Here are the sketches from this week. Still experimenting and trying a wide variety.
On Wendesday, I made my own version of this tree.
then colored it.
that one took forever!
On Thursday, I had little time and wanted to do a quick one so I picked this girl.
and colored it.
on Friday, I tried to sketch from a photograph, so I went for a lizard.
on Saturday I made my version of these sketched houses:
And then I did this bird.
Sunday, I made this awesome tree and bird, though mine is “cleaner”.
Monday, I did this girl. I don’t like how it turned out but I sketched and that’s what matters:
later that day, I did another girl.
and Tuesday I made this face:
And here we are. six weeks and counting.
Some days I get excellent quality photos. Some days I get great stories. And other days, I get neither. That’s life and life with kids and life with little kids. But I still try.
and capture a little.
however imperfect.
Because time will pass and this funny, cute smile and those shining eyes will change. They will evolve into something new, different and wonderful in its own way. But it won’t be this. This moment will pass. These faces will change. The habits, quirks, smiles will change. And I am so thankful to capture them the way they are on this very day.
However imperfect.
Also a good reminder that life is imperfect. Which is great cause it would be so much work to keep everything perfect all the time. Talk about a moving target that’s completely unreachable.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I did a little art just for me.
2. I am grateful that I had a nice walk and a wonderful chat with David about apologizing and forgiving others and forgiving oneself, too.
3. I am grateful for my mom and my dad who are always so kind and generous to me, in every way. thank you!!
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I will spend some time with Daddy tonight before bed. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we learned a German song in music class.
3. I am grateful that I played soccer and baseball with daddy in the backyard.
Catalyst One Hundred and Thirty-One is: Describe (or show) yourself at this point in your life.
Journaling Reads:
It might not be sexy but what I feel more than anything at this moment is so very content. I feel like I am full of peace and joy but I also feel calm. I feel my career, my family, my art, and life in general are exactly where I wish them to be at this moment. And I do not take that for granted for a second. I work out daily. I spend time with my kids. I do all my work and fulfill my obligations. But I also know I am so lucky. And things will change. Tougher times will come. So I celebrate this moment of contentment.
Details:
After I finished Flash Burnout I immediately downloaded The Mermaid’s Mirror. This book is very different from the other. Even though I liked this one less (maybe due to its more magical plotline) I really loved that the author had such differing books. Her great voice carried over from novel to novel and I loved it in this one, as well.
If you’ve never read her, I recommend either of the books. Just make sure to read the plot on amazon first so you know which one speaks to you more. For me, it was Flash Burnout.
Here is the author’s blog and her story in her own words.
Here’s another wonderful day and a little story from today. I played with Nathaniel last night so now he’s playing this game on his own. He picks up a car from his box.
puts it down.
car after car.
says, “ready set go!” and pushes the car down.
then we watch.
with anticipation.
and joy.
and excitement.
then self-congratulations, of course!
Little boys mean lots of laughter in our house.
So do bigger boys, thankfully.
I am so deeply blessed.
And I am thankful to photography for helping me freeze these moments. I love them so.
I hope your Tuesday was wonderful.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I had the day off. The second day ended up being the magic for full relaxation.
2. I am grateful to have my husband back at home. So grateful.
3. I am grateful for some wonderful scrappy opportunities coming up. I haven’t scrapped in a while and I miss it.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I played toss the penguin in P.E. with Arthur. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had played on the computer.
3. I am grateful that I took a walk with mommy and Nathaniel.
And here’s another one of my weeklong pages. This one was inspired by a stamp of flowers. I just stamped it again and again all through the bottom. Then I painted the background with blue watercolor and made a sun and that was it.
Here it is empty:
I will admit that I wasn’t a fan of this page. Kept wanting to do more with it but had no ideas. Felt a little bummed but went with it anyway. Once I started filling it, however, I loved it.
here’s the left page (love that photo of my boys):
And the right side: (I put all the sketches I made and the key from our little Santa Cruz trip.)
And here’s the filled page:
I think it turned out quite cute. Not in my top three but definitely not as bad as I feared it might be when I made the empty page.
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.
I woke up this morning and decided I was going to take the day off work. This is a stressful week for me cause I have several appointments and events. Even though most of them are fun and by choice, I’ve learned that socializing of any kind tends to suck my energy and I need to recover. So I am resting and storing some energy. Which meant I rested, surfed pinterest, and sat with the little boy.
who loves drawing.
and I love these pictures because they tell stories.
of our ordinary life. Of where he is right now. These are the kids of pictures I like to scrap. The kind of stories I like to tell.
Like the funny smiles he likes to give to the camera.
And the way he collects the cars.
Dumps them into a container that isn’t really for cars.
And then congratulates himself. (I wish we all congratulated ourselves a bit more.)
And then gives me a mischievous look and signs “done.”
How he picks his own clothes and tells me what he wants to wear and what he does not.
And how David’s shirts last for about a month before they are way too short because he is growing like a weed.
How Nathaniel runs screaming “uuuuggggg” and hugs his brother. Who loves it and they both giggle and laugh. And how it makes my heart melt and skip so many beats.
How lucky and grateful and thankful I am. How scared I feel that I might mess it up. How worried I am and how I deeply hope they can tell how much I adore them. With every little piece of my heart and soul.
Life is in these ordinary moments. So is scrapping. For me. I am trying to pay more attention and I am grateful to the camera for allowing me to freeze the moments. Giving me a way to stop and notice. And for the blog and for scrapping to help me write them down. So I will never ever forget. Because I don’t want to take any of it for granted.
Ever.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I took the day off. Yey me!
