Project Life Weekly Link-Up: Grow

 This week: Pretty quiet and mostly pictures of our general routine.  I talked a little about starting the #100happydays project. Lunch in between Nandini's school and Avinash's.  Going to yoga.  Ballet class.  The most notable thing was a trip to Barton Springs to see the wildflowers.  Usually the kids never want to leave the playground but today the wildflowers were just too enticing and we never had to go to the playscape (yay!).

I am still working through my stack of Studio Calico Project Life cards so that is mostly what you see here though it was a pretty photo heavy week.

 First side: I stuck a four leaf clover in a pocket the week before, so that is still visible.  I played with watercolor on a filler card and randomly adhered the circles from the Studio Calico kit. The floral wreath card is from paislee press, and I stapled two lemon lush butterfly on top.  I stamped on a bit of vellum over the picture of Avinash. 

 Second side: Journaling has become the biggest mental roadblock for me when it comes to completing pages.  I keep all of it on one single card and that made things much simpler.  Plus, I just like the look better because I think my handwriting looks worse when it is spread out across a page.  I have a few pieces of flair floating on the pictures here and one on the previous page.  I'm still not that into making every pocket match but a little consistency is nice.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Mini Photo Books How-to DIY

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week so I am sharing a couple of projects I made for Teacher gifts this year.  Our kids preschool runs on a college schedule so their last day was last week.  I made gifts for all the teachers and of course they were photo heavy.

I'm actually getting a little sad typing up this post because their teachers were so great and will be sorely missed.  Nandini's first school experience was amazing entirely due to the team of teachers she had, especially her beloved Mish Matalie.  Her first few days Nandini had such a hard time saying good-bye, she cried for at least twenty minutes on her first day.  But she quickly warmed up to her teacher, who is the gentlest soul and has looked forward to school more than anything else ever since.

If you are an avid scrapper like me then you probably have a pretty big stash to work from.  I started with a stack of patterned papers.  I tried to pull a lot of neutral papers with a few splashes of color. I then printed my pictures, two pictures of each child and a few group shots that I had.  Another great idea is to get each child to draw something on a project life card or tag and include it with the picture.  I wasn't able to coordinate that this year, but maybe in the future.

 I then pulled some embellishments.  A few packs of thickers.  Shipping tags for layering and consistency throughout the book.  I also grabbed some paper clips and sticky notes.  I added to this with some washi tape and project life filler cards.  Mostly from Mignight, Sunshine and Studio Calico kits.

 Here is how it came together.  I just love that quote card on the front page.  I think it is a great sentiment for a teacher.  It reads: Invest in the human family, invest in people, build a little community of those you love and who love you. 

Some of the interior pages here.  As you can see, I kept everything pretty simple but I love the end result.  I adhered the pages together and glued some muslin fabric to the outside to 'bind it' all together.  Initially I was worried about durability but Nandini looked through this book about a hundred times before I gave it to her teacher, so I think it will stand the test of time if need be.

 I made two more books for the student teachers in her class.  I started with this stack of gorgeous Jenni Bowlin papers.

 I grabbed some letter stickers. Everything was so easy to pull together because JBS stuff coordinates so well.

 I added in some stamps, more shipping tags and printed out a few sets of the digital school bingo cards.

I cut the paper to 6x12 and folded each page in half before adhering them together. Love how all the papers look together.

And there you have it!  Nandini's teacher actually started tearing up when she got this book. I was so nervous about not using a professional service but she really appreciated that it was handmade. 

My glamorous life. // How do you do it all?

I did a lot of day in the life posts last year, recording a single day every month or so in photos + words.  Those days were, at worst, average, but always made me smile to look back on.  Today was one of those days that was so awesomely bad I had to share for the sake of balance and honesty on my blog.

Nandini had school this morning so Ryan left early to drop her off.  The baby woke up and wanted to stay up right after they left and I really missed him not being around in the morning.  Avinash watched TV while I got the baby and myself ready.  He watched a little more while I nursed the baby.  I decided to set out a little early so I could grab a coffee.  My friend offered to watch Avi and take him to school while I picked up Nandini and her house is near a Starbucks I like.

The three of us make it out of the house.  I actually put on something other than yoga pants and  t-shirt.  Partially because I want to start trying a little more, but also because I have no clue where half of my laundry is right now.  I order my reserve coffee and a cake pop for Avi.  He quietly eats and then we start cooing at the baby.  It really is fun to see him more alert, even when he is in his sling (he usually just sleeps in there).  Then I feel his stomach rumble and see his expression change.  I figure I will just change him in the car when I feel wetness spreading all over me.  His diaper has exploded all over the sling, my shirt and is now, to my horror, dripping down his leg on to the floor of Starbucks.  Avinash screamed.  So much for staying low key.  I rush into the bathroom with the baby to stem the tide and realize I am out of diapers.  Wonderful.  I wipe up what I can on him and myself, cover him in paper towels and race over to my friends place.

Luckily, instead of just giving me a spare diaper she offers fresh clothes for the baby and me.  Crisis averted.  Of course, I don't know if I can ever go back to that Starbucks.  This is probably why I should stick to the drive-thru ones.

I leave Avi there and go to get Nandini.  .  Nandini eats leftover goldfish the whole way home.  The rest of the afternoon is pretty uneventful until it is time to leave again to pick up Avinash after school. 

