Colorful cupcake stands

This year I am missing my mama. She is in Peru, spending time with friends and family until next month so a mother’s day phone call will have to do. Still, I decided to do a little crafty goodness with some pieces I’d had for a while and set up a colorful table.

The pretty purple flowers grow in our front yard so they came in handy. The three little stands were made from plain wood circles and candle holders from Michaels.

Isn’t my mama stylish in her red wedges, summery white pants and peasant top?

I don’t remember this picture at all, she found it last year and gave it to me in the little frame.

I painted the candle holders in different colors, gold, mocha and pale pink (actually Valspar’s Apricot Ice, which my youngest chose), and cut out circles from 3 coordinating scrapbooking papers for the tops:

I hadn’t planned on the papers to coordinate with the flowers but that’s how it worked out!

So, happy mother’s day, mama, I can’t wait to see you in a few weeks!

Stencils + Sharpies = Lovely Dish Towels

A few weeks ago I bought a set of stencils for super cheap. I think it was $3 or so. Mainly because the front stencil was of a fleur-de-lis, of course. I started on a flour sack towel I had leftover from another project.

I was pretty happy with my first effort and since our new range has a handle for towels on the oven door, that’s where this pretty towel went:

I also love the look of Moroccan tiles, so I chose the stencil that looked most like a similar tile to me:

I did these in the dark red color and really like them:

I just eyeballed it and didn’t measure the spacing or center, it was my first try and I just wanted to see how this went — and I’m really happy with the results. A super easy craft, under $5 per towel. Incidentally, I saw a deal on Tuesday of two towels for $35, with the same image as I used on my first flour sack towel project. Pretty crazy, huh?

Have a great weekend!

”Your
Weekend Bloggy Reading

Bringing spring color inside

A few months ago I made some embellished kitchen towels using Sharpies, in a craft inspired by Heather from Setting for Four. This time I decided to use a bunch of different colors for a very colorful accent to our dining room table.

I had lots of fabric left over from some old curtains and I decided to make some colorful flowers using Sharpies:

Then I cut out the shapes I wanted – even though my “G” ended up looking like a “6″, grr – and appliqued them onto a length of the same fabric. I chose a contrasting color for the stitching so the letters would stand out:

I might also hang it above one of our hutches as a banner when we have friends over. I love that it was such a simple craft and is bringing so much color into our neutral dining room.

We had a few adventures during the boys’ week off, I will share some this week and some Top Secret goings on will have to wait to be revealed next week ;D I will tell you that I just finished a wonderful debut novel by a local author and I can’t wait to tell you all about that, too!

Minecraft Party, part 2

So, when I woke up at 6:30am on the morning of my son’s birthday party, I went to the garage and found my husband doing this:

The poor man had spent all night working on the creeper piñata and diamond sword. They looked great, though, so I would say it was worth it. Our boy was very impressed:

The piñata was made out of cardboard but my husband made it so that the head rotated. All the candy was stuffed into the belly, so it didn’t have a lot of give. The sword is made out of wood and painted in various shades of blue to give it that pixelated look from the game.

After the complete destruction of the poor creeper, we saved the head, as we always try to do, and added it to our growing collection of piñata and costume heads.

And that was our Minecraft-themed birthday party!

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Glitter Map Art a la YHL

When I saw this super easy, super cute project in the Young House Love book, I knew I had to make it — especially because I had all the materials already.

I decided to honor my country of birth, my beloved Peru, and make a bit of glittery goodness :D

I used an 8×10 canvas I had, a fat quarter and a piece of green glitter cardstock.
It is along the coast of Peru where my two favorite cities are located: Lima, the capital, where I was born and raised, and Chiclayo, the City of Friendship, where my family is from.

It has been far too long since I was last in my homeland, I long to have my boys get to know their relatives back in Peru. For now, this little piece will get a place of honor in my home.

Have you tried any of the projects in the YHL book yet?

The Christmas Serpent

Okay, so the title may be a little dodgy, but really, check out what my awesome husband made this time!

The inspiration was one of the structures at a local park, which does a great holiday lights display for people to drive by. Last year, my mother in law commented that she really liked their Christmas sea serpent and my husband, of course, said, “you want one?”


