karenika

Layout a Day in May – And Though Now It’s Really Gone Forever

Here’s today’s layout.

And Though Now It’s Really Gone Forever, I will Remember.

Journaling is about how Nathaniel had this funny crawl where he didn’t bend his knees and now that he’s walking it’s gone forever but thanks to this photo I will get to remember it forever.

Details:

And here goes day twenty-four.

Crafting with David – A Banner for Amore

This week’s craft was super simple but very important. My mom turned 60 on Saturday and we wanted to do something for her for when we were going to Skype. Our initial goal was to make hats but we couldn’t do it with what we had at hand, so we decided to make a big banner.

We picked some paper.

And lined up our stamps.

And then stamped away.

see? there he is

and here it is finished. simple but gets the job done.

and here it is hanging behind us when we’re chatting with her.

we love you SO MUCH Amore!! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Daily Diary – May 23 2010

Last night I went to bed at 6pm and woke up briefly at 7:30 and went right back down at 8:30 and slept until 4am when David came into my room to blow his nose (it was dark and I didn’t realize until the morning that his nose was actually bleeding when I woke up to find a bunch of blood on my sheets.

Then Nathaniel woke up briefly after, and thus began our day. I hugged my kid for a while and then did my page for today. Nathaniel went down for his nap and took a long one, look at him when he wakes up. He’s all pink and I love it.

And then he decided to turn the TV on and off for fun. He’s really good at that.

We spent the rest of the day watching movies. We’re both exhausted so it was really the very best way day to spend our day and add to that some delicious goat cheese sandwiches and I was in heaven. And now we’re watching more TV and I can’t wait for Lost finale tonight and I am off work for the next two days so it’s more of this. Yes! I need the relaxing time, I need the rest.

oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Aksel and Jeff, I love you both so much!!!

Note to Self:
I’m listening to Rework and one of the things they talk about is the need for focused attention. I was thinking I need to do this more. One thing at a time. Set the kitchen timer and just focus on one thing fully. Hard with the kids but when Nathaniel is napping and David is at school and when they are both sleeping. There are chunks in the day where I could do this. And I need to do it more often. Regain some focus. It’s worth trying isn’t it?

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful that I finally got some rest and I need more.
2. I am grateful that my husband sat with me all day and we watched movies and laughed with the kids and I am so peaceful now.
3. I am grateful for Layout of the day. I’ve learned so much in the last 24 days.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. Legos. He’s still playing with the legos like crazy.
2. Daddy.

Layout a Day in May – A Boy and the Chair

Here’s #23.

details:

Daily Diary – May 22 2010

I am exhausted. I can barely hold my head up. I have so much to say but no energy. None.

So I’ll just say. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU. Here we are videoconferencing and singing her happy birthday.

And David playing the wii.

And Nathaniel playing too.

I have much to say. More coming tomorrow, I promise.

Note to Self:
Today’s note is simple: I need to get more rest. A lot more.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. I am grateful for today’s retreat. More soon.
2. I am grateful to be home and about to go to bed.
3. I am grateful for my life. For every bit of it.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. wii day!!
2. getting to go to my friend’s birthday

Layout a Day in May – The Joy of Play

Today’s layout is a sneak since it’s going to be posted at the A Million Memories blog in a week or so. I will come back and post the full one then. (Edited to add: now it’s up so here’s the full layout, which is a scraplift of the amazing zarah.)

details:

52 Things – Put up art in the bathrooms

Here’s this week’s item:

55. Put up art in the bathrooms

For the kids’ bathroom, I went with a simple set of photos I had from Burgaz:

In our bathroom, I put some butterflies (image coming).

But, really, the bathroom we use the most is the one downstairs. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I got some wonderful prints from Kal Barteski, these were the four that didn’t go up in the living room.

I am sorry for the terrible quality of the photos. There’s no light at all in that room so it’s hard to get a high quality image.

Here is a closeup:

And another:

These are also tiny art and here are the ones in Kal’s site: 45, 31, 43, 47

I adore every single one of them and they make me happy each time I walk into my bathroom.

Daily Diary – May 21 2010

When David’s gone, Nathaniel loves playing with anything he might have left at his table. Today it was the crayons.

Here’s me telling him not to touch.

And here they are later in the day. I love these boys. I am grateful for them through and through.

This promises to be a long (and hopefully wonderful) weekend. Both Jake and I took Monday and Tuesday off as Tuesday is our anniversary and we hope to have some family fun in the next four days.

Well, not tomorrow really since I am gone pretty much all day tomorrow to the Mother’s Retreat, about which, of course, I have mixed emotions. And since I have to leave quite early and am not sure how the rest of the day will do, I did my layout for tomorrow already. It’s for the AMM blog and I can only show a sneak anyway. But that’s 22 layouts so far. Quite amazing if you ask me. I am also hoping to sit and journal a bunch this weekend for next week’s layouts. Let’s see if it happens.

Note to Self:
Today I just wanted to leave a note to myself that sometimes it takes 100 trips to 100 situations where I don’t know anyone to meet the one person who might end up being a great friend. So I need to go out more often. Take chances. Be willing to get out of my cocoon. It’s ok. It will be worth it. And if it’s not, it’s a growing experience and that’s worth it. Right? Right.

Three Things I’m Grateful For:
1. Grateful for the long weekend.
2. Grateful (albeit scared) for my retreat tomorrow.
3. Grateful for Advil today as my aches and aches.

Two Things David’s Grateful For:
1. I’m grateful for daddy.
2. grateful for watching lego movies with daddy!

Layout a Day in May – Best Mother’s Day Present Ever

Layout a day number 21. Woo hoo.

This uses photos from Mother’s Day and the journaling is about how getting these photos of my family was the best mother’s day present ever. I love love these photos.

Details:

Weekly Gratitude – Eye Surgery

Journaling Reads:
When I was in second grade, I took a routine test for vision at school and thought a huge E was an A. Starting that day and for the next twenty years, I wore glasses and then contact lenses and then back to glasses. I was practically blind; I couldn’t see anything without them. I remember when I was a little girl, I couldn’t get those glow-in-the-dark stars in my room because when I took off my glasses to go to bed, I couldn’t see them at all.

In 2000, I finally had laser eye surgery. It was a relatively fast decision without much research. I knew that if I read about it, discussed it, researched it, I wouldn’t go through with it.

And I am so glad I did.

It’s now been over ten years and two pregnancies later I can still see perfectly and it’s something I take for granted every single day. But I am so thankful for my eyes. So thankful that I did it. One of the first things I did after the surgery was to go and buy some glow-in-the-dark stars for my room and I still look at them every single night.

Digital Downloads – Love Tickets

This week’s download is some love themed tickets. Here is what they look like:

You can download it here: Love tickets download.

You are welcome to play with these as much as you want and use them anywhere you’d like. You are NOT allowed to sell them ever. You don’t have to but I’d appreciate a link back if you do use them.

This is part of a weekly digital download series. They are posted every Thursday. You can find all of the ones that were posted here. If you like my downloads, please click here and give me ideas/requests for 2010. I would like to continue this feature but I am not sure I can come up with enough ideas on my own.