Category Archives: etc.

Entertain / etc.

Let’s have a Circus Party

April 12, 2013

I’m having fun with this circus party theme. Make sure you check out yesterday’s recipe for Homemade Cracker Jacks, it’s an inexpensive and delicious party favor.  I’ve gathered up a few unique party decorations and favors to go with this playful theme.  I love hunting out far-from-generic for parties.  
Be sure to check out these creative bloggers and etsy sellers. They’ve got lot’s of great circus party ideas.  

DIY / etc.

Ask a Crafty Person

April 4, 2013

I’ve got a fun new title over at Whimseybox, I’m a “Crafty Person”.  I’ll be writing a bi-weelky column for their fabulous blog.  Readers can write in with questions, and I’ll do my very best to answer their DIY dilemmas.  So, if you’ve got crafty tip, tool or technique questions – ask away.  

As a little introduction, I’m sharing the 4 must-have tools for cutting  there today.  Come on over and leave me a question.

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White Bunnies and a Minted Giveaway

March 14, 2013

I am so excited to share with you an amazing giveaway that O + P is hosting.  How does $150 to spend at Minted sound?  I wanna win it.  This is just in time for Easter, but you can spend the money on whatever you want.

I’ve customized a few Easter cards this year to send out to family. But, I am also framing a couple of the cards as seasonal art.  Minted’s products are so beautifully designed and printed, that they feel like a piece of art.  I framed this sweet Kraft and White Easter Card in a simple white 5×7″ frame and I’m sitting it alongside my white bunnies.  It will be fun to take out this framed card year after year.

The white bunnies are my little collection of thrift store finds.  I bought these three bunnies for under $3 a each and then to give them all a uniform look, I painted them all a clean flat white.  They were are varying shades of white with bits and pieces of color.  I am happy with their new look.  And I’ll be on the hunt for more.

So here’s how to enter:  
1.  Head over to Minted and take a look at all their beautiful Easter Cards and Spring Art, then simply leave me a comment below telling me what caught your eye or what you’d spend $150 on at Minted.  It’s as easy as that.  
2.  And if you’d like to have any additional entries, leave a comment letting me know how you shared this giveaway with your friends (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest).  Be sure to leave one comment for every share so that they are counted as entries.  
The giveaway will close Tuesday, March 19th at 12 midnight PST.  I will announce the winner Wednesday, March 20th.    

DIY / etc.

Toddler and Tween Shared Room Art

March 12, 2013

I’ve shared with you that I am attempting to give my girl’s room a little make-over.  Not a floor to ceiling re-do, but more of a freshen-up and just add some details to complete the space.  I want both my toddler and my tween to feel like this is their space.  This week, I got the art prints that I ordered from The Land of Nod.  I am beyond excited.  I think they are going to add that modern edge I wanted for the space. When I saw my before pictures, I realized how bare that one big wall over the bed was.

I’m working on putting the art pieces together now to hang on that wall.  I’m pairing my vintage horse prints from my Grandma’s house, with a beautiful batik I bought in Sri Lanka and the new prints for The Land of Nod.  It may seem like a crazy combination of styles, but so far it’s working for me.  I like the art that hangs in my home to have some meaning and sentimental value, and having a piece of my Grandparent’s home and something significant from our family travels is important.
I think taking the risk in combining these very different styles is what gives a space personality and a little funk.

The Amethyst print(my personal favorite of the prints I ordered) plays really nicely with the Sri Lankan batik.  I love the vibrant colors in both and the organic shapes of the batik and the angular shapes of the Amethyst compliment each other.  

This Flamingos print is modern and playful and the colors in it go so well with other accessories in the room.

I’ve got the prints all in their frames, and I’ve laid them out on the floor to work on arranging them in a grouping.  I’m not sure if the vintage horse prints should be together or if I should separate them in the grouping.  I’m leaning towards this first arrangement.  What do you think? Also I think a picture rail could also be a good option for hanging this artwork. 

