Keepsake Album Day 15: Friendship Bracelet

"Boubínský prales" by Josef Váchal, woodcut

Dear People,

The camera on my phone that I usually use has been missing
along with my phone, so I took this beauty with my webcam. 

This is a wacky photo of a drawing of a friendship bracelet given to me by two girls who were in my cabin at a camp I counselled at in the Czech Republic between my first and second years of secondary school. The camp was pretty bad. It rained for most of the time, we had terrible food and not enough of it and our facilities were disgusting and decrepit. The reason that kids chose our camp was because it was the cheapest one in the Republic. Our program was poor and the directors did not care what went on at the camp.

It was a gruelling two weeks. But they were vital for me. My best friend Barbora was another counsellor and we bonded through our time at the camp. And I came close with three girls from my cabin. Two sisters and their friend. The younger sister was named Lucie and she worshipped me. Her sister and friend were about 13 years old and they became very close with me as well. We helped each other survive the horrific camp. After the camp ended I kept in contact with the girls by writing messages on Facebook every few months. I remember how we said a tearful goodbye and I promised that I would come visit them in their town several hours away from my own. I remember one of the girls saying mournfully that she knew that would never happen. Her disbelief that we would ever see one another again stayed with me. It felt like a challenge. I was determined that I would eventually visit them. 

I did. It took three years before I finally had some free time and money to take the three trains and two buses to go to their town. They had changed a lot. The older sister and friend were 16 and Lucie was 12. I met their mother who welcomed me like another daughter. I stayed two days and a night. We went bowling and had dinner. We walked around their city and visited a gallery with work by a wonder Czech artist called Josef Vachal. I loved seeing the girls even though it was hard to find things to talk about when we hadn't seen one another for years. I felt so responsible for them during our time at camp and it felt like an important thing to visit them and show them that I still cared about them and valued them. 

So this is the bracelet they made for me at camp. I also have a beautiful teacup that their mother gave to me. It was their grandmother's. I have it packed away somewhere, otherwise I would have drawn it here. 

This is the end of my Keepsake series for now. I am leaving the Czech Republic to return to school on Sunday. I hope that I can continue blogging when I get back to school, but it always gets crazy. I might not be as prolific. 

Bye for now, Friends!

LR

Keepsake Album Day 14: Two Books From Patrick

Hello People,

My life has changed completely. Today a man and a woman came to take care of me and Isaac. They said that they would come live here and take him to school and to doctors and stuff. They said they would take over all the responsibility that was formerly mine as a single mother! 

Ok, yes, they were our parents. They finally came back! Yay! It is so different to NOT be a parent. May the Lord bless me with children some day if it be his will, but I pray that single motherhood never be my lot. 

The Lord helped me and Isaac get through this week. It was hard but we made it! By the end I was even feeling like I would be able to get into a kind of routine if we had had a couple more days. 

Here is my Keepsake Album contribution for today. It is a drawing of two books that my older brother Patrick gave to me on separate occasions. He knows how much I love graphic novels and illustration so he got these for me at a shop in Providence that sells such books. 

The first one is Amphigorey Also by Edward Gorey. It is a huge selection of works by a guy who created a lot of strange, noir drawings and stories. Some of my favourites involve giant macrame which haunt elegant Victorian homes and lurk in corners. 

The second is called The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It is without words and is a lovely combination of fantastical and normal. I also love his book called Tales From Outer Suburbia. 

Keepsake Album #13: Vintage Dress and Yet More Babysitting

Hi guys,

I've gotta get to bed. I have been waiting until the last minute to do these posts everyday and so I have been going to bed kinda late.

I received an amazing gift this Christmas. My parents asked me what they could give me that would be helpful. I told them that I would like a Wacom drawing tablet. They didn't really know what that was. I told them it was a tool that would help me do the cartoons for the Wheaton Record. It turned out that my dad had actually been given one for free by a friend several months ago. But my dad hadn't been using it because he had no idea what it was! It is exactly what I was hoping for. I also have Photoshop now! It is really exciting to finally have these tools. I hope that I use them well. With great software comes great responsibility.

