Project 52: Jared

there will be another post later today but I really wanted to Enter the Love that Shot Black and white comp...

I took this photo of Jared on his obsession with cleaning day. He totally was in love with his new hat and the duster and begged me to take a photo " but with no smile Mum cos its not funny" ...

The Result??

A memory that will last a lifetime.. or at least until his 21st :)

Oh so Dramatic :)

DINOSAURS!

Last weekend, we took our tribe (plus the grandparents.. actually they took us) to see the "Walking with Dinosaurs" show. Apparently its been touring around the world?? Anyway, it was BRILLIANT :)

Considering these photos were taken without a flash ( as they scare the dinosaurs) and with Amahli on my lap ( whilst I also covered one of her ears) and holding Jumeirahs hand I think I did a pretty good job!!




See the guy hiding behind the rock?? These things were MASSIVE.





Its caused a massive swell of dino love in our house and so I have been researching activities that are Dino related.We have collected books, things for dinosaur collage, and have made green playdough so Im all set for tomorrow.

Anyone else got any cool Dinosaur ideas?

Its the simple things...

Got sidetracked editing photos last night.. its seems to be taking me over! Then the camera deleted all the photos Id taken.. I tell you I just about threw it at a wall. but knowing that would really only hurt me, I let it be.

That added to the fact that Im a little lacking in cool ideas at the moment, both kids have been tired, and all of us are still battling a cold thing no one has been keen to do anything much.

Today though, I was feeling that uncontrollable urge to reorganise and clean... you know the one...where no child can get in the way, you are on a mission, to clean, to conquer. Its rare for me thankfully, but today I was unsettled and it was clear I needed to sort something out and make at least part of the house more presentable than in its current 'hit by a tornado' look. I also felt that my two littles were following me around a bit much lately, not able to find something to DO but not really wanting to do anything to craftalicious. Its a fine line really, to find balance. So my plan was to create for them a space to just play, something simple that involved a few different activities for them to do.

Today, it was the outdoor area. I knew that the munchkins really didnt want a bar of me today but I wanted to fix their play area so they could enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and without me dominating play (Im often outcast by these two. Im ok with it mostly, as long as they let me play sometimes).

Firstly, together we picked up all the broken toys and bits and pieces and chucked them out. Both of them wanted a cubby, so I set up the beach tent for them to play in.





Whilst they were happily playing, I sorted out a Zen pit for Amahli. I called it this because its filled with pebbles and some large rocks and its totally relaxing and calming to play in it :) She loves this kind of play and played in it for ages this morning.

Jumeirah wanted to add boats to the Zen pond so I let her.. they swirled around for quite awhile, happy to be floating under her gentle control.

We turned the beach tent into a hospital where many teddies came to be seen by Dr Richard ( Jared told me today that his name is Richard. Dont ask, I dont know)


I also fixed up the outdoor table ( to be used in craft tomorrow) so we could sit hopefully on the weekend as a family.

A small table was the last edition to the play space with a small bucket of constructive pieces and its completed.





Too often lately I feel a bit lacking in the things I do with them, I feel like I run play too much instead of letting them just play. This kind of area gives me purpose and satisfaction, I feel like they are learning through simple set ups, and they love it.

And I got to sit, absorb some much needed whatever it is I get from the sun ( Melatonin? Seratonin?? its one of them) and watch my happy pair, and then trio, JUST ENJOY.

Salt dough creations

An oldie but a goodie.. I have had a small camera issue and, if I havent thrown it against a brick wall, Im going to do this craft again tomorrow :)
Today its pulled from last year...



I gave Jumeirah a packet of twisties in the car yesterday. She was half way through when I hear her yelp and say " LOOK! Its a dog, Mum!" Child with a very active imagination, so I thought. But check it out! It really is a dog!!




I got organised over the weekend, realising that when I am organised, crafty times and play times are so much more fun. I know what to get out, I am more excited about what we are doing and that becomes infectious and so my kids are excited too! I decided to make some playdough and put something different with it this morning.



The dough I ended up making was more of a salt dough which can be hardened and I gave them some gorgeous beads and things to stick into the dough. We also had some playdough cutters to make shapes for them to bead on.



Salt Dough

2 cups of plain flour

1 cup salt

1 cup of warm water

mix well

add colouring if you like or you can paint them when they dry out

I found this mixture needed more flour added but I think it was because the night air was damp and cold when I made it. It needs to be a non sticky consistency. Will keep in the fridge wrapped in Glad Wrap.


Amahli was straight in, shes not normally allowed free reign of my beads as I really like them and they are hard to find so I normally reserve them for Jumeirah to make bracelets. But I am learning to let go of my analness and let her try out new things with " my" stuff. :)

She cut out a teddy bear and a hand with her dough, using her hands to flatten it out nad push the cutter down. She was incredibly meticulous with each bead, totally not what I thought she would do ( maybe she knew I was letting her use special things and knew not to rock my boat) and pushed each bead into the dough.
I even let her use my tiny beads to decorate her little "A" and she was so careful to get each bead into the dough without ruining the shape. She was fascinating to watch :)



She wanted to keep making these little art works and made 4 of them before announcing she was getting Jared for a turn.

