Circle Journal Q&A

The Squirrelly Girls have been doing circle journals. I let a few pile up on me (well, there was the move, and then I didn't have my scrapping space set up...) so now I am trying to get them done, digitally. I just finished this one and was pleased with the way it turned out so I wanted to share it.

The theme of this journal is a slam book style Q&A. These are the questions:

1. What is something you are most proud of?
2. What makes you happy?
3. Name a place you've always wanted to visit.
4. What is the most important life lesson you have learned so far?
5. Name your biggest phobia.
6. What is your favorite Bible verse?
7. Something or someone that you love dearly...?
8. Finish this sentence. I am...

So here's what I came up with:




Credits: papers from Shabby Princess "Spring Breeze" (recolored) orange brad and plaid ribbon from Anne Langpap's "Spring" kit from the Autumn Leaves Designing with Digital book, small tag from Gina Cabrera's "Under the Mistletoe" kit (recolored), also from the DWD book, zig-zag stitching from Atomic Cupcake (as well as the tear and inking actions).

Porch Painting

Kate has been enjoying painting the porch with water. My mom used to have us do this sometimes, when we were looking for something to do on summer afternoons. And hey, I've got lots of paintbrushes. I introduced Kate to the fine art of porch-painting this last week. Now she asks to go outside and asks for the brushes. Fun!



I realized that I forgot to take pictures of Kate on Monday (I'm still doing that, though I haven't been posting them every week) but these were taken on Sunday, so maybe that's close enough. Kate wasn't feeling great. I made some chicken and red lentils, which I've made before and Kate hasn't had any problems with (she likes it a lot!) but this time I put in some different spices and something apparently disagreed with her pretty strongly. I think she's feeling much better now.

Doug had his interview in Olympia. We should know in a week or so whether he gets to go back and interview with the president of the college.

신태호--Have you seen this man?

In the summer of '96, after Doug and I got engaged and before we got married, I did a three-month internship at a publishing company in Seoul. There was a fellow who worked there named Shin Tae Ho. He was such a nice guy, and lots of fun to work with. Doug and I got to meet up with him and his wife a couple of times when we were there teaching English, but then we didn't keep in touch. Out of curiosity I typed his name into google (with my newfound mad Korean typing skills). I figured there would be quite a lot of men named Shin Tae Ho, but I tried an image search and up popped his picture! He's listed as an instructor at koreaedu.com, but unfortunately I can't find anything there about emailing the company. Bummer. (I'll have to get somebody else to take a look at it for me--maybe I'm just missing something obvious.)

Maybe someday he'll google himself and find this entry.

All I want for Mother's Day...

Mom doesn't need breakfast in bed
a new car
a diamond tennis bracelet
a steak dinner
a dozen red roses

All Mom wants is a picture.

Now hold still!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a picture of my mom with Kate, taken while we were in Ohio last summer.

Mom was the one who taught me how to roll a ball of yarn so that it pulls out from the middle, how to tell if an egg is cooked by spinning it, and how to whack a head of lettuce on the counter to knock the core loose. She also taught me how to give a talk in church and how to pad a writing assignment to make it long enough. She took care of me when I was sick, typed my stories for me on that old manual typewriter, and let me make a pickle-juice popsicle when I was ten, even though she knew it wouldn't be as good as I thought.

Mom's the one with the funny little wake-up songs and corny jokes. She inspired a love of reading, and animals, and creativity. When I read "Fox in Socks" to my daughter I can hear myself saying it the way my mom read it to me.

Happy Mother's Day, Grandma!

Random stuff

Yesterday I used some big swoopy letters from the font "Aquiline" to put some random lines across the background of a layout I was working on. The layout is of a Young Women activity, so I suppose I should get permission before posting it, but part of the swoops looks like this. (That curlicue thing is the ¶ character--go figure! It's alt+0182) I like that irregular bumpy, broken-up line look. So today I was messing around in Photoshop and using layered filters to see if I could reproduce the effect. I think I got pretty close. Then I took it a little further and came up with this:

Ooh, pretty! Kind of a batik thing going on there. This has possibilities.

This week I've been busy editing photos from a couple of shoots I did (that sounds so formal... ha!) and messing around with various things. We went to the zoo yesterday and Kate got to walk on walls and benches. That's her latest thing. Sometimes she tries to do it without any help, which is rather nerve-wracking.

Kate has learned "apple" (which she says like "bappu") and "meow," and "done!" When she's sitting in her high chair and has finished eating, she holds out her arms and says "Da!" Of course we think she's brilliant.

Doug has an interview at a college in Olympia next week! We are excited.

Children's Day

May 5th, 1992, was the day I arrived in Korea for my mission. It was Children's Day, a national holiday, and I saw lots of people out with their kids, with balloons on their cars, and people flying kites along the river. On Children's Day parents often dress their kids up and take pictures of them in front of the flowers. Azaleas are very common there. We have a lot of azaleas and rhododendrons here in Washington state, too, which makes me feel nice and Springy.



This is Kate on Children's Day last year. She was so little!

This year we went to the park. She wasn't interested in posing for me, but had a good time running around, and I did manage to get a few pictures with the flowers.





Kate enjoyed walking back and forth across the bridge in the Japanese garden. It's a little too steep for her to manage on her own, so her daddy gave her a hand.

After taking the obligatory flower photos we went down to the beach, where Kate sat in the wet sand and got her pants wet, and we watched people throwing sticks out into the water for their dogs to fetch. There was also a seal swimming by, poking his head up to look at all the strange people.




Here's Kate helping her daddy push the stroller along the packed wet sand. She's crazy about pushing things.

A Children's Day Digital Freebie

Tomorrow (May 5th) is Children's Day in Korea. Since I just figured out how to type in Korean, I thought I would make some word art for the occasion.



Here are six titles (one vertical) that say Children's Day ("orini nal") in Korean hangul, and a date with Chinese characters. It's a single png file, so you'll have to cut out the pieces you want. I hope this will be useful to somebody!

Click here to download the file (right-click and choose "save target as").