reddy*made

back.

(a favorite face of Aiden's as of late)

Always strange coming back to my apartment after I have been away. Always seems so very small - takes me a while to get adjusted to living here after being away. Alone a good bit of the time. Still quite hard for me to grasp. Had a bit of a sad morning, missing family back home, feeling sorry for myself with no good reason to - but after putting Aiden and I's things away and looking through all the new scrapbooking stuff I got (how neat to actually be able to see and touch product!), my spirits rose a bit. I plan on getting back into doing some more "healing" pages - getting my thoughts down on paper really helps. It's a bit strange how something that you know is right can still hurt so gosh dern much.

Getting ready for work now, back into the swing of things FULL force and head on this week so I will post more stories and photos from our MUCH NEEDED trip away very soon. Lots of ups (and a few quite silly down's) to share. Aiden is out of school for the next two weeks, so we will be hanging out for the next few mornings before work.

Hug your loved ones tight this week.

Hope everyone is having a great last few weeks of summer.

contain.

Got around to taking an updated photo of my creative area. I so like the fact that everything is hidden and contained. Added a few things (a bottom shelf for my printer namely). Nice and clean before Aiden and I head to Charlotte for a week of vacation Saturday morning....hooray! Most everything is from the Container Store, Ikea, Pottery Barn or Target but I did manage to score these new boxes from West elm earlier this week.

I like the bit of pattern they add to the mix. if they weren't QUITE as pricey, I would have gotten a few more. Had to restrain myself for now.

Just getting back from a carnival at Aiden's school. We had so much fun. He started off a little iffy and was unsure why I was there and just wanted to go home, but ended with lots of giggles, and an awesome bean bag toss. I cannot wait to take home all the goodies he made. So many neat things from this summer. I'm off to work, so i'm gonna keep this short and sweet. Just wanted to say hi.

you just can't make this stuff up....

(Taken from my friend's blackberry phone)

As seen in the window of a grocery store while riding down Utica Ave. in Brooklyn. Yum?

back in the groove...

of scrapbooking again. I think i've done more pages in the last two weeks than I did all last year. Feels nice. REALLY trying to get back into things on a more steady basis, to help facilitate my staying home more to be with Aiden. While I love my job, the hours right now are not conducive to single-mamahood..so i've been pressing on, throwing out article ideas, and submitting again. Really trying to make something happen, I feel like I have been out of it for so long...we'll see.

I did get a chance to participate in the newest book Making Memories is working on. Did a couple of pages and eight cards or so. A challenge for me because I am not the "card making type", but it was nice to break out of my comfort-zone a little bit. Came home from work to these goodies today. I ADORE the "flourishes and icons" rub-on book and the super big glitter chipboard letters. So fun. Chipboard was something that I never really used that much of before, but really liking the dimension it adds to the page.
Hoping to get the chance to work with Making Memories more this year.

Hope everyone is having a nice, creative thursday.

a new day...

Thank everyone so much for the well wishes, I cannot tell you how incredibly much that means to me. Some days are so completely drowning - the stress, custody battles, lawyer fees. It all becomes almost too much to deal with. I've spent a lot of time crying over the last nine months and had stepped away from scrapbooking because of it. I just wasn't able to juggle it all.

There are also days that give me hope. I have to trust that things are going to work out, and that I am going to make it, and that Aiden is going to be ok, and that i'm a good mother. I've started doing a series of scrapbook pages about this "journey", which has helped in the healing process a bit. Here is one (typos have since been fixed, spelling has never been my strength):

So thank you everyone. Anyone who knows someone who has gone through this knows it can become all-consuming so any bit of light helps. Thank you.

On a lighter note, a lot of people have emailed asking what color blue I used on the walls in my "new" bedroom. It is Benjamin Moore's Covington Blue. A little bit of happiness everytime I enter that space.
I have Aiden today, so going to spend some time being creative with him in the house..looks like rain, so we are going to have to make the most of being inside the apt.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

a bit uncomfy...

So, Sunday is my full weekend day with Aiden so we decided to head out to Coney Island. Aiden enjoys playing in the bullt-in playground they have right on the beach, and I enjoy eating. Lots of eating. Eating of bad fried food that you can only get somewhere like Coney Island.

As we get to the beach, I lay down the "towel for two" that I bought at Target earlier this summer. Surely big enough to hold Aiden and I, and whatever food I buy. It's big. So, i'm sitting watching Aiden play and this Indian woman strolls over and says to me

"I be sitting here?"

It took me a moment to decipher whether or not she was asking me a question, or for some strange reason she has the EXACT same towel and for the love of Pete i'm sitting on hers.

I then realize that she is asking me to share my towel. Um, a little strange. I guess so - don't plan on meeting anyone here and if she's got some food in her bag, all the better. So, she plops down on my towel. She gets up a second later to roll her stroller over with a little one in tow. She takes the little one out, plops her down beside me, then leaves. Yes, leaves.

