arianna's Ariel

Acrylic paints on paper

dancing and playing basketball is all we've been doing

this is one our busy seasons.
the last round of dance competitions for arianna, on the same weekend as the State Basketball Tournament for halle's school ball team.
both in different cities.
which sucks for all of us.
it seemed to happen a lot more this year than ever before.



last week was the end of the year dance recitals for arianna's studio, which includes 4 full shows where the competition teams dance in each recital.
the week started with a dress rehearsal for each dance--- arianna had a different dance rehearsal scheduled for monday, tuesday and wednesday AND then the shows were thursday, friday and 2 on saturday.
at the same time halle's AAU basketball team had a national qualifier tournament.
for the first time ever, halle was unable to attend arianna's dance recital.
sad face.
halle attended all of the dress rehearsals all week long and then came to sneak in the back for the last show on saturday and watched at least one of her dances.
and then to help take her home after all was said and done.
carrying the poor tired dancing sister.

for me:

It was a really long week. a lot of dance. i took several hundred photos and videos of each of the dances. i love to capture all of it. i don't know what i will actually get on my camera clicking away, but i do love looking at them later. even those blurry ones. i love those ones the best. 

it was a lot of emotion.

i didn't do any dancing. nor did i play in any basketball games. but come monday morning, i was exhausted. 

i am in the best part of my life, right now, i know it. with them at home, doing all of these things, pulling at my heart each time they play that big game and make each free throw, dance that favorite dance one last time that makes them cry. 

its emotionally draining on a mom.  

she and she and her.  i love watching them do these things that they love. i wouldn't want to miss any of it. i'll take the tired day after with an extra cup or 4 of chai. 

Cruise Mini Book

With all the preparation that went into our Disney Cruise, I actually took time to think about how I wanted to document the trip. Not just take photos on the trip and then document it later.
I love my Instax camera, it took me a while to get used to it, how it feels in my hand as well as how to get the kind of photos I want out of it---how close I need to be in order to get the photo I am looking for. There seemed to be a learning curve with it. I had become so used to my digital cameras that I had gotten lazy and stopped using some of those techniques that a good photographic eye requires. You can't edit the instant photos. You get what you get. You can always retake them, but that takes up some time and definitely some money.
All this to say that I knew I wanted to take my Instax with me and document our journey. This Cruise trip was so long in coming for our family, my kids talked non-stop about this for so long. I loved capturing the moments as they happened, both the Joy as well as the few bad moments we had along the way.
I love to sew up these quick mini books---there is another one on this blog here.
I did the prep work for the hand sewing before packing it all up in a cute little pack that Amy Tan had given me on a visit to Two Peas in a Bucket.
I packed up some tags with washi wrapped on them, some small sheets of letter stickers, enamel dots, my tiny scissors, some adhesive, a pencil, a couple of pens, my sewing items - thread and needle-- from the Amy Tangerine Sewing Kit.  Here is a snapshot that I took it at the airport on the way home from our trip:

I admit that I didn't actually get most of this book done until after we got home. Circumstances as they were, being a vacation, getting sick, taking care of a sick child, etc etc etc, I didn't get as much time as I had wanted to actually do the pages in this book. I got about 6 pages done while on the actual trip. The rest I finished once I got home. Which, actually, I am happy to have done, because in the meantime I fell in love with the new Amy Tangerine Letter stickers and I decided they were perfect for my pages. 

Here is a collage of all the pages completed: 

and some of my favorite pages up close: 

I loved doing this so much I have already sewn up another little on-the-go album to carry with me all the time. I am having trouble wanting to scrapbook in any other format right now. I just want to do stuff like this, on the go, with basic papers, quick photos--- as my life seems to be going so quick right now, and a small stack of products ( so easy when you have less choices to pick from). 

some of my favorites for such things:

smaller letter stickers: 

Amy Tangerine, More Amy Tangerine,  American Crafts, Pebbles, more Pebbles,  Basic Grey

Washi Tapes

Enamel Dots

Black Pens

Scissors

Kristina everyday

my everyday Go-To consists of a favorite pair of ripped up jeans. these are from the Gap, the Always Skinny though my beat up/deconstructed color is no longer available. these are worn at least once a week. 

on top, always layers. in the cooler months, there is always a long sleeve layer of some sort. a tee always under a sweater, a button down... something. and always a sweater. sometimes a pull over, but if not, always always a cardigan. on this day i was ready and wanting spring so i was wearing a new spring flower tee over an easy button down. 

everyday gray cardigan from Gap also. I have 4 of these. in various weights and styles. always v-neck, always cardigan. 

Classic boy cut button down, in tiny dot print and peony printed linen tee from J.Crew.

phone case from  ban.do. 

Mickey Mouse Study

Mickey Mouse Study

created on adobe ideas for the iPad

Happiness Project --- month one

i was so excited to get my hands dirty on this project. i spent a couple of hours digging through all of the hoarded scrapbooking and crafting supplies, pulling together all of my red colored products. i wanted each of my months to be a specific color. it just seemed like fun. i love monochromatic, color focused projects. i had a basket on my desk filled with red die cuts, chipboard, tags and tickets, stickers and alphabets, ribbons and buttons, and felts and trims.... and most importantly, paints, watercolors, markers...

i totally let myself play with stuff this first month. no erasing anything. just doodle right on the page, no going back. i added a lot of details with my markers and pen as i was creating these pages. i thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it. 

it was fun to use products that i hadn't even looked at in a long time. things i was beginning to wonder why i had even left them and not yet trashed them or given them away. part of this month's task list was to purge things. in a way, i had. i purged items from my stash by actually using them. i gave myself permission to use things that were no longer "cool" or trendy in my regular world and just was happy to actually use them. and not feel like i had been wasting money, space or time by keeping them around.