karenika

Art Journaling – Moleskine Sketch – Week 3

And here are some more journal pages.

This next page uses the Pink Paislee tissue paper and then I used Pan Pastels to add some butterflies in the background and then I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I thought and thought and then finally ended up with this.

I love that Pink Paislee stamp on the right. I added some Tim Holtz tissue tape and a little more stamping and this simple page is done. Different but I like it.

This next one is super simple. Just stars. It says “Always be the best version of you.”

A little too simple maybe. I still like it.

As if to compensate, the next one is crazy busy. Mostly uses acrylics. Says “you are writing the music of your life. Write the song you want to listen to.”

I like all the colors in this one.

The next one didn’t really work out as I’d hoped but I still like it. The quote says “If you look, you can see that you are not as alone as you think. Look harder.”

My intention was to make a mask of one person on the right page and a crowd of people on the left one. Make the left side more obscured to imply that the other people might be hard to see but they are there. Rub ons, Pink Paislee stamps, Cat’s Life Press stamps, pan pastels and acrylics on this one.

And now for something completely different. This one says “You must walk down the path to see where it leads.”

This page was gesso’ed and then I used the Inktense Watercolor pencils to draw the path and trees and color the background. Then I used heavy bodied acrylics to do the tree tops and added some on the trunks, too.

I like how it turned out. Mostly I like that the pages are different from each other and I am trying different mediums, ideas, and layouts.

That’s the five I’ll share 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.

A Book a Week – Catching Fire

I’d been saving Catching Fire because I knew chances were high I’d enjoy it and I wanted to make sure I had some books in my queue for when I was tired. But then I just gave up and decided I wanted to read it next.

It was quite a fun read. Actually I think I enjoyed it more than the first. Maybe because at this point I knew the characters and could get into their stories more. I am not sure. But either way, I enjoyed all three sections of the book in different ways.

So much so that I jumped right into the third book after I finished it.

Daily Diary – June 21 2011

Another day that flew by here. David’s going to lego camp this week so he’s gone all morning and Nathaniel and I just do all the things we do each day. Then when we pick him up Nathaniel goes for his nap and David does his chores, or activities, or spends some time on the computer. Today when Nathaniel woke up we took a brief trip to the book store and I bought a journal and an art book and David bought a few books and Nathaniel got a sticker book. By the time we got back home, Daddy was home so as he prepared dinner, Nathaniel played with his sticker book:

And Nathaniel yelled at me for bothering him.

And David laughed a bit. Then we read our book and he wrote his journal and now they are both upstairs in bed.

I’ve been taking Alisa Burke’s watercolor class but I hadn’t done any homework. Last night, I decided to do something quick and simple so I did last week’s homework which was to limit the number of colors to use on a page. This page uses only the primary colors, yellow, blue, red and mixtures of them.

My first time drawing poppies. It’s not amazing art or anything but it’s ok. I feel like all the sketching and art journaling has given me more confidence. I can start a project now without too much fear which is more than I can say for the past.

I took tomorrow off, just to relax a bit and spend some time with Nathaniel and read a bit and do some of my Soul Restoration homework and art. I am looking forward to it.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I bought a journal for Soul Restoration, I was trying to use the same one from the first class but it wasn’t working, now I have something just for this class.
2. I am grateful that I am giving myself room and space to figure some things out. I feel like my mind’s going in 11 directions.
3. I am grateful that I have the day off tomorrow.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I got new books. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I have some chapter books to read now.
3. I am grateful that I spent some time playing connect four with daddy.

Weekly Art Journal – Weeklong for May 23

This weeklong page was inspired by some packaging Pinterest photos that were floating around. I wanted to use kraft, white, and yellow.

I used tissue paper for the background and then adhered some doilies.

Here it is empty:

I stuck with yellow, brown, blue and white for the whole page just for fun.

here’s the left page:

And the right side:

And here’s the filled page:

Tissue paper was hard to write on. Lesson learned. But it did turn out pretty cute.

