Rainbow Birthday

Pumpkin's first birthday was about 10 weeks ago, so I figured it's high time I post something from the celebration. We just had a small gathering at our house, but I was pretty excited about decorating nonetheless. Once I found the invitation, I settled on a rainbow theme. Finding ideas for decorations was easy thanks to Pinterest and a few favorite blogs ...

Month-by-Month picture banner inspired by Kara's Party Ideas, via Pinterest.

Fringed number 1 inspired by Oh Happy Day.
(I made it on posterboard instead of taping to the wall.)

Streamers inspired by Oh Chickadee

Oreo Pop favors from Makoodle.

Pennants made from leftover paper from the photos at top, now serving as bedroom decor.

Since we were out of town for a few days the week before the birthday, I put the decorations up early, so it was fun to have the house look festive for a couple extra weeks. The most fun part, though, was watching Pumpkin dig into her cake. I can't believe how fast the first year went by!

Nursery additions

I never really wanted a theme for the baby's room, and I'm glad we didn't do one because I can now add things at random without worrying about whether or not they match the theme. Recently we added a couple "new" things that I think are fun ....

First, we took one of each color of paper lantern from our shower (after leaving them hanging over the back porch all summer) and hung them over the window. Pumpkin likes to look at them from her crib.


The next one was a little more work. I had seen on a blog one time an idea of buying used children's books and tearing out and framing some of the pages as decoration. I was going to go shopping at Goodwill for books, but then I remembered this favorite poem from when I was a kid.

I found the book used on Amazon for about $5. I then realized the poem was on three pages, so instead of tearing it out, I made color copies. (Which is nice, actually, because now the book is still intact.)


I bought frames on sale for $5 each at Michael's, and had mats cut in the color I wanted for about $10.


The entire project cost about $30 and I think it looks really cute, plus it has a personal touch. I like to read the poem to Pumpkin and show her the pictures.

Sketchbook Update

I didn't get quite as far in my sketchbook as I had hoped, but I filled it more than halfway and earlier this month shipped it off to Brooklyn. Here are a few of the sketches. I also did some in pencil, charcoal and chalk, and even a couple using stamps, but for some reason all of the ones I chose to post were done with a ballpoint pen.

This is one of my favorites. It was doodled during my geography and film class.

Another in-class doodle.

Detail shot of another sketch, which turned out very similar to the one pictured at the top.

I call this one "Breakfast at Dad's." I drew it when we were in L.A. earlier this month.

This one I drew when we returned home, inspired by SoCal.

There are a lot of things I had hoped to do with this project - I wanted to stay with a theme, and fill every page, and come up with a clever decoration for the cover, but things just didn't turn out that way. There's always next year!

Indie Reno

On Saturday, my craft group held our first craft fair, Indie Reno. I had never done a real craft fair before and wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't have as much inventory as some of the other tables (I've been a little busy preparing for my master's defense) but I still exceeded my sales goals, and it was fun. A lot of my people I knew came by, and Na stayed to help me all day, and she and Erin both helped out with giftwrapping (we offered giftwrapping and hot cocoa for free). I'm pretty sure I have the best friends ever.

Here is my table. The light in the window behind made it hard to get a good picture.

We also gave swag bags to the first 25 people who walked in the door.
People actually were lined up outside before we opened!

I'm looking forward to our next show, sometime in the spring!

Sketchy

I've always enjoyed drawing. I've never had any formal training, and I wouldn't claim to be an artist or anything, I just like to do it. When I was a kid, I drew things all the time and once or twice entered my drawings in the fair. I still doodle, especially while I'm in class, as you can see by taking a peek inside any of my notebooks.
My mom and stepdad always encouraged me to draw, and once invited a friend's daughter who was a trained artist to give us a lesson in drawing faces. Stony kept things I had drawn hanging in his office at our house, and for my 20th birthday, he sent me a sketchpad and a drawing kit with pencils, charcoals and chalk to remind me that I hadn't been drawing enough.

