Straight and True

"An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with its difficulties, it means that it's going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming."

-Unknown

The past few weeks have been one of those "dragging you back" kind of chapters in my life. Nothing earth shattering - not illness or death or devastation; I know all too well what it could have been. I am thankful that everyone around me is healthy and that we are provided for. It was the gradual loss of a job. It felt just like the conflicting pressure you can imagine being pulled on the string of a bow. Inevitable but not assuming. Overbearing but, somehow, peaceful. It is that kind of pressure that you have no control over. It's either going to happen or it's not. And nothing you can do will change it.

In the past, this kind of pressure would have crushed me. I would have crumbled under the weight of "what if". And I am not too proud to admit that it did creep up a time or two. But there was a still, small voice saying "I've got this. You're going to be just fine." I have been hearing my Heavenly Father so clearly over the past three or four weeks that the pressure felt more like leading. Aiming. Perfecting my focus.

It was a gentle nudge - get this in order. It was a sweet reminder - you are good at what you do. And it was a reality check - I am more concerned with who you are becoming than what you are doing. Those messages from God came at just the right time. Gradually flowing in through messages from various places. Sunday sermons. Ladies' group. I even had an encouraging word from a bold teen in our church who spoke "Honor" over me. All that time, it was just drawing back the bow. Aiming me in the direction I would need to go.

On Monday I was released. Released FROM something. For the past 10 months, I was working full-time from home for someone else. I had a few immediate projects that I would complete over the weekend or in the evenings (I'll post a collection of pictures later), but for the most part, my workshop has been collecting cobwebs. But I wasn't just released FROM something. I was released TO something! Just like an arrow being shot with precision, God put me to work immediately, doing what my soul loves.

This week, I re-launched Liz Hill & Co. What better way to dust things off and fire things up again than to build some over-sized arrows? These are large (4 feet long) feature pieces that you can use as part of a collection, display over your bed or hang in a prominent room in your home to remind you that you are headed in the right direction. For me, the arrow is a reminder of several things:

• I am exactly where I need to be. I will live in this moment and not wish it away for something else.
• I have hope. He started this thing and He's going to see it through to the finish.
• God is perfecting everything concerning me. He's lining everything up just right. Be patient. He knows.

These were made with pieces of wood I brought back from Georgia last year, some from a barn and some that had been salvaged from the interior of an old hardware store. I also used some pallet wood from Virginia to give it more dimension. It may be difficult to see but there are touches of green and rust red on each of these that are just the thing they needed to set them apart. 

Simply visit our Facebook page and click on the Store tab to find this and a few other goodies.

I pray that each of you finds peace that comes only through the love of God. And if you are going through a drawing time right now, lean on Him. He will make your path straight and true!
~Liz

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." -Proverbs 3:5-6

Picture This! A Spring Wedding

I had the pleasure of meeting a sweet couple, Deane and Bert, at their wedding a few weeks ago. They have the most enchanting love story you could ever imagine and I can't wait to tell you about it!

You see, these two dated years ago. They were high school sweethearts and to be honest, couldn't really remember why they broke up!

The only thing they can think is that he was going into medical school and didn't want to keep her from moving on with her life. So they went their separate ways. He moved to California and opened a practice there. She stayed in North Carolina and made a life here. They both went on to marry and have children, become successful adults and watch their families grow. Then, in recent years, they each lost their spouse.

Unbeknownst to each other, they both wondered about the other. And when they attended a class reunion last fall, the stars aligned and everything fell into place. The couple were reunited and almost immediately began planning to spend the rest of their lives together!

I was so blessed to be a part of this memorable day! Thank you, Deane and Bert, for trusting me to capture that moment of your lives! I pray you have happiness beyond measure and that you'll always make each other feel young at heart!

Practice Your Craft: Lifelong Learner

For someone who wants to improve their craft or learn a new skill, one of the best pieces of advice I can give is what I learned from a curriculum I taught called "Writer's Workshop". The main way we taught was by studying others. Seems funny to say you can become a better writer or gardener or seamstress by doing the opposite. But it's true.

Part of practicing your own craft is to see how others do it. Take a writer you admire and look at how they set up their story. How they draw you in. How they personify or describe or narrate. How do they make transitions? What is their rhythm?

If writing isn't your thing, you can still use the same principle and apply it to your own skill.

For instance, with lettering, you may admire the way an artist connects a hanging letter with the word below it or the emphasis they place on the first letter of each word. For sewing, you might wish you could make neater seams or create an interesting pattern in your crocheting.

