Idea for teacher gifts

I am so excited about this find. I attended BABE 2011, ( Bay Area Bead Expo) in Oakland this past November. The Expo itself was quite overwelming.. Hundreds of bead booths, each more beautiful and unique than the next and of course expensive. I want to get into jewelry making, but having a difficult time carving out the time in my work-at-home mom life.

I did come across a booth for  http://www.craftfantastic.com/ . For $29.99, I purchased a starter kit that allowes you to make your own focal pendants.  I received a bottle of Fantastic Glaze and Glue, E6000 Multi-Purpose Adhesive and, 30 display glasses and about 30 criss-cross bales. I'm sure if I was more in the know, I could find all these supplies for less, but for my purposes, I'm excited.

You can take any image or paper and create beautiful pendants.  Instantly I thought about teacher gifts for Christmas. I like to remember all of the special teachers in my daughters life, school teacher, music teacher, babysitters, Taokwondo teachers, etc. but in order to do this I need to be cost effective. I'm old school, I believe in  thoughtful gifts for these special childhood mentors.

I searched throught my daughters valuable collection of school art and picked some of my favorite pictures. I scanned each picture, shrunk them down to about an inch, then printed them on plain white paper. Following the directions on the kit, I was about to create beautiful pendants. I'll purchase silver chains in bulk from http://www.firemountain.com/ , place each in a box with a typed description of the art work and give them as gifts. Yes, I do plan to keep on or two for me.

Here's the final product!!

Perfect turkey for a vegetarian

This craft was forwarded to me from a family friend. It appears the original source was http://www.eatingwithfoodallergies.com/ .

My mom takes credit for preparing the vegetables prior to the turkey creations.

1. the base is lettuces leaves

2. the body is cucumbers

3. the feathers are: yellow peppers, green peppers, red peppers and carrots

4. the feet are celery sticks, make two slices length wise , half way then soak in water over night

5. the face is the bottom of a green pepper, beak: a yellow and red pepper, eyes black beans attached  with a tooth pick.

My 4 year old, loved placing the vegetables on the turkey and was so delighted to see bags a freshly cut vegetables magically turn into a turkey

Repurposing crafts at Halloween

Prior to Halloween, my God daughter's mom was travinging so she spent a couple Friday nights sleeping. I like to keep the kids busy with fun crafts. Looking around the house, I found some old flower vases, the kind you get free with flower arrangements and some fun orange paint.  Using electrical tape, I asked the girls to cut out shapes ( circles, squares, triangles) , The girls placed the shapes on the vase to create jack-o-lantern faces. Then... the fun part. The girls painted the entire vase orange. Once the paint is fully dry, remove the electrical tape ( note, if any paint seeps through, simply scratch off the paint) Then, place a battery operated tea light in the vase and you have a cute, custom, reusable and repurposed jack-o-lantern

Getting Tangled in Party planning

May 22, 2011... My 4 year old daughter is in love with all things Rapunzel. She's even allowing me to brush her hair in hops she'll have long glowing hair like her new idol. After Skylar meeting with her favorite princess in Disneyland.. there was no doubt what this years birthday theme was going to be..

After 3 previous year of toddler birthday planning, one would have thought I would no 3 months reservations are necessary for any child oriented venue.... SSOOOO.. this year's party had to be at home.. That means, more creativity with decorations.. Starting with the invitations.

I found these invitation on line and fell in love cupcake cards .
So then, it's all out the details. Why lie, at 4 years old, my daughter could care less how spot on my decorates reflected the essence of the movie. The details are for me and the parents :)

I was expecting 20+ 4 year old and 8 babies. My house is not big and my backyard has a pull making it off limits as well. For the babies, I created a little nook in my living room called.. " The snuggly duckling"

Since my house would be wall to wall children, I took all my pictures off the fireplace mantle and placed apples for Maximus and the magic flower









My favorite scene from Rapunzel is the beautiful scene with Flynn Rider and Rapunzel sitting in a row boat admiring the display of lanterns lifting from the kingdom

I recreated this scene using yellow paper lanterns ( purchased on line from Oriental Trading Company )

One of the most notable details of the movie Rapunzel is the kingdom's Golden sun logo. Rapunzel subconscienceously paints these suns on the walls of her tower, the lanterns are  stamped with the symbol and the kingdom is draped in purple banners stamped with the emblem.

