
Journaling Reads:
when i started this project, i knew i would cherish it but i had no idea how much fun it would be and how it would give me unparalleled opportunity to capture our joy and laughter so perfectly. It is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I am so thankful.
This layout was for Maya Road mid-season releases. The butterflies and the small kraft pieces. I love love love them both!!

Jake left town for a super short trip early this morning. We decided to snap photos right before he left. Here’s me setting the camera up.

David was really sad when we started but took the photo even though he was almost crying. Nathaniel is complaining because he wants the remote.

We then had to stop briefly cause David was really crying but then things were better and Nathaniel had the remote so everyone was feeling happier.

After the photos, Daddy left, I exercised and we all had breakfast. As I scrapped a layout for summer CHA, the kids colored. I love how they’re sitting at two ends of the table.

While Nathaniel napped, David got to play a bit of wii and some on the computer. Here’s the “let’s get this over with” smile.

When Nathaniel woke up, we all went for a walk and took lots of flower photos and then the kids colored more as I sketched and we all relaxed. A lovely quiet day.

They are now both in bed and I am starting to put together my downloadables for June newsletter. If you’re not subscribed, you can do so from the right side of my main page. All my layouts are done until Tuesday so tomorrow I get to relax and do art journaling. And sketching. And hug my kids!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I made eleven layouts last week. That’s a lot even for me. Eight of them are for CHA.
2. I am grateful for movies and podcasts that have been keeping me entertained while I work.
3. I am grateful for the beautiful weather here which means David and I can take long walks and chat.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played wii. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we took a walk.
3. I am grateful that I drew a beautiful tree with apples.

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I liked how Katie found out that Selena was actually nice to animals and they became friends at the end and I like how the boys who cheated got caught and had to clean up dog poop (which was funny!).
I also really liked the bug facts, especially the one about how fast dragon flies can fly. But I didn’t like that the boys cheated because they knew they would get in trouble if they got caught and they were being lazy.
My favorite of the science projects was the volcano that exploded because I like that it had lava inside which exploded. I also liked the lightning bug because I thought it was cool that they thought to use a flashlight to make it light up. I also thought the solar system was cool cause they used different fruits for each planet.
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.

As expected, today was a lovely, quiet, and art-ful day. I woke up well-rested and happy so I exercised immediately and it was time for family photos.
nathaniel was in charge and took most of them.

He managed to capture a few great ones.

He enjoyed the process so much.

Except for those few seconds when David had the remote.

Then it was tickle time.

Which I’ve come to love love love.

Then David and Jake went to Berkeley to play soccer with Jake’s friend and Nathaniel and I made art. He drew with his pencils and I scrapped while we listened to Paperclipping Roundtable and he watched Thomas (on mute.)

He loved the pencils. Until he started breaking the lead and I had to take them away!!

When David came back, it was Wii time for him.

I did my sketching and then some truth cards. Then we all went on a family dinner and now the kids are down so I am scrapping once more. Lovely, full, wonderful day!!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for a few hours of pure quiet.
2. I am grateful for my wonderful family and these awesome family shots.
3. I am grateful for a new great book to read and devour.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I went to play soccer. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played wii.
3. I am grateful that I got some candy.

jake
This was a fantastic week for Jake! He made a lot of progress on several tasks and felt optimistic and excited all week long. He also bought some bonds and made progress with potential clients and other possible extensions for his business. Jake is really great at having a large network and a wide variety of personal and professional friends and colleagues that he regularly keeps in touch with. I often wish I were as good about keeping up with my friends as he is.
karen
This week was great for me as well. Wonderfully productive weekend filled with art and reading and relaxing and family time. Then I got a lot of work done early in the week and we had friends over a few times this week so it was good on that front as well. I was in a lot of pain in the middle of the week which was terrible but I am still working actively on being positive so I’ve managed to not focus on it. I also did a lot of scrapping this week, already working on CHA summer. And, I can’t forget to mention that Wednesday was our ninth wedding anniversary. Nine years of being married to my best friend. I am a lucky, lucky girl.
david
David had a wonderful week. He and I have been taking walks daily right after school, so we’ve been talking a lot and it’s been great. He managed to get a Pokémon card this week by trading some of his silly bands and it has made his week. He also did a lot of tracing at school and I love seeing him do art during choice time. I love that he likes to do arts and crafts.
nathaniel
Nathaniel has also been doing a lot of art. He loves to sit in the chair by the table and draw on paper. I think it’s about emulating his older brother but he looks so so cute. Even though he gets sick of his crayons quickly and is very high-maintenance, I love watching him scribble and seeing how much he enjoys being a big boy.