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.

Daily Diary – June 20 2011

This morning was completely and utterly insane here but it is now passed so I won’t dwell on it. That’s my goal lately: not to hash and rehash things so that I can acknowledge them and then move on and try to go back to embracing joy. There are days that are rougher and days that are more pleasant but every single day some good and some rough things happen. I am hoping to acknowledge and handle all but focus mostly on the good so I can learn to be more joyous.

That’s the plan anyway.

I didn’t get to capture a lot of photos today. Just this one of David.

And Nathaniel when he woke up from his nap.

And one more as he stood next to me while we both did art.

That’s it. I have much to do tonight for my lovely husband so I won’t write up too much. I do have blog posts on both the Maya Road blog and the Pink Paislee blog today. Also over the weekend, Rebecca posted photos of my scrap space on the Pink Paislee blog as well.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I the dev channel is out and I made it through this crazy morning.
2. I am grateful that I am still art journaling daily. This has been such a gift.
3. I am grateful that David has a friend who lives very closeby and can play with him.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I beat Ece in chess. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had lego camp.
3. I am grateful that I went to Ece’s house.

If in Doubt, Note the Laughter and Celebrate the Joy of Your Family

I had the honor to guest design for My Creative Scrapbook kit club in March. This is the last of the layouts I made with their main kit.

Journaling Reads:
It’s hard for me to see photos of myself. I have too many issues to even list here. But this year I decided that we needed more photos of all four of us and I decided it was time for me to get over my issues so I could get in the photo more and capture all of us. It has been the best decision I made in a long long time. So I am making this page as a reminder that it’s about the joy and the laughter and the memories we are making together. I will never deny our family this again.

And some details:

Daily Diary – June 19 2011

Happy Father’s Day!! We woke up quite early this morning, thanks to Nathaniel. I immediately exercised so we could go out to breakfast. We had a lovely meal at a local cafe and then came back home and took some photos. As I was setting things up the boys were screaming for fun.

Nathaniel took a few extra seconds to figure out what was going on but then he joined in, too.

We took photos, we did tickle time.

And laughed a lot.

when the kids both took off, I snapped a few more of just the two of us.

we don’t have that many photos of just us.

I love him so much. My sweet, wonderful husband.

just as I got up to take the camera down, the kids ran to their dad and hugged him and I was lucky enough to catch it.

then Nathaniel got to watch a little Thomas.

here he is smiling to Daddy for putting it on.

He then went to nap and we all worked on our own stuff for a while. He took a long nap and woke up happy.

The boys went to play Atari for a bit as I took my walk around the block and then it was dinner time. I snapped a photo of David as he laughed at me.

After dinner was family night and David picked Monopoloy Jr. And a few rounds of connect-four with daddy.

now I have to do my todo list items for the weekend. I think I only completed one so far and we’re quickly running out of weekend time. I hope your weekend was as wonderful as ours has been!

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finished one of my big tasks for CHA, Just a few more left.
2. I am grateful that I am getting better at being kind and at letting things go. They are both constant work for me.
3. I am grateful that I learned how to draw a tulip today.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful it is father’s day. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that we played Monopoly Jr.
3. I am grateful that I played Atari with Daddy.

Reading with David – Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine

David says:
I gave this story five stars because I thought it was cool that they got a machine to do their homework.

I didn’t like Snitcher because he always told on them and he broke the computer. I liked that Danny gave him a knife with snitcher carved on it at the end.

I thought it was cool that they fed all the information into the computer and that it could then write reports for them. The first invention where you had two pens writing at the same time was cool too because it made a copy for someone else as well. Of the three kids, I liked Danny the most because all the creative ideas were his.

I thought it was nice of Joe to write a poem for Irene but I didn’t like that Danny got jealous of it. But it did help Joe and Irene make up which I liked.

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.

