Life is in the Details

Word of the Week

I just realized I'm a few days days late on changing our "word of the week" (something I started doing a couple of months ago to help bring new words into the kids' vocabularies to encourage them to be stronger readers and to enrich their writing). It's no secret that I adore words and am a voracious reader and my kids are no different. Ryan loves to read and is going through a Pokemon phase. Jessi has chosen to take a creative writing class during a summer program she's enrolled in that offered jewelry making and mixed-media art in the same time block.

I suppose I haven't changed last week's word because I am enamored with it and wanted to live with ILLUMINATE a bit longer.

I love its meaning.
I love its sound.
I love its richness.

Look at how my babies have grown

I planted seeds in this garden flat the exact morning just an hour or two before I herniated a disc in my back. These seedlings are the fruits (and vegetables and flowers) of my labor.

These have grown very well so far and now it's time to transition them to larger containers (okay, a little past due) filled with nutrient rich soil and in a few weeks they will be planted out in the garden.

Happy Friday everyone! Wishing you a fun-filled weekend!

Signs of spring

Yesterday, my neighbor showed me this beautiful nest that resides in a nearby tree. We all came over to take a peek.

I love spring and all that it brings.

Isn't that nest perfect?!

Vacation Green Smoothie #greensmoothie

Happy May! The weather is back in the 80s again (hallelujah) so tea is on hold. Here's today's after-school smoothie:
3 pineapple spears (frozen from some extras), a half of a frozen banana (for that smooooth texture), orange juice, water, and baby spinach. Pineapple just feels like a vacation to me and that's just the kind of feel I could use this month. This might just be my favorite.

Paint and doodles to get things flowing

Loosening up by playing with paints and doodles in my art journal. I relocated a bunch of my art stuff up to the kids art room (also known as our dining room) because I needed to be able to hear the doorbell earlier in the week (we were expecting a few servicemen to fix the cable and replace a part on our HVAC unit). Apparently, I really am in my own little world when I'm down in my art studio corner down in the basement because I can't hear the doorbell AT ALL!

The added benefit of the new annex location is I'm on the main level now so I'm closer to the heart of the house, the kitchen, so I can be cooking and keeping an eye on stuff while still creating art... AND the kids and I do lots of art together when they get home from school. There's also SO MUCH natural light that comes in through the bay window. Oh, how I *adore* natural light!!

In this page, I mixed soft body artist paint with the kids' craft paints. And can I just say that I love my Uniball pen!? Yes, it smudges (nothing thy fellow lefties aren't used to) but it rolls on so smoothly and writes over the paints really well. When I was growing up my mom used to carry a Uniball pen in her purse and there was always one near our phone for messages. I never liked them back then, preferring Bics or Papermates for writing phone messages (likely because of the smear factor... My mom is right-handed), but I've since come around.

Oh, and before I forget... I have finally discovered Words with Friends. :D

Today: My PT appointment got cancelled which allowed me to spend time in my art journal. It feels good to get back to doing this after a couple of months of being away. Between volunteer commitments, life, herniating a disc in my back, PT, massage, and not being able to sit/stand/walk comfortably for the last 3 weeks my mojo kinda took a vacation. I'm back though! And I'm drinking lots of chai tea.

I'm taking the kids to a new dentist today: a *pediatric* one, after a traumatic tooth extraction for Jessica last week at our general family dentist. Not doing that again!! She needs another extraction done and Ryan needs two (his first teeth ever to be lose... I feel so bad about it too, but we've waited 4 weeks like the orthodontist suggested and even with all his wiggling it hasn't come out yet). Eeek, my poor little peeps! Oh, and allergy shots for R and me. Give me more tea, please!

Our current fascination: TEA #teavana #tea

There was a week with really warm temperatures, unusually so. But now we are back into it being in the 30s and 40s in the morning so every morning I've been making a big pot of tea for the kids and I to share. There was even an entire week where we'd come home straight from school letting out and after they put their backpacks away, we'd settle into an afternoon teatime ritual. It's was the sutff that warm's mama's hearts... sipping away on some delightful tea reconnecting after being apart for the day. Them retelling the day's events... friends, subjects, teachers. Really good stuff!

I wish you could smell the heady aromas of these teas. Lifting the lid off of these canister's are a  scrumptiously intoxicating undertaking.

I am only disappointed that I did not create Teavana myself. They make some seriously good teas!!! I'm not sure why it took me so long to buy some of their teas. Maybe I was overwhelmed by the variety but I am so glad that we went in the day that Mike was taking an iCloud class nearby at the Apple Store on his birthday because the kids and I had such a blast sampling teas and filling up canisters.

