finally...my excuse and some work sketches :)

I ditched the craft fair; here is my excuse. :)

My dog ate all my crafts! j/k :)

Actually, I signed up for the fair before I got a full-time job (YAY! Thank you, Lord!). Since working, I haven't crafted at all. The thought of making stuff seriously felt like a chore. :( So...I procrastinated until the weekend of the fair and started to craft like mad.

Here's the product of my labor...



As a result, it just wasn't enough to fill a 5 X 5 space ... :(

Anyway, though I missed out on a potentially great experience, I think this attempt has really inspired me to get back into crafts....hopefully. :) I need to start making things NOW if I ever want to participate in a craft fair next year.

Have a lovely weekend. I now leave you with some sketches I did during work (don't worry...I AM working...I just like to sketch on my notes :))

skipping the craft fair...

pretty sad ...hopefully i can still come out to at least support the other vendors :(

more details later...

craft fair scoop.

Mark your calendars because Mushroom Meadows will be participating in the Patchwork Craft Fair this November 15th. :) You are ALL invited!!! :D

Here's the INFO!

:)

the craft dilemma.

My long absence is a reflection of my lack of crafting. :( Seriously, aside from a couple of doodles here and there, I have really not done anything creative over the past several months. Nevertheless, the crafting must resume again! Why must it resume??? Well...

Mushroom Meadows is officially going to be at a real life craft fair!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a first for me!

I'll give the scoop in some subsequent blog entries and hopefully I'll keep you all updated with my preparation for it. Although it's pretty stressful, I think the experience will be fun! :)

and the winner is...

Blaze Danielle!!! :)

I used the Random.org Generator.

hip hip hooray.

elf made brushes...GIVEAWAY!!!

I finally got my package from elf cosmetics! I mainly ordered make-up brushes because while I am unable to fork out the dough for professional brushes, I do prefer brushes over the sponge applicators:



The verdict? They are soooooooo nice!!! The bristles are soft and the handles are sturdy. I really can't believe I got them for about a dollar each (I used a coupon code but they retail for $3 each). I'm going to try to experiment with a couple of them to see whether or not I can use them as paintbrushes (I'll let you know how that goes). Too bad elf doesn't offer paintbrushes too because good paintbrushes are crazy expensive. ;)


That's a lot of brushes, huh? WELL...as a thank you for all those kind, sweet birthday wishes, I want to do a super short giveaway of one of my eyeshadow brushes from elf!

Leave a comment on this blog post, and I'll select a winner Tuesday, Sept 1st. ;)

Have a great weekend!

the happiest place...

I went to Disneyland for my birthday. I didn't stay very long, but it was kind of nice. It's been nearly a decade since my last visit to the "happiest place on earth". For the most part, it's still very much the same; however, it seems so much smaller now. :) The worst part is that there's a lot more audible cussing amongst the crowd...:(

My sister gave me this for my birthday! I was so pleasantly surprised because she's pretty busy now-a-days with Little Cloud. Plus, it matches my nail polish! ;)



It's a birthday critter. :)

As for my birthday blues, well, I think I'm over them now. My father-in-law told me that 29 was his hardest birthday ever. He said that it's difficult realizing it's the last year you'll be in your 20s, but he assured me that once you turn 30, you get a fresh, new start again. hahaha :D

birthday = the blues = new + expensive craft

It's my birthday. yay. :(

Lately, I've been preoccupied, or rather obsessed, with make-up. Over the past month I have been subconsciously drawn to make these ridiculous purchases from Urban Decay, Smashbox, and elf.com (I should be getting that package next week) with the imminent approach of the birthday. I've completely ditched crafting on the normal art canvases for crafting on my face. I guess it's an attempt to hold onto youth?



I don't know why I am so resistant to getting older. I mean, seriously, when I look at my parents, in-laws, and all the elders of my family, I think they're all so beautiful and live such wonderful lives. I have a lot to look forward to, right? hah! :D

I highly doubt the make-up will solve anything or miraculously cure my birthday blues, but I better have fun playing with them because make-up costs a lot! :) Better yet, I need to hold onto this truth: "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

Happy birthday to me! :)

coolest plates ever (and a giveaway!)

La Fuji Mama's latest blog post was about the most interesting plates ever; these plates are made out of palm leaves, making them totally eco-friendly. So, after reading her post, I scurried over to Marx Foods to take a look at how to get my hands on them. To my excitement, they are actually doing a giveaway right now! Woo-hoo!!!



You guys should definitely enter the giveaway!!!

contrast.

