Aaron's 1st birthday

A couple months back, a dear coworker of mine was planning her son's 1st birthday party. In Korean culture, the first birthday (dohl) is a big celebration in a child's life. Historically, dohl celebrated a milestone for children during a time when many kids did not live to their first year.

For this big celebration, I helped out in decorating the party with the them of winter ONEderland in mind. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how mild this winter would have been.

Glued white wooden sparkly letters from Michaels onto dowels to create a unique cupcake topper spelling the birthday boy's name!

Blue frosted chocolate cupcakes with handpiped chocolate snowflake courtesy of PaulineBakes!

Vanilla cupcake with frosting coated with sprinkles. The cupcake topper with more sparkly snowflakes  to add to the theme.

Mini vanilla cupcakes with blue frosting and a pearl accent by PaulineBakes

Our doljabi/welcome table. Six cups representing different items were placed for a raffle guessing which item Aaron would pick. The wish tree was a DIY project made by spray painting branches in white and hanging ornaments and snowflake photo frames on them. These were also centerpieces for the table

Snowflake personalized gift bags with dduk (korean ricecake) for adults to take home. The frame holds the invitation for Aaron's birthday

Dessert table. Sparkled the snowflake I found hanging in the background myself. The ones I ordered were plain silver foil and the silver glitter spruced it up. The birthday bunting banner on the bottom reads Aaron's 1st birthday!

Snowflake fondant 2 tiered cake with a bunting banner on top. Amazing work!

I wish I had a better picture of the whole room but unfortunately people started coming in before I was finished decorating :P Nonetheless, all that work pulled together nicely and I am pleased with how everything turned out!

it's 2012!!!

I had written a blog post but when I tried to publish it, it deleted everything! It's extremely discouraging to finally get the energy up to write something down and then have it deleted :(

Anywho!!

My absence in no way indicates a lack of craftiness happening in my life :P I have been crafting but unfortunately I have not been documenting it. But we shall get back on the horse!

A couple of months ago, I received a text from a friend:

"Song! Make me one!"

Which of course I couldn't say no, especially since I own the book :P The cute robot amigurumi is from  Crobots by Nelly Pailloux. 

Here is just the head

This is pre-assembly. As you can see the arms are missing. I saved it for last because I was not a fan of the muscle arms the original pattern called for but I wasn't sure what I could do to remedy that.

The finished product! Ultimately I went with a simple tube arm. The actual size of the crobot is small: the size of my hands. It took about 4 hours from start to finish and its definitely a project you can complete in a day. 

I must admit that there were certain parts of the pattern that was confusing. It felt like certain steps were missing and I had to make guesses. I'm not sure if that's my inexperience reading patterns or a flaw in the pattern writing. Nonetheless, the 20 different robot designs are original and extremely creative and worth picking up! 

Watercolor Macarons

I used to take art classes when I was younger. Real art classes with oil paints, water colors, pastels, charcoal etc. I really enjoyed the process and found that I can copy really well but have a difficult time coming up with original art. shrug* Nonetheless, I gave up art after high school and lost interest (as I did with piano and all the other things my mom had signed me up for) but recently after seeing an an adorable water color painting of a cupcake at Pottery Barn Kids, I was *inspired* to dabble my hands in watercolor again!

Which prompted a trip to AC Moore with Pauline Bakes* and bought myself two brushes, and a set of watercolor tubes. I bought the cheapest set I could find since who knows when I might lose interest in this hobby too :P

Using my new set, I took my love of pastries (looking at them, not eating them) and tried out painting some macarons. I find that my macarons come out perfectly when I'm painting them. Baking it is another story. I also threw in my first attempt at watercoloring with my new set of the cupcake. :T scrumptious!

Current project? :)

How terrible am I?? I have abandoned this blog for so long. Work has consumed me and I have also committed to running 5K on November 20th!! I have been doing well running but this past week, I let it slip. But I will get back on the horse :P

But here is a sneak peek on my current project. If anyone has any suggestions on sewing sequin trims to a skirt.. please help!!!

My Inspiration:

My supplies :)

Korea! Pros& Cons

I am in the land of Korea!! I just wanted to let you folks know that crafting may be on hold, shopping for crafting is still on and taking pictures is most definitely still on. I've been here a couple of days and it is monsoon season so it is pouring cats and dogs outside.. and some cows and pigs and chickens too. It's a barnyard out there. I also spent some time meeting up with Liz! and did tons of shopping. I love how good shopping is in Korea. But it's so humid and there is so much walking to do.

Anywho here are some pros and cons of Korea that I forget.

Cons:

- Older Korean folks are rude and will physically push you out of the way in public areas such as the subway. There is no Korean equivalent for excuse me and giving you a chance to move.

- Korean girls are skinny.... too skinny. Anorexic skinny making me feel fat.

- Korean clothing sizes are one size fits all which is not true. Because one size does NOT fit all.

- Monsoon season equals tons of humidity. TONS of humidity.

- Iced coffee and other iced drinks are ridiculously expensive costing the equivalent of $5.00 per drink making my one iced coffee a day a very expensive habit.

- Smoking in establishments has not been outlawed. :( Gives me a headache and a stomachache.

- There is no diet coke in Korea, just light coke... which is not available everywhere. 

- You have to walk everywhere!

Pros:

- The handles in the Korean subways are low enough for me to reach! YAY

- Korean subways have a sign that shows where the previous train is and you never wait more than 5 minutes no matter what time of the night or day.

- It's possible to find cute but still cheap clothing/accessories without blatant compromise of quality. 

- You can eat a full meal for 5 dollars... QUALITY meal!

- I might finally get off my diet coke addiction since they are not available here!!!

- You have to walk everywhere!

More to come :)