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Carmen Shenk

Faith, Art & Tiny Houses

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Carmen Shenk is an artist, entrepreneur, and communicator helping folks make space, find their purpose and voice, so that they may release beauty in the earth.

You Deserve to be Free

TinyHouseFoodie.com:

What would you like more of?

Purposeful Simplicity

One Tiny Thanksgiving

The Focaccia Bread that Ruined Everything

Introducing Vinnie #3

A Visit with a Cinematographer!

This month in the Tiny House Magazine…

You deserve to be heard

See how it’s done

Join the Facebook Group

My Pipe Organ Company

Blog

What would you like more of?
Would you Like to Write a Book?
Honor Your Health
Would you like a Tour of my Skoolie?
What Your Clutter is Trying to Tell You!
Launch Day

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Welcome to the Inspiration Age, it’s time to Show up and Shine. ☀️☀️☀️#showupandshine

Y’all are just going to have to bring the day to me. I’m not moving her. I know what time it is. My “to do list” is relentless! My schedule is SCREAMING in my ears. But the room is quiet except for the gurgling noises our tummies are making, and she is twitching with dreams and I’m sorry but I’m just going to be a minute. ⚜️ I promise I am not lazy. #workaholic is more like it. But it’s all going to need to wait just a few more minutes because my dog is sleeping with her ear on my knee and I just can’t move. It would be unkind. It’s Christmas, I can’t be unkind. I mean... I have to pee and shortly I will have to move my old bones and I am so hungry I could eat a bison... But just for this moment I am here soaking in this warmth. I love this crazy animal and I would not disturb her for the world... ⚜️ She just heard daddy drive in and she used me as a launch pad to go meet daddy at the door! #ouch #ididntneedthatkneeanyway ⚜️ He arrived with a breakfast biscuit for her and a kiss for me. #whataripoff #glutenfree She’s delighted. #bitch #shegetsallthetreats #iwantone ⚜️ Um. Good morning. I’m getting up now. I’m going to go make my NotASausageBiscut breakfast. Yeah. #delighted ⚜️ How’s your morning?

I don’t want to disturb her, so I’m going to stay here a few more minutes. She is such a sweet girl. #dogsofinstagram #rescuedog #poundpuppy #dog #sweetgirl

Butter-men! She asked my Austrian to put the butter out in the tables. She handed him nine plates and a few sticks of butter. Well... he is always up for a challenge and so he started making snowmen out of the butter. I don’t remember who added the toothpick arms. Then he sent me to look for peppercorns for eyes and all I could find was brown jimmies so I used them to put on eyes. By then all the cooks were in on the fun and I think it was @gbhjkh14 who pulled the coleslaw out and I picked out some carrot pieces for noses. #thatwasfun The crowd loved them. He also made the bread. Yum! How did “don’t play with your food” ever become a thing? Playing with food is FUN!!! Aren’t they adorable?! #snowmen #butter #playwithyourfood #fun #merrychristmas

My two new videos on a #zerowaste kitchen are released this morning. #linkinbio #checkitout This is part of my continuing series on lessons I learned from my tiny house. Reading the book by Bea Johnson on #zerowastehome really changed how I saw all that single use plastic in my life. You don’t have to be paying attention to know that plastic is killing wildlife, choking our earth, and creating health problems! ⚜️ I think the first time the horrors of plastic really came home to me was after Hurricane Katrina. We visited to take supplies and serve at a distribution center and someone gave us a tour of the damage and I remember that behind the Walmart were the giant old trees that were still standing after the devastating storm - but they were hanging thick with shredded Walmart bags. It was a horrific mess and while those trees may have made it through the storm - I wonder if they made it through after being shrouded in all that plastic. I need to return to Pass Christian and see how all that looks these days. ⚜️ I’ve been on a journey to get the plastic out of my home ever since. I’ll keep working at it! It saves me a lot of money and it’s the right thing to do! If you need a little help sorting through the zero waste options - there is also a helpful Buyer’s Guide in my website: TinyHouseFoodie.com. #zerowaste #kitchen #kitchensimplicity #tinyhousefoodie

Brandy Bears are a THING! @vonda_kae was here when I opened up my 5 lb bag of gummy bears and she mentioned something she’d seen online and my Austrian jumped right on it and now we have Brandy Bears. PEOPLE. These! Are! Crazy Good!! Wheeeeeee! Lol! Fill jar with gummy bears. Top off with good brandy. Soak overnight. Yummmmmmmm! Enjoy responsibly. 😍😉😁 #brandybears #gummybears #brandy #deliciousness #boozybears

