Daily Diary – July 14 2011

Today was the last of the family days we had planned. I wanted to take it easier so we woke up and I exercised and had some breakfast and then we got on the road for Berkeley. We first went to a friend of Jake’s and as soon as we left I snapped some photos of David.

He accommodated me.

because he’s the sweetest kid (when he wants to be.)

Then we went to University of California – Berkeley’s campus and just walked around.

We had a tasty lunch and I snapped a photo of the little one.

We walked around a bunch more then we drove to the scrapbook store and I bought some tiny and big alphabets since I can never have enough alphas. I didn’t buy anything else though. When we got home, I snapped a shot of Nathaniel saying choo choo but this time my shutter was very closed and I’d forgotten so the photo is very grainy as the camera raised the ISO to get enough light.

Nathaniel skipped his nap so he’s sound asleep. David had swim class so he went and came and is about to sleep, too. Jake and I are wiped from a lovely but full day but he’s in a meeting now and I am just relaxing. I hope to do a little art journaling if I can tonight but otherwise I plan to just relax. Read my book and watch TV. Tomorrow promises to be another lovely day.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am deeply grateful for my family. I love them so very much.
2. I am grateful for my husband who does all the heavy lifting during these family days.
3. I am grateful that I get to scrapbook tomorrow and watch a movie with my kids.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went to Berkeley* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I watched some Pink Panther.
3. I am grateful that I had swimming class.

July 14, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | Leave a comment

Daily Sketching – Week 14

Here are the sketches from this week.

Wednesday, I made this bird. I like how it turned out.

the next day, I did this vintage woman. I loved how it turned out, too:

Friday I did this yoga girl. I’d tried to draw her before but it was considerably worse than this attempt. Even here her head is too small and the hair is bad but still it’s a better one than I could’ve done before.

on Saturday I did a simple manga one. Mostly cause I’d never done that style before. It came out ok

on Sunday, I did the this girl. Another so-so attempt.

Monday was a family day so I did a real quickie one and I don’t like the way it turned out. The original is so much better. But at least I made an attempt. I am so sorry that I don’t have a link to the original, pinterest is really really being difficult and won’t show me my whole board. I will link back as soon as I can find it again. (found it!)

Tuesday, I picked another girl.

and here we are. as always some are ok others not so great. let’s see what next week brings.

July 14, 2011 | Art, Sketching | 5 comments

Daily Diary – July 13 2011

A quiet day here today. Except for the short trip to my jaw doctor (with both kids mind you) we didn’t do much. I worked, the kids played, we did our typical daily stuff and that was it.

Nathaniel found a choochoo from David’s stash. (he’s saying choo choo here)

And here’s the choo choo.

David just gave me a sweet smile.

My friend Holly is coming tonight and I am excited to see her. I have another friend coming Friday morning. This is a lot of activity for a loner like me. 🙂 And tomorrow we get to have one more family day. My heart is full. I have been art journaling a bit, too. Not as much as before but still trying to make a few pieces a week. I will show them as soon as the ones with the old book are all posted.

I will also try to videotape my book so you can see it a bit better and I know there’ve been a few requests for videos, I am not so great at that but I promise I will try. I appreciate all your kind words and wanted to thank you for even coming to visit, let alone taking the time to comment. I am grateful for it deeply.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful we take another trip tomorrow.
2. I am grateful for my art journal page from last night. I really enjoyed making it.
3. I am grateful that I have a long weekend starting tomorrow.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got a new book. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I will spend a little time with Daddy.
3. I am grateful that we will watch Stuart Little on Friday.

July 13, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | Leave a comment

Art Journaling – Moleskine Sketch – Week 6

Here are some more journal pages.

I wanted this one to be super dark to symbolize dark/night etc. It’s actually much darker in person and it’s hard to show all the various texture it has. It mostly uses the shiva paintstiks and then some acrylics and stamps on top. It says “look for the light.”

Here’s a little closeup:

The next one uses the Pink Paislee tissue paper and Crafter’s Workshop templates and pan pastels. Says “If you want to receive you must first give.”

This one has all my happy colors. It uses pan pastels, chalk ink, and butterflies I cut off from a Little Yellow Bicycle paper. It says “It’s ok to fly away from the flock.”

This might be my all-time favorite page. I love the color and the sentiment and it all came to me while I was lying in bed and I am glad I remembered it in the morning. It says “We are all connected through love.” It uses the watercolor pencils.

