by Amy | Dec 5, 2013 | Blog, Crafts, The Art of Gathering, The Art of Projects, The Art of the Kitchen, The Art of the Moment
Did you have a happy Thanksgiving?
I sure did.
As most of my holidays go, the day revolved around being in the moment with family and friends. Oh, and it also involved quite a bit of food too. I’m a big fan of eating later in the day so that there isn’t a big rush with baking the turkey. It also takes away the need for a second giant meal of the day…we do dinner, pie, tea, games and bed time. Eating at dinner time {instead of that awkward 2pm “lunch”} gave everyone time for a little Thanksgiving activity time.
For Derek and my dad that meant time in the field hunting. For mom and me it meant time at the gym for a little turkey trot {aka an hour on the treadmill.} Of course we were home in time for THE parade.
You like the place setting in the photo above? I thought you might. I bought a new {cheap} table cloth from Target’s Threshold line. I just love that stuff. Then I topped it off with a runner made from some unhemmed gingham fabric I had in the basement. My favorite part of the table was the place mats I whipped up. They are paper bags I ran through the printer {cut to 8.5″ x 16″ long} with this adorable free printable. Paper bags! {And you know how I like paper bags.}
On the menu:
An herb rubbed turkey stuffed with sliced apples. It was just enough sweet. Mashed potatoes mashed with nonfat Greek yogurt, milk, chicken bullion, garlic and green onions. Homemade yeast rolls that Mom and I worked on throughout the afternoon. Jiffy corn casserole {it’s a classic, but I sub Greek yogurt for the sour cream called for in the recipe.} Sweet potatoes with cinnamon and pecans. Apple butter. And the prettiest part of our meal, apple cider sangria. Thanksgiving and Christmas are two of the few days of the year I have a glass of wine, and I can’t think of much prettier than this sangria with pieces of apple floating in the glass. And since Derek doesn’t drink at all {ever} he had his non alcoholic. Just cider with apples in a fancy glass. {Which means this can be a fancy drink for the whole family.}
As much as I like cooking and setting the table, my favorite part of the day is sharing a meal with a table full of people I adore. After the meal comes something I like even more than eating…games. Then of course, hot beverages {tea, coffee, cocoa} and pie. Between activities there is lots of chatter, story telling and foolery. I love the rhythm of Thanksgiving at our house.
Where’s my mom? Probably on the couch with Derek and me…occupying my dad’s lap after dinner was his “lap” dog.
This year was very special because the living room was taken over by the chalkboard for mini sessions. But for us it only added to the merriment because it meant that I could take Katie and Sean’s Christmas photos. Here’s a peek. You’ll have to wait a few days for the rest…
xo Amy
by Amy | Nov 25, 2013 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
If you are a fan of the Facebook page, you may have seen a small post about a super secret mini session I did a week ago. Well…the secret is out! And now you get to see the big reveal.
Some dear friends are expecting baby #2. You may recognize baby #1 from her pumpkin patch session, family photos, cake smash…She’s so stinkin’ cute, I can only imagine what the next one will be like!
So darn cute. This session alone proves that my giant chalkboard was so worth the effort. And if you like this, just wait until you see the Christmas sessions I shot this weekend! Adorbes.
Amy
by Amy | Nov 22, 2013 | Blog
I know it’s late. I had a crazy day. And there are a couple more crazy days ahead. That’s okay, though. Crazy days mean you are doing something. No one calls a day spent on the couch binge watching Park & Recreation “crazy.” A day is only crazy when you’ve done a lot of things. Personally, I’d take a crazy day any day.
But seeing that it is late. Late on the night of November 21st…I thought it would only be appropriate to talk about what happens at midnight tonight. The Catching Fire movie premiere!!
Guilty, I’m a big time Hunger Games fan. Okay, I’m a fan of a lot of teen-ish fiction. I like stories that aren’t too deep. I like stories that I can’t put down, with easy words, and plots that aren’t 100% realistic. And, since they are for teenagers, usually they aren’t full of sex or misguided “ideals” of marriage. Those are hot buttons for me. I love good, Godly marriages and I’ll defend them to the death. To the death I say.
Okay, I’m done ranting.