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

Happy Friday everyone! It was a relatively quiet day around here. I worked, worked and worked. The little boy was in a good mood and gave me a smile.

Love those big eyes.

Big boy gave me a smile, too.

And then some more.

I still can’t believe I have a son with blue eyes. How did that happen?

This weekend promises to be a quiet one. Nothing major planned. Jake has a brief trip and I have some scrapping to do. Otherwise it’s a lot of rest and playing with the kids. Yey for quiet weekends!
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finally signed up for some summer courses for the kids. I’d been putting that off even though it was on my list.
2. I am grateful for some wonderful scrappy time.
3. I am grateful for a peaceful weekend (fingers crossed).
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got a pencil from Mihika. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I went and did a swimming test.
3. I am grateful that I get to stay up super-late tonight.
This is the last week of May. Next week, I move to 3.12 miles a day. I can’t believe I’ve come this far. Even though I am still forcing myself to go on the treadmill and not looking forward to the exercise, something magical happened yesterday. I woke up with a headache and felt terrible. I was dreading the workout but I did it anyway and when I was done, I was surprised to realize that my headache was gone. I felt 100% better. If you had told me exercise would actually make me feel better, I would have said you were lying but here it is. It really worked.
I’ve also made my first meal plan last weekend. Even though most of it has already gone awry, it has helped me keep certain thoughts and priorities at the top of my mind. I definitely ate more protein this week than I have been. I’ve also been eating a lot of salads and generally nutritious food. I will keep at this until it works better and better.
I decided that I won’t be buying a clothing item for May. I bought some sandals earlier this month and my mom sent me some clothes, I don’t think I need anything for now. Instead I used that allowance to buy some fun art supplies so I can enjoy them every single day.
and here’s this week’s card:

Healthy for Life is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
Yes, long title. Can’t help myself. This layout was my first May blog post for Pink Paislee.

It was based on this awesome PageMaps sketch:

The journaling Reads:
My sweet Nathaniel you watch your brother like he’s the bee’s knees. You liked to do whatever he’s doing and if you can’t play with him, then you take all your toys and sit next to him just so you can be near him. I love how cute you are and how much he loves it too.
Details:




Amazingly my headache was still around when I woke up today. But, even more amazingly, it completely cleared after I exercised. I didn’t even want to admit it but I know it did. Which made me so happy. I did all my list items today and did a layout and had a friend come over and did a solid amount of work. Which makes this day a success in my book.
David and I took our walk and then he was allowed to play on the computer. Of course, I needed a smile first.

And here he is focusing on the game.

I love watching his hands on the computer.

And how well he concentrates.

Little boy was happy most of the day even though he tumbled down the stairs (only a few steps but still!) as he crawled down them and got slight rugburn on his face. Made me cry more than him.

I love watching him and capturing him. Especially in the quieter moments.

And the funny ones.

And the smiles he gives me knowing I am there but not looking at the camera.

He’s still into drawing nonstop and asks to sit on the chair several times a day.

And I love that he loves it!

I am off to rest a little bit now and then maybe attempt to make one more layout. Things generally go badly when I try to make two in a day but I am going to be gentle with myself and see where it goes. I might also make a truth card or two. The headache is sort of back so I will also go to bed early and see if that helps. Thank you for all your kind comments in the last few days, they truly mean the world to me.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for a lovely day of productivity, friendship and lack of stress.
2. I am grateful for happy mail for Maya Road goodies and for shopping for some art supplies I’ve been coveting for some time.
3. I am grateful for Christy’s class and all the videos that make my morning exercise go so quickly.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I got a Pokéman card. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I did more tracing at school.
3. I am grateful that summer is coming soon.
One Thing Jake’s Grateful For:
That the Stanford track has lights and that we live somewhere where it’s still warm enough to go running at 9pm. (He told me this tonight and I said that now he’s going to have to tell me one thing every day!)
Here are the sketches from this week. Still experimenting and trying a wide variety.
On Wendesday, I started simple with this girl.

