Oh Happy Day!

Family Reunion T Shirts + Free Download

2012-05-25T18:13:36Z

This post is sponsored by Skype. It’s time to say more and stay human. It’s time for Skype.

I’m a huge fan of Angela Hardison’s Family Reunion T-shirts (you can purchase them right here or have her design one custom for you.) I asked her to design one that we could use for this project on Oh Happy Day and its available for free download so you can use it for your family reunion. (Thanks Angela!) I seriously love family reunions, it is a hallmark of summer. It’s great to be able to talk to everyone and play with my nieces and nephews and make deeper connections with my family. These t-shirts are easy to make and you can personalize the design by adding your family’s name at the bottom if you want.

Step 1: Download Free Template and add your family name if desired.
Step 2: Print the design (backwards) onto iron on paper. Cut out the design and lay flat on front of t-shirt.
Step 3: Press firmly with the iron using no steam.
Step 4: Peel back the paper from the t-shirt.
Step 5: Put on the t-shirt and listen to your Uncle Lloyd’s corny jokes.

Cupcake Flower Lights

2012-05-24T20:35:15Z

By Steph Hung

May flowers have arrived! These lights were inspired by all the beautiful blooms I’ve been seeing around town. I wanted to bring the summer indoors, but they could make for some colourful outdoor lighting too:

Making these floral garlands couldn’t be faster – all you need are cupcake papers and string lights, and you’re on your way to some simple summer lighting.

Materials you will need: cupcake papers (large and small), string lights, scissors, and an exacto knife.

Step 1: To make leaves – fold a small cupcake paper in half 2 times, and with the folded point at the bottom cut a leaf shape.

Step 2: To make an 8-petal flower – fold a small cupcake paper in half 3 times, and with the folded point at the bottom cut around the top.

Step 3: To make a 16-petal flower – fold a large cupcake paper in half 4 times, and with the folded point at the bottom cut around the top.

Step 4: Cut a small X in the center of each paper.

Step 5: Layer cupcake papers onto each lightbulb to make flowers.

Backyard Movie Night: Invitations

2012-05-24T20:08:37Z

This is the first in a 4 part series on How to Throw a Backyard Movie Night sponsored by Skinny Cow.

I am so excited to be back for the summer and I’ve made a big list of parties I want to throw. First on that list is an outdoor movie party. Our new apartment has a really great back yard, perfect for a movie night. I thought it might be fun to do a four part series on how to throw a movie night. First step is sending out invitations. I asked my friend Ruel Brown to design a card for us to send out. We just inserted our text in the empty marquee sign, printed them out (they are 4″x 6″) and then sent them out in some minty green envelopes I picked up at a local paper store. Are you going to throw a movie night this summer? You can download your own free template of the invitation right here.

Veggie Boats

2012-05-23T16:11:38Z

This post is sponsored by Hidden Valley Ranch.

These veggie boats would be great snack foods for a pirate party or even a Columbus Day Party (Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria!) All I know is when you turn food into little boats it is makes it a million times more adorable. This concept is pretty simple to execute and you could make it with lots of different vegetables and spreads.

Instructions: Gather veggies and spreads (here we used hummus) and some toothpicks. Hollow out vegetables and cut off the bottoms so they can lay flat. Assemble the boats with toothpicks and sail shapes as desired. And that’s it!

Concept + Photos + Styling by Alexis Birkmeyer

Styled Eats: Mini Hot Dogs + DIY Food Containers

2012-05-22T08:00:29Z

Thank you COOL WHIP Whipped Topping for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms

I’m so excited to share this post today Alexis Birkmeyer put together. This food presentation would be great for any outdoor picnic or even a Father’s Day lunch. Little bite-sized hot dogs take a bit more work than their bigger counterparts but make the food feel that much more special. We presented these mini hot dogs in simple but genius DIY vellum food containers Alexis came up with. You could use vellum like we did or even use a patterned cardstock to hold any type of picnic food. See below for our free template, photos, and full instructions.

Click through for full instructions.

Materials Needed: Mini Hot Dogs + Buns. (To make the buns, we used this recipe. A half recipe made about 24 mini buns.) Follow the instructions in the recipe, except when shaping, make them about the size and shape of the hot dog. Once they’ve puffed up and been baked, they’ll be the perfect size! We brushed them with egg whites and topped them with sesame seeds before baking.
For the Baskets: Free Printable Template (download here), Exacto Knife, Ruler, Glue Dots, Straight Pin and Wax Paper for a liner.

Step 1: Download, and print the template, but don’t cut it out. Instead, lay it over your vellum, and using a straight pin, mark each corner point with a tiny hole.
Step 2: Remove the template and connect the pin holes to cut out the template.
Step 3: Finish connecting the dots from the pin holes and scoring the fold lines.
Step 4: Fold the corners and allow them to crease.
Step 5. Use a glue dot to secure each corner by sticking it inside the outer fold and pinch the creases so they are secure.
Step 6. When your baskets are complete line them with a parchment or wax paper.

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content.

Parties to Pretties – Dinner in the Sand

2012-05-21T16:22:42Z

by Emmadime

Being that Jordan is back in California and I have been spending loads of time at the beach, an ocean side meal felt appropriate for this week’s Parties to Pretties! Toting your dinner and table setting out to the beach is such a unique experience – if you’re near the coast, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Don’t forget some comfy pillows to sit on & a scarf to keep you warm after the sun goes down.

