His Only Son

It’s Easter Sunday today. A highlight in our year. We’ve been busy meeting our design submission deadlines for Easter themed products with images of bunnies, eggs, and flowers dressed in pastel colors. We love these light-hearted themes with their fun traditions and memories of childhood, but we hold in our hearts the real message of Easter.

It’s not a pastel colored message … it’s a vivid, piercing, bold color of love message that wraps itself around anyone who will receive it. A love that is so giving and far-reaching that it cannot be expressed from a color wheel or even from the entire light spectrum in our universe.

It’s a celebration message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A new life has been made available to us, a way to an eternal relationship with God, because the shed blood of Jesus paid the penalty for sin that separated us from God. The full story can be found in the Bible.

What must it have been like when God chose to give his son … his only son, to a world He loved? This watercolor that hangs in our studio is our constant reminder of God’s great love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Celebrating Easter and reminding you that you are so loved by God,

The Velvet Lime Girls

P.S. “His Only Son” – a watercolor study by a young student, James Rhodes, in 1974. When photographed for this blog, the flash accidently reflected off of the “heart.”

"Morning Has Broken"

"Morning has Broken"... the lyrics to this familiar song echo in our garden lately. Maidenhair ferns lift their bowed heads out of moist earth, hostas stretch up from a long winter’s nap, piercing their earthbed canopy with tiny green fingertips and dandelions everywhere yawn with bright faced smiles and then exhale feather seeds of new life to faraway places. Oh, everyone in the garden is so ready to" get up and go". They have new lives to live and new spring clothes to wear!

The saucer magnolia unzips her slim skirt husk that held a tight embrace on her all winter long ...

revealing a gossamer gown of petals that cascade down the length of her sinewy branches ...

and a bustle that gracefully gathers the soft folds from behind.

All of this new attire in the garden is a wardrobe change of sorts. A shedding of the old and an embracing of the new.

Just weeks ago this garden was hard, dry, barren dirt. Void of any signs of life. Then the silent stirrings began and the earth gave way to dormant seeds bursting with life inside. Everything that was hidden suddenly sprang to life. The same can happen to you. New life and potential, hidden within you, can emerge from your hard, dry, barren places. So, let this ancient promise water your garden today and refresh your spirit to receive all that God has planned for you:

"Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands. Isaiah 43:19

Shedding the old & slipping into new spring clothes,

Laura

Daphne Life

It’s the dead of winter. Flower beds are forlorn and forgotten, trees are stripped to skeleton sticks and the landscape is zipped up in a winter coat of frost. The garden has a cold shiver to it that seems to have snatched away all movement and stilled any life among things green. Is anything even alive out there? Can this garden live again? At first glance, it seems impossible that anything could grow, and yet, in my father’s garden, a burst of flowers has appeared. A wintery bouquet has come to life, sporting a creamy pink blush and a fragrance that envelopes, surrounds and chases you down in the garden. There’s no escape from its permeating presence. It wraps itself around everything in the garden and seems to shout out loud, “I’m flourishing! I’m alive!” New life has come into what appeared to be dead. If you inhale the heady aroma of a daphne odora in full bloom in the cold depths of February, it will take your breath away and make you believe in miracles again. You’ll realize that new life can come out of things that look as if they’re all dried up. Perhaps you’re walking through a dead of winter season with only dry bones on the landscape of your life. If so, let this daphne bush, that flowers and flourishes in winter, encourage you to remember that new life can be breathed into the most barren of landscapes. It’s a truth echoed in a story found in Ezekiel 37. Take a moment to read it and you’ll find new life being breathed into your circumstances. It will make you want to jump up and shout to the “dry bones” in your life to “Live again!” 

“I’ll breathe new life into you and you’ll live” Ezekiel 37:14

Laura 

P.S. A special thanks to my father, Clarence Skinner, for his photograph of the fragrant daphne blooming in his garden ...in February.

New Doors

Doors. They serve as entries and exits. Beginnings and endings. These old doors, along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, have a little history and Laura’s Dad, Clarence Skinner, tells their story best in his own words and photographs:

“These old garage pictures are representative samples that still remain along the old beach road in parts of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. The garages were built very close to the road and used wooden ramps to connect the garage to the road. Beach houses were located closer to the ocean, often over three hundred feet behind the garage. Autos of that era, 30’s and 40’s, were two wheel drive and did not do well in sand, without skilled drivers and some preparation, like reducing tire pressure. Normal operation was to avoid getting your car in the sand, thus the wooden pallet type driveways and the garages close to the road. City folks also did not want their cars left exposed to the salt air. Of course, this meant that everything that was taken down by auto had to be hand carried from the garage to the beach house, through loose sand.”