The piano is finished. My Austrian restored it and it is gorgeous! I got to see this restoration from start to finish and I had no idea a piano was so gloriously complex. Seeing it all in pieces - and then all back together has been amazing. My respect for my husband’s workmanship is boundless. After the client left this afternoon, I sat down and played it for a while. I’m completely blown away by this experience of seeing it all come together. I don’t think I ever played it before it was restored but I well remember the old gent playing it. Ah memories. If you need me, just listen. I will be sitting in front of this instrument and playing my heart out until Monday when they take it away! My hubby is pretty cool! He gives new voice to amazing old instruments! ⚜️😍⚜️ #piano #restoration #rebuilt #restored #craftsmanship #french #musicalinstrument

Clearly there is a right way and a wrong way to move activated charcoal from one container to another! #oops

Yes! Still loving these colors! I’ve got it off the loom with all the braids finished up. I just threw it in the wash for the first round of felting. It’s going to be butter soft!! Can’t wait to see how it turns out! ⚜️ Winter is weaving weather!! And this is a scarf woven in the Saori style - no pattern, no plan. Saori is like jazz for yarn. It’s visual improvisation in yarn instead of in sound. I love it! ⚜️ I wonder if I had discovered weaving when I was in art school if I would have taken a trip through 20 different art media in my career. LOL! Who cares?! I love learning, and I love color! And yarn is wonderful! ⚜️ #weaving #saori #saoriweaving #winteryarn #winterisforweaving #weaversofinstagram #artistsofinstagram #artist #vividcolors #yarnporn #yarn #yarnlove #yarnlovers #yarnloversofinstagram

I’m getting better at weaving things with less loom waste. This last scarf was 1/3 of the loom waste of the last one. #win. I buy the good yarn so I am careful not to waste it. #zerowaste #weaving #saori #saoriweaving #yarn #loomwaste

Yes, as a matter of fact... I did buy the five pound bag of gummy bears. #bulkfood #gummyaddict #gummybears #glutenfree

Focus is everything. How's your focus today? #focus #jesus

It's a pipe organ day today. Good news! Joseph looks happy, and blurry Jesus looks happy too. It's all good. #pipeorgan #tuning #tuninginstruments

Peeps! I’m in love! These colors continue to buzz in my spirit! I ❤️💜🧡 #vivid !!! ⚜️ If I get time today, I will continue with these amazing braids and maybe even get it off the loom today. Then it will be time to felt it. #squee ⚜️ I’m taking a #zerowaste approach to this one. There is usually so much loom waste when weaving, but weaving in the Saori style does tend to minimize that. I’m using the loom waste yarn in the braids. I suppose we will see how it felts up and if these braids hold. I hate to waste a bit of this yarn when I’ve got some great wool, silk and cotton yarn in here. ⚜️ Another thing that is cool with these tendrils is that I get to weave warp into the weft as I reduce them down to a point where the braid begins. Warp are the strands that go the length, weft are the strands that go across... but the line between the two is blurred a bit with this kind of weaving. I am enjoying this, can you tell? ⚜️ Weaving is so much fun when the colors are so yummy! I swear they are hitting a spiritual note with me. So delicious!! ⚜️ #saoriweaving #winterisyarnweather #yarn #weaversofinstagram #artistsofinstagram #weaving #weave #yarn #yarn lover #yarnlovers #vividcolors #colorofmyspirit #wearethecolorsofgod #popofcolor

I love these colors so much! I know they aren’t for everyone and that’s great because I’m making this for me. ⚜️ I was a professional artist for years and I got into the habit of making things I knew would sell. I lost the joy of making beautiful things and it sucked. I kept reigning myself in - “don’t do that - it’s too far outside the box and nobody will buy it”. That’s what I kept telling myself. Is it any wonder that after a while making stuff no longer brought me joy in the journey? Even though I know I am called and anointed to be an artist - there I was “living the dream” and not enjoying it because I was holding back my creativity. That’s crazy schnitzel- don’t do that!! ⚜️ Sermon of the day! LOL! Never hold back your gift because of fear!!! ⚜️ #beyourself #liveauthentic #artist #highcalling #releasebeauty #vivid #vividcolors #yarn #weaving #saori #saoriweaving #wool #silk #cotton #nofear #fearless #sermonoftheday #preacherwoman

you deserve to be well

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Essential Oils & Sensitive Skin

Snowflake Layered Mints

Non-Toxic Cleaning

What’s So Essential About Essential Oils?

Purification

Stress Away

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