He cut out the pieces out of plywood, then my in-laws helped with painting, drilling EIGHT HUNDRED HOLES for lights to poke through, and painting.

It looks pretty awesome, doesn’t it??

Here’s Mr. Awesome checking out his masterpiece, on his parents’ front yard:

Hope your weekend is wonderful!!! I am off to see if I should change the name of the blog to My Husband’s Awesomeness ;D

Serenity Now blog

Behind the scenes with the Xenomorph

My husband spent about 40-50 hours making the costume, including the entire night before Halloween. I did my best to keep him fed and Mountain Dew-ed but that was pretty much the extent of my contribution, this project was all him.

Here are some pics I took during the making of the Xenomorph costume:

The wire frame for the head.

The torso, made up of wire ribbing with duct tape over it, blackout vinyl, electrical conduit, pipe insulation, and vacuum hose. The back horns/pipes are made up of pool noodles.

My little vampire (so cute with his missing teeth!) putting on the helmet that supported the head:

The head structure during drying time

There are two pieces of clear plastic on the top — made from soda bottles — which is where my boy could see out of. It was very hard to see him, though, which made for a better illusion.

Thank you to everyone who has posted/emailed us such nice comments. I think Steve rocked it out of the park with this costume and I’m so proud of him! Have a great weekend!!

The Xenomorph from Alien

Last year, my husband rocked making a Godzilla costume for our little man Alex — he even made the SF Chronicle’s list of finalist in their costume contest!

This year, it was our oldest boy’s turn to get a daddy-made costume, and he requested the Xenomorph from Alien. At 7 1/2, he has never seen the movie (neither have I, by the way) but he saw the alien itself on youtube and decided that was it. And daddy obliged:

Yes, my husband is insane :D He worked on this costume for about two weeks, roughly 40-50 hours, and has yet to go to sleep since yesterday. But he loves making stuff like this and even more so, when his kid loves it as well. And our boy did.


I love his sweet classmate’s face here, the kids loved the costume and kept asking my husband how he made it.

My husband and his parents were there to help our boy put on the costume, here Gran helps Aidan walk out of the classroom and line up for the parade:

I love the look on Steve’s face here, so happy that his boy loves his costume!

More pics from the parade:


Happy Halloween, everyone!

The 36th AVENUE

Thursday Favorite ThingsWeekend Bloggy Reading

Ohsoamelia

Thufferin’ Thuccotash!

I am sick as a dog.

Let me rephrase that. I am sick as a cat. My poor cat, Willie-Boo, had the most miserable look about him yesterday. He was just sitting in the middle of the living room, nose almost touching the floor. Very unlike him, usually he’s scampering around, picking fights with Bernie or seeing who can pet him next. He sneezed about 80 times on Saturday, poor thing.

I spent the weekend “coming down with something” and the something is here. It’s a cold, and my youngest and I have been sniffling for hours. Thank you, Willie-Boo, for sharing.

I have no post for y’all today as I have barely any brain left from all the coughing and sneezing. Bleargh. I suffer from allergies and got really bad headaches this summer but I rarely get sick, as in a cold or anything else, so I am more mad than miserable, because people, I HAVE THINGS TO DO!!!

So I’m just going to cheer y’all up with this picture. It’s my husband’s work table in the garage. This is what happens when he gets creative.

Love ya, honey! :D

Insane Asylum sign

This past weekend, my husband made an awesome sign for Halloween.

Although, considering how crazy we tend to get around the holidays, I might be keeping that sign up for a while :D

The backing is an old puzzle tray we had, pieces had gone missing long ago but the tray itself was perfect for this project. Steve added plain thumbtacks, then cut out the letters from foam – yes, by hand, I keep entering those Silhouette giveaways but haven’t won one yet – and then glued them to the frame. The first coat of spray was a metallic copper, then he did a wash with black paint so the pigment would settle into the crevices, and finally he added some greenish paint for a rusted, patina look.

I think he did such a great job!!! He has a lot more planned for our front yard but we wanted to share this bit for now.

So creepy!!!

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shabby creek cottage