Babies Waving At Me

Yesterday, I was at the mall waiting for my lunch, and I felt something nudge my leg. An adorable little toddler looked up at me with big blue eyes and waved at me before her Mom carried her away.

The day before, I was in line at the market behind a man holding a baby boy. He (the baby, not the man,) waved at me and then hunkered down in his Dad's shoulder. "Ya can't just wave to her and then be shy buddy, that's not how it works," he said to him.

Yup. I'm feeling the first pangs of baby fever. But I know, despite seeing adorable babies wave to me in public, that we need to wait. That I need to finish school, get our acts together, save money to one day own property. I feel in limbo, like I really want to create a "home" for ourselves but know we aren't anywhere near that point. I don't even know what city we'll be calling home in 5 years, or what I'll be doing, or what he'll be doing. I like to plan and research and read about everything. It drives me a little crazy not to know what will happen.

Babies. All in good time. In the meantime, I hope they keep waving at me!

Help Us Choose An Album Cover

Work is kicking my butt. Where did my carefree summer of mini books and vacations go?? Come back summer of ice cream and rainbows! Boo to spreadsheets and emails! It's seriously cramping all of my fun stuff, including the big project I was supposed to finish: our wedding album. After some frustrating use of Adorama (more on that when I get the actual book) I went back to Blurb. I am SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE. I'm really happy with how it's turned out so far. 

But, it's taken a long time. One of the things the boy and I cannot agree on is the cover. We argued about it without a resolution, and since then I have just left the file untouched. Since I'm going back to grad school in about three weeks (eeek!) it's time I get this project done. Let's pick a cover, please help me. 

I'm not going to tell you which one of us likes what because I know you all love me more and will choose the one I like (ha!) So here are four choices--please excuse the terrible cloning of our names. 

Which one would you choose, to have and to hold, on one's coffee table, from this day forward? Or until we get filthy rich and invest in a cloth-bound book with archival paper?

#1

#2

 

#3

 #4

Thoughts? 1, 2, 3, or 4?

A Craft Project for the Petite

We're short. If we see something on the top shelf at the grocery store, we argue about who is going to stand on the shelf and grab it. "I did it last time, it's your turn...no way, I'm the one that did it last time...oh wait! There's someone tall walking down the aisle, ask her."

I'm really sorry, people above the height of 5'8", we've probably stopped you at many a grocery store. Anyway, we've really needed a step stool for a long time now (what? we have storage space in the top cabinets? shut up!) and we finally got one at IKEA. But it was just so boring, so, I painted it and decoupaged some flowers on top.

Ta-dah!

[Bekvam Step Stool from IKEA, painted in Martha Stewart Aegean Blue]

[I've had this paper for 6 years now, and I haven't done anything with it. You might recognize it as the packaging for Voluspa Japonica candles. This is NICE PAPER but I got tired of it just sitting around...so I cut up some of the flowers, painted them on with Mod Podge, and voila! The paper is now out of the closet.]

I think the step stool is a nice, bright addition to our kitchen and anywhere else we need a boost.

Also, thank you to Discovery Street for the inspiration for the Martha Stewart blue! You should all check out her amazing new bathroom! :)

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 11, Silhouette

[Day 11 - silhouette]

My office mate is IN LOVE with America's Got Talent, and he got me watching a few episodes too. Did anyone see this act?? I thought it was so graceful and impressive.

Silhouettes have been a really popular design element lately that I feel like I see them everywhere along with birds, balloons, and cupcakes. What do you think, do you like the trend or should it start to fade away?

Polka Dot Scarf

 

I'm catching up on life this weekend. First on my "very important things to do" list was to check out the Mad Men collection at Banana Republic, and then I hopped over to Gap for the 50% denim sale. I bought this new scarf (I LOVE scarves, I have a lot of them,) and a pair of super comfy denim leggings at 50% off. 

(This is the highlight of the weekend, for the rest of it I'll probably be cleaning the bathroom and doing my laundry.)   

[Polka dot scarf from Banana Republic]

Hope you all have a pink polka dot weekend. Ciao!

