enJOY it

project life 2013 : week 6.

February 17, 2013

It's week six and I love this project.

click the photos above to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

Week of : February 4 – February 10.

What happened this week? This was the first week of Paul being gone and the "new normal" has set in. I drove down to San Diego to be at the new house for the inspection.

Anything special in the spread? Indeed. I added two 8.5×11 page protectors this week. I emailed Paul a LONG email about everything that I thought about the house and what we had learned from the inspector. You'd never know this, based on how much I write for the blog, but I am usually quite short with emails. So this one, with it's 17 paragraph form bullet points was a doozy. Paul's response email was too classic not to include it, so I added that in too.

I just printed off our conversation onto regular computer paper using the gmail print button. I wanted it clear that this was an email, time-stamps and all. I ended up with three pages, which was not ideal for adding just one page protector back and front, so I went with two and added a patterned paper to the front side of pocket one. This is one of the Seafoam 12×12 papers and the pattern is big, but it works great in this format. I added Amy Tangerine letter stickers on top.

Techniques this week : Really nothing special except printing out the email conversation.

Overall thoughts : I included two photos Paul sent of his living space on deployment so we have a record of that. The goal is one "Paul photo" a week and ideally, I'd like some with him in them, but this is a good start.

Ratio of iPhone photos to "real camera" photos : 5 to 5.

Ratio of photos taken by Elise to photos taken by Paul : 8 to 2.

Supplies used : Seafoam core kit, Seafoam 12×12 patterned paper, Amy Tangerine letter stickers (black), American Crafts letter stickers (white), Martha Stewart & Avery labels.

Tools used : Design A pocket pages, We R Memory keepers 8.5×11 page protectors, Fiskars corner rounder, Zig Millenium pen, Rotatrim paper trimmer, Office Depot date stamp, staz-on ink. All photos were printed at home on my HP Photosmart 2575 printer on Office Depot semi-gloss photo paper.

Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I use photos, text and stuff to document our life weekly. You can see all the posts from 2012 here and 2013 here. Do you have a question about how I am tackling this project? Check here.
around here.

February 15, 2013

Moving right along. Literally in some cases.

I have packers scheduled for next week and movers scheduled for the following Monday. I still cannot believe how quick this is all happening, but it's just another reminder that when it's RIGHT, it's RIGHT. I am totally at peace with the pace of this next adventure and so excited to be moving forward.

I also am thrilled to have girlfriends visiting this weekend and my mom coming down next week to go with me to a doctor's appointment and help prep the house for packers. (And obviously wander Target at least twice.)

In preparation for the move, I am going to be closing shop next Wednesday evening. If you'd like stamps or books between now and mid-March, please grab them now and I'll get them shipped out Friday.

Have a wonderful weekend.
my tiny valentine.

February 14, 2013

tank top is j.crew, navy and white striped sweater is gap.

Today I am so thankful for my tiny valentine. This little lady, who I have never met, has already stolen my heart. She's my favorite and I don't even know her yet. The emotional roller-coaster that comes with waiting to become a parent is so awesome and yet so overwhelming. And by overwhelming, I mean terrifying.

Today I am taking it slow.

Today I am most likely re-watching Pitch Perfect.

Today I am soaking up our last few days in this townhouse by the beach.

Today I am waiting for news that the notary is ready for me to sign our loan paper work.

Today I am looking at all my lists of stuff to do before we can get out of this house and into the next one and saying a quick prayer of thanksgiving that we're more ahead than behind.

Today I am missing my guy, who's halfway around the world.

Today I am loving my girl, who's tucked away safe and sound.

Happy Valentine's Day.
my pink lady.

February 13, 2013

So, this is the most random art project of the month. Maybe year. Maybe lifetime.

I saw a photo on Instagram awhile back of flamingos and immediately searched etsy for some great flamingo art we could hang in our new place. This gorgeous piece by Sofie Rolfsdotter was my favorite from the search. I was ready to add to cart but the thing about entering escrow on a house is you tend to loose your whimsy when it comes to impulse buys.

I faved the artwork and moved on. (Silently congratulating myself for thinking twice before spending.)

Then, last week, as I have been starting to go through everything we own in preparation for the move, I found a canvas I had painted abstractly that was seriously awful (it never made the blog it was so bad). Instead of tossing it, or moving it with us knowing I'd hang it nowhere, I decided to recover it with white paint and then paint on top – what else? A flamingo.

