hello valentine.

i created my first DIY valentine's day cards for kaila's new preschool friends.  the inspiration came from SallyJShim.  i added googly eyes, ruby red rhinestone smiles, love extremities, and a name banner to make it extra cheesy.  but how can you not resist extra cheesiness on valentine's day?

four different fabric hearts cut out from k's first birthday party decorations.

teachers got the gigantic googly eyes.

all were packaged with candy.

and i made one for our valentine.

since kaila doesn't know how to write her name yet, her contribution included smearing gluestick everywhere {most eyes ended up being cloudy}, placing heart stickers, and trying to eat everyone's candy, of course.

***
for those who may be wondering why it has been almost a year since i have posted...
four words can almost explain my absence - pregnancy, fetal loss, depression.
the good news is that i found the happy me.
happy blogging.

why can't all weekends be 4 days?

wow.  what an exhausting, but fun weekend!

i seriously wish a work week lasted only 3 days...

don't you?

it was rare for me to be at home for so long, so i made a feeble attempt at bringing out some creative juices.  we had the turkey feast with the in-laws AND my parents at our house for the 1st time that went... surprisingly well.  here's a last minute centerpiece i made with pumpkins (the ones we forgot to throw away from halloween) and leftover paint:

used non-traditional fall colors for a festive dinner... okay, i only had blue, white, & gray paint @ home! (photo by hubby)

(that night, i did the unthinkable. i went to the outlet mall at 10pm for black friday deals with a friend in the freezing cold.  crazy? yes. fun? yes.)

the next day started out with a baby shower so i tried to make a fun gift by taking her registered bath frog storage unit and stuffing it with lots of goodies! cuter than a gift wrapped box, no?

boon frog bath storage filled with boy/girl onesies, good night books (kaila's favorites!), boon squirt utensils, & infant toys

then off for a date night with the hubs to an indian engagement ceremony/reception - let me just say, we were stunned.

i wonder what their actual wedding will be like!

and finished the weekend with a mini girls night! 

@ sepia with a delicious 1/2 off bottle of wine - their sunday special!

hope all of you had a fabulous weekend as well!

back to basics

i recently received this DIY birthday invitation in the mail.

don't you love it?

the adorable baby in the invite is ava, and her mom went back to basics and made a fun & crafty invite!  i do love professionally designed invites, but it was so refreshing to see something different.

crayons, paper, scissors, glue... and ta-da! a youthful, one-of-a-kind amusing invite.

thanks jane for letting me share!

oh boy!

having baby K was the best thing that ever happened to me. 

and i am so excited for our good friends katie and dave who are having a baby boy in 4 weeks! 

after painting, baking, and packing my jars & platters until 3am the night before the baby shower (yes - i'm a procrastinator), i'm happy to show you a beautiful baby shower for the beautiful katie shin! 

Oh Boy! theme created by the super talented Hannah Lee

name tags - our names mysteriously turned into boy names

hannah aka hannes proudly wearing her creative name tags

$12 craft: bought wooden letters at a local store (nat & helen's) & painted them blue/gray

the final result! adds character to the dessert table, no? :)

spent time separating colors from my sprinkles... oh boy!

for these rice krispies! thank you hubby for helping me dip these in chocolate!

yummy banana bread chocolate mousse cake i bought at a local bakery (bittersweet cafe)

baby K's contribution: her hippo! lemon bars & pretty paper i found at paperboy to add color to the table

my signature dessert - oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

these ridiculously cute designs by hannah lee!

my job was... the sweets table! from apothecary jars filled with candy to m&ms for desserts to be placed on top... can you tell i have the biggest sweet tooth?!

on the reverse side of the yellow paper above was this cute gray/yellow "shower" pattern

hannah & her friend made about 15 of these pretty poms!

jelly bean goodies for guests - made by anita & hannah

all for this amazing mommy-to-be! (& yay for the rice krispies!)

can't forget a pic of my baby K! her "cheese" pose (purple sweater by Gap, dress by Gingersnaps - Phillipines, Ugg "Boo" boots)

happy baby shower!

DIY like a laxative

as i was talking with one of my pain patients, i hear a mix of liquid and gas bubbles exploding into his colostomy bag. i guess i reacted, and he says, "they just gave me something to move my bowels and i think my pain is all gone now."  oh boy. 

getting the courage to start a DIY project is like a laxative.

you make the decision to just go for it, pop in the pill, and let it take its course.

and once you let loose and finish your project, you are so relieved -

regardless if the end product is pretty or ugly. 

that's how i felt with my very 1st DIY task:

fabric poms & fabric banners for my daughter's 1st birthday party.

although i spent way too many hours late at night cutting and gluing with an alarm clock of 4:30am approaching, i was surprised to feel so content with the way everything turned out. 

being an amateur with design, i learned a lot along the way, and i hope i can give you some tips to save some time and money!



i ended up making 15 banners - sorry i don't have more pics!



Fabric Poms - detailed pic to come!

there's a great tutorial on once wed that i followed, but a few tips that may help:

• try to get the smallest chinese lantern you can find - otherwise it will take too much fabric and time to glue together
• i ended up using about 3 yards for each fabric pom with an 8" chinese lantern - considerably more fabric than i had anticipated
• there's a time commitment of about 2-3 hours for each fabric pom if you complete it in one sitting

Fabric Banner

after looking at a few different banners online, i decided to go the easier route and avoid sewing.  i went with baker's twine, heatbond iron-on adhesives, fabric in blue/pink theme, and iron-on black letters from a craft store.

• to create about 10 10ft banners, you only need 1 yard of 5 different fabrics - my mistake was overestimation
• choose your fabric wisely since you want both sides of the fabric to be identical (not a faded pattern on the back of a print fabric) and avoid thin fabrics if you are using adhesives
• for a clean, crisp look, measure out 2 inches with a pencil between your fabric pendants instead of arbitrarily placing the pendants on the twine

happy DIY!