September 2: Homeschooling in Crazyville

J shows off his calligraphy on the school whiteboard while he's supposed to be focusing on algebra. Such is homeschooling in Crazyville!

July 16: Finished!!!

Keith's newest stained glass commission: finished!! 

Keith photographing the finished window, with Benjamin and Jonathan holding it in the setting sunlight.

Yes, it's done. Right now it's hanging in our front window until the clients come to pick it up. It will be installed on a stair landing in a Craftsman bungalow (dating around 1920) in Los Angeles. I think they'll love it!!!

The family stopped by a month ago to admire Keith's glass choices and progress, and they agreed upon a completion deadline of mid-August. But as Keith hasn't had much outside work lately, he was able to finish it a month early.

The window is simply lovely; these photos do not do it anything like justice....

June 24: Beach Day

B builds a sand penguin at the beach near my parents' home. When the tide at last flooded the defensive ditch, surrounding his work, he beheaded it, smashed it, then scraped "RIP" into the sand where the penguin had been built.

Rest in Peace, little penguin....

Day 66: Elizabeth's Business

Elizabeth has been making jewelry for quite a while. A while ago she started making jewelry from shrinky-dinks. So here are some of her shrunken treasures: flower charms for bracelets, heart charms, cherry earrings, hooped earrings, etc. She colors the much larger plastic sheets with colored pencils or Sharpie pens, then bakes them in the toaster oven which causes them to shrink to a third of their size but become nine times as thick.

Her Facebook page is here: Elizabeth's Fashion Jewelry

Day 64: Experiments in Art

Keith has been experimenting with glass fusing, sprinkling ground glass powder the consistency of fine sand called "frit" onto clear glass and then baking in a small kiln to create different glass effects for a stained glass project he is working on. The glass piece is one onto which he has already fused a couple of colors of frit.

Day 47: Stained Glass Plan

This is the plan for a 32" by 48" commissioned stained glass window that Keith is working on for some acquaintances of the Ademas, the family for whom Keith has made two windows in the past few years. This couple wanted something very simple and at first didn't even want the flourishes, but we'll see what they think. Keith will e-mailing this plan to them for approval before he starts buying glass and starting work.

Day 44: Keith's Plan

One of Keith's artsy projects this week is to start filling in this plan for a tile mosaic of Diamond Head in Hawaii for the floor of my parents' home elevator. He found a photo online that he's using as a guide, making changes along the way to create a very cool image that will be reminiscent of the view from my parents' condo in Waikiki.

He'll be installing it while they're in Hawaii this spring as my mom uses the elevator far too much to be without it, even for a day. I'll keep you posted on his progress--I love taking photos of Keith at work. :)

Day 19: Big Plans

I bought this yarn with big plans to crochet Elizabeth a scarf. But with editing the prayer book, teaching online or co-op classes, homeschooling three boys, and real life, I haven't had time to get it started. She loves her purple, and this acrylic yarn is soooooo soft and squooshy....

In front of the skein of yarn are my Scripture memory cards that I downloaded from A Holy Experience where many of us are attempting to memorize the entire book of Colossians over 2011, two verses a week.