Meet The Makers! >> Orthodox Design Co

One mission of Draw Near Designs is supporting other Orthodox small businesses and artists, and we are excited to introduce a new series showcasing different Orthodox small businesses! Today, we’d like to introduce you to the man behind Orthodox Design Co!

Andrew Ritchey, the talent behind Orthodox Design Co

Introduce yourself!

I'm Andrew, a 19-year-old student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I am currently studying graphic design, which goes hand-in-hand with my company, and the things I do here. I live in Birmingham and attend St. Symeon Orthodox Church, where I am an active member of the congregation, serving in the Altar, singing in the choir, and staying involved with many other events and groups at the church. This is both my full time job and my side hustle - I'm technically a full-time student, but this is one of a couple of main sources of income for me since I'm getting married in November and I'm working hard to support my future and my family.

Who is your patron saint, and is that a meaningful person in your life?

My patron is St. Andrew the first-called. He has always been a source of inspiration and a saint whose life is honorable and serves as a good role model. I try to emulate his courage in sharing the Faith and his boldness even unto martyrdom. By his prayers, may we have the same boldness and courage, and may God have mercy on us!

How did you get started doing what you do now? 

Around third grade, I started to become a little more familiar with technology and discovered many new software and devices for creating things digitally. Around 2013 or 2014, St. Symeon was building a new temple. This allowed plenty of opportunities for me to design media to attract donors and sponsors, to create awareness, and help encourage participation in the project. After that, as I began to grow in skill and hone my craft, I was regularly being approached to design all sorts of documents for a variety of media, as well as creating custom icons for people. Before the Diocese of the South Assembly in 2017, I officially started Doxology Design, to advertise on a more professional level. One thing led to the next, and four years and one name change later, the ODC is alive and doing well, thank God!

What is your favorite part of what you do? 

I love working with clients and using my skills to bring their ideas to life. Seeing reactions from clients is one of, if not the best part of what I do.

What do you try to communicate with your art/work?

One of the most important things about icons, in general, is that they should inspire prayer and conviction in the viewer. When I do any of my work, particularly with icons, I try to make it as beautiful as possible, to show the viewer even a fraction of the beauty that we can achieve by living Godly lives, and inspire them to "go forth and do likewise".

What is your favorite project that you have completed? 

The Orthodox Search and Find Book has to be one of my very favorite projects (ours too!), particularly because of the reaction it garnered. Another one of my favorites is probably the icon of the Theotokos (seen below). I was very pleased with how it turned out.

What is your dream product/project for the future?

Oh, if I could go on for hours... One project idea I would love to do but that would require a team of very skilled professionals and more money than I have would be an issue of the Orthodox Search and Find Book that used a scale model of a monastery as its pictures. I had this idea while working on the first book, and I still can't stop thinking about how much fun that one would be. (oh wow!!! That sounds like it would be AMAZING!!!)

If you’d like to see more of Andrew’s work or contact him, head over to his website: http://www.orthodoxdesigncompany.com ! He offers custom icons, graphic design work, and the book that he created. We also carry his book, The Orthodox Search and Find in our Marketplace, and highly recommend it.

ANNUNCIATION WORKBOOK

BLESSED FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION

Celebrate this great feast with your family and practice some handwriting and art along the way. This FREE Annunciation workbook has the text for the Gospel lesson of the day, a handwriting practice activity, a free-drawing activity, craft, and coloring page. Have fun, and Blessed Feast!

DOWNLOAD YOUR WORKBOOK HERE

Irish Saints Printables

Today I wanted to share some printables with you all inspired by Illumination Learning’s Orthodox Homeschool Curriculum.

We have been using it as a guide for my Kindergartener after making a last-minute decision to homeschool her. It’s been really challenging for me, but I can already tell it’s the right decision for our family. We’ve had a lot of challenging days, but I’m really trying to appreciate the highs - one of which was getting to spend time with my husband this week exploring his family’s heritage, which is most likely Irish. We discovered that there’s a tribe of people that he could be related to known as the wolf-men. Which is terrifying but not surprising if you’ve ever seen my (Caroline’s) husband.

I created these two coloring sheets for my children to color and trace as we learn about our Irish heritage next week. We’ll use these along with some other activities inspired by the Illumination Learning Curriculum for this week to learn about our family. I thought those of you with Irish ancestry could use them as well.

DOWNLOAD ST. BRIGID PRINTABLE HERE

DOWNLOAD ST. PATRICK HERE

Christ is in our midst!

Caroline

St Mary of Egypt Coloring Page

To celebrate the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, here is a FREE PRINTABLE coloring sheet of St Mary of Egypt!

