october journal pages

so, wow. october is done and gone. that was fast!!  now we're getting close to thanksgiving and christmas.  always a fun and exciting time.  i am just finishing up my october daily journal.  i'm about to start a mini "thankful thoughts" november journal.  i'm taking an online class over at something splendid.  this mini will be a little more mixed-media (yay! i get to pull out those acrylic paints!!)

so, october was filled with art and costumes and candy and manic weather (rain-sun-rain-sun-cold-hot-cold!)  i placed whatever photos i took this month in my little mini october journal and wrote little bits so i wouldn't forget the details.

october was very active for us on the homeschool front!  there were field trips and garden days and school photos and lots and lots of playgroups (which end up being really great support groups for us moms who are new to this adventure!)

i like this approach to daily journaling/scrap-booking.  i love to see my photos of our every day life with little written thoughts.  nothing complicated, just simple.

i played around in this journal with a little bit more collage-y elements.  here i'm using washi tape, sequin scrap and a playing card.

still having fun with the instax camera, too.  ran out of film tho! so i'll have to find out where to get more.  probably amazon. ;)

this month, my daughter also joined a group that meets once a week with other homeschool kids from across the bay area and they learn through play in various county parks.  it's a branch of the homeschooling philosophy known as un-schooling or free schooling where the child's interest dictate what is learned that day.  the kids spend a whole 6 hours outdoors with two nature experts who are there to answer their questions or to help organize a game and to supervise their play.  my daughter comes home soaked and muddy with tales of animal tracks, how to identify different plants in nature, how redwoods collect water, and also of her adventures building rock castles with her friends or braving a rope swing over the creek.

one day after "class" we were fortunate enough to meet up with my lil' sis who just started college.  we got to spend the afternoon with her,  and celebrated her birthday.  all right in the middle of a "school" day.  i really love how homeschooling frees up our schedule and lets us explore the world.  we have more time for adventures, more time for family and friends and more time to just ask ourselves, what do we really want to do today?

i mean, we've only got one life. we might as well live it to the fullest that we possibly can.  we are all here for different reasons. i am sure that i am here to explore and have fun.  and i love that i can do that with my two little ones in tow!

what adventures have you been up to these days?  what brings you joy?

i {heart} october...let me count the ways...

1. simple art projects with the kids

 2. visit to the homeschool community garden (yes! tomatoes still growing in california in mid-october!)

3. leaf rubbings!

4. autumn in san jose = spring in san jose

5. celebrating birthdays with spooky cupcakes!

6. field trip to monterey bay aquarium (shh! sleeping sea lion on the rocks there!)

7. soaking up what's left of the sun (enjoying a cherry soda float! yum!)

happy fall, everyone! hope you are enjoying this cozy, spooky, fun season.

just your average fall day...

well, october has totally caught me by surprise!  and fall has suddenly arrived.  we were still having park playdates in the hot sun the last week of september and now...brrr!!  rain and clouds and socks and sitting by the heater and snuggling up with a blanket and each other to keep warm.  i live for summer. love it.  but i do appreciate the cold, cloudy, rainy, cozy season of fall.  

a journaling-pages-in-progress shot.  it is so meditative to sit and chat with friends while randomly taping things down in my journal. 

i guess we'll be saying goodbye to journaling in the sun on a blanket in the grass.  but we'll still keep being creative. even if by candle light! i am just finishing up my september daily journal/scrap/photo/book.  i'll post photos soon.  now i'm off to start one for october!  it is my new artistic interest.  you know, no matter how boring or routine you think your life is, once you start to keep a daily journal with a few photos and memories, suddenly your life seems so FULL and AMAZING.  i know that's how i feel right now.  i think that's what keeps me blogging, too.  just to capture these seemingly insignificant moments only to turn them into something more.  something so beautiful.

and yes, this is a photo of snails painting.  (fyi: no snails were harmed in the making of this painting! we used food coloring and gentle loving care)  this was part of my daughter's current science investigation.  oh, just your average day in the homeschool classroom!

so that's what i've been up to lately.  loving, living and dreaming.  i hope you are well.

i'm still here...

the two i live for. i want to be their mom forever and ever!

