All posts filed under: Adventures

highlights and sneak peeks.

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Happy New Year! I’m kicking off this year’s posts with a Top 4 highlights from 2022 + sneak peeks to some 2023 posts! You ready? In no particular order… 1. Reinstated (low key) birthmonth activities. If you’ve been following along you know I enjoy multiple smaller celebrations throughout the month to accommodate schedules and to do new things with friends. Last year I threw a pastry picnic and a park pizza hang with a birthday white elephant gift exchange. Will definitely share more on both of these activities to jumpstart picnic season! 2. Attended online crafty workshops. I miss in-person workshops, but I also like taking virtual workshops in my loungewear. Here’s a snap of my kit for a mushroom embroidery workshop. I’m looking forward to more creative projects for 2023! 3. Reinstated plane travel – with a toddler in tow! I flew to Colorado for a work conference and brought the family along for the adventure. It was my first flight since 2019. I actually felt prepared to travel with Bebe, but I was …

hello dah-ling.

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Some major flower crown inspiration here! I’ve been wanting to visit the dahlia farms in Petaluma. I didn’t have the opportunity to go this season, but I did get to visit the dahlias in Golden Gate Park. This garden is near the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers and is maintained by the Dahlia Society of California. It’s a small garden but packed with so many varieties of dahlias! Apparently, dahlias come in a range of sizes from 2 inches in diameter to over 10 inches! Some, I didn’t recognize to be dahlias. They are all so different! Lucky me, they were in full bloom on my visit (first weekend in October). I later learned that dahlias are the official flower of San Francisco, so it seemed fitting to go see the San Francisco dahlia garden first (before Petaluma). Are you a dahlia fan? What’s your favorite variety? Mine is all. 🙂

sunflower.

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Since I’ve been back to work full time I’ve found myself working long hours most days. So I’m doing my best to carve out some days where I can take a break. I’ve been averaging one day off every two months. It’s not much, but it’s a start. I’ve spent my days off with my little family visiting somewhere new together. So far, we’ve gone to the beach in Pacifica, strolled a Petaluma neighborhood, and went sunflower field hunting in Dixon – featured here! We even made a music video. There are so many sunflower fields in the area. Take your pick! Just note, the ones we spotted were all on private land so we stayed on the outskirts of the property, was careful not to damage any of the plants, and of course did not take any blooms. It was such a treat to catch a glimpse in real life. What do you like to do on your days off? Share below!

travel journaling.

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Whenever I go on a big trip I bring along a notebook to do some journaling. I usually go for a watercolor book because the paper is dreamy and textured. Sharing a little of my Japan travel journal today! I try to journal everyday on vacation to document highlights and everything we did during the day. And I decorate with things I find on my trip. In Japan, I found Kitta washi tape books and sakura washi paper stickers. These were perfect for adding accents to my journal pages. I also save all receipts, booklets, and little paper finds in case I want to include additional decorations. I add these at the very end, usually when I get back from my trip. Some of the local travel guides had cute images of places we visited; I liked including these, too. I sometimes create pockets in my journals to store small booklets, too. And I do lots of doodling (mostly food doodles). Do you journal on vacay? Share your journaling tips and habits below.

legoland.

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On my San Diego vacation with the fam, we went to Comic Con, tasted all the chocolate at Chuao, and ventured to Legoland, where everything is awesome. My niece and nephews are still big Lego fans. It was my first time to visit Legoland, but they have been to Legoland many times before so they each got to show me their favorite parts. We spent the entire day there. OMG, I was ded, but it was fun! We rode as many rides as we could. My brother-in-law got the Reserve n Ride pass so we could cut lines! They have all kinds of carnival games (I played a few!) and some of the rides were more like interactive activities. Of course, there were lots of structures made of Lego bricks. There is a mini land which features major U.S. cities, all the rides had some kind of Lego feature, and there was a Star Wars section with Lego scenes and characters. You can tour a small scale Lego factory, see Master Builders in action, meet …

comic con!