While my coat of white paint dried, I google image searched flamingos. Turns out they have the simplest bodies ever. It's just a bunch of simple shapes joined together (banana, circle, snake, football, abstract tail and sticks). I drew a rough pencil outline and then mixed up some pink paint.

Patience is not a skill of mine, but I encouraged myself to go slowly with this one. I painted the pink body and neck on one day and the next day, after a good night's sleep and some more google image browsing, I added legs (not too hard) and a beak (a tiny bit harder). Then I went back over the body and added a bit more color for dimension and ta-da – my flamingo was born.

Seriously, so random. Not sure if she'll go in the baby's room or my office or if she'll be brave enough to make a debut in the main living area of our new house. I must admit, I love her more than I should. This is the first non-shape and/or text painting I have made that I haven't wanted to set on fire and then throw out a window so I'd say we're making progress. 🙂
winter book report.

February 12, 2013
It's been awhile since I wrote up one of these. (See my summer book report here.) Unlike last time, there is a common thread with these, the focus has been on food and parenting, for sure. Here is what's been filling the time before I fall asleep.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This is just the next book in a line of books over the past few years I have read about food including Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I enjoyed this book for about 4/5 and then it just got dense. Too dense and too slow and too…convoluted. Which makes sense: what we eat and why we eat it is a dense and slow and convoluted topic and Pollan certainly worked to follow through on various ways that we (consumers) get our food. But, if you are looking for a great food book, I would recommend Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver first.

Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach. This is a cookbook. But it's so much more than that. It's also one of the many books these days that started as a blog. But it's so much more than that too. I read this cookbook like an enjoyable memoir. Every single page. Jenny tells the story of growing up eating with her family to cooking with her husband as a newlywed to trying to eat dinner with two little ones under three to finally finding a sense of balance as her kids got a bit older. Jenny and her husband have decided to make the "Family Dinner" a huge priority in their lives and in their kid's lives. I related to this in a BIG WAY and found it super inspiring as a recipe jumping off point, but also as a marriage and parenting guidebook. (Also it's super non-pretentious and I loved that.)

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. Another blog turned cookbook! I'll admit, I have not read this one all the way through yet, but as far as cookbooks go, it's simply beautiful. Paul and I are obsessed with the broccoli slaw on page 72 and make it at least weekly. We love cookbooks and I know this will be one we reach for often to find new staples for our meals and fancy things to cook for friends.

Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman. I have seen this book all over the place (okay, mostly blogs), but waited patiently until I actually had a baby on the way to read it. It contrasts the "French model" of raising little ones with the "American model." I'm going to say 90% of what's presented is common sense. But really, parenting in general is mostly common sense and trial and error, right? I found some of the thoughts in here fascinating, specifically the idea of giving your kid a "framework" of rules that cannot be budged, but then within that frame being pretty lenient. I totally connect to that idea as well as so many of the theories on feeding kids and teaching them the importance of "waiting." I found myself highlighting bits and reading paragraphs to Paul at night. (Every time I read a paragraph, he gave me a "Well, duh" expression, which is further proof that it might be common sense.)

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. This was recommended to me by a blog reader last spring (thank you!) and I finally got around to reading it. I LOVED IT. Seriously, loved it. The book covers nearly everything (clearly it's aptly titled) from space to atoms to dinosaurs to oceans to natural disasters. It's written as a story which I found incredibly appealing. The introduction talks about how Bryson realized as a kid that what was in his textbooks was interesting but the way they were communicating was totally boring. This book is his response to that and it's anything but boring. This was another book I had to read passages to Paul from. While surely I learned most of this stuff in science classes in high school (admittedly many of the scientists names rang a bell) it was like I was learning it for the first time. And the real success here, is that thanks to how interesting the information was presented, I just might retain it.

Great with Child by Beth Ann Fennelly. I talked about this in my pregnancy faves post, but thought it deserved another mention. The author is a poetry professor and the original letters were written to a student of hers that was going through her first pregnancy far from friends and family. The letters are beautifully written (but not at all flowery and over the top) and while the sub-title says "Letters to a Young Mother" I really believe these are letters to anyone. I laughed and cried my way through the book in a day and immediately passed it on to my mom and dad, who have been parenting for almost 28 years. My dad finished it first and my mom is currently reading it. Both love it.

So that's my current list. What are you reading? Any recommendations for fiction?!? I've got time on my hands and love a good story.

Other posts you might enjoy:
starting a baby quilt.

February 11, 2013
Last week, I had a chance to wander my favorite fabric store in the world. It's local and called Superbuzzy. They have fabrics that I see online and dream about – except in real life so I can touch them, play with them and eventually buy them right there (feels like magic).

I went in with the intent to find fabrics for the baby girl quilt I have been excited to get started on. I didn't exactly have a color scheme in mind but knew I'd lean towards pinks and corals. Trouble was, I hadn't exactly decided on a pattern idea either. Triangles felt right for a baby, but I wanted something a bit different than all the triangle quilts I had made in the past.

I browsed their quilting books in the back of the store until I found an adorable equilateral triangle quilt (like this one)made up of small triangles of various kid-friendly patterned fabrics. Seeing it made me realize how cute it could look and I started to walk around the store to see what sort of patterns I could pull together.

I get a lot of questions about how I pick and match patterns for quilts. I don't know exactly how to answer that. The patterns make sense in my head in a way that I cannot describe, but here is what I will say about these specifically.
1. I love each of the 12 patterns on their own. If I found a dress, leggings or a onesie with ANY of these designs, I'd snag it in a second for baby girl. The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts, but you should still love the parts.
2. I tend to favor small patterns over big ones. This just works in my head and works for quilts where you only see a little patch of the fabric at a time.
3. I always add in a few subtler patterns (like the textured solids or the tight orange hash marks) so your eyes don't cross trying to take in all the pattern action.
4. I go for a mix of light backgrounds and dark backgrounds so the quilt has "weight" but isn't so heavy that it looses it's joy.
5. I look for colors that complement but are not the exact same. I would never use two different pattern pinks where the pink shade is identical (though I am not as concerned about matching neutrals, like the grays in this quilt). To me, that's too matchy-matchy.
It just takes time. Time at home to cultivate your style and realize what you really like versus what is just trendy versus what you think you should like. And then time in the store, mulling over bolts of fabric and shifting things around.

In the end, I bought 1/4 yard of 12 different fabrics. This means I have three total yards for the top of my quilt. The fabrics averaged $10/yard so I got out of there for $33 with tax which felt like a total deal (for a personalized baby quilt.)

Fabric brands, from left to right : Riley Blake Willow – Herringbone, Moda Cross Weave – Red Yellow, Kei-fabric Honeycomb, unknown, Lotta Jansdotter, Riley Blake Willow – Leaves, no brand name but can be found here, Flea Market Fancy – Fizzy Dot, Riley Blake Willow – Dot, Kaffe Fasset Shot Cotton – Apricot, Japanese Fabric – unkown brand, Carolyn Friedlander Architextures – Hatch.

At home, I cut my fabrics into triangles that were about 4.5 inches (I got about 26-30 from each fabric pattern). My plan is to make this quilt about 45×60, like so many of the other quilts I have made. I don't have exact details yet on how many triangles this is going to take to get it that size. But I know I'll have enough fabric. I am excited to be working with slightly smaller triangles (though I know the sewing will be tedious).

After I started laying it all out and then stepped back to see it, I almost cried. Such a fan of this color mix.

ps. I'll be sharing more details on how I made this quilt when it's finished, but here's a quilt tutorial that includes details about all the tools I use to cut and sew fabric.
project life 2013 : week 5.

February 10, 2013

It's week five and I love this project.

click the photos to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

Heads up : I got a comment asking why I am blurring out ultrasound photos and I wanted to address it here in case other people are curious. I made the executive decision long ago that I would not share photos of pregnancy tests or ultrasounds with the Internet. This is no big deal until it comes to sharing my Project Life pages where I want to include these details. In order to still share my pages without compromising my decision, I am blurring when appropriate.

For the record, I know there will be a lot of blurring in this album for the next few months as I share thoughts about pregnancy, Paul being deployed and details about our new house that are so important for me to document, but not important to share with the world. Thank you for respecting the privacy boundaries (however random) that I decide to set for our family.

Week of : January 28 – February 3.

What happened this week? We found out the baby is looking good after a Level II ultrasound. We spent a good chunk of time at the beach celebrating Paul's last week at home before deployment. We opened Escrow on a house.

Anything special in the spread? A crazy amount of journaling. All of it in handwriting. Much of it rambling. I wrote on the white space on photos and on journaling cards.

Techniques this week : Because the U/S came with a ton of photos that I don't really have a place for except this album, I made a small insert to hold a column of three on each side out of an 8.5×11 page protector. I stuck the photos in (three on the front and three on the back) and used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine to make the pocket narrower. I have no special way of sewing on page protectors, I just use the same tension that I use when sewing on paper or fabric, go slow and hold it steady. I added a little "hi" flair badge on top because the little one was waving at the camera on her 3D image.

