take care even about the simple things!!!! 

I wanted two colors of yarn for a scarf I'm knitting and no one in town had them. Plus it had to be 100% wool & sock weight yarn. I looked at Value Village (a large thrift store) several times but nothing like it ever was on sale. Plus they had hardly any yarn so when I stopped there today I didn't think about yarn but I looked at their craft wall.

Not only were there two balls of yarn but the very colors I wanted and it’s 100% wool sock yarn from Norway!!! 

 I'm still amazed- God is good!

or, as her daughter would say ---  

It's So Much Fun Watchin' God!

That Moment in Time

I can see in my minds' eye the time I realized how unreasonable and damaging my screaming rages were.

 

We had recently acquired a computer - our first.  My son talked me into buying it so he 'could use it for school'.  How many parents of children in the 90's succumbed to that particular logic?  The only school use I recall is his request to take it to school for a dance because he had so much music downloaded on it.  I was a bit protective of the machine, and refused.  Wish I hadn't.

 

A very intense romantic relationship had just illogically blown up when the following sad incident happened.  I was frustrated, hurt, angry at life in general.  

My 16 year old son was on the computer, and it was time for him to do something.  I told him to turn off the computer.  Whether he didn't do it immediately or not, I don't recall.  What I do recall is that I screamed at him to shut it down NOW! 

The look of fear and hurt in his eyes as he said 'mom, I did but it takes a while to shut down," still causes tears to run down my now much older face.  

That was the beginning of the end of the yelling.  It didn't stop, but I saw myself in that moment, and I didn't like it.

Life got more depressed, because the doc asked me to stop taking my 'happy pill' supplements for 6 weeks so he could run some tests.  

In the meantime, we moved.  By then I was so severely depressed that I didn't even think about the happy pills.  

My son did something - probably related to a video game or something (I hate the things, because they are to me, and are according to me, as bad as drugs or drinking or gambling.)  I promptly started screaming at him, arms flailing in the air.

With something akin to compassion, with a bit of hurt mixed in, (or maybe the other way around) he looked at me and calmy asked if I had been taking my happy pills.

A light went off in my brain.

Immediately I calmed down.  To this day, when I get unreasonable, that question from those I love immediately diffuses an undeserved tantrum.

'No...'

God was so good to me.  Still is.  I happened to have part of a bottle of those happy pills, and I knew where they were.  Even though we barely had enough money to live on, when that bottle ran out, I found a way to buy more.

The rages became less frequent and less intense rapidly.  I didn’t stop taking those supplements again until just recently, also for a test, when my wonderful husband helped me through it.  (And I didn’t ever get to the rage stage!  Thanks Lord!)

I'm not sure my son has forgotten or forgiven those rages or if the effects have been mitigated.   I can only pray that God will work in his life in such a way ‘all things will work together for good' for him.  I hope he knows I love him, and that he saved my life more times than he will ever know, both literally and figuratively.  

May I live to see the day I can say of this devastating problem... 

It's so much fun watchin' God!

This post was precipatated by a facebook link to this article.

I wanted to add these pictures in the post, but didn't want to distract from the seriousness of the post, so here they are now.

                                                                                                                                       

Our house when we bought our first computer

Our first computer - a Gateway