I ordered frames to go with my Land of Nod prints.  I’m really pleased with both the prints and the frames from The Nod Institute of Art collection.  Both the frames and the prints (which are currently 20% off right now) are reasonably priced and I feel like I’m buying something unique that my daughters can keep and maybe even pass down to their girls someday, because all of their prints are limited edition.  The Fur and Glasses print is pretty great, and it’s tween approved, because Denali LOVES it.

I’d love to know what you think. Do you like this grouping? What is and isn’t working for you? Do I need another piece over by the Flamingos?

I big thanks to The Land of Nod for gifting the Fur and Glasses and the Flamingo prints.

etc.

This Week

March 9, 2013

This week….. well, this is really a sampling of the last 2 weeks via my instagram.
I don’t often share a lot of my personal life here on O + P, but we’ve had a tough week and a half.  Well, mostly Denali has.  If you don’t know my daughter, she is the quietest, sweetest, kindest little girl.  Denali is in 6th grade, and this year she started middle school.  Anyways, to make a very long story short, she caught some girls in her class doing something they shouldn’t and so she reported it to the teacher.  As a result, these girls threatened Denali in a very serious way (I am being vague for a reason).  But, it didn’t end there.  Even after suspensions, these girls came back even more aggravated and the threats and bullying continued.  And as of yesterday, these girl’s friends are now picking on my baby.  We are hoping this will end, but if it doesn’t end NOW we ready to make some big changes.  The whole process has not only been worrisome for Denali, but it’s also involved many painful trips and phone calls to the principal’s office.  

On the bright side, my parents were here last week for a few days.  We got to celebrate my Dad’s birthday together.  And my sister in law came from San Diego with my very cute niece and nephew. That’s his sweet little hands making donuts with my mom. 
We also went to LA on Saturday.  It was nice to get out of town.  We hit IKEA and then went to West Elm LA and Emily Henderson was there with a Pop-Up Etsy shop. It was fun to meet her again (I met her previously at Alt).  My kids loved the fancy drinks and treats and we played in the photo booth.  And I might have ordered a new chair for our living room (eeeeek!).  Then we headed over to The Grove and got some dinner at the farmer’s market.  

DIY / etc.

St. Patrick’s Day Treat Bag

March 6, 2013

As a kid, I remember thinking chocolate gold coins were pretty much the fanciest candy you could eat. So, I’m filling little treat bags for St. Patrick’s Day with golden coins for my kids. I think these little goody bags with fit nicely into a lunch box.

To go with my love of Mint and Gold for St. Patrick’s Day, I added simple gold shamrocks to the front of these bags just like I did to my Shamrock Float bottles.  These fun grid line bags are from We Love Citrus. (Visit this post to read about how you can get 20% off your purchase there).

On the back of the bag, I stamped a simple message for my kiddos.

I was on a time crunch, so I picked up these chocolate coins at my local party supply store, but I really wanted to order these fair trade chocolate coins for Divine Chocolates.

etc.

Green and Gold Geometric Pillow

February 27, 2013

To keep with my love of triangles and geometric patterns, I decided I would make a fun green and gold pillow. I had so much fun with my giant geometric heart, that I’m working on lots of fun green geometric ideas for St. Patrick’s Day and Spring.  While my love of the color pink is new, green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember.  
I chose 3 green cotton fabric and a metallic gold for the triangles. I knew I wanted to add a splash of metallic gold, but this fun, fabulous, shiny, slick gold fabric is very synthetic and very difficult to work with. For the design, I wanted it to be very random so I just cut out a lot of triangle and played with their placement for quite a while.  I cut 5″ squares and then cut those squares in half diagonally. To piece this mini quilt pattern, I sewed the triangles together to make squares first, then I sewed the squares together in rows, and finally sewed the rows together to make a 20″ square for the pillow.  I backed the pillow in the darkest green fabric and put in an invisible zipper in the bottom seam of the pillow.
I am going to be totally honest with you though. This pillow just about kicked my butt. I started this pillow Sunday evening thinking it would a fun little project that would take an hour or two of my time. But, after fighting this fantastic gold fabric for hours, I managed to accidentally touch a hot iron to one of the middle triangles and it instantly melted it. So, I had to unpick way too many squares and then replace the melted piece and sew it back together again.  So, IF I attempt this again, I will be on the hunt for better gold fabric to work with.  