Things We Don't Talk About On Our Blogs

I just watched Catfish. (I know, it came out a long time ago, bear with me.)
If you haven't seen it and would like to see it, then you should probably stop reading now.

I'll wait if you'd like to leave.

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Ok. I'm back. Glad you could stick around! So, Catfish. Catfish is a supposedly real documentary (but has been criticized for being a fake). In a nutshell, the movie is about a 20-something New York photographer who starts an online relationship with a beautiful girl living in the midwest. They have never met. He texts her, sends her emails, talks to her on the phone, all over the course of several months. He *knows* she's gorgeous based on all of the photos on her Facebook page. They talk about being together one day, sharing lives, having a real relationship. They fall in love.

The sad part is that she was a fake. The girl turns out to be a hoax, an entire world created and edited by someone else. The person behind the photos is an artist named Angela Wesselman Pierce. If Catfish is indeed a fake documentary, then I watched a fake documentary that pretends to be real life, about a woman faking her identity on Facebook. A hoax about a hoax.

What I found really interesting about Catfish was the idea that we all edit ourselves online. I definitely do that with this blog. I only post photos I like. I write about only certain aspects of my life. I don't use the boy's real name, or my real name even. It's a curated version of myself, framed in pink. [Although I can still guarantee this blog features the "real" me. You can see some proof here.]

When my life is bombarded with my career, you'll likely not hear from me because I don't share that part of my life on here. It's edited out...hence my silence lately.


We all edit ourselves to some extent, online and in person. What do you share and not share on your blog? How much of your authentic self do you edit?

Happy Weekend!

[Check out the whole "Up" house at Bangerter Homes here]

I miss my more relaxed summer. :( As you can see, July was a great month for blogging! August? Not so much. :/

I'm spending a little time away from work and anything that requires a password by visiting my good friend up north. She is celebrating owning her first home and her first child! It's going to be a great girls' weekend.

Speaking of homes, have you seen the replica of the "Up" house? Yes please. With a corgi and the boy. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! xoxo

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 13, Childhood Memory

So, since I'm already cheating by giving myself more time for this "challenge", I'm breaking even more rules and going out of order. You see, even though San Diego is known for its sunshine, it's been a little gloomy lately, which makes Days 11 and 12 (silhouette and sun flare) difficult when Mr. Sun does not come out!

This is a photo I took of some public art in La Jolla. Notice the grey sky? It's been like this. way. too. much.

[A trash can in La Jolla village--pretty, no?]

I'm jumping ahead to Day 13--childhood memory. For my childhood memory I chose my copy of The Phantom Tollbooth, which I got at my favorite used bookstore in my hometown sometime around age 10. It shared a shelf with some of my other favorites, Harriet the Spy, Matilda, and Charlotte's Web...and a whole gigantic mountain of Babysitter's Club books.

[The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer]

Did you have a favorite book when you were a kid? Do you still have your childhood copies?

Red Egg and Ginger Invitations

My family is hosting a joint red egg and ginger party for my two adorable nephews and I designed the invitations around this super cute bunny stamp. Like our Chinese banquet invitations, I wanted to design something a little different from the typical red and gold Chinese invite. This is what I came up with! 

I used a really simple font and had the file printed by Mercurio Brothers, the same printer that did our beautiful letterpress invitations. The quality is excellent, I highly recommend them if you're looking for a printer!

Then, I heat embossed the bunny on each one. Heat embossing creates a slightly raised surface, similar to thermography. The bunny added just enough extra decoration to my invite.

To heat emboss you will need: 

- a stamp

- a watermark stamp pad, like VersaMark

- embossing powder (I used this red powder)

- an embossing heat tool (I used this one.)

This is how you heat emboss a stamp:

1. Stamp the bunny in the watermark stamp pad. Make sure the whole image gets coated. I made this mistake and the bunny's butt went missing.

2. Stamp the bunny onto your surface. Again, make sure you push down evenly so the ink gets fully applied to the surface. You want the whole bunny!

