A super-hero heart.

Our Super Duper fantastic Q

This child has the heart of a super-hero. It's made of 100% percent pure gold. He was born to the luckiest unsuspecting parents willing to take on the lifetime commitment known as parenthood. It has not always been a path that one would call easy to get this adorable boy where he is now. You see he had only a few sounds to make at age 2 and half. At four 1/2 he progressed to a few words, making only 3 -4 word sentences. It was a long haul filled with perseverance and loads of speech therapy (among some other forms of therapy). Along that path, he has made countless friends and won over hearts of many therapist from Texas to California. :) Obviously between ages 5 and 6, he made some tremendous progress. He speaks wonderfully - sometimes a little too fast (overly excited that he can speak!!) At 7 years old, he has achieved his first GIANT milestone known as success. He graduated on Friday from Special Education. He begins a new journey, Tuesday, in regular education! We, his parents, are so incredibly proud of him. He's worked hard to get where he is and he is soooo excited to be venturing off to a new school.
Here is the super-hero himself eating a celebratory cupcake. :)

As a parent, I would be kidding myself, if I thought the hard work is now behind me. I know, as this part of journey comes to an end, the next one is ready to begin. For a minute, I am basking in the glory of his accomplishments, his amazing spirit, his perseverance and his willingness to always keep trying. He inspires me to be a better person, a better mom for this Super Hero.

LIFE IS...
by Mother Theresa

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

xo,
anna

amazing art!

How blessed am I to have such wonderful friends....? How blessed am I to have such wonderfully talented friends? (very!!)

I received YET another treasure from Corder, MO. I've actually been thinking of road tripping there to find out what kind of goodness they put in the water to make it's residents so talented? (hehehe) A few months back I posted a "gypsy book" I made for myself as a tribute the gypsy soul I have become via my crafting ..... and for my major love of 7 gypsies&tim holtz... One of my bloggy friends really liked it! She asked if we could do a swap..... I agreed whole heartily, because I find it so fun to exchange art with friends.... not to mentioned I was completely flattered that someone liked my work ..... (that's always reassuring). SO, I made one (gypsy book) for Miss Ashlynn and she happens to be pals with Nathalie.... a good online friend. They actually live in the same small town of Missouri. What are the chances of that? Told you they must be putting some artist super powers in the water there! another talented lady I know living in Missouri must get her water from Corder, too!

Well, somehow Nathalie saw the book, in person, and liked it..... we email regularly and somehow came up on the subject of it.... we agreed to a swap.... I KNEW instantly that I would be the luckier one of the receiving end. She sooooo talented and I am soooooooo inspired every time I go to her blog..... Well - she sent my swap art BEFORE I could put hers in the mail..... so I knew I was in trouble and had to figure out how to make the gypsy book even better than before? (ahhhhh! the pressure)
I sent my end of the bargain off this morning and now I feel I need to do justice to the art I received......

Nathalie made this treasure out of metal ephemera. How COOL is all this yumminess? I LOVE the keys, my fav is the key with wings (delish!) Then there that heart of wool! the bingo marker, the mini domino..... ALL of it just sends me over the moon every time I look at it! I showed it to my husband and he we was totally impressed... I thought the metal really rocked it! totally checking out the construction of the metal mesh.... and the frame.... (such a guy!)

NOW - the most important decision of ALL...... where do I hang this yumminess?
decisions .... decisions......

xo, anna

camping in the giant forest

what I love about summer.....
the freedom of being able to decide at the last minute that maybe you NEED to spend sometime outdoors..... (really, really outdoors... no tv's, no computers, no cell phone service....... just lots of fresh air.....
here's what we did in the giant forest.....

packed up the jeep and hit the road.......

drove thru a tunnel log!

was awe inspired by the beauty of Nature!

found a few pine-cones almost at tall as us :)

look up ..... always look up...... I had to take this shot!
Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. RABINDRANATH TAGORE

took in the amazing view - GIANT sequoia trees, lots of granite rocks and most importantly lots of FRESH mountain air.....