I get all three kids restrained and back in the car and we start heading back home.  I am pulling on to the highway when Nandini exclaims, "The baby likes goldfish!"

WHAAAAA??????????

I reach back and snatch the sippy cup filled with goldfish out of her hands before she gives him another one and she starts shrieking at the top of her lungs.  She knows that she did something really wrong and does not want to hear about it.  I do a quick finger sweep of the baby's mouth and realize he has already spit out most of it.

At least those things dissolve easily.

Then, while she is still crying hysterically I think back to how carefully we selected the first food gave her.  Over processed cheese cracker shaped inexplicably like a fish is probably not my first choice for the baby, but at least she didn't have a sippy cup full of peanuts or something. 

So, in answer to your question random grocery store lady, I have no idea what I am doing, let alone how.  Though coffee helps, usually.

Project Life | Hello Spring.

This week: We celebrated St. Patrick's Day (well, not really celebrated, but I did find a four-leaf clover, which I still find exciting) and the beginning of spring.  I bought tulips, we went to the flower center and someone turned six weeks old. 

First Side: Really embracing the white space again with this spread.  I just enjoy it so much. I did a little watercoloring to make a flower trellis and stamped a sentiment in the middle.  I made a collage of the tulips I bought and just printed it out as is. 

My "extra-creative" card for the week.

Second side: I embraced the plus sign trend and scattered some die cuts across a photo of Nandini. I lightly glued my dried four leaf clover into the pocket and then stapled it shut with a cork star.  I used a few different SC stamp sets here too. 

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

#100happydays

Have you guys seen the hashtag #100happydays floating around. I don't know how long this has been around, but when I saw it I jumped on board. There is an official website, but there is no reason to sign up for it at all.

I have been pretty busy lately for obvious reasons with one small thing that is really quite a big thing.  Of course I still have my other two not-quite-so small things to worry about.  My days seem to be a revolving door of nursing sessions and car pool.  Just for fun outings are at a minimum and it is easy for me to fall into the trap of greeting the day with a grimace instead of a smile.  This is not good for anyone in my family, especially me.

Just deciding to take on this project was uplifting.  I have a simple goal each day, to be happy.  When I feel my mind begin to fill with irritations (traffic, lack of sleep, etc) I try to take a step back and re-focus on being happy.  It's not foolproof.  I still have my bad moments, but it has helped.  A lot.

Some of the moments are photographable, some are not.  I do share a photo almost daily on instagram.   My username is Nirupama01, and you can follow along with my little journey here if you are interested (and yes, I follow back!) I edit my photos directly on my phone and am working on a post about my favorite iphone apps for photography and project life as well.

I like the themes that keep coming up.  My babies. Springtime. Cupcakes. Coffee. There was even a night out in there.

Our evening walks. Yoga.  Flowers. Crafts. Talks with friends. More coffee.

What is making you happy these days?

Project Life | Puppet Show

This Week: Lakshman had his 4 week check up and was growing famously.  We went to a free SXSW show at Anthropologie.  Avinash got to be in a pinewood derby for Maker's Faire at SXSW. The kids had a birthday party at an old amusement park.   I also documented some random stuff around the house.  A puppet show, a box turned into a rocketship, Nandini's yellow cake song and her bedtime ritual.

First Side: I really had fun with color on this spread.  There is definitely less white this week.  Most of photos are full bleed with no white borders.  I used a lot of soft pinks and blues, with some pops of deep orange from my photos.  I like the sort of unexpected juxtaposition.   I had a lot of photos from our night out at Anthropologie, so I converted one to black&white for interest.  Most cards are Studio Calico Office Hours and Midnight kit.

Second side: These cards are all Studio Calico.  I made the Bedtime one myself with that month's stamps.  I used thickers numbers to document L's 4 week check up stats.  The orangey flair is from Kelly Purkey.

You can see all of my Project Life pages here.  This is my third year of doing Project Life and I love this method of memory keeping for our family.  The PL kits I am using generally are the Studio Calico kit, and Midnight kit, with mostly Design A pages this year. I am linked up with the Mom Creative this week.

Now it is your turn!  Add your link back to your Project Life pages here and try to visit and leave comments for each other as well.  Grab a button if you'd like, or just pin it to your favorite scrappy pinterest board, anything works!  Thanks to everyone who linked up last time!  I will be holding a regular weekly link up from now on.

Jenni Bowlin Studios | Swing.

I got to work with the new collection Bright Travels by Lisa Dickinson for Jenni Bowlin.  I just love the vintage stamps and star motifs with the aqua and red color scheme.  I have been thinking about color a lot more since I took the Color Studio class and I had a lot of fun playing around with it here.

I started with the blues in the collection and decided to pair them with a photo of Avinash on his favorite tree swing at the Wildflower Center.  I added in some reds from the collection as well in strips under my photo.  To bring this out more I added a striped label sticker and a milkcap button, creating a visual triangle with the color.  To highlight the colors more I added in some watercolor.  Lots of blues, with just a hint of golden yellow.  Almost a split complementary though technically I should have used more of an orange.  I'm thinking the gold makes up for that.  I wanted something to contrast all the dreamy blues on the page and added some India ink to the chipboard letters in the title.  I love the way India ink looks on a page.  So opaque and, well, inky. I splattered a little into my watercolor for good measure.