Holiday Moments

I'm going to go all the way back to Thanksgiving for this first one. 

After all the  preparing and eating of food, we headed to the living room, as we always do, and the conversation, as it always does, turned to politics-Israeli politics in particular. In that moment I found it funny that we were having the same conversation that we have had a million times before, and that we will probably have a million more times. Because that is how it goes. So after all the close up photos of people preparing and eating, I stepped back to take a bigger look at the room and the people in it, and I saw this one conversation as one of many, many more.

Clique Kits January Challenge

One of the goodies in this month's Clique Kits is a set of wood veneer triangles from Creative Embellishments.

The kit is chock full of these triangles. Every time I thought I used most of them, I found a few more scattered around my desk. So they will keep popping  up on future layouts.

This month's challenge is "anything goes with a twist," and the twist is to use some products from Creative Embellishments. The twist is not required, so you can enter any project for a chance to win this $25 gift certificate.

Here is my project, which I rather love. I mostly used the January kit, with some letter stickers from the November kit for my title, and a couple of Evalicious stickers, which were available as an add on to the December kit. And I love them.  A lot.

I can't wait to see what you create!

The Other One

Sam's Bar Mitzvah is fast approaching, which means he is getting a lot of press in my scrapbook, blog, and Instagram world. I find that that happens a lot. There will be periods where every layout seems to be about one of my children, and not the other. I used to worry about this, but have come to accept it as the natural ebb and flow of life.

Before the mad Bar Mitzvah rush, though, Max had a big event of his own- performing in his high school musical. He performed last year too, though this time he had a larger role, which required him to work even harder at the singing and the dancing. Any time my children work hard at something, and they get to enjoy the rewards of their labor, I am a happy camper.

We all enjoyed the performance of 13 The Musical, and we have been listening and singing to the music ever since. It's pretty catchy.

Clique Kits January Kit; Tailor Made

I am on vacation now, which means it is scrapbooking and blogging catch-up time.

So let's get's started.

I have two layouts to share with this month's Clique Kit.

I love this kit to pieces. Amy Tangerine's papers, those large scripted words, lovely stickers that remind me of colorforms of the days of yore, and more acetate script words from Chic Tags. I've been whipping out layouts like...like a thing that makes lots of layouts.

Here is numero uno, in which I document my love for coffee mugs, and the cozy images they create.

And, on a more momentous note,  next is the layout where I capture Sam's first day of wearing Tefillin. This is a big deal for a boy (and his family) about to become a Bar Mitzvah. He will wear those Tefillin each morning suring morning prayers. Which also means, that he will now pray each morning. He seemed excited by this new part of his day, and I think he was pleasantly surprised that everyone at school seemed happy and excited for him too.

It also means, that the big Bar Mitzvah day is coming up soon:

Clique Kits November Pep Rally

Hi everyone! And welcome to the November Pep Rally.

The challenge for this month's blog share is to use the November Mood Board.

I have to be honest. Though I often admire mood boards, I haven't ever gotten around to creating from them. Until today, that is. The subject of this layout was inspired by the photo of the watercolors. I had a photo that fit nicely; Each year, in my preschool class, we give the children liquid watercolors and eyedroppers, and they drop the paint into ice cube trays. The children love the physical process, and they love watching the colors mix together. I always find the results beautiful to look at.

At work, I spend a lot of my time over at the art table. I just love giving small children experience with different media and tools, teaching them how they are typically used, and then watching what they do. So I paired this photo with another photo from one of my favorite places at work, and I built the layout from there.

Here is the list of everyone participating in the blog share. Visit them all and leave 'em some love! (And if you would like to mosey on over to the right and follow me too, I would be much obliged.)

Clique Kits

Gia

Jody

Erica

Lacey

Marcia

Mariah

Rosann

Tyra

Charity

Allie

Kat

Aliza (C'est Moi!)

Nicole

Stephanie

Sarah.

Carolina

Danielle

Cassandra

Alisha

Donna

Write.Click.Scrapbook November

I had a lot of fun making this month's layout for Write.Click.Scrapbook. The theme is  "glitter, sparkle, shine," and it was a great push to use all the beautiful gold products I have accumulated, but that I have not used too much.

And, because Comic Con always happens in the middle of October, and it's a big deal in this home, my November layout will probably always be about Comic Con in some way.

Even with all the costume planning, the morning of of Comic Con is filled with last minute adjustments: makeup to be applied, sheaths to be made, dire wolf ears to be re-attached, Bane venom to be sealed in its tubing, and tubing to be adhered to Bane's mask, etc. 

Something about these photos made me think briefly, that if I had girls, I would be the one on the bed, tweaking a ribbon or a bow, or something pretty and sparkly. And that is how this layout came to be:

Clique Kits October Pep Rally

Hello and welcome to Clique Kits October pep rally!  The challenge was "Anything Goes," or to create a project inspired by this quote from L.M Montgomery:

"I'm so glad to live in a world where there are Octobers."

What a lovely quote and it was not hard at all to think of reasons to love October; the cooler weather, the sweaters, the shoes, and for the Deutsches, October brings Comic Con. Rather than try to include photos of everything, I used one photo to capture the beauty of October- a single white mini pumpkin- and I added the details in the journaling. The journaling being just a quick list. That little Top 5 card included in the October Kit, made this a breeze.

I added some Ali Edwards word art to the photo, and typed the word "October" in my current fave font, by Amy Tangerine.

Thanks for stopping by, and here's the list of everyone participating. Pay these lovely ladies  a visit and leave 'em some love.