When I read that my cousins Mandy and Denise and their mom Jane were participating in The Sketchbook Project, I knew I also wanted to do it. I signed up a couple weeks ago and received my sketchbook in the mail last weekend. My theme is "... you'd be home now" and I imagine that I will interpret that quite loosely. I decided that I will dedicate my sketchbook in Stony's memory, since I know he would be just delighted by this project.

I still have the drawing kit Stony gave me. (I still haven't been drawing enough.) So that is what I used for the the first drawing.
I'll post some more updates on the progress of the sketchbook before I have to send it in. I hope Chris and I will be able to go to San Francisco in June to see the Sketchbook tour.

Miguel's Meat Cake!

Guest blog brought to you by Tammy's sister Marina:

I love to bake. As you can tell by Tammy's posts, it's somewhat of a family trait. But the problem is Miguel has more of a savory tooth than a sweet tooth. So this year for his birthday I thought I would try to make something that he would enjoy eating as much as I would enjoy baking it. A friend of mine had the solution - a meat cake! It was perfect, I found a good recipe online, and got started.

6 lbs of meet, prepped and ready to bake

cooked and cooling, tops cut off

filled with gravy made from the drippings

(the recipe called for ketchup glaze but I thought gravy would look and taste better)

some boxed mashed potatoes and a little food coloring...

and ta-da - it's a cake!

Happy Birthday Miguel!

Guess what!? It's meat!

I knew it was a smashing success when Miguel tasted it and said, "this is the best cake I've ever eaten."

My First Sewing Project

Back in the Summer of 2001, my cousin Jen bought me a pair of Care Bear pajamas. I remember it was 2001, because that was the summer we went to New York together, it was both of our first time there and we had lots of fun being tourists around Manhattan. We were there for a horse race at Belmont, but we were able to also see a show on Broadway and go to the top of the Empire State Building and other fun stuff. Anyway, I'm fairly certain that Jen had some Strawberry Shortcake jammies, and got me the Care Bear ones for my birthday.

Jen and I with an NYPD officer

When Chris and I were moving into the house, I went through a bunch of clothes to give to Goodwill. I found the pajamas, which I haven't worn in years, and nearly gave them away. But then I had an idea to turn them into pajamas for Juliette. There was just one problem - I had no idea how to go about it. Luckily, Chris' mom was coming for a visit. She showed me how to pick out a pattern, how to cut it out and showed me how to sew it. It's the first time I've really used my sewing machine, and although the pajamas didn't turn out perfectly, I was pretty happy with the result. I couldn't have done it without Rita's help!

Above: the pajamas Before

Below: the pajamas After

My Dad and Deb were here this weekend (more on that soon!) and they will be delivering the pjs to Jen and Juliette this week. I sure hope they like them (and that they fit)!

DIY Gift Bags

I had a little time on my hands on Saturday night at work, so I wrote up a little tutorial on my other, other blog on how to make them. Check it out here!

My First Project

When I saw these "scrapboxes" in the February issue of Martha Stewart Living, I knew I wanted to make some, and I didn't want to wait until we have kids to make them. (I have an issue with patience.) Then I realized we had no pictures of Scoop printed and hanging anywhere. So after she removed all the filling from her Valentine toy, and started ingesting bits of plastic from her little newspaper, I hid them from her until we moved and I was able to make my first project in the craft room. They were super easy to make. I got shadowboxes (which came with pins) and foam board from Michael's. I already had double-sided tape. I didn't need anything else, except one piece of scrapbook paper. The plastic newspaper was just the right size that it stays in place just by closing the shadowbox.
We hung them on the wall in between the craft room and the man cave. It's nice to have some pictures up on the wall. (Although Scoop would have preferred to have her toys back, she whined as soon as she saw them.)
You can see the projects from the magazine and more here. Fun stuff.

Welcome to my ...

The craft room is really a work in progress, but today I was able to put some furniture in it, play with the chalkboard wall and do some homework (theoretically). I still want to get a folding table for sewing and other projects, and need to figure out what's going on the walls. But it's good for now! It will especially be nice to do homework in here instead of having my laptop, books and papers all over our dining room table.

