One Sentence Journal #21

Journalling: in two days time we will celebrate our 4th anniversary! I can’t believe that I’ve been in a relationship for so long and we are still going strong:-) Today was our second grown-up day, we went into London. The picture is taken in a small Lebanese restaurant we had our very first date in:-) We met at Bond Street tube station and walked over to Christopher’s place and randomly picked this restaurant, it was I think on the 28th of August 2005.

We never met before in person, only over the internet while I still was in Berlin…

Topic du Jour: Memories!

 

Parenting #4: What did you like about your childhood?

Huh… this was a tough one. Not so much the content of the pages, but rather the layout… In its essence, this chapter consists of a number of gratitude letters addressed to the members of your family, to people who raised you. You suppose to put in photos of all of them and address the individually in a personal letter outlining what it is you are thankful for. For all the less pleasant bits there will be another chapter, this one is just to say thank you.

Now, my first challenge was the  language!

There was no way I would have written those letters in English in particular as my grandparents didn’t speak English and we only used Russian in our family… So I wasn’t sure how to combine two languages in one spread and what will get more space and prominence. Should I write the same letter in two languages? At the end I decided that if anyone (like my children) would be particularly interested in the content of these two pages they will figure out how to translate/understand what’s written there. (Part of me hopes, that they will grow up speaking Russian, but you never know)

Another challenge were the pictures. I only have a handful of old photos so I keep using them in all my projects and am getting tiered of them… Overall I wasn’t sure how to design/decorate the page. This one would have been easier to complete in its paper version, in particular as I was supposed to draw a representative picture of each relationship – this is quite difficult (I found) if you are not truly familiar with all the Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and what ever else is there. So I went for something more generic.

On a positive note – this layout is to nearly 100% built based on the Jessica Sprague lessons (in particular #20 & 18). I got a bit carried away and applied those techniques on both pages, and the layout is a bit … boring:-)

Anyway – here it is, and sorry, the journalling is in Russian:-)

One Sentence Journal #20

Journalling: The picture on the left – it’s Hnry attempting to take a photo with my iPhone while I am getting him ready for his swimming class. We always running late so now we’ve decided to get him ready at home rather then needing to change at the pool. Worked out fine, so today we waited for Nigel:-) Had friends for dinner, Henry was on his best behaviour – we should offer to rent Henry out to lure people into having kids – they’ll think it’s that easy!:-)

Topic du Jour: Content

Happy Weekend: update

I only was able to finish half of my plan for the week! I’ve created my happy list but didn’t’ get to finish the poem. Not that I didn’t have a poem… my printer broke!

Just to re-iterate: my digital camera broke early December and I gave it away to be repaired first week in January –  it is still not being repaired, I haven’t heard anything back from them. I also found out that my printer can’t handle anything but standard A4 paper and only if it’s really thin… So no printing on card stock! And this week – it just stopped printing all together. You cannot even begin to imagine how annoyed I am right now! I had a beautiful plan on how to integrate all those poems, lists etc. into my journal and did involve printing – now I can’t do anything. And you know I don’t feel motivated to be creative about it, cause it’s not much fun when nothing you want to do works:-(

But, at least I discovered PROMARKERs – really cool for colouring:-) They are beautiful, and I really enjoy using them!

Happy Weekend: prompt for next week

For the week to come:

1. There are certain unspoken associations of happiness: cookie-baking grandmas, faithful childhood dogs, a sky full of rainbows. But just because lots of people love something doesn’t mean it’s wrong for you to love it too. Pick your favourite happy cliché, and write about it on one page.

2. Who are your favourite people in the world? List them on one page.

You see – very simple!

Yesterday & Today

Running a bit late! The idea of week five was to document a story from you rpast that you don’t have pictures for. It took me a while to come up with the story, and at the end I abandond my plan and just journalled what was on my mind…

Journalling reads: 

One Sentence Journal #19

Journalling: We had an independent midwife coming over to us. We’ve discussed my previous labour and what I want and need this time; what she could offer and what other options are there. She made me think again about the inevitable - the birth:-) Spent great part of the afternoon researching. Considering doula now…

Nigel spent most of the day moving Henry into his new and bigger room and moving loads of heavy furniture around.

Thank you! Looks great!

Topic du Jour: Still … Nesting:-)

One Sentence Journal #18

Journalling: Today was a grown up going out day! Nigel had a day off so we went into London to go to a movie theatre and for a bite to eat. We’ve opted out for a 3D version of Tangled… Something similar to Shrek and loosely based on Rapunzel story. Last movie we saw before Henry was born was… Mama Mia. There is definitely a link there! I spent the rest of the day researching independent midwives and doulas:-)

Topic du Jour: Serious about birth

One Sentence Journal #17

Journalling: Such a random first purchase… Today our moses basket was delivered. We don’t have nappies, no clothes for new-born (I kind of missed the trick last time and bought clothes 0-3 instead of newborn). Henry was a large baby so that wasn’t a problem, Sammy is expected to be pretty much of a normal size so would need new-born clothes. Had real contractions last night and baby is 3/5 engaged. Me and Nigel think it will be a very quick birth in February (not March) and I may not make it into London. Nigel also thinks he’ll miss the birth while waiting for someone to come and baby-sit Henry.

 

Topic du Jour: Nesting

One Sentence Journal #16

Journalling: Went to the second NCT class today. We were talking about different situations that we may face with two children and how we would react. My answers were so different to everyone else’s that I decided to re-read the books that guide me in my parenting – just to check that I still know what I am doing. Nope, I was right:-) I happily disagree with the common approach again! Today still searching for a new nanny – so tricky!

 

 

Topic du Jour: Calm