Do you ever get yourself into a sewing project that you think will be a breeze and then hours later your unpicking your mess and wanting to cuss?  If you have, I feel your pain. But if your stubborn like me, you won’t let that project beat you.

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Toddler and Tween Shared Bedroom

February 23, 2013

Yesterday I shared with you the dilemma with my girl’s shared bedroom.  After photographing it today, I am seeing more of the problems that I want to address. You can see that it isn’t a huge space by any means, but we’ve got a lot packed in this room.   
Here’s what furniture we have in the room:
full sized antique metal bed
white Jenny Lind crib
desk and stool
2 dressers (one a flea market fix and the other a Target find)
bedside table
The walls are looking especially bare over the bed and desk.  I love the two horse and little girl prints that are over Denali’s bed.  They are sentimental to me.  These sweet prints hung in the room of my Grandparent’s house that I used to sleep in as a child.  A few years ago, my mom gave them to me and I reframed them in simple white frames.  But, I think that their scale is a little off for the size of this long wall.  I think when they are grouped with the 3 prints from The Land of Nod I picked out, they’ll all come together as one larger piece.  Or maybe they would look better together over Denali’s larger dresser.  I’ll be playing around with this.   
Over Olivia’s crib I have a fun metal bicycle that goes with her quilt.  I want to keep that there, but I think I’ll make something new for the bike basket, I might be tired of the tissue paper flowers.  And the vintage needle point and print over Olivia’s dresser with also stay. 
Overall, I want the room to grow up a bit.  It’s looking a little nurseryish through the camera lens.  I think a few modern pieces of art, a sleek modern chair for Denali’s desk, some metallic gold touches here and there (especially on Denali’s bed) and maybe a change in lamps should help.  

What do you think? Am I on the right track?  Can you see how difficult it is for me to make the space fun and age appropriate for both a toddler and a tween?

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this week

February 16, 2013

This week…… Well, it was definitely been a full one.  Here’s a few of my instagrams from the week.  This week was jam packed with activities and a whole lot of LOVE. Somewhere in the middle of the week’s craziness, I began questioning my sanity.  But, I made it through. 
I made a lot of heart shaped meals and treats and had a little Valentine’s party with close friends.  We had lots of cousin love and Olivia couldn’t be happier.  She can’t get enough of her cousins, well no of us can. They are the sweetest.  And I was a super lucky girl and got showered with lovely Valentine’s Day gifts from my hubby and had a wonderful night out with him last night.  
I hope you all had a great week and that you felt loved.  I’ve been getting Riley ready today, we’re going camping tomorrow!  I can’t wait.  We need some peace and quite that only time outdoors can bring.  With Lonnie working so much, our family needs a good old camping trip.  I’ll take pictures and share our adventures with you next week.
Enjoy your weekend with the ones you love.

etc. / Food & Drink

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

February 11, 2013

I made a Valentine’s version of my Mark’s and Spencer Chocolate Chunk Shortbread today.  I LOVE making and eating shortbread.  These buttery cookies are some of the simplest to make, with very few ingredients.  And really, is there a better cookie then a tender, buttery chocolate filled shortbread?

I used Nestle’s Valentine’s Morsels and I cut out heart shapes just for Valentine’s Day.



Chocolate Chunk Shortbread

1 cup butter (room temp)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer.  Add the salt, vanilla and egg yolks and beat until smooth.  Add the flour and mix till dough comes together.  Add the chocolate chips.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1/4″ thick.  Cut out the cutting.  Bake at 325 F for about 12-15 mins or just until the edges of the cookie start to turn golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.
These cookies store really well in the freezer, but I have a feeling they won’t last long enough to make it there.  Are you making any last minute treats for Valentine’s Day?  I’d like to make a special breakie for  my hubby on Thursday, maybe Creme Brulee French Toast.  It’s been a jam packed weekend (had my brother and sister in law‘s 2 toddlers for the last 5 days) and I’m headed to an equally busy week, so I’ll see how it goes.