Um, hello? Lady. Remember me? No, you don't BECAUSE WE HAVE NEVER MET BEFORE. Hi, yeah, I am sitting here with YOUR CHILD. Just me and your CHILD. Alone. Sitting. I all of a sudden am feeling a little weird, but I have her in eyeshot, so that makes me a bit more settled. I then realize that she is looking for somebody.She then brings over another child who has apparently been playing in the water because his diaper is the size of an inflated balloon. So here I am sitting on the beach at Coney Island with a random Indian woman and her two offspring - one whose diaper could pop at any moment and the other who is grinding strawberries into her hair. She spends about an hour sharing my towel for two, with her two. She speaks little English so we exchange some smiles and enjoy the sunshine before she packs up her double stroller and leaves.

Just another average day in New York.

hi.

So, my posting on the blog is sproadic at best. Kudos to those who visit - it is much appreciated.
A HOT day in New York City today. My day off, so doing some thing around the house before I scoop Aiden from Summer School.
Finally got around to taking a photo of my dresser in the bedroom. Dark wood, clean lines AND only 75 bucks. Thank you Ikea. Thank you. (photo is a bit blurry, but you get the idea).

Spent the morning finishing up some projects for Making Memories, and took a trip out to Old Navy and Target. Got Aiden these fun graphic shirts. I like the whimsical/funky designs and the fact that they were 8 smackaroos. Esp the 8 smackaroos part. I am one of those people who dread laundry so very much - especially the fact that I have to walk two VERY SMOKIN HOT BLOCKS to do it, that I will continue to buy Aiden more clothes to put it off that much longer. So sad. so kudos to Old Navy for your affordable clothing, allowing me to put off the inevitable THAT MUCH LONGER.

Another happy for today, my kitchen shelving. Living in new york=no space=expensive rent=having to creatively come up with storage solutions. These make me smile.

So, I will vow to post more. Work is still kicking my behind, but i'm loving it.AND i'm getting into scrapbooking again. Been really enjoying poking around 2peas and blogs again and seeing what everyone has been up to. Lots going on these last few months I'd still like to share. Hope everyone is staying cool this summah.

christmas in July.

Working on a few pages for a project and I am in desperate need of "baby's first christmas photos" Decent ones. All I could find from Aiden's first holiday season were blurry and for some reason all focused on him eating a pillsbury biscuit.

Weird, I know.

I also no longer have a scanner, so digital would be ideal so I could resize. Help please?!

Email me if interested in donating. I would be so so grateful, and send you something neato.

I like bright shoes and I cannot lie....

So, as I was browsing around the Puma site this afternoon, trying to find something to use up this gift card that my mama gave me, I came across this neat feature where you can "build your own shoe" called Mongolian BBQ. Seeing as the shoe that they use as the base to which you build upon I already own two pairs of, and being that I wear sneakers to work every day, I decided to take the plunge and design a shoe. Man that was a long sentence.

It was actually fun as heck.

I built this shoe and love it. The brown, and the orange, and the blue, and the little peek of green coming out of the back (that for the most part my jeans will cover, but I don't care. They are bright, bold, but I think they are pretty dern fun. They take 6 to 8 weeks to come since they are custom made, but I am already looking forward to wearin' em.

Just a little something that made me smile today. Thanks Puma.

she's gone....

Well. a month has passed and mama is gone. Both Aiden and I are missing her something horrible. While I don't have time to share all about our trip now (that little thing called work needs me), I do want to share some photos of my new bedroom. My mom worked SO hard on helping me with this, I could not have made the changes without her. She brought the fun lamps with her, a score from Marshalls. We worked the entire room around the bold patterned curtains that I bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Apparently, black is not in this year because it took us the entire four weeks to find a spread to match, but we did. Plus the fact that she painted the ENTIRE room while I was at work, in addition to the baseboards, doorframes, and refinished my side table. Someone send that woman a martini.

So, a few shares of some much needed changes to my apt. More to come. Mom, we love you.

I adore the color palette in here, so yum. The headboard is actually the two Pottery Barn modular units that I scored some time ago for the kitchen, but was way too massive for that space. Thought that the small ledge shelf was a perfect place for some accent pieces.

Bought 2 new dressers from Ikea, for only 79 bucks each. They are clean, modern, and a rich dark brown. I had NO folded clothing storage below, so I am loving these. Just a photo of the few things I have on top of the dresser (more photos to come).

The photos that I had above my bed changed location and put some new paper inside the frames. Thanks goodness for a surplus of craft supplies.

The very billowing curtains that started it all, it was a windy one out there today....

Thanks for peeking at one of the many new spaces in my place. I'll post more details later about where we found all the wonderful things to decorate. and..give ur mama a hug today, if she's anything near as awesome as mine..she deserves that and a lot more.