I tried something with layers and blending and stuff and I’m not sure I like it but here we are.
This morning Jake and David did some scooter-time. I’m not sure we’re making a lot of progress with it and I am really worried about that for reasons I can’t really explain.
And then they threw a football around for a while and Nathaniel watched them from inside the house.
Then Daddy went to work and Mommy got to work and Nathaniel decided it was time to show David some love.
Here he is in process.
And landed.
We went out to lunch cause I was going stir-crazy and then when we came back I had a meeting so the kids played quietly.
and then gave each other more hugs.
After my meeting, I worked some more, David and I picked some legos, and then it was dinner time. I have to rush this tonight cause I still have to put them down, get ready, do art, and go to my book club.
Note to Self:
I’m in a really bad mood again. I need to keep track of this to see if I can find a pattern. Maybe I’ll just go read through my entries cause I do think it happens quite regularly. And it sucks.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Grateful for book club tonight. Looking forward to going out.
2. Grateful that I took the time to go out instead of sitting at home and sulking. It helped a lot just to get out.
3. Grateful that I have great kids who are so great at playing by themselves.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. playing football with daddy.
2. i’m grateful for looking at legos.
I know I said I was taking a scrappy break but yesterday I was on My Mind’s Eye’s blog and I saw this sketch and I never work from sketches but this one spoke to me and I had an idea immediately. So much so that even though I’d planend to do it this morning, I sat down and did most of it last night. Since my photo was landscape, I rotated the sketch clockwise by 90 degrees.
I made this layout to remember that David helps out a lot around here. With the food, diapers, cleaning, playing and anything else I might need. He’s a truly amazing little boy and I don’t thank him nearly often enough. So that in my weaker moments when he’s driving me insane, I can remember how amazing he is. And so he remembers that I do appreciate him. so very much.
All products except for the letters are My Mind’s Eye. I put my border punch collection to good use.
details:
I am not a morning person. I can be chipper and alert and happy and productive and anything else you need me to be at night but I am not a happy camper in the morning. Before I had kids, I slept in as much as I possibly could and routinely stayed up late.
But then I had kids.
My kids wake up early. And I mean early. Most mornings, the little one is up by 5:15am. Even though I’ve learned to go to bed early, I am still bleary-eyed and miserable at that time of the day. And it used to take me quite a few hours to wake up and find my balance. Often times, it would be 9am before I felt awake and alert. That meant that I wasted almost four hours of my day every single day, feeling groggy and tired.
Since trying to convince my son to sleep longer didn’t work out, I decided to try a new routine. For the last month and a half, I created a list of projects for myself that I “schedule” for first thing in the morning. I give myself until 6:30 or so to wake up and then I sit at my table and work on my project. This project might be art, scrapbooking, journaling, sewing, stitching, knitting, or crocheting. It’s often something visual and something I do with my hands. It generally takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes (depending on the project and on my kids’ patience). By the end of the allotted time, I have a lovely project I just created and I am fully awake. And, more significantly, I feel a sense of accomplishment and I am in my happy place.
This has become the most wonderful new routine. It starts all my days in the best way possible. It means I’m wasting less time, trying more of the projects I’ve wanted to do, and I am even more patient and kinder with my kids since I feel more awake and happier.
If, like me, you’re not a morning person, I urge you to try this. If 90 minutes is too long for you, try 30 minutes. Make a list of techniques you’ve wanted to try and try each of them for 15-30 minutes every morning. You’d be amazed what you can learn in that little time.
The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.
Nathaniel seems to be sleeping in late on the weekends and waking up early on weekdays. Not sure how he does that since he goes to bed at the same time each night. But I am still grateful for the extra sleep. So he woke up early today and I was too tired to do anything. I watched a bit of TV while I nursed and we relaxed until David woke up. After breakfast, I let them watch Toy Story 2 which I had just recorded for David on the TiVo. I tried to get a good photo of them watching but I couldn’t and of course it lasted a mere second.
Then Nathaniel napped and I worked and David played. And then it was craft time and Nathaniel watched us while we worked.
As we waited for the glue to dry, the kids ran around and played and laughed.
And I caught this shot of David.
And then he hid while the little one played some more.
