Mini Corkboards

I loved these mini corkboards and thought I could probably make a set for myself. I purchased a roll of sticky-back cork liner a while back (heavily discounted at Michaels - who could resist?!) and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to bust it out. Since the lining is pretty thin, I stuck seven 4"x4" layers together before reaching a suitable thickness. I finished by gluing ribbon around the edge.

I made three but may make a few more!

The sticky-back makes the finished corkboards easy to mount onto the wall - peel and stick!

Pardon the lighting. I'm still familiarizing myself with the lighting in my new room.

My New Room

I made it! I moved to New York yesterday, and the OCD-neat-freak part in me has driven me to frantically unpack everything. I hauled a lot of stuff with me, but I also have three more boxes of stuff coming in tomorrow.

Here is my new room:

As you can see, this is pretty much a blank canvas ready for me to organize and decorate. I'm looking forward to it!

Family Photo Christmas Ornaments

For my family, Christmas time has always been very low-key. We like to take advantage of everyone being at home and spend as much time together as possible. Everything else - from meals to decorations - is kept simple. However, one tradition we don't skimp on is presents. My mom insists we gather around the tree every Christmas morning to open presents together. This means none of us get to sleep in. This also means we need to buy presents for everyone...

Every year, my brother and I go through the same "I have no idea what to get mommy" dance. We usually settle on buying her something that is an upgrade or a replacement for something she already owns. She is so hard to shop for because she rarely uses anything anyone gifts her. For example, one year we bought her a new pressure cooker to replace her old one. She continues to use the old one, and only recently began to ALSO use the new one.

This Christmas, we decided to make her a set of ornaments using pictures of our immediate family and her extended family. My mom is the only one to immigrate to the US from Taiwan, and given how close she is to my grandparents, aunts, and uncle, the distance has always been difficult for her. This year was especially difficult because my grandmother passed away after a three year battle with lung cancer and early stages Alzheimer's. I wanted to use these ornaments to honor the memory of my grandmother and celebrate the family that my mom loves so dearly.

These pictures are of my mom in teaching college and my grandmother on her wedding day.

Fun fact: My grandmother, my mom, and I are all the oldest women AND the shortest women in our respective generations.

Stanley and I made sure our mom opened the first present on Christmas day.

In the case she didn't like the ornaments, we also bought her a nice purse. =)

Christmas Decorations

My mom wanted to give me more opportunities to practice my design and decorating skills, so she put me in charge of decorations this Christmas. Because our past ten trees have all been adorned with the same lights and red, silver, and gold wire-edged bows, I quickly decided to make and buy brand new decorations.

Here is the tree after the jump:

The garland comprised of 100 handmade wire stars attached to thick silver cord.

I splurged and bought strands of blue and ice white LED lights.

Rather than use traditional ball ornaments, I hung mini and large jingle bells which made the tree more whimsical and fun.

My favorite find had to be these snowflake ornaments. Target was selling them in packs of four for $1 (what a steal!). I cut off the flimsy cords that they came with and used prettier ornament hooks instead.

Lastly, I made a simple blue fleece skirt with fuzzy white edges for the tree base and matching stockings for the fireplace.

Restaurant Halloween Decorations

I had the privilege of working with Ken - owner of Ace Wasabi's, a sushi restaurant in the Marina district in San Francisco. He needed help putting up Halloween decorations in preparation for the restaurant's Halloween Costume party this coming Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Jennifer H via Yelp

When I showed up, Ken already had several bags of decorations ready for me. I just about died when I opened one of the bags and found it full of large furry spiders. I am terrified of spiders! Thankfully I was able to (somewhat) look past these eight-legged critters and get the place Halloween-appropriate.

I apologize for how dark the photos came out. Most of the lights in the restuarant were off. On second thought... the darkness adds to the creepiness of the decorations. Success!