karenika

A Book a Week – March

I read March for book club, too.

It’s been on my list to read this book for a long, long time. I am not usually a fan of historical fiction and even though I wanted to read it, I kind of thought this would be a hard read.

It was not at all.

I sat and read it in two days. There was something about it that pulled me in and I just wanted to keep reading. I think Geraldine Brooks’ storytelling was beautiful and I loved remembering Little Women which I really should reread at this point.

If historical fiction is your genre or you liked the Little Women, you might like this one.

Gratitude Journal – Week 40

Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations:

Before (sorry for the crappy photos this time, i tried quite a few times but the camera wasn’t accommodating.):

it says: if you want to fly, you must leap first.

and here’s what the page looks like with all the gratitudes and celebrations:

Just another excuse to create art and remember the present that is my life.

Gratitude Journal is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.Gratitude Journal – Week 39

Weekly Diary – October 19 2013

Here are some photos from this week. Not too many this time around:

Jake’s cousin came to visit us with her daughter and we took the opportunity to snap some shots.

One more of us.

then it was family photo time.

i love that even if I take no photos all week, I still have these I can count on.

I love looking at them and seeing how much the kids have grown over the three years we’ve been doing this.

we love plants vs zombies number two!

and some tickling.

and here we go. so grateful for my life. i hope your week was lovely, too.

Weekly Diary is a project for 2013. You can read more about it here.

SixBySix – Week 42

Before this week’s art here’s the important reminder: Please remember, this is personal and hand-made and thus imperfect. If you want perfect art, do not buy mine. Also one more reminder that these are pretty small. 5.5inches by 5.5inches. That’s about 14×14 centimeters). You will just get the original piece of watercolor paper with my art and signature in the back. No mounting, no frame. I don’t want to misrepresent anything. I will put a paypal button under each (you can pay with credit card or paypal.) the button doesn’t update so you will have to click through to see if it’s sold out. I will try to update them as quickly as I can and remove the button if it’s gone, but just in case. Each piece will be $35. That’s US dollars. If you have questions please leave a comment and I will reply as fast as I can.

With that here’s this week’s art:

it reads: you have to let go of one thing to find another.

SixBySix is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal and other details here.

A Book a Week – Where’d You Go Bernadette

I read Where’d You Go Bernadette for book club, too.

And I will say, I am not a chick lit person. I mean I was but I think I read a lot of them at some point and they all started resembling each other so I grew sick of it. (Same thing happened for John Grisham, too) So I wasn’t even sure I wanted to read this book.

And when I started it, I liked it even less.

But then I kept reading it and I couldn’t put it down. I just kept wanting to read more and more. I really liked Bee and Bernadette.

In the end, I am glad I read it.

2013 Sketching – Week 35

My goal for 2013 is to make three sketches a week. If I make more, great. If I don’t, that’s ok. Trying to keep the pressure low while still encouraging myself to draw.

my one sketch:

that’s it for this week. i have given myself permission to do just one. so be it.

Sketching is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my sketching journey here.

Life Insights

As I was doing my Life Organizer prompts this week, there was a question about life insights. I couldn’t remember what she referred to so I had to go back and reread the section. And then I realized I had never read it. One of the things she recommends is to go on a search and create a list of my life insights.

I love this idea so I immediately jotted some down:

Nature heals my soul.
Kindness comes first.
Be you.
Respect yourself and others.
You don’t have to be right.
Always say bless you.
I crave growth and learning.
I am at my best when I help others.
Self-worth is not something others bestow upon you. You have to believe in your own worth.
Quiet time is essential to my soul.
Always apologize to those you love. It’s never too late.
Journaling is how I see my thoughts.

These are just some of mine. I will be thinking of more for the next week. I love the idea of having this insight list. Sort of like personal commandments but slightly different context.

What are some of your life insights?

Gratitude Journal – Week 39

Here’s this week’s gratitudes and celebrations:

Before:

it says: who would you be without the thought that there’s something wrong with you.

and here’s what the page looks like with all the gratitudes and celebrations:

Just another excuse to create art and remember the present that is my life.

Gratitude Journal is a weekly project for 2013. You can see a detailed post on my goal other details here.

Weekly Diary – October 12 2013

Here are some photos from this week:

We decided it would be fun to go to the Chabot Space and Science Center but all the photos are pretty low quality because there was pretty much no light in there.