Scrapbook every ultrasound picture I get my hands on these 40 weeks? Fo shizzle. Baby K #2 might not get so lucky down the road with the scrapbooking of every ultrasound picture, but who knows.
I admit that I'm an impressionable consumer, so when I saw someone using this Martha Stewart starburst punch on their projects, I went out the next day with my Michael's 40% off coupon to get one for myself. Then I punched a bunch of those 1" starburst babies out of white-on-kraft patterned paper and vellum and made myself a sweet background. Overall, pretty simple layout in terms of design and embellishments.
I was motivated to sew some burp cloths last week. Nothing fancy - just sewing some pretty fabric onto cloth diapers following this tutorial. They turned out pretty cute and since I know they are going to get barfed on or used to clean up barf, there was less pressure to be perfectionist about the sewing job.
I told Greg that I put some ribbon on them and he said he didn't want to use them because ribbon is girly. Newsflash for him: girls are girly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited that pretty little girl dresses are on the horizon.
I was looking at how to make ruffle butt onesies one day and got the verbal equivalent of a stink eye from Greg (maybe I also got the actual stink eye, but I'm not sure because I wasn't paying attention to him) for apparently entertaining the thought that I'd dress our baby in something so silly as ruffle butt onesies. It's okay, I have several months to wear him down. Tee hee.
This article, Why Chinese Mothers are Superior, apparently drew a lot of attention when it went up on the Wall Street Journal. There were a lot of comments criticizing the Chinese parenting style the author describes. It was interesting for me, having grown up experiencing both American and Chinese cultures. I think there are pros and cons to both American and Chinese styles of parenting. My mom was never as hardcore of a Chinese mother, compared to either the author or to other Chinese mothers I knew growing up. I can guarantee I won't be, though there are some things that I'm not sure I can ever get away from.
All the attention on the original article also prompted a response from the author here. I ended up getting the book (more like Greg bought it for me before I could object, since I originally wanted to just check it out from the library, but he knows I'd never get around to it if it were left up to me) that the article was based on, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and read it in less than a day. The book is not so much pushing Chinese-style parenting as the only way, but more a story of how that parenting style worked with her own daughters (end result: the strong-willed second daughter prompted an adjustment to the Chinese-style parenting).
There are definitely things that I thought were too extreme that the author describes doing (no sleepovers or playdates). There are other things that I could see myself also emphasizing, though not necessarily to the same extreme, e.g., doing well in school, learning to play an instrument (I favor the piano), and if possible, learning Mandarin (a hard thing to do in an environment where there are few opportunities to practice in day-to-day activities).
On a lighter note, I do like Asian mom humor, because it's relatable (to me, at least) and there's some truth behind it. This YouTube video is pretty hilarious:
"We come all the way from that far country China and we born you here in America just so you can get B+ in Engrish?!"
While I was picking out ribbon to sew onto some burp cloths, I re-discovered some other ribbon that I had, which gave me the idea to make a little something for Greg:
I stuck the ribbon on a grey heart in rows. Don't try to read the words on the ribbon though - it won't work because I had to cut out parts of the ribbon to make it fit the heart shape. Greg couldn't resist poking some fun at that. Shoot. It looks good though. On the back of the tag, I wrote Greg a short little note.
Coming across new/pretty/crafty things is part of what's fun about reading blogs.
Earlier today, I saw this post: Happy Mail
Which led me to this post: Airmail Inspiration
Which led me to this shop: Divine Twine
A little while ago, since he indulges my craftiness, Greg got me all the colors of baker's twine from Divine Twine. Since then, however, new colors have been released! (No, this is not me hinting that Greg should get the other colors for me, because I' rather keep the money. Heh). Aside from blueberry, plum, and brown sugar, I have to admit that the air mail twine does look pretty sweet. Makes me want to send more packages just so I can pretty them up all nice-like.
I know Nordstrom Rack has been around for a while (I think the one close to us opened while we were in high school), but I've never actually made an effort to shop there.
This weekend, we went into Nordstrom Rack to look for some dress pants for Greg. While Greg walked out empty-handed, I came out with a few tops for just under $10 each, and so I ask myself: what have I been missing out on all these years?!
I was on the lookout for some loose and flowy tops that would cover my fat belly without making me look frump-tastic and fortunately the whole loose-and-flowy thing is in style right now. Sweet. And since none of these were actually maternity tops, that means I can wear them after the fact!
With the start of the new year, I've been reading about Project Life for 2011 on various blogs (comes in Amber and Turquoise!). It makes me tempted to follow suit and do a year-long scrapbooking project, but I don't know if I'm ready for that level of commitment. I can barely keep up with this weekly Belly Book shiz that Greg bought me and that doesn't even last a whole year or require as much effort. Sometimes Greg has to guilt me into working on it.
I have been feeling more motivated to be crafty recently (scrapbooking and sewing, not so much cardmaking) whereas for the last few months, I've been pretty much blah about it.
I do occasionally come across other crafty temptations that, like with Project Life, I have not been able to (a) commit to and/or (b) convince myself to shell out the money for:
Art journals. I toy with the idea of starting one when I see other people's, such as this and this.
Kit clubs. I've been eyeing Studio Calico and Jenni Bowlin. But man, each month is like $30. Times 12 months equals kind of a chunk of money to spend on scrapbooking stuff that I probably won't use as fast as I get.
Week in the life. Last May, I did actually go through and take pictures, as well as jot down daily notes, for a week. I even went so far as to develop the pictures and put them on a book ring to make a little album of all my pictures and notes. That's as far as I got though. I should make one of my goals to finish last May's before I do another week this May.
Making and sending holiday cards. I see other people making cute cards to send out, but then when I start thinking about who to send cards to and having to collect mailing addresses, I get discouraged all quick-like. Some year down the road, maybe.
December Daily albums. I've only been able to do a December (but not daily) album. It's less pressure that way. I'm planning to do one for this past December. We'll see if I beat my March completion date for the December 2009 mini album.
I've got some sewing projects in the queue, so I'm looking forward to working on those the next few weeks.
Finished this layout several months ago, but never posted about it.
Took me a long time to finish it. I originally wanted to do the journaling in white, so I sat on the unfinished layout since I didn't have a good white pen to do the journaling. I finally decided to just do the journaling in black so that I'd actually finish it. Took the color scheme from this Color Inspiration on the KWerner Design blog.
On the topic of white pens . . . I found that the Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque Gel Pen didn't work so hot for when I tried to journal with it since it didn't write that smoothly and didn't show up that well on darker paper. I did, however, really like the Uni-ball Signo White Gel Pen for the reasons that I didn't like the Inkssentials one. I picked one up at Maido while we were visiting Greg's aunt in San Jose.
