Wall Decor, and...

First on my to-do list after school ends this year, is to paint the kitchen and then my bedroom (ugh.). Over winter break I painted several rooms, and during February break, I decorated those walls. So after I paint the kitchen, I think I'd like to frame and hang this:

What other messages can i leave for my family around the apartment...?


And I'd like to share this little puppy that I made using a sketch from Write.Click. Scrapbook. Oh, sketches, how I love thee. 

It's also a rare 8.5x11 layout, and I just love the way it feels in my hand when it's done. Perhaps, I will make more. I also love that when it's done, I can just scan the layout. How easy is that?! I'm getting the hand of using stickers more in my layouts, and I used a few here from Simple Stories, as well as some other strips and elements as well. Love that bike.

May Take Twelve Layout

And here it is:

This is my first Take Twelve one-pager. I was a little worried at how small the photos were, but I really like the end result.

 While my goal for this month was to capture some of the details of a Deutsch family Shabbos, my favorite story recorded from this month is in the last little photo on the bottom of the page: The book I was reading (Wonderstruck), was dedicated to Maurice Sendak who died last week. I thought a lot about his life and his death last week, and including a bit about it here, makes me think about how someday, years from now, my children and/or grandchildren can look at this page and know the work of this children's author and illustrator was important to me. And also, that I had an awesome, bright pink manicure.

What was your favorite photo or story from your Take Twelve this month?

Remember to link your photos or your layout over at the Ella's Publishing blog by midnight Friday, May 18th, for a chance to win a copy of Everyday Storyteller.


And check out the layouts from the rest of the Take Twelve team:

Elizabeth Dillow

Van Nguyen

Margie Scarpignato

Janette Kincaid

Monica Bradford

Jennie McGarvey

Lisa Day

Valerie Bishop

Amy Prior

Stephanie Medley-Rath

Angela Gutshall

Lisa Ottoson

And

Here's another layout from the Cocoa Daisy crop. This one was to be based on the song from the Sound of Music, "My Favorite Things." I didn't have to delve too far into the song. in fact, my layout is based on the first half of the first word: Rain. And wouldn't you know it, I had a photo of raindrops on...well, not roses, but pretty close.

While everyone laments gray and rainy weather, I am usually jumping for joy. I just love it.

The Bandwagon

Lets' see if I can't get back on the blogging bandwagon again, shall we?

I also thought I was being unproductive in my scrapbooking as well, but it turns out I have a bunch of layouts to share.

Today I'll share the ones that were inspired by Cocoa Daisy's recent spring Crop. I followed along meticulously, and made a list of challenges to try. I even finished a few on time, but did not photograph them in time to actually be part of the crop. But really, that doesn't even matter. I just love creating layouts based on challenges. They just provide a nice little boost to get the creative juices going.

This one was for a spring/park related layout, where the journaling was a big focus of the layout. The challenge was posted by Kelli Crowe, who also created a brightly colored layout on a kraft background. Her layout also had a photo from Central Park, so there are lots of similarities here. I'm not even sure I followed the challenge, but again, I definitely used that challenge as inspiration:

I adore this photo, and the little tidbit of a story that accompanies it. Sam had just made a quick comment that helped me see some of what he's thinking as he plays. (You can click on the photo to read all about it.)

Next was a challenge to create a layout with flaps and to write some journaling inside. Which was perfect, because I was searching for a way to include a long story about Max.

This is what I wrote here: When Max was 4, he enjoyed school, and unlike the first couple of years, he said goodbye easily when he was dropped off.  Unless. Unless, there was some expected change. Like, say, a class trip, or photo day. These things meant that he cried all the way to school, and clung to Dave as he walked out the door. But here’s the catch: Of all the kids in his class, he always had the best time.  On the way home from school, he filled me in on every fabulous detail. I guess whatever Max was feeling, he felt it big.

On this recent outing during Pesach vacation, we woke Max up around 9 am, so we could drive to Staten Island and visit Fort Wadsworth, and then High Rock Park.  While he didn’t scream and cry (he’s 13), and he wasn’t even angry, really, he pretty much complained every single moment of  the next hour or two until we got into in the car. “I don’t want to go…Why did you wake me so early...We have to walk to the car?!!” And then, we were in the car, and he zoned out for a bit, and then enjoyed every minute of our outing. He was an absolute, teenage, angel.

Is there a connection between these two stories? Maybe. Maybe not.  But this is what I see: For Max, and myself too (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, they say), trying something new and changing the routine, is not always easy. There is a lot of comfort to be had from rest, from predictability, and from the status quo. And that’s not bad. But, also, there is a lot of fun to be had out in this world. It just takes a little extra work to get out there.

See, I told you it was long. So long, in fact, I'll save the other layouts for another day.

Take Twelve-ish May 2012

Shortly after receiving the email from Angie Lucas (!) about being on the Take Twelve team, I ran to the calendar to see in which months the 12th fell on Saturday. Because, see, Saturday is the Sabbath, heretofore referred to as shabbat (Hebrew) or shabbos (Yiddish). And for the shabbos observant, we don't cook, we don't use electricity, and we certainly don't use our cameras. At least not before sunset. (We do cook before shabbos, and leave lights on timers.)

So even back in January, I was thinking about May 12th, and how I would make it work. I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to capture as much as I could about shabbat, because it is a pretty defining quality of our family life. I would just have to do it right before or after the twelfth of the month. And that is what I did. I took most of my pictures on Friday,  two on Sunday morning, and one was actually on Saturday night, after shabbat was over.

Max was away at friends for Shabbos, so I had to snap a quick pic of him before he left for school.

No matter how successful I have been with housework all week, my apartment must be clean for shabbos. It's just the way it is. This Friday that meant I had a lot of catching up to do. This is what the kitchen table looked when I left to work, and pretty much every surface of my home was comparable to this one. Sigh. the flowers are pretty, though.

Since I work at a Jewish preschool ( in a synagogue, no less), we have some shabbat traditions in school on Friday. One of which is that all the classes join together in the sanctuary to sing shabbat songs. And sometimes, one class gets up to lead a song for the other classes:

Dave cooking for Shabbos.

Getting the shabbat candles ready. ( Candles are lit at the beginning of shabbat.)

It took several hours, but I did get this place cleaned up, with just shabbos necessities on the table.

Sam, all clean and ready for shabbos, and having a great hair day. It's amazing what using a brush will do.

Me, all clean, and finally ready too. Please admire my bright, pink nail polish. In that moment I was feeling kind of sad that nobody ever takes my picture but me. 

Since we don't watch TV, or use the computer, or travel on shabbos, we get lots of reading done. This is Dave's pile of comic books for this week. He actually  arranges in them in order of how interested he is in each book. The least interesting he puts on top, and then works his way down to most interesting. That way he always has something to look forward to.

This was the first time in several months that I did not have a book from the Game of Thrones series to read.  So, I finally read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and then Wonderstruck, both by Brian Selznick. I really loved Wonderstruck; the structure of it was truly remarkable, the pictures were beautiful, the story original, and it just seemed to incorporate so many things I love. And then, to top it off, on the last page of  the book, I found this dedication. Perfect.

And last, but not least, on Sunday I took two pictures of the two synagogues that we pray at. There is a long story about why there are two, but that will be a story for another day.

And there are my 12 photos about the 12th of the month, just not actually taken on the 12th.

I am off to check out everyone's pictures at Ella's Take Twelve Flickr Group, and at the links provided here. And this month, two winners will receive a print copy of the new book, Everyday Storyteller.