Our town in color. Enjoying what we have.

Ok dear ladies here I am again showing off my life and the colors of it. 

My town is fairly small and not to close to much and so there are days where it can feel dreary, so I am dedicating this post to "my colorful little town" ~ . The past 4 days have been a religious holiday here everything was closed for a few days and our kids had a 5 day weekend so our family went out yesterday and hit the town to try and find something new to do. Today, Wednesday is the last day of Kurban Bayram.

This is what we found to enjoy:

Each other! 

A sunny fall day. 

Horse drawn carriage (mind you it is an ugly work horse but still a carriage).

Homemade crocheted items displayed that celebrate Turkish creativity and style.

Sweet delights like: feeding the birds or finding a small pet store.

Balloons, that my kids seemed to be mesmerized by at every corner. 

Isn't this crocheted baby blanket beautiful?

I also love the scarf my daughter is modeling!

This is a picture of our downtown before the crowds hit. Turkey is typically a late night culture and so anything before noon on weekends or Holidays is out of the question. :) 

Our horse drawn carriage ride was full of laughter, cars almost re-ending us, 

a slippery seat that kids kept falling off of and an ultimate success experience! 

It is easy to allow discontentment to creep into my heart and thoughts. This post is for me because I am grateful and I want to say it and see it, even if I am struggling feeling it, I know it will help cultivate sweet joy in my heart. This post is about me enjoying where I am and what I have. I want to stop wanting more than I have and enjoy thoroughly what is around me, to notice the small pleasures that are there to eyes full of contentment. Often my attitude dictates what my eyes see. ~

Today what do you see? :)

"Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation. My soul wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him." Ps. 62:1,5

I hope you have enjoyed a few moments into our (my) world. Until next time...

In my colorful west corner, 

Becky

I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY, WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH." PHIL. 4:12,13

Homemade name puzzle and frame

Here is my Guest post from over at SUN SCHOLARS.  Sun Scholars is such a fun blog for moms with young kids. Rachel has GREAT ideas and is featured all over bloggy land. I love her Sharpie tie-dying and her activity tray ideas I felt honored to be guest posting for her. If you have never visited her blog and you have youngsters I suggest you do. :)

My two older girls attend the Turkish schools here during the school year. So Summer time is our time to work on English, unless of course we want our children reading & writing like Tarzan, summer school is a must.(no offense Tarzan) I am always trying to find ways that work for each of my girls learning styles.  

One of my girls is very visual and the other kinestatic (shes a mover). So I went to work at creating a puzzle that could help them learn. The Turkish language is very phonetical and so my oldest daughter struggles with spelling in English...especially our last name. :) Schneider. Thus the last name puzzle was born:

How I made our 
Homemade 'last name' puzzle:

I prepared the letters on construction paper and used
a large piece of card stock to start off the process.


Also Mod Podge is not available here (someone gave this to me, lucky me!!).
Before mod podge arrived at my house
I would make home made mod podge:
 using white glue and water to water it down a bit.

I glued each letter to the construction paper 

I had cut and prepared.

After cutting the card stock to a size I liked,
it was time for some mod podging .


I applied the first coat and let it dry and then applied the second coat.

Again I cut the card stock to size.

I free handed the puzzle pieces on the back. 

I started with large pieces and then drew a line 

down the middle to create smaller pieces.

The mistakes I made on this first puzzle is that not all the pieces were nobs. 

(the green arrow above points to what I mean by nob) As I do it again I will do it all this way.

I cut the pieces with an X-acto knife into 

the random pieces on my cutting mat.

Tada, Tadum delightful puzzle pieces. 

I could stop here. However I wanted a frame for the puzzle.

Follow on down to view the

 2nd part of this tutorial.

Homemade puzzle Frame:

*For the frame I used a piece of sturdy cardboard that

I have from one of the cardboard boxes I am hording collecting.

*I measured the size of my 'lastname' puzzle and marked accordingly on my cardboard frame to be. 

I then used my X-Acto knife and cut out the center.

*I glue gunned a piece of card stock for the backing. 