We bought these:

That one all the way to the right are a blend of two teas that taste really great together. We have loved all of these (and would gladly get them all again) but the one that we seem to go through the most is the White Ayurvedic Chai. Sadly, we are almost out of it. I love that the labels tell you what temperature to add to the tea leaves and how long to brew for. Wonderful!! And the color wall of teas when you walk in! Don't even get me started! It was love at first sight.

We even bought some of the rock sugar and it lends a great complex taste to the tea.

I'll have to share the cute teapot that I bought too, I LOVE IT!! Brewing three cups of loose-leaf tea with only one tea filter got old quick... the first person to get their tea was often finished before the third cup was finishing brewing.

Waving hi!

I haven't peeked in here much this week. I pulled something in my back early in the week I've been laying low. Lots of rest... Little exercise... Walking to get the kids from school but none of the other stuff I had scheduled (good thing it was my recovery week!). No painting at all until today. The absence of these two things that I love really made me realize how much these regulate me. I sleep so much better when I've had a good workout. This week I seem to have book ADD. I can't for the life of me stay interested in any of the books that I'm reading and I find myself continually switching to another one after 20-30 minutes. It's driving me crazy.

This week it's been especially helpful (read: grounding) to think about what I am grateful for because there is so much even though I've been laying down with a heating pad as often as I can in between meetings and volunteering, bringing my car in, yada yada.

Today I'm pressure cooking some artichokes, baking up some millet apple muffins (gluten-free cuties from La Tartine Gourmande, my latest cookbook addition filled with delightful, colorful, mouth-watering photographs), and later, will be assisting at COOK for a crepes and soufflé class. :)

I'm also going through some more Cooking Light magazines... Tearing recipes to save, recycling the rest.

Have a great weekend!

Doodling and dribbles

The title just means I'm watching the Heat/Knicks game and decided to draw for a little bit because I didn't get any creating time earlier today. (I could have, but wasn't feeling it then. I, instead was filling up my creative well by looking at art by some new artist and illustrators that I've discovered). I stopped doodling right after I took this photo...to continue another day. As soon as I began to draw, the Knicks started to fall apart. When these two teams play each other I want them both to win. The Heat is team I cheered for growing up (being raised in South Florida). I also have ties to NY, as that's where I was born and where my husband is from. So tonight I'm torn. Off to watch the rest of the game. :D

Updated to add: Man, these photos from my phone are stinkin' it up lately. I think I have multiple scratched on the area where the lens is because everything is blurry. Boo!

Collage art journal page start

Here's a collage page I'm working on in my art journal as a part of Misty's Open Studio. I glued stuff on last night during the Super Bowl and today I'll add writing and color (using a few of my watercolor artist crayons - Caran d'Ache Neocolor II and some Pitt brush tip markers).

Bloom True starts today but there was no painting prompt or art exercise so I need to get out some of that energy. This is the last week of Misty's class but I have a bunch to catch up on from previous weeks. Good thing the online class will stay open for a while. I'll need the extra time!

Today I have another pair of happy socks on. You wouldn't think socks could make such a big difference in your life but they do. My new sock collection rocks!!!

Project Life 45

This is my Project Life spread for the week beginning December 25, 2011 and the final installment for this project. This week included more nights of Chanukah including a new holiday tradition of making dughnuts (sufganiyot), taking the kids to our favorite Indian lunch buffet on their first Monday off from school (they love getting mango lassis), custom Pokemon cards that the kids were making this week, a trip to get Jessi a hair feather, catching Ryan's cold, going to froyo with J's friend, J gives her first best friend charm necklace, more recovery and progress for Mike and taking him to and from PT, J reading a good book, including a list of songs that Jessi bought with her iTunes gift card that she received as a Chanukah present.

I decided to use 2011 coming to a close as a good stopping point for this project instead of going a full 52 weeks. My album is completely full and I didn't want it to spill onto a second album.  I was ready for a clean start in 2012. 

I enjoyed this project much more than the 365 (photo-a-day) project I did in 2008 because of the flexibility it affords... there's no worries (aka guilt) if you miss a day. You can take all 7 photos on the same day if you want, you can leave out photos entriely and use memorabilia instead. Those notes and drawings from the kids were my absolute favorite!! It really is whatever you want it to be.

 

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Click here to see more of my Project Life pages.

Project Life is a versatile album kit that comes with everything you need to for a fun life-documentation project in which the whole family can get involved. For more information about using and customizing Project Life visit Becky Higgin's website. You can purchase it from Amazon.com.