Highland Heights Community Art Room-
I have been volunteering at the H.H.C.A.R. for about 2 1/2 years. The art room is place where many people from different walks of life come together to create art using various types of mediums. It is a place where we can all be on the "same page" and express our creativity while sharing God's love with one another. We meet every Monday from 10am-12noon. They call me and the 3 other lovely ladies that I work with "art angels". I made the sign that I am holding. It is one of the dozen or so signs that will be displayed outside as part of our community outreach. We would love for you to join us sometime. The Art Room is such a blessing for our community!

Recycle and help the Millington, TN

Recycle and help the Millington, TN 

Crisis Center

Start saving items you normally throw away and the Millington Crisis Center will get cash for them!! They’ve partnered with Terra Cycle – you can join their team!

Contact Lois Wilbur at millingtoncrisiscenter@gmail.com OR on Facebook : Millington Crisis Center for more info... it is simple, easy, good for the planet and the Crisis Center!!!!!

     This is the bin that I have started at my home, but

 it is a small sample of what they are collecting.

   See below for a detailed list.

Candy wrappers – individual sizes and bags
Empty potato chip bags – any size
Empty cheese packaging – singles (outer plastic and individual wrappers), shreds, grated, ream/cottage cheese tubs
Cereal bags – preprinted bags only (not inner linings from boxes)
Oral care – toothbrushes & their packaging, toothpaste tubes/caps, floss containers
Cookie wrappers and inner tray packaging – any size
Foil drink pouches (remove straws & empty all liquid)
Elmer’s glue sticks, plastic bottles, refill jars & glitter glue tubes ***ELMER’S brand only***
Energy bar wrappers – any foil lined wrapper (granola, protein, meal replacement, etc)
Gum packaging – outer plastic, inner wrappers, gum box
Diaper/wipes packaging – outer plastic wrappers. Any brand/size
Lunch Kits packaging – trays, lids, plastic film, outer wrapping
Plastic tape dispensers and cores
Personal care packaging – empty make-up containers (any), hair care bottles/tubes, nail polish/remover bottles, lipstick/Chap stick tubes, body wash/lotion bottles/tubes, soap dispensers, face soap containers, antibiotic ointment tubes
Butter/margarine/cream cheese/cheese spread tubs and lids (please wash before donating)
Tortilla/tostada bags
Writing instruments – pens, pencils, mechanical pencils, markers and/or lids
Plastic cups (like Solo disposable – must be coded 6 for recycling)
Paper packaging – toilet paper, paper towels, napkins and moist wipes (outer plastic packaging)
Cell phones, chargers, phone batteries, cameras, digital cameras, camcorders, mp3 players
Inkjet/printer/toner cartridges

Christmas Card Keepsake

              Every Christmas we are so blessed to receive Christmas cards with photos of our friends and their children.  For years I kept them in a photo album, placing them in chronological order, so we could see how the children grew over the years.  After doing this for a quarter of a century now, I decided it was time for a new approach.  I sat down this past week and sifted through my Christmas cards from 2010 that had not placed in my old photo album.   I pulled out the cards without photos which I will make into gifts tags.  I did keep a card front with art work from one of my favorite artists (NJ Woods)  to use as the cover for my Christmas book. I ended up with a nice mix of colors and sizes.

           I began punching holes in the cards-3 holes for the larger cards and 2 holes for the smaller cards. 



          The holes were punched on the left-hand side of the card or at the top of the card depending on which I thought would look nicer when placed in my book.

I grabbed some bells and ribbon from my craft stash and 3 hinged rings to connect my pages.

This is where things started to take shape:

      I began laying out my pages, alternating short and tall cards, to give more interest.  If  the card did not state the names of the people in the picture I added it on the back so that years from now, I would know who they were. When I was satisfied with the way things looked, I fed my hinged rings through all the layers and clasped them shut.  My book was intact, but was in need of embellishing.  I tied the ribbon and bells to each of the three rings and topped it off with a large gold glittered star.  I just love how it turned out!

 

I had so much fun that I pressed on and made a book from our 2011 Christmas cards.  

They truly will be a treasured keepsake!

