Journal Pages Roundup

I finished Riley's latest journal, and did the cover.  As you can see, it covers an entire year of his life.  As he gets older, I just don't seem to get to his book as often as I'd like, but I guess that just goes with the territory of having three kids!

 Noah's book got a spread about his wonderful relationship with his baby sister- they really seem to have a special bond!

He also got a page about SUPER NOAH!  Boy, this kid is into superheroes lately!  So he really loves this page!  I had a lot of fun making it, trying to get that comic book vibe, yet still stay within my own style...

 Miss Avery learned to walk a few months ago, so this page is about that milestone.  I love the vintage baby shoes embellishments I found (probably by Joleen's) at Michael's.  I don't often use premade scrapbook embellishments, but every so often, I find the perfect one!

 Here's a spread about the dress worn by both Avery and myself as a baby.  The photos themselves were posted on my Flickr site, so if you'd like a closer look, you can see them there.

And one about her learning to talk.  I really love this page!  I love the vintage girl illustration with her pigtails! I've been putting Avery's hair in pigtails lately, and the drawing really reminds me of her...

Okay, hope you're all having a great start to the weekend.  We've got a teacher's workday here today, so are spending the day home playing.  The kids haven't even taken off their pajamas, which is not like me at all!  But we're all loving it!

My New Favorite Find

There she was, for just $5, propped among the other abandoned artwork at the thrift store...

And now here she resides, on Avery's wall.  Little blue-eyed, brown-haired sweetie, holding a tiny kitten- just who I wanted to be when I was young, and just who I envision Avery to be in a few short years...

Our New Mantle Artwork

Well, I hope everyone had a great holiday season!  Ours was really nice-lots of family time and relaxation time, which was really appreciated by us all.  Not to mention some really nice gifts (can you say Anthropologie gift certificates???).  Obviously, the gift certificates were for me, but let me introduce you to one of my gifts to my husband. 

A new piece of artwork for over our mantle featuring silhouettes of the three kids!

Previously, this is what hung in the space.  I did this piece a couple years ago to represent our family of four.  Well, obviously, we are no longer a family of four, and I've been wanting to update it for a while. 

I took this photo a few months ago on a hotel balcony.  I love how each child is represented, and how each pose really shows their personalities.  Riley is the head of the pack, standing up, showing the others what to do, Noah is trying to keep up with Riley, and Avery is right in there with them, not afraid at all.

So I made a stencil of their images, and created a piece of artwork around it.  On each child, I wrote a single word describing them.  Riley: eager, Noah: sensitive, Avery: sweet.

I had a great time just "playing" with the paint around the focal images, using colors and shapes that just felt "right" to me.   I really need to do more larger pieces, because it's just so much more fun to paint this way!

I have to say that I think I love the piece more than my husband does, but that's okay- it really was a gift to myself anyway (wink, wink!).  He just gets the pleasure of enjoying it, too!