Something Special

There is something special about a handmade gift, don't you think?  I was just sitting here thinking about some of the amazing artist friends I have met in the last few years who handcraft beautiful jewelry, fine art pieces, pottery, soap and lotions, fiber arts and other amazingness in their home studios, garages, and sometimes kitchen tables or storefronts.

Around this time of year,  although the jack o' lanterns may not even be cut yet, if we're smart, our thoughts will be moving on ahead to Christmas.  If you are one of those smart people and you have people for whom you need thoughtful gifts, consider something that's not only handmade but something that is made especially for them and no one else.  It's really one of my favorite things to do. I love taking little bits and pieces of people's lives and making them into a piece of art that can only be theirs.  Today, I'm sharing some of the custom art I've made.  I can make some for you, too!

This was a gift for my niece's graduation.  It includes her favorite Bible verse and a little piece of a letter dated 1923 from a niece to her aunt and uncle.  In it she tells them how important it is that she get an education.  

This one was for my son to hang in his dorm room. Some of his favorite Bible verses are in the background.  My friend Valerie took this great photo during a game a few years ago and even lived to tell about it.

I made this for my brother's family.  I thought the photo of their kids taken by one of their friends was super cute. I printed it in black and white and then recolored it.  Then it begged for a vintage map covered canvas and the perfect Emerson quote.  

This is my sister-in-law's dog, Ralph.  The vintage sheet music included a verse that spoke of kind of love a dog brings to our lives.

The original poem came first.  Then the gift morphed to a poetic blessing box for my baby niece's first birthday.

I've shared this one before. I made it for my mom for Mother's Day several years ago.  The photos are of her with each of her three kids. There's also a photo of her as a baby with her own mom.  The flowers are pieces of my grandmother's vintage aprons.  There are other family papers in the background including a note that my grandmother wrote on the flyleaf of the Bible she sent with my grandfather to World War II.

If I can make something for you, please check my About and Contact page for all the ways you can get in touch with me.  I'd love to hear from you and make something great for you.

I hope you are having a blessed Saturday!  

<3 Lori

That Can't Be Right

Yesterday was homecoming in our school district.  As I was bringing my daughter home from school and she had her headphones jammed in her ears (as is usually the case these days with this well-practiced teen), I was thinking about homecoming and how this town doesn't feel like my "hometown".  You know what I mean?  

We live pretty far from school, so I had a lot of time to think.  I started thinking about my school years and my mouth literally fell open and I lost my breath a little bit.  I started counting decades on my fingers, and I realized that in two years it'll have been THIRTY YEARS since I graduated.  That cannot be right.  

*Our team mascot was the Bulldogs.  The fact that the yearbook is called "The Kennel" is really quite disturbing.  Someone should be punished for that.

But it is. I counted three times and then used the calculator when I got home. Thirty years.  Dang.  We moved in the summer between my sophomore and junior years.  Because of that rather badly timed move, the old school is closer to being my hometown because I was there longer, but I didn't graduate from there.  I graduated from the other school, but I was only there two years.  I always kind of felt hometown-less.

 ::cue the tiny violins::

So all this thinking about "home" and what that means, as well as a custom order to make some little canvases for a homecoming get together of girlfriends brought a realization to me.  

It doesn't really matter where life takes you.  When you are with friends, you are home.  That's the message the little canvases now carry for those girlfriends.  And, because the sentiment struck me so much, I made a few more.

And I'm giving them away!  There's one giveaway on Instagram for two sweet little 3 x 3 canvases with the "My Friend My Home" message (one to keep and one to gift).  All you have to do is follow me, share the giveaway photo (take a screen shot of it and then post it), tag me @LeissnerArt, and use the hashtag #myfriendmyhome.  We'll draw on Wednesday night!

There's another giveaway on Facebook to celebrate reaching 700 friends! (Wow! That's so cool!)  These are 4 x 4 wrapped canvas blocks.  You can hang them or sit them on a shelf.  And again, there are two...one for you and one for your friend!   For that giveaway, just share the image from the FB post that uses the image below, tag my page @LeissnerArt and use the hashtag #myfriendmyhome.

Here's the small print. Both drawings will occur on Wednesday night.  Also, I'm sorry, but these giveaways are open to US addresses only.  I just can't afford international shipping for a giveaway. I hope you understand! xoxo 

Thanks for playing, friends!  May the good Lord bless you this week with  good friends who make their home in your heart.

<3 Lori

Giraffing

The month of May was CrayCRAY!   Sophie being sick, new puppies, spring basketball, spring volleyball, awards banquets, middle school graduation, Baccalaureate, high school graduation and all the junk the goes into all of that plus a bunch of stuff I can't remember now.  It was nuts.  I thought if I could just live until the end of the month and then through the first week of June when the state monitors would be at my real job for our annual review, it would be approaching miracle status AND I could take some time off.  I lived, AND I'm off!  Yea!

What have I been doing with this unusual spare time?

Playing with puppies.

Purchasing MORE crafty goodness.  Not sure what I'm going to do with this yet, but it was my reward for making it through the monitoring week.

Catching up on my 1 Peter Bible study with #Shereadstruth

And making art.  This one is almost finished.  It's called, "Giraffing".

Maybe it shouldn't, but it still feels kind of miraculous when I make something I really like.  I really like this guy.  There's a quote from Robert Fulghum scratched into to the paint. It says, "Does the giraffe know what he's for?  Or care? Or even think about his place in things.  A giraffe has a tongue twenty-seven inches long and no vocal cords. A giraffe has nothing to say.  He just goes on giraffing."

I feel a little like that sometimes.  I don't know about my place in the world. And I don't really care that much because this world is not my home. I'm anxious for the next one!  Until then, I'll just go on doing what I do and feeling blessed beyond measure.

May the good Lord bless you, too, friends, better than you deserve.

<3 Lori