I did try my puzzle pieces several times to assure

they would fit properly and without bulging.

Something I added at the last minute was to add some color 

to the inside of the frame (the backing) where the pieces fit.

I color coded them.  

You will see the example of this if you scroll down to the finished product.

The above and following pictures are the fun part; 

making it visually fun. 

The above and following pictures are the fun part; 

making it visually fun. 

I am a dot lover. 

 After I decorated it, 

I then put modge podge on it one more time for a shine.  

Here is the end result. 

Pure visual, manipulative learning fun.

Ok ~ so you can tell it's the one that looks homemade among our puzzle stash.  However, I am willing to bet this one wins out on the amount of love given when being made. ;) Plus I think homemade is super cool.

*I am also in the process of creating a few more puzzles to fit into this same diy frame:

phone number, address etc.

Thanks for allowing me to share a bit of our cultural life and learning with you all.  

Much care from our little corner of Turkey.

Again check out Sun Scholars and expect some fun stuff for kids.

From my corner ~ using what I have to create.

Becky

"I HAVE LEARNED THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION, WHETHER WELL FED OR HUNGRY, WHETHER LIVING IN PLENTY OR IN WANT. I CAN DO EVERYTHING THROUGH HIM WHO GIVES ME STRENGTH." PHIL. 4:12,13

GIVEAWAY: Little flower Garlands and EBRU Art

This Giveaway is now closed. (edited 7/30/2011)

I feel so privileged to be doing this giveaway; this giveaway is for all of you who are following/subscribing to my blog in some way. I want to say thank you for being a part of this journey with me in Turkey.  This is my way to support my friend and to celebrate Turkish art and creativity. Enjoy and have fun.
(If you are not following/subscribing yet and want to be apart of this giveaway, just become a follower or subcribe by e-mail or one of the other options on the right side of my blog.)

There are 2 giveaways. 

1) Two little red crochet flower garlands ~ made by my dear friend Ayten.

2) An original piece of 'Paper Marbling' art ~ by: Mehmet, who lives right here in our town.

You can sign up for both giveaways!!!(please do) :)
This is an international giveaway.

Here is the 1st Giveaway~

Description:
There are two red flower garlands. The longer of the two is 5.2 ft with the slightly bigger flowers. The shorter of the two is 4.5 ft. and has a small flowers.  They are both a vibrant red.  They would bring energy to any little girls room or a sweet splash of color to any room. ~ These sweet things were made by one of my dear Turkish friends here.  She lost her job and has started trying to sell her crochet items to help bring in some funds for her family.

Win it: in order to win these sweet crochet garlands:
1) Leave a comment below.
2) Leave a way for me to contact you and tell me how you are following/subcribing (ex: blogger/e-mail/google etc.)
Optional~ share this link (by facebook or e-mail) and you will win a 2nd vote. Just let me know what you did.
(My hope is for my friend Ayten to benefit from this Giveaway ~ please help me help her!)
Buy it:
If you would like one of these fun garlands in a certain color and would love to buy from someone who you know it would benefit here in Turkey this is how to do it. :)  We are selling 10 extra flower garlands.  The price is $7.00 for the short one and $8.00 for the long one through paypal. You pick the size of flower and the color out of the 5 color options we will give. Please contact me by leaving a comment or via my e-mail which is at the top of the page and more details will be sent. We ship internationally! Cost for shipping $1.50.
  *** ALL proceeds will go to my dear friend Ayten. I would love to see all 10 get sold!

Here is the 2nd Giveaway ~

I have this fascination with paper marbling. In Turkish it is called EBRU.  Every piece of art is unique and the process of Ebru is mesmerizing to watch.  Check out this post (click here) for some wonderful pictures of Ebru in action, it is created in water.  I want this  Giveaway to be a way for me to give into the culture I am living in and to give to you who are following, a piece of Turkish art and creativity.  This piece of art was made right here in my little town by an Ebru artist.  I LOVE this one and wouldn’t mind keeping it for myself.