And finally the last page went through multiple iterations. It uses Shiva paintstiks and some templates. It says “fill your home with joy, peace and laughter.” It was first like this:

Then I added a lot of stamps and rubons for some extra layering:

And finally it bothered me that the circles were even numbers so I made the left page 7 and the right one 5.

And that’s the five for this week. More coming next week. Thank you for letting me share.

I am creating art journaling pages daily for June (and maybe longer). You can read more about it and the book I am using here.

July 13, 2011 | AJG, Art, Mixed Media, Weekly Art Journal | 5 comments

A Book a Week – The Lincoln Lawyer

I also read The Lincoln Lawyer because I thought I might like to go see the movie. While I enjoyed the first two thirds of the book, I thought the ending fell flat, for me. I somehow expected more. I am not sure why. I did like the characters and the story. I haven’t read a law/thriller in a long time and maybe that’s why I just didn’t get into it as much as I would have liked.

I couldn’t even decide if it was worth going to see the movie.

I know this is one of a series so maybe I will read one more another time. Though I am not very temped right now. All in all, it really was an okay read and if it’s a genre you like, I do recommend it.

July 13, 2011 | Books Read in 2011, Literature | 5 comments

Daily Diary – July 12 2011

Today was back to work and it actually felt good to be getting some work done. I ‘ve been slacking a bit in some of my other todo lists but I just need to sit and make a plan. My little art journal that I was working on daily is finished and I need to make a plan for a new art journal. My weeklong one has some new pages painted, too. Alas, I’ve been resting. Or maybe procrastinating a bit…

Nathaniel’s been enjoying the big trucks.

He couldn’t figure out why this one won’t hold the cars up. (we have a dump truck too and that one does so he got confused.)

David loves it, too.

They filled it all up with cars.

Then as David and I read his book, Nathaniel read by himself, too.

I wanted to get one more shot of David but couldn’t get anything good and I was feeling too lazy to move him to good light. So this is what I got.

Then everyone got to do their work. We took our walk of course and made a schedule for David’s rest-of-summer so he doesn’t have to keep asking me what to do next and so he can’t spend too much time with the computer or TV. Play is most of his day but he also has to work a bit and do some reading, writing, and math each day. Just a little to keep the brain cells alive.

I need to spend some time making my own plans tonight. And a little time playing catch up. Then tomorrow I get to work again which I am actually looking forward to again.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I get to start a new art journal and explore some new ideas.
2. I am grateful for my parents and our frequent Skype chats. Some of my favorite moments of my day.
3. I am grateful that we made a schedule for David, it will help me, as well.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played with my train set. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played with Woody’s Roundup Lego.
3. I am grateful that we ordered an alien lego set.

July 12, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | Leave a comment

Weekly Art Journal – Weeklong for June 13

This weeklong page was made with all Maya Road products. Here it is empty.

here’s the left page:

And the right side:

And here’s the filled page:

I wrote a very long post about it on the Maya Road blog. Much more detail there.

Weekly Art Journal is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here. And you can find out more about the weeklong daily journaling here.

July 12, 2011 | Art, WAJG, Weeklong Daily Art Journal | 3 comments

Daily Diary – July 11 2011

Today was scheduled to be another family day but we decided to take it easy in the morning and spend the afternoon with activities. I got my last package for CHA and sat to do my layouts immediately while the kids played and Jake took Nathaniel to music class. Once I was done and Nathaniel was up, we went out to a very late lunch/early dinner.

I took the opportunity to snap some photos.

After we were done, David wanted to checkout the ceramics place right next door and we decided to sit and paint one. He picked a race car and we all painted.

He picked his own colors.

Even though he wasn’t allowed to touch anything, Nathaniel was very patient.

But eventually he got really bored so we let him play with the toy in the store and he was happy.

Daddy and David worked patiently and covered 3 layers as they were told.

When we were done, we went to a local playground and the boys played while I shot photos.

They were quite happy.

Nathaniel loves going down the slide with Daddy.

And then we were all wiped so we came home. Jake played will with David for a short while and now the kids are sleeping and I still have to do my sketching since I skipped it this morning. Tomorrow is back to work for a few days and then another family day this week. I love these days. They’re like mini-vacations but we get to come home and sleep in our own bed.

I hope your day was wonderful, too.

Oh, and in case you didn’t see it, I have a long article on how I do my weeklong art journaling on write.click.scrapbook today.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I am done with all my CHA work and checked off another big item on my todo list.
2. I am grateful for a wonderful lunch and fun time with my whole family, love them so so so much.
3. I am grateful that I have even more downtime coming up. It’s been great to take some time off, apparently I needed it more than I thought I did. I am even looking forward to working tomorrow.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we painted a ceramic racecar. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played wii with daddy.
3. I am grateful that we went out to lunch.