a close encounter of the brown kind! (yikes)

he loves me :)

the shadow knows!

a new perspective .......

can you taste the SMORE's ??

gotta love a 6 yr olds perspective.... he found a happy tree! The boys termed it the AFLAC tree..... check out it's bill..... (they crack me up)

This tree fell... and it was hollow..... back in the 1800's it was part camp hideout part saloon! (how cool!)

view on the ride home.... it's breath taking isn't? We are so blessed to be a few hours south of Sequoia National Park.

so blessed to be a few hours from loving family..... that's where we are headed next.. up north for Nana time.....

heavy metal

wow - time has flown by... it's been one month since last bookclub and as I mentioned (a few posts ago) my contest about "Heavy Metal with an American Idol twist"..... I was scrambling on Monday evening because I had bookclub on Tuesday and I still had not completed a project..... AHHHHH! I had one night and half a day to make something for our meeting..... (what's a crafter to do?) Our bookclub kit consisted of all things metal...... brads, embellishments.... metal glue sheets, glitter..... Since it was metal - the main colors seemed to be black and silver / pewter..... I challenged myself to add COLOR!! While making this other little kit ( a family mini book - I had a bunch of scraps - they happened to fall next to my metal kit..... and I said "HEY - that almost coordinates....") All month, I was planning on making a mini book - using tons of metal....(about DMB) BUT as luck would have it...... I had printed out an inspiration piece from TIm Holtz.... he called it patchwork pandemonium.... (third picture down - if you follow the link) I mostly was drooling all over the picture...... I never intended to actually attempt it!! BUT as I said.... luck was on my side and I had just the right amount of scraps......... that coordinated with my metal.....

I started cutting up two x two squares... 4 x 2 rectangles.... - pulled out some fragments...... threw some glitter onto chipboard...... busted out the glossy accents........ covered chipboard shapes with the glue foil (black metal) ..... had some bare spots........ don't know how but this picture of my son was sitting on the table and it fit just PERFECTLY into one of my bare spots..... so I dug up the other two pics that went with it..... and ALL i had to do was glue everything down!!

HOLY "patchwork pandemonium"!! It's not quite the perfect rendition, as Tim's is all grungy and alcohol inky (and geniusy) ... But mine is heavy on the metal (as I had wanted), had the color I was looking for and some really cute pics of my kids...... voila!

I asked my DH what he thought...... (I wanted to know if he thought it was too busy?) DH said... "well... you have that whole rod iron thing going....." HUM? not quite the answer I was looking for...... so this past Tuesday night, I nervously took my patchwork attempt to bookclub..... Thinking the ladies would say...... "WOW, you have that how rod iron thing going for you......" but I think they actually liked it..... ??? I won my own contest! I really did not plan it that way... I guess I'll have to blame it on my cute kid's photos.......

C'est la Vie,
xo,
amt

uninspired (sort of)

oh how I miss you, my good friend.
My heart will grow fonder til the bitter end....
will you return to me all bright and shiny new
or will you return battered and blue?

(wahhhhh)
folks - I am in a bit of a funk........ usually things that inspire me are photography based... things I see thru the lens... but my lens is kind of on a sabbatical. My nikon is broke..... I have heard no news from him... I do not know "what is up" on his status of being fixed or getting replaced... so I am left with my point and shoot (which is truly a great stand in....... it's a sony and a 8 meg pixel wonder of pink beauty) but I don't find that holding the sony in my hand does me the same justice as my nikon.... (seriously..... how spoiled am I?) SOOOOOO - what inspires anna these days? right now - not a whole heck of a lot...... if you remember from a few posts back... I spoke of DMB (dave matthews band) well - I have been going in DEEP - ever since I got back from the VEGAS show.... it's all I can eat, drink and think..... other than my crazy cardio music I listen to for my workouts .... It's ALL I listen to.......(dmb). It's all I dream of in terms of layout titles or "facebook" status,..... it's all I sing in my head ..... It's all I hear in my car..... I can hardly wait until my next show.... (fresno - aug 30 - incase u were wondering....) dude - I'm ready to pack up the mini van and hit the road for summer tour :) haha.... fortunately I don't have a mini van so I can 't really do that.... - reality check - I have two beautiful boys and lots of commitments that keep me tied to bako - I won't be hitting the road (kind makes me wish I were 20 again.....) but this keeps me grounded...... meanwhile the boys and I are memorizing EVERY lyric of DMB possible - we shall be admirers from afar.

