Hello there.
Welcome to karenika!
I haven’t had an about page in this blog for a long while but I thought maybe it was time to put one again. Let’s see how this works.
My name is Karen. Online I tend to go by karenika because it’s more unique and so always as a username. Karenika is a diminutive and it’s what my parents call me.
I was born and grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. At seventeen, I moved to Pittsburgh to go to college. After four years at Carnegie Mellon University, I moved to New York City and worked at Goldman Sachs as a programmer. A year after I moved, my then boyfriend, now husband, Jake graduated and moved in with me. During our seven years in New York City, I took a lot of classes and volunteered heavily. I lived in London for two months and Japan for six months. I then quit my wall street job, we got married, and I joined Teach For America. I taught fifth grade in the South Bronx. It was an extremely difficult time in my life and (amongst other reasons) it eventually prompted us to leave New York City in 2003.
After a summer-long cross-country trip, we moved to San Diego. There, we had our first boy, David. I programmed for a small company from home. Three years of sunny San Diego felt like enough (at the time) and we moved to the Bay Area so I could start my job at Google. We’ve been here ever since.
Jake runs his own company and I started at Google as a Product Manager and worked on several products but now I am a Technical Project Manager for Google Chrome (and if you haven’t used it, I cannot recommend it enough) and I am very grateful to be working at home full time so I can also take care of our boys.
So here we are. Jake, David, Nathaniel and I. David will be eight on February 2013 and Nathaniel will be four in April of 2013.
I’ve had this blog since August of 2000. Since then, the content has changed a lot over the years. At this moment in time, it’s mostly about my family, my thoughts and things I am focusing on right now in my life: reading, photography, scrapbooking, and art.
I own a photography company and do family shoots. I love taking pictures and seeing people connect and care for each other.
I have been scrapbooking since 2005. My style has changed over the years but my emphasis has not. I value photos and words and put everything else as secondary. I cannot scrap a page without a story. I’ve had the privilege to design or guest design for amazing manufacturers such as The Girls’ Paperie, Pink Paislee, Tim Holtz, My Mind’s Eye, Maya Road, and October Afternoon. I also designed for A Million Memories kit club for three years. I was honored to be a part of write.click.scrapbook. And finally, I started and ran creative therapy for a few years.
I love teaching and have been teaching at Big Picture Classes for a few years. The classes I offer change but I always focus on process-based classes and journaling.
I’m also an avid reader and I am trying to learn how to draw better.
I think that’s it! If you have questions, just feel free to email me: karen@karenika.com or leave a comment.
thank you for stopping by!
Hi!!
I did follow your posts on Weeklley Gratetude, but I can’t able to did that project. But I love the project and all ideas inside.
I will try again in 2011 be grateful and think about it.
I just wanna say that I apreciate your scrapbooking works!
Thanks for time!
A happy 2011!!
Hi Karen,
So lovely to meet you here. I’ve come across your blog today and LOVE what I see. I am so inspired by your amazing scrapbooking- the simplicity and busyness of your pages at the same time, and the way you journal with such feeling. LOVE it!
I’m a teacher of year 1 and 2 kids in Australia. I’ve been teaching for 7 years now and hope to start my own family this year. 🙂
I’m a BIG user of Google Chrome (good work!)and have just subscribed to your blog in Google Reader. I look forward to seeing what you create next. 🙂
Beck
[…] Karen from Creative Therapy also is focusing on Art Journaling this year and you will find some great […]
I have been following your blog for a while now and finally looked at your About Me section. Wow! You are one busy lady. As a full-time working mom married to an engineer I can certainly relate to the busy-ness in your household. Your ability to still devote a good portion of time to your beloved hobbies is so inspiring to me.
We live in LA and both have long commutes so by the time I get home to my 3 yo I just want to focus on her and chillax =). Your blog provides some end of the day inspiration to actually spend time on things I want to do (photo-editing, reading, scrapping).
I am also a perfectionist and a tech geek (see married to an engineer) and I think I see a lot of myself in your blogging.
At any rate, thanks for your dedication to your site. I’m sure there are many readers like me who look forward to it each day. =)
thank *you* so much for your kind kind words!! 🙂
I have just stumbled upon your blog, I love it, its great, I am so inspired by what you do, how do you find time to fit it all in? Your photography is beautiful. I too took the Soul Restoration course and found it amazing…
Looking forward to coming back for further visits to your site…Stay blessed! Amanda
Are you taking #2? thank you so much for your kind kind words!!! 🙂
I got here after listening to Paperclipping Roundtable. You are very inspirational!
thank you so much sunghee 🙂 🙂
Ran across your blog today – love your art journal pages – they are an inspiration to me. Thank you!
thank you for your kind words 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing your talent. What an inspiration you are.
I got here from Julie Balzer.
thank you so so much for your kind words 🙂
Hi Karen,
Loved your website!! got here by a random search on google and love your photos and ideas, i am certainly saving this link for reading and going through the entire blog :))
I got here from the Brave Girls’ Club Daily truth email. I noticed your post about going to visit Turkey and just had to go and read your about section to see if you are Turkish, and you are! Hurrah! My family lived in Turkey for 8 years. I was only there for 2, and it took a LOT of getting used to – as you can imagine, it was a little different for me. But I learned to love it, and have some very good memories (especially of kebaps and ekmek and visne suyu. 😀 ) We lived down in Adana.
oh i am so sorry i somehow missed this. that’s cool!! I’ve actually never been to Adana but i can imagine it was quite different. i love love love visne suyu too!! 🙂
karen,hi!
i’ve learnt many things about you and i judged in asking myself what kind you are! karen, i’m an african and realy i don’t know my talent. i tried to study but because of poverty i failed. i was in year 2 univsrity i suspent because of missing fees and school materials. i’m hopeless that you cann’t understand.
lovely mother.
Hi Karen i came across your website while searching for ideas for my art journal. Im from Jamaica and here we have exams like the SATs (called CSEC/CXCs) and im doing Art as one of the subjects. The Art Journal is a required part of the exam and i ran out of ideas and im right on the deadline for submission. I just want to say thanks because your creative journal pages inspired me and gave me a lot of ideas i really like your style and im having so much fun browsing through them. Thanks Much! 🙂
[…] both fun and whimsical.The second artist whose work I’m really enjoying right now is Karen or Karenika as she goes by online. She is an avid art journaler and sets annual projects for herself as a way […]
Hi Karen! Greetings from Thailand.
I accidentally run into your website while I was searching for some inspiring pictures. I must say that your arts are fantastic. I love going through your website. Now I became your fan on this blog! Thank you so much for putting your effort and sharing your beautiful pictures with us.
May I give you a suggestion? I think it would be great if you have your own Fanpage on Facebook.
I’m sure other people will fall in love with your works just like I do.
Keep up your good work! I look forward to seeing more of your awesome pictures! 🙂