good for a laugh...

Megan stole this mini book I made for her own creations. The book did have a purpose (for someone else) and I probably would have been more upset had she not put it to good use. She calls it her "scrapbook" and rightfully named. It's full of colors and shapes and little pictures that represent how she sees the world. I love it and have plans to steal some of her ideas for my own.

The other day I was looking through it and found this picture. It was the last entry.



It instantly cracked me up. I was sure of her message, but wanted to find out from her. Later that day I asked her to tell me about the page. She said, "Mom, it's you and dad kissing, you know, but I couldn't put your faces together and me doing this" at which point she lifts her finger to the side of her head and moves it in circles (the crazy sign). Then I asked, "Why would you do that?" and her reply was, "You know, you're kissing.....it's awkward." (she drew out the last word)

and then she laughed.
and I laughed.

I guess somethings kids just know.

a bagel story

Saturdays since spring 2002 Adam and I have had the tradition of getting a bagel on Saturday mornings. It all started because we would walk together on the weekends and conveniently we passed Einsteins on our way home. Once Tess was born the tradition went from the three of us to just him and Bella. He wanted to give me the gift of a quiet morning so he started taking Bella alone so I could sleep in after a late night with the baby. Eventually when Tess was old enough the three of them would go...and so it went until it was the four of them.


[layout from the early days 2002, click here to enlarge]

To this day the tradition continues and it's something they all look forward to on the weekends. I hear a lot, especially from Megan, "Is today bagel day?"...the countdown begins on Sunday. For the most part I don't go with them, it's their thing, but occasionally I will. They told me they talk about what's on their mind, which can be anything, like when I was told Megan proclaimed each boy in her class has a crush on her, and then sometimes Adam give them riddles to keep them thinking.










[photos taken last Saturday May 9]

I love that the tradition we had years ago of walking to the bagel store on Saturday mornings has transitioned to quality time with the girls. As we were walking out to the car after documenting the morning I thought, one of these days, in about 12-14 years, they will be adults (crazy thought) and I hope they will be as excited to go get a bagel with their dad as they were today. Other than living away from home, I can't imagine what would keep them away.

P.S. yes, we really ought to buy stock in Einstein bagels.

12 of 12

I need to just once and for all write down a list of all the things I want to accomplish this year because at this point they all just seem like ideas and not quite concrete goals.


[click here to see the images]

While taking the Design Your Life class CathyZ mentioned the 12of12 blog. Have you heard of it? I hadn't at the time, but I think it's a fabulous idea. Basically on the 12th of each month you're suppose to take at least 12 photos to best highlight your day. I loved doing Ali Edwards week in the life challenge, but have to be honest, I was exhausted by the end of the week documenting everything. When I heard about the 12of12 idea I thought it would be a great way to get little bits of your life throughout the year without bombarding your entire week.

So I decided to get on board and wanted to know if you want to do it too? I'm sorry I'm just getting around to posting about it, since January is about over, but I had forgotten about it until mid-morning on the 12th and it's been one of those posts in the back of my mind that I've been wanting to do, but haven't. Anyway, it's definitely not to late to start.

edited to add: I know this is something that can easily be forgotten so I will post on the 11th of each month to remind everyone who wants to do it. Hopefully I won't forget. :)

today i...

- took Megan to the dentist to find out why her gums were swollen.
- forgot my sunglasses and was fighting the blaring sun the whole time.
- finished spending my itunes gift certificate from Christmas by buying Been a Long Day by Rosi Golan.
- took back a pair of boots I loved because the heel was too high. I towered over Adam and I just couldn't do it.
- got repeatedly hit in the head with a kitty balloon (can see in photo below) Megan got at the dentist.
- helped Megan sort through a box of clothes.
- was asked to do a photoshoot for a ballerina.
- left the house with frosted flakes crushed on the kitchen floor.
- spent a few minutes vacuuming up said flakes when I finally got home from all my errands.
- bumped into my friend Dani at Taipan, a home decor store I claim to never go in because it makes me so uncomfortable (I'm so bad at home decor). I was there looking for a cheep serving platter and yes, I was dying to leave.
- had lunch with Megan.
- hit myself in the head with the visor because I thought it was attached when I went to lift it up. It hurt.



- Megan declared, "I'm in paradise" while sitting on pillows in a target shopping cart.
- finished The Reader and this quote really stood out to me, "the truth in what one says lies in what on does." So so true.
- made a delicious pesto pasta for dinner.
- was asked by my friend to watch her three kids (ages 7,4,2) for 2 days at the end of the month. I'm really glad she asked because she doesn't get a lot of family help.
- heard Bella practicing her violin without any reminders from me.



