New Stole Designs

We're thrilled to have added several new stole designs to our online store! Visitationstoles and stoles for the confessional are shorter than our norm and can be found here. This is a new category for us and we'd love to hear your needs and ideas for this product line. The blue healing stole celebrates oil and the Old and New Testament references to its use. More about this stole can be found here. Lastly we always love working with batik fabric and this one is a beauty! It's description is on the Carrot Top Studio website here. We hope you'll enjoy and maybe be able to use one of these new designs.

Speaking of new....on a personal note I get to send my youngest child off to her first day of high school tomorrow. Our oldest will start his senior year. Having two children in high school embracing lifes challenges and seeking how God is to use them during the school year will probably provide not too many dull moments in our house! Blessing to all of you that are in similar situations as we transition into a new season.

More Memories

I'm still sorting through and scanning the photos that I've been dumping into a box for way too many years (see post below). I came across pictures from the Presbyterian Women's Conferences I attended in Louisville. The banners were always so inspiring in the large convention hall venue. I had no idea at that time that I was being called to start Carrot Top Studio but I believe seeds for the business were planted there. The below were commercially made but they made a great impact.

Then it was fun to find a photo of the first set of banners I made with a team from my home church. None of us had ever taken on a project like this but we were fueled by our worship commission that had a vision for adding liturgical color and symbols to our sanctuary.

Thankfully I have learned to take better images over the years! Although the photo doesn't show it, these banners are royal purple and several shades of gold. The donkey, manger and rainbow tell the story of God's promises and are used during Advent. Back to digging through the photos.....

Memories

I'm in the process of taking my family photos, that have been piled in boxes for too many years, and scanning them into the computer for safe keeping. So many pictures and so many memories! This project that is long overdue. It is an enjoyable process for me, yet will take much time and perseverance.

This project is making me think of all the Biblical verses that refer to remembering the past. For example, "Praise the Lord, my soul, and never forget all the good He has done." (Psalm 103:2) and "Worship Him faithfully with your whole heart; keep in mind the great things He has done among you." (1 Samuel 12:24). Whenever a loved one passes I draw upon these verses. I am thankful for the healing gift of "remembering" that God allows us.

Along these lines I was struck by a visual in a worship space I had the opportunity to visit this summer. This community is a fairly new one. The church building is not very old. The hall that leads into the worship space is lined with a memory of the prayers from the beginnings of this faith community and their plans to plant a church. The wall is lined with stones that have prayers written on them...prayers for the people that were to come together, the plans God had for them, and the spread of His love and mission within the community. I have to recall this scripture whenever I think of this lovely worship space visual, "Each of you must pick up one stone...We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future, your children will ask, 'What do these stones mean to You?' Then you can tell them, 'They remind us that the Jordon River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord's covenant went across.' These stones will stand as a permanent memorial among the people of Israel." (Joshua 4:5-7). I am passionate about worshiping in places outside of my norm and the stone wall in this church will be a lovely memory for me and a reminder that we still carry out the words of Joshua in so many ways.

Back to my family memories...I'll leave you with a "beauty" of a photo I unearthed of my mother and I that is proof of why Carrot Top Studio got it's name!

Book Review

I'm preparing for an adult Sunday School seminar at my home congregation. The topic is "A Protestant Look at Mary". Within this four week series in December I will be teaching one that will focus on representations of Mary in Protestant and Early Christian art. The goal is to get behond taking out with the creche at Christmas and then packing her ack int he closet in January. November and December are often Carrot Top Studio's busiest months so I'm trying to prepare now. One of the tools I'm using is the book Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary by Miri Rubin. It is very interesting to take time to discover how Mary, who is scarcely mentioned in the Gospels, became one of the most prominent religous figures in world culture. I'm learning from Rubin who draws upon an extraordinarily wide range of sources--including music,poetry, theology, art, scripture and miracle tales. Stay tuned as I draw deeper into this intriguing subject matter....I'm wondering how I will learn to be more like Mary through this investigation!?

Biblical Fiber Art

My teenage daughter and I have been looking at the book of Esther. We've read the story in the Bible, we've discussed where we could see God's hand in this book, and we've watched the Fox Faith film "One Night With the King." We watched a wee bit of the movie prior to digging into the Bible and I was at first turned off by the Hollywoodness of the first banquet scene. In particular my attention was caught by the banners and fabrics that were so enourmous and dramatic. I actually hadn't recalled these fabrics in the book of Esther but, because a large part of what Carrot Top Studio does is make worshp banners, my interest was picqued. So I found that the Bible says, "The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars." (Esther 1:6) Of course the fabrics in Esther represent the kings great wealth. This is different from the curtains and used when building the temple as described in the book of Exodus.The curtains in the temple were to designate a worship space and help show the reverance for and the scacredness of the place to worship God. How do you use fabric in your worship space? Are you using fabric to focus on our worship of the Almighty and designate the worship space as sacred? The contrast between the details in Exodus and Esther give us something to think about.

Back to the movie...my daughter and I did finish the movie and even though it's an interpretation of the Biblical story I was pleased with how the storyline remained relatively true. The background music is a bit dramatic and the visuals as stated before seem to have the heavy touch of the movie set director. Seeing the film version did emphasize how similar the times of Esther are to the conflicts we still deal with today and will inspire the viewer to stand up for what is right and just. As for my daughter: I send her off to high school this fall and I hope and pray that she will be like Esther...may she be a woman of character, may she see that God has a purpose for her, and may she be willing to act with courage when she needs to!

A selection of Carrot Top Studio's small banners are being auctioned on eBay this week. See them here!