Advent Rituals

In the studio we're putting our last touches on our new Advent stoles and have noticed a bit of buying frenzy....the season is fast upon us.  To top this reality off my sister called yesterday to pick my brain for resources for family activities for her school website. When thinking about what's been important and meaningful to our family over the years I can't escape thoughts of the Advent wreath. Each year to help us with our waiting for the the celebration of remembering Christ's birth and preparing our hearts for his return we gather on Sunday evenings around our Advent wreath. We follow this tradition from my own childhood. Our homemade wreath is often a bit "rustic" and consists simply of evergreens and purple candles. We read scripture, discuss a topic focused on the reading and offer up family prayer. There is much symbolism in this ritual. Of course the circle reminds us of God's never ending love, the evergreens reinforce this fact and the candles help us to count the days and increase the light as we go. Ultimately we light a pure white candle on Christmas Eve to celebrate Jesus Christ the light of the world. The time before Christmas can be a constant struggle between what the world tells us we should be doing (buying, baking, attending parties, etc.) and how the waiting might better be focused. I like what Gertrud Mueller Nelson says in her book To Dance with God, "Waiting could use a fresh look. The discipline of delayed gratification--not celebrating Christmas until the twenty-fourth of December--and the hope filled rituals of our Advent preparations will give new value to the waiting periods in our lives." This year I'm wondering how we enter Advent as people pregnant and waiting. Any ideas?

The pictured Advent stole with evergreens and gold cross can be found on our website here.

Simple Symbols

I have warm and fuzzy memories of a trip that my husband and I took to Paris early in our married years. Recently I was reminded of the time we spent in the Musee Picasso while on that trip. Prior to the visit I had always been intrigued by Picasso's art. The museum experience heightened my understanding of the mindset and process that Picasso took to evolve his work over the years to the very simple sometimes childlike forms that it became. In many ways the final result of his stroking of the paintbrush or modeling of the sculpture became a symbol. This makes me think of how in our faith the simple symbol is held as such an important connection for us as we worship God. For example, during Communion, bread and wine are things that we all can relate to. They are simple symbols that are very real to us. These symbols matter, and therefore they draw us closer to the religious experience. There is no denying that there is mystery in our faith but the symbols help our consciousness as best as they can. As you plan for worship this week what are the symbols that will help make the connection?

Like the symbols on this stole detail? 

See the stole and read about the symbols on our website. 

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.

The Color Green

What would it be like if God hadn't gifted creation with color? Today I'm thinking about the color green for several reasons. First I'm working on a new tree of life ministry stole. It will debut on eBay with our other specials later this week. Secondly, I find it interesting that the colour green in scripture comes from several Hebrew words: 'yereq' meaning green or green thing; 'yaraq' meaning green herbs, vegetables or garden greens; 'lach' meaning green or moist, fresh or new in the sense of plants ; 'abiyb' meaning green ears of corn; 'ra‘anan' meaning green and flourishing; 'eb' meaning fresh green or green shoots; 'ratob' meaning green, moist juicy fresh; ' yarowq' meaning green thing. So many meanings....and the artist in me thinks of so many different shades of green! These words translated as green have a connection with green flourishing plant life of one species or another. Lastly this brings me to the thought of spending time in nature as being very restful and bringing tranquillity and peace of mind. Like when David wrote of God, "He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake." Psalm 23:2-3 So we can see a connection in the Bible between green pasture and the spiritually restorative nature of God's word. I've joined a new small group that is built around a meditation based on scripture followed by a group walk where the passage can be discussed as much or as little as we feel inspired to do while enjoying the natural environment and the calming effect this provides. This morning when we walked I marveled at the deep greens in the woods starting to change to the royal colors of fall and when we passed the cows in the pasture several people actually commented on the calming feeling of seeing them. I'm signing off remaining thankful for the color green and it's many associations.

Testing Again!

If I create a post will it really show up on Facebook? Have been trying to figure this one out all day! Why can't I figure this one out?

