Month: October 2019

hallo- and goodbye-ween.

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My coworker Sam’s last day of work was yesterday and he requested a Halloween themed goodbye party complete with Halloween crafts. I must have rubbed off on him over the past almost five years for him to request a craft party. I’m on it! We ordered pizza (per celebrant’s request) and cake, and people brought extra snacks to share. I helped decorate mandarin oranges to look like jack-o-lanterns and created a platter with marshmallows, chocolates, and fruits. For decor I brought out all the fun Halloween crafts I had been working on, including my Make & Play DIY samples, bat mobile, and decor from Halloweens past. We drew tombstones on the white board, too, with “It Was Nice Knowing You,” ” Creep it Real,” “See You Never,” and “Boy, bye.” We’re not bitter. 😉 We also brought back the famous Sam face masks (we used them at his wedding shower a few years ago). They were everyone’s pre-Halloween costume! And for crafts: pumpkin decorating, Halloween embroidery, and sticker coloring. Here are the how-tos! Boy Bye …

trick or treat yo’self.

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Treat box time! Here’s a fun Halloween care package to gift to your favorite people. Treats and Halloween gifts. I found BOO chips shaped like ghosts (from Whole Foods) and Halloween Junior Mints (from Paper Source). I also made a black, white, and orange heart garland – not quite spooky, but still festive! Box and filler. I like using photo boxes from craft stores. They look nice and they make perfect shipping boxes. For filler I used kraft paper and added polyfil to look like cobwebs or fog. Dangly things. I like to add things that will dangle or pop out when the recipients lift the box lid. These metallic feathers worked well for this box; I taped them to the lid. Cord and other wrap. I secured the box with baker’s twine. I also found a mummy wrap at Daiso and wrapped it around the box. Also from Daiso, Halloween food picks; they worked really well for securing the mummy wrap. Packaging. If you’re shipping your treats, my still favorite wrap of choice is …

art of DC.

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Washington DC is full of art, too! I visited the National Portrait Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and spotted murals and neighborhood art all over town. National Portrait Museum When I go to art galleries I like to get up close with the art and see all the textures in the paintings. At the National Portrait Museum I got to see Barack Obama’s portrait. It was even more amazing in person – so colorful and grand. Blagden Alley I love, love, love alleys with murals! I enjoyed reading about Blagden Alley’s history, too. It made walking through so much more meaningful. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden At the Hirshhorn I spotted a Pollack and a Mondrian! There was a special Manifesto exhibit and in the video room they timed it so the 13 character monologues were at one point in sync and almost chanting with each other. Art! Also at the Hirshhorn, a sculpture series which I didn’t quite understand, but I had to photograph all the pieces. Watermelon House We spotted the …

bat mobile.

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A Halloween inspired pomtass chandelier! For this project you will need: 2″ ring 8″ hoop Nylon cord 10 paper straws cut into 28 -2 1/2 inch pieces Card stock (1 – 12×12 sheet is plenty) 1-2″ hole punch 1/4″ hole punch Yarn in orange, black, and white Pom pon / tassel tool Black felt Paper scissors Fabric scissors Tray Hot glue Googly eyes Binder clips Prep all the pieces: Cut 28 pieces of straw. Punch 20 card stock circles and punch a 1/4″ hole in the middle of each circle. Make 1 orange pompon for the pumpkin. Cut out a Jack-O-Lantern face; attach with hot glue. Make 4 white tassel ghosts. I opted out of a ghost face, but you can add googly eyes or a felt face with hot glue. Make 4 black pompons for bats. Cut four sets of felt bat wings. Sew on bat wings by attaching to the pompon’s tight center cord. Add googly eyes with hot glue. Cut 4 5-foot strands of cord. Assemble: Fold all cord strands in half. …

make and play diy: halloween edition.

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Kellie from Make and Play DIY took my himmeli pomtass workshop at Craftcation 2019 and was inspired to create a Halloween themed kit for her subscribers. She asked me to help with the project, so I got my nails done and started filming! I had recently purchased a camera holder so I was excited for this opportunity to film a DIY. Kellie sent over lots of materials for me to play and experiment with before finalizing the project details: yarn, straws, felt, markers, a sewing kit, … I created two himmeli pomtass project variations. Here’s the first: Howl at the Moon. For this project I used yarn, a pom pom and tassel maker, paper scissors, fabric scissors, embroidery floss, a craft needle, a sewing needle, a tray, a ruler, four paper straws, and four wolf die cuts. My second variation: Caged Bird. For this project I used yarn, a pom pom and tassel maker, paper scissors, fabric scissors, embroidery floss, a craft needle, a sewing needle, a tray, a ruler, twelve paper straws, and one …

landmarks of DC.