Anyway. Hunger Games, tonight! Awesome. So I thought we’d spend some time drooling over some HG inspired things buzzing right now.
Let’s start here. Cover Girl has a “Capitol Beauty Studio” line out. The site is awesome. Every district has a specific look based on their industry. Every look is broken down so you can recreate it at home…it even includes a way to tone down the look into something you can wear outside the Capitol.
On the craftier side of things, let’s revisit my old blog for a little mocking jay action. When the first movie released I had a crafting party with a couple friends. I still love my mocking jay pin and head band. Oh, and check out my red hair…Click over for my HG’s crafts.
Now food. Of all the Hunger Games food in the world, I think I love these cupcakes from Erica’s Sweet Tooth most of all. I like them because they are doable. No making a frosting mocking jay here. That’s got fail written all over it. You should go to her site, it’s got adorable all over the place.
What’s a Hunger Games post without plugging the best part of this franchise? Jennifer Lawrence! I have a major girl crush on her. She’s so awkward, so talented, so real. I love a good awkward girl. And this one takes the cake. Here is a gallery of Awkward JL photos.
But let’s be honest. The downside of the Catching Fire premiere is that it will only last a couple hours. Then it’s back to waiting. Oh, what to do, what to do in the mean time. I’d say, you should find a new book to love. My I kindly recommend one of these?
Divergent {series of three books}. The Maze Runner {again, series of three…looove this one!!} Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Or, if you want something more adult for a change, you should read Unbroken. It’s a true story, and it’s amazing. I’m 150 pages in and it’s just blowing my mind.
by Amy | Nov 20, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Faith
Today is a continuation of yesterday‘s post. If you missed yesterday, start by reading that here.
In this post, I’ll be giving an over view of the ins and outs of our ministry. To start with, we are focused on the women working in the strip clubs in Williston, ND. Technically, the Dakota Pearls mission statement is to:
Love women and help them discover their full potential.
Basically that means that we love all women. All of them. We have left ourselves room to grow, but for now the focus is on the two clubs in the center of the oil boom. And speaking of the clubs…they look like this. Side by side on Main Street in Williston. Tiny. Hole-in-the-wall. But we like it.
We went to visit the clubs last weekend to see if management would even be okay with us starting to come with gifts and such. Thankfully, that visit went well. The staff was welcoming, and we learned a lot. Things like there are about 20 girls working in each club and a set of male bar tenders, bouncers and DJ’s. One manager told us that every single person working there was from out of state or out of country. Every single one. What better opportunity to show these folks, who are away from their families, love and kindness? I can’t think of a group of people more vulnerable to the power of raw, no-strings-attached love.
Okay. Next question. What exactly are we planning on doing? As I told you yesterday, this is a gifting ministry. Again, that was explained in the other post…you can read it here. So the plan is to go once per month with gift bags for the ladies and gentlemen working in the clubs. We are hoping to distribute the gifts to the ladies in the dressing room as they come in to start their shifts. Because the clubs are small we are also offering free makeup services to the clubs when we visit. Heartbreakers told us they were too small to allow for extra people milling around the dressing room. Whispers looked hopeful on that front.
Why makeup? That’s easy. The job inside a club is to look pretty. Makeup brings out a woman’s natural beauty, makes them feel beautiful, and shows the clubs that we have no intention of shutting down their business by offering a service that helps business instead of hurting it. Offering makeup services also give us a little one-on-one time with each woman. And that’s the biggest bonus of all, because we genuinely care about each of them and are interested in their lives and developing a relationship with them.
Let’s see…what’s in the bag? This is what our bags look like. For our ladies we’ll be bringing girly goodies like nail polish, lotion, lip gloss, good candies. We also want to be sure our gifts have a personal touch that demonstrates that time and care have been put into making them…so we’ll also include things like homemade baked goods and hand written notes. For the men, we’ll pack up manly things…like venison jerky and sweets from our church ladies.
Why Williston? Aren’t we in Minot? Great question. Yes, Dakota Pearls is based in Minot while the clubs we are working with are in Williston. Williston is about 2 hours straight west of Minot. A few years ago Minot’s very own strip clubs got shut down. Now city ordinances don’t allow them in the town. So we are going where the business is booming.
The clubs in Williston have gotten a reputation for being the busiest and highest grossing in the country, due to all the men flocking to the Williston area for jobs in the oil fields and construction sites. This has tapered off a bit, some of the reputation may have been only myth all along. But the clubs are still busy and women are coming to work in them from all over the country.
Tomorrow night we’ll be having our first “packing party.” It should be fun. I’ll be sure to take some photos and let you know how it all goes. We are excited to love on these men and women who are away from family, living in a {very} small Practically Canadian town. Again, the objective is unbiased friendship. We are in no way looking to upset business or close down these establishments. We are only hoping that these acts of kindness will let them know that they are valued and leave them wanting to know the One who inspired us to go there in the first place.
On a totally different note, it’s snowing hard enough here that my Wednesday night church-tivities have been cancelled. Have a lovely evening. And stay cozy.
Amy
by Amy | Nov 19, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Faith
A long time ago I told you about a ministry I felt called to get rolling up here in Practically Canada. In case you missed it, you can read the full post here.
In case you’ve forgotten, I’ll give you a brief refresher course.
More than a year ago I became aware of a big time boom in the adult entertainment industry in North Dakota, due in large to the oil/construction book that is taking place up here. After praying and Googling I found an organization called Strip Church. They specialize in training and supporting ministry outreaches that work with women in the sex industry. {Namely at strip clubs.} I attended a training conference to learn up on all things strip club, and came home with the tools needed to spearhead this effort locally.
I worked for months trying to get things in line. But everything moved slowly. More slowly than I anticipated. Spring turned to summer, turned to fall and still we weren’t in the clubs.
You’ve flown a kite, right? Think about standing in the yard, or the field or wherever you are with your kite. You stand there, waiting. Because you can’t fly a kite with no wind. So you wait. Then, all at once the wind picks up and you’ve got to run to get your kite to catch it. It’s exhausting, but eventually the wind catches and you can stand still, catch your breath and guide it as it flies.
That’s kind of how getting our ministry off the ground has been. Nothing….then suddenly…wind. So I’ve been running with it. It’s been tiring and stressful, and has taken me away from writing as much as I like, but it’s worth the run. I presented the idea to our congregation and received overwhelming support. A group of more than 30 have volunteered to participate, and even more have been kind enough to make donations to the cause. My hope is that after we get an outreach routine established it’ll be more like guiding the kite than running with it, but for know I’m content to run.
So, yeah. It’s happening. For real. And if we haven’t talked face to face in a while {or ever} about this, I’m sure you are wondering how one goes about starting and outreach in the strip clubs. Let me explain.
First of all, our North Dakota outreach is called Dakota Pearls. The name comes from the fact that we believe we can all be made into precious gems through Christ…no matter how lowly our beginnings. After all, a pearl starts with nothing more than a single piece of dirt.
Dakota Pearls is a “gifting” ministry. This means that we are not about slinging Bibles, judging, demanding that these ladies come to church or quit their jobs. Instead we will approach them with dignity, respect, and gifts. Physical, literal gifts without expecting anything in return. The giving of a no-strings-attached gift symbolizes that we love them, not because we want something from them…but because we value them as individuals. We will go to the clubs instead of asking them to come to us. Jesus never told the sinners to come to Him in His house. He went to their homes. He dined in the house of tax collectors, He spoke to prostitutes. A message of love {especially love from a stranger} is less awkward when you go to their home turf.
The mission is to instill in these women that they are valued for more than their bodies or what they are willing to do with their bodies. To show them that they have been created for a purpose. The mission is not to picket the clubs or even shut them down. That can be someone else’s mission. We are simply here to love and cherish these people.
The question I get most from people who are skeptical is: Why go to these women? They are making a lot of money and probably like it that way.
My answer is simple and backed by the research of people who study this industry. No one wants to make a living stripping. No amount of money is worth devaluing a woman.
This is not a life of dignity. Up to 90% of women working in clubs are current victims of sexual abuse or have been abused in the past. It’s estimated that around 85% of women working in the clubs would like to leave the industry, but feel trapped. Stripping is a gateway to heavier things, like prostitution and human trafficking.