it's been a while since i've blogged. i just haven't felt like saying much lately. not that there is any lack of inspiration or time or energy. just the opposite. i find i have plenty of time and inspiration and energy! :) i guess i'm just doing other things and i've also been trying (emphasis on the word TRYING) not to spend so much time in front of my computer! don't get me wrong. i love to blog hop, i love to browse etsy and flickr and occasionally cruise by facebook and see what everyone's talking about. but mostly, i love to make art (mostly messes!) and take walks with the girls and try to be as present in the moment as possible.

i treasure the look on their faces! pure joy and excitement!

do you ever find yourself awake, i mean wide awake in your life? like, suddenly, you are very aware of your senses and surroundings? like that feeling you get when you know you are dreaming, when you are awake in your dream and you can even control what is going to happen next? well, i may not be able to control every waking moment of my life, but i often feel so aware that i am alive and living that i am just overcome with joy and amazement.

beautiful winter Arizona sunset. i'm fascinated by silhouettes lately. maybe has something to do with a stencil class i took with ms. mary ann moss!

i have been thinking a lot about death and life lately. (nothing morbid, just in a kind of "well, we can't avoid it (death) so we might as well make the best of it (life)!") we lost my dear brother-in-law to leukemia in december. even though i didn't know him as well as i should have, he has been appearing in my dreams a lot lately. and so is his family (he left behind 9 extraordinary and very lovely and loving children and several grandchildren). i feel i should really visit with them more often but sometimes i'm not sure how (my husband and his sister-and-law haven't always been the best of friends!) it's not an excuse, but just something silly that is keeping me from making that necessary step to forming a relationship with my nieces and nephews.

this is the cemetery where my brother-in-law is buried. that day in december was beautiful and bright. in the morning, the entire place was shrouded in a dense fog that began to lift as everyone arrived. the contrast of the green grass and the blue sky made it look more like what i imagine heaven to be.

i think we often get caught up in our every day life and our habits, rituals, routines. we are stubborn creatures of habit! but habits can be broken every once in a while and we can do things a little differently than we've done and really improve the quality of our lives. in just little ways, really. nothing earth-shattering. just picking up the phone to call a distant relative or friend. or picking up a journal and writing down some thoughts. or turning off the tv/computer and going outside for a little while. making time for ourselves and for our family is so important. it is not just a cliche. it also feels really good! :)

maya and grandma linda (kinue) enjoying a trip to the park during our visit to Arizona this winter. i love my grandma! she is the inspiration for the name of my blog/etsy/internet pseudonym. she is going to be 81 years young in april.

i am really super inspired by my friend kisa who has embarked on a year long challenge to do one NEW thing EVERY DAY! even if it's just trying something new for lunch or taking a new route home from work, she's doing it and having a great time along the way. what if we joined her in her daily NEWNESS and just infused our routine with a teeny bit of something different. i saw a great quote on a journal page of one of my favorite artists, Pam Garrison, and it said: "As you grow older, you find that the only things you regret are the things you didn't do." (--zachary scott) isn't that the truth? if you do something new today or this week, let me know in the comments. i'd love to know what new things you've been up to lately.

my little artist/investigator at work. ;) we went on a field trip with my dad to the san jose art museum. she asked the docent so many interesting questions and had some great discussions about her feelings/reactions to the artwork. she built a house from leggo and wrote poems about different works of art.

something new i did this week was go on a hike with my daughter. we went to anyo nuevo reserve to see the elephant seals. technically, i had been there before (once LONG ago on an elementary school field trip!) but the new part is that i had my daughter with me and we enjoyed some long overdue mother-daughter time together. we left the little one at home with dad for the day and had ourselves a nice, nature-filled day out. we went with a group of fellow homeschoolers from our program. and that is going pretty darn well, too, by the way.

i try to treasure these moments i have with them while they're still small.

we started that new educational adventure in november and haven't looked back since! i'm really hoping to continue on through middle school and high school. i know, a lot of people's knee-jerk reaction is, "aren't you stifling her social life?" or "aren't you worried about testing?" or "aren't you holding her back by keeping her out of school?" or "aren't you limiting her experiences by being her only teacher?" and to all of that, of course, i say NO. since we started homeschooling, we've been on several field trips together with other students and their families (studying art, nature, science, social studies); maya has made several new friends with different backgrounds and interests and ages; maya has also participated in many classes with other children (so there goes the "i'm her only teacher" myth as well as "she'll have less chances to socialize"). and there's just so much more to learn and explore! (i didn't mean to start a homeschooling rant/rave just now, but i guess i had to start somewhere.) so if you're thinking about homeschooling, i highly recommend it. if i can do it, so can you. and if you're still thinking i'm crazy or i'm ruining my daughter's life, i'd suggest you talk with some real homeschooling families face to face and i think you'll find that although there are no two alike they all have a passion for lifelong learning.

