rubyjeansfamily

Ruby and Carolyn in Art Class!

“Artsy” Classes

A few years ago Mom shared with us that she would love to learn to paint.  While watching shows on PBS, legendary artist Bob Ross has inspired her to want to paint nature scenes that include blue skies and reflective waters that duplicate God’s landscape of trees, vines and bushes as they appear in nature.    She vividly describes him as the “white man with the afro that just paints those trees with  a few dabs of the paint brush while he talks to you the whole time!”  May Bob’s soul be at rest as he inspired many to express themselves in paint during his time here on earth.

I purchased paints and brushes for mom shortly after her desire to paint was verbalized.  After that, each time I asked if she’s painted anything the answer was always no.  Maybe what is needed is an inspirational jumpstart!  With this in mind, we took the opportunity to become summer art students!  Doing this right could give us the skills and confidence needed to create pieces of art that could be framed and proudly displayed on our walls.   

We did it right!  We did several things right!

After looking around for class offerings we decided join a class that was offered by an independent artist Lisa Clough of Lachri Fine Art.  Lisa is a talented artist that works in several mediums and teaches a “go at your own pace” class in which she provides one-on-one instruction and coaching to help you complete the artwork piece of your choice. 

Lisa coaches artists like us on Friday nights at Hobby Lobby in Frisco Texas.  Another thing we did right… we love Hobby Lobby!  They have a 40% off coupon available on their site weekly so we found ourselves shopping at Hobby Lobby weekly.  Great art supplies found in the clearance section!

Mom and I decided to begin with graphite pencil work and picked pieces that we’d love to have on our walls.  Mom loves magnolia flowers so we found an inspirational picture online for her to use as a guide.  I chose a swirl design but changed to an abstract of spheres in lights – well I had to do this after I forgot to bring my reference picture to class week 2!

Mom did an amazing job!  Here magnolia flower was transformed from a blank piece of paper by her with only a graphite pencil and shading tools in her hands.  See for  yourself!

Here’s some shots of my abstract spheres and the swirl design  that I’m still working on. 

Lisa was the bomb as she walked us through the store and gave us much needed advice on  supplies that she recommended.  She has a deep knowledge of her crafts and we followed all of her advice and suggestions.   We used the following supplies to create our art pieces:

Prismacolor –Ebony Jet black Extra Smooth #14420

Design Drawing 3800 – 4H

Master’s Touch Blending Stumps 3/8” diameter

Multiple erases, brushes and chamois swatches

 We now only need to mat and frame our pieces.  Looking forward to Friday night!

See Lisa’s art and snips of her life on her site www.lachri.com

Carolyn

Carolyn and Ruby go to Sourdough Baking Class!

After seeing a Groupon offer, Mom and I registered and attended a Sourdough Baking class that was conducted by Cooking God’s Way. 

This class promised that as students, we would learn to care for sourdough starter & bake items such as muffins, chocolate cake, banana bread & english-muffin sandwich buns.

Jeff and Shannon Pearce hosted us for the class and enlightened us on many aspects of baking leavened breads using sourdough starter instead of yeast! 

We watched Shannon prepare sourdough english muffins, pancakes and muffins and we had samples of each of these baked goods.  Delicious!  Jeff demonstrated the grinding of spelt to make the flour that was used in these baked goods.  We especially enjoyed learning about the health properties of cooking using sourdough starter.

We learned to care and feed a sourdough starter and our class  book included detailed recipes for the demonstrated baked goods and many other items. 

We took home a sourdough starter that we’ve been feeding weekly.  We have yet to bake something using it but it’s time now as our starter has multiplied.  Started with 2 ounces and now we have a full jar! Stay tuned to see our sourdough creations!

We enjoyed the class and learned a lot.  Get more info about Cooking God’s Way by visiting their site at http://www.cookinggodsway.com

 Carolyn

Ruby Jean’s Summer in Dallas, Texas

While spending time in a conversaton with Mom in the summer of 2011, I learned that she has always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes.  I was shocked and educated by this conversation.  The thing that shocked me is that she’s wanted to get into the formal pastry craft of decorating.  I along with everyone that knows Ruby Jean knows that she loves to cook and especially enjoys making cakes, cupcakes and cookies and giving them away to family friends and church members.  Knowing this did not transform my thoughts to visualize that one of her desires was to begin creating and executing pastry designs.  Not a complex conclusion to make but I didn’t do it! 

Researching options for taking a cake decorating class while she was in town educated me of the fact that this craft is commonly taught in multi-week courses.  Mom agreed that she would return and be prepared to stay for a minimum of 4 weeks when she was ready to become a pastry student. 

She decided that that 4 week period began in June 2012 and she returned to Texas.

While in Dallas primarily to take cake decorating class, we took the opportunity to jump into other classes and adventures. 

We had some great fun.   I’ll share clips of our adventures with you.  I”m sure that you will agree!

Carolyn