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In addition to touring gardens, I did some touristing to national monuments and historic sites! Everywhere you look there’s a piece of history and a story. I enjoyed walking everywhere because you could stop and discover places and hidden gems. Apple Carnegie Library Logan Circle Park Major General George Henry Thomas Statue U.S Department of the Treasury The White House and the National Christmas Tree Pershing Park / John J. Pershing General of the Armies Dupont Circle Fountain Lafayette Square / Major General Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette Statue United States Capitol World War II Memorial Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument Famous Homes: John Logan House, Richard and Agnes Dolph Nixon’s Home, House Where Lincoln Died, Duke Ellington’s Childhood Home Chinatown Friendship Archway National Museum of African American History and Culture United States Department of Agriculture From the road – Thomas Jefferson Memorial and Potomac River Have you been to DC? What are some of your must see historic sites?

hooptopia.

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It’s neat to be Elite! I scored free passes to the Hooptopia Warriors experience via my Yelp Elite status so I told Hubby it was part of his birthday celebrations. 🙂 You enter on the second floor overlooking the ball pit. First up, you get measured up. Wing span, standing vertical leap, and agility are all assessed. Then you get ‘the call’ and get picked for the draft, and you’re off on your private jet. Clearly this is a place for those who love to take photos. Swings over the Chase Center arena were my favorite! Locker room hangs and photos with your personalized jersey up next. Hubby picked out ‘Real MVP’ for me. Look Ma, I can spin a ball on my finger! Then down the slide to the lower level and straight into a ball pit. (Ball pit photo fail – that’s my arm in the photo! And some random kid!) Oh, and there is candy every so often up for grabs. We suited up for slam dunks! The bobblehead room has a …

tennis party.

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Hubby’s birthday was last week and since he’s a low key kind of guy, I am now an expert in low key birthdays. I love planning and decorating even if it’ll just be the two of us celebrating. This year I went with a tennis theme. Hubby turned 34, so I told him the theme was “34-love” – a play on the weird tennis scoring that I still do not understand. (Who came up with it?!) Decor included green paper garlands, fans, ornaments, and heart balloons, plus a low key sign… 🙂 I got small lime green plates to represent tennis balls and reddish-orange plates to represent clay courts. For food I made tennis pasta! Take a closer look – the pasta is tennis racquet shaped. And I called in some help from Trader Joe’s – pumpkin and butternut squash pasta sauce and meatballs for the win. I added lots of basil, too. So creamy. I also made celery soup because Novak Djokovic drinks celery juice and Hubby is into it. But the stars of …

gardens of DC.

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I went on a work trip to Washington DC and I made sure to go exploring every chance I got! This was my first time back since my junior year of high school. I remember visiting places I had learned about in history class. This time, at the top of my list were gardens and art museums/installations! Behold, the gardens of DC. United States Botanic Garden. The U.S. Botanic Garden spans a section of the National Mall. I was so excited to be there, the lobby folks gave us additional coloring books and orchid-gami sheets for enthusiasm! 🙂 There were different gardens to explore – desert plants, medicinal plants, the tropics, and my favorite – the edible garden! They also had an exhibit featuring gardens around the United States. My favorite was the Tucson Botanical Gardens display with the blue walls. Community Garden at Woodrow Wilson Plaza. We stumbled upon a community garden while exploring town. For part of the year they hold Friday Farmers Markets in the space. We spotted giant okra. Enid A. …

quilting 101.

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Throoowbaaaack. Back in the winter time, my coworker Holly, quilter extraordinaire, hosted weekly quilting-at-lunch lessons at work for our friend Sahskkia and me. I never thought I’d have the patience to make a quilt, but I did it! Well, almost… In our first session, Holly reviewed quilting basics and showed us all the tools of the trade as well as some of her current projects. Beautiful! Holly picked an easy starter quilt pattern for us to try that would help us with our “piecework” or putting the quilt pieces together. Precision is key! Here’s the fabric I decided on using. From top to bottom: leftover fabric from wedding crafts, fabric from Holly x2, and more leftover wedding craft fabric that I had indigo dyed. Our next few sessions were spent perfecting our fabric cutting, and getting all of the pieces ready for sewing. And using this adorable travel iron! Then piecing, cutting up the pieced strips, and piecing them back together in a pattern. More sewing and pressing and piecing… …and sewing and pressing and …