The little boy decided I had enough sleep so he woke me up extra-early this morning. After that, it took me quite a while to get my bearings but I did end up reading to david, exercising, sketching a bit, doing my newsletter, and even drawing a face. Little boy played.
And so did the big boy.
Little boy wanted everything big boy played with.
And did not like hearing “no”.
He did not like it one little bit.
But then he found something else that piqued his interest and we were good again.
We spent most of the day resting. Then my friend Kathy stopped by and it was super-fun and then I painted a bit and now we’re getting ready for some visitors. Very quiet and peaceful day here. I wish the days would go even more slowly. I am really enjoying all this downtime so much.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I took a risk this morning and I got such amazing rewards from it that it had me on a high all day. I am so thankful for that.
2. I am grateful that my friend Kathy came to visit. She’s always so positive and fun to be around.
3. I am grateful that my new Big Picture Classes workshop is now open for registration. This workshop is really really meaningful to me as it’s all about how to find your own authentic way/design/look in scrapbooking, something I am so thankful to have found in 2010.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for all my toys {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful for the lego game on the computer
3. I am grateful that I watched a little bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Always Looking Up was another book I listened to while walking. This was another book I’ve had for a long time and I never read his first book. I know very little about Michael J Fox and I am not the biggest fan or anything, though I did enjoy most of his movies.
Which, of course, had nothing to do with this book.
I really enjoyed listening to this book. I liked the light way he wrote about heavy subjects. I liked getting a bit more insight into Parkinsons and it was a fun listen while I walked. All in all, not bad.
This project started with the goal of getting in the photos more. I wrote a long post on shutter sisters about how I want to be in our family photos more often (full post here which got me thinking about how I can do that on a regular basis.
If I learned one lesson last year, it’s that things happen when they’re put on a schedule. A frequently recurring schedule.
I’ve been a huge fan of Tara Whitney’s Six people Twelve Times project.
And then there was this layout I made for Big Picture Classes last summer:
I decided to combine all those ideas and make a commitment this year to take weekly photos of all four of us.
I’ll be honest that this is the project I’m most worried about. Because this one requires commitment from my whole family and it means I have to use my tripod and self-timer more often. But I am blessed by the most amazing and kind family so I am going to take a leap of faith and I am going to assume it’s going to work. It might end up in the same spot in the house each week but I am ok with that. The idea is just to have photos of all of us together. It doesn’t have to be super-exotic or creative. We can try that for 2012, for this year I just want to start the habit of getting photos of all of us.
So I take the leap.
I spent a long time trying to figure out the format for this project. I thought of using the template I did for Weekly Gratitude last year but I wanted the photo to be bigger. I wanted a full 4×6 photo of us each week. So instead of going with a 4×6 album, I decided to go with a 2-up. Much to my delight, the colorful albums I love at Target also come in a 2-up format so I came up with this template:
Just in case any of you are interested in doing something similar or using the template for yourself, here it is: download me.
It’s two 4×6 photos. The top one is just a photo of us with the date on it. The bottom one lists each of our names and gives me space to put a sentence or two about each of us from that week. (Things like thoughts, mood, current obsessions, etc.)
I will then print them out and put them in this album:
and there will be a page for each week.
So here’s to crossing our fingers that this project comes to life. I will really really love to have this one at the end of 2011.
Another lovely day at the karenika household. I woke up, read to David, did my pushups, ate breakfast, did my exercise and then sat down to make my todo list. Nathaniel and David played in the meantime and when I saw him with the hat on, I grabbed my camera. Seeing me, he smiled.
And since he wasn’t running away I kept snapping.
I love how the hat is backwards.
Goofy, walking away.
When he went down for his nap, David and I played with mega blocks he got for Christmas. We also did his spelling workbook. He made some lego creations of his own while I did my todo list items.
And then the baby woke up and we did another huge chore I’d been putting off for a long long time. We folded all the laundry and put it away and we moved all of David’s old (too small) clothes to Nathaniel’s room. We packed up all of Nathaniel’s old (too small) clothes and put them in boxes and rearranged everything just right. It took a few hours but I felt so good at the end. This was something I’d been putting off for a long time. And then I came downstairs and did another thing I’ve been putting off for a really long time so I feel like today’s a huge success already. I am now off to go paint my portrait for the day and then my hope is to do one more big thing that’s on my list. Let’s hope it happens.