These rough, beaten down, barely standing garage doors, have a rustic, nostalgic beauty about them. Like the tough times and challenges that many people have weathered this past year, these old relics are still standing. And the old doors with their rusty, salt-crusted hinges almost make you think they can still swing open. But, they don’t have to anymore. A new day has come. A better way of doing things. And although the old ways have been put aside for new ways, they have not been put aside.

They stand.

Salty reminders of silent strength.

So, if you’ve weathered a “nor'-easterner” storm of sorts this year, take a good look at these old structures. They stood when times were tough. And they lived to see better days. Days when doors opened to a better way.

“I see what you've done. Now see what I've done. I've opened a door before you that no one can slam shut. You don't have much strength, I know that; you used what you had to keep my Word. You didn't deny me when times were rough.” Revelation 3:8

The Velvet Lime Girls

Prince of Peace

Prince of Peace. It’s the second piece in our descriptive name & crown series we created and one of our favorites. Most people understand the concept of a Prince, but the definition of peace is quite inspiring when you go back and look at the original Hebrew word. The word is shalom. It’s meaning encompasses much more than calm peace. Like a mother gathering up all her children in her arms and carrying them away to a safer place, when shalom is spoken, it extends an embrace of complete wholeness to the recipient. It gathers up meanings of good welfare, health, safety, soundness, tranquility, harmony, absence of discord, favor, prosperity, rest, and well being and carries them into the life of the receiver. The expression of shalom brings them to a place where things are made whole … nothing missing, nothing broken, a place of restoration.

That’s the kind of peace that comes when the Prince of Peace arrives in your life. Regardless of your situations and surroundings, His presence, the very meaning of His name, brings a change. Brings wholeness. Brings Shalom.

“He will be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6

The Velvet Lime Girls

Real Comfort

Yesterday Rebecca was driving in the car with Alexa, her 22 month old daughter. Alexa is the tiniest little fan of the Velvet Lime Girls. She often provides her artistic opinion on our upcoming artwork (see Sept. 30^th blog). As their short trip progressed, Alexa became restless and a bit fussy. A series of questions began, to help comfort her.

Did she want juice? “No”.

Did she want gummy bears? “No”.

Did she want her paci? (pacifier)? Again the answer was surprisingly, “No.

Finally Rebecca asked, “Alexa, tell me what you want.” A long pause occurred in the car… and then, her tiny little voice replied from the carseat … “hand”.

She wanted her mother’s hand. She just wanted to have her mom hold her hand. Nothing else could bring the comfort, the solace, the calm like her mother’s hand …not even the revered “paci”.

A hand. Sometimes it’s all that’s really needed. A hand to comfort, to calm, to care.

As soothing to the soul as a hand extended may be, it’s a mere glimpse of the powerful hand continually extended to help us. A hand that actually has us engraved on it, or, in other words, “indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) us on the palms of each of His hands.”

Now, that’s real comfort. Talk about a tight hold … why, you’re tattooed on God hands! J

The Velvet Lime Girls

“I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands.” Isaiah 49:16

Photo of Alexa's hand in the palm of her grandmother Laura's hand taken days after her birth.

The Birds Knew

We wonder if the birds knew? Did they anticipate the arrival of the Savior? The stars knew He was coming. The Wise Men knew. The animals gathered at his birth knew. And his mother knew He had arrived within her. Surely the birds knew.

Creatures often seem to know ahead of time when a change is coming. Reports abound of animals taking actions prior to a change in climate or environment. Why wouldn't the greatest change, the greatest shift that ever occurred in history not alert little birds?

We think they knew.

Perhaps they looked a bit like this little bird. He's looking out over the bleak, harsh, cold environment surrounding him, to the spring. New life is coming! A new beginning is coming, a better way. He knows it and waits for it. And the calm assurance in his little face reflects this.

We think his ancestors may have looked like this just before Christmas Day. They had to know He was coming and they must have waited and watched with calm assurance, just like this little bird.