- took this picture (above)
- had a big handful of chocolate covered pretzels and felt guilty about the 3rd and 4th handful.
- sat and held Tess while she had an emotional cry. Between her and Megan we are in big trouble when actual hormones hit.
- after the cry we read Judy Moody & Stink: The Holly Joliday by Megan McDonald together.



- finally finished this layout I started in November for the Design Your Life class. I'll have to share what I've done so far, but I stopped working on them at week 7 because I was working on Christmas gifts.
- read scriptures with my girls.
- saw a mouse in my backyard running on the snow. Yikes!
- watched Rules of Engagement Adam rented at Netflix.
- set my tivo to record 24 this coming Sunday.
- wrote in my journal
- got a babysitter for tomorrow night.

more layouts from CZ design class

a 8x8 mini book

creative evening

Thursday night Adam was out of town which usually encourages me to stay up in my studio all night. For some reason I was in a scrapbooking mood so after dinner and asking my girls to get their jammies on and clean up the basement, I got started. After about a half hour it occurred to me I hadn't seen or heard from my girls in quite a while, usually I get both, so I went seeking them out. I found them at the other end of the house, Bella was like this


busy writing in the living room. I didn't know it at the time, but later found out she was busy writing a book called, Meet McKenzie Suzy. Before she fell asleep she read us the first 2 chapters and I was quite impressed. So impressed I actually questioned whether or not it was her words. She is a good little writer and I hope she continues with the story until it gets finished. Actually whenever she had a spare moment this past weekend she would work on it.

Then I found Megan and Tess like this

laughing in the Library busy drawing and painting. What I didn't know at the time, and I was grateful for this lack of knowledge, was the laughing came from the mess they were making with the paints. If you look closely you can see it all over Megan's clothes. Apparently they were making butterflies.

It was fun for me to sneak in on them and see them having a good time creating. I think I would have enjoyed it even better had we all been doing it together. I'm hoping these moments will happen more often than not, but I sense more than ever how busy life becomes the older my girls get. It's definitely a goal of mine to make family time at home a priority and hope being home is something they will always enjoy and appreciate the older they get.

After all was said and done ( clean up, showers, brush teeth, prayers) we all snuggled into bed together and one by one fell fast asleep. Of course before it got to far into the night I carried each of them to their rooms and gently placed them in their bed...it was just too much girl for one bed.


Here is what I got done (finished some on Saturday)...


This has actually been siting on my desk for months and finally finished it.

[lifted Ali Edwards]


[lifted Jamie Waters]

taken from this post

Happy Birthday Lolo!!

weekly tidbits

It's crazy how a week can go by and not much will happen and then another week will go by and you feel like it was so full you could hardly breath. Well, I sort of feel like my was full, but not with scheduled things I had to do, besides swim lessons, it felt full because of all the stuff I wanted to do.

Saturday I attended Amy's book binding class, which I just loved, and have been dreaming of making books ever since. My minds flooded with ideas. It's funny I got home and showed Adam what I made and he wants me to teach him how. Had I known he could have come to the class with me. Perhaps next time we can do it together.



I woke up one night or I should say early one morning (2am) and made this felt book.



Amy, Hannah, Jenn, and Michelle all have one and I couldn't wait to have a cute little book to hold all my needles. Thanks ladies for the inspiration, and Amy thanks again for a fabulous afternoon.

We went Miniature Golfing as a family on Monday night for Megan's bday.







It's what she really wanted to do, but had to wait because Adam and the girls were camping on her birthday Friday night. The kids raced through the course as I knew they would, the heat was unfortunately still beating down on us at 7pm, but we had a lot of fun or at least I know Megan did.

I've had this hankering to scrapbook again. I always want to, but it seems I never really do find the time. The other night I was up late working on these (one still in the works).


[inspiration came from makingmemories blog in their design album, it didn't specify the artist.]


[8x8 layout - song lyrics]
It's interesting as I was thinking about scrapbooking so was Bella. She was asking me tons of questions the other day about it and wants to start doing it with me. I was actually really excited about the two of us playing together in my studio. Perhaps scrapbooking will be her way into the creative world...it was mine.



Thursday night we went to a bbq with our neighbors. It was a low key night where basically the kids played and we talked for hours. Once it got dark we did a few fireworks with the kids and I brought glow in the dark sticks for everyone to play with (hence the photo) that went over huge. I'm at a really great stage where the kids can easily be entertained and I don't have to watch them 24/7. It's so relaxing.

have a great weekend.