Thank you for all your kind comments about my projects, I really do hope that you’ll join me in one or more of them. It’s always always more fun when more people play along.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I have more happy mail coming both from The Girls’ Paperie and from Pink Paislee. I am itching to scrap some non-holiday stories and very excited to get wonderful products to play with for the next few weeks.
2. I am grateful that I crossed of some big todo list items today. Things that had been transferred from day to day for months.
3. I am grateful that I added the pushups to my exercise routine. I cannot do a pushup to save my life but even the half ones I’m doing seem to be working because my arms and abdomens are in a lot of pain.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that i played on the didj {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I get to watch a lego movie with daddy
3. I am grateful that i helped mommy put away the laundry
As the weekly gratitude project comes to a close and especially during the holidays, I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude and how very very much I have to be grateful for in my life. So much of the basic stuff I take for granted like clothes, health, a home, a car, a loving husband, wonderful kids. These seem obvious and yet it’s the most obvious we often take for granted.
So it occurred to me to make a long list of things that I am grateful for. Things that make me happy. So many of these are obvious or simple or small. And yet they are miracles. They make me so grateful. And the even more amazing part is that I could probably easily come up with another 100. I hope that you take the time to make a long list of your own. It’s a really wonderful exercise.
So here we are:
- Music
- Having a warm home that’s just the right size for us
- David’s kindness and generosity towards Nathaniel
- The way Nathaniel’s neck smells
- Jake’s hugs.
- Nike+
- Good fiction
- Coffee – specifically Cafe Francais instant coffee
- Scrapbooking – specifically telling our stories
- TV
- My family all of whom love me unequivocally
- Paint – especially high quality paint with lots of pigment
- Butterflies
- Tulips
- The laughter of my children
- Packages
- Working from home
- Comfortable clothes
- iPad, Kindle and Sony readers
- My treadmill which allows me to work out every day
- Phone call from a good friend
- Quiet time
- Journals – especially hand made ones
- My new phone (especially for GPS!)
- Punches – borders and butterflies and hearts
- White cardstock
- My camera and lenses
- Email
- Working with people I like and on a project I love
- Skype
- Getting to design for amazing companies like The Girls’ Paperie and Pink Paislee
- My sister
- Graham Crackers
- Tim Holtz Scissors
- Beautiful pieces of art by Kelly Rae Roberts, Donna Downey, Rebecca Sower and others that adorn my walls
- Etsy
- Online classes
- Kind and genuine comments left on my blog
- Bananas
- Colorful fabric
- Inspiration – tumblr, blogs, interest, twitter, Facebook, youtube and all other places where inspiration is overflowing
- My kids’ hugging
- Bubbles – blowing them, taking bubble baths
- Streets lined with trees – especially in the spring and fall
- Watching the sun set and rise
- The sea and the ocean
- Car trips
- New York City
- the Internet
- Big Picture Classes – especially getting to teach there and all the students I have and how much I grow
- Reading to David
- Watching people paint and draw
- Being around people who are comfortable in their skin
- Yogurt
- Legos
- The splint I have to wear for my TMJ (cause it does make me feel better)
- Full moons
- Watching David write in his gratitude journal
- Coming home from the hairdresser
- Good movies
- External hard drives (to back up!)
- Warm coats and socks
- My fitbit
- The remote that releases the shutter on my camera
- Doing crafts with David
- Nathaniel saying Mama (and Daddy I love the way he says Daddy)
- My sewing machine
- A nice warm shower on a cold day
- My blog
- Photoshop
- Chocolate
- My MacBook Pro
- Sneakers that fit my feet properly
- TiVo
- My bed, covers, and mattress
- The video baby monitor
- Sunshine
- Drinking water
- My husband and kids playing together or hugging
- My curiosity and thirst for learning
- Watching my kids’ sleep
- Volunteering at David’s school
- People who follow their dreams (especially unconventional ones)
- People who are not afraid to show emotion (especially men)
- moments of peace and contentedness
- Instant Messaging
- unexpected mail
- being published in a magazine
- losing weight
- the Wii
- my husband’s love, generosity, kindness and endless friendship
- Penguins
- Good health, that none of us have a chronic or serious illness
- Twinkling lights
- Instructional videos
- Color – especially bright colors
- seeing my layouts on TV
- watching Nathaniel learn to speak and express his opinions
- Snuggling up with my kids and husband
- Love. I am so grateful for love.