and at that, it is 1:04 am and it's about time for bed! as i was writing this, i could hear a ton of firecrackers popping off in the distance! i guess it is officially the year of the rabbit. happy chinese new year everyone! and to anyone stuck in the snow: make art, make cookies, make love, make something! ;) and here's wishing you a ton of our california sunshine your way. :)

ETSY shop update & it's finally feeling like FALL!

i've been working on some new upcycled mini journals for my etsy shop. i finally am getting into the holiday mood, so the new journals all have a wintry and festive feel to them. lots of red-and-green (brights and muted) as well as cool, snowy blue-and-white.

i've packed these journals with my most treasured vintage, handmade, and recycled paper. for vintage paper, i use music sheets, atlas pages, children's books & workbooks, coloring books. recycled paper includes used and unused ledger pages, "junk mail" (my favorite are the paper source catalogs. the colors are bright and the paper is thick!), and graph paper (which also falls into the vintage category, too).

i'm loving all the color combinations. i've also never been an either-or kind of gal when it comes to colors! i really love traditional christmas colors as well as more off-beat brights and more muted, vintage tones.

most of the christmas images came from an old magazine called "christmas ideals." it was full of wonderful images, poems, stories and songs all printed in blue or green ink. and i also recycled holiday catalogs (it feels good putting "junk mail" to good use!)

i have a lot of old children's books and workbooks from the 5os & 60s but the paper is too frail to include in my journals as pages. so i made some high-quality color copies on my printer on the back of my favorite scrapbook paper and, voila! i was able to include some of my favorite images, plus the copies retained the aged and textured look of the originals.

i've got a christmas tune in my head, but the words are changed to: "it's beginning to look a lot like AUTUMN!" there are leaves of all colors sprouting on trees and scattering in the wind like butterflies.

when i go on an afternoon walk with the girls, i hear the satisfying CRUNCH of dried leaves beneath our feet (although, since it's california, we're still walking around in flip flops! an odd sensation, but i love it still!) the smells are returning, too, like sweet, smoky fires, rotting pumpkins, wet leaves in the gutter. it's like a second spring of sorts, but with smells of decay and death instead of blossoms and life.

we took a little walk today to get some lunch near the university. we stopped for photos in the late afternoon sun and i played with my new point-and-shoot camera (it's a sony cyber shot dsc-t99)...still unsure if i like it or not! :(

(i love pictures of my girls, though! they are fun subjects!) most of the images, though, i have to do a little touch-up in i-photo (mostly with getting the color to look right).

maybe i should just read the instructions. i've never been a by-the-book kind of gal, i really like to just feel out new technology on my own (it should just be totally intuitive and user-friendly in my opinion, anyway!). but i was able to take some great photos! :)

and on another slightly-related topic (it has to do with journals, at least!), i received the mother of all art journals today! (it's 11.7" x 16.5"! the regular moleskines are about 5" x 8") i recently attended journalfest and i saw someone with the most amazing journal in one of my classes (orly avineri's "mapping me"). it looked like a super-sized moleskine and i immediately thought, "i must have one!" i asked where she bought it and she said Amazon.com! so after a little searching, i found it! it comes in regular drawing/sketching and watercolor paper! they are about $26 each (free shipping on Amazon!) but totally worth every penny, in my opinion! my quest for this amazing journal also lead me to the most wonderful blog, notebook stories. it's about, well...JOURNALS and the people who love them. if you are a fellow journal junkie like me, i suggest you check it out!

ok, that's all for now. the monkeys are getting restless and it's time for dinner. oh, and i keep meaning to blog about our homeschooling adventures, but i'll save it for another day.

everything is working out good so far! maya is loving her new educational environment (her home, and the whole world, really is her "new classroom.") and little sureya is getting in on the act, too, emulating her older sister by "reading" books and "doing homework." so cute! :) i've heard when you homeschool, the younger ones start in on the learning really early. i remember that from when maya was 2 or 3 and she would want me to assign her "homework" because she would see her older brother and sister doing their homework after school.

well, that's all the fun for now. i'll be updating the shop tomorrow AND i'll be attending the cavallini & co. warehouse SALE this saturday. i will be sure to post ALL the goodies i find! :)