Images From : Sitting In A Tree / 01. Geo Pillow / 02. Wine Punt Glass / 03. Bronze Lantern / 04. Marimekko Bowl / 05. Patterned Scarf / 06. Two Toned Wooden Spreaders

Happy Weekend

2012-05-18T21:08:10Z

Happy Weekend! The last few weeks have been crazy with the renovations and unpacking. We moved in this week and our stuff doesn’t even fit in our apartment! We knew that would be the case so we ‘ve been working to categorize everything into donate/sell/store piles. We’ve made a dent in the solid walls of moving boxes but still have a ways to go. Paul’s awesome parents are super generous and have come out for the week to help us do everything from babysitting, painting, rewiring lamps, child proofing the deck, etc. I honestly don’t know how we would have got along without them! Thanks Don + Linda! We are going to be unpacking all weekend but we are hoping to get away for an afternoon to go to the Maker Faire! (Have you ever been? It’s amazing!) I hope you all have a happy weekend.

I also write for Babble.com, here are my posts this week.

I bought a cheap vintage tufted sofa off Craigslist and it needs recovering. I’ve been looking at inspiration for fabrics.
This is how I want to dress (the new Madewell lookbook is amazing!)
I call these my “mom shoes” because they are the only heels I can wear and chase kids in.
9 Home Offices… in a closet.
15 Summer Dresses from Target
Prettiest Desk Accessories

Bike Season

2012-05-18T20:15:07Z

This post is sponsored by Public Bikes. I begged to work with them after I tried their awesome bikes.

I’ve wanted bikes since we first moved to San Francisco over 8 years ago. Our first apartment we lived right in front of a Metro stop and it was easy to get around town. We thought about getting bikes but we didn’t have a garage so it didn’t make sense. Then we moved on Nob Hill where we had a storage room but we lived at the top of San Francisco’s famous steep hills so bikes got nixed again. In Paris we used Velib, the public biking system almost every day. So when we moved back to San Francisco we specifically looked for apartments in flat areas so we could get bikes. We test drove bikes last week and placed an order for two bikes and kids seats. I am so excited to get them, I can’t wait to bike all over the city (the flat-ish areas at least) with the kids.

We chose Public Bikes because we wanted classic European style bikes that were good for getting around the city. (I approached them after I test drove and fell in love with their bikes at their new Valencia street shop around the corner from our new apartment.) They come in really clean modern colors and just put out a new line of spring colors. Have you ever tried a Public Bike? ps: Remember Rebecca and Derek’s Bike Wedding?

Family Photos in Paris

2012-05-18T19:06:13Z

Here are some of the photos Alpha Smoot took of us when she was in Paris last month. I wanted some really casual family photos that showed us in our Paris apartment. I really tried not to fuss too much with outfits or hair so it would look natural and not too perfect. Alpha was great to work with, I sent her pictures of The Glow as inspiration and then she just hung out with us for a couple hours one morning. I love how they turned out, and they totally captured our Paris apartment. The last picture you can see shows us at the cafe below our apartment. Those windows were our bedrooms!

New Apartment Pictures

2012-05-17T23:59:38Z

This post is Sponsored by Method. Join the People Against Dirty right here on Facebook. Get $2 off on Thursdays!

I wanted to share some after pictures of our tiny apartment today. It’s funny because I’ve spent years wanting to paint my rented apartment and now that I finally have the chance I painted it white! Ha! It feels so clean and fresh. The apartment was in a terrible mess when we got it. The previous tenant had a dog that ate up the carpet and the doors and I think that they figured they weren’t going to get their deposit back they left everything pretty dirty.

So the first thing we did was deep clean the whole apartment. The claw foot tub was cracked and rusting so we hired someone to professionally reseal the bathtub. It took one day and it’s good as new now, I love it! We also noticed the refrigerator was broken so we ordered a new one from a little family owned appliance store in the neighborhood. They delivered it the next day! Next we hired a guy to refinish the floors. We decided to go with a dark walnut stain on the floor and am really happy with the color. Finally, we decided the apartment needed a fresh coat of paint. I got some quotes from some professional painters but they seemed high. Paul’s parents were in town to help us so we figured we could just paint it ourselves. Worst decision ever! I forget how hard it is to paint! By day 5 all of those painting quotes seemed like a steal! For such a small apartment it took forever to paint. (ps: fyi the landlord covered everything except the paint job.)

We have some kitchen updates we are going to have done in the next month but I have to say I love the apartment. It is small but it is totally livable. It gets amazing light and we love our new neighborhood! I may change my mind in a few weeks but right now I love it!

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I’m working with Method this year on their new campaign and I’m happy to share another video today (see the others here and here.) One of the first things I did when I knew we were going to have to deep clean our new apartment was head to Target and pick up my favorite Method products. I even picked up some of their concentrated laundry detergent which is AMAZING. (I am not getting paid to say that, promise.) It works so well. It makes my clothes smell good and only takes up a tiny bit of space in my cupboard. Check out their new video below, I love this new campaign so much! (ps: they are running a contest right now, go check it out and vote!)