Clique Kits

Gia

Jody

Erica

Lacey

Stephanie

Rosann

Cassandra

Charity

Alisha

Gina Beth

Wendy

Marcia

Mariah

Tyra

Allie

Kat

Aliza (C'est Moi!)

Nicole

Donna

Carolina

Danielle

Cassandra

Sophie

Thanks again! Enjoy!

On Bravery

If you go to Pinterest, and type in "brave quotes," you will get A LOT of results. With beautiful fonts and images they will sing the praises of facing your fears, being strong, and taking risks.

I can't do it.

I tried.

Lots of things make me scared, and I enjoy life just fine when I avoid them. Not ALL of them, of course. But for some things, the payoff is not enough to make all the anxiety worth it.

At a particularly anxious time, I made this:

It felt good to just say "I am not brave." 

But I do have some other pretty decent traits and skills. I have scrapped those too, but I am afraid you will have to wait to see it. I made it using the Clique Kits November kit "Homecoming." I can give you a little sneak though:

And the great thing about these heartfelt layouts about me? I can use lots of pink.

Preachy Scrapbooking

I sure have been preaching a lot in my scrapbook pages recently. Not too long ago, I even wrote about using scrapbook pages as a way to record lessons for your children, over at Write.Click.Scrapbook. And since then, I made another page filled with wisdom for Max.

I am well aware, that my kids are not reading my scrapbooks, soaking in all my words of wisdom. In fact, I seriously considered using this photo for the above layout:

But I decided to keep the tone a little bit more serious. I have no expectations that Max is going to read my scrapbook page, and suddenly realize that I am a fountain of wisdom that he has been ignoring all these years. But, I do think the things that we tend to harp on with our children-- it goes in. It just takes a while. 

Write. Click.Scrapbook October Gallery

This month's Write.Click.Scrapbook. gallery theme is "Happy Scraps." Everything on this layout was made with  scraps and  older products. Some of it is just a few weeks old, many are a few months old, and some I have had for a quite a while. 

It is almost always easy to create something with some brand new supplies. You reach into the box, pull out your favorites, move some things around, and voila. (Sure, that voila can take hours. Sometimes days. But still. Voila.)

As the days go by, and the easy products get used, and then the slightly harder ones, at some point you are left with everything else. It is harder to find inspiration with those items. At least for me. But if you stick with it, if you are determined to keep going without the immediate gratification of something new, you can often make something wonderful. 

Which is why I really liked creating this layout. It took several days, and sometimes I was down right stuck. But I think I am rather pleased with the results.

The end.

Apple Picking (and a Clique Kits Sneak)

Last week, the Deutsches got into their lovely new car, and went apple picking.

I think we were the only people there with teenagers.  Which made me a little worried. But really, what is not fun about picking fruits and veggies? In fact, they both commented separately that they were having a good time.

I enjoyed the ride home a lot.

  

When we got home, I realized that we had an absurdly large amount of apples, and it was going to take some work to consume them all.

So I made some applesauce, and Dave made a decadent caramel apple pie, and I also made some reminders for the family to eat, eat, eat apples.

This one is on the refrigerator.

And these little number were good for sending some textual communications.

Since Rosh Hashana is just days away,  we will eat some apples and honey then too. With that in mind, I continued to go to town with my Rhonna Designs App.

And, in case you were wondering when the apple picking story will make it onto a scrapbook page, well, it already has. I just can't share the whole thing yet, as I used Clique Kits October kit. I can, however share a little sneak of my layout using their October kit, Masquerade Ball.

Comic Con 2014

Every year, on the Sunday of Comic Con, the 3 male Deutsches leave the house early in the morning, and they return sometime in the mid to late afternoon. And, I enjoy several hours of sweet, sweet solitude.

Beginning last year, the months before Comic Con, have been spent deciding, planning, buying, and making things for Comic Con costumes.

Before all that could begin, however, Dave went to buy some tickets. It proved to be way more difficult than in years past.

Yes, it took nine hours of standing in line for tickets. (I am so glad that it wasn't me.) Ever since that day the preparations have been underway. 

Aside from the several hours home alone, the other thing I like about Comic Con, is that for a brief while, my whole family gets crafty.

        

This past Sunday, we took a family walk to Michael's to collect some supplies.

Max and I shared a good laugh while watching a YouTube video on how to make a sheath for a sword. The fully grown man suggested that one might want to paint parts of the sheath. In the video demonstration, the sheath details were painted silver. However, he suggested painting a green trim, you know, like if you had an elven sword. 

Yeah. Totally.



In Between

A while back I wrote a post over at Write.Click.Scrapbook. about scrapbooking the in-between stages in our children's lives. The slight changes in personality and attitude and taste and humor that happen as children move from being kids to tweens to teens and then the big one-adulthood. Just thought I'd share those layouts here, plus another that has been made since then.

Max is 16, as I might have mentioned once or twice. He is a full fledged teenager now, and is generally happier, funnier, and more comfortable in his skin than in those earlier teen years. I am hoping that that bodes well for his future self, but really, only time will tell.

Sam, is the tween in the house, and he is often still deliciously small, but I certainly see some teenage attitude and humor peeking through.

Example- attitude. On some of our summer hikes, Sam, the one who loves to be outside exploring, could not contain some of his cynical comments. 

On the positive side-humor. When I pointed out to Sam some of his attitude changes, he shot back with a comment so funny that I cried. It also can't be repeated in decent company. Or any company really. But just in case one day we are ready to share the joke, it is tucked away in this layout. Right inside that little Jillibean Soup mini bag. (For the record- I used every single last one in the package. Which is extraordinarily satisfying, and also a testament to how much I love them.)