The hardest party of this craft was finding the sun stamp.. I looked everywhere. I eventually found a foam stamp on Etsy

Once all the little details were complete. All we needed to do is add Rapunzel..  Hired our character from www.firepixie.com  Rapunzel was wonderful, professional, great with the kids, flexible.. I could not have been more pleased. My daughter seemed delighted as well

I wanted to keep with the theme with the thank you notes. Unfortunately, I got lazy. However,  Shutterfly  Made it possible to have custom thank you cards that were quick and easy to make.

I used dotted letter stamps to write out the words "Thank You" then my daughter traced the pattern.  scanned her master piece, uploaded to Shutterfly, and used the design as the cover of the thank you card.

And there you have it.. A Tangled birthday extravaganza.

Fun and sentimental craft.

This craft was inpired by a product in the red envelope catalog. My 3 year old, at the time, and I painted the backgrounds on canvas, the each member of our family took turns making a hand print. the youngest member of our family was 4 month old at the time.

Down the Rabbit Hole...

I friend of mine got married this month. It was a beautiful wedding with an "Alice in Wonderland: theme.. Very fun.. In honor of her obsession with this classic story, I created a wedding gift with a kitchy Wonderland vibe.

5x7 Folded Card

Burst Raspberry 5x7 folded card

Click here to browse our modern graduation invitations.

View the entire collection of cards.

The real Princess Bride

My daughter loves princess and loves brides. So on Friday, April 29,2011. I decided to celebrate the real princess bride. Coverage of the royal wedding started at 3am in the west coast. I was excited about the event but not THAT excited. We took advantage of our modern technology and DVRed the event.

The night before, we prepared for our wedding celebration. We made beautiful crowns, so that we match all the wedding guest with their beautiful hats

As the royal chefs were busy preparing a meal fit for a king and 600 guest, I was busy in our kitchen with our culinary delights...PB&J finger sandwiches

Of course, my little princess always has to add her own sence of style. Just like Princess Kate, Skylar has a passion for fashion

Skylar loved the wedding, Queen Mommy was very happy for the DVR. Unfortunately, Prince Sage was not as thrilled with the world event



continuation of 29 day give away

1/8
1/9
1/10 -large bag of baby clothes to a friend
1/11 - time and coffee to one of the ladies of Kappa Delta
1/12 - watch a friend son
1/13 - bag of clothing to a family in need
1/14 - blankets to the homeless in San Jose
1/15
1/16
1/17
1/18
1/19 - time as a mentor
1/20
1/21
1/22 - donate time as a mentor for the ladies of Kappa Delta
1/23
1/24 -a bag of baby clothing for the ladies at
1/25 - baby shoes to a drive for the people in Haiti
1/26 - my time as a mentor for the ladies of Kappa Delta

continued 29 days of give aways

1/5 - give used cell phones to the troupes
1/6 - give Skylar's old sleepers to a family who only had one sleeper for there 1 week only baby
1/7 - give thanks for all the wonderful presents received at Christmas

29 days of give aways

So a read a facebook posting about a a 29 day give away experiment. Quite simply give away something each day for 29 days.. Let's see if I can do it.


Day 1: 1/1 - Doggie stairs to a disabled doggie
Day 2: 1/2 - Misc. Scrapbook supplies collecting dust in my closet. Given to a young girl starting to scrapbook
Day 3: 1/3 - pink receiving blankets to a mother to be
Day4: 1/4 - Blankets and pillows to the homeless on the streets of San Jose
Day 5: 1/4 - My time to a friend going to an appointment for her son. She wanted me as an extra set of ears and an extra brain to ask important questions about her son's treatment

More to come....

