karenika

June Projects – Fabric Ring

Here’s where I saw this one: go here

simple, quick but I love it.

doesn’t it look cute? terrible photo, i know.

Weekly Gratitude – Capturing our Lives

Journaling Reads:
I take photos every single day. Some days I take hundreds and other days only a few. But I make a point to take them no matter what. I have photos for every single day of both my kids’ first years. I have photos for every day of 2008, 2009 and 2010 (so far). I love taking photos.

The best part of the photos is how much of our daily life it captures. The toys my kids play with. The clothes they wear. The expressions. The simple things that make our life what it is right now. I love being able to look back and see how our lives have changes. How my kids have grown. I love seeing all the things we did. All the places we visited. All the days we lived.

Some people say that when you take a photo, you’re missing living the moment itself. Not true for me. Capturing it makes me be in the moment so much more. It helps make it more vivid. It etches it into my memory permanently. For me, it’s like creating a visual diary.

Like most things, it takes practice to do it daily, but it so very worth it. These photos are my most cherished belongings.

Daily Diary – June 24 2010

Before I forget, HAPPY Birthday Daddy!! I love love love you so much!

Jake was working from home today and it made such a difference in my day. Even the little bit of extra help made me feel more relaxed and calmer. I wish he was around all the time.

David’s been working on this big lego city he’s building on the dinner table. Photos to come.

Nathaniel is exploring the room and throwing around anything he can find.

Especially his water bottles.

And he’s chewing anything he can find, too. The teeth are just always itching now I imagine.

I convinced David to let me take a photo today.

And then snapped another one while he was working on his Lego sticker book which he finished today and he was very proud of it.

His feet while he’s focused on the Lego book.

Later that day, Nathaniel discovered all of David’s markers and spread them all over the room so David is putting them back here and Nathaniel is watching him with interest, of course.

I got quite a bit of work done today and started tackling a big project that I am happy to tackle. I also did some work on my blog and scheduled a lot of the posts I’ve been working on for the last month. I’ve got a few more things left on my June list but I am feeling great about it and want to focus on July now. I have a few ideas for July but haven’t sat down to decide concretely just yet.

Note to Self:
I’m still thinking about the Anna Quindlen book I just finished. It’s reminding me to not focus on the small things. Or even the medium things. Life works out ok for the most part and it’s better to truly enjoy it and savor the moments as opposed to worrying about all the details and stressing about everything. I need to remember this way more often.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Having Jake around today. It was wonderful.
2. I am so grateful for the internet today and for all the crafty people who make youtube videos and crafty tutorials. Thank you for doing that, it truly makes my day.
3. I am grateful for summer and the laziness of summer. Spending the day in our pajamas. Not having to rush anywhere. Feeling happy and taking it all slow. I love that.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. mommy.
2. daddy.
(down to the basics or too bored to think, not sure.)

June Projects – Monster Chunks

I saw these monster chunks a long time ago and loved them instantly. So I decided to make some of my own:

Mine isn’t nearly as awesome, of course.

But I still love it. Sitting on my shelf.

Quite fun to do.

A Book a Week – Every Last One

I have always been a fan of Anna Quindlen so when I heard about her new book, Every Last One, I knew I wanted to read it. Without giving away any part of the plot, I will just say that this goes from being a relatively happy, interesting novel to an incredibly sad one. While I really really got upset and wasn’t sure I should continue reading the novel once the terrible event occurred, I am still glad I finished it. It gave me a lot of things to think about and I am still pondering some of the questions it opened up for me.

Having said that, it’s a really really sad novel and I am not sure I can recommend it to anyone without that warning.

Daily Diary – June 23 2010

I went a bit crazy with the processing on this one. Experimenting, I guess…

I love watching Nathaniel and David interact. It’s one of my favorite things to do. How he looks up to him.

And how patient David is with him and plays with him.

I love watching them build blocks together.

David never really played with these when he was little.

But Nathaniel watches David like a hawk and has learned so much about blocks from him.

so now he can build big towers and loves to do so.

He also loves making funny noises while he walks.

And here’s beautiful David.

I feel like I don’t get enough photos of him lately.

And by the end of the day, we see a lot of this which is a cue for mommy to start dinner so we can go to bed. Especially since the naps have gone all wonky lately.

And now I am trying to catch up on my June list which is a bit behind but I don’t feel worried. Things are chugging along and I’ve been reading so much and I love that.

Note to Self:
While it was a relatively ordinary day here, my brother in law and his wife had their first baby today! A little boy, Caleb. It made me realize that at this moment while I sit here, having an ordinary moment, someone else is having a baby. Some one is dying. Someone is finding out bad news. Someone is getting great news. To so many people today is extra special and a day they will remember forever. Isn’t that amazing? Somehow, that makes me really happy.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. My full life. I feel like my life is so full. Of my family. of love, of joy, of intellectual curiosity and art and memories. I love it so.
2. I am grateful that my brother in law and sister in law had a healthy little boy. It was a long day for them and I am so happy it ended well and they are all doing well. We love you!
3. I am grateful that June is not over yet. I want it to last a while longer. Not ready for July just yet.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. building a lego city.
2. mommy.

