Here’s this week’s item:
44. Learn to crochet.
My first few attempts to learn to crochet were immediately aborted. I couldn’t find a video that was clear and kept messing up over and over again. And then finally I got lucky about ten days ago and found these amazing videos (thanks to this post) and they finally helped me unlock all I needed to know. So, then, I went searching for a doily which is all I’ve wanted to do.
I found these videos and here’s the motif I picked. And here’s my finished one.
a bit crooked but for my first project ever, not terrible.
Then I decided to get more adventurous and make a butterfly:
And finally I went back to this heart I’d bookmarked a long time ago and even did one of those (I used it on an upcoming catalyst which is why it’s glued to paper.)
I am still FAR from a crochet expert and have yet to join threads but it’s certainly a start and I do know how to crochet now.
A quiet, wonderful day here. Some sewing, some playing together, a bunch of work, some more playing, some reading and of course some photo taking.
The little one is still snot-nosed.
But there’s still a lot of love and impromptu hugging here. It’s so lovely.
And David is so good at playing with his little brother.
Who is also so good at playing by himself. Not whining or needing me even when he’s all snot-nosed. They are such good players. Extra thankful for that since it means I can do work.
And they laugh together a lot.
David was so excited to receive the legos his grandparents bought him. He immediately went to work putting them together and hasn’t stopped playing since.
Except to be kind to his brother.
I am off to feed the boys and bathe them an on and on. Then I get to have some quiet time to do today’s catalyst. Then I get to read some and maybe start a project. Or maybe just rest. This weekend will be relaxing, or so I hope. And I am feeling peaceful today.
Happy Weekend.
Note to Self:
I’ve been slacking a little on getting on top of and staying on top of the blog. I usually schedule posts in advance for some of the recurring things to ensure that the posts do go up daily. But lately I’ve been a bit more “in the moment” which means I’ve been behind. And this does stress me more than I hoped it would so I’m going to have to pay some attention to it. Is there a specific day you look forward to? Or something you don’t care for? Just curious…
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that my kids like playing so much. That they can play by themselves and together. I know this is a luxury and I am thankful for it.
2. I am grateful that my plans for June are going well and I am getting stuff done without feeling stressful or overwhelmed.
3. I am grateful to finally be going to the hairdresser tomorrow. I badly need a cut and a dye job.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Amore and Opapa
2. My new legos
Let the Great World Spin was our book club choice for my other book club. It came from my list of books to read this year. I’d read that this was a good book and I offered some choices to the group and this is what they chose. It’s a collection of short stories and I don’t usually like short stories. But these stories are linked in a subtle (and sometimes in not so subtle) ways and after I made it through the first story, I absolutely loved this book.
To me, it was a great example of how if you zoomed way way out and looked at us, you’d realize how very linked we all are. Quite amazing and so true.
And it’s beautifully written to boot.
Highly recommended.
When I saw these counting bags I knew I wanted to make them.
I didn’t have any fusible webbing so I just glued and I am not nearly as good at hand stitching as I should be but it doesn’t matter. Also, I didn’t have any beans to stuff them with so I just used the stuffing I had at hand. They look like mini pillows.
Since they are for David, he got to choose the fabric. Since his favorite color is green, there’s a lot of green.
For the cover, I used white muslin:
Here’s 1-2-3
4-5-6
7-8-9
and 10
here are all the backs:
here are all the fronts:
and here they are on his shelf:
This was a super-fun project. Highly recommended.
Journaling Reads:
I started my blog in August of 2000. This summer, it will be ten years since I wrote my first few words.
Ten years.
In that time, I’ve had periods where I wrote several times a day and periods where I barely wrote at all. For a while it was all about my thoughts, then it was only photography, and then about my kids. Scrapbooking. Reading. Basically, whatever my current obsession was, my blog became about that. And today, I blog at least twice a day. I keep a daily journal of my life, of my thoughts, of my gratitude.
And one of the things I am most grateful for is the blog itself. It’s a record of my life. My passions. My thoughts. My pains and joys. The cities I’ve lived in, the chances I took, the struggles I had. I love going back through the years and reading random entries. I love reliving those moments.
Each time I feel tired and not in the mood to write my blog, I remind myself how much I love having it and I sit and write.
Today was David’s last day at pre-school. He’s now officially on summer break. And then in September, he starts kindergarten. How quickly time passess…
I grabbed a bunch of photos with his teacher (one of them, his favorite) but I didn’t want to show a face-shot in case he doesn’t want his photo all over the net.
And here’s a shot with several of his closest friends. I blurred all the faces but, honestly, i think the photo still shows how funny and sweet they were all being.
Then I snapped one more of David on his way out. We’ve been going to this preschool since he was 2.5, we’ve got quite a few memories here.
Nathaniel’s still sick and he’s very very cranky. He didn’t take a morning nap and spent 35 minute crying after he woke up from his afternoon nap. Just lay on the floor here and cried. Neither of us could stop him. But earlier in the day, when we came back from school, he walked around for a while and just randomly gave David a hug. I couldn’t believe my eyes and grabbed the camera. David was totally shocked too..
