Judith & James

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  

                                                                      James 1:27

When I first learned of Anna Taylor, founder and CEO of Judith & James, I was instantly drawn to her story, as I am drawn to anyone that shares the same heart song; a passion for fashion and a compassion for those in need.  What really drew me in though, was not the connection in our callings, but a rather significant difference. I am a little over a decade older than her and I was absolutely amazed by her complete willingness and courage to say YES.  She provided the time, the drive, and the dedication to see the opportunity and the dream, all the way through to a physical entity and reality.  

In 2010, at the age of 19, she made a choice out of pure obedience to Christ to use what He had given to her to care for widows and orphans. Even at 29, I remember still struggling to make decisions out of pure obedience! But there was no hesitation for her, no second guessing.

When I asked her why she acted upon it as a teenager, instead of planning to do something later after she finished school or started on her career path, she replied,

                "I knew that the time was now and I had an open door when the pastor in the slums offered for me to come and re-start the sewing training program for widows.  When there is an open door, you walk through it." 

Oh, but silly me, how could I have expected any other answer when your parents have been the admirable example of service, care, and love, when they said YES in 2007 and moved their entire family from Little Rock, Arkansas to Nairobi to start Go Near Ministries.  They spent several years living there and continue to return numerous times throughout the year to aid impoverished women and orphans surviving the slums.

 

Anna moved to the states to attend college and in 2010, flew back into familiar Kenya. It was then that she was introduced to Judith, an extremely skilled, but unemployed seamstress living in Nairobi.   Anna began using her knowledge from the fashion world to design pieces for Judith to sew and then brought those finished fabrications back to the U.S. to sell to friends and classmates.  Those designs sold out so quickly that Anna sought out local suppliers and industry experts in Africa and then took an internship in product line design with Amani Ya Juu.

Anna has now showcased her beautiful pieces not only at the Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week, but debuted the Judith & James Spring/Summer 2014 Collection at New York Fashion Week.

There are now ten ladies in the intensive, eighteen month long, James127 Foundation sewing program, located at the Haven building in Nairobi.  Seven women are enrolled in a new jewelry program added just this last May.  Upon graduation, these women are offered positions with either the Judith & James company or with Judith & James' sister partner, Jimani JewelryCollections.

You'll be able to see a sneak peek of their newest constructions and creations in the upcoming Northwest Arkansas Fashion Week show, Walk this Way, to help support the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

                "I want courage to be communicated to the wearer.  The women in Kenya are so courageous every day.  The strength and courage of those women is translated through the clothing they hand make." 

Anna,  thank you for saying YES, for being courageous yourself, so that the stories of these inspiring and talented women can be told each time someone pulls a blouse off its hanger or slips a dress over their head.

 

If you would like to add a few of  Judith & James' strikingly beautiful pieces to your wardrobe, they are available for purchase at their website or you can help by sponsoring a student in the James127 training program.  You can also keep up with what's new on their blog or the Judith & James facebook page!

David Fernandez

"No eyes, just white spaces."

David Fernandez got a taste for art when the fury of fumes from the can settled like dew on his lips.  At fifteen, David and his brother, along with some friends, painted the streets of Oaxaca, Mexico.  Although, instead of painting by moonlight in dark clothes and ski caps, his group, Arte, was welcomed in broad daylight.  Those in the neighborhoods clamored for their next mural.  This larger-than-life graffiti literally gave life to an otherwise dying area.  They covered walls of broken down buildings with messages of hope, stories of the streets, but always with the beauty of a hero, a rescuer.  "I have always been very good at depicting loud aggressive facial expressions...Art has always been a window for me."  A freeing release of dreams via canvas, an entire wall, or a song.

David realized he had a knack for art by the time he reached 6th grade.  He tried his hand at a city-wide drawing contest among elementary students.  The task was Oaxaca's native pride and joy, President Benito Juarez.  He won first place and was offered a scholarship to an art school.  His parents weren't keen on the idea and decided it would be best for him to pursue the arts they viewed as beneficial.  They enrolled him in piano, which he tolerated, but yearned to play the guitar.  They gifted him a pair of top-of-the-line skates, in which he quickly sold to buy his first electric guitar and tiny amp to accompany it.  The only thing he lacked was a willing and excellent instructor that didn't charge for his services. 