June Projects – Fabric Keychain

This was inspired by these awesome keychains I saw here.

Mine is much simpler of course. But I love it nonetheless.

makes me happy.

Daily Diary – June 22 2010

There’s something odd I like about this photo.

This is the kind of day Nathaniel had today. He woke up at 6, went down for nap at 9 and slept all the way to 12:30 and then was cranky most of the day.

But he’s still so cute.

David was watching his shows and Nathaniel played right next to him.

And I deeply admired how restrained David was. He did not yell at the little boy at all. Not once.

Then Nathaniel decided to topple over the whole box of legos.

And looked at me like he did nothing wrong when I got his attention. What? his expression said.

It was of course David who had to clean all of those and he did without complaint. My angel.

Book club tonight so I am trying to get all my tasks done before they get here.

Note to Self:
My back is still in quite a bit of pain. I wonder if this is someone’s way of telling me to slow down. Or just be less stupid when I bend down.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. My little boys. They make me so so happy.
2. Jake’s been coming home early and feeding the boys dinner. I am so worn out by night time that this is a tremendous help for me. I am so grateful for it.
3. I am grateful that my book is ending. It turned miserable and I can’t wait to finish it.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. batman movies.
2, daddy
3. doing toy story workbook with mommy
4. i’m grateful for myself.

June Projects – Portrait Workshop

I am almost embarrassed to post this since it certainly does not do any justice to Pam Carriker’s amazing portraits class but here is my first attempt at painting a portrait.

It can use so so much work.

But I will practice. I like doing these. I am excited to practice.

Weekly Gratitude – Putting My Album Together

I’ve been doing my art since the beginning of the year but I still hadn’t sat down to create an album for my Gratitude photos. I knew that I wanted to go with a simple album from Target or something but I didn’t go and buy one until last week. I knew I wanted a simple 4×6 album but nothing more than that.

As I walked down the album aisle in Target, I found exactly what I wanted. A simple 4×6 album with exactly 26 pages (so good for 52 photos) and it was a happy blue with a happy green strap. I took it home and put some pretty letters on it.

And I added my photos inside:

and voila! we’re done. I love the way it looks and it makes me happy each time I glance at it on my shelf.

Daily Diary – June 21 2010

So I threw out my back last night and it’s been in quite a lot of pain ever since. Nothing reminds you the importance of health like getting sick. Nathaniel decided 4:15 was a perfectly reasonable time to wake up so he did. I was also awake, so I just took him down with me, nursed, played, and fed him and then put him back down at 6am. I also went back to sleep and slept for an hour and a half more. David was awake when I came back down but Nathaniel slept for a good 4 and a half hours. He even slept through the vacuum of the cleaning ladies.

When he woke up, he was still clutching his little duck and wouldn’t let go of it.

But he was in a really good mood.

And David was so happy to see him and played with him and made him laugh.

Then he played with his legos while David played with his and I worked a bit, hurt a lot and tried to relax.

Then he discovered David’s balls and played with them, with me, and later with Jake for hours. Jake even taught him how to kick it. It was quite fun to watch.

Besides the awful awful pain in my back, it was a good day. I am feeling good about all that I accomplished in June so far. A lot of new things I wanted to do are done, a lot of nagging tasks are completed, learned a few new skills, and got organized. Wonderful.

I even cleaned up a bit of clutter today. Yey. Now only if the pain would go away.

Happy longest day of the year!

Note to Self:
Still thinking about The Happiness Project and trying to decide what my areas of focus would be and what my secrets of adulthood are. Interesting to think of my beliefs. So far I have: friendship, health, passion, attitude. I can think of some projects I want to do, too. Like writing 30 thank you letters. Drawing 100 faces. Writing a novel….I am working on organizing this. I have to focus on it some more. All ideas welcome of course.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Grateful that I didn’t hurt myself even worse. It’s bad but at least I can still function.
2. Grateful that my kids are so easy and kind that my back hasn’t been a huge problem.
3. Grateful for another good book I’m reading. Love books!

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing legos with daddy. daddy ordered david some legos and when they came in the mail today, he was literally jumping with joy.
2. finding cool lego pieces with mommy (we looked through his buckets of legos to find the great pieces he liked).

June Projects – Crochet necklace

I had saved a link to this simple, pretty necklace a while back, way before I knew how to crochet. And then, just after I learned basic crochet Rebecca Sower posted this tutorial so I decided it was time for me to sit and make some.

I am not sure why but I wasn’t able to get good photos for these.

I first made this one: