All posts filed under: Celebrate.

costume contest.

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Somebody won second place in a Yelp East Bay costume contest! Hint: it was us! This year Hubby and I dressed up as a pair of cacti. (Unfiltered: We were a couple of pricks. :P) I was most excited about making our headpieces. For my headpiece, I created a large pink cactus flower on top of a cushion-shaped cactus. For Hubby’s, I went with more of a bunny ears cactus look. I decorated some of our green clothing with felt Vs. I used double sided tape so our clothes wouldn’t get ruined. I’m a big fan of making costumes with normal clothes, felt cut outs, and double sided tape! We don’t normally go out for Halloween, but this year we went to a Yelp Elite event at East Brother Beer. There were cupcakes, tacos, pizza, and beer, plus all the fun costumes! We met childhood friends Arnold and Helga, world renowned super hero fashion designer Edna Mode, Beast (as in ‘Beauty and the’), and a deer (an Oh Deer!). Our costume prize: a gift certificate …

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 …

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 …

block party.

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I was invited to lead a Make & Take station at the SF Block Party hosted by Civic Center Commons in partnership with my SF Etsy team! This was the first in their series of 1st Sunday block parties for the summer, and it was a special one because the Women’s World Cup Finals were happening (and they had a watch party near City Hall). I set up shop. Bonus – event staff set up all the tents for us. Easy breezy. I brought some sports pennants for the sporty occasion, plus surprise bags, flower crowns, more pennants, and wall hangings. Today’s best sellers: flower crowns and surprise bags! And here’s the Make & Take set-up: a paper pennant DIY to celebrate the sports – and a win for Team USA. There were also street soccer matches, games, food trucks, and music. Plus the farmers market across the street. The DIY was super popular and both little kids and big kids enjoyed creating flags. And since SF Etsy curated the vendors for the event, I …

yay may.

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Apparently, May is all about celebrating creative space anniversaries! This month I celebrated back-to-back weekends with Mischief (they turned 2!) and Craft + Work (they turned 1!). Happy creative space anniversaries to you both! Here’s a recap! Mischief owners Laura and Julien are big on creating a space for their community – they live and work and raise their kid (and puppy!) in the neighborhood. I love being part of this space! At their two-year anniversary celebration there was cake, a free finger puppet craft for the family, a drank bar, and a few Mischief Makers (get it?). For my set-up I brought my felt-lettered decor, flower crown bar, and surprise packs. And I met two fellow Mischief Makers – Tiffany of Paper and Scissor and Chelsey of Facet Handmade. It was a sunny day – perfect for outdoor hangs, and a styled, collaborative photoshoot. 🙂 Craft + Work owners Roberta and Abby opened their doors to creative workshops last year, and they invited some of their workshop instructors (that’s me, too!) to set up …

what’s good in the â€˜hood.

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For our third wedding anniversary we made sure we kept our weekend free to celebrate, but then we were so busy with Craftcation (me), tennisings (Hubby), and Japan travels (more on this soon!) that we didn’t actually plan anything until the last minute. Whoops! But lucky for us, we live in the Bay Area where everyday can feel like a vacation and we thought up some last minute plans. On Saturday, our anniversary eve, we picnicked at our wedding park (Live Oak). I prepped some snacks: roasted cauliflower and potatoes, dill cream cheese to go with the cutest heart-shaped lavash crackers, a cucumber dill yogurt salad (we had a lot of dill…), and leftover dumplings from breakfast. Plus beverages. It was beautiful out and there were many people enjoying the warm weather. We admired the trees, Hubby rested in the sunshine, and I painted a little. Afterwards, we went to a favorite Japanese market (Tokyo Fish Market) because it’s fun there and I love markets. On Sunday, our anniversary day, we hung out at one …