Dancing Oaks and Urban Scapes

Each day that I go to work, I park on this street and then walk up this path:

where I am surrounded by beautiful California Oaks, whose branches seem to dance in the light:

and then I emerge into the eclectic urban scape of the City:

A block later, I arrive on my campus, beneath the beautiful spires of St. Ignatius Church, landscaped with California poppies (complete with bumblebee), and filled with students, including one who asked me to take his portrait:

Ten minutes out of a week in my life, documented with my camera. I love working in San Francisco and the things I see while I stroll to my office.  Where do you work? And what do you see?

A Week in the Life: My Weekend

I started a photography/scrapbook project called A Week in the Life on Saturday, and here's an assortment of photos from the weekend.  On Saturday, Gypsy watched with great apprehension as I packed up to take Henry off to a soccer tournament in Manteca, Ca.  She hates it when we leave .

It was brutally hot, so the fans hung out under tents (my group was under the blue Adidas tent). The boys won both games, and Henry scored a goal. I spent most of my time trying to film the game. I hope to figure out how to create videos. If so, I'll post one later.
Meanwhile, Paul spent time at home working in the garden.  He pulled out the bulbs, planted some flowers and added to the herb garden:

Clara's weekend is summed up with one photograph:

She spent Saturday working on homework (symbolized by her backpack) and then got all dressed up to go to a Quincenera (represented by the high heels). She wouldn't let me take a picture of her when she got home all dressed up. In fact, "wouldn't let me take a picture of them" will probably be a theme of the "Week in a Life." Sigh.
Sunday was quiet.  I went to yoga:

I should have taken a picture of the Farmer's Market I stopped by on my way out of yoga, but I forgot. At home, things were pretty quiet.  Paul and I worked on our travel plans for the summer, specifically the week we will spend in Barcelona.  The kids slept late, then occupied themselves with electronics. Here's Henry playing Xbox and the cat lazying about:

So that was our weekend. I'd love some suggestions for how to get cooperation from family members to get their pictures for this project.  I'll do a mid-week post with more scenes from my week.

yoga art

This art journal page was complete, except for the journaling. I was a bit stuck. But then this morning at yoga, as I listened to the instructor, it came to me: "We root to the earth, then open our hearts. A new beginning." A perfect sentiment for the start of spring, the start of a new day or the start of a new week. Speaking of which, I'm doing Ali Edwards' "A Week in the Life." Are you?  And I'm considering Shimelle's new class "Cover to Cover." Any thoughts on that class?
And, because I don't want to be too earnest about yoga, here's a link to a funny video of a song called "Yoga Girl."

Enjoy!

Life Rolls On

It's an imperfect photo - taken on my iphone with poor lighting and only slightly cooperative subjects. But it says so much. Henry and his pals, Reese and Cole, at the Men's Wearhouse. Picking out tuxes for their Junior Prom. 
Prom! It seems like just yesterday that these boys started t-ball together; played 4th grade basketball (with amazing final scores like 6-2); traveled to Cooperstown as 12-year olds; graduated from middle school . . . and now, they're visiting colleges and picking out tuxes for prom.
The unstated blessing in all this is the friendship they have forged with each other.  A rock solid group of friends taking another step on life's journey.  
An imperfect photo, capturing a perfect moment in time.

Weekend Landscape

I've been quite busy lately. . .
Yesterday I drove the boy out to California's central valley (south east of Sacramento) to watch him play soccer. It was a beautiful sports facility and a lovely day. The boys won. 
My term is ending this week, and I'm busying marking papers and starting to plan for the summer course I will teach in Dublin, Ireland ("Transnational Negotiation and International Dispute Resolution").
I gave up on my book group's book ("The Whipping Club" by Deborah Henry) because I really hated it! This review sums up my feelings pretty well. I would, however, recommend "Swim Back to Me" by Ann Packer.
Today the family is off to watch a S.F. Giants baseball game.
I hope to be back to my art desk soon.

An Inspiration Board

I'm still working through the assignments from a class called "The Art of Wild Abandonment." Week 3 took students out of their sketch books and art journals and into three dimensional  projects. I'm not sure I'll do all of them, but I did like the idea of creating an Inspiration Board.  I started with a canvas board, covered the bottom third with napkins and a drapery sample, painted the top part black and then placed some fantastic cotton lace across the middle. I've been saving that lace for a special project and this is it!  The key was covering the lace with clear gesso, so that it becomes stiff enough to hold inspirational items:

I can also pin things onto the lace if need be. I plan to hang it over my desk.  Do you have any kind of inspiration board?  Blog friend Sian has this very cool wire-filled frame which she uses as a mood board.  What about you?

Monthly Make: Summer 2012 Travel Journal

I have a whole bag of projects from Club Scrap that I am working my way through this year, with a little help from the Felt Fairy's "Monthly Make" prompt.  For April, I created this travel journal for our trip to Ireland and Barcelona this summer. It uses a hand made journal kit from Club Scrap's Destination Collection. The pages are light green, white, dark blue and light blue.

The front inside cover (left) has a large pocket decorated with stamps. The interior pages have journaling blocks from Club scrap and the cool tags I made, inspired by this month's Counterfeit Kit.

There are more tags and another pocket on the inside back cover, too!

Once we get our itinerary set, I'll start filling it with information. And then I'll add more while we're on the road.  It feels great to complete another little project! Have you had the nice feeling of completion for anything lately?