Party Frenzy!

It's party weather isn't it!?! My birthday was last week and for some reason it's always been my official start of summer and the time when I look forward to warm nights under the stars, outdoor music festivals, wine and lots of BBQs in our backyard! I've been just crazy over party banners lately! Can't get enough of how cute they are hanging from my wall and swaying back and forth in the light summer wind. I was at the UCLA 30th annual Luau a couple of weeks back and absolutely loved the hula dancers and the flowers and it inspired me to create a hula theme party celebration kit! I picture the cutest outfits and the freshest of pineapples being served at a lovely little girls birthday party. And for me well it also makes me wish I was in Hawaii but this summer our pool will most likely suffice our splashing cravings. My awesome photographer and friend Ayumi shot some pictures of my work and of course she makes them look so awesome I can't believe I made them!

On another note isn't there something totally adorable about owls?! I know hoots are just the cutest thing right now! And since I'm in a total party frenzy mood I did an owl party kit too!! Whhooo is having so much fun? Me! Hahaha! Ok maybe I'll just let the pictures do the talking!

Magazine Fun

Last month I was contacted by one of the editors of Southern Minnesota Magazine that was super sweet and interested in my Damask Mint Matchbooks. She included the matchbooks on their current issue of Venus! A magazine dedicated to everything women and lifestyle. She did a great job on picking items for her article "Personalize your Party" and she explains how Etsy.com is an amazing way to shop for just about anything you need for a little fun soiree! My mints share the page with some outstanding Etsians and I'm just so honored to have been chosen for all Minnesotans and the world to see :) My print magazine is coming in the mail but I couldn't wait to share the news so here it's a shot from their website!

So new...so brand new

Couple of "new" things in my life happening right now...one of them is starting to look more exciting as I explore it more and more. Facebook. Yeah I'm probably one of the last people in the world to join right?! well...I'm doing it to reach out to people I don't get to talk enough and also to promote my businesses on Etsy. I also gave my Weddings etsy shop a new look. I had previously posted about an awesome idea that began about using better pictures to expose my work. It's been rrreaally hard to choose which pictures go up on etsy and which don't because I have so many favorites. I decided that I definitely want to continue doing this for my shop...it just looks really pretty to me and I hope others find it fun to look at as well.

I didn't want to neglect my cards either so I turned to my toolbelt and cardstocks and began crafting. It made me feel so relaxed and at peace. I'm totally in love with the new October Afternoon "Fly a Kite" and the "Thrift Shop" lines that I just can't get enough of them!! I have to start thinking of father's day cards soon so if you got any ideas for masculine cards let me know!!

Fab Sunday

I want to share a little more of the project I told you about on my last post. It all began with the idea of exposure. Just like thousands of Etsians out there...we make these beautiful items that take hours to make using an endless list of tools and techniques, most working at wee hours of the night because we already have a full time job...or two! We try to stay on top of whats the latest and whats trendy in our industry and then after our "gem" is beautifully done we try to target those people that love what we've done with our hands and hope they buy it!

Well its really not easy to do. Truth of the matter is I've learned that there is a lot more to Etsy than amazing listings and the people behind their product. The way we communicate via a conversation message with some one from another city, state or country is our true window to the world. The fact that someone reached out and told you they love your work and are willing to buy is an amazing feeling. To have someone add your item to their favorites is more than rewarding.

It is why many of us are constantly looking for ways to Jazz up our Etsy store and I've noticed through blogs and tips that most exposure relies a lot on photography. "What is beautiful is appealing"...that's a given. In photography creativity flows and transmits uniqueness and beauty to whatever it is on the other side of that lens. So I started thinking I need to find something appealing to my items on my shop and well...great photography is my hope! As I've mentioned before my friend Ayumi is a fabulous photographer and a coworker and we often (ok more like daily) spend at least 20 minutes talking about weddings, crafts, sewing, packaging tape, cards, blogs, photoshop, crepe flowers and the list just goes on and on...We decided we would do a photoshoot using my wedding invitations and models! Yes I also work with 2 gorgeous girls that are my students and were more than willing to participate on our shoot. Both Grace and Teo have young, inspiring and beautiful faces that will perhaps not get you to run out and get married so you can purchase one of my wedding invites....BUT...will definitely make you click and appreciate both human and craft beauty. These are a couple of back stage photos but plenty of more to come...

Teo and Ayumi early Sunday morning at LACMA

Grace and Ayumi steps of LACMA

These lights that once lit up famous streets of Los Angeles are now

a gorgeous display that light up at night until dawn (6:30am to be exact!!)

Sakura

My friend just thought me a new word! Apparently I've been so crazy over how beautiful Cherry blossoms look around my neighborhood. Almost every day at sunset I drive by this beautiful park in Cerritos that's filled with cherry blossoms and the light shows off the darkness of the branches and the hues of white and pink tops. The park is an amazing inspiration and I always picture an elegant and simple wedding venue so I felt inspired to create a wedding invitation with the "Sakura" theme! I used soft shades of pink and a delicate diecut of a Cherry blossom branch for this 6x6 invitation. My professional photographer Ayumi was sweet enough to photograph my invite! She also lives near a Sakura filled park!! she kidnapped my invite for the weekend and came back with the most amazing pictures! She is extremely talented and if you are ever looking for fun and modern pictures of you or your family you have to check her out! I'm super thrilled to be working with her on a project I will soon give you more details of...but for now let me share our work!

