karenika

The Joy and Happiness of Making Art

This is one of the projects I did for Authentique Paper for CHA Summer.

Journaling Reads:
Nathaniel you just found David’s old toy in the closet and have been playing with it ever since. I love how you sit there and draw for hours engrossed in the joy of creating art. Then you stop and admire your creation. Erase and then start all over again. I can see the joy in your face when you play, draw. and make art. It’s the same reason I love to create my son. And seeing you share the joy of art makes me happy!

Daily Diary – August 28 2011

I hope you’re not already sick of dahlia pictures because there are many many many more.

Today began with exercise and family photos. Me taking one of the boys.

Nathaniel thrilled to have the remote.

“Traumatized” when it’s taken away.

Completely distracted looking out the window and playing with the curtains.

Thoroughly bored and getting fidgety.

suddenly realizing David has the remote.

about to break down again which is what finally prompted us to get right into tickle time.

And finally laughter.

Which ended in tears cause We tickled David too much. But alas, another family shoot. And then it was quiet time, art time, still-won’t-take-a-nap time. So we finally gave up and went to the San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum where the kids had an absolute blast. As the day came to a close, I started feeling overwhelmed and tired so the ride home and dinner was not so great.

But now they are sleeping peacefully and I am trying to quiet my mind and soul and find peace, too. It was quite a wonderful sight seeing them explore, laugh, and just be so happy. I am so thankful.

It was a productive and wonderful weekend. We get one more before school starts and fall is officially here.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for the museum. It’s such an excellent place for kids.
2. I am grateful I made a minibook which has been on my todo list and wrote my newsletter, too.
3. I am grateful some peaceful time before tomorrow’s stressful day begins.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went to the museum * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played legos with daddy.
3. I am grateful that I played wii. (he got to play a little bit today.)

Reading with David – Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Farm

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I like that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle can cure all the children. My favorite story was the one about the boy who couldn’t find anything because I loved how he found Mr. Piggle-Wiggle’s present and how he said he had the sharpest eyes in the world.

I didn’t like the story where the boy lied all the time because I thought it was mean that he lied and made up stories. But I loved the story where she stopped forgetting to feed the animals because in the end she had gotten so great at taking care of all the animals and they all loved her.

I didn’t like destructiveness story but I loved that in the end he learned how to fix everything he destroyed. And I loved how the scared girl became super-brave by the end of the book.

Reading a book a week with my six-year-old son David is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

Art Journaling – Strathmore – Until You Love You

Here’s the next page:

The full text reads: You cannot love others until you love you.

Here are some details from the page:

I really really do not like this one but I want to post them all so you can see how I produce stuff I dislike and so I can track my personal progress. This page uses pan pastels, acrylic paint, watersoluble oil pastels.

If you have questions about anything specific, just leave me a comment and I promise I will respond.

I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for July and August (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.

Daily Diary – August 27 2011

We had a lovely Saturday here. I woke up and read to David, then, while I exercised he and daddy went to swimming class and when he got back, it was family photo time. At first, there was a little moment.

but soon it passed and the boys were looking at Daddy’s toolset.

I love how I can tell he’s squishing the boys in this photo. Just like I do all the time.

And then I got in the photo, too.

Nathaniel took the photos, of course. But you can see David eyeing the remote.

and here he is reaching for it.

but we move to tickle time instead. Trying to avoid more drama.

And there’s much laughter, of course.

Then the little boy went to bed and David played wii. After about an hour, we gave up on the little boy and went out to the Cal train to take a little ride since Nathaniel loves trains so much. David was quite happy too.

Nathaniel was scared at first.

But he loved it once we were on. We went down a few stops, got off, had some lunch, and then got back on to come home. When we got off, the boys waved goodbye to the train.

some fruit-shopping and a little more art and our day was over.

At one point, David got really sad and went over to the stairs to cry. I went to sit with him and when Nathaniel saw him, he climbed into his lap to give him a hug. And then he went away and came back with a big truck to encourage him to play and be happy. It touched all of us so much and I think David realized how very much Nathaniel loves him. It was a wonderful moment.

Now they’re sleeping and I am about to write my art journal and then hopefully put together the September newsletter, I’ve been dragging my foot for some reason. I feel tired but happy. Here’s to another full day tomorrow.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for our train ride, it was really fun.
2. I am grateful I finally bound my art pages. I’ll make sure to post it when I post the full book pages.
3. I am grateful for fresh fruit and salads in the fridge.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went on the Cal Train * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I made my lego men play guitar hero.
3. I am grateful that I played wii.

