Even though I’m a tulip person I still am awed by a beautiful rose.
It was good to be back into my routine today. Felt right. I tried not to rush through it. Towards the end of the day, it got a bit more hectic than I’d like but overall, it felt good.
I know it’s far from perfect technically and it’s even a bit blurry but what struck me about this photo was how much Nathaniel looks like David in this photo. His face is wider and his eyes bluer. Looks so much like David at that age.
Note to Self:
This is going to sound a bit cryptic and I apologize in advance. But here’s something I learned today: it’s better to join/apply for/try out for something only if I really really want it. And in that case I have to give it 150% of what I have. After that, I might still not get it, but that’s OK. What’s not okay is to try just for the sake of trying. And to try without giving it all I have. Because then, when I don’t get it, it makes me sad when I didn’t necessarily want it in the first place and I also wonder if I didn’t get it cause I didn’t try hard enough.
This applies to all areas of my life, work, personal, friendships, relationships. I need to be more mindful about what I want. Why I want. Create a path to getting it and see if I want to travel that path. If the path is appealing and worth the trouble to get to the destination, then I start walking down it. More mindfully. I do it because I decided I want it. Not cause everyone else is doing it. Not cause it would be cool to have it. Not cause “why not.” It’s not a “why not” it’s a “why so.”
Life is too short and I need to live it more mindfully.
Three things I’m grateful for today:
1. I had the opportunity to help someone whom I believe in today. I am thankful that I had a skill to offer. I am thankful that the person accepted my help (not everyone does). I am thankful for the opportunity to get to feel the joy that comes from having done something nice for someone else without expecting anything in return.
2. I am thankful to be back to our routine. Driving David to school, listening to books on the way, baby napping while I work and coffee with Graham Crackers. These things make me happy. Grateful for my perfectly ordinary life.
3. Grateful for todo lists. I have a lot of little tasks here and there that are piling up and I am thankful for Evernote that keeps all my todo lists in one place and makes sure I don’t drop the ball too much. (Still really behind on email but that’s for another day.)
These mailboxes were one of the first things I fell in love with where I live. There’s something about them that speaks to me.
Today was a quiet day. After yesterday I intended to take it easy and I am glad to say that I did. I read my book, I did workbooks with David, I hugged Nathaniel, I cooked some fresh food for him (mangos, bananas, and made some fresh oat porridge). I knit some and just cleaned up the house a bit.
I realized today that I do much better with routine. Not just accomplishing tasks but living my life. I love December but the lack of routine actually makes my days more stressful. So, amazingly, I’m actually looking forward to tomorrow. To getting back into our routines. We have a bunch of activity coming up in the next few months. Trip down to LA and one possibly up to NAPA, Jake’s parents visiting, my parents visiting. So it’s not going to be 100% quiet but it should be more routine, I hope.
Here are two photos of my boys from today:
Love them so. I am so truly lucky to have them. They each make my heart skip every single day.
Note to Self:
In the last few weeks, I’ve been dreading doing my catalysts. They’ve been going from one daily to-do list to another and they never get accomplished. I am usually several catalysts ahead so it’s frustrating to me that I’ve fallen so behind. Today, I decided to try something new. I will make one night of the week my creative therapy night. On that night, I will set the kitchen timer for one hour and I have that much time to get the piece of art done. I am allowed to plan and print the photo and journaling ahead of time. It’s ok to think about what I want to do as well. But from the moment I sit to do it, to the minute I am done, it won’t be more than one hour. I want to try this. See what happens if I limit myself time-wise. Will it be better or worse? I don’t know but I like the idea and it makes me feel less stressed about how behind I’ve gotten on them. And it’s a good tool to keep in mind that the goal for creative therapy is to get the therapeutic benefit not necessarily to produce the most amazing piece of art there ever was. I’ll let you know if it works.