And... I survived

A little less than one week has past since I ran the Mermaid Marathon 5K.. And I didn't finish last. My time was 35:34.. Pretty much in the middle. I placed 126 out of 283.. Not bad even if I do say so myself.

I arrived at the racing area in Mountain View and hour prior to start. The weathr was not cooperating. They predicted rain all morning, so we were not off to a good start. Fortunately, we only had mild sprinkles.

As I lined up for th 5K, I kept thinking to myself. What the heck am I doing. It seemed like everyone around me was a pro... Darned in all the hoopla.. $100+ running shoes, aerodynamic, thermal fleese jackets, with I-pod holders and watch cut outs in the sleeve.

I wore my Freebee T-shirt, and a wind breaker from college that was a size XL.. Note to self: very larg wind breaker does not make you aerodynamic, it makes you a wind sail.


When it was time to go.. dozens of woman passed me up, but I kept going, my feet started hurting. My self paced training consisted of a treadmill at my local gym. My feet were not used to texture so when I planted my foot, my toes stayed up.. weird, I know, but I got used to it and kept going. The wind was strong and cold.. My jacket rippled in the breeze, but... I kept going. I turned a bend and even though women were passing me by left and right, there were a sizeable amount of woman behind me.. I know, it's not about who gets there first, just the fact that I did it. But reminising back to my childhood, nothing is more discouraging than being dead last.

Then, before I knew it, the front of the pack, had turned around and was passing me heading back to the finish line.. That was quick.. Actually SHE was quick ( I later found out that she finished with a time of 15 minutes) I kept running.. eventually I thought where the heck is this stupid turn around and then.. There it was with angels of mercy passing out water cups..

Shortly after th 2 mile marker.. I had to stop and walk.. Not bad, my addrenilin was pumping because I never lasted this long in my training.

I probably walked a quarter mile then it was back to it. I passed an ambulence, stuck in the mud.. I found that kind of funny.

Around the corner.. I think, just maybe.. yes, the finish line is just over that hill. As I crested the hill, I could see the beautiful orange flags over the finish line. I could hear music echoing from the DJ booth.. The crowd was cheering..Oh my gosh.. I really did it.

The sky was dark and grey, but if you can believe it, in the distance directly above the finish line was a beautiful rainbow.. It was a beautiful poetic moment..I almost hear angels singing...No, Beyonce.

Now's my time to speed up a little.. and no.. the wind really started to kick in, pushing me back and.. since I hadn't walked as much as I intended, the adrnelin was starting to wear.. I had a pain in my right chest.. "SLOW DOWN" So I started walking.. but I refuse to walk across the finish line.. SO I then stepped it up..


And there was Jason and Skylar on the side line.. I started to tear.. I crossed received my pendant ( which I have not yet taken off) and my water and fell into my family's arms.

I did this race to proof I could do it. I just turned 35, had a baby.. I needed to set my mind to something and accomplish it.. Will I do another race.. I think so.. Will I do a 10 K.. HAHAHAHAHA.. No. Not this year at least.

A dawn of a new day

Black, white, yellow, red, it doesn't matter what color you are, you can't help but feel the excitement in the air. I wish i could have been at the anaguration day festivities but I am so glad I am able to watch all the events. So much energy, so much excitment. So much possitive energy being sent to our 44th president.

I've spent most of the day holding back tears of pride and joy. I was listening to Michael Jackson's " Man in the Mirror" an just beamed at what an appropriate song it is for today.

Honestly, It doesn't matter your political offilication, no one can deny, the unity Obama is bringing to out country. We're ready to be united, and we are ready to work at improving our country, take ownership for our lives rather than blame everyone else for why things aren't working.