All of these things, when you study them, become tools you can use to practice with and find your own style. But the only way to master these skills is to apply them to your own work.

Don't be afraid of doing it wrong and trying again. It may not look great the first time. But practicing means making mistakes and trying new things. Check out this blog post from Shari Dacon that inspires me to practice anyway.

You may not be ready to go back to school but learning a new skill could mean teaching yourself. Using the Writer's Workshop model of teaching, here's a first-hand look at how a lesson might go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to my Classroom! How are you today? Ready to learn, I hope!

1. Set Objectives
Go into the lesson with purpose. Establish from the onset what you intend to gain and how you'll know if you got it. Answer the question "What do good _______s do?" What do good writers do? What do good graphic artists do? Pick one thing. For example, "Good writers grab their audience at the beginning of the story." Or, "Good graphic artists, when they are lettering, make the width of each line consistent."

2. Instruction
This is when the teacher has your full attention and models the skill. He/she shows you what to look for and how to accomplish what you want. When you're learning by yourself, this is time for you to only focus on what others do. Study their work. Every line. Every stitch. Every word.

3. Guided Practice
As the student, this is a time for you to use the examples and practice applying the skill. This is the safest place to copy another artist's methods so you get the feel for how to do them on your own. Ask for help from the artistic community as needed.

4. Assignment
Take stock of what you've learned and decide how you'll apply it to your work. Go into your independent practice with clearly defined goals and a reasonable timeline. Then know what you need to have when check back in.

5. Indpendent Practice
This is when you let your creativity soar! Use the techniques you learned and make something great with them. This part can be messy. It doesn't have to result in a finished product. It's just practice.

6. Check-in
Compare your techniques to those in the instruction. Check in often enough that you can make adjustments if needed but not so often that your work starts to look exactly like theirs.

7. Evaluation
Measure your work against the objective. Do you need to go back and learn again? Are you ready to apply your skill or do you still need to work on it?

(Repeat Steps 2–6 as necessary)

8. Application
Once you've mastered the skill you should feel confident creating your own work all by yourself. Be yourself!

9. Peer Review
You might check in periodically or ask for a skilled artist to review your draft and offer suggestions. But remember - this is your own. Don't let anyone dissuade you from your vision.
Having another person review your work will help catch anything you may have missed. How many times have we cringed at a misspelled tattoo or a typo on a program? Even a missing line on a sketch can make a big difference.

10. Publish
Make your final rendering and get it out there! One of the most rewarding motivators is when others respond favorably to your work. But they can't do that if they don't see it!

Onward Christian Soldier

I've just finished a project that is a memorial for one of America's finest.

It's what we call a "floating" sign because it isn't framed out. It looks like you just cut a rectangle of siding from a building (or, in this case, a crate) and hung it up.

Customized Memorial Sign created from reclaimed pallet wood and hand painted with insignia, phrase and memorial.

Mr. Jasper Lee Lewis, Sr. was a retired Air Force Lt. Col. He was a combat veteran of WWII where he flew 30 missions in 64 days as a navigator on B-17s. He flew two missions over Normandy on D-Day and after leaving the service was called back to active duty in the Air Force during the Korean Conflict. Over the course of his service he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and many other combat medals. He remained in the Air Force Reserves until his retirement in 1981.

Mr. Lewis was also a teacher, serving more than 30 years in public education. He advanced to leadership roles and ultimately became Superintendent, where he was responsible for the complete desegregation of two North Carolina school systems. Later in life he and his wife, Louise, directed and managed farm and forestry operations for another 30 years.

Talk about a full life!? Mr. Lewis was influential, to say the least. Even in his memorial, I am inspired! What an honor to be part of remembering his great acts of valor and service to his community! I am proud to have provided some small token that honors him.

Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 

Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:6-9 

You've fought the good fight. You've finished the race. You've kept the faith.
Onward Christian Soldier!

 

Practice Your Craft: Imperfectly Perfect

Practice makes perfect. — Unknown

Do you hear that phrase in the back of your head whenever you know you need to practice something? That sing-songy voice that says "practice makes perfect!" I don't know about you, but for me that voice is nagging. As a perfectionist and procrastinator, it keeps me from starting many projects and from finishing others. But as I wrote last week, forcing myself to practice my craft proves to give me more confidence and greater flexibility when I actually NEED the skills I'm building.

I love the following quote from football great, Vince Lombardi. 

