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.

Even More Tales from Passover

After our delightful zoo trip, we went rented a car for a few hours (LOVE Zipcar), and drove out to Staten Island for a trip to Fort Wadsworth and High Rock Park. A day with some military history and nature ensures that all Deutsches are happy. And this time, I brought my camera and memory card, which is a great combination. My white balance was on the wrong setting, but now I know how to use the WB setting on my camera, so we'll chalk that up to a learning experience.

 From that day, I have two layouts, though I still have more brewing in my head. It was tempting to write about where we went and what a great time we all had, but instead I focused on little details from that day.

When we told Max and Sam where we were going for the day, Sam's response was, "Will there be a place for me to climb?" Because that kid really likes to climb. See?

It even says so in the title:

I've been wanting to make a layout with an (almost) full page photo for a while. When I saw this picture, I knew it was time to try. It also means that it was time to try Persnickety Prints, so that I could get a 12x12 size. Loved it. I got my pictures within a couple of days. And I  love all the sizes available for prints.

In this trio of shots, I captured Sam kicking Max. Luckily it wasn't one of those mean, nasty, angry fights. Just a "siblings are always egging each other on and bickering, but it's still all in good fun, even though it's kind of annoying" moments.

The journaling says: There Sam was all set to indulge me with some poses. Naturally that was Max's cue to interfere. So naturally, Sam kicked him. Precious moments.

I know we scrapbookers are prone to capture all the sweet moments, but I like to get some of the other stuff too. How about you?

The Bronx Zoo; More tales from Passover; and a trip down scrapbooking memory lane

If you can't tell from the title-we went to the Bronx Zoo. I didn't really think that we could still get away with going to the zoo as a way to keep a 10 and 13 year old busy, but they were both happy to go. And my mom, who grew up in Brooklyn, never went to the Bronx Zoo before. 

I was very excited to be outdoors for hours with my camera, and family, and non-human subjects to photograph as well. Imagine my surprise (and dismay) when I discovered I left my memory card safely tucked away in my computer drive. So sad. All those other zoo visitors were mocking me as I heard their cameras zooming and clicking away. I sighed a bit, and then some more, and then resigned myself to iphone photos. Everyone else loves them, and they take perfectly wonderful photos. And I had it with me, unlike my memory card.

I'm not sure at what point I remembered that we had a similar trip to the zoo on Pesach in 2005. I remember the day well, because it was one of those moments when you realize you have no more babies. We went to the zoo with nary a diaper bag, stroller, or sippy cup in sight. I loved it, and I loved having two big kids who could talk, ask questions, and think about the animals they saw. 

2005 was also when I first started scrapbooking. I still had never made a 12x12 page. When I first started paper crafting, I had a hard time making actual scrapbook pages. Confronted with a large page, I just froze up. So at first I just made lots of cards. And then at some point I received this book as a gift:

Since it was small (6x6), it was less scary. I basically just used photos with a few bits of cardstock or patterned paper. It was like just dipping my feet into the pool until I was ready to jump in.

So these are pictures from the zoo on that day in 2005 when I realized that neither of my children were babies anymore. I'm pretty sure that space on the right  page is where I was planning to write about that discovery. But, clearly, I never did. 

Anyway, I remembered this early scrapbook page, and this early trip to the zoo, and at some point I realized that Max was looking through the same telescope as in 2005. 

The end.

What did your early scrapbook pages look like?