On my birthday

 I washed my pillows and sheets the night before for my birthday sleep.

I took a million pictures even though I just did that on the 12th.  Even the toys scattered around the living room seemed more artful.

I made jaggery syrup for my birthday coffee.

I bought a bunch of flowers and arranged them myself to brighten up a corner of my desk.

I made breakfast, lunch and dinner with my family.  Lunch was cobbler.  Dinner was outside on the patio.  Chickpeas and my famous crispy stove top fingerling potato and garlic recipe. 

I had to stop by Target for all the birthday essentials.

I had a birthday workout, birthday nap, birthday shower (you get the idea).  

I got a new game from my favorite boy and girl.  She kept trying to eat the marbles, but luckily Ryan was too fast for her. She was persistent though.

 

I did some birthday crafting.  Using scraps and my new SC City of Lights kit.

 New + old Amy Tangerine seemed to play well together.

I used like every paper in this one kit on this layout.  I misted, stamped, embossed, inked, misted again, cut paper frames, washi taped, journaled, titled, stapled, twined...but the whole thing seemed lacking.  So I tried a sprinkling of sequins.  It wasn't working until a randomly scattered a big handful from above.  Glue in place and done!

I am looking forward to celebrating this weekend with a lot of great friends.  And embarrassing them by making them sing in public.

Project Life - April flowers

I feel like April always gets a bad rap.  Yes, it can be pretty rainy in April sometimes...but overall it is a great month.  The flowers on the trees are at their peak.  And, some days the weather is perfect.  So perfect that you are in a good mood and can't figure out why.  Those days.  May has flowers, but just the kind on the ground.  Cherry blossoms, dogwood blossoms, even crab apple blossoms, are all about April.  It's possible that I'm biased because of my birthday.  Then again..

This week was mostly just us running around Houston doing our thing.  Going to the museum.  A special event at Avi's school.  But, we headed up North for Easter and had a weekend of gorgeous weather (before the rainy weather started).

This is the week I'm sharing today. Silver glitter thickers, a letterpress card and a chap paper rosette.  We just got back yesterday so I was pushing myself to finish this week (technically last week) so I don't get too far behind. Luckily I had already printed my photos out at home. I had lots of new stuff to play with. Fun, but it took a while to go through everything.

The first page.  Lots of Studio Calico wood veneers,  new Smash pads, washi tape and new Amy Tangerine papers.

Love this blue watercolor paper.  It looks so rich in person.  Of course I'm still hoarding all the gorgeous paisley prints. 

The middle row is all about the stop action movie Avi made at the museum.  For the card on top of the view finder paper, I used a sheet from the top 10 Smash pad.  The other sheets are very colorful and fun.  This is definitely my favorite smash pad.  I also added wood veneer stars, camera and some Amy Tangerine die cut tickets.

The butterfly card is one of my own.  I felt it apropos to the caterpillar even if the color is a bit girly for an Avinash story.  That tag is another Amy Tangerine die cut.  A couple of strips of washi and a wood butterfly on top for good measure.

The second page.  More Smash washi at the top.  Plus the hot mess date stamp for good measure.  At this point I had to keep things simple.  Pasting photos on to the back of whatever was in front with washi.  Little label stickers and a square cut from a kraft paper sack.  I may go back and add an Avinash quote from the week.  Or I may save it for next week. 

Stay Tuned!


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!

Felt no-sew circus bunting

I made this felt pennant banner for Avinash's room yesterday evening.  It was inexpensive and easy to do, so I felt like sharing.

I bought a stack of felt from Michael's.  This stack cost 8 (4 after coupon). Yellow was missing so I bought a sheet of that as well (around 2.50 after coupon).  Everything else I used I had on hand (thus free, right?).

 Choose your colors.  I used yellow, grey, red, blue, light blue, aqua and white.

I used a piece of grey felt for a template.  I cut an isosceles triangle with a base of six inches and almost 8 inch sides.  Approximating is fine.

I was able to get three triangles out of an 8.5×11 felt sheet and five out of the 12×12 sheet.

Lay the template down on your felt sheet and start cutting.  The felt sticks to each other pretty well so I didn't need to pin it down.

I just used regular fabric scissors and tried to cut straight.  No rotary blade or trimmer needed.  Hand cutting was pretty quick luckily.  Not pinning also helped the whole thing go much faster.

Once I had a nice thick stack of triangles cut and Avinash had had his fill up running around the house throwing them in the air, I placed them in the order I liked.  A little bit random but with colors evenly distributed.

I used cotton yarn to bind the triangles together.  You can punch holes on each side and thread the yarn through. 

 

 

I just threaded a big needle and joined them individually.  This worked faster for me than punching, threading and tying.  Plus hole punches give me finger cramps.

That's it!  Find a sunny spot to hang up and enjoy.