He kept walking around and then coming back to give him a hug.
Again and again.
It made me cry to see how much he loves his brother and that he learned to hug!
And of course David hugged him back, too.
I know they are bad shots but it was hard to catch it especially since I was busy being so emotional.
It was a good day in that I decided to take the day off and I finished my work for BPS and AMM and now it’s just doing catalysts and sewing and painting etc for the rest of the month. It was relaxing not to have to juggle work and the kids. But it was a rough day cause nathaniel was so sad and so frustrated that it broke my heart.
Note to Self:
I realized today that I’ve done 41 layouts since the beginning of May. And 84 layouts since the beginning of this year, plus the week in the life mini and the week in the life digital project. Plus my project for the upcoming BPS class. That’s a lot of scrapping in half a year. I still don’t really feel burned out. But I do want to do some of the other projects I’ve been wanting to do. So besides working on the catalysts, I’m hoping to take a little break. Do some sewing, knitting, crocheting, drawing, and painting. I am so thankful that I have so many creative outlets I’m interested in so that when I take a break from something, I can still be doing something else creative. Yey.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for a day off work. It’s nice to be able to focus on just personal projects and my boys.
2. I am grateful for David’s preschool. It was a great place for David to go for three years. He made good friends and had great teachers. He loves school and they are to thank for that.
3. I am grateful to have done some sewing today for a fun little project for David. I suck at sewing but it makes me happy.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. mommy and daddy.
2. playing with moon sand.
This week’s download is some childhood themed printables. Here is what they look like:
You can download it here: Childhood Journaling download.
You are welcome to play with these as much as you want and use them anywhere you’d like. You are NOT allowed to sell them ever. You don’t have to but I’d appreciate a link back if you do use them.
If you like these downloads, I really do need some ideas. I seem to be running dry.
This is part of a weekly digital download series. They are posted every Thursday. You can find all of the ones that were posted here. If you like my downloads, please click here and give me ideas/requests for 2010. I would like to continue this feature but I am not sure I can come up with enough ideas on my own.
Another lots-of-photos post. Nathaniel woke up with a runny nose today and he was miserable all day cause you could tell he couldn’t breathe through it. Oh, and, he woke up at 4:50am. Oh yes. God help me.
Here he is with the little word-book we made for David. We’re not using it as much as we should. We’re about halfway through.
And then David decided to entertain him.
We won this hat at the Sunset party.
And Nathaniel laughed and laughed.
And laughed.
His cheeks were extra-pink from being sick but I love this photo of him.
And I took one of the boy with blue eyes, too.
Another favorite from today. They look like they’re whispering secrets to each other and smiling. I love them so.
David entertaining him more. He’s just the most amazing brother.
Nathaniel was hungry all day, too cause he didn’t want to eat what I gave him. He went into the panty, found these puffs, brought them to me to open and then walked around munching on them. (until he dropped a whole bunch on the floor which is when we took the bottle away.)
And then there was a lot of lying on the floor resting. (Needed I’m sure when there’s no napping happening.)
And now they are both upstairs, one sleeping, the other playing. I am overwhelmingly tired. I apologize for no blog posts today. I am feeling really really tired and could not muster up the motivation.
Note to Self:
I decided today that I need to take a retrospective moment tomorrow. A little time to myself to get my bearings a bit and restructure. I am way too exhausted and need to find a way to get some energy back. I also want to plan for David’s summer a bit now that it’s about to start and sort of make a schedule for us so I can make sure to reserve special time for each kid, each day. more coming on this…
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for David. Despite the fact that he can be too loud and overzealous at times, he puts up with a lot of my yelling and lack of patience and he forgives me each time and he’s so good to Nathaniel. I am so thankful for the little boy.
2. I am grateful for my super-hero husband who saves me each time i need saving. And more.
3. I am grateful to have finished my long long book. It was great but oh so long.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. watching lego movies with daddy.
2. i’m grateful for playing.
Last night was rough on all of our family. David woke up with nightmares at 11pm. And then I woke up around 2am with a startle and freezing. And then Jake rolled over to me soon after with his own nightmare. And finally at 3am, Nathaniel cried out and had peed all over himself and the bed.
That made for a great start to today.
But I had begun my layout last night so I got up and completed a layout I made for Ali’s Summer-themed call. I turned out sort of the way I imagined it so I was happy but also drained. But then I sat and started planning my project for the BPS August promotion and that took a whole bunch of time, too. Between the two layouts, I used 47 photos. Amazing eh?
In the meantime, Nathaniel decided he wasn’t going to nap today. So he didn’t sleep despite my patience. When we finally picked him up, I got a lot of this:
and this:
here he is staring at me while I am at the stair landing between the two floors, taking photos of my layouts.
And here he is after some food that he chose to wear instead of eat.
Then David came back home and he was in a fun mood, too. So gave me one of his special faces.
While Nathaniel tangled himself up in the headphones and got exponentially more frustrated. Cause he also skipped his afternoon nap. (Oh, yes he did.)
