This week’s question is: “When you think back to your childhood, what moment first comes to mind?”
The first childhood memory I have is of my sister teaching me how to read. By far, the best memory I have. This was the biggest gift anyone ever gave me. Thank you, Yona!
I covered the back of the tag with a page from a Dickens novel. I inked around it. Added a butterfly wing to show how reading gave me wings. Another button with words on it and a little flower and that’s it for this tag. I gave a big of a sparkle with some Stickles around the edge.
I now sell some of these tags in my etsy store. If there’s a tag you like and are interested in, email me or leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add it.
I am combining Emily Falconbridge’s art journal questions with trying a new technique each week. You can see the full list: here.
Weekly tags are posted every Thursday, you can see all of them by clicking here.
A few weeks ago I asked Jake if he’d be ok going to cut a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. My friend Diane said they did that last year and it was a lot of fun and I loved the idea. My wonderful husband, of course, agreed. As he went to do the morning trading at work this morning at 3:45am, the rest of us woke up at 6:30. We played, we got ready, Nathaniel napped and we left the minute Jake got home.
I had read that it wasn’t raining in Half Moon Bay where the farm is but as it turned out, it was. Which is why this photo is as magnificent as it is. And this next one, too.
I’d read that the Grand Firs were the most pungent of all the trees and I wanted something that smelled a lot and would last the longest. So once we found our tree, Jake got to work. I tried to help but I am not sure I was useful at all.
Nathaniel watched pretty quietly most of the time.
And when he wasn’t, his big brother was there to soothe him.
After we got the tree up and netted and tied, we rode the little train and listened to Christmas songs, we drank cider and even watched a super-short puppet show.
A bunch more hard work from Jake, a lot of trimming, a huge mess, and the tree is now in our house. I attempted to take a shot of it but trees and I, we don’t seem to get a long. I will make another attempt tomorrow, I promise.
After all the kids went to bed, I dug into the December kit from AMM and already finished three layouts. I have a few more to make and David’s school mini. I even made the 47th tag. Of course, I didn’t finish my book yet and still have my writing homework to do and six more items on the todo list but I will get to them all in due time. And, of course, tomorrow….we decorate the tree!
Christmas season has officially begun and I couldn’t be happier.
Ok, I know it’s a terrible shot but I wasn’t letting today pass without getting some sort of Thanksgiving shot.
Our day started out ok but went downhill quickly when Nathaniel decided to skip his midday nap. He cried and cried so I finally gave up and we went out to the track so Jake could do his run.
Doesn’t he look amazing? While he was running David played and smiled and was generally happy.
Even Nathaniel was smiling but don’t let that fool you, he was cranky.
Not this one, though. Sweet as ever.
When Jake finished, David did a run around the track, too.
Then we went home and I foolishly thought that Nathaniel would finally fall asleep. But no. He slept for 20 minutes and he was up. While he was sleeping, I got all of our food into bowls and started cooking the broccoli and butternut squash. Even though he was sitting next to me after he woke up, he whined and cried the entire time. He wanted my attention on nothing but him. I then put him down at 4 again and he still wouldn’t take a nap so I finally just gave up.
I’m not one to care too much about Thanksgiving. I didn’t grow up here so I never had the tradition. And often times there’s too much family around. I am more of a one-on-one person and get easily stressed with too many people around, even if it’s the people I am closest to. And since we had no one visiting this year, I thought Jake was going to be happy skipping Thanksgiving altogether.
But it turned out he wanted to have it. So last night we went to Whole Foods and got a few items we loved: a roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, Israeli cous cous, mac’n’cheese, and stuffing. Today, he went to get rolls, cranberry sauce, and a pumpkin pie at the grocery store. I made the same butternut squash casserole from a week ago and some broccoli (with a little cheese and onions.) We had enough food for 16 people and it was really just me and Jake since David’s a picky eater and only wanted to eat rolls. (In the end he did eat some of the squash, chicken, mac’n’cheese, and stuffing, too. And pumpkin pie with ice cream of course.)
All in all, despite the lack of naps and much crying, it was a wonderful, peaceful and quiet thanksgiving. We’re all full, happy and feeling thankful for so much of what we have.
If you live in the US, I hope your Thanksgiving was special, too.
This morning I woke up knowing I was going to design those downloadable tickets and wanted to do them quickly before inspiration left so David spent some quality time entertaining Nathaniel while I worked..
He’s so awesome.
And here’s one of those puzzling eyes.