Thursday I did another girl.

then colored it.

Friday was the fish which took a lot longer than you might think.

and here it is with color:

on Saturday I made the girl drinking tea:

here she is with color:

that night, I made one more quick one:

Sunday, I made yet another girl:

Monday, I felt too scared to try this sketch. so I challenged myself to do it.

and Tuesday I made this weird one:

the last one is the only sketch I like from the week. And maybe the non-colored fish one. I’m learning about what I like and what I don’t and I am still practicing as much as I can.

Today begun badly and has yet to improve. I woke up tired and then took way too long with each of my daily tasks. I have had a headache all day and it just will not go away. I really prefer not to have days like this. Especially the jaw pain. I can do without the jaw pain.
The little boy spent his time coloring.

And enjoyed every minute of it.

David and I read our book and then he read the blurb at the back. He’s a champion reader.

And he’s so so wonderful.

Even when he’s grouchy.

Here’s Nathaniel dropping one of the crayons and saying “oh uh.” He does that about 27 times an hour. If it’s not that, it’s “done” as in “I’m done with this one give me another color.”

His favorite thing though is having his big brother watch him.

They were definitely the highlight of my day.
Today is our ninth wedding anniversary. I cannot believe we’ve been married so long already. We dated for 7 years before we got married so our dating time was always longer compared to the time we spent married. But alas, we’ve completely crossed that bridge. Next year we’ll be married for ten years. I know most people write about how wonderful their husbands are etc. etc. The thing is, my husband and I have our ups and downs and sometimes we’re short with each other. Sometimes we don’t assume the best of each other. Sometimes we know exactly what to say to hurt/annoy/frustrate the other one. But even with all that, he’s my best friend. He’s always been my biggest cheerleader. I look up to him so much and I know he does to me, too. He’s the first person who truly made me feel like it’s ok to be me. And I truly, honestly feel like he’s a part of my soul. I love him so much and I am grateful for all the sunshine he’s brought into my life. I am grateful for our 9 years of marriage and I hope that we will get to be together all the way into our very old age.
Thank you for marrying me Jake. Thank you for everything that you’ve given me and for your patience and love and acceptance. I love and cherish you with all my heart. I am a lucky girl.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for nine wonderful years of marriage and for my husband.
2. I am grateful for Advil today, it’s keeping me sane.
3. I am grateful for my routine. Had I not had one, nothing would have not gotten done on a rough day like this.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I wrote a letter to Hassen. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played on the computer.
3. I am grateful that I traced different pieces of art at school.
When I took Soul Restoration in January, the only homework I didn’t do was to make truth cards. I made one and then somehow just couldn’t get myself to do any more. I kept cutting the truths that spoke to me and keeping them but never did anything with them. Last week, when David said how much he loved my ATC holder with his little photos and art, I just realized I could use my second ATC holder to store my truth cards and this way all of us could use them and look at them when we wanted. We could also easily take them off and keep some with us.
I have a very long list of art journaling ideas I store on a pinterest board. So I decided to combine the two and create ATC versions of the pieces that inspire me so I could use it as an exercise to try different methods and mediums and create some art while making some wonderful cards.
I will share those with you in the next few weeks as I complete them. Four at a time. Almost all of them are replicas of the inspiring originals and I make sure to link to my pinterest entry (which links to the original source as much as I could track it. I wanted to link to pinterest so you could see not only the original source but also whose board i found it on because for me that’s a great way to find other boards to follow on pinterest.)
Here’s the first card [inspiration]

and second card: [inspiration]

and third: [inspiration]

and here’s the fourth: [inspiration]

For now, the backs are just blank, I think once I spray these pieces thoroughly, I might paint the backs with gesso so they are white but i won’t do back to back art. If you have other suggestions for the backs, I am open to them.
And there you go. Wonderful way to use up some of my inspirations and do my homework before the part two of Soul Restoration starts.
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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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