Archive | March, 2013

Oh Happy Day!

31 Mar

Not only it is Easter the Holiest of Christian days, but for Elfcroft today is preparation to ship homemade children’s clothes to support Helping Hands Touching Hearts mission in South Africa.  Content in the photos is the culmination of work over the last six months (my day job, etc has priority).

2013 Girls Dresses, Skirts and Tops

2013 Girls Dresses, Skirts and Tops

Credit to my assistant Shelby!

Blessing

Blessing

Packing

Packing

Let's go!

Let’s go!

We did it!  We filled the 1.11 cu ft box with 10 pairs of shorts (4 homemade shown above in brown fabric), 9 skirts and tops in two different sizes and 10 girls dresses in various sizes…..and Shelby gets to stay home to help with the next project.

One of the endearing things about Sidney at Helping Hands Touching Hearts is that she especially wants the girls clothing to be pretty.  Also, these items will be delivered personally by Sidney, Wayne and C.J.  Here are some photos on their website.

http://www.clotheavillagenow.com/clotheavillagenow/Welcome.html

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Spring Cleaning

24 Mar

Love this article by Lori Boyd on page 48 of Spring 2013.  She investigated the history of Spring Cleaning to engage her family in the process.  Origins of spring cleaning go back to Jewish preparations for Passover and Iranian preparation for the Persian New Year.

http://www.tnfarmbureau.org/tn-home-farm

Additional searching brings up Chinese preparations for their New Year.

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/spring-clean-in-spring2.htm

How interesting to discover spring cleaning is a global experience.  I believe Lori is on to something with her family team approach.  She even has a playful approach with her “Up” game.  Thanks Lori!

Next day:  One more thing.  Leave it to HGTV to have a great list of things to do for spring cleaning.

http://www.hgtv.com/homekeeping/spring-cleaning-made-easy/pictures/index.html

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Spring Equinox

20 Mar
Joys of Spring

Joys of Spring

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-vernal-or-spring-equinox#.UUn-fR0yo_8.email

Together the beauty and science of spring.

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Storytelling inspiration

16 Mar

Names of Paint colors:

    • Coral cove
    • Chocolate turtle
    • Sunburst
    • Tropical mist
    • Pacific beach
    • Paris green
    • Bunny’s nose
    • Baby bunting
    • Icy Bay
    • Iceberg
    • Steel city
    • Birthday cake
    • Divine
    • Sand trap
    • Golden straw hat
    • Evening surf
    • Moon glow
    • Swiss mocha
    • Caribbean green
    • Treasure isle
    • Tropical holiday
    • English ivy
    • Blue whale
    • Dover Straits
    • Cool lagoon
    • Stained glass
    • Remembrance
    • Egyptian pyramid
    • Alaskan blue
    • Godiva cream
    • Cricket field
    • Melody
    • Wind mill

There is a lot of potential in this list.

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Storytelling

7 Mar

Check out this link for storytelling templates like:

Your story can be told in four simple parts:

  • Once upon a time: The introduction. Set the stage; where does your story start?
  • Suddenly: The story’s characters are confronted with a challenge.
  • And then: The characters take action to address it.
  • Happily ever after: How did it all work out?

http://lmpartnership.org/storytelling

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A DEAR CO-WORKER

who engaged us with her

Vivacious vocation

Profound profession

Lessons of livelihood

Existential experience

SUDDENLY, THERE WAS TRANSITION TO RETIREMENT

AND THEN WE GATHERED TO TELL OUR STORIES

KL storyboard 1

KL storyboard 1

Inspired by names of paint colors, comic strips, images of chocolate, popcorn, a transmission and “golden” nest eggs;

we honored our long time friend

and recanted the habits of highly effective people which she embodies.

KL storyboard 2

KL storyboard 2

More names of paint colors on the second storyboard panel inspired dreams of travel adventures around the world.

…and a happily ever after.

Credit to Liza Hyatt for using paint names for input to creative writing projects.  Just maybe this story evolves and becomes poetry, lyrics, short story, article, autobiography or novel.

I actually applied paint chips to the storyboards in these photos as well as calendar images, wrapping paper, Christmas card, decorative paper, puzzle and a Designed Experiment matrix.

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