So far, the most beautiful moment for me was when Bush was about to board the helocoptor to wisk him away from the white house. Bush and Obama embrassed. At that moment you could see the well wishes, the transferance of power, stress, prestige and responsibility.. Laura and Michelle embrassed, you could see the empathy, the strength bein passed over. With that moment, a two private citizens left their former home, leaving the new president to enjoy his moment., his day, his responsibility.

It's so beautiful. I may just be babbling, but today means so much to me as it does the rest of the world. Not only is it a race thing, but it's a generational thing, a focus change... It is UNITY, IT IS RESPONSIBILITY, IT IS... BEAUTIFUL.

Gay Pride 2008

Skylar attended her first Gay Pride Parade. A lot of her friends joined her, Izzy, Renee, Adrienne, Aiden, Allan, Dell and Dale. We arrived 90 minutes before the parade to get good seats, which we achieved. Thank heaven for Walgreens and their fabulous $5 folding chairs. Skylar did remarkable well during the 3 hour parade. Yes, I did say 3 hours. She loved the bright colors and waving and blowing kisses to all the people. She could have lived without the motorcycles, but sure did love all the festive music, that little girl sure can dance. We attached a video of Skylar's and Mommy's favorite parade entry.

Too funny

Little Skylar has been suffering from a rash and a continuous runny nose. The rash is on it's 7th day and luckily fading away. The runny nose is now on month #2. The good thing ( always have to find the silver lining is that Skylar has learned to blow her nose.

Today I heard Dolce, our Chihuahua let out a warning growl. She is the more tolerant of our two dogs to Skylar's loving antics.

I emidiately looked to see what was going on. Skylar had gone into her diaper bag, grabbed a wipe, headed over to the dog and was trying to blow her nose. Skylar trying to imitate mommy, held the wipe up to Dolce nose and was making the blowing sound, trying to teach. Skylar mistaked Dolce's growl of disapproval as a sound of confusion, so Skylar tried to teach further but then putting the wipe to her nose to show Dolce how it's done.

After a giggled a bit, I separated the two before warning growls turn into something more suffer.

17 years and worth the wait

George Michael in concert; what a talent, what a concert.. what an experience. He's depth and passion seem to have intensified with age. And that voice!!! My absolute favorites were Father Figure, Praying for Time and, of course, Freedom!!!

You can learn alot from a 1 year old

The lessons I learn from my little Skylar are amazing. She knows that the power behind a smile and a kind jester are magical.. No matter where we are or who we are around, Skylar will smile and wave and make a friend. It seems like she targets the scariest or unrulely people.

The other day we were walking in the park and passed by a lonely man. Skylar put on her biggest grin and waved frantically at him. She caught his attention then stopped us. With tears in his eyes he offered us two cherries and said.. 'no matter what a person is, white, black, asian, I always we must treat them all the same. Somehow, I think his words did not tell as much as his eyes, welling with tears and a heartbroken voice. Skylar reached out at touched his heart.

I think I've finally lost my mind

So Skylar's first birthday is right around the corner. I can't believe she'll be one years old next week. I started thinking about her birthday party in January and put some intense work hours in this entire month. Am I crazy.. All this effort for a party Skylar wont even remember. Who am I kidding this party is for Jason and I.

My first Mother's Day

Ok.. So I've proven to be a bad blogger. On posting in 3 months. To be honest, I forgot all about this site.. OOOppp!!!

I had my very first Mother's Day. As I enjoyed my day with my beautiful baby girl and my husband I had tears of joy in my eyes. I couldn't help but think about Mother's Day last year. I was so VERY pregnant and VERY depressed that my baby was taking her own sweet time in making her debut. A year ago Mother's Day I was in my second week of Early Labor, swolen feet, completely efaced, 2 cm dialated and the baby had dropped. Walking was a chore.

This year, I held my baby in my arms. She was able to say 'Mama' and give me big hugs. It was such a special day. We went to Golden Gate park and walked around the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Gardens and Botanical Gardens.. So beautiful. My husband is so wonderful to plan a beautiful day