Baptism Symbolism

Sunday in worship the baptismal font wasn't where it usually is. I suspect it had been moved the previous day due to a wedding ceremony that took place in the sanctuary. When it has been moved like this I miss seeing the reminder of baptism, then the communion table, then the cross that hangs in our chancel as visual reminders, that all work together, of the sacraments of our faith. Baptismal fonts have intrigued me since I was asked several years ago to talk about some images of fonts throughout the ages. As always when I research a topic I learned a lot. For example, here is the ancient baptismal basin which was actually behind the apse of the Basilica of St. Vitalis. Its shape is beautiful and the mosaic details are amazing.

Symbolically the baptistry was situated close to the western poral on the north side. Interestingly this was the direction from which the pagen peoples who were called to faith came. Moreover, the old missal stipluated that the deacon should face west to proclaim the Good News.

Large above-ground cruciform fonts are still being constructed in churches today. There are often steps on opposite interior sides. One is for entrance into the pool and the other for exit. This movement of entering the water and then moving forward to exit while leaving our sins behind buried in the water makes me think of Romans 6: 4…"We are therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

My church does not baptize through immersion therefore we use a movable font instead of a large basin. Regardless of how large the water container, whether the water used came from the River Jordon or not or the setting for the baptism we can rejoice in the symbolism of the use of water. Jesus spoke of water as the symbol of a new rejuvenated spiritual life. I am thankful for new spiritual life and for the symbolic reminder of this gift!

Baptism stoles with symbols of water, the Trinity, shells and more can be found here.

Test

If I create a post will it really show up on Facebook? Have been trying to figure this one out all day! Ugh!

Community

Last night we had the pleasure of hosting our son and daughter's golf team at our home for a pasta dinner after they had a match. I've always questioned these events because after a full day of school and a multi-hour long match, I didn't understand the need to gather for dinner also....extending the day so long makes it hard to have time for and focus on homework. After our dinner (oh, my these kids eat a lot!) I formulated a new opinion. These eighteen, 14-18 year olds sat together, shared the food that was served family style, and talked, laughed and advised each other about their golf games, high school classes, relationships and their futures beyond high school. Not necessarily within each other's social circles, these teens regardlessly exhibited a real sense of community. This morning while doing the final clean up and enjoying a leftover brownie with my coffee (don't ask how early it was!) it was this sense of community that remained with me as the warm and fuzzy feeling from the evening prior. I'm proud of these teens and it reminds me of why we as Christians are called together in community. We need each other!

The first worship banners I ever worked on were done in community. A team of artists and seamstresses gathered together to pray about, generate ideas for and then complete eight sets of worship banners for our church sanctuary. This project is what led to the development of Carrot Top Studio. I had never taken on a task quite like worship banners and for the project to be successful it really needed the community of a group.

The first Christians in the New Testament were a great example of community as they quickly learned to gather together for worship.It's awesome that gathering together is a precursor to the Kingdom of God that is to come. In today's fast paced world may we not forget to take time to come together as community.

Creation Cleaner

The Labor Day weekend is past. Even though the days are still warm, this is symbolic of nature's seasonal movement from summer to fall. The children are back in school. I miss them and their friend's trapsing through the studio while I work. So it's up to my studio dog, Abby "the Labby" to keep me company while I sew, design, sew, market, sew, and sew some more! Abby often comes out of the marathon sewing sessions the victim of stray threads landing on her as caught in this photo.