Summer comes quicker than I ever dreamed of........ I am working hard (trying to fit into my 20 yr reunion dress) and looking for the little things to inspire me..... right now - it is song lyrics..... it's beautiful guitar rifts - raging saxophone - the beauty of violin mixing with rock 'n' roll and dave's killer throaty voice.

peace,
anna

Q gets some spectacles.....

My precious adorable first born son just got his first pair of seeing eye glasses.......

Does he not look absolutely delicious? here he is posing for mom....


then checkin himself out in the mirror and I'm pretty sure he thinks he looks as cute as his mama says he does......


We embarked on another journey with Q this week..... Vision Therapy. We began our first form of therapy with Q when he was 2 1/2 - speech.. he is still a stellar student in Speech and truly had come a LONG way.... he is fully verbal and actually talks too fast because he just so darn happy that he can communicate!! He has also endured occupational therapy and physical therapy - for some fine motor delays. The blessing in all of hard work Q has put in since 2 1/2 - it is seeing the joy brings to each therapist he gets to work with. They all LOVE him. For obvious reasons (hello - he's too stinkin' cute) but he's just about the most pleasant kid you can ever meet. He's super considerate and polite for a 6 yr old. He works HARD at every session and he meets his therapy goals with vigor. We have graduated from OT and PT (occupational and physical therapy) and it shows..... He's starting his FIRST year of "big boy" baseball, while he is not the "star player" by industry standards, he's able to keep up with all the kids. (btw - if you ask mom.....he is the star player.....). If you ask Q what his favorite part about vision therapy is..... it's being able to look like his daddy....

beautiful!
I love you super Q!!!
xoxo, mom

show and tell...

FRIENDS... I've been busy these past few days...
I think I finally found some inspiration and I am rolling with the punches.....
I thought I would share something really fun.... I taught a class last week at Simply Scrapbooks - It was a take out menu album

here are two more views......


It's basically two sheets of cardstock glued to chipboard - with six different categories ...... It's the easiest thing I have made and well it just might be the easiest thing you could ever make..... so if you want you hand at it.... you can leave me a comment and let me know that you want the directions.... - I'll email them to you........ If you are my FAMILY.... and you love it - let me know and you just might get one for christmas.... or your bday (depends which comes first) lol.....
________
Ok here's a really fun and cute project I made for design team..... It's an OLD photo box from the 90's.... I was cleaning up some "piles" of old photos and was going to throw these away.... and a light bulb went off.... hey I can cover it with paper! SU-WEET!

Look at how cute it turned out.... I'm not sure what's cuter...... the dreamy cloud paper from American crafts or my SUPER cute kids in the photo taken by Candra.......

Come back tomorrow..... I'll be posting some cool layouts in which I have been playing with COPPER!! It's glue foil! (no thanks to my friend michelle.... I think she ordered this just for me?) Uh-oh ...... I found a new obsession.......
xoxo
anna

inspiration a la carte

Sorry I have not posted anything - super busy with my whole listening thing...... don't have a whole lot of time to write.... (rofl)
I have had VERY little "inspiration" in the way of creating my artsy art.....so far in 2009. I pretty much used all the "Inspiration" up all last year (if you are a frequenter to Nest happenings you will know that was my word in 2008) ..... None of the magazines I get at home are making the cut (in terms of providing inspiration) so I picked up two issues of Somerset.....
"IN LOVE"

and "GALLERY"