This promises to be a quiet Thanksgiving in the karenika household. It’s just us four. We’ve got the food all set and plan to rest, relax and enjoy each other’s company.
My little boy is seven months old now and the big one’s almost five. Time passes all too quickly.
This week’s download is a set of holiday themed tickets. These are PNG files so they can be recolored as you wish. You can also make a new file, drag them all on to it and print it out on kraft cardstock and cut them out like actual tickets. That’s what I intend to do. Here’s what’s in there:
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 Wednesday. You can find all of the ones that were posted here.
Here’s another layout I made for AMM’s November kit.
Journaling Reads:
Nathaniel, seeing this sweet face of yours crunched up into so many pieces breaks my heart. It makes me want to pick you up and smother you with kisses. Hug you so tight that you can feel my heart beating on yours. It makes me want to protect you for the rest of your life. Make sure no one can ever cause you harm. Make sure you will never feel sorrow or loneliness or heartbreak.
But I know that I can’t stop those things. I know that you will have your share of sad moments and I will just have to pray that they are short and far in between. I can’t stop some of these bad things from happening to you.
But, right now, while you’re still so tiny and feeling so much sorrow, I can scoop you up and hold you close to my heart. I can still turn that sad face into a happy one.
And, for as long as I can, I will do it over and over again.
Where we live, there are several new moms so today we all got together at my house. It was really fun and I am hoping we do it again.
David had Thanksgiving at school today and he tried peanut butter for the first time and really liked it.
Nathaniel is so mobile now that it’s hard to get a non-blurry shot.
Another day with no to-dos. Working on it. I am sure it will catch up with me but trying to stay calm and relaxed as much as I can. Let’s see if I’ll get to finish tomorrow’s digital downloads. Let me know if there’s anything you want.
What a great book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie was! A fantastic job writing from a young girl’s point of view. Wonderful details. As someone who also loves chemistry, what a delightful character. What a great plot. I really enjoyed every single moment of this story.
I think I read about this book in Wendy Smedley’s blog and I wrote down the name and decided that it looked like fun. I am not the type to read mysteries all that often (I don’t really read much genre fiction at all) but this one was truly magnificent. Mostly because the characters were well thought out and kept the whole story going. Highly recommended.
We are not exactly sure what color those eyes are. They are the topic of much debate.
Nathaniel is fully crawling now and discovering the world as he likes.
A wonderful, quiet day where I didn’t give myself any todos. Which meant I could take some time to do math with David tonight and I am enjoying this lack of pressure.
As I’ve written about several times before, in 2002, I quit my job on Wall St. to become a teacher for Teach for America. Relatively soon after I began teaching, I started having serious doubts about my ability to do this job justice. It was a very turbulent time in my life and I still struggle with it from time to time.
One of the things I did at the time was to take a course in the hopes that it would help me decide whether I was ready to quit the job or not. At the end of this intensive three day course, I had many answers to many other issues in my life but I still didn’t know if I should walk away.
A few weeks later, I was telling someone why I had originally chosen to go into the computer field (so I could work from home one day when I had kids) and then why I had quit the wall street career for a more altruistic one (so that what I did with my time away from my kids would be for a worthwhile cause). In talking to this person, I realized that I had made many significant decisions in my life on behalf of children I didn’t yet have. I also recognized that I had managed to setup my life such that I was working way too many hours to actually make room to have any kids.
As soon as I realized this, I quit my job, encouraged my unhappy husband to do the same (and pursue his dreams) and we moved across the country to setup a new life and within a year of moving we were expecting our first baby. I know that if it weren’t for the course, and for the struggles with my teaching job, I might have never stepped back enough to observe my life and notice how misaligned it was with my priorities.
Sometimes an unfortunate circumstance can be the catalyst to something wonderful and amazing.
This is the little journal I made for the journaling class I’m taking. I wanted it to be simple and easy to carry around and something that would give me joy to touch without worrying too much about having too many parts that could fall off.
Here’s the back.
And I can slip my pen into the side.
Nathaniel is really not a fan of peas. I’ve tried giving them to him twice now and each time he’s gagged and made the saddest faces. I am not sure if it’s dislike or he might be allergic somehow so I am staying away from peas for a while.
Relatively happy Sunday here. Finished my book (will post tomorrow), played with my kids, watched some TV, and wrote a little. Hope your weekend was good.
I woke up today with a little melancholy and sadness but then I remembered that I did indeed find my ring and I felt better. I thought it was odd that the feeling had become so ingrained in just two days and that my memory hadn’t really caught up yet.