He found exactly that in his childhood friend who not only knew how to play the guitar excellently, but who also happened to be blind.  He had grown up in the orphanage that his father's church operated and was the first orphan to call it home. David saw music in an entirely new light.  The wind whistled in this new opened window, and blew the sheet music of the piano lessons to the back of his mind.  He learned to play solely by sounds and the variations of the vibration pulsing through his fingertips.  He couldn't get enough, and would practice for hours on end, most days tallying up at least six.

David and his brother started up a metal band that promoted a drug-free, non-violent lifestyle that attracted so many youth to his father's church, they outnumbered the adults by over one hundred.  They began teaming up with other bands, performing at downtown squares and drawing some 2,500 attendees per night.  The government contacted the band with an offer to fund the concerts if they would just keep offering that positive message to the city's youth.  By the third year, bands from the United States and as far as New Zealand were flown in to join the collaborative concerts on the government's dime.  They received an invitation to the U.S. to record their first album.  Everything was in place, planned out, packed, and ready to go, but God had other plans, their visa was denied.  In utter disappointment, he re-lived the same moment when the art school painfully slipped from view. 

David went back to school and worked on finishing up his graphic design degree.  The band never fully recovered from the blow and they all agreed it would be best to hand it off to the next generation of passionate artists that might ignite the flame back into it.  On the other hand, surrendering the band life gave him much more time to pursue the beautiful American girl that came with her dad every summer to help out at the orphanage.  She was eight when she spent her first summer carrying a different mother-less baby on her hip each hour.  It was another eight years before David took notice of her and coincidentally, his volunteering at the orphanage increased considerably.  They married in Mexico in 2007 and had two children of their own, a girl and then a boy and felt God had plans for them back in the United States.  A visiting pastor from the Midwest invited them to stay at a home just across the street from his church.  This time, his visa was approved.  After just four months of calling the U.S. home, David and his wife found out they were expecting their third child.  Halfway into the pregnancy they were told that the baby had severe heart and brain malformations.  His daughter was born at a children's hospital, known for their premiere pediatric heart center, just a few hours away from their home. 

As he sat next to her bedside, barely able to see any exposed skin, every inch covered in tubes and tape, he found himself utterly disappointed with God once again.  Surgery after surgery, missing death by mere  millimeters and milliseconds, he sat and watched, and no prayers escaped his lips.  After two weeks in a lost daze, he found a few art supplies at the hospital.  He began to sketch and in the months that followed, in this white, sterile and sanitized home away from home, God revealed Himself in those renderings.  All the things that had happened to him over the years that seemed like disappointments were actually His Hands sketching the direction and will for his life.  David's apology to His Maker and Keeper became the awakening of his art.

"No more white spaces, the eyes are filled."  

David now plays for The Ancient Plan, follow him and his band on facebook for upcoming concert dates! 

Delve Photography

"Well, Melissa, what can't you do?",  I jokingly inquired. 

Melissa Vanderlinden is the kind of girl that can do just about anything, and not just do it, but do it well.  If I had known her in high school, I'm almost positive we would have been enemies due to envy.  Luckily, I met her in my thirties, and avoided missing out on some serious fun.  She's a real girl, and when I say real girl, I mean she is just exactly that.  She wears her heart on her sleeve, but it is one of the most genuine, authentic, and intricate garments I've ever seen someone wear.  She is sincere, yet frank, and I think that is why I and so many others can completely be ourselves around her and just be real.

