Shiver Me Timbers!

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!  

This is our third year in a row celebrating at the museum. 

Avinash finally agreed to wear the pirate costume that I bought him last year.  Hopefully we can get him to wear it again on his birthday and maybe Halloween as well. Avinash has learned a few pirate phrases, probably from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  It is hilarious to hear him randomly interject, "Shiver me timbers!" in the middle of conversation.  And I'm pretty sure I heard a few good "Arrgghs" from Nandini.

Last year Nandini dressed up as a mermaid, but I was at a loss again this year.  I just pulled out a mickey pirate shirt with a striped skirt and striped pants.  Pirates seem to wear a lot of stripes.  I guess I should just get her a girly Pirates jersey next year.  With pearls of course.

 

 

 Just give me back my bottle and no one gets hurt!

We had so much fun at the museum, they had a few pirate themed crafts, like making paper hats and a balancing bear to 'walk the plank', but the main attraction was the awesome pirate show.  Avinash was laughing hilariously the whole time and Nandini was clapping after every trick.

Avinash even got called up on stage to help with one of the tricks.  The pirate called him "Captain Shortpants" and told him that "Hugh Hefner wants his jacket back", ha!  Avinash just laughed and waved proudly from the stage.  Until he found out what he had to do. Even though I told him it was a joke, he was not about to let the pirate put his head in the stocks and run a sword through it.  He did obligingly volunteer his sister to do it.  Nice.  Some other kid jumped on stage and Avinash held out his hands, ready to catch his head when it rolled off.  He was seriously shocked when the kid's head didn't fall.  He's definitely a trusting kid, but I'm not sure what that says about his concern for Nandini. 

Holy Mackerel!

A look at year's past:

2010

2011

I love this holiday.  It is the beginning of great weather in Houston.  We get to dress up and act silly.  It marks the beginning of the holiday season and allows the Halloween dressing up to start waaaaay early, which I love.   I hope you all get to celebrate today too!

PS-If you have any ideas for a pirate party, I'd love to hear them!

School Pages

I had so much fun scrapping pictures from Avinash's first day of school.  I made two pages and I still feel like I could make a few more, heehee.

I made this page for One Story Down, using lots of printables and a digi stamp set as a mask and a guide for a die cut as well.  Of course I had to use my school- themed washi tapes: math class, yellow airmail and math notes (do you think I'll buy anything with the words math in the name?  yes, yes I will).  Putting this up for the tape challenge at Simon Says Stamp! too. 

I love this picture of Avinash and my Dad, they are such a strong pair and I'm glad he was here for Avi's first day.  I made this page with this month's SC kit the night it arrived.  My favorite part is the library card and apple paper cips. 

And in fairness, because I'm nothing if not fair, here are some pages about Nandini's naming ceremony over the summer using Amy Tangerine Sketchbook line.  The doodling reminds me of a mehndi design, so it was just perfect for this.

I fussy cut lots of paisleys here and added pearls and doily sequins as well.

I also used some of the Michael's version of the Amy Tangerine paper, which also came with yummy vellum and tons of these tags.  Had so much fun glittering this vellum using Martha Stewart chunky glitter.  It's not exactly a two pager, but they do coordinate well.

Project Life - climb.

I got to crop with my friend Viji this weekend again. Even though we talked a lot with each other and the other ladies at Archivers, I swear I actually got something accomplished. I still had to finish up journaling and a few bits and pieces, but it was fun and relaxing to get together. Plus, I got to use all of her new Ali Edwards stamps! I was in love.  I still need practice stamping on photos but it was fun to try.  I found the stamps to be a little squishier than the acrylic Studio Calico stamps I normally use. We used a dye based ink, but not Staz-On.  I also got to use my new Yearbook and ReadySetGo stuff this week. 
 

This page came together so quickly because the middle row was already in place from last week, some stationery and the b-side of Everday Eclectic cards.  I made a collage of pictures from school again.  A little one of Nandini meeting Darth Vader snuck in there too. 
I got some new color magic alphas and am already in love.  I stuck a wood veneer word bubble and  the A colored in teal chalk ink.  I repeated the idea below with a picture of Nandini but added a glitter letter instead (what?  there are not many Ns in the pack, and I was being stingy, ha!!) with a remember this banner stamp.

The last kid's lab of the summer.  It was so fun because all the teachers knew Avinash so well by now and he even got to bring along a friend.  I used more wooden word bubbles, with some SC kit stars and a Martha/Avery label.  The textured labels are the best ones. 

Some random pictures of them playing outside on the patio, because, yes, here it is finally cool enough to go outside mid-day! I put a polaroid die cut frame around some journaling in the middle.  Nandini's picture is stamped with delightful.  It looked a little fuzzy, so I traced over the letters with a gold slick writer.  I added a few Amy Tangerine stickers to Avi's picture.

I fussy cut this cute circle graph paper to layer with my photo, a wooden heart and stitched vellum heart.  I just used the sentiments on the new RSGo date stamp here. 

