Carolina has always loved drawing with crayons or markers and writing her "letters", but today she officially stepped into the title of "crafter". I went to Joann Fabrics today to get her and Susanna some large beads and lanyards to string them on. Carolina and Susy had a great time making their necklace (granted, Susanna was in charge of handing over the beads while Carolina was the one who actually strung them up).

When they were getting ready for their naps, I asked Carolina to get in bed and wait for me to tuck her in while I put Susy down and when I came into the room, I could tell something was up. I asked her what she had under the covers and she pulled out one of my spice jars filled with buttons that she wanted to play with. I put them on the shelf and told her that she could play with them when she woke up from her nap. The minute she was up, she decided that she wanted to make a necklace out of the buttons. She strung the buttons through the lanyard ALL BY HERSELF! All I did was tie on the first button so it wouldn't unravel. After that, she sat quietly on her bed for over 45 minutes (!!!!!!) stringing her buttons to make a necklace for Abuela Mary. (I was told more than once that the necklace was NOT for me. Eventually, she said she would make me one later. Apparently, her grandmother is more important! )

When we left to go visit Abuela, she took more lanyards and MORE buttons from my stash so she could make another necklace. Helena was there with the kids, so Carolina was so excited to "share with Nicole." (She loves to say that she's sharing with Nicole. She always says, "Nicole is my friend and we share.") When I left to come to work, the two of them were having a blast making their necklaces.

Needless to say, I took tons of pictures of my little crafter and some close-ups of her works of art.

Looks like I'm going to need to buy some more buttons!

I've neglected the blog this past week, but hope to make it up in the following weeks.

I have been having such a wonderful time working on my altered journal. Writing about my life has really made me remember so many wonderful memories. It's so nice to just look back at my life and remember all the good times I've shared with my family. It also helps that I've been going through my parents' photo albums (secretly, of course) so that I can scan photos for the scrapbook I'm making them for their 35th wedding anniversary. It's so amazing to think of 35 years. It's not easy, I know, but they have definitely made it look easy. I am so grateful to them for their example of a loving marriage and for their example of parenthood. If Juan and I can be half the parents that they were, I'll consider myself blessed.

I read this on the Donna Downey blog. How wonderful an idea!

"we went to Kroma, a fabulous little hidden treasure. used his paints today and they are FAB-U-LOUS!! dare i say i am a Canadian paint buyer from now on! kevin the owner kept the store open late for us and i am so glad he did! the experience and meeting him inspired me beyond compare...let me tell you why.

so his store was super cute and how could a store of paint NOT be inspiring, but he had a huge roll of canvas suspended from the ceiling, silly me says, "what do you do with that? do you pull it down and paint?" he said no he just pulls it down and cuts it for his customers. then he told us this story!

he had a teacher in college that every night before he left his studio he would gesso a piece of canvas. the next day he would not leave his studio until he completed a painting on it...no specific style or design, just painting for paintings sake and place it on the pile of paintings. gesso a new canvas and start again the next day.

he never assessed grades to his classes, but instead gave them the opportunity to grade themselves citing that if he was not to be judged by his art, they were not to be either.

I LOVE THAT!!

when the teacher retired his stacks of paintings were bought and shown as a collection by an art gallery.

why am i so inspired? i am going to paint a painting everyday, just to paint, just to creatively play, just for me.
what do you think?
lets start a new movement!
a painted page a day!
are you in??"

I love the idea of creating, just to create. What an inspiring way to view art!