Description:   An original piece of paper marbling art (Ebru) Tulips on a light green and white background.  Also included is a description of paper marbling and where and how it originated. The picture above does not do it justice.(remember it was created in water)

Win it: In order to win this orignal piece of Ebru art:
1.  Leave a comment below sharing with us which country you have always wanted to visit.
2. Leave a way for me to contact you and tell me how you are following/subcribing (ex: blogger/e-mail/google etc.)


Optional~ if you would like to win a 2nd vote please share this link (facebook /e-mail) and let me know you did :) Thanks


WIN BOTH: If you want to sign up for both giveaways: just state that in your comment and make sure you share with us which country you have always wanted to visit and follow the rest of the instructions given above.

Giveaway ends: July 29th, 2011at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be chosen randomly. The winners have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

What I might do with the items:

(if they were mine :))

~ Again thanks to each of you for being a small and big part of my life. It is joy to have gotten to know new friends through blogging as well as having friends and family from afar be able to keep up with me. Much care and love to all of you, can't wait to see who wins. :)

All for now from my west corner of Turkey ~Becky

Spring Crocheted Bookmarks

Are these not just so sweet

and perfect for Spring.

I asked my dear feind here if she would make me some crocheted bookmarks. I told her what I was thinking and she made these fun and pretty bookmarks for me so I could give them as gifts. I bought 10 off her and have sent 4 off in the mail already.  

Many Turkish women crochet and knitt and need no pattern. My friend does an amazing job of croching and knitting. She recenlty lost her job and has begun putting her efforts towards her hand work.  

Please keep your eyes pealed for more of my friends work.  I will be show casing some of her pieces  as a part of  my 'Celebrating Turksih Creativity' and eventually give a way a few pieces of her work later this Spring/early Summer. 

I was gone for a week at a conference and some R & R and decided to take a week break from the internet also. We were close to one of the Greek Istands so we popped over there for a day. :) It was an adventure. I will hopefully post some pics in the next week of our time.  

Glad to be back and look forward to blogging again. :) 

I hope you all had a great EASTER. 

Simply Beautiful ~ EBRU

Beauty is simplicity to me. 

I love the simple things in life. 

I especially love color in all it's ranges. 

This post is celebrating the beauty of Turkish Creativity. 

Enjoy the color.. and enjoy Turkey for a moment too.

This last weekend we as a family went to a Muesum here in our city and there is a husband and his wife who do traditional Turkish art called paper marbling or in Turkish EBRU.  I have included pictures to record how fasinating and beautfiul it is.  Everything they use is natural and each piece is unique, no two pictures are the same. 

EBRU (marbling paper): is the art of transferring the patterns prepared on the surface of the water to a sheet of paper.

The girls are so interested and I love that they were able to sit so close and watch everything.

Here he is flicking differnt colors of paint unto the surface of the prepared water.

He uses differnt tolls, like a scredriver to move the colors around.

Tulips originated from Turkey. Tulips are literally everywhere in the spring here.
Usually the paintings are of differnt colors of tulips.

This is just a normal piece of paper where the image will be transferred onto.

Simply Beautiful!

Autty gave this gentlemen a flower (weed) she had picked so he gave her his demenstration picture.

What a great gift for her. It is very fitting since she herself is a rainbow of colors and creativity.

If you can see there are lots of paintings in the background done by him, his wife and daughter.
The pictures range from 10 lira to 60 lira.  They are amazing.

These are both demenstration pictures, they end up selling the demenstration ones for just 10 liras.

(About 7 U.S. dollars)

The more expensive ones are flawless and have an amazing range of color and detail. I would like to go back and buy one but these two are for the girls for now. The experience was an absolute joy.

When we got home I kept thinking about how we too could try marabling,  we ended up with some fun prints of our own...but that is for next time. :)

Update:  

Paper marbling with shaving cream. Check out our experiment at home with paper marbling. 

It was a lot of fun.

Click  here to visit our marabling with shaving cream post.

 I have been considering doing a GIVE AWAY based on 'Celebrating Turkish Creativity'.  I thought these paintings might be a good option.

Tell me what you think? 

 I would love to know if others would want an origanl Paper Marbaling piece of their own from Turkey?