So by the time I put him down, he was in full melt down mode. It was pure joy. I finally got him bathed, dressed, nursed and in bed and he just about collapsed into sleep. Here’s to hoping it’s a better night.
I have a feeling tonight’s tasks aren’t going to get done. I have to write up my project and that will take precedence and then I will be too tired to function. So that’s that.
Note to Self:
One of the things that’s been falling through the cracks lately because of all my designated projects is email. I have not been so good at responding to email. I always mean to but then forget or tell myself I have to finish my task first. And then more of it comes and the one I wanted to respond to gets buried down. It’s a bad cycle for me cause it still nags at the back of my mind so I need to find a better system for email. And as I say this, I think I found something that might work. Creating some sort of “Respond” folder or something that I can regularly clean. Not sure if that’s just creating more process. Well I will give that a try for a few days and see if it works. In the meantime, if you haven’t heard back from me, I am so sorry, I swear I am not ignoring you. I don’t think I am too important to reply. I am just completely disorganized. I apologize.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful to have completed my project. I wanted it to be interesting and i think (hope) I accomplished it.
2. I am grateful that my hair dresser had to cancel so I can stay home tonight instead of drive while I am so exhausted.
3. I am grateful that Jake was home today and took David to school and picked him up. Lucky me.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. daddy.
2. my friends joseph and jace.
Quite amazingly, we’re about halfway through the year. When I look back upon this year, I remember so many little things and yet most of the year is a blur. I take a lot of photos everyday but I can’t remember if a photo was taken this year or last. The days, the weeks, the months all seem to merge.
I think that’s partly because so many of us lead such busy lives. We’re always on the go go go. And we’re also always thinking one step ahead (assuming we’re not lost in the past.) Worrying about tomorrow’s assignments, next week’s deadlines, and sometimes even about things that are far into the future. If we’re not focusing on the future by dreading it, we focus on it with anticipation. Counting the days until the next vacation. Waiting for the moment the kids are in bed. Looking forward to date night. I could go on and on.
The future has a strong effect on us. It also has a way of stopping us from focusing on the most important thing we have: now.
This very moment.
I’m a planner so I know all about planning for the future. The near and the far. Looking forward, dreading, anticipating, etc. I do them all. But one of the things I’ve been working on more this year is mindfulness. Being more in the moment. This moment. I guess this is something I’ve wanted to work on for a while because my word for 2008 was journey. As in, “life is the journey, not the destination.” Destinations are great. I daresay they are necessary.
But the journey is the key.
Focusing only on the destination will mean missing millions of opportunities for fulfillment, joy, growth, and most importantly, gratitude. I’ve spent a lot of time this year, looking at my moments, feeling grateful for the journey of everyday. Don’t get me wrong, I love the destinations, too. I am grateful when we finally reach a milestone or accomplish something we’ve been working towards. But I am also trying to focus on the moments in between. The paths that lead us there. The churn of the ordinary moments.
Those are the pathways and the journey is life. Being grateful for the journey, leads to being grateful for life. So I invite all of you to spend a little more time focusing on the journey and being grateful for its paths.
The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.
A lot of photos today. It’s funny how each day I worry I don’t have enough photos only to find I took so many. Love my boys.
Nathaniel is still playing peek-a-boo with anything he can find.
And cracking himself up, too.
And then there’s the joy of seeing Daddy come home. Here’s David showing him his book.
And here’s Nathaniel wanting in on the action.
full-on Daddy love.
Some smiles for Mommy.
And trying to get Daddy’s attention.
And David being all silly just to make them laugh. (and succeeding)
And finally reaching for mommy. love my boys. all 3 of them.
I am a bit less organized than usual tonight. Not sure what to do for tonight’s art since I have two things I would really like to get done and I’ve been up since 4am and feeling a little too tired right now. Oh well. I trust I will sort it out.
Note to Self:
Due to my crazy busy schedule i’ve been doing things a bit more last minute lately. It does stress me out a bit but it also means I am more in the moment and I think that’s a good thing for me. I guess the trick, like most things, is to find the balance…
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Grateful for a quieter than expected work day.
2. Grateful that Jake will be home tomorrow and will drive David to school and back. yey!
3. Grateful for how good Nathaniel is when he’s not sleeping and how he walks around and plays and lets me do work. Cross fingers that this stays the case next year when David has a longer school day and I can be more productive.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. daddy
2. mommy
3. the craft project
4. all my family
5. nathaniel
6. the whole world (lol!)
When I saw this tiny book tutorial Lori linked to, I knew it was something David and I could do together.
We gathered our supplies. David’s favorite color is green right now so he picked a bunch of green.
We cut them all up.
glued to the paper.
And then made our book.
David punched out a bunch of birds.
and glued all of his treasures.
We added some more accents and then I gave him a sheet of letter stickers and he’s having a ton of fun with them.
Here’s what he wrote.
And here he is with his book.
An hour later he’s still adding to it and playing with it. That’s what I call a good craft project.
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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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