bliss bloom {blog} ~ a craft and lifestyle journal

Our Lives // Happy 7th Birthday!

2013-05-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Smarty Pants! It's hard to believe that this cute, little guy is now 7 years old!

Our oldest, our thinker, our driven one, our guinea pig...

Seven. Definitely a big boy now. And what a year! It's like all the stars aligned and the developmental milestones just clicked into place-- reading, writing, independence, a deeper understanding of the world around... I wish I could slow down time so that I can really cherish and remember these amazing moments. But since that's impossible, I try to remember to really take in and enjoy the present. It is a joy to watch him grow and develop into a kind, smart and caring young person. I'm looking forward to what this next year has in store.

Have a wonderful Monday!

Party // Hexagon Paper Fans

2013-05-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

This month we'll be celebrating my oldest son's seventh birthday. He loves sports so we're throwing him a soccer party. He's not into any characters or movies these days and shrugged when I bugged him for input, so I decided to draw inspiration from the humble and wonderfully geometric soccer ball. Not a bad theme actually-- black, white and hexagons would work for many non-kid, non-soccer parties as well.

Since paper medallions (aka paper fans) are a big bang-for-your-buck party staple, I wanted to see if I could come up with something in a hexagon shape.

After a little trial and error, I figured out a way to make Hexagon-shaped Paper Medallions.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Inspired By // S-S-S-ummer!

2013-05-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's May and we're still in the thick of Spring. It should not be 100 degrees. Nope. Don't like it. To quote the wilting Daisy Buchanan "...it's so hot"... "and everything's so confused." Yep, Daisy and I both don't do well in heat-- Perhaps the only thing we have in common. :)

Here are a few things that get me inspired for the hot and carefree days of summer...

Click "Read more" for the full post

Make // Sunglasses T-Shirts

2013-05-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

My boys are almost seven and almost five. They sorta care about what they wear, but... not really. Their fashion sense became noticeably worse when they started wearing school uniforms. In fact, one day I asked the almost seven year old to change and he came down with his brother's red athletic pants (only 5 inches too short) and a green stripe button down shirt... N-I-C-E!

So Mama had to do a fashion intervention. I bought him some trendy jeans (um, not pictured below... those are his grass stained uniform pants. slight oversight on my part) and made him this cool, on-trend, age appropriate t-shirt. I'm mean... look how happy the kid looks. All dancin' and posin' and stuff. And I didn't even have to shell out the big bucks.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Happy Friday // 5.10.2013

2013-05-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

What makes you happy? For me, it's the little things-- Beautiful blooms in our yard, two brothers enjoying each other's company, a school play...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Inspired by // Agate

2013-05-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

I'm drawn to agate; the semiprecious stone with variegated lines that comes in a variety of colors and patterns. With it's one of a kind shape and marbleized look, it is striking, contemporary and unique. While I love the actual stone, when done right, I can appreciate the faux just as much.

waterproof faux agate wall by alex turco via houzz

created with an enlarged photo and acrylic!

framed marbelized paper via kristen f davis designs as seen on little green notebook

agate druze rings via radlabs

while this looks like stone, it's actually part of a layered wax type piece by keetra dean dixon and jk keller

click "Read more" for the full post

Make // Velvet Paper Spring Flowers

2013-05-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

I first shared this tutorial at SEI Lifestyle...

Mother's Day is next Sunday! I'm sure it's already on your radar but it always has a way of sneaking up on me. If you're into making things and need tabletop decorations or a gift topper, try these pretty Spring blooms. They'd also be perfect for a bridal shower, girls' birthday party, Teacher Appreciation Day... any event that goes hand-in-hand with flowers.

