Month: July 2017

cute farm!

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I’m an air plant gardener now. 🙂 My friends at Cute Farms popped up with me at Urban Air Market in Oakland last weekend. They hosted a build your own air plant terrarium workshop. It was so cute. First you pick your vessel. They had many variations to choose from: a tall glass vase, a round ‘spaceman helmet,’ a teardrop…. Then, you fill it with moss, lichen, and vermiculite. All the filler is preserved so you don’t need to worry about keeping it alive, too. Winning! Some cross promotion action with OMG pennants, color coordinated with the fillers, of course. 😉 Pick an air plant, pick a dinosaur… And viola! My new tiny habitat. Have you ever seen an air plant which such vibrant colors? 😍 The craftermath was a table full of colorful mossfetti! I could make these terrariums all day. Air plants are officially on my favorites list of “things I have a good chance of keeping alive” and “ideas for gift giving.” Are you down with tillandsia? Share air plant stories below! 

find your center(piece).

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As part of golden anniversary decor, my parents requested that I incorporate their party favors into the centerpiece arrangements. Challenge accepted! My parents have an awesome garden. Not only is it filled with a bounty of fruits and vegetables, they’ve got a pretty great succulent collection as well. They decided they wanted to give succulent planters away as their party favors. My Dad made a mix of soil, perlite, and rocks, and they planted a succulent snipping for each of their guests. They cared for the baby succulents for two months prior to the party so the plants could grow into their new pots. I ordered business cards from Moo and used them as favor tags. Like our desert plant love pun? “I will never desert you.” (Yea, you like it.) The tags shimmered with gold foil, as did the twine. There were eight tables to be decorated. My sister, niece, and I brainstormed for weeks and we finally decided on using round mirrors to bring all the centerpiece elements together. We stacked smaller mirrors and …

liquid gold.

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A table number how-to! I used these for my parent’s golden anniversary celebration. Now I want to put liquid gold on everything! 1. Cut paper to size. I used watercolor paper because I like the weight and texture, and cut sheets into 3in by 4in pieces using a paper trimmer. 2. Paint on liquid gold. In a well-ventilated area (seriously, this stuff smells like spray paint), brush on liquid gold to your hearts desire. It’s best to keep the liquid gold away from area you want to write on — the pen ink will fade into the gold a bit. Allow to dry for a few minutes and paint the other side. The paint dries quickly, but I would let these air out overnight or longer. 3. Write table numbers. Black permanent marker works nicely, but be careful not to apply too many layers because it may bleed through. Smooth out the edges of your numbers with a thin black marker. 4. Display. For my parent’s party, I used escort card holders as table number …

golden anniversary.

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My parents recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! To commemorate this milestone occasion, we threw a little party. Per unspoken protocol I was in charge of some of the details! Here’s a look at the welcome table. Framed Photos We printed and framed a few ‘through the years’ photos to display. Guests loved these. Here’s a snap of one of my all time favorite photos of my parents circa 1965 when they were still in the ‘courting’ phase of their relationship. Guestbook We knew we wanted to have a guestbook for friends and family to sign. My sister found this accordion journal in her crafty stash. We thought it’d be perfect for multiple people to sign at once. The guestbook sign read: “Please write us a note about what LOVE means to YOU.” I was hoping that guests would subliminally read “LOVE YOU.” 😉 Plus we had pens in all the colors so guests could write and draw in all the colors of love. Escort Cards For escort cards, I used watercolor paper cut to …

pitmaster.

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Hubby and I took a BBQ/Pitmaster class with Ben of Sneaky’s BBQ. Ben started his BBQ business in 2008, and now partners with Southpaw in San Francisco to bring BBQ to all most days of the week. There’s Ben in the kitchen prepping for class. In this workshop we learned about different cuts of meat, meat smoking techniques, and the difference between North and South Carolina BBQ. We went over the step-by-step process of how to smoke, cut, store, and serve a 12-pound brisket. Caption this: Oh mah gaw, look at that brisket… We tried lean, medium, and fatty pieces of brisket with pickled cucumber and onions. We also tried Ben’s cornbread and house BBQ sauces — a mustard-based sauce (South Carolina) and a tomato-based sauce (North Carolina). My winning combination: medium fat brisket with the mustard sauce! We also had a lesson in dry rubs and each got to make and take home a self-designed rub. Rub Lesson #1: never use table salt for making rubs! Thank you, Ben, for sharing your BBQ and BBQ wisdom …

indigo magic.

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The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design invited me to teach indigo tie dye as part of the Bay Area-wide Summer of Love celebrations. Winning on all levels! I love hanging out and creating in their space, spending time with Bay Area creatives, and sharing crafting secrets. We had a packed house — 30+ crafters! We started with some simple instruction and tie dye how-to. Then it was off to folding and dipping the fabrics. The museum was between exhibits so we had a lot of room to play. Everyone got to design a tea towel, a shirt, and a tote bag, plus whatever else they brought with them. The unveiling is always so impressive. When I teach workshops I always try to sneak in a mini project of my own. This time I experimented with paper lanterns. These will get attached to a string of lights, and you’ll probably see them displayed the next time I teach indigo dyeing! Big ups to my indigo crew (Aurelia and Paloma, xoxo!) for helping with class, …