I was messing around with my watercolors and ended up creating two pieces, which totally contrast one another. The first one depicts a girl who is deliriously happy and the second one shows a girl who is restlessly sad. :)





Have a great weekend; I'm off to the beach! ;)

scrubbing buddy

As a kid, I loved the Scrubbing Bubbles almost as much as I loved the Snuggle Bear (actually, I still do). Anyway, I bought this really cute vegetable brush, and I couldn't help drawing it a face. Here's my own personal Scrubbing Buddy, inspired by the Scrubbing Bubbles:



By the way, my nice, round ice cubes were created by using the ice cube tray pictured below. It contains two parts, which snap together to form the roundness of the ice cubes:





Oh, and I definitely need to take Blue is Bleu's suggestion of making coffee ice cubes because I don't like my coffee (with sweet condensed milk) being watered down either, which is simply inevitable because I just don't drink fast enough for the ice to not melt.

not a cloudy day...

Today is not a cloudy day; not only is it sun-shining but I didn't get to see Little Miss Cloud either. Boy, I can't believe how much I miss her!

Anyway, as some sort of consolation (and a terrible addiction to caffeine that I can't kick), I made myself an iced coffee with some condensed milk. I LOVE my little ice cubes; they're perfectly round.



Here is a little watercolor piece that I recently did. I was too lazy to color her, so I just made her entire outfit match. hah!

baby stamping.

Despite the summer heat, I managed to sneak in one crafty endeavor; I carved a stamp inspired by Baby Cloud (who I think looks a whole lot like a Kewpie).



Oh, I just wanted to share a little something that I received in the mail. I got this giveaway present from Golden Dove Design. It's a cute hair pin, which is so delicately embroidered. Thanks Kim!!! :)

contagious love.

My love for mushrooms have been passed on to the next generation. Contagiously and undeniably, my fungi passion has spread to my little nephews and niece. Here is a drawing that I digitally colored using an illustration that Nephew I did:



That was probably the most productive thing that I did today. It was so hot in my house that I took a trip to Target to cool down. Look at these cute shoes that I got from Target for only $4.48:



I'm back in the house now and I want to die. Tomorrow I am going to sneak over to my sister's AIR-CONDITIONED home to see my baby niece. She's uber cute!!! Yesterday, she fell asleep in my arms. That has to be one of the best experiences EVER! :)

Stuffy Surgery.

My 8-year old niece loves the stuff toys that I make her. I think she has over 10 of them that I've made for her over the past couple of years. However, out of all of them, she seems to cherish the one pictured below the most. It was one of the first ones that I ever made for her. I asked her why she loves it the most, and she responded "because you told me to". I really don't recollect instructing her to love it, but I am glad that she does. :)



The stuffy's name is Grape. Almost all of her stuffies are named after food items. Anyway, Grape needs some serious surgery; her neck is completely limp. For an entire day, my niece could not find her. She even made missing posters and offered a reward (16 cents). My niece figured that Grape was alluding her surgery. haha. We finally found her and it is my goal to try to fix her up by the end of this week. My niece suggested that I give her some cosmetic surgery while I'm patching her up like giving her pink lips and redoing her nose. hahahaha However, I convinced my niece that Grape was perfectly content with her looks. ;)

Handmade Paper!!!

I bought a Paper Making Kit and started to experiment with just the paper from my paper shredder (nothing fancy schmancy). Surprisingly, the mixture of paper from my shredder yielded an interesting texture of paper!! I made some tags with my first ever piece of paper (stamping the paper seems to work well too):



This video (although an advertisement for HSN) was super helpful:



I like my kit a lot, but there's ways to make paper without an official kit .

Have a great weekend! :)

Renegade Fair Purchases.

I didn't exactly splurge at the fair (although I wish I could have) but I did manage to purchase a couple of items. :)

One of the cutest little postcards ever from Robort Goodin:



A tee-shirt for my brother-in-law (the two ninjas represent my nephew and his dad) from Decal Robot:



This last item was NOT from the craft fair, but I wanted to share it with you guys anyway. I got a set of alphabet dies at Michael's for guess how much??? $4.99!!! woo-hoo!!!



The air-conditioning at my house is not working again; needless to say, I am melllllllllllllllllllll-ting...

Los Angeles Renegade Craft Fair

This weekend, I went to Los Angeles...



...to the 1st Annual Renegade Craft Fair in LA!