If you have a chalkboard wall, you have to have chalk!

Desk and bookshelf, obviously.

Scoop came in and got right in the bookshelf. Silly puppy.

Soundtrack of my life

So in the packing process, I found a treasure trove of cassette tapes. These are just a little sample, but you'll see they begin with the '80s with the Bangles and Belinda Carlisle and roll right through the '90s with Liz Phair and No Doubt. There are lots more. Bob Marley and Johnny Cash that I bought used in Santa Cruz. Mix tapes my sister sent me when I lived in Monterey. I have a tape player in my car, but I rarely (maybe once or twice a year) actually play tapes in it ... and some of my favorites are warped. But some of these tapes represent some great memories, which is probably the reason they've moved with me so many times over the last 13 years. I was going to post this blog as "keep or toss," but then I decided I'm not ready to throw them all away ... so I did a little research and found some upcycling projects. Once we get settled into the house and school is on break, maybe I'll take some time and remake these tapes into wallets and belt buckles, clutches, or maybe even jewelry. And you know what else I'll put in the craft room? Our little TV with a built in VCR ... so I can watch my old VHS tapes while I'm crafting. At least, until I find a fun project for them, too ...

Do you still have cassette tapes? What would you do with them? What was your first tape?

I'm not sure what me and Mena's first tape was, but I have a hunch it was a blank white tape with this song on it.

My Christmas craft project

I had lots of Christmas projects I wanted to make for gifts, but there wasn't enough time in the week between finals and our trip to get to all of them. This is the one project I did manage to make - bottlecap magnets. I found instructions on this blog post, but did mine a little bit different. Instead of using images from an old calendar or magazine, I resized 24 pictures (each image to 1000 x 1000) and put them together to make a 4-by-6-inch photo (4000 x 6000 ... that way, each image was one square inch). Then, to make cutting out the holes easier, I bought a one-inch hole punch at Michael's. Other than that, I simply followed the instructions on the blog and the resin package. They were a big hit with the family! I forgot to take pictures during the making ... these are the ones we gave to Chris' parents.

Now that I've done it, I have lots more ideas to try using the same basic method. What kinds of crafts did you do for the holidays?

Green Giftwrap

So on Saturday I hosted a Green Giftwrap class at EcoReno. The bummer was that it snowed and snowed most of Friday and Saturday, which kept some people away. But four people showed up and that seemed like a good size class for the amount of space I had. In preparation, I wrapped up some "gifts" using upcycled materials ...

(1) sewing patterns as giftwrap; (2) newspaper end roll stamped; (3) brown paper bag; (4) sheet of Sierra Nevada bottle labels found at recycling center; (5) sewing patterns as tissue paper; (6) box lid wrapped with scrapbooking paper; (7) Starbucks sleeves as gift tags; (8) map; (9) newspaper; (10) scarf.

Here's a closer look at the box wrapped with a sewing pattern ... I made the top decoration just before the class - it was a little bigger than I wanted but I thought it turned out cute. I'll be making more of those.

Gift tags made with Na's tag punch and cards we received last year for Christmas.

More gift tags from cards, these ones I just cut out.

For the class, I talked about the different materials I used for giftwrap. Then we made embellishments (which could also be used as ornaments) using chipboard from cereal boxes, glitter and glue. Finally, we made bows out of magazine pages. Na is showing off her first bow above. I think the class went well, so hopefully I can do it again next year on a weekend when the weather is a little nicer!

P.S. Someone used the same pattern from How About Orange to make the bows from felt. Cute!

Hey Reno, mark your calendars ...

On Saturday, Dec. 12, I will be presenting a green giftwrapping class at EcoReno. We will be talking about how to upcycle materials you already have at home to make giftwrap, and everyone will make a bow out of a magazine page (as seen on How About Orange) ...

(Perhaps I shouldn't have posted the link ... now you know how to do it. But - I've already done half the work for you - and isn't it more fun to do together?)

We'll also turn a cereal box (or Kleenex box, or cracker box, or ....) into a giftwrap embellishment. You could also use it as an ornament!

Hope to see you there!