Anyway, here is some of the first work I have done suing my new tablet and software. Just a little doodling. Sorry it is so small. I haven't figured got it to fit well yet. Enjoy!

For my Keepsake Album today I drew a dress that my mother bought for me when I was about 15. We were in Prague for a short visit. I had been very distant and deflated for a long time and we went into this vintage clothing shop. This dress was hanging up on display. We fell in love with it, but the woman said, "Yeah it's beautiful, but one one can fit into it!" I did. It made me feel so pretty with it's waist-cinching belt and beautiful full skirt. It even has tulle in it to make it poof out more! My mom told me a while later that she wanted to buy it for me because she hadn't seen me smile for a long time and she was willing to buy me a pricey dress if it could cheer me up a little bit. 

I still have my dress. There are unfortunately few occasions on which to wear this lovely garment. Summer picnic? An extra in Dirty Dancing?

"No one puts Baby in a corner."

Keepsake Album #12: Bead Box and Grandma Jean

Good Persons,

Yesterday I was having internet woes. Today the internet miraculously works. I guess it just needed a good night's sleep. 

Here is what I drew yesterday for my Keepsake Album. It is a box of beads that I received from my father and my grandmother at least eleven years ago. They were in a place called Galena together and they picked out a selection of special beads for me to use in crafty projects. I have pretty much used up all the original beads they gave me, but I still like to use the nice, blue cardboard box. 

My Grandma Jean is no longer living. I feel like I did not have a good opportunity to get to know her. I started to learn more about her after she was no longer around to get to know in person. She was originally from New York state. She went to Mount Holyoke. She and my grandfather adopted my dad when he was several months old. She was a grade school teacher. We have some of the things she wrote about Dad when he was a baby. She would keep very detailed notes about different stages of his development. They were keenly observed and had a playful and humorous tone. She was an avid watercolorist. She valued good etiquette and I am sure would have felt quite comfortable in high levels of society. She and my grandfather kept many pieces of art all over their Kansas City home. They collected beautiful objects and pictures from all over the world. 

We spent one last Christmas with Grandma Jean. She found a hamster plush toy that sang a song if a button was pushed or a string pulled. The hamster was dressed in Kung Fu garb and the song that emanated from it was Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting in a high pitched "hamster" voice. It danced. Grandma Jean thought this hamster was the apex of hilarity. She was reserved and had a dry sense of humour, but she could not control her laughter when the hamster was dancing. We didn't really understand why this was so funny to her, but we enjoyed watching her laugh. It exactly hit the spot for her humour. 

Keepsake Album Day 11: An Antique Book and More Babysitting Adventures

Dearest Blog-Pals,

I am still babysitting my little brother Isaac. Yes, we have three days left of our Lucy Babysits Nonstop With Occasional Appearances by Paul Hugh Extravaganza.

Here are some stats to recap the experience so far:

Temper Tantrums:
Isaac: 1
Lucy Rose: 1

Episodes of Crying:
Isaac: 6
Lucy Rose: 2-3

Dishes Washed:
1563

Dishes Currently Unwashed and Sitting in Every Room of the House (Yes, there were dishes in the bathroom for a period):
7568
(actually Paul Hugh is currently downstairs listening to cool-people-music and washing them for me. Thank you, Hugh!)

Amount of Cheese Eaten By Lucy Rose:
2 large blocks of Eidam

Number of Items of Clothing Belonging to My Mother That I Have Been Wearing While She is Gone:
10
- Flannel pants
- Soft Drape-y Sweater
- Another Soft Drape-y Sweater
- Yet another Soft Drape-y Sweater
The list goes on…Exploring her wardrobe has made my time as a single parent more enjoyable.

