Another gem from the very same shoot. Isn’t he the bestest?
A gem from our weekly Mommy-and-David shots.
Here’s another recent layout. This was for a transparency competition
over at AMM. Hard to see
the effect from a photo.
Journaling Reads:
I guess it’s only fair that a picky eater like me would get a picky
little boy. The list of foods you eat is teeny tiny. Thankfully, you
like a lot of fruits. But not much else. Here’s all you eat without a
fight:
Pear
Apple
Grapes
Bananas
Blueberries
Strawberries
Graham Crackers
Veggie Burgers
Meatballs
Cheese
Yogurt
Bread
Here’s a closeup of the inside of this layout:
Paulo Coelho never ceases to amaze me. While his latest, The
Witch of Portobello, is a bit weirder than usual in my opinion, it’s
no less thought provoking than his usual. Here are a few excerpts that
spoke to me.
“What is a teacher? I’ll tell you: it isn’t someone who teaches
something, but someone who inspires the student to give of her best in
order to discover what she already knows.”
…
“I’ve always been a very restless person. I work hard, spend too much
time looking after my son, I dance like a mad thing, I learned
calligraphy, I go to courses on selling, I read one book after another.
But that’s all a way of avoiding those moments when nothing is
happening, because those blank spaces give me a feeling of absolute
emptiness, in which not a single crumb of love exists. My parents have
always done everything they could for me, and I do nothing but
disappoint them. But here, during the time we spent together,
celebrating nature and the Great Mother, I’ve realized that those empty
spaces were starting to get filled up. They were transformed into pauses
– the moment when the man lifts his hand from the drum before bringing
it down again to strike hard. I think I can leave now…”
…
Everything is at once so simple and so complicated! It’s simple because
all it takes is a change of attitude: I’m not going to look for
happiness anymore. From now on, I’m independent; I see life through my
eyes and not through other people’s. I’m going in search of the
adventure of being alive.
And it’s complicated: Why am I not looking for happiness when everyone
has taught me that happiness is the only goal worth pursuing? Why am I
going to risk taking a path that no one else is taking?
After all, what is happiness?
Love, they tell me. But love doesn’t bring and never has brought
happiness. On the contrary, it’s a constant state of anxiety, a
battlefield; it’s sleepless nights, asking ourselves all the time if
we’re doing the right thing. Real love is composed of ecstasy and agony.
All right then, peace. Peace? If we look at the Mother, she’s never at
peace. The winter does battle with the summer, the sun and the moon
never meet, the tiger chases the man, who’s afraid of the dog, who
chases the cat, who chases the mouse, who frightens the man.
Money brings happiness. Fine. In that case, everyone who earns enough to
have a high standard of living would be able to stop working. But then
they’re more troubled than ever, as if they were afraid of losing
everything. Money attracts money, that’s true. Poverty might bring
unhappiness, but money won’t necessarily bring happiness.
I spent a lot of my life looking for happiness; now what I want is joy.
Joy is like sex – it begins and end. I want pleasure. I want to be
contended, but happiness? I no longer fall into that trap
…..
Reprogram yourself every minute of each day with thoughts that make you
grow. When you’re feeling irritated or confused, try to laugh at
yourself. Laugh out loud at this woman tormented by doubts and
anxieties, convinced that her problems are the most important thing in
the world. Laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation, at the fact
that despite being a manifestation of the Mother, you still believe God
is a man who lays down the rules. Most of our problems stem from just
that – from following rules.
….
“…Like love for example. People either feel it or they don’t, and
there isn’t a force in the world that can make them feel it. We can
pretend that we love each other. We can get used to each other. We can
live a whole lifetime of friendship and complicity, we can bring up
children, have sex every night, reach orgasm, and still feel that
there’s a terrible emptiness about it all, that something important is
missing.”
Recently, I went on a book binge and bought a ton of scrapbooking books.