We hope the quiet expectation that the world and little birds held years ago on the starry nights before Christmas will envelope you and your family this season, as we wait to remember the greatest birthday ever.

The Velvet Lime Girls

The watercolor study of the Christmas cardinal is by Marybeth Wydock.

All is Calm

Intercessory Hands … that’s what the artist who created this piece of artwork calls her creation. We were fortunate to have a glimpse of this moving piece two years ago and it totally captured our hearts. The artist is Sarah Beth Cowart, the daughter of a dear friend of Laura’s, and she currently holds a degree in Studio Art.

The word “intercessory” may not be a word you hear often, but it means “the act of offering prayer to God on behalf of others.” It’s such a humble and noble act … whether you’re on the receiving end or the praying end.

We were especially drawn to the position of the hands in this artwork. Many artists portray hands in prayer from an outside view, tightly folded, in earnest effort. But this artist went straight to the heart of the matter …. the hands, wrinkled with worry and concern, have opened up, let go and released all their ability and faith to God.

You can almost feel the calm that has come.

As we begin this busy and wonderful season of Christmas, we wanted to bring a sense of calm into the lives of all who visit our site… and these hands do it so beautifully. We hope the artwork inspires you to open up, let go and release your ability and faith to God. And we hope you feel the calm that will come.

The Velvet Lime Girls

Christmas Seed Story

Christmas Seed Story

This slender seedpod graced our lives this past month. Gathered on a walk with a granddaughter, it found a home among a collection of natural fall decorations. The slim, tight green husk sat silently, in obscurity, among the collection.

Early one morning a silent explosion occurred and the green husk was split from top to bottom, bursting and birthing light, airy seeds too numerous to count. Fine cotton candy puffs, holding rainbows of light in each lash exploded from the gathered grip of each tiny seed. They could no longer be contained inside the tight green husk. Their time had come. Their season had arrived. They were ready to multiply, replenish, and take dominion over their new dwelling places.

It seemed fitting to have this seedpod arrive so close to Christmas. Like the child born in a manger years ago, who carried a unique seed potential within … son of God and son of man, this “seed” also produced a harvest too numerous to count. When he left this earth, history records that like the seedpod, a veil was torn from top to bottom. A new season, a new arrangement, began and endless numbers of seeds like him were born.

We’ll look at seedpods differently now. They echo an eternal love story. God giving his only Son for us … opening the door for us all to join His family … a family of little seeds too numerous to count.

The Velvet Lime Girls

The Word (Christ) became flesh and blood; and moved into the neighborhood.” John 1:14

He Knows Your Name

This solitary flower still blooming in mid November holds an intimate love story in its petals. Created beautiful enough to stop a casual gaze across the barren pre-winter landscape, it creates a standstill when viewed up close. Intricate detail and exquisite color palettes reveal the work of a master. One who is interested in every single, solitary, tiny detail … down to the last star-studded stamen. Who would take time to sculpt such a petite fireworks display and place it in the heart of a flower? Someone with a connection to that flower… someone who knows it by name.

The flower served as a gentle reminder that God knows us by name. We have a connection with Him. We are not forgotten. The One who poured such creativity into a flower like this, pours infinite care, concern and attention into each of our lives. He actually says that He knows us by name. A powerful thought. Talk about name-dropping! The Creator of the universe… He knows my name. He actually calls me by my name, (Isaiah 45:3). It’s enough to create a little fireworks display in your own heart.

The Velvet Lime Girls

Painted Planet Licensing Group

Gratitude. It’s the overwhelming emotion that mounts in our spirits, swells up through our expressions and spills out into every crevice of our lives lately.

G R A T I T U D E.

Here’s one of the reasons why…

Painted Planted Licensing Group is now representing our artwork!

http://www.paintedplanetlicensing.com/velvet-lime-girls.html

We’re thrilled beyond expression as we busy ourselves around our design studio pouring out new artwork in a continual stream. Like young mothers about to give birth, we’re filled with that amazing burst of energy that comes shortly before their little “dream” meets the world. Overwhelming, overflowing, creative energy just floods our studio each day as we begin to give birth to the dream we’ve nurtured for over 4 years … creating artwork to encourage & inspire.