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

You see, it's not perfection that I'm after when I'm practicing my craft. It's just practice. It's building skills. It's experiencing the movement of the pencil around a curve. It's playing with paragraph spacing and rhythm in my writing. Practice may not make perfect, but practice makes better.

I may not always share my practice. But there's no reason not to. Some of it is terrible in my opinion. Like this. 

Version 1: I really wanted to make sign with a southern twist that featured a banner that said "First Rodeo."

And I try methods that don't always work out.

Version 2: I also love the details in this leather-stamp font and could see that being interesting.
They remind me of a rodeo belt I can imagine my dad wearing when he was younger.
 The curly letters didn't flow here at all. And I still haven't mastered this banner thing. 

But in the end, I usually come up with a design that I love and will probably use in a future project.

And those designs that didn't work? I'll probably revisit parts of them later and try something with them again. 

I'd love to see pictures of your imperfectly perfect work!

Liz

Inspired by: Our Front Yard Swing

I hope you've all had a relaxing, restful Sunday! We sure did!

We went to a new church today. One we've seen a hundred times and heard about and noticed on bumper stickers. We had just never been. 

The worship and Word were awesome. It was right on point with what God has been speaking to us lately. It was so refreshing for my hubby to have a Sunday off and be able to all go to church together. After the service we met the Pastor and – get this – he lives on our street! Not just in the same area of town or a nearby neighborhood – the very same street, y'all! 

It was like meeting someone who asks where you're from and you say, "Originally? Louisiana. South Louisiana, actually." And they say their family is from South Louisiana, too, near Baton Rouge. So you elaborate a little further, "Mine is in East Baton Rouge Parish... You probably haven't heard of it. A little town called Pride." Then their eyes light up with a familiarity that only someone from that area would know and they say, "Mine is in Zachary!!" For those of you who aren't from there and don't know how crazy that is, the road my family lives on joins our town to theirs less than 10 miles away! 

So that's how we met our neighbors who happened to be the Pastors of the small church we happened to go to today. The Pastor said, "Hey, is y'all's the house with the tree swing out front?" Thankful that he recognized our quaint gesture to welcome others in, we said, "Yeah!" He said, "Every time we walk by there my little girl asks me if we can stop and swing." And, y'all! At that, we melted! See, it's our desire, through that little swing, to hear children's laughter and see friends playing. We love to peek out and see sisters pushing each other or twisting it around and around only to walk away dizzy, giggling. "Oh, please, let her!" I said. "That's why it's there out front and not tucked away in the back yard... So everyone who wants to can enjoy it!"

Somehow, that'll preach!

But in case you can't hear your own little mini-sermon in there somewhere, allow me to share one of my own...

The love of God is free! It's available to all who are willing to receive it! He makes it easy to get to. He puts it right out front. It doesn't require a ticket or a pass or a card. Not a key or a lock or a gate. It just requires you. You, surrendering to the freedom that He wants so desperately to give you.  

He's a good, good Father. 

It's who He is!

And you are loved by Him. 

It's who you are!

Have you heard this song? http://youtu.be/djrY_eFDOwE

Blessings this week, friends!

Liz

Practice Your Craft: Intentional Practice

I once had a coworker, an Art Director, whose calendar I occasionally had to manage. Every Wednesday he had lunch blocked off with the title, "Comic Wednesday." Was this a time when he snuck off to hear his favorite stand-up? Time he saved to read the Funny Papers? Or some new yoga-laughter routine?

No. (Although that laughter thing can burn off some calories!) It was an appointment he made with himself to practice his craft. He would sketch comics.

It wasn't his job. It was a hobby. But the simple practice of drawing comics kept his mind sharp and his hand nimble. It kept him engaged with his own creativity and likely provided an escape from the "real" world around him.

His intentional practice still inspires me to do the same. It may not be an hour every Wednesday (although, if that works for you, then by all means, do it!) but I find that the more intentional I am about practicing art, the more easily it comes to me.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine. — Ludwig van Beethoven

Don't get me wrong; there are days and times when writing and drawing are the last things I want to do. But I try my best to force myself to do them regularly. I watch others as they draw. I read blogs that others write. I use drawing and writing hand-in-hand and find that one inspires the other. I also know that when I don't want to, and force myself to, I usually come up with some of my favorite ideas! Like this one...

Be intentional about practicing your craft. Whether it's writing or sketching or sewing socks for chickens.

What's your craft? How often do you practice it? What do you do to overcome the hurdle of stagnation?

Liz