I do honestly feel like a single parent. Except I am an unemployed single parent. I also am only doing this for a week…So, it's actually quite different. BUT I do have a newfound respect for the single parents of the world. They have to do such a hard job all by themselves. Being by myself has been the hardest part, I think. I think that if I were really a single parent it would be all I could do not to fall into deep sadness and desperation. Isaac and I have been praying daily and reading our Psalm continuously. I am trying to bring these feelings to God. And I believe he has helped by lessening the load a lot in a few key areas.

(Want to see a totally sappy, but pretty cool video about being a mom? Go here.)

Because I do not want to wallow or leave you all feeling depressed by my above comments, let me make a new Thankfulness List.

The Small Mercies of My Time With Isaac So Far:

1. Only One Tantrum: Isaac has been known to really go nuts. Yes, he had a tantrum in which he cried uncontrollably, but it could have been much, much worse.

2. Paul Hugh: The Hugh has been around when he can be. He has washed several loads of dishes. He let me go for a run-walk for two hours on Saturday. He is a good pal.

3. Playing in the Snow: It snowed all day. There was deep, lush snow when Isaac and I got home at 4 from school. On a whim we took the sled for a spin, made a snow angel a-piece (Isaac: "I wan tot stomp all over our snow angels!" Lucy Rose: "You absolutely may not, young man!") and built a snowbeing. What is a snowbeing you ask?  Disney has bought the rights to snowman building and the words "snowman" so it is now illegal to express the desire to "build a snowman" without copyright infringement. Isaac was detained for several hours after he sang a few stanzas of the song in question. I tried to stop him, but they have an advanced tracking system that detects the use of the words and copyrighted songs. Kind of like how in the seventh Harry Potter book the Deatheaters rig it so that anyone who utters the name "Voldemort" can be immediately tracked down and attacked.

Wow. That bit took such a strange turn. I just wanted to say that it was a special and fun time in the snow. Back to my Thankfulness List!

4. Homeland: Yes, the TV show. I started the second season and watch it when Isaac goes to bed. Claire Danes is keeping me afloat. I love her. So cool! She is such an ugly cry-er. I really respect an actress who is not afraid to get real and cry ugly in front of millions of viewers.


5. This Blog: I do not have much energy or tie to devote to create endeavours right now. But I feel a responsibility to you, my insole blog reading companions, to keep blogging because I promised I would, doggone it! It gives me something creative that I have to do every days and it allows me to have a little structure in my days.

6. Prayer of Friends: I have a lot of people praying for me and Isaac. Maybe even some of you who are reading! Thanks.

Alright folks. Now its time for me to get my Keepsake Album photo up and them I will end this intensely long post.

Goodnight, Dear People!

Keepsake Album Day 10: A Plastic Pterodactyl and Babysitting Adventures

Dear Friends,

Whew. I am quite tired. It is 11 PM. I have been babysitting my littlest brother Isaac all day. This is the first of 6 days we will have together. I feel like I am getting a taste for what it must be like to be a mother. Although I have tons of experience with children through babysitting, nannying and teaching, this 24 hour thing feel different. It is kind of exhausting to be linked to this person ALL THE TIME. I have to be on the ball the whole time. I have to know where he is and what he is going to eat for his next meal.

This after noon I posted a photo of the lunch I made for him on Instagram. As I did so I chuckled at how that nicely edited photo made me seem like this amazing put-together super woman who can make beautiful food and cal my snap a photo of it. Anyone looking at my picture cannot see the clutter of pencils and pieces of a snowflake making operation that litter the table mere inches beyond the frame. No one need know that I got lunch for Isaac at 1:45 instead of 12:30, because I had car trouble and shopping took too long. My photo doesn't show that the peanuts I gave the boy were very high in sodium but I made him eat them anyway because the canned soup had no noticeable protein in it!

Well our first day is done. I will post my keepsake photo and then collapse into bed. Did I do anything cool or productive today? Um…not really. I mainly just made sure we got meals.