I’ve already written about Cathy’s
book which has to be my all-time favorite. But here are a few
others I have read and loved. First and foremost are the two Ali Edwards
books: A
Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking and
Designer’s Eye- scrapbooking with patterned paper
Ali is an inspiration to thousands and I am no exception. I love her
style, her attitude, her creativity, and her generosity of spirit. One
day, I would love to meet her. Until then, I will have to do with the
layouts. I must say that the layouts in this book don’t even speak to me
the way Cathy’s do but there are little bits and pieces of inspiration
all over these books and I use both of them regularly for inspiration
and good ideas. I know Ali’s coming out with another book this fall and
I also know that I am going to have to buy it. If she’s doing it, I know
it will be worth the money and the time.
If Cathy isn’t your style, and you’re looking for the one and only one
book to buy, it would have to be Stacy Julian’s The
Big Picture… Scrapbook Your Life and a Whole Lot More. Stacy is
fantastic. She’s inspiring. She’s funny. She’s creative. She’s great at
simplifying. She’s great at organizing. She’s great for giving you
fantastic ideas. But mostly, she’s great at shifting the way you think
about scrapbooking. If you’re struggling with your scrapbooking, pick up
her book. It will change your life. At least your scrapbooking. That’s a
promise.
Here’s another one I’ve loved to bits: 101
Things You Can Do With Your Scrapbook Supplies was mostly an impulse
buy since on all the boards I read, everyone said it was fantastic. And
they weren’t lying. The book is great. Full of great, little ideas. I
dogeared a lot of the pages to make sure I’d remember to try them out.
There are some gems in this book, so if you’re looking for some
practical, useful ideas and not just looking for general, overall
inspiration, this is a great find.
I also own two Autumn Leaves books: Perfectly
Clear and The
Look Book. While I am a fan of all things Rhonna Farrer, I just
never got into these books. I liked the stamping one because it had some
interesting ideas and since I own too many stamps, it’s always good to
have a set of ideas to try. But these books just didn’t speak to me. Not
in the way that the others inspired me.
I still have a few more books from my spree and I’m sure I’ll be buying
some more real soon. Like Cathy’s first book….
Here’s another layout that didn’t make the SOY cut. Something is off
with this one. I think it’s the title. Too small. But it’s such a cute
story that I still wanted to keep it and love thinking of David running
around in Daddy’s helmet.
Journaling Reads: They say boys love their mommies and you sure
do love me, but the person you most like to imitate is Daddy. You love
wearing Daddy’s shoes all over the house. You love playing with the
books on his side of the bed. You love going into his office and raiding
his desk.
So it should have come to us as no surprise that you wanted to try
Daddy’s helmet when you saw it lying around. You picked it up and tried
it on, and then you walked over to Daddy and put it on him, and just to
make sure, you put it on me and then you decided it looked the best on
you so you put it back on your head and giggled.
You look like Daddy even when you’re not trying his stuff on, so when
you’re wearing his helmet and his shoes, it’s like mini-Daddy is running
around the house.
A few months ago, I applied to Creating Keepsakes Magazine’s Sccrapbooker
of the Year because I am crazy. I figured, “Why not take the chance
to push myself and create 20 layouts?” Anyhow, I ended up making a few
too many and this is one of the ones that didn’t make the cut. I’ll be
posting a few more of the ones that didn’t make the cut in the next few
minutes. Once the results are announced in 10 days, I’ll post all the
others too.
This is by far one of my least favorite layouts. I wanted to do
something interesting like use chalk combined with the stamping but I
never really liked the outcome. I could do it over again, but I try not
to do that, so I’ve left it alone. I love the memory behind the photos,
so I am keeping it and just smiling each time I remember this day.
Journaling Reads: On our way back from Los Angeles, we stopped at
Michael’s so I could buy some scrapbooking stuff. I couldn’t really find
anything I was looking for, but you found a box of sidewalk chalk and
life was suddenly such a wonderful place. You carried it out of the
store, held on to it all the way home and wouldn’t even let go while we
undressed you. You hugged the box of chalk all night and were thrilled
when we finally got to open it the next morning.