And then it was dinner and now we’re going up for our bath. Days pass quickly when you’re having fun.
Note to Self:
I’ve noticed that it’s actually better to do no more than 1-2 crafts/art a day. When I do more, I like it but then I feel burned out. If it’s more like a long-term project where I get a lot done and do a little each day, it doesn’t ever get me to the burned-out place. So, as with most things, small bites and patience almost always pays off.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Grateful for Jake coming home early. It helps me so much when he’s around more to help.
2. I am grateful that despite feeling a bit bummed, I still feel a deep sense of peace.
3. I am grateful for some more craft time tonight. I am really enjoying making all this art and scrapping and sewing. What a luxury.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. watching toy story 2
2. crafting with mommy
2. i’m grateful for daddy.
I’d like to say this amazing marketplace inspired us but really our project this week is so terrible that I cannot even remotely compare it to this incredible project.
I am really not good at doing these projects without detailed instructions and we’ve been running behind a bit so we didn’t have a lot of time this week to do it. But he really wanted to do this one. So we did it. We opened up some windows, made some floors.
We then cut up paper to cover it with.
I only had sparkly modge podge so it’s super-sparkly. And I am so not proud of it and almost didn’t even post it.
But David’s delighted and thrilled and loves it. He’s already put his men on it and they’re wearing parachutes so if they fall off, they don’t get hurt.
Amazing what a little cardboard can do when embellished with a child’s imagination.
I moved my schedule around for June but it seems I haven’t saved it, so while I fix that, here’s the project from this morning.
Here’s the link to the tutorial for these fun and super-simple balls.
And here’s mine:
I literally did it while I was waiting for Jake to pickup the baby sitter.
David’s a fan.
And so is Nathaniel.
Love easy peasy projects that are also fun for everyone!
Odd kind of day today. I think I felt good most of the day but now it’s 8:25 or so and I still have a long list of things I would like to do before bedtime comes and feel a bit depressed that the likelihood of that is low. Even though most of the day was decent, the ending is coloring my perspective and making me remember this as a not-so-great day.
I started the morning by finishing my book, which I loved. I’ve already begun another. I then did some sewing, some knitting, some playing. And Nathaniel gave his brother some more hugs.
Then David and I used the bean bag numbers to create some large numbers and read them out loud. We practiced for a while.
While Nathaniel was napping (and I was reading) David and Jake watched some World Cup.
When Nathaniel woke up, they chatted with Jake’s parents on Skype and then he watched David play. He loves watching David play.
But he hates it when David puts the toys out of reach.
David wanted to return some of the love and hugged him a bunch, too.
After his second nap, Nathaniel woke up groggy and unhappy. He cried for some time and then seemed ok. He played for a while and then fell on his face while walking and busted his lip a bit. He was really sad but I am quite proud that I didn’t freak out. He’s totally ok now but it was swollen a bit (not sure you can see it so well but this was the best shot I got.)
And now the kids are sleeping and I am trying to make good use of the last few hours of the day while I watch the Tony awards. Another weekend zoomed by. Another month halfway here. It’s stunning how fast time passes.
Note to Self:
i was thinking that I enjoy doing a week-in-the-life project and I do take a lot of photos but there are certain things that can only really be captured by video. And I rarely ever take video. So this week I decided to do A week in the life, the video version. I took a bunch of video already and I hope to continue. All are short little snippets to give a flavor of our life now. It might not work out or it might be a nightmare to edit but for now, it’s something I plan to keep working on. Let’s see….
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I spent a lot of time creating things this weekend. I like making things and I especially like making things for my family or things that I use regularly.
2. I am grateful for the internet. I did a project today that I would otherwise have spent days trying to figure out but thanks to the net and thanks to YouTube, it was all possible. I am so thankful to live in these times.
3. I am grateful for our quiet, little life. It’s hectic sometimes but, for the most part, it’s simple and full of love. We’re all so very lucky and I am thankful so very much for that.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. watching a lego movie with daddy.
2. mommy.
This is with the February kit from A MIllion Memories.
Once the knows he’s got your attention,
he will stop at nothing to see the smiles.
Aren’t you so very lucky?