Every person in this world is built with an eternal capacity. I wrote about that recently. Read the post here. Why shouldn’t my heart break over these souls as much as any other? Don’t tell me that there are plenty of people working safer, less grimy jobs that I could witness to. You go do that. I can do that too. A light seems brighter the darker the space. I went and visited with the club managers last weekend and I assure you, this field is ripe for the picking. These women are important. Just as important and worthy of saving as anyone else on the street.
To keep this from getting too long, I’ll cut off here. I’ve got a post ready for tomorrow that will continue to explain the ministry {sorry I got a little heated toward the end there.} That post will fully explain what our clubs are like, who is there, why they are making so much money, and what we plan to do on our first ever outreach visit! So be sure to come back.
Isn’t it funny that God called one of His most awkward, un-cool, un-club-scene servants for this task?
Amy
by Amy | Nov 15, 2013 | Blog, Crafts, The Art of Projects, The Art of the Moment
Thanks for the input on the upcoming Christmas sessions. I took your advice and made a giant chalkboard. Take a look.
My floor is a chalky mess, but it was worth it, because this is precious. Here’s the finished product. Email me, call me, text me, facebook me if you want a session. All sessions come with high resolution digital images and a print release…and hot cocoa.
Amy
by Amy | Nov 13, 2013 | Blog
Can I just tell you about yesterday? This is going to be a weird post. But it was a weird day.
It started with a sleepless night. There was too much going on in my head. This week is pretty big on a lot of levels. I had a score to settle with an contractor that has given me the run around since I did the bedroom project {six months ago}, a ministry to get off the ground, strip clubs to think about, Christmas mini sessions to plan, a giant chalk board to make and a sick husband. It all added up to a brain that wouldn’t shut off.
So anyway. Item number one was a meeting with the contractor at 8:30am. It didn’t end ideally, so I took some time to lay on the kitchen floor and feel sorry for myself. Luckily Derek had the day off, so he was able to remind me that life doesn’t happen on the kitchen floor and I needed to get up and get over. So I did.
I drew this Thanksgiving chalk board. {Instructions for your own chalkboard here.}
I worked extensively on some things for a new ministry I’m spearheading through my church. Yes, it’s the stripper thing. Remember when I told you about that? It’s called Dakota Pearls and you should check out our Facebook page. I’ll tell you more after this weekend…when we make our first trip to the clubs.
After that I was going upstairs when I realized some pumpkins I had moved inside were leaking on the floor. Gross.
I primed boards for my chalkboard backdrop for the Christmas mini sessions. I love painting. But isn’t it sad that my sexy shoes are now my work shoes?
I got the mail. Only to find that I attempted to mail this and it was sent back…notice anything missing? I told you it was a weird day.
Derek and I are taking a stint of dance classes. Fun, I know. We had some friends over for dinner before we all went dancing. Upon preheating the oven and opening it up I found that we had left a pizza pan and the pizza cutter in the oven after having a frozen pizza. When I went to put the calzones in to cook I was greeted with a cloud of black smoke, blackened pepperonis and a Dahli-inspired pizza cutter. The cutter was melted to the pan, the handle had melted away and oozed on the oven rack and oven floor. Woof.
Then we went dancing and finished the night with hot cider and an episode from NetFlix.
The point? 24 hours can bring all kinds of surprises. That’s it. It was a weird day.
Amy
by Amy | Nov 12, 2013 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
Being chosen for the job of wedding photographer is always an honor. It means that someone is trusting me with a once in a lifetime event. It’s a tall order…but always a blessing. The blessing is just that much sweeter when the bride is a dear friend. That was the case a few weeks ago when I had the great privilege of capturing Kate and Jacob’s wedding day. Their love is pure, they have a full understanding of what it means to take on the roles of husband and wife, and {most importantly} their relationship stands on the rock that is our savior Jesus Christ.
Oh, and you may remember them from our engagement session over the summer. They were the couple that battled fierce North Dakota mosquitoes between shots. Yeah, that was them.
Anyway, without further ado, feast your eyes on this blissfully sweet day.
For years Kate has kept a journal of prayers and notes written for and to her future husband. Before getting dressed she passed the notebook to Jacob. The man that God answered those prayers with. (more…)