Melissa is the owner of Delve Photography, and just when you think that a snap shot couldn't get any better, she showcases another that you could sit and stare at for hours.  This is what makes her a true artist, as if art is organically woven into her very makeup.  You couldn't separate it from her any easier than you could separate a strand from DNA.  In fact, when I asked her how she first became interested in the arts, her response was full of words like, "genetic, organic, and natural". Melissa comes from a family of artists.  She began playing the piano at age 4,  was leading worship at age 16, and wrote and recorded her first album at the age of 19.  Her endless artistic abilities had outsiders and onlookers captivated, but her young impressionability had her skipping through every social and tiptoeing through every tune, only to hurry back to jump through the hoops she hand-made herself. 

She lost a sense of direction, a pre-mature mid-life crisis, at age 25, unsure of who she was, and unable to choose a course.  Her childhood and teen years were full of prepared paths, opportunities and open doors waiting to be seized. Set on cruise-control, she speed past teachers and advisors pointing and waving her on with their giant foam fingers in the right direction.  It wasn't until after Melissa was married and in her mid-twenties that she turned the engine off and got out of the car.  It was on this outer road where the pressures and persuasions dimmed.  The loud humming from the wheels of acclamation and applause gave way to the sound of her own two feet hitting the pavement.  It was here that she discovered photography. 

I was expecting her to answer my question with a long list of classes and courses, possibly an internship or apprenticeship where she learned all about things like aperture and bounce light, and filters and saturation.  To my surprise, she majored in Biblical Archeology and learned everything she knows about photography by perusing blogs and browsing through books.  She admits that photography is a challenge and where she is probably the least comfortable out of all of her many artistic endeavors, but that is exactly the reason she follows it.  She explains, "I like the feeling of drawing something out of someone and capturing their true personality.  I love telling a story through the lens." 

 

Melissa has this natural ability to illuminate the real essence of a subject in a mere click of a button and  occasional flash.  She just keeps it real, because, well, she's a real girl, and "What can't she do?"  

If you would like Melissa to help you tell your story, visit Delve Photography's website or find out what's new via her facebook page!   

Scroll down to view just a sprinkling of Melissa's portfolio, and she is also our fashion photo shoot guru, check out the projects she has collaborated on with lucky ol' me at Dreams of Perfect Design including, Humility 101, Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend, and Power Trip.

 
 

 

 

Bedstemor

Bedstemor redefined the word, "redemption", for me. It gives a voice to the crushed, the mundane, the overlooked. I have always known that God redeems, but never did I fully comprehend that he redeems not because he has pity on us or must be charitable because humanity requires him to. He redeems because we are worth the ransom, worthy to be bought back, worth the payment. I saw a bit of myself in every single character of the book, and it was only because Bedstemor was so richly and deeply written. There were many times, that a particular event or feeling was brought to mind that was stuffed somewhere deep in my subconscious. This book had a way of drawing these recollections out and lay them open and raw for God to redeem and recover them. No one's story is too boring, too humdrum, or too uninteresting. Regardless of your story, whether it's closer to Anni's, Mor's, Andrew's, or Far's, it's a "Life Worth Sharing"!

I wrote this review after reading my friend's first novel, Bedstemor, which means grandmother in Danish.  I met with Esther Hawkins for a cup of tea, late one evening, after the kids were tucked into bed.  We chatted about our kindergartners and what the coming week held and then plopped down in cozy armchairs by the warm light of a table lamp to discuss her story, Anni's story. 

"It all started 12 years ago, while I was in England for a visit with my Mum and Dad, all of us piled into the car to take a short weekend getaway trip to a nearby cottage.  On the way back home, my Mum began telling stories of when she was a little girl, growing up on an old coal barge with no electricity or plumbing.  All three of us, her adult children, sat in the back seat, in silence, jaws dropped to the floor.  I thought to myself, I'm 22 years old, why have I never heard these memories before?"    

She pressed her mother to write the stories down so she could share them with her own children someday.  But then life and death happened...Esther married... then became pregnant with her first child...Grandad passed away...and the stories still hadn't met paper yet.  She then had a dream where she waved to her grandfather who was happily gardening and then turned around to see Bedstemor coming down a flight of stairs.  She ran up the steps to meet her in the middle, collapsed into her arms, and began weeping.  She awoke still shaking and sobbing; grieving for her Bedstemor, not for her death, but grieving for the relationship that never was.  "I was 15 years old when Bedstemor died, but I only saw her a total of four times in my life, once when I was just a newborn." 