And can I just say.... OMG!!! I am in love with "IN LOVE" !! It's a special issue on a round robin between 12 ladies who altered 12 books! I do believe I might have found a new outlet to be creative yet once again. I plan on altering a book - straight away!! In GALLERY - they had a section on the most super funky button dolls - so up my alley - I made a few just for fun and I think I am addicted and what a great way to use up my ever growing button collection. I will post some "show and tell" pictures soon but for now I have my listening ears on to see where I am headed - creatively speaking.

art break

we interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post for a "cute" art break.... I signed up for a mini banner swap at the CPA (my friend Linda is hosting) and fell in love... the size is perfectly addicting. This swap had the theme of "love" for valentine's day..... I have always had a wing obsession and when I decided a heart would be fitting for the mini banner - I knew I had to put wings on it :) a few of the banners and art plates I have received from my CPA friends (in the past) have had cute little beads on them..... So I had to try it myself.... to attach the bead - I had to use wire...look what i found.... this cute hot pink colour again perfect for valentines day.....
oh - I'm in love with this project might have to make a few more just for fun!

only so many pictures can be posted.....

seriously - how did I end up taking so many pictures over christmas break? a lot was accomplished and fortunately I have the pictures to prove it! A day after school let out, we packed our duffles and headed up north to Gilroy - my homeland security... (get it?) anyhow - We visited with Nana, Uncle Lawrence and Grandma Mary. We went to the Gilroy Gardens to see "the festival of lights" it has a snoopy twist..... so we saw snoopy - linus- lucy and charlie brown too!! the boys loved snoopy the best. We watched christmas movies and played indoors (because it was chilly outside - just like the song). We then waited patiently waited for Christmas eve and "Daddy" to make to town and had a great meal prepared by my mom (aka nana) and opened presents. He then headed up to Healdsburg to the other half of christmas (see the next post for details/pics...) then headed back down to San Francisco to spend a few more days with nana and uncle lawrence in "the city". We pass through the city several times a year while family house hopping but rarely take the time to enjoy it's beauty and splendor it has to offer. We stayed in Union Square with ALL the hustle bustle of new year's excitement and a few educational conferences...... Ate great food - visited all the usual suspects and rode on those infamous cable cars. I could only pic a few pictures to show you all the fun.... I feel absolutely SWAMPED with pile and piles of photos (maybe more like megabyte after megabytes of digital images....) I am organizing and moving them over to my hard drive as they are rapidly eating up all our computer's speed. I spend very little time on the computer over the break and actually enjoyed it. It made me realize and prioritize what I really want to do on the computer..... i.e. blog....... with that said.... I REALLY need to pass on the INSPIRATION award! LINDA - as always - you are the reason I began to blog and continue to look forward in the blogging world.... so thank you!

This blog is "tag free" as in I cannot be TAGGED, but I can be GIFTED! So..... here are the rules:
1. Please put the logo on your blog
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs
4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

Here are my inspirations that have not...to my knowledge...already gotten this award:
Sharon - Serendipity
Sarah - lefotu lounge
Amanda a breakout blog of 2009
Katie - Ragamuffin Gal
Candra - my creative reality
Lawren - just tell me to relax and BREATHE
Mary - good things are happening

Thanks for inspiring me ladies! Happy blogging! xoxo anna

Gosh... u beat me to the punch Linda!! I was in the process of posting some new pics and Linda already posted this one..... (different view at least) :) Linda made this BEAUTIFUL Birthday Banner for me.... I'm lucky to have such creative friends!! She ROCKS!! Look at the "tude" on her (and she has wings no less!) Trying to come up with a name for her.... any suggestions? She hangs on my dining room hutch (where I craft ......) Love her!

Second Pic.... What I did with my insect inchies from a swap I participated in back in April/May. Cute specimen box from Martha Stewart.. (Michael's) It's in my bedroom (my hubby even likes it :)


What I am doing with cute postcards, inchies and ATC from Swaps (that I am not scrapping or framing....) Well - I am gluing them to a great big huge licorice tub (repurposed of course) that I store my fabric flowers in. It's looking AWESOME! It reminds me (as I craft) to be creative and enjoy the spirit of sharing your craft. I really love it... It's not quite filled up yet.. need a few more swaps under my belt to get it covered :)

Alright.... most recent swap... Summer banners.. I really strayed from the vintage style in which most the women like in the cpa... But come on.... does this paper not SCREAM summer or what? It's very bright so I (white washed it - with paint) and then use flowers and glitter and rhinestones to sparkle each one up. They are on their way to Kingwood.... wahoo!