To create the form, I decided to use plastic eggs leftover from Easter. I've used plastic eggs before (for these fabric pinecones), and they're no-fuss and easy to work with.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Our Lives // Fire Distraction

2013-05-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

We're close to one of the wildfires that is burning in Southern California. We're not currently in harm's way but have several friends who have been impacted by the evacuations and smoke. Suffice to say, everyone's nerves are jangled by the uncertainty that accompanies natural disaster.

view of the fire from our home, 12 pm may 3rd

doesn't it look like the smoke is pointing?? taken may 2nd

smoky air and falling ash. taken may 3rd

sunset may 3rd

Before I sign off... A huge thank you to the fire fighters and first responders who are protecting thousands of homes and lives. We are lucky to have such outstanding, well-trained individuals who go into danger to protect lives and property. As of the last update, the fire is 30% contained, there are 1,900 firefighters on scene, 28,000 acres have burned, 4,000 homes threatened and no injuries or casualties caused by the fire. The weather is significantly cooler, the winds have died down and the moisture is back. Thank God!

Our Lives // Epic Playdate

2013-05-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

What makes a playdate EPIC?

Hmmm... good question. After ~~a couple of minutes~~ much thought, I narrowed it down to 3 things...

1) An Epic playdate usually takes place in a new (to you) locale. It doesn't have to be pricey or hard to get to, just somewhere that your family hasn't been before; The mystery of a new and undiscovered place just adds to the excitement. In our case, we drove up to Dos Pueblos Ranch in Santa Barbara. Who knew such rustic beauty exists just a few miles away from UCSB (not to mention Isla Vista!!!).

2) An Epic playdate differs from traditional playdates because there is much planning involved. No sending the kids outside and saying "go play!". Darn. For our Epic playdate, activities were organized by popular bloggers (including oh happy day, dooce, oh joy!, yes to hoboken, how to be a dad) who know a thing or two about creativity, event planning, and building cool stuff.

3) You have confirmation that the playdate is Epic when... the kids who never leave your side, forget that you are there (or at least it seems that way). Everyone gets along. There is no whining (not even a little!). The kids can't stop playing long enough to eat. And the number one indicator that a playdate is EPIC? No one wants it to end!

** If you've made it to #3 without #1 or #2 then... What do I know??!! You've already experienced an epic play date!

Our Epic playdate looked a little like this...

>> building compressed air rockets <<

The rocket launchers were awesome. When built right, the paper & masking tape rockets were flying 100+ feet high! When built wrong, the tops of the rockets popped. If you're interested, the full how-to is here (it's way over my craft-making head, but you engineer-types will dig it).

>> participating in a massive paint fight <<

(the kid version of a color run)

Paint-filled squirt guns, paint-filled sponge bombs, paint-filled water balloons... you get the idea. Most of the parents stayed out of the war zone and crossed their fingers that Tide would make it all better again. Luckily our only casualties were a pair of socks.

>> creating sand art <<

The kids had a great time contributing to this vibrant and large scale sand art. Happy Vee wanted to take it home with him... Luckily he was happy with a photo.

>> tinfoil viking whip cream beard races <<

After making viking-wear out of tinfoil, the kids participated in a whip cream beard relay race. Yup, you read that right. Smarty Pant's team won and received the illustrious tinfoil viking bust as a prize. As you can probably tell, the guys from how to be a dad were hilarious.

>> playing epic volleyball <<

Smarty Pants loves sports and made some like-minded friends. He spent most of his time playing epic volleyball. I'll have to remember this the next time we go to the beach.

>> balloon twisting classes <<

Er, I feel like I should apologize to the balloon guys. Four year old Happy Vee is a tad obsessed with balloons (as well as bubbles, gummy bears and water guns), and pretty much wouldn't leave them alone. We came home with about 15 balloon creations. :)

My kids had an awesome time, got dirty, made friends, hardly ate and after seven straight hours, were still begging for more. We ALL slept very well that night. A special thanks to CGC and Hyundai. We had a fantastic time!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Make // Mother's Day Gift Boxes

2013-04-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

I first shared this tutorial at SEI Lifestyle.

I have a confession to make-- I am a gift wrap slacker. I'll buy the gift then set it aside and forget about it. Then the day of the event I'll panic a bit, and stuff the gift into a bag. Sometimes I'll throw in some tissue paper. I'm fancy like that.