Here are several of the loveliest things that I spied with my little eye:


Lil Sprinkles


Rock Scissor Paper


Fugu Fugu Press


Dee & Lala


Pinecone and Chickadee

I'll show you what I bought tomorrow!!! :)

creating stationery

I've been slowly getting back into crafts, sneaking it in between job searching (bleh) and finishing projects around the house. Here are some snippets of stationery that I've been working on:





I got to see Baby Cloud yesterday. She is getting cuter each time I see her. My sister told me to draw her, but I could NEVER capture that much cuteness with my pathetic art. What can I say? God is the creator of ultimate cuteness. ;)

sweetest baby

Over the past week I have been enjoying being an aunt to one the cutest little baby ever! Check out my sister's blog to see Baby Cloud's pictures!!! It's really amazing to see my sister's baby and to see my sister as a mama. As children and even into adulthood, we often shared our dreams about having babies, and those dreams have finally become a reality. I cannot even begin to fully express how proud I am of my sister! She is a such loving, sweet, and courageous mommy!!! Baby Cloud is truly lucky to have such great parents. :)

Not only do I have a new baby niece, but my nephews and niece from my husband's side are also over to play for a couple weeks!! :) The eldest nephew and I are trying to come up with a board game. Here are some sketches for the characters.

crafty block.

Since finishing up school, I've had a major crafty block; I just don't feel like crafting. This is how bad it is:

Instead of making a thank you card, which should have been pretty easy, I actually bought one! My sister was beyond shock at this revelation.

Secondly, instead of just sewing a little reusable bag, I actually bought one! Here it is, but it's super cute:



Oh well...I'm just waiting to meet my baby niece now. :)

The winner is...

...Apple from Art and Soul. She does amazing journals and even has some videos of her artwork, so you should check out her blog! :)

I got the winning number via the integer generator on random.org.

----------------------------------
Here are your random numbers:

21

Timestamp: 2009-06-17 05:58:03 UTC
----------------------------------

Thanks for all playing! :)

284 pieces of fun and giveaway!

During a recent trip to Michael's Craft store, I discovered a lovely bag containing 284 pieces of die-cut cardstock from the Carolyn Gavin scrapbooking line. The colors are fun, the images are cute, and the best part is that the pieces are all double sided. The image is normally duplicated on the backside, but one side is always glittery. :)

Anyway, I thought I might just go crazy with these and a gluestick. :)



Although I know there are tons of Michael's out there and you could probably just go pick them up, I decided to share a handful of these pieces with a lucky someone. Just leave a comment, and I'll select a winner Tuesday, June 16th. :)

I think I'm done...

...so I guess it's time for me to enjoy a little summer break? But something just doesn't feel right. :( Maybe I am still adjusting to the fact that the term is over? I always have issues with the end of school. Always.

Anyway, I tried to enjoy some crafting again, but it's hard to get back into it after such a long break from it. Here's a little watercolor piece I attempted last night:

the end is coming closer...

There's about a week left of school; I'm so tired, the end is near but I am running very low on energy. :(

Anyway, I miss you all so much. I can't wait to get back to crafting and blogging next week!! :) Until then, I leave you with some caramel apple love.

my sisters.

While I was doodling tonight, I ended up with what had a strong resemblance to my older sisters when they were younger...



My second older sister asked me if they really looked that mean. I'm the younger sister...OF COURSE, they looked that mean. haha

Anyway, I'm super stressed right now because there's only a couple more weeks until school ends. I need to get it together! :)

and the winner is...

... Megan Coyle!!!



Thank you all for playing!!! Your ideas were all so fun and cute; I'll definitely try to incorporate as many of them into my sister's baby shower! :) Thank you again!!!

Giveaway Prizes!!! :)

Giveaway is officially closed; winner will be announced later today! :)

Here are pictures of the prize package for the giveaway. You have until May 1st at 12:00pm PST to enter!!! Just leave a comment with a baby shower idea or if you don't have any ideas, just leave a comment! :)

Five mushroommeadow tags:



A mini-journal for mobile doodling (I love the paper inside; it's really nice and smooth):


Cover


Title Page

Inside Pages

Last but not least, a little print of a mushroom picker:

Little Red Riding Hood Wannabe

So there you have it! Have a great week! :)

Baby Shower Invitations and Giveaway

Giveaway is officially closed; winner will be announced later today! :)

Here's a peek at the card I designed for my sister's Baby Shower:



So, as I am planning the Baby Shower, I thought it would be fun to have you all contribute! Do you know any good baby shower ideas or games to play??? :) Leave a Baby Shower comment, and I will randomly draw a name on May 1st at 12:00pm PST. The prize will include: 1 5x7 Print, 5 tags, a mini journal, and a couple surprises. I'll post pictures of the prize on Sunday! :)

Happy Earth Day!

I hope you all had a pleasant Earth Day. :)