2. I am grateful that Jake’s coming tonight. And that I got to snuggle up with both my kids tonight.
3. I am grateful that I’ve been taking my afternoon walks with David and Nathaniel and that my average number of daily steps is 9,628.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that i watched the rest of Matilda. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had some candy
3. I am grateful that I got to play on the phone for 15 minutes.
I had the honor to guest design for My Creative Scrapbook kit club in March. This is one of the layouts I made with their main kit.
Journaling Reads:
No matter what is going on, give up that there’s something wrong and always go where the peace is. Always be grateful.
This is for my desk. I need this reminder regularly.
And some details:
And another lovely week is over. I swear that this year feels like it’s flying by. I can’t believe we’re in mid-May already. I want the rest of this month and the summer to go by slowly. Very slowly. I want to savor each and every moment. I want to slow down and enjoy him:
And him:
And their laughter:
And the fun-lazy times on the couch watching TV together.
Reading stories, giggling, snuggling, hugging, kissing. I want to read my books. I want to sketch, take photos, art journal, scrap. Write our stories. Preserve the memories we’re so lucky to be making each and every day. I so wish I could freeze time just for a little while. (And I am sure I will want to fast forward when the teenage years come but for now I want to soak in every moment of this joy. Even the hard moments. The yelling, running, making a mess, tearing things, breaking things. I still want to stretch these days so I let them soak in fully. They will be gone in the blink of an eye and I will miss them so so much.
My day was blissfully uneventful. Some reading, sketching, exercise, TV, giggling and hugging, making food, journaling, blogging, etc. Nothing outside of the ordinary and yet every moment so special. I hope yours was wonderful, too. Thank you for taking precious time out of your day to come read my words, look at my art and photos and share your thoughts. It means the world to me.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I spent some time reading curled up. I mostly read on the treadmill now and yet I still adore curling up with my reader on the couch.
2. I am grateful that my sweet husband comes back tomorrow. I miss him dearly. We all do.
3. I am grateful that, despite the relaxing day, I got a few of the todo list items that were wearing me down.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that i get to play wii for a little bit today. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I did my new workbook
3. I am grateful that I got to play with my legos
David says:
I gave this story five stars because I like that she became friends with George in the end. I like that Katie caught the hamster and that George pet her dog.
My favorite character was Katie because she helped George be funny without being mean to everyone. I also liked that she was nice to him when he felt sad.
I thought it was funny that she liked being called Katie Kazoo. I didn’t like that George made fun of her (and the other kids) and laughed at them.
But I liked how George made funny jokes in the end and made everyone laugh. I also like Suzanne because when Katie fell in the mud, she picked her up and she was always nice to Katie. I also liked how Katie and George made a deal to share their food.
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.
jake
Most of Jake’s week was planning for his trip to NYC. Getting business cards ready, setting up meetings, making sure all the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted. He also had to make sure the loops here were closed so he could leave without stress. As it always happens, things worked out and he left safely. He seems to be doing really well there and having a lot of fun with old friends and some good meetings for work. We miss you, sweetie.
karen
I had a quieter week. The beginning of the week was a bit rough but then I tried to relax as much as possible. I’ve been working a lot on being more positive and ridding my life of negativity and stress as much as I can. To that end, I have decided to stop interacting with certain friends and hang out more with others. I’ve been reaching out to people more and trying to see people near and dear to my heart. I also went to the doctor this week so I could setup a nutritionist appointment and see if I can finally get a meal plan going. The appointment is setup for next week. Let’s see if it will work.
david
David had a great week. Most of the beginning of this week was preparing for Open House. They made minibooks and craft projects and art projects. When we went to the school on Thursday, he was very excited about it. He and I are still reading regularly and working on workbooks and gratitude journals. This week he got a new Wii game so he’s been playing that most of today.
nathaniel
Nathaniel is doing well. He’s becoming more strong willed but also so much fun. He hugs and kisses all of us regularly now. He’s also more playful. He spent a lot of time playing with playdoh outside with David this week and even though he gets bored with each crayon too quickly, he’s also fallen in love with coloring.
Us Right Now is a weekly project for 2011. You can read more about it here.
We had a full day here today. We started our day with a breakfast with my college roommate Jess and her husband and two kids. It was wonderful to see her and lovely to eat together (albeit a bit hectic with four kids.) Then we came home and rested a bit and Nathaniel took his nap and David played on the Wii. When Nathaniel woke up we went outside so the kids could play more play-doh.
This little table is a winner so far. And I love being able to sit out there with them and take photos.
They played and ate snacks and I sketched.
And then I read a bit.
And took some more photos.
When we came inside I noticed my friend Nicholas was asking if they should come over and say hi and I said an enthusiastic yes! Even more amazingly, they brought a Wii game for David and he was overjoyed. He played and we all chatted for a bit and then when they left we took our walk. Dinner and now the kids are sleeping. I feel tired but full. I need some rest and then maybe I might art journal a bit. I don’t really feel like doing anything else though my todo list is getting bigger by the moment. I’ll work on it tomorrow. Right?.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we got to see my friend Jess and her wonderful family.
2. I am grateful that we saw Nicholas and Ty. What a lovely surprise.
3. Three years ago, I made a little 7gypsies table top thingie (don’t know what they are called) with ATC cards with photos and art from each day in David’s life. When I was exercising this morning, David looked at that and said “Mommy I think good thoughts when I look at these and they make me happy.” And it made me so so happy to hear that. I told him he could take it into his room and look at it anytime he liked. Three cheers for scrapbooking!!
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that we went out to breakfast. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we played outside with play-doh.
3. I am grateful that I played wii!
|
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
|