Sweet Escape

Lots going on this month for me! I've been swamped with orders and things to do at home. I've been spending a lot of time sorting and organizing my craft room. We are getting ready to remodel that entire room and I have to take out every thing out!! It's a little scary but I can't wait to have that room done...it's going to look beautiful. We started thinking of colors for the walls and we'll be setting the floors soon.

So aside from that...Jorge and I had a really sweet valentine's day. We are short on cash these days so we wanted to stay home but still celebrate in a special way. Since we got married we often use our "The Bride & Groom First and Forever Cookbook" and if you don't have this book in your collection you should definitely get it! Super delicious recipes for all occasions! We chose the Valentine's Day menu but changed up the dessert. It was Lamb Chops with Mint Sauce, Couscous with leeks, roasted asparagus and we added strawberry shortbread sweethearts!
We had so much fun and it was so romantic! We ate outside in our backyard where he had hung heart lights on our awning. It really makes me feel blessed of what we are able to do when we are together and how special our love truly is. I'm sharing some pictures of our shortbread sweethearts and my sweetie which are just delish!!

Enjoying the Rain

It's been raining a whole lot these past couple of days and it's been real nice for a change. I decided that I would enjoy it and not complain about it like I always do! Sure it adds another 30 minutes to my 1 hour 1/2 drive home but when I get home I get to enjoy my sweetie, sip on hot chocolate, and I even started to organize my scraps and crafts area too! I get to hear the rain outside my window and usually play the jazz channel on my tv and enjoy it. It's too much work to try to complain about the weather when you can just dress up for it :) This morning I took out my boots and threw on a long sleeve shirt and sleek pants, paired it with rain coat that's been sitting in my closet unused for over a year now!! I picked out a matching scarf my mom made me and off into the rain I went.

Tonight my husband and I are going on a movie date! We are finally going to see Avatar on IMAX 3D! yay! So I probably won't be doing much crafting again...I haven't been doing any serious crafting in a couple of days because I've been organizing my scraps and last night I just couldn't help myself...I was craving it so bad so I made 2 cards and stayed up till past 1 am! I will be sharing those soon because it was just way too late to take pix...so I have another one to share...I got brave with stitching all around on this one! I will go back to enjoying the rain and thunder every now and then :)

Shaped Fruittilicious!

My friend loves shaped cards and she insists I should do more of them. So last week I made a few shapes I'd never tackled before and I'm really happy with how they came out. Found a few inspirations here and there but I thought I would do fruits for a sweet take on Valentine's day cards...and who doesn't love cupcakes?! Don't they look delish?!

The 32 Blues

Thirties...are they really the new Twenties?? This morning as I stumbled out of bed feeling lethargic and almost hungover but not I thought I could definitely use some more sleep. A friend complained of similar sleepiness today and he said maybe its coffee withdrawal symptoms (we are both quitting coffee for a while) or it's the "32 blues"...and I thought we're supposed to be feeling better about our health and our bodies with better food options, new technology, reinvented workouts and so on and so on...but I'm definitely not ripping the benefits of all that goodness. I miss my body of 10 years ago!! I even find myself saying "oh I don't bend that way" which is funny/sad because I probably could 10 years ago! Well one of my goals this year is to be more conscious of my health...not gonna call it a resolution but just a new way of thinking. Like whatever I ingest better be something I like and its good for me. I won't eat just because I'm bored, or just because someone brought their homemade brownies to work, or for no reason at all I reach over to eat someone else's fries. I'm sure if I was to add up all that munchin' throughout the day the calories would start adding up!!

If I keep this up maybe by the middle of this year when another birthday comes around I will be embracing the "thirties are the new twenties" concept. There's hesitation now but I'm sure it'll begin to show if I stay positive!

Hope your day is Fabulous

Congrats "I" did it

I have been playing around with my mom's sewing machine and I have also been wanting to try some of my new stamps I got from PapertreyInk as a Christmas gift to me! So I gathered up all my goodies and this is the card I came up with.

I'm really happy with how the zig zag stitch matches the jagged edge I did with my scissors on the middle cardstock. I did some light inking and by the time I was done I couldn't decide which stamp to use from my Signature Greetings set...I was so proud of myself so "Congrats You did it" was perfect :)

2010 yay!!!

So excited for the new year! I'm really looking forward to new beginnings and the new season. Yesterday my sweetie and I put down all of our Christmas decorations and tossed the tree. It was nice packaging everything in brand new boxes that will soon make it to our newly remodeled attic! Now my living room is back to its normal state and I couldn't be happier :)

It was extremely hard to wake up and come to work today...after 2 weeks off it was a struggle but now that I'm here it's not so bad...seeing coworkers and catching up with everyone's holiday adventures. I'm also back in business! My etsy shops are up and running and I've already had my first 2 sales of the year!! Whooohooo!

I'm looking forward to creating lots of beautiful cards and invitations, trying new techniques and challenging my creativity. I'm really proud to share that I learned how to stitch on my mom's sewing machine!! It was so nice having her teach me and very sweet of her to let me borrow her machine for hhmmm I don't know a "few" months :0 Now that I'm done from being completely addicted to holiday cards I can finally focus on my favorite of them all...Valentine's Day cards! I can't get enough of the sweet vintage images of cupids and cherubs, hearts, glitter and shades of pink and red! Here are a few...