I did have two or three interesting babysitting ideas that I implemented. They were not major, but they were cheery enough to take some of the edge off the fact that this job is hard for me and they helped Isaac to look forward to things.

1. I chose a Psalm form the Bible that has the same number of verses as days that Mom and Dad will be away. Psalm 128. I printed out a copy of it with different colours and fonts for each verse. In the morning every day I will have him sit at the table and quietly decipher each verse while I make breakfast. Later as we eat he will read it to me. This idea offers us to have some scripture to start our day. It has Isaac sitting still so I can work and it provides a regular type of structure, which is something that both he and I thrive under.

2. Balloons. We went to this cheap-o store called Kik to look for a swim suit for his school swim lessons. We didn't find one, but on a whim I bought a package of balloons. This was a stroke of genius. Not only was Isaac able to spend like 5 whole minutes figuring out how to blow it up, but once he had (I tied the end up) he happily spent a good 15 minutes playing with it in his room. Hallelujah!!!

3. Kolrabi and cookie cutters. For my late lunch I prepared some raw kohlrabi. I cut it into thin slices and used a cookie cutter to cut out shapes. It was funner to eat kohlrabi shaped like angel Christmas cookies than plain old circles. I think they even tasted better.

These are kohlrabi, in case you did not know what that was. 

My Instagram photo. 

As for my keepsake album for today I am afraid it's rather hurried. My photo is not great (not that my photos have ever been stellar!). It is just a little pterodactyl that a friend of mine gave me a while back. I kept it as a sort of good-luck charm in my wallet for part of high school. I know what you're saying, "Good luck charm, Lucy Rose? Really?" Really. I kind of hold on to things like leaves and trinkets that remind me of things or people. I guess that's the real reason that I have started to keep this album! To sort of get all these thing into one spot so that I don't have to hold on to them so tenaciously. 

Pray for my strength tomorrow. Day two of babysitting awaits. 

Love,

LR

Keepsake Album Day 9: Assorted Earrings

Good evening, All. 

For my entry into the Keepsake Album today I have gathered up several earrings. They are all earrings that were given to me as gifts, but that I haven’t been wearing recently. I do not dislike them, but my aesthetic has been rather simpler of late. I have been wearing very little jewelry lately. My ears have become sensitive to non-precious metals. Goodness. How awfully pretentious does that sound! 

“Sorry, my body can only touch pure gold. I am allergic to anything that costs less than 20 dollars. I can’t bear to hobnob with riffraff such as copper or, God forbid, tin.” 

It’s true though. My ears start to itch and hurt when I wear most earrings. 

Anyway! These gifts were very kind. They were each chosen for me specifically. Some fo them were even handmade! 

Thanks to all of you who have gifted me with earrings in the past. I am sorry I cannot wear them right now. 

Love,

Lucy Rose

Keepsake Album Day 8: Small Doll

The week before my family moved to the Czech Republic I had one last sleepover with my two best fiends from the fifth grade. My mom bought us each a doll. She had seen them at the grocery store and because she is a doll maker she has trouble resisting buying dolls for her daughter. She thought they would be nice to have to commemorate our last time hanging out. We each named our doll after one friend. I can't remember which of my two friends my doll was named after: Jackie or Liza? I can't recall. I actually never saw Liza again after that sleepover. I may have written her a letter and tried to call, but our friendship just petered out. 

But Jackie I have seen several times since. She is actually now engaged to be married. She was my absolute closest friend all throughout my life in the States before we moved to Europe. Our friendship started on the first day of preschool. We were three years old and we bonded deeply over throwing dozens and dozens of "helicopters". You know those little things that come from trees and if you throw them they twirl like the propellers of helicopters? 

Here's what they kind of look like:

Anyway. This doll reminds me of a friendship that meant a whole lot to me in the first eleven years of my life (and beyond!). Thanks for being my friend so many years, Jackie!