As we both wrote all over the backyard, you practiced your letters and
numbers, and learned all your colors. You even learned the word chalk.
Which has since become your favorite word. You ask for the chalk every
time we go outside and love drawing everywhere. Who knew a $2 present
would make you so happy?
I’ve been trying hard to read a book a week again. Some weeks I do well,
and others, not as well. But reading is really important to me. It’s my
way of recharging, escaping, learning and growing. So I am working to
feed this need. I wanted to make sure to track all the books I’ve read.
So here’s a post about my last few books that I haven’t posted about.
Marley
and Me was a book I’d been meaning to read for a long, long time. I
finally checked it out a few months ago and was mostly disappointed.
Maybe that’s why I’d been putting it off for a long time. I sort of had
a hunch that it wouldn’t be great. I can’t even put my finger on what I
didn’t like about it and it was heart-warming and all that. It just
didn’t do it for me.
Once I discovered Picault, you knew I was going to read so very much
more of her, and of course, I did. I first read Vanishing
Acts and wasn’t nearly as impressed as I’d been with My Sister’s
Keeper. I wondered if that book was an anomaly, an exceptional book, a
formula that can’t be repeated. I wasn’t sure but I so badly didn’t want
it to be true. This is not to say I didn’t like Vanishing Acts. It was
so-so. If I hadn’t already read the other one, I probably would have
loved it. But I’d seen what she was capable of and I wanted more. So
much more.
So then I picked up Ninteeen Minutes which was fabulous. Made me feel good about Jodi
Picoult again. The story was gripping and even though I knew there would
be a twist at the end, I was still surprised and loved every moment of
reading this story. Kudos to any writer who can take a really difficult
issue like school shootings and making an amazing story out of it so
it’s about how hard it is to be yourself. How much we need to fit in.
How much it can hurt to be teased and mercilessly made fun of. People
who haven’t had the abuse on that level can never understand how
life-changing and soul-changing it can be. This book illustrates it
wonderfully from many points of view. All interesting. Still not as good
as My Sister’s Keeper but quite a fantastic book.
I can’t even remember where I read about Welcome
to Oz but I am glad I did. The techniques shown by the author look
easy here but they are not. I loved all the details about the light and
the black and white techniques. Shows me that I have a long, long way to
go before I can call myself a Photoshop connoisseur. I love his effects.
I love his patience. I love his work. The drama, the story, the color.
It’s all quite wonderful. This is one book, I’ve checked out multiple
times just to make sure I can master his skills.
The Palo Alto library has a special section reserved for new books and
when I go in to checkout a hold, I always try to visit this section,
just to see. That’s how I discovered The
Lavender Hour and while I wouldn’t call it literature, it was a
wonderful read. I loved the writing, the story, and the characters.
Controversial topic, maybe, but mostly just a love story. If you need an
easy, little book, this one isn’t the worst choice.
Some
Nerve was another pick from the library’s new books section. It’s
nothing special. Easy, quick read about a gossip magazine writer who
tries to write about an actor, can’t and gets fired. Returns back to her
hometown, only to find that the same author is checked into the hospital
where she volunteers. Isn’t that a lovely coincidence? Life’s full of
them. But books have even more. Not the worst book I’ve ever read but
also not the best. A sweet, little book.
The
Life You Longed For was creepy, scary and a blazing fast read. The
worst possible subject ever: a mother hurting her kid, taken to an even
more terrible level: not actually hurting the kid but accused of doing
so. This is a perfect example of how good intentions can go bad and ruin
lives and be the wrong thing to do. It sad, scary and very engrossing.
I read Still
Life with Husband really quickly, which would normally imply that I
loved it. Fact is, when I finished, I didn’t know how I felt about it.