Three things I’m grateful for today:
1. Super Baby Food: I bought this book when David was born and used it a lot with him. Honestly, I used it to cook fresh veggies and to freeze them so he could eat healthier than I do. I just cracked it open again and made some of the porridge (just oat and water really) and I plan to make a healthier diet for Nathaniel. I’ve been giving him Earth’s Best for two months now and it’s really expensive and if I am going to spend all that money, I want to try to give him fresh food. There will still be many days where he eats jars but I would like to try and this book is a good resource for me. Despite many other things that the author and I disagree on, I like the easy guides on how to cook and store veggies.
2. Good books: There’s nothing like a good book to make my day feel happy and calm and wonderful. I am so thankful for books. I love music, too and movies but books have a special place in my heart.
3. Having a tub: The previous house we lived in didn’t have a tub. Just two showers. This one has a tub both in our bathroom and in the kids’ one. I love filling up the tub a little and watching my kids play it in. David loves playing with all the squirting toys and Nathaniel loves chewing the foam ones. I just love sitting there and watching them play quietly and peacefully.
This is another photo from our walk yesterday. I love the colors in it.
Today was an exceptionally long day. It started all nice and we spent some family time together and then I scrapped some. When Nathaniel woke up, we went to Target to get some groceries. Mostly baby food. After we came home, we decided to tackle the “take down the Christmas tree” project. A few hours just to take the ornaments off. And then as the “cut down the tree so we can get it out of the house” part started, Nathaniel woke up.
Jake had set the pack’n’play in the living room since Nathaniel loves to roam around and sometimes we need him to stay put. He was pleasant enough at first:
But then quickly got mad. That’s David trying to entertain him there.
He would not stop crying and complaining until I picked him up. And then he would not leave my side. It took us hours and hours to cut and clean the tree. It was so dead that just touching the tree made thousands of needles fall. So Jake patiently cut while I bagged.
I know this is a terrible photo but it’s just here for me to remind myself that next year we’re getting a FAKE tree! I know, I am disappointed too but I don’t think I can do this again.
I spent the rest of the night scrapping some more. I made seven layouts with the January A Million Memories Kit. Told so many of Nathaniel’s stories. Finally catching up on his baby book. But I have this incredible headache that will not go away. Tomorrow, I rest all day long.
Note to Self:
Today’s note to self is to NOT get a real tree next year. Yes, the smell is amazing. Yes, I do love having a real tree. But I love having the tree up for a long time and the mess it makes is just not worth it. Maybe a small, real tree for the other room, so I can still enjoy the smell. But a beautiful, fake tree for our living room. I do believe it will even make Christmas more enjoyable.
Three things I’m grateful for today:
1. My husband for letting me sleep in an extra TWO hours this morning. I haven’t slept in this late in months.
2. The beautiful January Kit from AMM that was full of Webster’s pages and that inspired me to create so many layouts.
3. My husband for spending hours and hours cutting the tree so we could get it out of the house without making an even bigger mess than we did. Yes, he’s amazing.
Happy New Year. Rabbit rabbit. Welcome to 2010!
I hope you welcomed the new year in a way that makes you happy. We relaxed, watched movies together and fell asleep shortly before 11pm. My back’s been in exceptional pain lately and since I’m nursing, I can’t really take anything stronger than Advil which makes life a bit more painful than I’d like.
We took a nice, short walk this morning (for one of my 52 Things project items). I snapped the photo above and these 3 of my boys while we were out:
Then I spent most of the day scrapbooking but it was all slow progress due to my back. Oh well, this, too, shall pass. I am happy to welcome 2010. I am confident this is going to be a most fantastic year.
Note to Self:
I need to slow down more. When I stress, my body tenses and then I injure my weakest muscles (my jaw and my back) which then causes me pain and forces me to slow down but I can’t enjoy it because I am in pain. I need to realize that I have two kids (one of which is a baby) who need and deserve attention and not as much is going to get done in this particular phase of my life. That’s ok. It’s time to slow down and enjoy my kids. Soon they will be gone and I will wish they were here to distract me. So, note to self: slow down. Breathe. Enjoy the kids. Be patient with and kind to self and family.