Keepsake Album Day 7: A Bead With a Face

My daddy made this bead for me out of Fimo a few years back for my birthday. When I was a child I was always enchanted by the things my dad was able to make with Fimo. He would build these amazing castles out of tiny bricks of clay. They were only a few inches tall, but they had vines growing up the sides and turrets and I even remember one which had a princess with a head the size of a pin letting down strands of Fimo hair from a window. He loves painting and miniature soldiers and figurines. For many years he was really excited about painting figurines from the Lord of the Rings. Lately he has been taking generic miniature soldiers and fantasy figurines and altering them to look like characters from The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. 

My dad is always modest about his artistic skills, claiming that he is not good at drawing or anything artistic. I quite disagree and have loved everything he creates from a very early age. This tiny bead brings me joy because of how expressive and funny it is. Anyway, who thinks to put a face on a bead?! 

Keepsake Album Day 6: Hair Clip Shaped Like a Strawberry

A friend of mine gave me this hair clip which is shaped like a strawberry. It is significant because my friend is one of the people I love the most. She gave it to me because one of our favourite flavours of Czech bubbly water is called Rebarbora a Jahoda (translated to "rhubarb and strawberry"). My friend's name is Barbora. 

Rebarbora. 

Get it? 

Keepsake Album Day 5: A Puddle of Alien Snot

Today I drew a cartoon about a gift exchange that took place in our family many years ago. Let me tell you about it:

In approximately the year 2001 we each drew names of someone in the family. It was our job to create some sort of handmade gift for that person as a part of the Christmas festivities. At that time I was about seven or eight-years-old. My older brother, Patrick, was probably ten or eleven and Paul Hugh, the youngest at that time, was maybe three or four-years-old. Isaac came into our family many years later. He is not in this story. 

Everyone in my family is quite crafty. We all have artistic ability and decent fine-motor skills that come in handy for the making of crafts. In fact today Patrick is currently in the business of professional carpentry and my mother was a talented doll-maker for many years. Back to the story!

Even at this tender age Patrick and I were able to make some cool things by hand. I must have drawn my dad's name and I forget if Patrick had my mom or Paul Hugh. We all made some cool object for the person whose name we had drawn. I am sure my parents gifts were really cool like a painted soldier figurine from my dad or an elaborate paper-doll from my mother. I probably made a cool beaded ring or necklace. 

The only one whose crafting abilities had not yet matured was the four-year-old Paul Hugh. He was no artisan at age four. Of course in a couple of years he would develop as an artist and begin to create such fine works as a series of highly detailed battle scenes depicting hundred of tiny soldiers battling a monster he dubbed the "Jointosaurus". The Jointasaurus was a dinosaur-like being who had a remarkable amount of joints which allowed him to bend his massive limbs in several different directions at once. ANYWAY. This level of prowess was yet to come. Four-year-old Paul Hugh was not the person you wanted making you a Christmas gift. I love the boy dearly, but honestly anyone would have rather received one of my parents miniature works of art rather than whatever that runny-nosed little fellow could have dreamed up with a couple of pipe cleaners. 

This, at least, was my sincere sentiment as I learned that Paul Hugh had drawn my name. The eight year-old me was disappointed. What was he going to make? What even could he make?! 

The answer was something out of plasticine. PH spent about five minutes creating a small sculpture out of a yellowish green wad of plasticine. It looked something like a melting tree. It was very um…abstract. I looked up from my beaded creation every now and then to check on the status of my "gift". My heart sank as I watched PH shape the weird lump of clay. 

PH persuaded an adult to bake the creation in the oven for a time. He must have thought it was something like Fimo or Sculpey which hardens after baking. He was wrong. Plasticine is not meant to go ing the oven. In fact is never meant to harden, which is why animators use it for claymation. But four-year-old PH did not know that. 

We all exchanged our gift at the end of our family craft session. Everyone was delighted with the beautiful handiwork of their fellow Tills. Except me. Paul Hugh's little plasticine sculpture had turned into a puddle of yellowish green. It looked like a pool of alien snot on a pie tin. That was my gift. 

