Cha-Cha-Changes

After 6 years of being a Stay at Home Mom, I have decided to go back to work. I landed this awesome job with a non-profit, my official title (ahem) is Development Coordinator. I have my own office with a door and a window!!! I feel like such a "grown up"! As you can see from the picture I had to add a little bit of craft to my new home away from home.
I've surprised myself on how easy it has been for me to jump back into the office world. I thought I would tear up when I kissed the kids goodbye at daycare, but I haven't. I am honestly giddy. I'm excited to work on projects that stimulate a part of my brain that hasn't been used for a while.
The boys are adjusting remarkably well. There are a lot of changes on the horizon for our family. On a daily basis I am reminding myself to be in the moment even on the dark days, to embrace and know in my heart of hearts that the universe will provide and happiness will reign.

Caden's Quilt

Don't you hate it when you make something and then totally forget to take pictures of it before wrapping it up and delivering it to the one you love? Doesn't this happen to everyone? It happens to me more often than I would like to admit but luckily I have some faboo friends who send me pictures of the item I made, and in this case it's my oldest friend Cindy's sweet boy Caden and the quilt I made for him. Isn't he just the cutest thing ever?!?!

Star of the Day

At Zane's current preschool he was the "Star of the Day" yesterday. He has been looking forward to this for months! When his original date was canceled because of the snow...oh it was a sad, sad day in our house. The general idea of the "Star of the Day", as I understand it, is to bring pictures and something special to share with the class. Basically your own personal show and tell. Zane just thrives in this type of spotlight...wonder where he got that from?
Well this crafty mama could not send her Star out into the world without a little crafty goodness to share. I made him his own scrapbook to share with the class. In it are pictures of the people in his family, a picture of Seattle (where he was born, it's very impressive to 4 year olds who have never rode on an airplane) and pictures of Zane doing things he likes to do...you know hold bugs and build sandcastles. He also got to take his very special stuffed animal/blanket, Tigger, and all day he got to carry Tigger around in school. This might have been the best part for Zane.
I made his scrapbook exactly how I made those little books for the kid's in Logan's class after our field trip.

love love love...a day to celebrate that thing called love

“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.”- Roy Croft

"We don't go together too well"

The unexpected week of no school due to Snowmaggedon is finally showing it's toll on the boys. Logan is so tired of dealing with his little brother on a constant basis.

"we don't go together too well" is a quote from Logan as he comes to me with tears in his eyes because Zane won't get out of his "space", referring to the area within a 2 ft circumference to Logan's body.

Like all siblings they have moments of beauty. The moments, that as a mother, brings tears to the corners of my eyes as I watch quietly at the door to their room trying not to disrupt the moment while the boys play together peacefully.

No one is screaming.
No one is sitting on the others head.
They are working together, building legos.
I exhale.
And then I see what they are working so hard on building.
GUNS!
My body naturally tenses up. I try to release it and I remind myself that the gun obsession is some weird DNA thing I just don't understand about boys. As I am lost in my own head for a bit the moment of peaceful coexistence is over. The tug of war over the perfect trigger gun piece begins.
And so does my day.

A Wedding Card with a bit more

My cousin is getting married and my Dad asked that I make a card from all of us, the family, and he was going to write the check. Sure thing Dad! I mean what girl wouldn't get behind that idea?!?! I really like this cousin so I wanted to make her a little something special. Beyond just a pretty card.
I made her an accordion scrapbook from a kit by Studio K. She can easily add photos from her big day and adhere them to the pages I already made. I love these kits because not only do they make wonderful gifts I always end up with leftover stickers, paper and die cuts to add to my own scrapbooks.

Christmas Calendars, simplified

I paired down on my Christmas crafting this year. That's not to say that I wasn't freaking out trying to get it all done at the last minute though, cause I still was.

The calendars this year were a bit different. More streamlined and much easier on me to mass produce 10 of them. I also chose to add more photography shots rather than just cute pictures of my kids.
I used white card stock and the Photoshop calendar brushes I posted previously here. These calendars are becoming a tradition and because of that I am able to order prints rather early in the year when Snapfish.com was having a 50 prints for 50 cents sale. Love that! Instead of doing binder rings as I've done in the past, I made the calendars with a single hole punch along the top and each month can be ripped off when it's finished. I ordered this compound last year to make the shopping lists and still have a ton of it left over. Clearly I need to think of more crafty gift ideas to use that stuff up.

Just Be....

Every year I pick a word to meditate on, to focus my energy on on a daily basis. For 2009 my word was AWAKENING.
Right now I feel like I am on the cusp of something else, in many aspects of my life. So many things are changing all at the same time. I'm trying to embrace this place and honor my feelings.
I'm trying to focus on just being.
Right here.
Right now.
And give life to this moment.
I chose this word, BE, slightly before the actual start of the new year. And since I can't have every word I chose for the year to be tattooed on my body like I did for EMBRACE, I'm instead surrounding myself with reminders. On my desk sits cute, vintage blocks and for my favorite chair I made this pillow.
What word are you going to chose this year?

A Boy and His Dog

Simple Surprises

I live in BOYLAND, I'm totally outnumbered. I know more about superheros than I ever thought I would. I'm often shot at with imaginary guns and told "you're dead mommy. be dead!" I love that every once in a while one of my boys drags around this doll and it becomes the playmate of the day or the afternoon. A simple surprise that warms my heart.