For further resources:

Here is a recording of Frederica Mathews-Green reading the life of St Mary of Egypt. Perfect to listen to while coloring!

Here is a written summary of her life to read and ponder.

St Nikiforos Coloring Page

Do you know much about St Nikiforos (alternate spelling Nicephorus, Nikephoros) the Leper? He is a saint who lived in the 20th century and was canonized in 2012. Read more about him here and here.

We have create A free coloring page! Just download and print as many times as you wish.

Saint Patrick of Ireland

Blessed Feast of St. Patrick! We hope you and your family enjoy the day and celebrate with some time together. You can share his story while you color the printable below.

THE STORY OF ST. PATRICK OF IRELAND:

Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland was born around 385, the son of Calpurnius, a Roman tax collector. When Patrick was sixteen, he was taken captive by pirates. He was brought to Ireland and sold as a slave, and was put to work as a herder of pigs. He prayed during his solitude on the mountain, and lived this way for six years. He had two visions. The first told him he would return to his home. The second told him his ship was ready. Setting off on foot, Patrick walked two hundred miles to the coast. There he succeeded in boarding a ship, and returned to his parents in Britain.

Some time later, he went to Gaul and studied for the priesthood and was eventually made a bishop. He was entrusted with the mission to Ireland.

Saint Patrick founded many churches and monasteries across Ireland, but the conversion of the Irish people was no easy task. There was much hostility, and he was assaulted several times. He faced danger, and insults, and he was reproached for being a foreigner and a former slave. Despite many obstacles, he remained faithful to his calling, and he baptized many people into Christ.

Saint Patrick is often depicted holding a shamrock, which he used the shamrock to illustrate the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Its three leaves growing out of a single stem helped him to explain the concept of one God in three Persons.

Saint Patrick died on March 17, 461. No one knows the place where Saint Patrick is buried. Saint Columba of Iona (June 9) says that the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Patrick was buried at Saul, the site of his first church. A granite slab was placed at his traditional grave site in Downpatrick in 1899.

Blessed feast!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE

FREE Printable Festal Pennant Banner!

Hello and Happy New Year!

We want to start this new year off with thanking you all for supporting Draw Near Designs in all our endeavors. Our goal is to help families grow deeper in their faith by providing them with engaging tools for liturgical living.

The very first activity in this year’s Orthodox Children’s Calendar is to make a banner so that your families have a visual aid as we journey through the liturgical year. For more activities, recipes, and liturgical living, check out our 2020 calendar, Journey through the Great Feasts, available in Julian and Gregorian Calendar editions!

We decided to do all the leg work for you on this one so you can start off the new year with a success! Below is a printable version of the activity designed to be colored and hung in an area where your child can see it each day. It will help to tell where we came from and where we are going with each passing feast! Instructions are included in the packet, so just print, color, cut and hang!

Keep in mind this beauty is going to be up all year, so feel free to go crazy decorating! You could even print it on cardstock and use a gorgeous ribbon (see below!)

DOWNLOAD YOUR DIY BANNER HERE

Advent Calendar Ideas

In the Orthodox Church, the Nativity Fast begins on November 15 (Gregorian calendar), and we wanted to share some fun ideas for journeying through the season.

Advent Calendar!

We released the first ever reusable, 40 day, felt pocketed Advent Calendar, and it is a great backdrop for many activities with your kids. Here are some ideas!

For little ones:

🌟A felt star is included with the advent calendar. This can be glued onto a popsicle stick, and moved day to day, until the star is over the Nativity scene on Christmas. This a great visual for little ones as they can watch the star getting close to Christ

You can put something in the pockets, like…

📖a short Bible verse to commit to memory each day

💗note with an act of kindness to do (“Tell your sibling something you love about them.” “Choose 5 toys to donate.” etc)

💰some coins and have an almsgiving jar nearby for your little one to drop them into (then donate the money together after Christmas!)

🍬a little treat

☦️wrap up a little icon for them and put it in the Nativity scene pocket to be opened on Christmas Day

For older kids:

📖separate the Christmas story in the Bible up into 40 sections. Memorize 1 section per day, and recite it with the previous ones. By the end, you will have the entire Christmas story memorized!

✏️a note every day with something you love about them

😊and all of the above ideas!

And of course, there’s the incredible Welcoming the Christ Child set. This is a book that starts with Creation and has a reading and discussion questions for every day for each of the 40 days, culminating with the Nativity. Each reading is a story from the Bible, and demonstrates how they all point to Christ. The beautiful illustrations from the book have been made into an accompanying ornament set. The ornaments fit perfectly in the large advent calendar pockets! This is a wonderful resource that can be used year after year.

This is a beautiful, joyful season of the year, and having special traditions to celebrate personally or with your family can add to the richness of the “little Lent.”