As I made this dough last night, Jared didnt watch me making a colossal mess, all he saw was this neat, blue dough so he too was keen to play.

He didnt want my help at all, and was also really particular in where beads where placed. He made patterns on the hands, faces on some of them, and all the points on the stars.

He was proud of his hard work too which I always love to see.

We cooked them in the oven for about 3 hours on a low setting to help them to harden.

All of the creations have holes in the top so we could hang them when they were done.

We havent hung them yet, will show you what they look like when we find the perfect place for them :)

Project 52

I had an epiphany this morning :)
Normally when I walk, for some reason, my head clears and I dont think of anything. This is incredibly rare for the person who has at least 6 things going at once and plans for at least 600 more...

This mornings sunrise wasnt all that spectacular and I wondered why this could be. the sun still rose the same way it has every other morning, but to make an amazing sunrise, there is one key element that was kinda missing a bit today. Cloud. Dark, grey, ominous, depressing. And yet, thats what makes the sunrise so much more breathtaking. Its ability to rise through it, to highlight it, to stretch beyond it, it what really MAKES the sunrise most beautiful.
And it got me thinking.

Me, and my everydayness, the same things over and over again, is not something overly spectacular. Its how I react and cope when things dont go well or trouble descends and darkens my day that show my true strength and beauty. Its the ability to move beyond whats happening around me and the choice to shine regardless that makes us stand out.

And it made me also realise that we need the grey days to show our full potential, to show the world ( and ourselves) what we are really made of. That not only do we cope, but we look spectacular doing so :)



Im gonna give myself permission to shine
Im gonna shine so bright, gonna make every head wanna turn
you're finally gonna see me

Give myself permission to Shine
Gonna light up my life
Shine a little of my light on the world :)

Bachelor Girl

Sunrises and pirate ships

As a typical mum, I have low to NO time to myself. My days are full of my children and dancing and swimming and cooking/cleaning/taxiing and occassionally my husband.... and a few months ago I was really feeling the strain of it all. I have also been battling my weight ( again Im blaming the kids) and so I decided to forgo sleep and get up early and walk.
To begin with, I walked the streets. Boring as all heck, I quickly began to jump in the car and drive to walk the beaches, fearing my new found enthusiasm would wane if I didnt make it interesting.
And so, I started walking the beaches... every day, at stupid 6 O'clock. And every SINGLE day, I am greeted with a show like no other. Sunrise. Every day its totally different. Everyday I am totally amazed at the colours, the reflections, the show that is put on for pretty much just me.

When that alarm goes off at 6, I admit, its crap. Lately Ive been sick and we've now hit winter too so its cold and dark, and to add to all that, this whole week its been raining. But everyday, I get my arse out of bed before I change my mind and head to the beach. I come home a different mum, a different person, I come back ME. With my own thoughts and plans, with a clear head and happy heart.
At first, I was selfish and kept the image of my sunrises to myself. But being the keen photographer it wasnt long before I was whipping out the iPhone to try and capture it. Failing miserably due to the phones incapability, I began to take my own camera, sluggin it on my back to walk and click at the same time.

So I have set up a facebook page called Karina Baker Photography. Its a step in the right direction, its a step to doing more with my work. The images will be for sale to buy for your own wall, ( my neighbour will be my first sale as I captured sunrise on the day her granddaughter was born last week) and hopefully it will take off!

Go check it out!

Today was wet again so it was indoor play for tweedle dee and tweedle dum :) I needed something that was fun and different today so we set up the beach tent inside! Both kids thought this was fantastic and spend ages turning into a rocket, a cubby, a submarine, and a movie cinema :) Such easy fun.

During rest time today, I gave Jared a harder task to complete with me. We were going to create a pirate ship by cutting out paper. Its very product orientated but I think its ok to do that sometimes. I drew the lines on the paper and he began to cut. One of his biggest problems is that he gives up really easily so he took alot of encouragement to keep going. Once he started to see how it was going to work out he became more excited and focussed.

Once finished, I encouraged him to write his name ( something we have worked on for the last two weeks) and they he told me he'd made it for Jumeirah :)

How do you take time out?? Whether you are a parent or not ( I know some of you who read this arent parents as yet) time for yourself is really important.

I dare you to get up early tomorrow and see sunrise :)

Adjectives, anagrams and cool wall art

I found a link on facebook the other and have no idea how I got to it but the link was to an awesome website that created some gorgeous ideas for my kids rooms.

Some time ago, ( so long ago I cant find it in here anywhere!) Jumeirah and I talked about Anagrams and created some anagrams of our names. She loved doing this and so when I found this cool site, I had to make her one for her room.

The website is Wordle. Basically, you type in a bunch of words ( adjectives for what we were doing but you can do anthing) and it creates a page for you!!
Here is Jumeirahs, made up with adjectives describing her using the letters of her name.

Once I got started, I had to do more :) So I did one for Jared...

And when Jumeirah got home, she helped me create one for Amahli too. We had so many more words we could have used for her ( demanding, arguementative and crazy were a few ;) ) but I wanted it to be kind and look at the lovely side of her :) SHes not all bad really....

These would make great pressies for Fathers Day, friends, Christmas cards... possibilities are endless!!

Have a go :)