Last pic... is a RAK.... for my dearest friend Linda....... the artist survival kit.... kinda a fun play on the "wreak this journal" by keri smith..... the words are in downloadable format if you want to make on for yourself. I cut up all the words and glued them to cardstock along with TONS of anna griffin butterflies. I felt the butterflies were appropriate for a creative book of this sort.... very freeing...
Well that's all for today. Blog at you soon!
Anna

All because of the love of paper...

Ever since my fabric obsession recently turned to paper (still mostly love the patterns) I have met some cool people (in person and on the net). My dearest prayer MOM and friend, Linda , showed me a whole other world existed out on the internet. She the reason I am blogging and rekindled my creative spirit, and I thank her as much I can for that! :) Anyhow, she's in a christian paper artist group - (ok she practically runs it...) and she kept posting these really cool treasures that she made for swaps and RAKs and others that she received from friends all over the US. Well, to make a short story long, I joined the group and have met some really great and talented women. Like Chris and Nathalie and Katie. I have joined two swaps (joyfully yet reluctantly) as I am trying to expand my paper crafting horizons. I made some inchies and a few ATC houses - I'll post them soon.....

Like I said ...... my short story made long..... A few weeks back - I was challenging my blog visitors to leave a comment and in return I'd make them a card. BTW - I made 7 cards - Faye was the only one who I never got an address for. WELL.... KATIE sent me a treasure back. It's a wall hanging with the letter A, a cute little girl with a crown and rhinestone (oh la la!) OHHHH and WINGS (one of my obsessions) and lastly a great bible verse I would have never thought to have such valuable meaning! "You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not by ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of human hearts. " 2 Corinthians 5:3 . Y'all - I love it sooo much - it's just precious. I can't believe someone I just met took the time to create this little treasure. Well - It's hanging on my INSPIRATION board (right next to my post-it note.... "I am creative , I am an Artist"... A plug for ALI.... ) and it's going to stay on my board for a very LONG time - Thank You Katie for making my week and thank you Linda for opening my creative spirit to all these wonderful women. You are a rock star!
xoxo
anna

It's appreciate your teacher week....

so - here's a link if you wanna appreciate someone who teaches (in any way shape or form). It has a digital download of "your teaching inspires... you make a big difference...thank you...etc) anyhow we printed off a bunch and made the candy bar wrappers (shown in example number 2) for all the teachers/therapist in our lives. SO far we are at 15!! OHHHH ali has a giveaway today.... check it out!
IHS,
Anna

7 day challenge to self - results

Day one: monday around 6.. watering the plants with dad


day two: peter parker goes to school....... seriously


day three: wed - swim lessons with coach will


day four: doctors visit .... bleeding ear - granulation.....popped blood vessel


day five: school play - the little red hen - soooo proud of my mill worker


day six: hot bako day!! 89 degrees or so... see my side profile panel - the part about hubbie......it's true


OK - last day sunday.... could not get out of bed..... almost fainted taking this picture (ok...i'm exaggerating...just thought i'd add that for some "drama" :)

Snails....

Thanks to one of my (blog) postings, I received a recommendation for some snail bait that is "earth friendly" - of course :) As I was having a snail colony in my front yard.... Anyhow - SLUGGO rocks! Our flowers have actually started to come back to life and it's lovely to drive up to the casa and see pretty colors in the flower beds - here's a shot of a really pretty orange flower saved by SLUGGO .
Have a very blessed day!
xoxoxox
anna

ps. so far so good - I have been taking at least one pic a day this week for a challenge to myself :) Today's picture was Q in the doctor's office... oh the life... of a sahm