Not a good photo day. Happens sometimes. I spent the morning playing with some fabric and while I was doing that, Nathaniel made a mess with my yarn and crochet thread. He made quite a sizable mess.
I then went to the hairdresser which was long overdue. Then I came back and finished my project while Nathaniel was still napping. When he woke up, we went to lunch cause it’s been absolutely beautiful outside. We did a bit of fruit shopping and then came back home. I rested and cleaned up while David played the Wii and Nathaniel tried to balance one of my bean bags on his head.
And then he walked around more, creating a trail of mess right behind him.
By then it was dinner time so we ate and now we’re getting ready for bed, winding down. After then are comfortably in bed, we get to go on our date night. Short but great day!
Note to Self:
It’s amazing to me how quickly one can go from feeling good about oneself to feeling bad. I’ve been feeling happy, secure and generally good about myself lately. Nothing too amazing but slightly better than usual. Then today something happened (or actually something i wanted to happen didn’t happen) and here I am all doubting myself and feeling small already. It amazes me that I allow others to have this much power over me. I need to learn to have faith in myself.
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Date night! Always look forward to date night.
2. I am so glad to finally have my hair cut and dyed. Yey.
3. I am so thankful for a quiet, wonderful, family-filled Saturday. Simple is exactly how I love it.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Daddy
2. wii!
Here’s this week’s item:
44. Learn to crochet.
My first few attempts to learn to crochet were immediately aborted. I couldn’t find a video that was clear and kept messing up over and over again. And then finally I got lucky about ten days ago and found these amazing videos (thanks to this post) and they finally helped me unlock all I needed to know. So, then, I went searching for a doily which is all I’ve wanted to do.
I found these videos and here’s the motif I picked. And here’s my finished one.
a bit crooked but for my first project ever, not terrible.
Then I decided to get more adventurous and make a butterfly:
And finally I went back to this heart I’d bookmarked a long time ago and even did one of those (I used it on an upcoming catalyst which is why it’s glued to paper.)
I am still FAR from a crochet expert and have yet to join threads but it’s certainly a start and I do know how to crochet now.
A quiet, wonderful day here. Some sewing, some playing together, a bunch of work, some more playing, some reading and of course some photo taking.
The little one is still snot-nosed.
But there’s still a lot of love and impromptu hugging here. It’s so lovely.
And David is so good at playing with his little brother.
Who is also so good at playing by himself. Not whining or needing me even when he’s all snot-nosed. They are such good players. Extra thankful for that since it means I can do work.
And they laugh together a lot.
David was so excited to receive the legos his grandparents bought him. He immediately went to work putting them together and hasn’t stopped playing since.
Except to be kind to his brother.
I am off to feed the boys and bathe them an on and on. Then I get to have some quiet time to do today’s catalyst. Then I get to read some and maybe start a project. Or maybe just rest. This weekend will be relaxing, or so I hope. And I am feeling peaceful today.
Happy Weekend.
Note to Self:
I’ve been slacking a little on getting on top of and staying on top of the blog. I usually schedule posts in advance for some of the recurring things to ensure that the posts do go up daily. But lately I’ve been a bit more “in the moment” which means I’ve been behind. And this does stress me more than I hoped it would so I’m going to have to pay some attention to it. Is there a specific day you look forward to? Or something you don’t care for? Just curious…
Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that my kids like playing so much. That they can play by themselves and together. I know this is a luxury and I am thankful for it.
2. I am grateful that my plans for June are going well and I am getting stuff done without feeling stressful or overwhelmed.
3. I am grateful to finally be going to the hairdresser tomorrow. I badly need a cut and a dye job.
Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Amore and Opapa
2. My new legos
Let the Great World Spin was our book club choice for my other book club. It came from my list of books to read this year. I’d read that this was a good book and I offered some choices to the group and this is what they chose. It’s a collection of short stories and I don’t usually like short stories. But these stories are linked in a subtle (and sometimes in not so subtle) ways and after I made it through the first story, I absolutely loved this book.
To me, it was a great example of how if you zoomed way way out and looked at us, you’d realize how very linked we all are. Quite amazing and so true.
And it’s beautifully written to boot.
Highly recommended.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
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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