Happy Days!  It’s Thanksgiving soon here in the United States and it’s really such a great family holiday.  Maybe it’s a bit weird to.  We gorge on turkey and pumpkin pie and then lay around and watch football?!  Not every family does this but mine does.  My family also cooks together, laughs at bad jokes and tells stories.  We chase grand children around and usually while we are eating yummy food we are discussing our next delicious meal.  We are weird like that.  At some point a walk is taken and probably some photos and we just feel happy to be together.  Good Stuff.

Some more good stuff is the people here at Cocoa Daisy.  I want to introduce you to one of those people.

Aliza Deutsch.  I have highlighted her layouts before but I wanted to know a little more about her.  In her own words:

I live in New York City, in the same apartment where my grandparents lived, and my father and uncle grew up in. My great grandmother lived with them too, so including me and my children, that makes 5 generations in the same place. This doesn’t really come up in my day to day life, but it’s pretty amazing to think about.

I have been married to Dave, a very smart (like, encyclopedic memory smart), and very funny person for 18 years. He’s also really nice. We have 2 boys (12 and 16 years old), and they are pretty smart and funny too. I teach preschool, and because of that I used to wonder what I would do with my kids when they were no longer tiny and adorable. It turns out that now I just think of them as large and adorable, and I enjoy getting to know them, and seeing who they will be. I tend to feel extremely lucky that I can be surrounded by small, sweet, innocent children for many hours each day, and then I can come home to big kids who can go to the bathroom by themselves, and can carry on interesting conversations (though mostly we talk about about superheroes). It’s like the best of both worlds.

I feel like my life can basically summed up like this: work, family, cleaning, scrapbooking (sometimes I ignore the cleaning and the family to get some scrapbooking done), and volunteering for my synagogue. Really, that fills up all of my time.Oh, and TV and playing Solitaire on my phone.

I also asked Aliza some questions.

what talent would you most like to have?

I wish I could grow plant life. It seems like the kind of thing I would like, and I should be good at. But, no. I have killed a lot of houseplants. When I walk though a garden, the plants cower in fear.

favorite quote that describes yourself or your life right now?

Whenever I need to think of quotes, my mind always goes to Neil Gaiman. That man has a way with words.

This is from “Ocean at the end of the Lane.” Really, it’s perfect.

“Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they’re big and thoughtless and they always know what they’re doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren’t any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.”

what is a quality you most like in a woman?

I like people who are smart, kind, down to earth, and I love a good sense of humor. I am always in awe of people who aren’t shy (because I am).

What is on your mind lately? or what is changing in your mind lately?

Lately, I have been thinking about my son’s Bar Mitzvah, which is in January, and that I really need to start getting some things done.

Where do you find/get your strength?

I feel like I have a pretty good life, so I’m not sure that I have to be that strong. But for the day to day stress, I try to be in the moment; I try to focus on getting one thing done at a time. When I start to think about everything that I have to do, panic starts to set in. I also try to accept that I can’t do everything, all the time. Other than that, I think my home and my family just ground me.

Aliza is a wonderful photographer and story teller.  Her layouts are all about the moment.  I love that about her work.  There is something rich and meaningful about what she does.  You can tell there is a huge store of passion and feeling under her shyness.

Here are some of my latest favorites of hers.

Isn’t she lovely?

You can find her here:

http://peopleofthescrapbook.blogspot.com

Aliza Deutsch on Facebook

Alizad on Instagram

Please stop by and say hello to Aliza!

On to some gallery spotting.

Love Bonita’s planner pages, you really need to check out her gallery.  This is just one, they are beautiful!

I love this sweet layout by Nylene.  So pretty and simple.

Love the embellishments on this one.  It’s a party!

Check out the cover of this mini by Sandi.  Isn’t it cool? (More photos in the gallery).

Well that’s a wrap everyone. Thanks so much for sharing yourselves with us.