 
After the dream, she prodded her mother for more stories, so she could gather them up and compile them to give as holiday or birthday gifts.  She began e-mailing her with a question or two and then eagerly anticipated her response.  This went on for about a year, resulting in a few pages of questions and answers that she planned on turning into a historical account for the family. 

In the Summer of 2009, she went back to the mother land for a visit.  And again, late one night, cozied into armchairs, cups of tea in hand, in the warm light that seeped under a lampshade, began a conversation with her Aunt Liz, the youngest of Bedstemor's children.  In that conversation, she acquired a different viewpoint of her grandmother that she knew so little of.  When Esther returned home, she wasn't sure how she would tell Bedstemor's story or how to illustrate who she was. 

 

Over the next several months, Esther continued collecting information about her grandmother's life and began organizing those notes into chronological order.  And then life and death happened... She was pleasantly surprised when she found out she was expecting a third child and profoundly changed when she never heard the sound of her baby's heartbeat. 

While grieving the loss of life, she had a vision of herself opening a book  to read the first line..."I was five when it started...".  She knew then that her humdrum documentation of her grandmother was actually meant to be an inspired novel.  Each time she sat down in front of the computer screen, she asked God to tell her what to write and to show her when to write.  There were times she went an entire month without writing, but when she finally got a chance, she would write up to 12,000 words in just three hours.  What should have taken her three months to accomplish, took a mere nap time.  During these supernaturally charged writing flurries, she would read back through paragraphs and find herself looking up definitions of the words she just typed.  As each chapter took shape, she didn't know what the next  one would hold. 

Her due date of the miscarried child was fast approaching and when it arrived, she was preparing herself for the emptiness to swallow her up.  On that very day, she found out there was a new life growing within her.  Two years later to the date, Esther Hawkins had completed her first novel.  She never imagined it would be the answer to her question, "How can a tragic life that has already ended, be redeemed?" 

If you would like to read the answer to that question for yourself, you can find Bedstemor at Amazon.  You can also follow Esther on Facebook at LifeWorth Sharing  and on Twitter @EstherEHawkins.
 

 

 

 

Felicita Studios

 

"Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, all the time!", shouted my dad while holding up my arms in the air, wrists flopping and waving around.  He use to do that when I was pouting or suffering from a self-conscious moment.  A smile would begin to crack around my mouth and as much as I tried to hold it in, I would eventually burst out in laughter, even if it was solely at myself.

If I could give that memory a name,  I would write Janice Hawkins all over it.  She is a person that exudes joyfulness with  acceptance.  She  delivers encouragement with understanding.  She was the first person I shared the ideas of my blog with, not because we were the closest of friends, but because her name immediately popped into my mind when I was searching for a supportive safe haven.  I knew that she would give me sound solid advice that I could rest my feet on, yet push me to reach out to that inspired  limb dangling over the 100 foot commonplace cliff.

It's only fitting that her business, Felicita Studios, does exactly that.  Fourteen years ago, she was given a dream and a vision for a working art studio.  Felicita means "happiness" and is the beginning of the fulfillment of that vision.  She added Studios because she works with numerous mediums in multiple studios.  Her projects and designs reach into events, weddings, fashion, interiors and more, but she also refers to each item created as a studio in itself.

She explains,    "... a place or point of inspiration in the person wearing, using or giving the item. It may become the source of inspiration for an event, a wedding, an outfit or a room design. Whatever it draws out of you, I hope it creates happiness in your life.
I love to design and create, but my calling is to encourage and help people discover their passion. I want to inspire people to live beautiful lives by awakening and validating the creativity in them.