It really brings together the room's whole decor. {These shots however are of it hanging up in my living room. Avi's room has no windows.  So, yeah, the lighting is not great in there.}  It was so quick and affordable it would make great DIY birthday party decor too. 

Avinash never had a nursery.  He always slept in a pack and play and now sleeps on my old bed from Med school.  Ever since Hawaii we have been thinking about buying him his own little bed.  Maybe he will finally sleep on his own.  We do have a yellow and grey quilt on the bed and Steelers stuff hanging up in there.  So the main theme is yellow??

I was really inspired by this IKEA circus tent.  It is currently sold out but I am waiting with baited breathe for it to be restocked.  Originally I wanted a Muppet babies theme and we do have quite the growing Muppet collection.  But it is not really a theme just a bunch of toys.  Luckily,  all of these things fit in with a circus theme.  I think.  Plus he loves Dumbo.   I think it also means I can hang up more Sanjay Ganesha posters in his room as well.    I need help with this newfangled less is more theory I keep hearing about.
The felt circus bunting is key to unifying everything I think.  Feels so good to set his whole room together. And it only took me one evening to do it.  One evening and three and half+ years give or take. Not bad.
Linked here and tip junkie.

Junior Ranger (and Badge)

We visited the Ranger Station at Volcano National Park early in the morning on our first morning in Hawaii. Avinash was charged with filling out a coloring book in order to earn his junior ranger badge. He worked diligently in the car all day. He took his assignment very seriously and chattered about saving the piglets in the forest A LOT. Even so, he was completely overcome with emotion when he actually recieved his junior ranger badge because the park ranger announced his name OVER THE SPEAKERS. He helped stamp his own certificate and was pinned with a new badge.  It was incredible.

I mixed three lines to create this project.  The background is new Crate Paper Story Teller Paper, the beautiful books on the side are also Crate Paper hand cut with a fringe, the flocked transparency is Fancy Pants, also hand cut, and the title is done in Studio Calico new lullaby thickers.  I always loved these in foam, but would have a really hard time making a straight line with them.  The new chipboard version is a lot easier to work with. 

I kept the certificate loosely tucked in between layers so he can go back and look at it easily.  I should probably laminate it or something as it is just plain paper.

All the little chipboard and stickers are Crate Paper too.  I am taking part in Shimelle's mixing papers challenge this weekend.  Thanks for looking.

take 12

We have been at my parent's home all week for Easter break of sorts. It always wonderful seeing my family, especially seeeing Avinash and Nandini's relationship with them grow as they get older. Of course napping in the midst of all the excitement can be a big challenge for babies and thus mommy loses a little more of her mind for every nap that they don't take....This is a snapshot of being home so far in a dozen pictures.  I didn't really take twelve pictures in one day, so some are from Easter too.  Just keeping the holiday going I guess.

 Avi's first real haircut {where he wasn't throwing a tantrum so huge that his ear was nearly lopped off with a scissor}.  After that he told everyone else, "You need a haircut."

Her bow on Easter may or may not have been taken off a box of candy.  Proof that she can rock any look.

 The trees are in full bloom here.  Their transience makes them that much more beautiful to me.  Apple blossoms (ok, crab apple, but that doesn't really sound as nice??).

 With a little shake of the branches or gust of wind the petals start falling like snow.  

Love how the light hits Nandini's face here.  I would have loved to have a picnic out here but my Dad was SUPER worried about poison oak or poison something.  I didn't see it... Also, there are no special wildflowers here like bluebells and Indian paintbrush like in Texas.  But there are dandelions everywhere and I think they are wonderful. 

Avinash had an easter egg hunt with the neighbors during the day, but we did our own egg dyeing a little later. 

Her new trick: rushing to the stairs as soon as no one is looking.  Then screaming loudly once she gets there to make sure that everyone comes to look at her. 

Nana flanked by two hungry, demanding babies.  Look at how suspicious Nandini is of not getting her share of food.  Also, bread.  Lots of bread.  We don't often get good bread now, so we make up for lost time when we are home by eating it at all meals.  Toast, bagels, hoagies of all kinds are devoured regularly. 

I'll never be that cool because I just can't take pictures of my feet or other people's shoes, but Avinash can.  That boy is way cooler than me already.

Nandini going through the tunnel Avi made her at the museum.

She finally notices me taking pictures.  This is her face as she is just about to grab my phone away.

The neighbor girls come over almost every day to play with Avinash.  Note the remnants of lunch (Dunkin Donuts aka 'prinkles) and the snack of green acorn cookies (with extra sprinkles).  Nandini was not too pleased when we tried to give her some with no chocolate on them.  We went to visit our cousins (my cousin and his cousin) last night too, but I was too tired for more pictures by then.


Linking up for the daily dozen on April 12th at Dear Lizzy.