Overall thoughts : I love this project. Last year was different, in that our day to day life was fairly normal. I loved the project then, without a doubt. But this year, with so much change and things happening it's awesome to have a place to document all my thoughts and photos. For sure in the next few months things will settle back to "normal" and that will be great too.

Ratio of iPhone photos to "real camera" photos : 9 to 1.

Ratio of photos taken by Elise to photos taken by Paul : 8 to 2.

Supplies used : Seafoam core kit, Paislee Press calendar card, Freckled Fawn arrow wood chip, American Crafts letter stickers (gold), Basic Gray for Studio Calico letter stickers, Ormolu flair badge (love), Marcy Penner flair badge (hi), Studio Calico hexagon sticker.

Tools used : Design A pocket pages, Fiskars corner rounder, Zig Millenium pen, Amy Tangerine gray Slickwriter (coming soon), Rotatrim paper trimmer, Office Depot date stamp, staz-on ink. All photos were printed at home on my HP Photosmart 2575 printer on Office Depot semi-gloss photo paper.

Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I use photos, text and stuff to document our life weekly. You can see all the posts from 2012 here and 2013 here. Do you have a question about how I am tackling this project? Check here.
around here.

February 8, 2013

All things considered, it was a fantastic week. No disclaimer needed.

We're almost one week down on Paul being gone. Escrow is progressing – we might close as early as next Thursday. Baby girl preformed her first dance recital for an audience of one on Wednesday night. I have creative work and fun projects lined up for the next few weeks and visitors coming every weekend in February.

I cannot thank you enough for your kind comments on my posts this week. I have to say, these transition times are always hard (and this one is a big one) but they bring with them so much. So many new ideas. So much emotion. So much energy. So much inspiration. It's a joy to share here and I really appreciate that you are taking the time to read and share encouragement. It totally helps. Also – no need to worry, I will not lift anything heavy while moving. My health and that of baby girl's comes first.

Have a great weekend.
and so it begins…

February 7, 2013

Paul deployed this past weekend.

The photo above is from Tuesday as I enjoyed my breakfast with him via FaceTime and filled him in on our new house inspection.

It's different this time than last. Everything is different. He is not in a warzone. This deployment is scheduled to be shorter. He will most likely be able to take leave and be home when baby girl arrives (if not for the birth than shortly after for some quality newborn time).

He's already done this job. This time, instead of waving good-bye to him at LAX, I dropped him off on a familiar base with a large group of people. He flew on a plane with men and women he's worked with everyday for the past 18 months. He has friends and co-workers on this adventure with him. He isn't going off to some scary unknown place to do some scary unknown job. He knows what he has to do and he is good at it. That makes a huge difference for both of us.

And I've already done this job. I have been alone for months at a time. I have packed up one house and set up a new one. I recognize that some days will fly and I'll feel unstoppable. I also remember that some days the pain of him being gone will hit me like a truck and I'll wonder how I'm going to keep going. But I can deal with the pain. I can make the best use of my time. I know what I have to do and I'm good at it. That makes a huge difference for both of us.

Plus, this time, I am not exactly alone. I've got a little kicker with me constantly, reminding me that it's not just me. (It's also not just about me, so peanut butter on a spoon does not a dinner make.) I have a physical marker of the passing of time and she's growing everyday. In 18-20 weeks (my due date is a moving target), if things progress like they should, a baby girl will enter our family. Whether or not Paul is in the room holding my hand or on the phone listening for her cry or sitting on a plane anxious with anticipation, she'll arrive and we'll go from two to three forever.

So yes, this time is different. Hard, for sure. Stressful, of course. Frustrating, almost always. But also possible, manageable and completely life changing.

And just like last time, I refuse to wish away a moment.
peeks at our new place.

February 6, 2013

So…good news! We are currently in Escrow on a house we LOVE in San Diego. In a few weeks, when the Escrow is closed, I have the keys and things are starting to settle, I would love to share the looong and crazy story of how this place came to be ours, but the short story is…we're becoming home owners!

And this house is truly awesome.

I took some photos on Monday while one of our many inspections was taking place and am excited to share them here with you. The house is older (1960s) and was recently flipped and updated. They went with a mid-century modern look and it's rad. It's SO rad. I cannot wait to make this house a home.

(p.s. that last photo was taken in baby girl's room. I am going to get to set up her room before she's here. This makes me endlessly happy.)