Wine Cork Cross

         I never know how a new project will go over in the Community Art Room. Last Monday  I took the materials to make crosses out of wine corks.  Everyone loved the idea.  We even had people from the food pantry and the soup kitchen stopping by to admire them.  We do not have a budget for the Art Room.  Everything that we use is either brought in by the 3 of us who volunteer there or it is donated by friends from art groups in which we belong.  Many any of the projects that we make involve recycled materials such as tin cans, toilet paper rolls and card board.  We also incorporate nature when we can by using pine cones, lotus pods, sticks and rocks.  It is amazing to see what can be put together to create art.  We have some talented, truly gifted people, among us on Mondays.  It is such a beautiful place to be!

The cross is made from 5 wine corks that are glued together (3 down and 2 across) with hot glue.

Four large beads are affixed to the points of the cross and then it is embellished with an angel at the center. 

A piece of wire wrapped around the top bead makes a hanger.

The Community Art Room is located inside Highland Heights United Methodist Church (3476 Summer Avenue) and is open every Monday morning from 10-12

It is a place for any one in the community to come paint, draw, craft, create!

   

A Sew-Sew Weekend

       While my DH was off at the 2012 Men’s Downline Summit this past weekend learning about biblical manhood and discipleship,  I decided to do something worthwhile myself.  I put aside all household responsibilities and made plans to work in my art room.  My focus was sewing for the hospital.  I pulled out all sorts of knit, cotton and quilted fabrics.  One of my favorite parts of sewing is choosing what fabrics to pair together for each project.  I have a massive stash of delightful colors and textures, thanks in part to friends of mine who have chosen to donate to this sewing ministry.    The rectangle pillows are for abdominal surgery patients and the heart-shaped pillows are for breast surgery patients. Last month I used heart themed fabric for my pillows in honor of Valentine’s Day.  This time I decided to used florals for my pillows.  

          Lately I have been adding a layered flower to most of my chemo caps.  To me flowers seem to symbolize a sense of hope for healing.   

                      I was given a piece of Burberry fabric which I think made a cute cap.

          Someone had recently given me a piece of fabric that had already been quilted, so I made a small blanket out of it for the neonatal unit.  

        I had a delightful marathon sewing weekend.  I ended up with 8 heart-shaped pillows, 6 rectangle pillows, 7 chemo caps and 1 baby blanket.  It was such an enjoyable time for me.  So much more fun than cleaning house!  I will probably never get to meet any of the patients that I sew for each month, but I consider it such a blessing to be able to give a little part of myself to them.

          For the chemo cap pattern:

http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/spatt01.htm

                Some days when I am at home I like to fix a great big salad for lunch.  Somehow it seems to make me feel better about the snacking that I do before hand and the chocolate that tends to come after.  It's all about balance, right?  Truly though, I enjoy everything about making a salad.  I love the mix of colors and textures as well as the variety of vitamins that I know that I am getting. I try to make sure that I add in some dark green leafy lettuces, such as spinach, because they are packed full of antioxidants. I usually like to top my salad off with some low-fat cottage cheese and light Italian dressing. Something this pleasing to the eye has to be pleasing to the tummy!

     

  Cotton Boll Wreath

             I finally got around to making a wreath out of the cotton bolls that I picked at my brother's farm back in the summer.  My procrastination was not out of disinterest, but a sense of sheer insecurity.   I had actually purchased  a wreath at a yard sale several months ago, but never got started on it for fear that it would not turn out like the finished ones that I had admired.  I decided that the worst thing that could happpen would be that I spent some time crafting, which I love to do, and end up with something to give away.  Since both were positive by products of my time and materials, I decided to "go for it".

              I grabbed my trusty glue gun and just started gluing the cotton bolls on in random places.

             After adding a few cotton bolls here and there, I began to loosen up and actually enjoy myself.  Every boll was unique.  All were opened to a different degree.  They were like little tiny works of art.  I grew up in the south and saw cotton growing by the side of the road each year, but I always seemed to take it for granted. Handling each pod and arranging them on the wreath gave me a little sense of pride about what I had overlooked for so many years.  Cotton truly is the "fabric of our lives" and it is grown, picked and processed right out my back door.  There is a rich heritage here in Memphis connected to this valuable crop.  I continued adding these white little treasures until I felt I hand enough.  I didn't want to put on too many as I wanted to be able to appreciate the nice weave of the wreath beneath my cotton as well.

    

  I completed my wreath by adding a ribbon in my favorite shade of green.