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I went to Comic Con with my nephew! Does this get me extra cool aunt bonus points? 🙂 We got tickets for two days and spent our time between the expo, panels, and waiting in line. My sister dropped us off near the San Diego Convention Center to avoid traffic. While walking to the convention there were bursts of Comic Con all around, including a Bob’s Burgers carnival and robots! The convention takes over the whole convention center plus parts of the Gaslamp Quarter with extra activities in nearby hotels and businesses. Each day we sat in two panels. On our first day we went to a film school panel on preproduction (screenwriting, scheduling, location scouting, growing your crew, and accessing equipment). We also went to a panel about Filipino comic book artists. On our second day we went to the Riverdale cast Q&A session and a panel with comic book illustrators – they talked about their comic illustration process. If I ever go again, I’d like to attend more panels and learn all the …

shopping culture.

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The shopping culture in Japan is like whoa. Gifting and packaging play a key role. Shops often provide additional bags and tissues for gift giving. And if you’re lucky, your items will be wrapped with pretty paper and you won’t want to open them because the wrapping will be too lovely to mess up. Everywhere you go – a shopping plaza! Train stations had stories of shopping, too. In Toyko, the Ginza shopping district has big brand shops. It also has Itoya, an eight-story categorized shopping experience. It was on my must-see list. A floor for planners, a floor with cards, a floor dedicated to craft and one for fine papers… I visited an origami shop. Calligraphy and paper stores were also popular – I loved stumbling across these shops; the workers were always so friendly and curious where I was visiting from. My favorite crafty shop find: Wrapple Wrapping & DIY Cafe, a small boutique DIY bar and cafe with co-working space filled with washi and paper and decor items. We also visited the …

craftcation: teach all the things!

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This year was my first Craftcation experience. I had it on my wish list for a few years now, and finally made it happen. I knew I wanted to do more than just go and take it all in though. So my friend Rebecca of Oodlebadoodle put in a good word for me and viola, I got on the schedule to teach five classes! I taught all the felt things – felt flowers, felt succulents, felt airplants, and felt flair! Here are some photos from all the workshops. Felt flair. For the opening/welcome dinner, we all gathered at the Ventura Fairgrounds for an evening of food, friendship – and felt! I hosted a felt flair table. I heard there was also button and magnet making, a pom pom earrings station, and book signings, too. Everyone got to pick their own design. There were rainbows, pet portraits, pennants, name tags, avocados…. Himmeli, pom-tass, and felt air plants – oh my! I taught this class twice in one day (with a lunch break in between). It’s basically …

craftcation.

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Hiyee! I’m back from a whirlwind craft vacation ~ Craftcation! There is so much to share…so get ready because I’m flooding the interwebs with all the fun craft magic! Here are some Craftcation highlights. Craftcation is a conference for makers and creative business owners. It’s hosted by the awesome crew at Dear Handmade Life at the Ventura Marriott. I spent five days teaching and learning, and getting inspired! More on all the workshops I taught and took soon. (Oh, there are a lot of them!) Biznez. I took one business class with Marlo Miyashiro of The Handmade Showroom on how to develop wholesale line lists. There were so many other business classes, too (but I was busy with all the crafting!!). You could also schedule a one-on-one consult with experts to discuss your handmade business. Fabric wall. There were sewing classes, dyeing classes, textiles and embroidery…so many things to choose from. For all of the sewing classes, there was a fabric wall to select your class materials. For all other classes, all the materials were …

neon.

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Also in Vegas, I dragged my friend to the Neon Museum! Why this outdoor museum featuring old and mostly non-functioning neon signs intrigued me so much beats me, but it was awesome! I knew the signs had to be huge to light up the night sky and attract visitors but whoa, they are gigantic!! The museum is smallish and you can do a loop rather quickly, but it’s nice to stroll through and search for signs buried behind other signs. It’s also fun to stumble upon a tour to learn some sign history (If I ever go again I’d want to pay extra for the tour.) You get a pamphlet to guide you through some of the featured neon signs and there are docents throughout if you have any questions. There is so much history in the museum. It was sunny out and all the signs looked lovely against blue sky (#nofilter). There’s also a night tour and light show, but the signs didn’t have to be illuminated to appreciate the beauty of their design. …