The Son Shines Bright.....

Finally!
After two days of persevering, the photos uploaded!
The morning after I made the first Sunny Shiny, this is how I found it in my sewing room the next morning....
..... Completely back lit from the glorious early morning sun of a beautiful spring day! The little felt sun just glowed and I smiled to myself, thinking of it as an affirmation from the Main Creator.

It's been a hoot to cut out the thirty main pieces/60 side pieces along with the 180 little rays..(thank you 2G's mama, for your generous assistance with the Ray Cutout!) I so love yellow and I so love felt that the effort seems most effortless....Take that into consideration, with the open windows in the sewing room, the chirping birds entertaining me, the light, inspiring...Well, I could do this for a long time.....

It just started with an 18x8 inch oval..

Side pieces of nearly the same dimensions...(a little wider to allow for the curve)

And six little trapezoidal shapes that formed the perky little points that will be gently stuffed for a more dimensional affect..(template made by Hubby remember; if it was up to me, I would have free-handed all of it, having 30 completely unique and probably wonky suns at an otherwise lovely banquet...

Love it when it comes together.....

Heavenly Sunshine

(Editor's Note: Due to Blogger's annoying new layout, interesting photos that were to accompany this blog would not upload even though I tried a multitude of times......grrrrrrrr. Hopefully, The Blogging gods shall permit such a thing tomorrow.  Sorry for your non visual post.  grrrrrrr again....)

How would you make a shining sun?
Has to be cheap, abundant and sizable.
Doesn't felt always fit the bill?

I am in the middle (beginning?) of making table decorations for the annual Youth for Christ Banquet next Friday.
I shoot for decorations because I really am not comfortable making calls or soliciting donation requests. Just give me my felt, some poster board and foam core board and I will work away.  Just keep me away from the phones.  Bound to be a problem with that.
This year, there will be a Silent Auction prior to the dinner.  This Year, mama's collection shall donate a bag to be auctioned off.  First time I've done this.  I have this concern that if the starting bid is 3.00, the end bid could be 3.25...Scary, huh?  Just hope it helps the ministry....

Anyway.
Hubby, the engineer and I put our very complimentary heads together and walked around Hobby Lobby, weighing our options.  Thirty tables is no small feat.  We wanted to be frugal, creative, large (10 foot banquet tables) and get our message across as well.  And we were shopping after the aforementioned 'procedure' so I was a bit fuzzy as well from anesthesia.  I must say that we got a bit silly in the pursuit.  We soon came to realize that all our grand plans were for naught when the totals were coming close to 300.00+.  Not very non profit friendly.

Then we landed in the fabric department.
Of course.
Why did I not go there first, O Fabric Lady that I am?  Anesthesia after affects?  Let's blame that.

I started the plan:  An oval base. Extended Cone Rays. A table runner of sorts to set it off and the words: Who Will Connect Them to the Son? Photos of  some of the 100+ plus teen age attendees attached to the base of the sun at each table....

First prototype failed miserably and Hubby had to intervene.  He and my well used friend, Mr. Seam Ripper.
Hubby drafted a template and specific directions regarding how he would build it.
I heard but I did not listen.
 A very good show on PBS on how a group of Arabs aided the Jews in Northern Africa during WWII, was vying for my attention.
So the next morning, I was on my flibbertigibbet own again, trying to pull his instructions from the base of my brain, desperately seeking his well thought out plans.

Despite my own best attempts, I could not remember but set off on my own, waiting to hear from the Engineer just how wrong they turned out.

But it did not happen!  Hubby approved of how it turned out so now I have only 29 more suns, including 180 rays, plus a large foam core sun for the front of the stage, to complete.  In a week.

So off I go to cut more sun bases, more D-shaped side pieces to stuff with tissue and fiberfill and felt scraps (cannot throw anything away!) and search for a suitable table runner and to primp the prototype for the Banquet Committee meeting tomorrow.....!

Let us hope the Son/sun shines next Friday night!

Randomness

In a recent blog, soulemama shared the love of the way the light during this time of year, colors her home in a golden hue.
I agreed.
The autumnal light goldens up the home and gifts you with that glow for the shorter days of winter.
When I took this photo of my dining room, it was to try to capture the warmth that enters, usually while I"m making supper.
It's like a beacon, beckoning the family to gather and report in with each other at the end of another day....
Love it...

On a completely different note, the photo above is of my dear cat, Stella.
Stella's story is comical enough for a blog of it's own. Sufficient to say, this photograph pretty much sums up Stella. She loves to sit in my fountain when it's turned off, hoping to catch a thirsty bird. Not too obvious, huh? She also thinks that she is totally invisible. She 'sneaks' up on birds in a densely thick green garden hide out, convinced that the birds cannot see her. There has been occasions that I have heard flocks of birds snickering at her.
Now that the fountain is closed for the winter, Stella is non plussed. Even though she has her pick from countless comfy, quilted, pillowed cushions, the Silly Thing is perched, for the whole afternoon, in a tarpaulined concrete fountain top.
Stella.

Upon a visit to our local laundromat, I came across this warning.
I love living in a small town where there is no end to handmade signs like this. I actually have enough photographed to make a small book.

And speaking of laundromats, do you know what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving? That I own a washer and dryer!
Whenever I have to visit a laundromat, I am made aware, again, how quickly I take for granted the incredible blessing that such appliances afford.
Thank you God. Let me not take these things for granted.

And last, but not least...
Miss Kitty, our 15 year old cat who has a mild case of dementia...
Miss Kitty now forgets where her litter box is.
Sometimes she forgets that she is not allowed to jump on the counter tops and lick thawing chicken..
The other day, she was MIA for over 12 hours. Very unlike my little homebody. I was weepy and remorseful for pitching her out after peeing in the dining room. I just knew she had met her demise, lonely and sad...I was bereft...
Then, leaving for errands, she prances in the front door, hollering at me for her dinner/breakfast/lunch....
Oh, Miss Kitty.....My little Phoenix......