July 11, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | One comment

But what i love the most is your sunny disposition

In June, I had the honor of guest designing with Little Yellow Bicycle’s Sweet Summertime collection. Here is one of my layouts:

Journaling Reads:
There are so many things I love about you David. You’re so kind and giving and generous and you’re funny and sweet. You always listen to me and do what I ask without complaining, You take walks with me and give me hugs and curl up with me. But What i love the most is how happy you are. How you don’t have my sad demeanor. and how you can lift me up with just one smile and you smile a lot! I love you David.

And some details:

July 11, 2011 | Layouts, Little Yellow Bicycle, Scrapbooking | 8 comments

Daily Diary – July 10 2011

After yesterday’s long day today was considerably quieter. We started our day with some family photos.

I am so thankful for my family.

And our laughter.

And these moments are so precious and I will cherish them so deeply.

Then the kids played with the dump truck.

Nathaniel loves the big truck.

He didn’t want to play with anything else.

After a little rest, we took a long walk around the neighborhood and then came back to rest some more. The kids ate lunch and Nathaniel went down. Since we were out yesterday, David had his wii day today and I did two sketches and finished two art journal pages. and my weeklong page for this week. I have a few other todo list items that I’ve been ignoring but I did get a lot done today.

Then it was time for some journaling and some more food.

Look at this wonderful, beautiful boy. It makes my heart skip a beat.

And so does this little cutie patootie who eats his banana like a corn on the cob.

They are finally down for the night and I’ve made a bit more progress on my Soul Restoration journal. Some painting. My plans for tonight are to rest. There’s one nagging task I should work on and maybe I can finally focus on it but I am so not feeling the will. Let’s see if inspiration finally strikes.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful it was a quiet day full of art.
2. I am grateful I have tomorrow off.
3. I am grateful that I will hopefully receive my last box of goodies for CHA tomorrow.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we’re going to go swimming tomorrow. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that i played with the dump truck and with Nathaniel.
3. I am grateful that I spent a little time on the computer.

July 10, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | One comment

Reading with David – The Magician’s Elephant

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I thought it was good that he found his sister and that the elephant got to go home and that in the end Bartok made the carving of everyone.

I also liked that Peter and Adele get to live together now and they live with the policeman and his wife so they can be happy. I thought it was sad that the beggar’s dog is blind and I didn’t like that Vilna was so mean to Peter.

It was sad that the elephant fell on the old lady and that she became crippled. It wasn’t very nice of the magician to make the elephant fall through the roof.

The sister was my favorite character because she was so nice and visited Vilna to be nice to him. Peter was my second favorite because he tried to help the elephant go home.

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.

July 10, 2011 | Family, Reading with David | Leave a comment

Daily Diary – July 9 2011

We decided to have a few family days this week and today was the first one. We got up and after breakfast/exercise we got right on the road to Muir Woods. This time we brought a backpack to carry Nathaniel.

He loved it.

We walked along the winding paths and enjoyed the fresh air. I love love love Muir Woods. Though I can never seem to get high quality photos there..

And others do even worse with my camera.

but that doesn’t stop me from trying.

I just want something to remember the magical day by.

especially moments like this when all three of my boys are inspecting a beetle.

after a long hike, we sat to rest and eat a wonderful lunch. Then we drove down to Stintson Beach but by then Nathaniel had fallen asleep so David went out with Jake for a bit and then I went out with him so Nathaniel could sleep.

He played a little bit with the sand but we were both pretty wiped.

When we came home, we snapped out family shots (yes, mom, i know I need to get my hair dyed.)

and some tickle time of course.

Now they are in bed and Jake and I are exhausted. I was expecting a very time-sensitive CHA package today but alas UPS messed up (again!) so now I have to wait until Monday for it. I will rest and relax in the meantime since I can’t do anything else about it. (This calm is only here after a LOT of ranting.)

I hope your day was as wonderful as ours.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful we went to Muir Woods and the beach.
2. I am grateful I have a few more family days coming up.
3. I am grateful that I have a few more days of vacation so I can rest. It’s doing me a lot of good.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went to Muir woods and the beach. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that i played with the dump truck and with Nathaniel.
3. I am grateful that I get to play with my legos.

July 9, 2011 | Daily Diary - 2011, DPGallery | Leave a comment

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