the daily dozen on march 12th

I obviously have a strong love of dear Lizzy and use her stuff on almost every project, so I had to play along with her 12 on twelve photo challenge.  The day turned out to be pretty exciting because of a surprise visit of Anuj mahnji.  

Also linked up here and at Ella Publishing.

Project Life - On Vacation

We took a trip this week -- to Hawaii!!  It was awesome and we had an amazing time.  But, I took over 2000 pictures and wasn't quite sure where to go with project life.  We left on a Tuesday, arrived late that night and didn't do much for a few days before.  Because our trip was half in one week and half in the other I only included a few vacation pictures. Still not sure what I'm going to do next week. 

I also got a big variety pack of page protectors in the mail the day we returned.  I wanted to try out them all.  I used some ritz coupons and printed out a couple 8x10s and decided to slice one up and put it in the Design F page (one 4x6 pocket and 10 3x4 pockets).

The patterned paper is kesi art paper from a recent SC kit which I thought was too pretty to cut.  Instead I saved it and ended up cutting it into six pieces.  I paired it with dear lizzy stickers and some prima wooden flags.

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I rounded the inside corners only because I had the photo printed with a white border.  Love that gold striped washi tape too.  Think I'll be using it alot.

It is not a very efficient "Project Life" page since it only has two pictures and not much journaling.  However, this is probably one of my all time favorite pages. 

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So, I did two sides this week.  They are not facing each other.  I'm sure no one will ever notice/care that the week is not entirely visible at one glance.  I included only three vacation photos, no memoribilia (even though I have a box full of junk), but tried to focus on the little things instead.  I hope to scrap the vacation photos a lot (eventually), but it is nice to remember the silly stuff right now. 

Like Nandini's favorite book.  Her joy over this very simple and short book based on a movie she has no clue about is so sweet. I had mixed feelings when I bought this I love books studio calico stamp but I am still using it and loving it alot.  Especially embossed in white (probably because of this KP page I saw a while ago).  Plus a little Love flapper from Ormolu...

Pieces from the new Studio Calico kit.  I knew the Away We Go stamp from last month was going to come in handy soon!  The label sticker is Martha Stewart/Staples, the Notes card is new Crate Paper, SC letter stickers, and this Ormolu fabric swatch in my fav grey/yellow color combo.

Just a cute picture of Ryan and Avi from our first day in Hawaii.  Not sure it will find a home in the 'regular' scrapbook so I added it here.  Day of the week stickers are from my core kit.  (Some of them may be off I now realize....) The blue hearts washi tape is another new favorite. 

And, of course, the big question that every toddler faces sooner or later.  WHY?? It deserved a pocket all on its own to denote its significance.  I used an Elle's Studio noted tag for the journaling.  I still have mixed feelings about this phase, at least Ryan loves it.


Linked up with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama 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.  And, please, link me up to any of your inspiring pages this week as well in the comments!

Pi Day Craft

Stretching my crafting wings and using my lovely set of Fiskars tools to make a Pi day pie chart + digits of Pi doily mobile for Nandini's birthday on Wednesday. I have always been quite the nerd and was pretty excited about having a Pi day baby. Plus, I just love pie.

 

 Check out the paper.  See the strawberries and cherries?  Perfect for my paper pie chart.  I cut 3 inch strips from 12 inch paper with my paper trimmer.  Then punched them with my apron lace punch.  Make a whole bunch.  I went with a pink theme, any color scheme would work.

I used my paper trimmer as a paper scorer as well.  Just slide the paper through at regular intervals and use a unleaded mechanical pencil to make the grooves instead of the blade.  I did 1/2 inch folds, which makes a nice thick pie piece.  You will need a little over 24 inches total length on the strips.  Glue the ends together of different papers to get the pie chart look. 

Join the strips into a ring (think large coffee cup insulator).  Set up a large glue dot (I used a 2 inch gluber) on a doily for my adhesive.  Pop the inside edges together and it will become a circle.  If you have a lot of trouble the strips may not be long enough.  I had to reinforce it pretty generously with small glue dots along the edges too once the pie chart was in place.

I used my 1 inch circle punch to cut out glitter circles from some AC patterned paper.  I put another glue dot under that to hold the center of the pie chart together.  I glued another doily on the back with digits of Pi on it. 

 I repeated this process several times and hung them up on twine to make a pretty mobile.  These will hang in our house for now and then be used about the pie table at her birthday party this weekend.  Ryan wants me to hang it above her crib so she can start to memorize them, ha!

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Happy Pi Day!

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679

Notes:
For 1/2 inch folds you need a paper strip that is 3 inches by 24 inches.
For 1/4 inch folds you need a paper strip that is 3 inches by 12 inches.
If you want something for a scrapbook album I recomment 1/4 inch because 1/2 inch is just too thick.
You can use liquid adhesive too just use a book to hold everything in place while the glue dries.
This is a fun project if you are a thicker addict like me and want to find a use for all those leftover numbers.



linked up here.

10 on ten

1. My baby turns one in four days.  Somebody help!  I just can't believe it. She can't even walk yet, how can she be almost one..

2. I love the beach spa I got last week.  Ie, faceplanting in the sand when I get wiped out by a wave in the ocean.  It took me days to get all of the sand out of my scalp, but it has not felt this healthy in a long time.  That is some serious exfoliation.

3. Scrapping a lot.  I printed out a few Hawaii pictures and just got started with my SC story hour kit.  I made three layouts so far and two project life spreads.  So fun! (and so much housework neglected, again..)