Daily Diary – June 18 2011

A relatively quiet and slow day here. I started the day by exercising of course and then it was family photo time:

Nathaniel would not let go of his blanket no matter how much I tried.

But we still had a blast.

I tried to get a photo of David with the blue shirt but it ended up blurry.

then Nathaniel napped, Jake went to work, David played Wii and I did my sketching and journaling. When Nathaniel woke up we took a walk and David showed me all of his Pokemon cards. So when we got home we looked up some more information about each. Here he is reading on wikipedia:

then I started my art journal page and Jake got home so he went out with David and rode the bike a bit and then all three of them played soccer in the backyard.

the little one loves the ball:

so does the big one:

and then it was close to bedtime so we gave the kids dinner and a bath and gratitude journals etc and now we are going to do a little work for Jake. I didn’t do much outside my daily task list but that’s ok. I have some things to do this weekend but none of them are super, duper time sensitive. So, all in all, I’ll write this one down as a good day.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I ended up with a journal page I like, it took quite a few iterations to get there today.
2. I am grateful that I am almost done with my first Moleskine journal. The one I write my todos in and do my sketches in and write my journaling in. I already have the second one ready and it feels good to see it so full.
3. I am grateful that I have some fun TV to watch while I do art.

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I had some candy. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I played wii.
3. I am grateful that I learned all about Pokemon cards.

Us Right Now – June 18

jake
Jake had a busy but good week. He put a job call for interns last week and interviewed several for a few days. He finally settled on two that impressed him the most and put them to work. They’ve all been going to work early and keeping busy. We’ve also worked together a bunch this week. He has long lists of tasks and paperwork and documents to sign and clients to follow up with, all of which is a part of working for yourself. Coding, dealing with clients, managing interns, etc. When it’s your company, you do it all.

karen
This was ok for me. I had some jaw pain earlier in the week and I also had some rougher days but I also had some wonderful moments. I did a lot of art. Some sound soul searching thanks to Soul Restoration 2 and a lot of sketching portraits. Work was productive, as well. I pushed a dev channel late last week and started working on the next one. Since it’s officially summer now, I’m working on a plan to balance our new schedule so I can be productive and still spend quality time with both kids.

david
David finished Kindergarten last week. He had several events at school, brought back a bag full of art and projects and an excellent report card. I am so proud of him as he’s performing above grade level on almost everything and he’s also socially well-rounded and a pleasure to have in class according to the teacher’s notes. We do have some rough patches of course but he’s working on it and he’s done really well for his first real year of school.

nathaniel
Nathaniel has been spending a lot of time drawing at his table which is set right next to mine. He’s also making longer word combinations now like “big truck” and understanding so much more. He loves kicking balls around and hugging us all and stealing anything David leaves lying around, and he loves having David home.

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

Daily Diary – June 17 2011

Lovely day here today. We worked, played, bought new stuff, did art, and had good conversations. David spent some time outside, using his watercolor set.

And the little boy was very jealous.

then he gave up and looked through magazines where he found a commercial for the upcoming cars 2 movie.

Then I worked, Nathaniel napped, David played, then there was lunch, quick trip to the store, and more work and then some art and it was bath time for the little one.

I snapped a few more photos.

I love how the blue shirt reflects off of David’s eyes.

more superman!

he was super-hyper and super-happy.

and then they were off. I finished my layout and went up to read a book to Nathaniel and sat and talked to David for a while. And now I am trying to put the last touches of my night so I can sleep. I only managed 4 hours of sleep last night so I don’t think I can stay up much longer. I am very much looking forward to this relaxing weekend.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finished another layout for CHA with some new beautiful product that had me playing with so much color.
2. I am grateful that I bought a lot of fun stuff for David today, I love making him happy.
3. I am grateful that it’s the weekend!

Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful I got some legos. {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that mommy got me a pokeman set.
3. I am grateful that I got a lego sticker book.