If you do make a list, please share with me, I’d love to see it!
One of the new projects I’m adding this year is to read a book a week with David. Since I love reading so much and since he’s just learning to read I thought it would be a wonderful way for us to spend time together. The idea is to pick books that would take 2-4 hours to read out loud. And I will likely read all of the book to him. I might ask him to read sections. I haven’t decided yet if it will be two-three days a week or a little each day. At the end of the book, we will create a little book log with his favorite quote from the book and some of his thoughts.
To capture all of our books, I’ve created a simple template to fill each week:
Just in case any of you are interested in doing something similar or using the template for yourself, here it is: download me.
My plan is to print these 4×6 cards regularly and put them in an album similar to what I used for my Weekly Gratitude project. I love these colorful albums from Target and they are less than four bucks.
The idea is to make sure we don’t just read but that David spends time reflecting on the book and tells me a little about what he took away from it.
Since I didn’t grow up in the United States and didn’t learn English until my teenage years, I haven’t read most of these books either, so it will be extra-fun for me. I’ve asked my awesome friend Kathy to send me a list (she’s a teacher) of books she’d recommend.
Here’s what I have so far:
- Alvin’s Swap Shop series – Clifford B Hicks
- Because of winn-dixie
- Black Beauty
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- Charlotte’s Web
- Chasing Vermeer – Blue Balliet
- Cricket in Times Square – George Selden
- Danny Champion of the World
- Everything on a Waffle – Polly Horvath
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Freckle Juice – Judy Blume
- Frindle – Andrew Clements
- From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler – E.L. Konigsburg
- Hank the Cowdog series – John Erickson
- Harriet the Spy – Louise Fitzhugh
- Holes
- Homer Price – Robert McCloskey
- How to Eat Fried Worms – Thomas Rockwell
- James and the Giant Peach
- Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles – Julie Edwards
- Lemony Snicket series
- Lion witch wardrobe – CS Lewis
- Little House in the Big Woods
- Mad Scientists’ Club series – Bertrand Brinley
- Magic Treehouse series – Mary Pope Osborne
- Maniac Magee – Jerry Spinelli
- Mouse and the Motorcycle (or most of Beverly Cleary – some are girl-oriented, but i think that’s fine)
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins – Richard Atwater
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – Robert O’Brien
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series – Betty Macdonald
- Pippi Longstocking series – Astrid Lindgren
- Silverwings series- Kenneth Oppel
- Stuart Little
- the BFG
- The Borrowers series – Mary Norton
- the cricket in times square
- The Golden Compass
- The Secret Garden
- The Tale of Despeatoux
- The Twenty-one Balloons – William DuBois
- The Westing Game – Ellen Raskin
- Top Secret – John Gardiner
- Tornado – (or most of Betsy Byars)
- Trumpet of Swan
- Tuck Everlasting
- Wimpy Kid series – Jeff Kinney
- Winnie the Pooh
It will be a great way us to spend time together.
As you can tell, I don’t have 52 books here so if you have any suggestions, books you loved as a child, I would love to know about them (pretty please?) and I will add them to this list so everyone else can benefit too. Just remember that my son is six years old and while I will read it, it still needs to be relatively age-appropriate.
Yey, can’t wait to start reading!
Today was a work day for me and after so many days off, it was hard to work even though it was really quiet. I did get quite a bit done but I felt tired and lethargic all day. I started the 100 pushups project yesterday and it hurt me more than I thought at the time. Both my abs and my arms are in quite a lot pain. Which, I guess, means it’s working.
I didn’t take a lot of photos today. Here are the kids in the morning. Sitting, eating and watching choo-choo.
After whining for a long time, Nathaniel finally gets used to not having the TV on. (terrible color in these images but i cannot fix it. not sure if it’s the super-low light in my house or my new lens.).
I exercised and then Nathaniel took a nap while I worked and then while I worked some more, the kids played together. Certainly my very favorite thing to watch.
Oh and the hugging. The hugging is my favorite.
