CHEF 2012 Conference

Hello, blog readers. I must apologize for the neglect of this blog; I am usually busy with sewing, art, and family life!
Last month, June 18-19, our family attended the annual CHEF-Missouri Homeschool Convention/History Conference. We always are blessed by this event. This year we had a booth called One Covenant, Many Countries. For this event I was busy sewing dolls' historic costumes from various countries which were crucial to the Reformation era! That was delightful, and I look forward to sharing with you pictures of those costumes, many of which sold!

In honor of our family's booth, I dressed in Waldensian-style costume.
The Waldensians were strong Bible-believing Christians living in France/Italy before the Reformation times.  Their Confession of Faith dates back to 1120 A.D. 

I Nikola, at the 2012 CHEF Missouri Convention, talking to friends visiting our booth. 

Talking with friends (I am on the far right) on the second day of the Conference. 

Be Thou My Vision

A favourite Irish hymn...

BE THOU MY VISION

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;


Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.


Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,


Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;


I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;


Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;


Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;


Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;


Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:


Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,


Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:


Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,


High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,


May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!


Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,


Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.




note: images public domain from here

(Be Thou My Vision instrumental)

CHEF ART FESTIVAL AND PHOTO CONTEST

Well, it has been a busy time here at our house for the last couple of weeks!  Annually, the Christian Home Educators' Fellowship of Missouri (CHEF) hosts an art festival and photo contest.  I can't believe that it has already been almost a year since I posted about the 2011 festival!   Our family loves setting this up with the Burns family, and this year, we had even more help the day of set-up as another family stayed to help. 

While my siblings created AMAZING works of art (I will add those to a future post), I was amusing myself with the little digital camera I received last year for my birthday.  Yes, I have actually "graduated" from a film camera to a digital!  As an artist, I am always fascinated by the way light plays on a scene.  I also am intrigued by ethnic cultures, so both of the pictures I entered this year included these aspects.  Although I knew that it was "bad policy" to chop part of a subject's head off, I did enter this photo I took of my littlest sister, Katia, dressed in a pretty Indian outfit (purchased).  While my second photo of an Indian jug and earring did not place, I did receive an Honorable Mention for my photo of "RAJKUMARI KATIA."

There was such a myriad of photos on display!  From glorious skies, to majestic mountains, to beautiful blossoms, to fine-feathered friends, to fun vacation shots, to still lifes, to adorable puppies and kittens, the boards were full of marvelous testimonies of God's creation!   And the artwork....wait till you see it (future blog post....stay tuned)!

Sara and I enjoyed playing our instruments for some background music, and then, when the awards had been given and the room was being put back in order, we all enjoyed chatting with various families who lingered behind.  I don't think we have ever visited so much after the festival.  In fact, I believe we finally left at 10:30 p.m.!  Thankfully, we had some lovely sandwiches to munch on when we got home, provided by a generous family. They do this every year for us. We don't have much time to eat at art festival time, so it's a real blessing!

We are so grateful to the Bovey family for allowing us to rent the facilities of the Larimore Plantation for such an event.  They are always so helpful in assisting our endeavors.

Today, after a moment of recovery, (I won't tell you when I got up!), I was pleased to discover that someone wanted to purchased one of my cupcake dresses.  I wrapped that all up and sent it off this afternoon.  This is the one which sold:

Now that the Festival is done for this year, I can get back into creating items for Etsy and Arfire!  I have some other pettiskirts I want to do, and I have been designing and beading some new loomed bracelets.  It is always exciting to receive a new order of Czech glass beads from Fire Mountain!  I had run out of thread and certain colors of beads.  I hope to enter one of this company's beading contests next year. 

Little girls' skirts are popular and fun to make, and I will using a variety of colorful fabric to sew some up for spring and summer.  Besides these, I have other designs and projects which I hope to bring to fruition. 

Well, time to get busy!  Thanks for stopping by!  (Don't forget to check out the giveaway on the Joyful Service blog!)