4. Speaking of sand, I like to think of all the sand I still have in my dryer as a fond reminder of all of our time spent frolicking on white sand beaches.  All that is missing are the spinner dolphins.

 Oh yes, that is me swimming out there.

5. Nandini has a favorite book.  Rat-a-tat, cat! It is a very short little board book based on the Aristocats.  She dances along when we read it, bops back and forth, bounces up and down, turns the pages, coos a song and claps at the end.  She is just so taken with the little kitties and it is so funny for us because we haven't really noticed such a strong (non-food) preference like this before in her.

6. Trying to give up coffee. I had a lot of great coffee in Kona, but I think my frequent starbucks runs are becoming too much of a daily habit.

7. Trying to figure out who snuck into my apartment and shrunk all of my jeans.  Not cool.  I always think that I am so active on vacation and eat whatever I want.  I thought I would be eating a lot of fruit and stay healthy, but instead we ate a lot of heavy pastas and portugese doughnuts malasadas.  Heaven then, not so much now. 

8.  Had fun buying some more Boden clothes. I adore their boys shorts and I couldn't pass up the buy 3 get 1 piece for 1.00 + free shipping (coupon code WF03, save 2.5% cash back here).  After sending me three catalogues they finally got to me. 

9. The hotel in Lanaii had the most amazing little rooms to hang out in around the lobby.  A game room (the trophy room) with billiards and shuffleboard.  A library with kids games and crafts.  It had the most beautiful antique furniture, but Avinash loved the bean bag chairs.  Mommy look!! Beanning bag chairs!!   We put him in the kids terry robe, and he called it his playing jacket.  We played chutes and ladders, until Nandini sat on the board and started laughing hyseterically.

10. Avinash is not a cowboy.  I not scared a 'olcanoes, I only scared a horses.

 pony boy and pony girl

Saat Rang Mein Kel Rehi Hai

Yesterday was Holi and I was kind of bummed about not getting to celebrate it since we were traveling for half the day.  Luckily after dinner things sort of calmed down.

He had already taken his bath, but I decided to open up a little bit of color anyway.  He LOVED it.  Again, of course. 

After every wild smear of color he would sweetly say Happy Holi.  When Nandini woke up briefly in the evening I let him put some rang on her too, but only little because she a baby. 

 Hope you got to throw colors on all your loved ones yesterday.

Kileua Caldera + Photos

We slept fitfully all night.  Nandini was in her car seat because the hotel had no crib and woke frequently.  Ryan's phone went off early over and over. 

Both kids started to seem to be on the other side of sleepy. 

Getting up was now inevitable. 

We packed up and headed out.  The drive was straight to the volcano but it was cloudy and rainy.  Our chances of seeing the volcano seemed dim. 

We pulled into the outlook parking lot and wondered where to go.  Suddenly Ryan spotted the glow of the lava pool. 

 

The word glow doesn't do it justice.  Our moods instantly lightened too. 

We were travel weary no more. Jet lag forgotten.  Nandini was chattering about the volcano to us while we posed for pictures.  (I'm so glad I turned the iso on my camera all the way up beforehand, even if we look super grainy it almost captures how intense the reflection of the lava was.  Another tip? Definitely skip the flash.)

 It felt truly awesome to be in the presence of the volcano.  We had the entire look out to ourselves.  That crater is the ancient home of Pele; it is not hard to understand why people felt a connection with god there.

We drove through most of the rest of the national park and even hiked a little bit too.  It might have helped if I had remembered my baby sling and didn't just use a very flimsy old scarf.

 

The lava tubes.  A very short hike through a little bit of jungle.  Avi was very intent on seeing animals there.  How to explain the lack of wildlife there to him?

Checking out the 1974 lava flows.  Nandini was totally chill all morning.  Avinash loved exploring and I loved showing him things.  He loved how you could see different colors and textures in the rocks there and was so worried about the trees.  We also found a piece of Pele's hair lava and he hasn't stopped talking about it since.

 

Pu'uloa hike to see the ancient pteroglyphs.  This hike was less than 1.5 miles round trip, but it somehow took a major toll on us.  I guess we are anywhere close to being in shape.  Both kids slept in our arms for this one, Nandini only briefly woke up.  The hike was pretty neat because there was no definite trail.  We followed other people's footprints and rock piles that were set up as guideposts along the way.  Because of the lava flows the ground was very uneven so we lost sight of the road and our car very early on.  I was so happy that were able to find our way there and back!

 
 

 
We drove all the way down to the ocean.  The scenery was gorgeous.   We didn't hike down here, the cliff was a little scary to be near with these two.  When we came here when I was growing up I remembering hiking around here with my Dad and brother to look for the lava flow. 
We didn't make it all the way because we kind of chickened out.  This time there were no active lava flows going on otherwise I think we would have been tempted. 

 

We went back in the evening at the end of our trip.  It was the perfect first and last look at Hawaii.  Avinash was soo excited to see it all again.  'member I went there last year Mommy?  Fire place!

You could really see the color get more intense as the sun went down further.  It is so amazing to be able to see a lava pool like this.  I remember going to Hawaii when I was younger and we tried to see lava from the ground but had to hike there.  We had to go before sunrise (which is why I had the idea this time around) but didn't see anything then. 

 

This is the Kileua caldera. This vent just opened up in 2008 and has been expanding ever since.  It feels so accessible and safe, yet so dramatic.  It is pretty amazing to think of the changes that have occurred here just in my lifetime.  We visited the volcano twice on this trip and it definitely made an impact on Avinash.  I hope it is something that he always remembers.