 

I am easily inspired and I believe there is a lot of healing that God brings in our lives as we lay our hands to artistic endeavors. When people create together, a sense of community is strengthened that crosses generations and life giving connections are made. It is my desire to inspire and challenge myself and others toward excellence in all things."

Janice has always been surrounded by creativity and naturally gravitated towards the arts as a child.  Her talented mother planted the inventive seed and her grandmother, aunts, and a very special high school art teacher nourished and watered it.  By using her artistic abilities as her ministry, God has pruned and shaped her in such a way as to yield fruit with each piece, commission, and service that comes out of Felicita Studios.  She has always prayed before beginning any artwork, but it was a pivotal moment when her prayers changed from, "Lord, help me to design this to the best of my ability", to "Be my hands, be my eyes, Lord, and design this through me to bless those that I am creating this for."   
When she realized she WAS the tool of the Creator,  instead of relying on her ability to use tools to produce an art piece; her art changed from her level of ability to His.  Janice has this crazy inexplicable ability to generate extraordinary things in small amounts of time.  I can't remember how many times I've asked her, "How long did it take you to do this?"  And every time she answers, I'm amazed.  Even in crunch time, in the midst of  frenzied flurries of fabric and ribbon, she tries to remember that her branches are cut back for a reason; so that she may rely on Him more to produce something that reflects Him more.  She tells me, "In art, when someone is critiquing the piece, they can either worship the artist, worship the image, or worship God." One of her greatest desires is that her artwork points up before it points back at herself.  This must be why I feel so comfortable, cheerful, and carefree in her presence.  I know that even if I'm scared to share an idea in fear of rejection or awkwardness, she grabs my spirit by the wrists, and lifts it up, in a smile-inducing song of happiness!

Meander through all of the beautiful pieces Felicita Studios has available to purchase at the website, on facebook, and at the new Etsy page.  If you would like a custom upcycled gown, accessory, painting, event or decor item, just join her at the studio for some brainstorming and a cup of tea.  If all you need is direction and a little creative coaching to help you achieve your dream wedding, event, or favorite space, join a DIY workshop at the location of your choice and invite anyone you want to share in your magical making!

Kite Flyer Art

"With everything in me, I believe that art is entirely relational. My greatest desire is to depict humanity in a way that would make us reconsider how we interact with everyday life. We spend every moment of our lives entangled in a world around us.  Art should serve the purpose of causing us to pause, view something abstracted from the “every-day,” and then return us to those entangled lives to evaluate what we’ve just seen in relation to the world."  --Christina Steele
 

I am honored to have my sister-in-law, Christina Steele, as the first feature artist for the Hearts in the Arts page.  Her work truly moves the spirit and echoes through the soul.   I asked her when she first started getting interested in art and she could not think of a time that creating has not been woven through her very being. She might just wither away if she wasn't allowed to create anymore, surely from lack of artistic oxygen.  She recalls, "My mom couldn't throw anything away.  I used to pull the Pringles cans out of the trash and then justify their residence in my art box, to be repurposed in the future as part of a project.  It drove her absolutely crazy!" 

Christina was born in 1985 and grew up in Colorado.  Her art became more disciplined and intentional around the age of twelve.  She encountered and struggled through several difficult life-changing events, which led to numerous religious ventures, but none so dramatically altering as the grace of the Gospel.  Her art no longer depicted her ache, but now rejoices in the exchange for freedom.  Her freedom is her flight.  Her flight is symbolized in Kite Flyer Art. 

"Kite Flyer Art was birthed out of an early childhood desire to fly. I was never more right with the world than when I dreamt of flying or felt a strong gust of wind rip under the thin plastic wings of my kite to send it soaring."  Christina's pieces are significantly symbolic and she tends to focus on depth and context.  She describes herself as a sort of creative chameleon and absorbs her surroundings and environment, in turn, her work often features a quote, passage, or excerpt from some other artist.  Every part of her testimony can be seen in her brush strokes and ink lines.  From her most recent canvas to her earliest sketchbooks, they all tell a sequential story. "I was driven to use art as a conduit to communicate a relationship I had with the Lord that had gone to the very depths of who I was and brought life. Brought flight."  