So this year I thought I'd be proactive and get a head-start on my Mother's Day gift wrap. Sometimes presentation is key and I think Mother's Day is one of those occasions. I had fun dreaming up these boxes that pretty much scream "Happy Mother's Day!" and "Spring is here!".

click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Water Lilies

2013-04-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

With Earth Day earlier this week, and since I had a lot of milk jugs leftover from these votives, I decided to try my hand at another "milk jug" project.

Water lilies are one of my favorite flowers; They're beautiful, vibrant and they grow in ponds. Awesome. My love for water lilies goes way back. My 14-year old self had a bedroom decorated with Monet's water lilies prints (I even had an impressionist water lilies bed spread!) and when I first traveled to France 15 years ago, visiting Monet's home and gardens was one of the highlights of the trip. It was at his home in Giverny that Monet maintained a beautiful water garden which inspired his famous Water Lilies (les nymphéas) series.

So with water lilies and dreams of outdoor dining on the brain, I decided to come up with a centerpiece for our patio table.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Milk Jug Votives

2013-04-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Since today is Earth Day, I thought I'd dig into our recycle bin and come up with an upcycle project.

Most upcycle projects that I see are glass-- wine bottles, jars, even beer bottles. Not too many pretty projects with plastic milk gallon jugs though. I wonder why? ;) I guess they aren't the most exciting in their original form, but with their vellum-like quality, I thought they would be perfect for a votive project.

click "Read more" for the full post

Happy Earth Day!

2013-04-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

I have a project for Earth Day that'll be ready to share later. In the meantime, I raided the archives and pulled together a round-up of several upcycle projects.

Have a wonderful week!

Visual World // Stripes + Florals

2013-04-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Click "Read more" for the full post

Beauty // The War Against Aging

2013-04-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

I've always felt like a young person. Then, while pregnant with child #2, I was tagged "advanced maternal age". Ouch! Well, child #2 is almost five years old. What does that make me now? Middle aged. Nooooo!

I've always told myself that, barring invasive surgery, I would do whatever I needed to do to maintain and preserve my skin. I'm lucky to have genetics on my side (my Grandmother had beautiful, smooth skin until she passed unexpectedly at the young age of 96). However, my Grandmother stayed out of the sun and covered-up whenever she was outside. I, unfortunately, did the opposite. If only I had known better! I've been pretty good to my skin the last 15 years or so-- sunscreen, good moisturizers, removing make-up at night, eating relatively well, etc. But it's time to up the ante.

After a bit of trial and error, I think I finally found the perfect "preserve & protect" program for my skin. I still need to find a good vitamin C eye cream to tame the under eye circles though. I never had those before and they definitely add to the tired/old look that I'm trying to avoid.

My skin's main issues-- sensitive, usually on the dry side (t-zone in warm weather), melasma (aka skin discoloration leftover from crazy pregnancy hormones and sun exposure).

I use some of the same products in the morning and at night. You may have noticed that I don't use too many "corrective" creams... In the past I've had bad reactions to prescription and over-the-counter products to correct skin discoloration. They made my skin look worse-- dry, flaky and irritated. So the current battle plan is to keep my skin moisturized and protected from the elements.

Believe it or not, although there are many layers of product going on, I don't spend a ton of time "pampering" myself-- 15 minute max in the morning, which includes applying make-up; and 5 minutes during the evening, which usually includes brushing and flossing my teeth. I guess I've become efficient in my middle age. Ha!

Click "Read more" for the full post

Make // Faux Batik Circle Scarf

2013-04-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging over at SEI Lifestyle this week. There's also a giveaway going on right now. Stop by and say hello! Here's one of the tutorials that I'm sharing...

While I love to make things, I don't have the kind of space where I can make huge messes-- no cement floors in my home, my laundry room is the size of a postage stamp and the garage is the Hub's domain... So a "batik" type project was out of question until I stumbled upon an easy & mess-free method.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Guest Blogging // SEI

2013-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm guest blogging over at SEI Lifestyle this week. Yep, five days of posts! Today's the intro, but the next four days will be filled with projects and tutorials.