5 from the top

1. loving
40 minutes into a fabulous 49 minute phone conversation with Adam, who's in Las Vegas at the moment, I snapped this while looking out my window at the snow coming down yet again. Does it ever stop?

But back to the conversation with Adam that completely made my night. I have said before he is my catalyst, in fact I wrote about that here 18 months ago, and I still feel it to this day. He has a way of inspiring and giving me just what I need to help me grow while calming my it_can't_be_done tendencies. He is a gift.


2. Finishing

I've had this layout sitting on my desk for about, hmm... 2 months at least. I don't know why I leave things unfinished so often. It's not like it was hard to add the tag and stamp the letters, but it sat through my Christmas projects and finally was completed this afternoon because I was sick of moving it around from table to table.

3. Creating

A couple of days ago I was messing around with making these simple 6x6 notebooks. Nothing special I just folded the paper and sewed it together, but I like the way it turned out.

4. Listening
A few favorite songs at the moment. I just can't get enough of there beautiful haunting way.
City by Sara Bareilles
What Were the Chances by Damien Jurado
Accidental Babies by Damien Rice (an unfortunate title, but beautiful song)

5. feeling

I went downstairs to get the girls to bed and found them totally glued to the tv watching Harold and the Purple Crayon with such serious looks on their faces. When I told them it was time to turn it off and get ready for bed Bella told me they felt sad because the episode was about when Harold's goldfish dies. Tess chimes in and explains how he just doesn't understand why the fish died or what it even meant. As I kneeled down to pray with them Tess got in my lap and cried. I understood her tenderness (I cry in movies a lot) and held her until we got to her room alone where I asked if she wanted to talk. She didn't, she "just wanted to be with me". I held her for a while hoping she won't have to taste the bitterness of loss for a very very long time.

i made it happen

The last two evening I did these.




click to enlarge


lift: tara whitney


click to enlarge


lift: tara whitney





I can't believe how much quicker it goes when you use your own handwriting. I'm just getting to the point where it doesn't bother me so I'm sure I'll be using it a lot more. Some designs were in my sketch book, unfortunately that means I don't know who to credit.

question
I've been getting a lot of emails about photography and have been considering putting together a q&a post. I thought it would nice to have an official post that I could direct emails to like I did with the blog banner. So I'm trying to compile a list of questions I've already received, but wanted to give any of you the opportunity to ask so I don't leave anything out. You can either leave a comment or email me.

I have a full heart today.

It hit me as soon as I woke up. It's not a bad thing, I guess you could say my emotions are just so close to the surface. I've been brought to tears several times just by listening to a song or while watching a mother with her 3 daughters (ages 11-16) realizing I will be there someday soon and how I desperately want to hold onto this time I have while their so young. It will be hard when they don't want to cuddle anymore, when they don't need me the same (already seeing that). Megan asked me, "Are you goin' to be sad when I get older?", and "When I'm big like you the'll be two mommys". It's so strange for me to hear her talk about growing up.

Sigh...

I'm not really a fan of Saturdays. Not sure why, but I have my suspicions that it has something to do with errands, and the need to do something when there's nothing to do. I tried to rise above this and have the best day I could with my girls. We started with our dance classes, played with friends, went out to dinner, and rented movies. I also spent the afternoon scrapbooking. I wasn't feeling it, but really wanted to create, so I ended up using my blog as inspiration. Got to love already having your thoughts recorded.

The more I think about how I'm feeling I realize the tenderness comes from knowing how wonderful my life is. That contentment and happiness I feel does make me soft because it's all I ever wanted and it's staring back at me. I feel unbelievably lucky. Today I am grateful.

Happy Birthday Lolo!!!

solo

Yesterday went way too fast. I pretty much scrapbooked until Adam came home and then went to a dinner and a movie. It was nice going out on a week day without having to worry about taking care of the kids. We saw "Evening" a huge let down. We both agreed it looked good based on the trailer, but it was way way slow. The sad thing is it could have been a great movie if done right. Anyway, I guess there was one scene that made it kind of worth spending 2 hours watching it and of course it was nice that it was dark and cool.

Today I hit the town and went shopping. It's exhausting, but once again nice to do it by myself and come home and lay down in peace. I got a few things for the girls for the new school year. Not a lot of warm stuff out yet and since I'm not one to buy fall and winter separately I stuck with pants and shoes. I was also able to hook up with Crystalyn for lunch since her mother-in-law takes her older kids on Fridays. It has been a great afternoon. Thanks Jill.

So now I'm resting waiting for Adam to come home so we can pick the girls up. You know I must say I'm looking forward to it. It is nice to have a chance to miss them.

As promised here are the layouts I did yesterday. Click here to see them larger.