I made a few extra Art Journaling Cards for an etsy order this week, so I used them here.   They are such a nice and colorful addition to the page.  We didn't remember to take a picture together on our anniversary, so I all I have are a few instagrams.  I added some flair and those color magic alphas in red this time.  I am so in love with them.  I have been waiting forever for someone to make a budmo jig font chipboard.
The rest of this page has a lot more pictures from a walkathon we took the kids to this weekend.  I stamped love.love.love on the picture of the boys looking at leaves in a drainhole.  So cute to see the silly things that interest them.  They had a really long conversation about whatever it was, heehee. 
On the bottom photo of Avi walking I stamped you are love and wrote more journaling directly on the photo.  It is a little hard to read here, but looks great in real life.  I use an ultrafine sharpie to write on photos.

We were so proud and amazed watching Avi climb to the top of the rock wall.  I used another polaroid frame from my shop.  I added a fun good for one ride button, even though he took about five or six turns.  I love the quality of the wooden MME embellishments.  It was a really fun week and we have another fun week coming up!

Let me know if you have any questions. Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kit I am using is the Clementine kit, multi-pack page protectors, and grid journaling cards. I love the new 3x4 cardstock pack too.  Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects below so we can check them out too! Direct post links please, and a link back would be much appreciated.

I'm ready to play soccer!

Ryan signed up Avinash for pre-K soccer this year. He was so into it, going out to buy shin guards, socks, shoes and a size 3 ball at three different stores before he found everything in the right size.

The first night he and Avinash kicked the ball around on the patio trying to score goals on the rug while Nandini toddled around them trying to grab the ball. We both shouted gooooooooooooooaaallll whenever he scored and tried to teach him not to use his hands. The second night Avinash decided he would rather play football because he could use his hands. When we went to visit one of my friends he asked her if we really were allowed to use hands in soccer. As if we are just tricking him. Where would he get an idea like that? We played sporadically after that and I started to wonder how long his initial enthusiasm would last.

The first practice was rained out.  Many, many questions and requests from Avinash to go to soccer practice followed.  Luckily, our awesome new coach set up an extra practice for everyone on Sunday.

He put oil in his hair before we left, just like his Nana taught him.  Love that he was thinking of Nana this morning, I know he is a big comfort to him.

The field was muddy but he was ready to go anyway.  Jumping over the mucky mud puddles was just part of the fun.  We loved all of it and think he did too. 

There was a lot of this:
"No hands."

"Keep going.."

"Maybe we'll just stop at one lap around the field..."

"You're going to the wrong goal, other way!"

 

and just general toddler chaos, ha!

Nandini wanted to play too in the worst way.  She even ran into the goalie net after Avinash played goalie for a few minutes (before clearing out with everybody else to head to the other goal, ha!). 

And, Ryan got us all ring pops as a reward on the way home.  Avinash was tired, but still excited and talking about kicking and playing again.  We are so proud of him and can't wait for the first game.

Graphic Shape Challenge

I am bringing you this fortnight's challenge (fortnight?  fortnight!  I love being able to use fortnight in a sentence on a regular basis now.  It just doesn't come up in conversation enough) at Beyond Grey.  I tend to buy lots of florals and themed embellishments, but I was really inspired by some of the geometric projects that have been popping up on pinterest.  I love to get inspiration for layouts from non-layout sources, so I thought I'd give it a try.

img source-I ♥ mathematics

 This fortnight's sponsor is

Go check them out.  The prize is a mystery stamp set!!

Here is what I came up with. I fussy cut some hexagons here, added a few more chipboard hexagons and one large hand cut hexagon.

I ended up using this dark pink cardstock to match the shiny red train in the picture.  Then, the pink sort of took over and I just went with it.  It was actually a lot of fun, and I think it turned out not too over the top girly and will be a nice breath of fresh air in the album.  I have been hoarding that bee stamp forever and am so glad I finally just broke down and used it, even if it is a bit random.  The wood veneer was a chance for me to add something neutral to the page, they had broken a bit in the package, but that just gave me the chance to layer them on top of one another.

Supply List: AC cardstock, MME patterned paper and chipboard, gold airmail washi, label sticker, SC wood veneer titles, SC kit stamp, ribbon and sequins.




Take the challenge and create something outside of your comfort zone.  Can't wait to see what you all come up with! Add your link to your direct post below!   You have one fortnight to go for it. 

Project Life - Friends Forever

This was a very quiet week for us.  Settling into a new routine with the second week of school.  Recharging, relaxing, but not a lot of outings or pictures taken.  I still ended up doing a two page spread but filled in all the gaps with pictures from the previous week.  It is always nice to do when I feel like I am drowning in pictures and different stories got told too, which I loved.

The overview.  I got a new stamp from life.love.paper and was super excited to use it. I though it would look awesome in neon, and it did. This led to lots more neon or neon-ish looking things scattered around my spread.

I used a little more stationery from anthropolgie down the middle.  On the bottom left, I used my stepping stone alphas and distress ink to stamp on the photo and added a tag outside the page protector.

Nandini loves being read to. Extra space means extra spots to document stuff like this.    She loves all things Sandra Boynton.  I don't think she senses the irony in the book "Baby make me breakfast" from McSweeneys.  My first baby gift ever from my friend Rachel if memory serves correctly.  Nandini still hasn't learned how to french press coffee unfortunately.