Keepsake Album Day 4: Tiny Ceramic Puppet

Merry Christmas Again! 

I just posted a drawing two minutes ago, but I need to keep up to scratch with this series and I forgot yesterday. 

SO. Here is my fourth instalment of the Keepsake Album. It is a tiny ceramic puppet that was given to me by my mother after a trip to Krakow. I suppose it was made there by a local craftsperson. Thanks, Mom! You have always known what tiny trinkets will make me smile.

Have a lovely Boxing Day tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow with some more keepsakes.

Love,

LR

Keepsake Album Day 3: Play-Doh and Pom Poms (a day late, sorry!)

Merry Christmas, All!

I totally forgot to post this yesterday! Sorry!

This is part of the gift Isaac (my seven-year-old brother) gave to me this Christmas. As soon as I opened the egg carton in which he wrapped it and saw the fragile Play-Doh creation within, I knew it was a candidate for the Keepsake Album, because it was going to fall apart at any moment. 

As he handed me the package he said, "Here is something I made for you. I made this for you from Play-Doh and pom-poms."

Thanks, Isaac. I love you. Hopefully that will still be true after I babysit you for a whole week while our parents are away. 

Love,

LR

Keepsake Album Day 2: Plastic Rats

These were given to me for Christmas, I  think, by one of my brothers. I think I'll donate them to some other kids.

The Keepsake Album

Dear Friends,

I really enjoyed creating drawing challenges for myself over the summer. I did a doodle-a-day for 30 days and I also did a challenge for drawing the things I was thankful for. 

Doodle challenge here 

Thankful challenge here

It is Christmas Vacation now and I am enjoying being at home. But I don't want this Christmas break to end with my feeling as though I didn't make anything cool or really accomplish anything on my list of things that I always wish I had time for when school is in session. That is why I am going to challenge myself to post one drawing everyday for three weeks. I will do a drawing everyday except for weekends starting today and ending on January 9th. 

I am going to draw my keepsakes. I love gifts from people that I can keep because they remind me of that person or something special we did together. The problem with this is that I end up having sentimental ties to too many objects. The objects are usually things that do not serve any practical purpose and therefore just lie around and collect dust. Yes, I occasionally pick them up and fondly remember the person or memory, but it is not worth the clutter in my life. A few months ago it occurred to me to draw each of these items into a special album. That way I could still have the memory, but I could feel OK about getting rid of the object itself. I can give them away or donate them or even throw them away. 

My boyfriend, Sheldon, is a bookbinding amateur (although his craft is rapidly growing toward a professional level). He knew about this drawing idea and so he made me a beautiful book to be my Keepsake Album. I haven't had time since my birthday in October to start my intended project and the beautiful notebook has lain barren and forlorn. But now it is break time! Now I can do everything I have ever wanted to do!

The Birthday Book from Sheldon

There is significant danger in my publishing this series. Vladimir Putin might get ahold of it. No. Just kidding. That will probably not happen. Besides, Vlaďa, would love this idea. He would ask for his own Keepsake Album for Christmas and use his artistic talents to fill it with the gifts he has collected on diplomatics visits to other countries.  

No, the real problem is you, My Lovely Readers. What if the gift I choose to immortalise in my album came from you? What if I choose to GET RID OF SOMETHING THAT YOU GAVE ME! AHHHHH! That would be terrible. How rude! 

Dear Reader, you misunderstand. If I choose to draw something that you gave me and then throw it away, it does not mean I do not care about you. On the contrary, it means that I DO care. I care so much that I sat down and studied the object you gave me. I drew it with careful detail in order that I never forget your friendship and the care with which you chose that object as something that would make me smile. 

I live on two separate continents. I travel between Europe and the United States twice a year and my home is not permanent in either place right now. That means that having a lot of stuff is really not practical for me. So, Friend, rather than feeling slighted, please feel honoured. 

Entry #1: A felt pin from my parents. They are the first people to take a hit. They can handle it.