“Your Nativity, O Christ our God, / Has shone to the world the Light of wisdom! / For by it, those who worshipped the stars, / Were taught by a Star to adore You, / The Sun of Righteousness, / And to know You, the Orient from on High. / O Lord, glory to You!”

House Blessings!

Hello all! It’s Caroline here!

I hope everyone is having a lovely start to the year! Now that both New and Old Calendar Orthodox have celebrated Theophany, I thought I’d share some resources that have been very helpful to us when preparing for house blessings.

Our first parish, St. Athanasius Orthodox Church in Nicholasville, KY printed out the house blessing prayers on a little booklet, complete with brief instructions on how to prepare for a home blessing. I found it super helpful, so I shared the link to it at the bottom of this post!

Secondly, it has really helped me when I have a clear picture in mind before I lay out my materials. This year (in addition to the January activity from our 2019 calendar), I created an easy printable that your kids can use to help you seek and find the appropriate materials in your house. It’s simple in it’s layout so that you can even set on the table and place your items on top of each shape as if completing a puzzle. Notice that there’s a significant amount of blank space here. That’s because a house blessing is simple and the focus should really be on the icon or icon corner where you are standing.

Below are some great ways to get your kids involved in the process of preparing for a house blessing:

• Have your kids seek-and-find the necessary items. (ex: “Can someone pick out an icon with Jesus on it to place on the table?”)

• Listen to the troparion for Theophany so that your family can sing along while the priest blesses the house.

• Have your kids pretend to be the priest and walk around the house blessing or censing it. Have them remove any toys that are in their way and in turn would be in the priest’s way as he walks though the house.

We hope these resources help your family during this special season in our church! Below are links to the House Blessing Printable and House Blessing Service Booklet.

HOUSE BLESSING PRINTABLE

HOUSE BLESSING SERVICE BOOKLET - Special thanks to St. Athanasius Orthodox Church in Nicholasville, KY for putting this together!

Books we love!

I don’t know about you, but I almost always get my kids books for Christmas and birthdays. Plastic toys certainly have their place in my home (why does it seem like that place is always under the couch?!), but I never regret giving books!

Recently I read the newest book by Melinda Johnson, The Barn and the Book. What a sweet story! (I’m not going to lie, I teared up at one part…but you’ll have to read it yourself to find out why!) The book is a sequel to Shepherding Sam, and while they’re both chapter books, they’re meant for young readers (I think even 3-5 year olds would enjoy hearing them read aloud). The spaced out print and engaging story makes it feel like the book flies by— always encouraging for little ones who are just adventuring into the world of chapter books.

Disclaimer: My 3 year old is definitely NOT reading herself a chapter book— she just enjoys the pictures in the book. And cat snuggles.

Shepherding Sam and The Barn and the Book both center on a group of children whose parents take them to visit a nearby monastery, particularly Sam, a boy who isn’t thrilled about these visits and doesn’t fit in well with the other children. He finds a buddy in Saucer, a relentlessly cheerful Corgi at the monastery who adopts Sam as his personal project. I particularly liked the relatable cast of characters— from the bossy girl who always knows what the Right Thing is, to the sweet and uncertain Sister Anna who has the (she thinks) unfortunate, and definitely challenging, task of corralling these children in Sunday School class.

This set would be a perfect St. Nicholas Day gift for a child!

I especially liked that while the setting is clearly Orthodox, the storyline itself feels like a story, not like a “lesson” that you’re supposed to be learning. I think that is so important for the children growing up Orthodox in America right now— to have resources around them showing the everyday lives of other Orthodox children, where Orthodoxy isn’t necessarily the main focus, just the background of the story, just like them! Often, being the only Orthodox kid in school or a friend group can make it feel like there just aren’t many other kids out there like you (or at least that was how I felt at a school where there was only 1 other Orthodox family). Reading about kids whose parents bring them to monasteries (like mine did) and celebrate the holidays differently than other churches (midnight services, anyone?) is refreshing and encouraging! Both of these books would be a sweet gift for Christmas or St. Nicholas day, and can be found here (just $20 for both of them!): https://store.ancientfaith.com/childrens-fiction

Some of our other favorites are these little books by Potamis Publishing: http://orthodoxchildrensbooks.com/eng/

The Story of You by the Orthodox Children’s Press (my little girl will ask me to read “the book about me!”) and right now there’s a free shipping promotion!: https://www.tocpstore.com/product/the-story-of-you

So many good board books for little ones (my daughter particularly likes “What Do You See At Liturgy”): https://store.ancientfaith.com/toddler-books/

We sure are blessed to have so many great resources for our kids these days!!