The neon ink is fun to use, but it doesn't look exactly neon on anything other than white cardstock, so instead stamping on the photo I used a small punched circle to stamp on.  I repeated this with some SC word bubble stamps and just hand cut them to use as embellishments elsewhere on the spread.

Sometimes blurry photos are the best. Look at the joy in their eyes.   The transparency is a new BG transparency with a little MME chipboard layered on top.

More neon. Neon ink and neon tapes. Some Elle's die cuts. Amy Tangerine sketchbook, bright enough to look almost neon.  Some kraft to balance it out.  The Everday Eclectic kraft chevron seemed perfect.   I made another 'filler' card about the words Nandini is saying right now.  I know this isn't the full list, but it was all I could remember/fit on the card.  This kinda made me feel better because now I have a reason to do a layout about her first words as well, since I did that for Avinash too I was feeling guilty about it (of course, sheesh). 

The envelope is from Target.  I finally cut out a camera from this EP paper. 

One of my favorite weekly additions are the science lab photos from the Children's Museum.  A small smattering of circles.

Let me know if you have any questions. Linked up with Simon Says Stamp-Neon Challenge and The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday. The PL kit I am using is the Clementine kit. Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects in the comments so we can check them out too!

Project Life - First Day

Hello all :) I am back with another project life update. A quick snapshot of our whole week.  Avi started school, we went to the museum, the park, played around at home - mostly average stuff. 

I cut a new set of polaroids for project life.  These are available in my Etsy shop as well, if you'd like to check them out :)) 

My favorite thing by far was this quote from Avinash about carpool.  And, of course my new Elle's studio number stamps.  They are so fun to use and such a great size for project life and layouts (affordable too)!  I added airmail washi to some ledge pp and these surf thickers for contrast.  Ryan and I have laughed and laughed about him crying over carpool two days in a row.  Is that wrong?  :))

I used a lot of full photos this week.  Often I haven't liked that look in the past, but it seemed to work this week.  I used a random smattering of things to title/journal this card running down the side: yellow+grey letters, white poster paint pen, an ormolu moments little label, and a Martha label.  I took this photo from our bookshelf ladder.  The floor is messily covered with toys and the picture is grainy at best, but I love that it shows our life.  Or, a very happy slice of it I guess, since they usually don't play together this happily for long.  But that's okay.  I'd rather remember and focus on the good.

I broke down and got some of the cute stationery at anthro this weekend.  Immediately it found it's way into the album when we got home.  Hand drawn notebook paper and a stack of neon Happy Notes. I love how she is trying to write with a pencil and he is doing another museum chemistry experiment. I think I somehow missed putting this in the past two weeks, but we have gone faithfully each week almost all summer.
A note about writing on photos in white. I can never get those signo white gel pens to work.  AC slick writers would work for one day and then clog.  I switch to a white sharpie poster paint marker.  It works great so far.  I ordered mine off amazon I think.
Otherwise, nothing special.  I used lots of photos, thickers, journaling tags+snippets, a few Eclectic stickers.  When I start feeling a little self conscious about including so many pictures of myself, I just remember embrace the camera.  Plus, my husband is very proud to be the photographer of note, so it works out for both of us :))

 Some washi on the card about Nandini stacking up my washi tape. It's good for her gross motor control I guess.

I hesitated on using this tag for a while, but this day really did feel like the best.  

 And, I already feel like doing another week of this project. Time to print out pictures. Let me know if you have any questions.  Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.  The PL kit I am using is the Clementine kit. Thank you so much to everyone in this wonderful community. I love all the feedback and looking at everything people do each week. It definitely keeps me motivated. Also, please include a link to your projects in the comments so we can check them out too!

White on White Challenge

This week the challenge over at Beyond Grey is white on white.  Their sponsor is Whimsy Stamps.  Also putting this layout up for the Simon Says Stamp anything goes challenge and at purple mailbox.
I really loved this idea and have been wanting to do this since I saw the 'white weeks' for project life by Jamaica Makes and Vee.  Looking back at their archives, I see that they did this months ago, but the idea has been rattling around in my head ever since.  Now that I have done it on a layout, maybe I'll have the confidence to try it on project life too?

I cut the 'hand-drawn' circles with my Cameo onto white cardstock.  I placed that sheet in front of resist paper, that I had lightly inked with pale grey chalk.  I added something different to almost every circle. I just eyeballed everything, though I'm pretty sure it doesn't follow any graphic triangles or the rule of three.  I allowed myself a few metallics or neutrals here and there. The title is a Cameo cut and wood veneer, both covered in gesso to add a little texture.

 I tried using the typewriter on a glassine bag to give the journaling a more ethereal (and white?) look.

In one circle I embossed cardstock with white Zing.  I stamped two others in gold.  A few I even covered in glassine.  What do you think?  Hope you'll join the challenge!

Supply List: white cardstock, pink paislee resist paper, BG paper cottage doily paper, JBS buttons, bow and pearls, MME and Amy Tangerine stamps, Ormolu flair, gold alpha washi.