All Saints Day

We've made three batches of cupcakes in my household in the last five days. What's all the fuss? We celebrated my husband's birthday (who declares he's now counting backwards) with carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing, we tried a recipe for cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes from a new cookbook and we couldn't resist the seasonal cupcake mix in the grocery store with the cute sprinkles for the cake batter and icing. 

All this sweetness has made me think of the upcoming All Saints Day celebration. According to some sources, the idea for All Saints' Day goes back to the fourth century when the Greek Christians kept a festival on the first Sunday after Pentecost in honor of all martyrs and saints. Other sources say that a commemoration of “All Martyrs” began to be celebrated as early as 270 CE. Pope Gregory IV made All Saints' Day an authorized holiday in 837 CE. It is speculated that the chosen date for the event, November 1, may have been an attempt to supplant the pagan Festival of the Dead. 

Putting the history of this day aside for a moment today we can focus on the fact that God declares everyone who has been baptized and believes the promise of the gospel to be justified, holy, and blameless.  The communion of saints therefore includes both those still living on earth and those who have died in the faith and are now living in heaven. Therefore, All Saints' Day is a very special festival, one that should enrich the worship lives of all who observe it. It is a day to recall the faithful men and women of both Testaments of the Bible and praise God for their examples. However, we also remember the saints of the less distant past.  Many congregations memorialize those parishioners who were called to be with the Lord in the past year. Finally, on this day we can glorify God not just for the faithfulness of the saints, but most of all for His faithfulness to the saints.

Signs and symbols that are traditionally used for All Saints Day include, ringing of bells, signing hymns about the saints (like For All the Saints), children dressing in costume of a favorite saint and lighting candles. This year I'm thinking of a special dinner to celebrate all the past and present saints that have touched my life....a great exercise to help my family focus on the attributes we admire and would like to personally strive for. I think this also may be an excuse to try another cupcake recipe out of my new cookbook! Sweet!

New Stole Designs

Carrot Top Studio creates handcrafted, unique ministry stoles in limited editions. When we're trying out a new idea this might mean "trying" the new design on just one stole. These stoles are often offered on eBay at bargain prices with auctions ending each Thursday night. Otherwise our edition series are typically 4-10 stoles of one design. When the series sells out it is occasionally repeated but more often than not we tweak the design or move on to another idea within the same category. The studio is now four and a half years old and we're grateful that our artistic juices still flow and we can't find enough time to design and stitch up all the ideas that float around our minds!

This week we've added two new designs to our collection. Pictured on the left is a stole suggested by one of our clients that is working with couples of mixed faith (Messianic Jew and Christian). It can be found here on the website. We love hearing your ideas and often work on special commissions but if we think it's something that other's within the ministry community might also be looking for we'll gladly add it to our collection. Additionally the stole on the right can be found here on the website. We thought of Communion when we saw this luscious grape vine fabric but this stole also speaks to the fruitfulness of a Christian life and would be appropriate at many different types of worship services.

You've been kind enough to spend a moment with us on this blog so we'll share a secret...these two new designs will debut at a great price on eBay tonight with closings next Thursday. The Messianic stole is item #150382435776 and the grapevine stole is item #150382432296. We appreciate your ideas, support and continued patronage!

Book Review

This week I've read Barbara Brown Taylor's An Altar in the World. The subtitle of this book is "A Geography of Faith" (isn't that intriguing?) and this work focuses on encountering God beyond church walls. For years I have consciouslyendeavored to not be just a Sunday morning Christian. I'm not professing to be an expert by any means, just someone who sees Sunday morning worship in a church sanctuary as a mere bit of what we're called to. 


The Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" has always spoken to me. Therefore I think the chapter titles of simple practices such as waking up, walking, paying attention, getting lost, and carrying water immediately pulled me into this read. I especially enjoyed the chapter on keeping the Sabbath that is entitled "The Practice of Saying No." A decade ago I had the pleasure of attending a national church women's conference where I attended a workshop on this subject. Realizing that I'd never really thought about the commandment about keeping the Sabbath was quite an awakening. On some Sunday's a do much better than others with making a 24 hour intentional connection to God by resting. In Taylor's chapter about this practice I laughed out loud when I read that it's polite in China to respond to "How are you?" with "Busy like crazy, but what else is new? And you?" I pondered her notion that the tradition of kicking back and relaxing on Sunday in America started to fall by the wayside when professional football began to be televised. And, I reflected on my own current practices after reading Taylors commentary of theologian Karl Barth's writing, "A being is free only when it can determine and limit its activity." This chapter extended my thinking and reinforced that I need to keep working on living in God.


An Altar in the World has caused me to pause and think. I'm glad I stumbled upon this title. I'm off to go see if I can, as Taylor suggests, see Holy in every component of my day today.

It's a White Out!

The college football team I follow often declares a home game to be a white out. The power of color is demonstrated in the stadium as the 80,000+ fans make an impressive, coordinated statement all in white shirts. We of course see the color white in our churches. Here are a  few things we know about the color white:

• White in scripture is connected with purity, joy and righteousness.
• It is the liturgical color for Christmas and Easter.
• In Roman times the giving of white stone symbolised acquittal from crime and innocence. Thus those who overcome sin are purified and cleansed through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• White is mentioned in scripture. Such as: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7

Additionally, white stoles are one of the two most sold colors at Carrot Top Studio. A pastor once told me that their white stoles were more often replaced than other stole because they were bound to get dirty. We recommend spot cleaning stoles that can get wet with a gentle cleanser like clear shampoo. 

Because we're thinking about WHITE we're having our own celebration with a "white out" on eBay. See our bargain selections here.