It took me a couple of days to really hate the book. Now, I am pretty
certain, I absolutely abhorred it. Terrible story. No plot worth
mentioning. Unrealistic, stupid ending. No empathy or even sympathy
towards the characters. Just could not enjoy this book.
Dark
Oval was another really fast read. About loss and sadness. The idea
of losing Jake is so tremendously scary to me that I wanted to be
finished with this book quickly just so I didn’t have to think about the
possibility of his death. Life can be depressing, ironic and so very
frustrated. I thought this book was realistic. Depressing but realistic
and a wonderful read.
Considering the fact that The Kite Runner was my favorite book of 2005,
it was predictable that I would buy his second book the second it came
out. A
Thousand Splendid Suns is a wonderful, wonderful story. While it can
never be as good as Kite Runner, this one has its own special place
since it’s about women and not men. It’s about the friendship of two
otherwise very different women. It’s touching, thought-provoking,
depressing, heart-wrenching. It’s amazing how much he can educate his
readers about Afghanistan without any preaching or anything boring. I’m
from the area, I normally dont’ enjoy reading stories about the Middle
East. But he is an exception. I love his books. I devour them. I can’t
wait until the next one.
Another layout inspired by the wonderful Cathy Zielske.
David’s one of the nicest humans I’ve ever met. Despite the fact that he
gets mad ten times a day now, he’s the sweetest little boy and while I’d
love to take the credit, I wanted him to know that it’s all him. We’re
so lucky.
Journaling Reads:
People who’ve never had kids have a tendency to think that parents
should have full control of their children at all times. When a kid
misbehaves, they think he or she has parents who don’t know how to raise
kids and when a kid is well behaved, they think the parents raised him well.
I think I was mostly a sad girl. I was shy and I cried a lot. Daddy, on
the other hand, was a happy little boy. I don’t think his parents did
anything too different than mine. So I was really nervous and I wanted
to make sure I did it all correctly with you to ensure you “turned out
well.”
As it turns out; you’re the world’s best boy, ever. You’re such a happy
boy that everyone loves you. You’re kind and don’t ever hit anyone. If
others attack you, you just walk away. You say hi to everyone and even
give them a hug. You’re cute and charming and know how to flirt. You are
self-reliant and can play with a toy for hours. You love to draw so when
we go out to restaurants, eating a full meal is rarely a problem for us.
You love us and you show it regularly. You’re never stingy with your
hugs and lately you’ve started giving us big kisses multiple times a
day. You love both your parents equally. You can get annoyed easily but
you recover quickly and never hold a grudge. It’s really easy to make
you laugh.
Of course you have your set of flaws, but overall you’re such a
pleasant, easy going, loveable boy that Daddy and I couldn’t have asked
for anything more. I’d love to take all the credit for “how well you
turned out,” but I know it has nothing to do with me. It even has
nothing to do with Daddy. While we love you very much and work hard to
be good parents, all the credit for your wonderful personality is yours.
It’s in the core of who you are, in your essence.
You just are the most amazing kid ever and we’re lucky to have the
privilege of being your parents.
My good friend Manu got married last night. I had the privilege of being
in the small invitee list. Their wedding was small, intimate, and a
testament to the fact that it’s not about anything except for the two
people creating a marriage and a life together. David had the luxury of
spending the night with us and enjoyed staying up until 10:30pm, the
latest he’s ever been up. He was well behaved all night and even cheered
when the ceremony was over.
This is my favorite shot from the
wedding. An intimate, genuine moment.
Congratulations, Manu and Hana, may you have a life full of love,
prosperity, luck, and good health.
It’s been a while since I’ve added a new section to the site but I’ve
finally managed to put together a new section which is mostly about my
relatively new hobby which has recently become mostly a favorite
pasttime (along with books of course.)
In honor of scrapbooking, which brings together my love of photography,
writing, and art, I created a new “create” section: find it here.
I have a lot of posts sitting in queue waiting to get posted. Expect
some blog diarrhea soon.
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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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