They gave me free rein over the content of the posts, but I decided to go for it and come up with a week's worth of projects. It wasn't too hard since their products are quality and I had fun working with some new (to me) materials and mediums. If you are looking for beautiful paper, scrapbooking accessories and other craft supplies at a decent price point, be sure to check out SEI Crafts*. And if you're an avid scrapbooker, paper crafter or card maker, definitely check out Club SEI for their monthly kits.

Here's a peek at tomorrow's project--

Click "Read more" for the full post

bliss bloom blog // Favorite Projects

2013-04-11T11:03:00.002-07:00

A compilation of some of my favorite projects...

Click "Read more" for the full post

Spring Break 2013... 2nd Half

2013-04-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Our kids had two weeks off for Spring Break so, to save our collective sanities, we decided to fill those two weeks with plenty of activities. The first week was spent in Texas... Read all about it here.

We flew back from Texas on Easter Sunday and went from the airport directly to my parent's home. They hosted Easter Dinner for the LA/OC branch of our family and there was a lot of good food and good times with cousins, aunties and uncles. We don't get to see each other often, so it was especially nice to hang out and catch up with each other.

After Easter, we were home for a few days to decompress, check in with the office, and deal with the mounds of laundry. Then we were off on another adventure...

Click "Read more" for the full post

Spring Break 2013 was EPIC!!!

2013-04-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

While our Spring Break was fun and great memories were made, when I say EPIC, I don't mean to brag. Because it was epic as in... Extra Long. Like reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey from cover-to-cover long. Like 16 days of togetherness long. Like trying to keep two boys busy so that they don't spend the entire time bickering and roughhousing, while playing video games and going comatose watching television long... That kind of EPIC. And yet there still was a lot of video game playing and television watching... hmmm. Epic!

Some day I will really appreciate the epic spring breaks, but right now I'm exhausted. Being a 24/7 referee, camp director, purveyor of snacks, navigator, tour guide and parent is kinda tiring! Whoda thunk?? I'm thankful though that the boys truly love and get each other. Even if that means getting under each others' skin.

brothers hugging... leads to wrestling... leads to a big smooch... leads to more hugging & silly smiles. repeat.

You probably felt this coming, so here's the EPIC photo dump of our 2013 Spring Break....

Click "Read more" for the full post

Hello!

2013-04-04T16:15:00.001-07:00

Just popping in to say hello. Sorry it's been quiet here the last couple of weeks, but trust me... It's been busy! Week #2 of Spring Break is almost over and it's time for us to be back to our regular routine. I'll miss the lazy mornings, but we'll have plenty of that when summer break creeps up in June. We have one last "hurrah" planned for this weekend and then it'll be business as usual. Phew!

Lest you think I'm slacking, I actually have several projects in the pipeline. I won't be able to share them for a couple more weeks though... More on that later. So instead, I'll just leave you with a sneak peek--

Have a good weekend!

Visual World // Blush

2013-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Click "Read more" for the full post

Happy Easter!

2013-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

naturally dyed eggs via stronger together

Happy Easter! We are on our way home from Texas. On a lark, we decided to visit Austin and San Antonio over the kids' Spring Break. Luckily we have an early flight and should be back in Los Angeles just in time for Easter dinner with our family.

Have a beautiful day with family and friends.

Visual World // Graphic Black + White

2013-03-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Click "Read more" for the full post

[Round-up] Hello Spring!

2013-03-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's official. Today is the first day of Spring! Does it feel like Spring where you live? We've had some unseasonably warm weather the last couple of weeks (the kids have been in the pool twice already), but today is overcast and we're supposed to get a little rain. Yay! In our constant state of drought, we welcome any precipitation that we can get.

Can you believe that Easter is in eleven days? Wha? I know! I'm usually waist-high in Easter projects by now, but this year I'm not really in the groove. I have a project to share later this week, but until then, here's a round-up of past & present Spring and Easter Projects--

p.s. If you're viewing this in an RSS feed, you'll need to click through to view the images.

Have a great day!