April was was crazy busy. Work trips (bleh!), birthmonth (yay!), wedmonth (yay-er!), visitors (wee!), taxes (eep!)…. I got way behind in the garland game. And May may have been just as crazy. But I made it! All 61 garlands are here for your viewing pleasure! My favorite: hair buns! I rock these on the daily. What’s your favorite? Share below. And follow my garland challenge on Instagram with #ftfgarland366.
Ooo wee! It’s workshop recap time! A few lady friends and I spent an evening at Iris Willow‘s studio to learn the art of enamel jewelry and it. was. fabulous! Iris is a super talented artist and she creates enamel and mixed metal jewelry in all the fun shapes and colors. She is new to the teaching game, but we couldn’t tell. Her workshop was super fun and easy to follow. Iris made the whole process novice friendly. The hardest part was deciding what piece to work on and what color enamel to use – we could pick up to three colors. There were over a dozen shapes and 24 colors to choose from. You do the math – that’s a lot of combinations. We started by reviewing all of the materials and tools. We got to use some really fun stuff, like a 1200 degree kiln. O_O Iris demoed each step, we sketched out our designs, and we were off to create! The process: clean, hairspray, add enamel, bake, pickle, clean, hairspray, enamel, bake. …
Call me hippy dippy but I didn’t want to litter the park with confetti, biodegradable or not. Actually, I toyed with the idea of gathering fallen leaves from the park, punching them into confetti shapes, and having guests toss them at the end of the ceremony. I think we’ll save that craft for another time. Instead, we decided on lace tambourines! We love music. The Hubs plays the guitar, I love singing back up, and I could really get into a karaoke song when I’ve got one of those light up tambourines. These lace tambourines seemed quite fitting for our park celebration. The how to: Gather your craft crew, a cat, and all the supplies – embroidery hoops, fabric of choice, bells, thread, sewing needles, and scissors. Fit the fabric onto the hoop, trim, then sew on bells to your heart’s desire. Many crafty hours later: a collection of tambourines ready for ringing in the new Mr. & Mrs. Share a favorite confetti alternative below!
Wake up early. Experience the sunrise. Eat breakfast by a waterfall. Watch photographers. This is married life. Here are some scenes from our Tahoe Minimoon at Emerald Bay. Best sunrise ever. Go!
Modern Mouse invited me back to host their Sunday Crafternoon this month. Um, yes!!! So I sought out to find the ultimate DIY. Since it happened to be National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, we decided a cookie themed project would be most appropriate. These circus animal cookie plushies, inspired by Studio DIY, caught all of our eyes because…well, just look at them! Combine felt in classic circus animal cookie pink and white, needles, pins, fabric pens, thread, chopsticks, hot glue, pom poms, and stuffing… And two hours later…the cutest circus animal cookies + smiley with sunnies on the block. Picture or it didn’t happen. 😉 Thanks for coming out to Sunday Crafternoon and thank you to Modern Mouse for inviting me to guest craft! It’s always a good time at the Mouse!
Basecamp! This was the perfect boutique hotel to stay at during our short minimoon adventure. We arrived much later than expected (way past check-in time), but the front desk was eager to welcome us. Our room was nice and toasty! And I absolutely loved the bed backdrop. We actually got some exploration ideas from the map. The hotel also equipped us with a pocket guide filled with adventure ideas. Since most of the previous few weeks were filled with wedding prep, I hadn’t had time to plan much for our minimoon. The pocket guide was super helpful! Amenities at Basecamp are minimal, but complete. Shampoo, conditioner and body wash in clean scents, soap and lotion (the lotion was amazing in keeping my skin hydrated in the cold, dry climate). And the decor was also simple, but brilliant. During peak season, I imagine the hotel is filled and there’s a lot more mingling with your fellow vacationers. Since we were there in the off season it almost felt like a private getaway. Breakfast was included with our stay. It …
As part of wedweek festivities my sister and God sister planned a pie night at Pietisserie in Oakland complete with the cutest apron party favors! Welcome to Pietisserie! The ambiance – clean kitchen, warm & cozy, filled with inspirational baking tools. My God sister loves to get pies for all of her occasions from Pietisserie. Also, she knows everyone this side of the lake. Not only did she special request this class for me, but she special requested for some food to be delivered from Portal next door. All the ingredients were set up for us and Owner/Instructor/Pie Lady Extraordinaire Jaynelle walked us through each step in the pie making process. The evening’s pie menu: Triple Berry – blueberry, strawberry, and blackberry Blueberry & Pear, and Pecan We learned how to make all the fillings, and Jaynelle divulged all crust making secrets and demoed how to create fancy lattice work. Fresh out of the oven! They turned out so pretty! All that was left to do was to devour them. Yay for pie and pretty aprons! A huge thank …
A lot of people seem to have a theme for their wedding and I never really thought of having one for ours until we started making all of our wedding crafts. The Hubs and I were both born and raised in California, we met at Cal (Berkeley), and our love is California grown, so California Love seemed most appropriate. Plus, I love all things heart shaped. Here’s a peak at our wedding favors: laser cut California bottle openers with a tiny heart in the Bay Area. I wish I could take credit for making these, but I actually found them on Etsy. When I came across the California bottle openers I got super excited. What was even more exciting is that the maker – Julian of Sheety Metal Gifts – is based in our city of residence. If I wasn’t making it myself, supporting handmade businesses was an important element I wanted for our wedding. Here are the bottle openers fresh after the laser cutting stage. After cutting, the little Californias went into the metal tumbler for polishing. …
One of my favorite artists Genevieve Santos had a pop-up shop and live drawing session last week. The first time I met Genevieve I totally fangirled; this time, I totally fangirled again, but hopefully I was less creepy. 🙂 Her artwork is totes adorbs! I love all the color, the cute characters, and how much I can relate to the pieces. I mean…boba girl, am I right? I absolutely love her displays, too. Wooden shelves, vintage boxes, table cloths with sparkles… She had stickers, prints, cards, and magnets for sale. Even some originals, too. I wanted it all! We arrived early so we could shop her collection, but we were really there for the live drawing. I had been eagerly waiting for a custom session with Genevieve. The Hubs was excited, too; he brought the GoPro and filmed it! We asked Genevieve to draw us in our wedding day outfits with a similar pose to the characters in her Celebrate Wedding Card. Look, it’s us! The details, the colors, the pearly white teeth… 😉 It was crazy …
In today’s special Mother’s Day post I’m sharing a DIY that my beautiful Mama taught me how to make: boutonnieres and corsages! Growing up, I used to watch her make these for all her special events — club galas, church celebrations, birthdays…. So for my wedding, I wanted to make all the wearable flowers with my sister and our queen lady. I gathered flowers from the Temescal Farmers Market in Oakland and eucalyptus from Berkeley Bowl (my favorite market place!). Aren’t these ranunculi gorgeous? And check out my Mama’s flower hand modeling skills below. Materials and supplies were basic. We used floral tape, ribbons of choice (blush and ivory to match my wedding colors), and scissors. We made a boutonniere/corsage for each wedding guest. For the gents we made boutonnieres in shades of pink with eucalyptus leaf accents and blush ribbon. For the ladies we made larger corsages with white flowers and accent flowers, and longer strands of ribbon. How to: Position your flowers and accent leaves. Wrap with floral tape leaving some stem showing at the bottom. You can …
