World Labyrinth Day-May 1st

May 1st is world labyrinth day. The labyrinth society describes this occasion as:  a day that brings people from all over the planet together in celebration of the labyrinth as a symbol, a tool, a passion or a practice.  This can be a day to inform and educate the public, host walks, build permanent and/or temporary labyrinths, make labyrinth art or more.


Carrot Top Studio is pleased to offer a line of stoles for labyrinth leaders and lovers. We offer short and full length and a variety of color options. Our stoles are created in limited editions, so check our inventory often because it changes frequently! Our current collection can be found here.

Earth Day Musings

Another Earth Day celebration is upon us. A day to pause and honor the creator by thinking about some of the choices we make regarding this planet. I've had a couple of high and low 'earth day type' moments recently. Several weeks ago my son and I ventured to Philadelphia for a weekend. We were both impressed by the rain collection barrels sitting in the backyard of a college housing system my son was visiting. It was a nice sign that the school was as eco-friendly as they claim to be. A down moment was the landscape designer who I had visit my home for a consultation. She suggested I just needed to throw all my plants away (they weren't any good!) and start over. How wasteful is that notion? But another up moment was hearing my daughter recount with pride that she'd gotten the hosts of a sports team pasta dinner to recycle all of their disposable drink containers. She was one of the last to leave the table and was exasperated that her teammates had just left all of their items for the trash. Nice to know our at home habits are going with her out into the world.


With all of these musing we can't ignore the fact that when Carrot Top Studio thinks green we see the color green in our stoles! Our eBay auctions that begin tonight at 7:00 p.m. EST will all be the color green! The one of a kind prototype pictured in this post will be one of them. We're trying a new fabric collage technique and thoroughly enjoyed combining different fabrics, stenciling of the word "peace" in four different languages, and embellishing with textured fibers and bits of sheer fabric. We look forward to shipping this off after the winning bid is placed in one week. We also offer eco-friendly stoles on our website whenever possible....reclaiming and reusing fabrics and by using fibers such as bamboo. You can see an example here with our white labyrinth stole made from a tone on tone bamboo fabric.


There are so many ways to 'plant' our focus on Earth Day. Regardless of how we do it I hope we do it out of respect to the Word. Our foundation for this Earth Day celebration should be the story of God's creating the heavens and the earth and of God's loving care in redeeming a fallen people and reinstate creation to its unspoiled beauty so that it can once again adore the Creator. May we go about honoring that!

Love Is In the Air

We're approaching the time of year when many weddings occur. It's made me pull out my wedding photos (wow did we look young 24 years ago!) and go down memory lane. I also dusted off The Four Loves of a Successful Marriage that our pastor gave us. It is based on C.S. Lewis' Four Loves and is great to revisit every few years because marriage takes work!


When I got married I of course got caught up in the meaning of the symbols...why does a bride wear white, why use a veil,  why a wedding ring, why the bride and groom feed each other cake at the reception and so on and so on. Even though I love visual symbols still today (that's one reason why our Carrot Top Studio is a fun business) I do firmly believe these are just outward symbols of what is more importantly happening on the inside. I was thrilled to see that my local newspaper ran a letter in an advice column yesterday from a future bride that was miserable working very long days in order to save 10,000 dollars for her wedding. I was pleased to see that the responding advice was hope that the bride would invest this much time and energy in her marriage because for the long run that was more important.


This week as we think of weddings we offer several wedding minister and officiant stoles at bargain prices on eBay!

The Quiet Center

Come and find the quiet center
In the crowded life we lead,
Find the room for hope to enter,
Find the frame where we are freed;
Clear the chaos and the clutter,
Clear our eyes, that we may see
All the things that really matter
Be at peace and simply be.
--"Come Find the Quiet Center" Shirley Erena Murray



Last week we continued our tradition of closing the studio for Holy Week. This year that meant traveling to a place on a beach to sit and watch the rhythm of the waves and tides, a time to ponder and recall the events of Holy Week, and moments of worshiping with Christians that we've never met before. These are all things I cherish and am thankful for. It was very fitting that through our travels we stumbled upon the above sign one day. How many places actually require you to go so slowly? 


We know closing the studio may prevent some of our clients from being able to acquire the stoles that they need. We are sorry if this was an inconvenience but we are grateful for the time that allowed us to find the quiet center as the words from Ms. Murray's hymn remind us of. 


We are rested and ready to be designing, stitching and serving again. Through the joy of the Resurrection we now look forward to celebrating the church's birthday...stay tuned for new Pentecost designs!

The Seven Last Words-conclusion

Georgia O'Keefe, Black Cross

May the Spirit of Christ be with you, may His faith and trust abide within you, and may the knowledge of his love support you both now and forevermore. Amen