And now we’re all being lazy on the couch. Resting. I am off to draw some portraits and my watercolors arrived today so I might even sketch some, too.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I received some of The Girls’ Paperie CHA products today and it made my heart swell with joy. I am so grateful I get to play with these.
2. I should have mentioned this yesterday but I am so grateful to be on the Pink Paislee team for 2011. Lucky lucky gal.
3. I am grateful for another few days of quiet and reflective time. I love all this time with my family.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that i got to watch spiderman {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I get to play on the computer
3. I am grateful that i put together my airplane kit with daddy
One of my biggest goals for 2011 is to learn how to draw. For reasons that are still not very clear to me, I’ve become obsessed with the idea of learning how to draw faces. To be more specific, I want to learn to paint them. Draw them and then paint them. I am not very interested in graphite drawings. I want drawing and painting.
I have become so obsessed with this idea that I decided to draw and paint six portraits a week. Every single day except for my art journaling day. I might or might not draw one on that day, too. I have a lot of resources for this:
I’ve taken classes from:
– Paulette Insall
– Tam Laporte
– Pam Carriker
and very soon Misty Mawn.
I also have Kelly Rae Roberts’ book
I have no excuse except that I haven’t put in the time. I always feel that I am not talented at this. I cannot draw, etc. etc. The fact is I don’t put the time. I am not super patient so I try to do it all in a few minutes and then balk at my lack of ability. And yet, many artists take hours per drawing. Of course, there are people out there who are way more talented than I am but this doesn’t mean I can’t improve if I put the time in. And that’s my plan this year: to put in the time.
I bought moleskine watercolor journal and altered the front with words I wanted to remember:
And the back is mostly simple, too.
And now my plan is to sit and draw. Everyday till I get better. I am reserving one hour everyday to this. So I will slow down, do it patiently, and try to learn, focus and draw.
Let’s see if I can make it work.
I won’t post my faces everyday (I know you would love that..NOT) but once a week, I will post all six (or seven) I made that week. And hopefully, as the months pass, we’ll all see some progress.
If it weren’t for my friend Lori, I would have never started this project. She was the one who messaged me and asked me if I’d like to join her in a year-long gratitude project. Lori’s a great friend and I loved the idea so I agreed without hesitation.
During the course of this year, I made 52 posts with my thoughts on gratitude-related subjects and 52 pieces of gratitude art. I’ve also written 3 things I’m grateful for every single day this past year. That’s 1,095 things. For the last six months or so, my six-year-old son has also been telling me three things he’s grateful for each day. And since November, he’s also been keeping a gratitude journal:
I cannot put into words the impact all this has had in my life.
The practice of gratitude is very powerful. Especially having to write down three things on those hard days when the world seems mostly black. During those times of illness and fear and tiredness. The practice of gratitude is what reminds you that there’s a flicker of light every single day. Every single moment of every day. It gives you the opportunity to pause and look and listen and pay attention to the good in your life.
Because there’s always some kind of good.
However small.
We take so much for granted. It’s human nature. And this project gives you the room and opportunity to take a moment to appreciate, to give thanks, to pay attention.
I’ve learned it’s important to pause and take a moment to be grateful each day.
I’ve learned that it makes my heart grow. It makes me realize how very much I have to be thankful for. How little it takes to make someone else’s day better. How many people impact my day. How much good there is out there.
It restores your faith in your life. In other people. And in the world.
All it takes is this one little project.
So I hope that, in 2011, you will take the time to write down things you’re grateful for. I will be continuing my 3 things here on my blog along with my son’s list and his journal. I will never ever forget this year and how it started me on this very amazing path.
Thank you, Lori. More than words can say.
I am so very grateful.
tulips. they bring me more joy than any other flower.
Today was the perfect day. Perfect. I had no work and decided to just relax and not put any rules on my day. I did still exercise and read to David and read and do other things but for most of the day I just relaxed. And so did the kids. Our typical morning started like this. David on the computer and Nathaniel pointing to the TV and saying “choo choo”
Then he got curious about David’s game.
I told him no choo-choo so he played with his new toys for a bit.
And then the balls. He loves balls. It’s one of his few words.
David was a joy too. I love these shots with him looking down and a hint of a smile.