It’s so moving when other people believe in your dream. We honored that Jan Draheim, President of Painted Planet Licensing Group, picked us to be a part of the team. And we’re soaking up the art direction that Creative Director & Art Licensing Consultant, Julie Hosley, is providing. We love working with these girls!

So, if you feel a little breeze lately, it’s just the whirlwind of creativity we’re stirring up here in our studio under our new licensing name … Velvet Lime Girls. We hope you’ll be seeing a lot of us! J

Thanks for all the encouragement so many of you have given us. We have treasured every phone call, email, comment, tweet and expression you have given!

With Gratitude,

The Velvet Lime Girls

What to Wear

Dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you …

compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline ...

and wear love. Colossians 3:12-14

THIRSTY

Thirsty

Early each morning before the sun wakes up the elephant ears are still cradling little liquid jewels. They are nestled in the valleys of the broad plains of each green expanse. These diamond drops dance across the surface. Hovering, floating in a mercury motion, their slightly suspended form seems to shimmer a call to anyone who is thirsty … “drink me, I’ll quench your thirst!”

These water drops of morning dew make me thirsty each time I see them and remind me of Rebecca’s favorite verse, “As a deer thirsts for streams of water, so I thirst for you, God.” Psalms 42:1. We like the way The Message says it:

“A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;

I want to drink God,

deep draughts of God.

I'm thirsty for God”

Thirsty. These little dewdrops carry a refreshing message. Our thirst can be quenched and filled with living water each day as we drink in time with God.

The Velvet Lime Girls

P.S. Thank-you to my sister-in-law, Sarah-Lynne, for reminding me of the beauty of dewdrops (and these photos taken in 2008).

A Season of Greater Things

The seven foot tall swamp flowers in our summer garden are bent over now. All the way to the ground. Along with the other flowers in the garden, they gave everything they had in a show of color and fragrance all summer long. Hosted hummingbird visits, bumble bee sleep-overs, caresses & sniffs from granddaughters.

The flowers in the garden have a burned-out kind of beauty. Their show is over. They gave every drop of color, fragrance, and effort they could give. They think the best days in the garden have passed.

Right in the middle of this weary expanse a fresh new flower emerges. It thinks it’s springtime! It wraps and curls itself around everything in sight and it’s little green bud ends burst into hundreds of delicate white flowers. White puffy clouds of blooms envelope the entire garden. Floating over the skeletons of rose bushes, dried up trellises and anything that hints of fading. This autumn clematis blankets the garden every September bringing a fresh burst of life just when things looked faded and finished.

It brings multiple messages. A reminder that there are seasons for everything. Seasons to grow and seasons to rest. We captured this sentiment in an earlier piece pictured above.

A second sentiment has emerged now, with these white clouds of fresh flowers bringing new life to a garden that was spent. The latter state of the garden is far more glorious than the beginning… It’s latter is greater than it’s past.

So if you’ve gone through a weary patch, felt like you’ve given your all and the landscape of your life still looks a bit barren, let our artwork remind you that a new season can come. Good things are still ahead and your latter can be greater than your past. (Job 8:7)

The Velvet Lime Girls

Clematis climbing all over everything is a pass-along plant...originating in Pattie Lee Smith's garden, Laura's great-grandmother, dug up and passed along by Clarence Skinner, Laura's Dad.

ROYAL SEATING

Seating affects everything. Have you ever sat in a large arena or stadium near the top? Although you can be very involved in the event, the activities played out below you are distant and removed. You are far above them. It’s as if you are seated in another realm… and yet you are there. Your perspective from that altitude changes and you become constantly aware that there is a bigger picture beyond what is being played out below. Your vision broadens when you’re seated higher.

Being seated in a higher place is the red carpet thought being rolled out in this artwork. We took that noble thought and draped it in royal colors. Anchored it with aristocratic seating. Sprinkled it with a phrase and stars from a divine scepter. A phrase that lifts us from living below our destiny. “ He seats us in heavenly places.” What a lofty thought for everyday life.

Reigning. Majestic. Elevated. That’s the kind of seating we’ve been given. It broadens your vision and makes you realize there is a bigger picture being played out beyond everyday life. You are seated in another realm… far above.

Take a seat in our chair today. Rest for a moment in the luxury of this divine sentiment. May you begin to reign in life today from the place that has been reserved for you… a heavenly place.

Take your seat please.