 3. Cover the surface with the embossing powder. Embossing powder comes in all kinds of color, and even glitter. The downside is that this gets messy, so I used a box lid to catch all of the extra powder.



4. Shake the powder off. Now we can see the bunny! Hi!

 
5. It's time to turn up the heat. Use your heat tool (which gets super hot--650 degree hot) to turn the powdered bunny into a slick, raised surface.

 
6. Bah, sorry girls and guys, had to clone some info out! But here's the final product with the heat embossed bunny.

 
7. I wanted to add an envelope liner, and I am lazy, so I picked up these envelope liner templates while I was at Paper Source. You just have to trace around the template, and cut out the paper. EASY.

 
8. Ta-dah!

 

9. Here's the completed invite with the envelope and the liner. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

With luck, I got these stamps to go with it, which I think go very well:

[Garden of Love stamps]

They're all ready to go!

Things To Look Forward To

 [C'est La Vie print from Etsy seller pixelcloud]

I wish summer lasted longer, don't you? Soon I'll have to go back to craziness (school+work) and since just the work part of that equation is kinda ca-ray-zy right now anyway, I'm definitely not looking forward to combining it with school again. This will also (let's hope!) be my last year in my program, and after two years I am definitely looking forward to graduation. But this craziness, it's all going to be worth it in the end, right? Right?

I think about my Dad who woke up at 5 AM every morning to work a 9 hour shift, on his feet. 5 days a week. For 30 years. Surely, I can handle getting through library school and working. Sigh.

Anyhow, this post is titled Things To Look Forward To, so here are a few things I'm looking forward to!

1. A girls weekend! I get to hang out with my former roommates who I miss dearly. We're going to paint pottery and eat brunch and catch up on our lives and basically be our girly silly selves.

2. We're going to take a trip to the Getty Villa! It will be a nice way to end the summer and spend some quality time with the boy.

What are you looking forward to? Anyone else lamenting life's craziness?

30 Day Photo Challenge - Days 8, 9, and 10

[Day 8 - Fresh fruit. What? This counts as fresh fruit! They're blueberry pancakes. :) ]

I took this at breakfast at Mission Coffee Cup, one of our favorite places in La Jolla. It's yummy, casual, friendly, and hip. If it's a super lazy Sunday, I love coming here, getting coffee at Brick and Bell, and then watching the seals on the shore. If it's not a lazy Sunday, I go back inside to my office and cry over my spreadsheets.

[Day 9 - Sunset. Another beautiful San Diego sunset]

[Day 10 - Animal. My cute kitty. Did I ever mention that the boy got her for me because I made the move to San Diego? He sure does regret that decision after he's seen his backpack chewed up!]

Bridal Shower Mini Book

It felt so good to get some alone/craft time today. *big breath* I started my 30 day photo challenge when life felt pretty carefree, only to have it side-swiped by not so carefree responsibilities and life in general, so I apologize for my delinquency. I'm giving myself more time to complete it. :)

In the meantime, another mini book! And, I'm promised a date from the boy tonight. Like a real date, where I shower and wear something nice, and not just another night where we order numbers 5 and 12 off the take-out menu. Mini books+real date night=nice Saturday. 

This mini book is for my bridal shower that took place last year at Crown and Crumpet in San Francisco. You can see the full post here.

It was an unabashedly pink party, and I have no fear of pink unlike so many people, so I just ran with it--pink letters, pink card, and a butterfly tag with some twine for a touch of variety. My favorite part are those letters, which are from Martha Stewart crafts again. They are fuzzy and rounded, giving the book a bit of texture. Love them.

[The front cover--I knew I could use that business card somewhere!]

[This butterfly tag came from a discounted pack of tags at Target.]

[The whole book fanned out.]

[For group shots, I included a little tag with the names of the people in the photo. This tag came from a Delphine Press pack.]

[I interspersed photos of details and people throughout the whole book for variety.]

Since it was a short event, it's a fairly small book but still a nice addition to my collection. :) 

Wanna see more mini books? You can find them here, here, and here.