And then the genuine thing.
he loves making Nathaniel laugh and kept trying to do it today by juggling and falling on the couch.
and he succeeded.
oh, yes, he did.
Nathaniel played by himself for a while longer, too.
This was before the meltdown about the choo-choo or lack thereof. He threw himself from couch to the floor and kept going on and on about the TV. but I didn’t let up. Then Jake came, thankfully, and we all went out to dinner. Which was wonderful.
And now they are sleeping and I am about to snuggle up with more books. Tomorrow, there’s work.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for the amazing time I spent with The Beauty of Different and Ordinary Sparking Moments. Both amazing books. Now I get to finish The Gifts of Imperfection. Also amazing.
2. I am grateful for a great family dinner. Always grateful for time together.
3. I am grateful for a quiet day with lots of reflection.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that i got to go out to dinner {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I had a chocolate popsicle
3. I am grateful that we saw Christmas lights (a neighborhood by our house has amazing lights)
One of my goals for 2011 is to art journal more. I love watching Donna’s Inspiration Wednesday and looking at journal pages of many of the artists I admire. There are so many art journalers that I admire and I want to make this more of a regular practice in my life. I think it will go a long way in helping me expand my art.
Here are few things I want to use art journaling for:
– explore new techniques
– try different mediums
– practice drawing
– play around with different color combinations
Here are some artists whose art journal pages (or just art in general) inspire me:
– Donna Downey
– Pam Carriker
– Dina Wakley
– Tam Laporte
– Misty Mawn
– Rebecca Sower
– Alisa Burke
– DJ Pettitt
– Judy Wise
– Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
(many more coming)
Here’s what I did to prepare for this project.
First of all, I bought a journal. I wasn’t sure what to go for and I might want to do stitching so my first hunch was to not go with anything bound but I did anyway. I went with a Strathmore Visual Journal in 5.5×8 watercolor paper. I wanted to make it personalized and have it represent my word for the year so I altered the cover with some fabric and put a bird and the word Free on the front cover:
on the back, i made a birdcage and wrote “no more cages”
so here’s how the whole thing looks:
The second thing I did was start a list of art journal pages that inspire me so that I could have ideas to pull from. I am not intending on selling or publishing any of these pages. They are for me to explore, experiment, and have fun. So it’s ok to try to recreate other people’s ideas. I find that this helps me get started and it also gives me the push I need to eventually develop into my own style. I used pinterest for this so here’s my board and I will add to it continuously and also I note what part of the page spoke to me so I can remember what idea I wanted to try out.
And finally, I plan for most of my themes to revolve around my word. So I collected a list of quotes on letting go of the past, being free to be anything you want, that you can accomplish anything, etc.
That’s it. Let’s see how it goes.
If you have art journalers you follow, I would love for you to leave their names/blogs in the comments. I really love discovering new artists!!
ps: I also wanted to add that if you’re interested in even going farther, Julie is doing an amazing project called Art Journal Daily in 2011. I highly recommend checking it out. Julie is amazing.
Here’s the promised waffle shot from yesterday. Today was another day of “just sit around and do anything you wish” for me. I spent most of the day reading my book (third this week) while the kids played with their new toys.
David gave me a wonderful smile but sadly I didn’t catch it in time.
After exercise (me) and nap (Nathaniel) time, they played some more and I scrapped. Daddy tried to get some work done. David and I played some legos while Nathaniel watched his Thomas.
When Jake came back, he set up to play with David and Nathaniel sat at the table too and started grabbing David’s legos. Which David didn’t appreciate.
So he watched while David and Daddy played.
And played with the few legos I gave to him. (Looks so sad, doesn’t he?)
I finished my book and my scrap page. Now we’re all sitting on the couch, on the computer, and the kids are almost ready for bed. Which means more snuggling up with books for me. I am truly enjoying this downtime and wish it would not end.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for all these fun books I’ve been reading this week and that I get to start another one tonight.
2. I am grateful that I put all the Christmas scrappy stuff away and cleaned my desk. I am reading for some non-holiday scrapping.
3. I am grateful that got to play with David today. I love watching his excitement as he plays and even more so when he wins.
Three Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that i played with my daddy {* his pick for the journal}
2. I am grateful that I got to play a little wii and win some new games
3. I am grateful that I played lego games with my mommy
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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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