The seasons may be changing outside my window but the church continues to mark Ordinary Time. How do you honor this? In worship I see the green paraments and ministry stoles. I hear messages encouraging me to grow in my faith. I sing old favorites like "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah." Beyond worship how do we honor Ordinary Time? Abby and I love working through our days in the studio but we also enjoy the daily break of a walk through the neighborhood. We marvel at the ordinary....the shadows the trees make on the grass, the sounds of a child laughing in the distance, the birds holding court while sitting on the wires up above. We also use our walking time to help keep this creation cleaner. Taking a bag on our walks to pick up trash is an easy way to help keep God's creation cleaner. This is such an easy task for all ages to get in the habit of. You can even teach your little ones to join in this activity! Thinking about "creation cleanup" reminds me of the day my son, then seven years old, took our habit of litter patrol maybe a little too seriously. His teacher called to tell me that he arrived at school with beer bottles in his backpack (she'd discoverd them from the stench that was oozing from his locker.) She thankfully knew us well enough to understand my son's explanation of "caring for creation" on his way to the bus stop and the need to save the bottles for the recycling bin when he got home. But, she did highly recommend that he not continue to bring empty beer bottles to school! So, outside of worship I encourage you to take time to enjoy the ordinary (that is really extra-ordinary) and pitch in to help keep our creation cleaner...but tell your kids to not to pick the beer bottles up on the way to school!

Confirmation Stole Blank Special Offer

Are you curious about our confirmation stole blanks (seen at left) but don't want to commit without seeing the product? To help your decision during the month of September we're offering the purchase of a single stole blank ($11) with complimentary shipping. When ordering a single stole blank we'll include a short feedback page for you to send us to see what you think. We believe in the use of the confirmation stoles with youth to help them understand their spiritual gifts, their call to service, and the use of the visual in worship. With your feedback we'll be able to offer the best product possible for your ministry!

Read more about confirmation stoles and place your order here at www.CarrotTopStudio.com.

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!

Where Do Artists Work?

Illustrations by Michael Harrar copyright protected.

When I was teaching elementary art I had a poster that listed 100's of jobs where artists could work professionally. It included everything from book illustrators to muralists to cereal box designers. The variety of jobs that require an artist is astounding! The poster was meant to be encouraging to the impressionable minds that passed through my classroom.

This last week I've had two opportunities that have once again led me to think about how artists are used in a faith community. First, I had an opportunity to share an afternoon rendezvous over ice cream while my friend Michael and his wife who were traveling through the area. They have spent their professional years working for Wycliffe Bible Translators. Living all over the world Michael has, among other things, had the opportunity to use his artistic gifts illustrating Bibles, teaching natives to be artists, creating murals to spread the word of the need for Bible translation and even a chance to create a series of postage stamps. Secondly, I spent time with an artist who will display her fiber art in my home church gallery. She was asking about the history of the space and the type of art that had been displayed over the years. I don't know who had the wonderful idea of creating this space but it's been there for at least 17 years. It's brilliantly surrounding the area that our receptionist desk is placed, therefore the art is not to be missed by anyone who walks through this entrance. I've curated this space for the past two years and we've seen photographers, illustrators, oil painters, pastel artists and much more have a chance to exhibit. Some of the artists create liturgical work and others are Christians that recognize their gifts as from God. We celebrate all of these artists and try to use the space to educate our faith community. Additionally, when it is appropriate we make a connection to something that we are studying or celebrating in the church year calendar.

If I made a poster listing where artists of faith would work I don't think the list would be terribly different from the list I had in my classroom many years ago. The difference is how does the church respond to this, how do we encourage the artists, and how do we include them in our purpose. How are you doing in this area?

Celebrate Peace During Ordinary Time

Webster's defines peace as: freedom from war, tranquility, calm, a state of no anxiety, and having freedom from conflict. But it is only in Christ that we have true peace. Having peace with God through Christ and living a life faithful to Christ will allow us to be at peace with ourselves and others. I think peace is a great topic during this time of Ordinary Time and I wonder what a peaceful kingdom would look like in our homes, our city, our schools and our country? We can think of a few ideas to promote this topic:

• supply children with alternatives to war toys
• listen to people....everyone deserves to be heard
• light a peace candle during times of small group worship or before sharing a meal with friends (new and old)
• pray, "May peace prevail on earth"
• eat "Imagine Whirled Peace" ice cream by Ben and Jerry
• wear a Peace stole by Carrot Top Studio

How do you celebrate and encourage peace during this time of year?