The Velvet Lime Girls

Sunflower Smiles

Sunflowers make us smile. Every time. Their perky little faces bright with noonday sun just sunbathe you in happiness. When they first uncover their little faces, releasing their solar flare, the whole world lights up. They stand there in the rain, wind, heat and neglect … sunshine spears, unmoved by circumstances. Then, something amazing happens … they sink their roots down deep into their source and grow. They grow tall … I mean really tall. A towering presence in the flower garden, they become lighthouse beacons shooting down every melancholy thought with their shafts of light. They become bigger and bigger everyday … better and better.

We can be like them. An ancient writing of prose says, “our paths will be brighter and brighter” (Proverbs 4: 18). It means better and better. Like sunflowers, we can begin to tower over circumstances and challenges as we let our roots sink down deep into our source, our God. No matter how challenging a day may have been, we can pull from our source and become a shaft of towering sunshine in our own little world.

We hope our sunflowers make you smile today ... and shine. J

The Velvet Lime girls

HOPE

Weave HOPE into your heart today. Hope – an earnest expectation, an anticipation, a belief or a trust. It’s more than a word. It’s a force that undergirds you and carries you forward with a strength that is beyond yourself. Hope is the silent strength that supports your dreams. When it’s woven into your heart it enables you to soar above any obstacle. Let this new artwork send you soaring with new hope today.

"Hope does not disappoint us ..." Romans 5:5

Laura

Someone Cares

This feathery branch transcended all of its garden neighbors on Roanoke Island. The garden was filled with proud roses, boisterous bougainvillias and flowers everywhere who were absolutely misbehaving in an out -of -control explosion of color. This one though, softly spoke louder than all of them. Each tiny branch thread, covered with short strands of hair whispered a message of calm. It knew it was a creation that had been fashioned tenderly with great attention to detail. It was loved and cared for … someone had taken the time to dress it in countless wisps of smoky color.

It reminded me of us. Regardless of what is going on around us, we are loved and cared for. We’ve been tenderly fashioned with great attention to detail. I like the way a doctor named Luke said it years ago, “the very hairs of your head are all numbered, don’t be afraid” Luke 12:7

With the noise in our world today, it’s comforting to remind ourselves that there really is someone who cares for us. Someone who watches over every detail of our life … down to the number of hairs on our head.

Laura

P.S. Our landscape architect friend, Alex Brunson, believes our photo is of a Royal Purple Smokebrush. www.brunsonandco.com

Beach Trip

Some thoughts just refresh you. This one floats over the most relaxing place we know … a slouchy, comfortable chair on the beach. Just sit in it for a minute. You can feel the tension seep out through your toes as they sink in soft sand, every care melting away in a caress of sunlight.

A beach rest is a ripple compared to the overpowering wave of deep rest God offers. It envelopes our cares and pulls them out to sea with a strong rip-tide…. leaving us refreshed and restored.

We’re sparkling sea glass lying on the beach.

Washed. Fresh. Clean. Reflections of peace.

So, sit down in our beach chair today and wrap yourself up in the big thirsty blanket of thought conveyed in our art image … a thought about real rest. We like the way The Message says it:

“Are you tired and worn out? Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me … Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” Matthew 11:28 & 29

Laura

Ballast Rocks

I have a collection of prized possessions in my garden … three ballast rocks from the Outer Banks.

A few years ago, my Dad would regularly dive down and haul these heavy rocks from the waters off Roanoke Island to use as borders in his garden.The rocks are protected today and only the “old-timers” seem to have any in their yards. I admired their beauty and recently my Dad gave me a small collection. According to Dad, ballast rocks were used to stabilize the early ships and counterbalance the stress and strain of wind on the sails, giving the ships stability and enabling them to sail without danger of capsizing. I’m told that these rocks, so essential for safe voyage, had to later be thrown off for safe passage into the new land. The throwing off of the ballast rocks created a lighter vessel that could safely navigate the shallow, rocky waters that encircled the new land and new opportunities. Had the ships held on to the things that had once provided security, they would have never been able to arrive at their destination safely.

Ballast rocks are a great reminder to let go of things…even things that may have brought security… and embrace change. Change that can bring about new opportunities and “new land”. Change that will never come without letting go of the old way of doing things and navigating into new thoughts and new visions.

“Forget the former things.. I will do a new thing.” Isaiah 43:18-19

Laura