Three things I’m grateful for today:
1. Really good scissors. I did a lot of detailed cutting today and the little cutter bee scissors I have were fantastic.
2. My husband carrying Nathaniel up and down the stairs instead of me so my back wouldn’t hurt more.
3. YouTube for teaching me how to knit in the round.
This week’s question is: “What magical thing happened to you this year?”
It was a great year with a new house, working from home etc but the most magical thing this year ever was Nathaniel hands down. Love you, my angel.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
This week’s question is: “What was the best gift you ever gave?”
I did this for creative therapy a few weeks ago. I became an American citizen. Best gift I could give my children.
I used tape to cover the tag and did the stripes with red ink. The blue side has some clear embossing for the stars which then does the resist over blue ink. Not perfect but I was playing around.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
This week’s question is: “What do you love most about where you live?”
Well since I am in sunny California I decided to make it about the sun.
I painted the tag blue for sky, rolled up a ribbon for the sun and then glued sequins for the rays.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Catalyst ninety-four is: What’s something you swore you would never do? Why? Did you do it?
When I had my first son, David, I was working from home. Even though it was hard at times, I loved watching him grow and being there to see it all. And when he turned eighteen months or so, I took a job with Google and was working in an office for the first time since he was born. Although his dad was home with him, I missed him everyday and regretted not being there with him. And then I got pregnant with Nathaniel. I told myself that there was no way I was going back to work once the little baby came. My job at Google wasn’t something I could do from home and I was determined not to miss Nathaniel’s childhood which meant I had to quit my job.
Then, a month before my maternity ran out, I went into work and told my manager I would be happy to stay at work but only if they would let me work from home. I would be willing to do any job, as long as it meant I didn’t have to come into the office. As it turned out, they were very wonderful and helped me move into another job in the same group. One that I could do (and have been doing) from home. As it turned out, I got the best of both worlds: I get to see Nathaniel (and David) grow up and I get to work at a wonderful company, with a product I am proud to be a part of.
This week’s question is: “What is the sweetest thing anyone has done for you?”
For some reason, I was really stuck on this but then it suddenly hit me that I wanted to make it about this story.
I punched a whole bunch of hearts, glued and sewed them and the lifted up the edges. I spelled the name of the song, added some beads to the heart and that’s it.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Catalyst Ninety-Three is What’s something you really look forward to? (It can be something you look forward to every day, week or just one thing that you’re really looking forward to.)
I look forward to December all year long. Not just Christmas, which I do love, but the whole month. The lights, the festivities, the joy, the generosity, the jolly spirit – they all make me really happy. Thanks to Ali Edwards and Shimelle Laine, I’ve been doing a December-long minibook for three years in a row and it is my favorite project each year. I love spending more time with my family. Winding down. Snuggling indoors and doing craft projects, watching movies, baking, and just being together. It is, by far, my favorite time of the year.
This week’s catalyst is: If you had to pick one single thing you wanted to do or accomplish before your next birthday, what would it be? What’s stopping you from doing it?
The one thing I’d like to accomplish before my next birthday is to find a way to feel more peaceful inside. To choose peace and joy. To let go of worry and feel a little lighter, look at the world in a more positive manner. My life is really full and beautiful and I would like to be peacefully blissful. So I stitched this dove and created a little olive branch out of wire and beads. This would, by far, be the greatest gift I can give myself.
This week’s question is: “What’s something you do over and over again?”
This was easy for me. Photos. I take photos over and over and over again. I love taking photos. I love capturing my family.
One of the few items on my list that I hadn’t done yet was using rubons on a tag. Just rubons. So I picked this beautiful Jenni Bowlin rubon which was so apt. I rubbed it on and then inked the tag. I love the way the silver makes it look embossed. I then put a tiny camera sticker just for me.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Weekly tags are posted every Thursday, you can see all of them by clicking here.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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