Us Right Now – August 27

jake
I think this week was a little more relaxing than usual for Jake but he was still running around, going from meeting to meeting and working pretty hard. It was nice to have him take a day off to spend it with us on Friday and I hope to do at least one more of those days before school starts the week after next. It’s always so nice to have Jake around more because he creates such an uplifting energy in all of us.

karen
This week was quite hectic for me. A lot of work at work but I still managed some wonderful art time and I am happy about that. I love all the art journaling I’ve been doing and I finally feel like I am completely into it. I’ve been thinking a bunch about September and the fall months and what our new routine will look like and what, if anything, I might want to add or change for the fall. I think my current plan is to let the season start and see what the new hours are like so I can figure out how and where all the things I want to do fit.

david
David had a relatively uneventful week. He’s been spending a lot of time playing with his legos and also playing a bit with Nathaniel. There are challenges to having him around all day but I really will miss his energy and help when he’s back at school. I really hope that he will love his new school and make some very good friends. He got a postcard from his new teacher today which made him and me so happy. I am really hoping that this year will be awesome and we will feel good about our decision to change schools.

nathaniel
Nathaniel is doing great. He is talking more and more and understanding almost anything. And he’s as cute as ever, of course. He’s always so happy (and sometimes full of drama) that he brings a lot of animation and joy into our days. It will be so very quiet with both of the kids gone the few hours on those three days. My bet is I won’t even know what to do with myself when it’s so super-quiet.

Us Right Now is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

Daily Diary – August 26 2011

We spent the whole day in San Francisco today and besides the hundreds of dahlia photos I took, this is the only family photo I took all day.

so when we came home, i snapped one of David.

and tried to get one of Nathaniel but I didn’t get anything I liked.

nonetheless, we had a fabulous day. Dahlia photos, cable car rides, art store trips. It was a day away from home and filled with my awesome boys.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for a lovely day away from work and with family.
2. I am grateful for the weekend!
3. I am grateful for my incredibly awesome husband who drives and works tirelessly during these trips. He’s amazing.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went to San Fran * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we rode cable cars.
3. I am grateful that I got a colorful pencil.

Art Journaling – Strathmore – Thrive

Here’s the next page:

The full text reads: Dont just live: thrive.

Here are some details from the page:

Pan pastels, some acrylics, sequin waste, stamps, Tim Holtz stencil and some ink. Not a big favorite. These pages are just not speaking to me as much as I would like them to but I cannot put my finger on why. I do eventually figure things out a bit but it takes about 10 more pages for me to get there.

If you have questions about anything specific, just leave me a comment and I promise I will respond.

I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for July and August (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.

Healthy For Life – Week 34

Well no change is still better than negative change I guess. I’ll take it. This week was a bit worse food-wise in that I made a few unwise choices. But nothing terrible and I am still off the coffee, though I am drinking a lot of tea. I imagine it’s not great for me but it’s helping me for now and it’s considerably more natural than the coffee I was drinking. At this point, the biggest not-whole food I am eating is the graham crackers. I will need to work on a plan to phase them out eventually.

The exercise is still continuing daily. And it is still really hard. I never want to do it but I always show up and do it any way. I an still doing the incline for one of the miles and I am trying to focus on my reading or the movies so I don’t feel the overwhelming desire to walk away. I will admit that I am thankful I’ve been able to do this for so many days consecutively without any injuries or problems. And that I haven’t ever been too sick to get on the treadmill. That’s all pretty amazing considering how long I’ve been doing this for.

And there we are. Another week. One step and then another. That’s what I keep telling myself. I just keep trying and it will work.

and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.

Daily Diary – August 25 2011

Happy Thursday!! Since I have tomorrow off I feel like it’s a Friday here. I am happy and I am trying to get through all my todo lists that have been dragging all week so that I can start the weekend fresh. So if you have an unanswered email or comment from me, I will do my very best to get it done tonight. I am also hoping to do the September newsletter. If you don’t get my newsletters, you can subscribe on the right side. They come with free digi downloads. I don’t post them anywhere else just as a service to people who do subscribe.

Ok enough of that. I snapped a few shots of the little boy today.

this is the more common one with his thumb in his mouth.

walking to hug David when he comes downstairs (he was upstairs playing with his legos).

they play together, and there’s much drama when David takes a piece he wants or doesn’t let him take one of his.

David tries to be stoic.

but there’s much crying from the other boy.

so he tries to be nicer and Nathaniel is still unsure.

but his curiosity is piqued.

and then he goes back to playing.

and David’s smiling at him.

until the drama begins all over again. it pretty much goes in that cycle all day long with the 2-year-old.

and here’s a sweet snap of David who spilled water on himself so had to go change his shirt.

and this is life. simple. ordinary. full of little boy drama. and little boy hugs. laughter. giggles. so many giggles. I love this life. I am holding on to it hard because soon it will be gone. and now i am off to work on some art journaling, emails, comments and newsletter. oh and some TV with my hubby. back tomorrow.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for kind comments and a few more kind emails. thank you for all of your kindness and genuineness.
2. I am grateful for two more classes I signed up for. One is Nathalie’s on Pan Pastels and the other is Karen’s pathfinder. Let the learning begin!
3. I am grateful for a 3-day weekend.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played with my brother * {his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had a bit of chocolate.
3. I am grateful that I played with my legos.

Art Journaling – Strathmore – The Whispers of your Heart

Here’s the next page:

The full text reads: You must get really quiet before you can hear the whispers of your heart.

Here are some details from the page:

I created this page at night but I wanted to videotape so you could see my process a bit so here it is, even though it’s dark and the camera kept slipping for inexplicable reasons. I am not a professional video-taper and have no desire to be right now so proceed at your own risk. The only thing I did before the video started was use yellow pan pastels to cover the background.

I am creating multiple art journaling pages a week for July and August (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using for these pages at the top of this blog post.