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Kristal Norton on 06.26.12  New here and wondering what’s going on? Busy Mom VS Daily Grind is all about making the dedication to do something every day that will help you live a happier, more fulfilling life. I have committed to document my journey of developing the habits of living moment by moment, being grateful, and bringing self expression + creativity into every day. Read more about the challenge HERE.
Today’s creative challenge was to go on an inspiration hunt and take photos to use as inspiration for future projects. So, the girls and I decided to do some exploring in a nearby town that we haven’t visited yet.
Although I am in love with grungy, gritty, city scenes; there is none of that in our new area. So, it was tough for me to pick up on things to get inspiration from.
First, we went to a historical park. We found this interesting tree we’ve never seen before. I love the soft feathery texture!
Rock walls are always inspiring to me!
I even found something grungy! I just love the texture and colors on this antique train wheel!
After some sight seeing, we stopped at the local park. I loved the beach scenes they used to decorate the playscape!
The color combo of teal, blue, light grey, and dark grey is pretty neat too. (Plus I love the circles!)
They even had a rainbow splash pad! Yay! lol I love the reflection.
Shapes inside of shapes…
And I just have to share with you this pic of my three cute girls. I loved seeing all three of them in a row with the three graduating swings! :) It was a cherished moment.
After dinner, we attended a program at the Library where we learned all about fireflies. The girls even got to do a craft decorating jars with glow in the dark paint to use as firefly catchers.
When it got dark, we took a walk to find some. We found a few fireflies flickering in the trees, and we all had our doubts that we were actually going to catch one. But one came along that stayed just a tiny bit lit so that we could follow it as it flied along. The three of us were giggling uncontrollably as we chased the firefly down the street trying to catch him. (We even got yelled at by one neighbor for being too loud! Ooops! lol) But we finally captured him in our jar, and we had a magical moment watching him up close!
Today was a good day. :)
Tomorrow, I think I’ll try to create something from one of my inspiration photos.
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Kristal Norton on 06.16.12
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Kristal Norton on 06.08.12 New here and wondering what’s going on? Busy Mom VS Daily Grind is all about making the dedication to do something every day that will help you live a happier, more fulfilling life. I have committed to document my journey of developing the habits of living moment by moment, being grateful, and bringing self expression + creativity into every day. Read more about the challenge HERE.
I have found that the key to fighting the daily grind is to intentionally do something, anything, that you don’t do daily.
Sounds simple, right?
Not exactly.
The more frequently you think or do something, the stronger the pathway becomes in your brain; creating an automatic way of thinking. Imagine a dense forest, so dense its almost impossible to move through. Now envision a single worn pathway through this forest. This is the path you take every day. It’s easy to follow. You know every curve and turn. You go down it every day without even thinking.
In order to break free from this path, you have to first wake up from autopilot and actually see the path that you’re on. Then, you have to hack your way through the dense uncut forest to create a new pathway.
Cutting the new path isn’t the hard part – its remembering to wake up and snap back into the present moment while going through your daily tasks.
And when you do – it creates an opportunity to change your day from ordinary to extraordinary.
Which is what happened to me today. As I picked my daughter up from pre-school, the sun hit me just so and woke me back up to life. Why get in the car to go back home to do nothing, when we have this beautiful new town to enjoy on this sunny day? So we took a walk instead, and did some exploring.
We just recently moved into this area this past September, so its our first summer here to discover our new surroundings!
We even found a new playground to explore!
And when we got home, baby did a little more exploring on her own. I enjoyed watching her crinkle and rip up the newspaper. :)
After all that excitement, she actually took a nap. Yay! So I was able to get in a little creative time too. Here’s a sneak peek below. Hopefully I will have the project finished tomorrow to share with you!
Remember to snap out of auto pilot every once in a while, and see what opportunities await you!
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Kristal Norton on 06.05.12 New here and wondering what’s going on? Busy Mom VS Daily Grind is all about making the dedication to do something every day that will help you live a happier, more fulfilling life. I have committed to document my journey of developing the habits of living moment by moment, being grateful, and bringing self expression + creativity into every day. Read more about the challenge HERE.
Today was beautiful.
It started off as one of our normal boring days… we didn’t do much. It was cold and windy. I hate the cold.
Baby Juliette actually took another nap today! (Dare I say its finally becoming a habit for her? – She actually went MONTHS without taking a nap!) So, I had some time to finish up my journal. Yay! I’m pretty happy with it. Though I know I still need lots more practice with this collage business. I had to listen to Ira Glass once again. (OH how I love that video.)
As I was crafting, of course I had a little someone tugging at my sleeve, “I want to do art too!” I sent her off to the coffee table to color. (My work desk was FULL of scrap paper and paint! lol)
I tell ya, she is one smart cookie. She was complaining that she didn’t know how to draw a mermaid, “I can only do fat tails mama, and it looks ugly! Draw it for me!” Nope, I refused. “You have to practice.” I told her. So what did she do? She ran off to her room and retrieved her mermaid doll, then traced her tail onto the paper! Mama’s so proud! Creative little thinker. She even drew the designs all over the tail like her doll has. Can you see the little stick figure body and arms? Just too cute. lol
Later that day, we had a small burst of sunshine. OH how good it felt. As I said, it was all cold and windy out – as it has been for days now. We took a little stroll around our backyard to soak in what little sun we could. I snapped this photo of the roses entangled in drift wood. I love all the different textures! This could SO be a painting!
Our 4pm rush wasn’t so bad today. Probably mostly due to the lack of cooking. (Leftovers!) I put baby in her “jumpy” and scooted off to give Josephine her bath. She was so intrigued by how her hair was curly and puffy after taking out her little braid she had, then quite disappointed when it was gone after her bath. Baby was being quiet, so I offered to braid her whole head so she can sport her curly hair tomorrow.
My oldest, Penelope, kept poking her head in the room. I knew she wanted in on the fun, so I offered to braid her hair too as long as she would read Josephine her bedtime book at the same time. It was a tough decision. Those two… oh my. Those two fight like cats and dogs. Alll. The. Time.
She agreed, but I had to slow her down a few times in the beginning (little stinker was trying to rush through it). But she finally relaxed and read us a good book; and the three of us had a wonderful, happy, peaceful moment together. No fighting. Just Love. Yay. Never would have happened without this project to remind me to slow down and focus on my kids more. :)
Oh wait… where did the baby go?
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Kristal Norton on 02.13.12 Love is in the air! I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Here are some interesting and fun hearts I found on flickr today. I hope they spark some inspiration for you this week!
 1. Light Painted Hearts, 2. Hard Heart, 3. trashy heart…, 4. heart on music, 5. Painted hearts, 6. Traded ATC- My heart belongs to you, 7. Heart Artwork, 8. Light Painting Heart, 9. heart rainbow
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