You can see Christina's graphite, ink, oil, and acrylic fine art on her Etsy page, Kite Flyer Art.  Stop by to take a peek at her latest endeavor in fiber arts, dying and painting up-cycled ballet pointe shoes.  Trust me, you'll want to see these beauties, both her mother and I agree that they are  much more elegant than Pringles cans!

Dictionaries and Desert Roses






Do you ever get a tiny hint of something that transports you back to a wonderful memory? A sort of super saturated déjà vu, a sort of running cannon ball into the deep pool of your five senses?  I LOVE those!  There has been just a few  times over the  years  that I have enjoyed these moments. One such moment occurred a  couple of years ago as I was walking up to my door on a clear night with a huge bright moon. A warm dry breeze blew up, bringing  with it a light floral sandy scent.  As soon as the aroma filled my nostrils, I was a kid again, on one of many family road trips across the U.S., riding in the back seat of my parents station wagon, windows down, my head resting on the door.   I stared at the bulging moon and brilliant stars, while my tangled hair whipped in the wind.  My breaths grew sleepy and rhythmic with the hum of the tires on the infinite stretch of highway that sliced the deserts of New Mexico, steeped with cactus blooms, and the settling of dust and dew.  It's hard to describe the tranquility I enjoyed marveling at the vast moving sky from the passenger's side of that '77 Buick road beast.  I wished on stars, talked to God, and dreamed up romantic fairy tales, all involving me of course and my middle school crush of the week.  I relished in the sight of the reflection of the moonlight in my mom's driving glasses and took comfort in watching my dad read road maps under the overhead light even though the pavement  wouldn't curve for miles.  My reminiscent moment was fleeting and I found myself inhaling and sniffing in every direction to get just one more memory inducing  whiff.  

There have been others too,  recently while roasting marshmallows in the fireplace with my kids, I had an ephemeral rapture back to the childhood bonfires we would have on the beach.  I laid belly down on my Little Mermaid towel, snug in a fuzzy sweatshirt, and stared into the flickering flame that reddened my cheeks.  I could taste the seashore in my cracked lips.  It tasted like building castles and searching for sand crabs and clinging to boogie boards.

I am now blessed with the beauty of the Midwest as my backyard, but still every now and then, God gives me a small taste of beauty from across the nation.  I haven't driven through the deserts or felt the sand between my toes in years, but I am thankful for the brief glimpse of natural beauty and creation, even if they only exist in my head. 

The natural tends to give us just a tiny peek, a delightful nibble of the supernatural.  Our gifts, our callings, our creative pouring, are compliments to His gifts.  They can praise and thank, or crave and ache, or testify and glorify, or influence and question, or even probe and dissect.  They are what our eyes see, our ears hear, our lips taste, and our hearts feel.  We all stop to smell the flowers in different ways and at different times, but the beauty of the flower remains the same.  We are naturally tied to creation, naturally intended to create, as our best mortal efforts to imitate the Creator.  I came across an insightful quote that was referenced in a book by Philip Yancey from a chapter titled God Loveth Adverbs. Lewis Smedes tells in his book, My God and I, about a Creator who,

liked elegant sentences and was offended by dangling modifiers.  Once you believe this, where can you stop?  If the Maker of the Universe admired words well put together, think of how he must love sound well put together, and if he loved sound thinking, how he must love a Bach concerto and if he loved a Bach concerto think of how he prized any human effort to bring a foretaste, be it ever so small, of his Kingdom of Justice and peace and happiness to the victimized people of the world.  In short, I met the Maker of the Universe who loved the world he made and was dedicated to its redemption.  I found the joy of the Lord, not at a prayer meeting, but in English Composition 101.

Whether it be writing, painting, singing, photographing, or any other form of creating, I would like to dedicate this page, "Hearts in the Arts", to all the gifted and talented individuals who are the only ones that can portray how they, themselves, stop to smell the flowers.