geisha 2 bento, originally uploaded by Sakurako Kitsa.
Go to Flickr to read the notes about what all was done to create this mini master piece.
Tea,Chinese Style, originally uploaded by ShamsD.
How cute would this be at a tea party?!
A Gift of Tea from Me, originally uploaded by Kimberly Shaw Graphics.
To you and I, a teacup may be a vessel for a lovely hot beverage, a dessert cup, even a basin for a flower arrangement, for Kimberly Shaw, they are works of art that adorn her own works of art and appear on the most precious, heart touching stationary and cards, I think, the tea world has ever seen. Each card has a matching tea bag so that the recipient can imbibe in a cuppa while reading your words of congratulations, comfort and/or encouragement.
Why not visit her Flicker site where you can see how she grew from a one woman art/craft project at Christmas time, to a warehouse full of boxes of tea and cards designed and painted by her. I hope this post gives encouragement to someone out there embarking on a journey of turning a passion into a profit.
I met my friend Christine at
I had Aged Earl Grey tea (whatever the aged part means) from Numi and a piece of quiche, not too good. Tasted kind of rubbery and was cold in the middle. Then, when my friend arrived, I had a chocolate chunk scone that was stale. She had a bagel.
It didn’t matter though that the food was only so-so, what mattered was that I was getting to visit with my friend and hear all the wonderful things, God has been doing in her life. If you’ll remember, Christine is the lady who taught me how to paint and in whose cookie tasting panel I had the honor of participating. Well, her cookies are taking off and the orders are coming in! Woohoo! I’m so excited for her! I though that perhaps her success had been over night when I was lamenting to her how slow things have been for me in getting started in what I feel the Lord wants me to do. Come to find out, she was given the cookie idea 5 years ago by the Lord and things are just now going from the ether of a dream to where she is walking in it however new and scary. She say things may have gone faster had she listened more carefully to what the Lord was trying to tell her but she also said she has learned a great deal on her journey. Her most powerful lessons seem, so far, to be in the arena of letting go of perfectionism. How many of us can relate to that? If we wait until all the lights are green before we start our journey, we may never reach our destination. Now, I’m not saying a person should not have a plan. What I am saying is that one must be flexible enough to let go of that plan or change it should the Lord lead one in a different direction.
To contact Christine about he wonderful cookies, you may reach her here
Christine(at)ABakersDozenOnline(dot)com
It looks like her website for her cookie biz may not be up yet. To view pictures of her fabulous cookies, click HERE
Last Saturday, I was invited over to a friend’s home to participate in a cookie focus group. My friend Christine, used to be a One Stroke painter at Michael’s a local craft store. You may have heard of them, ha, ha. Anyway, I was struggling a couple of years ago with learning One Stroke. If you’ve never painted before, it can be quite confusing. I took some classes from her and wow, my painting improved so much, it was amazing. Christine has a great gift for organization and for using the computer to make great diagrams and teaching aids. I still have them all and refer to them on occasion. Back to the cookies.
So I, and ten other ladies (the twelfth was too sick to attend) showed up and sat around a table tasting and rating cookies. Christine had this great form she created where we rated each cookie on appearance, taste and texture. I am not blessed with the gift of organization or even one for reading directions. I didn’t even know how to fill out the form, but in some fairness and explanation, I had put my contacts in that day and THOUGHT I had forgotten my readers. I was unable to read parts of the form. Found the readers later as I was leaving, in the bottom of my purse. The cookies were great! They tasted good and looked lovely. Here are a couple of photos and a link to her site so you can see more great photos of painted cookies. I feel so blessed to have been a part of this event. From humble beginnings, grow mighty things. Someday I’ll be able to say, ‘I knew her when’.
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Went to a friend’s home today. This lovely lady taught me how to make sense of the painting instructions I was using. She has a studio in her basement! How fun! Her world is filled with beauty and so is mine from knowing her. Here is a link to her website where she has a gallery page featuring some of her work.
Here are some pics of my day.
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The beginnings of my first attempt at a mountain landscape. I have a lot of learning to do.
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The lady next to me was painting a scene on a bunny. Here are the aspens on his back and on the front, she painted purple columbines.
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