October 16, 2018 · 5:14 pm

BOO! Two white cakes decorated simply. This was by far the easiest party cake I’ve ever made!
It’s almost time to celebrate Fred taking another turn around the sun (2 years flew by!), so I thought I’d share his adorable little birthday party from last year. We have a lot of friends with birthdays in October, so we decided to celebrate his a little late each year closer to Halloween to free up earlier weekends for other parties. I’m sure someday he’ll insist on having a non-Halloween themed party closer to the actual date of his birth, but until he has an opinion about it, we’re leaning way in! Who doesn’t love a costume party anyway?! Here’s the round-up from his last party and I’m sure I’ll be repeating a lot of it this year because it was so stinking cute!
Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as 1st birthday, animals, appetizers, birthday party, cheap, costume party, costumes, DIY, easy, family costumes, ghost cake, Halloween, halloween cake, home baker, ideas, kid friendly, lawn games, simple, toddler
March 31, 2018 · 6:39 pm

Easter 2017
I’m deep into prep for tomorrow’s Easter party, so that means it’s time to see what we did last year! Our traditional Easter menu never changes, but I always mix it up with the cake…which was gorgeous last year! Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as cake, cooking, DIY, Easter, easter bread, Easter party, Eastern European, family, feed a crowd, food, home cook, ideas, menu, naturally dyed eggs, onion skin eggs, painted cake, party prep, pierogi, recipe, Spring, tiered cake, tradition, vintage cake, watercolor cake
February 6, 2018 · 12:47 pm
I used to love making little Valentines for my classmates and I distinctly remember refusing to hand out store-bought ones several times. My mom probably just didn’t want to spend money on all of the supplies I needed to make them (and who could blame her), but denying an art-loving child their opportunity to make something is a pointless battle! Since I became a parent, I have tried to teach George, and someday Fred as well, that handmade gifts, handwritten cards or even just proper Thank You notes are important and valued. What better way to show you care about someone than giving them something that took some thought or time? That being said, asking a toddler with little to no fine motor skills to make something for Valentine’s Day is obviously not realistic. Last year, I figured out something that we could make together for his classmates and he loved it! Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as activities, cheap, craft, DIY, easy, fast, fine motor skills, handmade, kid friendly, kid made, Valentine's Day, valentines
January 19, 2018 · 1:47 pm
Whoa…I’ve been away for a bit! The holidays are the busiest time of year for my work, so it’s hard to take the time to blog about everything I’m doing and during that time my studio fell into a complete state of disrepair. It was finally time to deal with my work space and I’m so happy with the results! This project was a long time coming and there were a lot of things to consider before diving in. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as art studio, art supply organization, before and after, cheap, craft room, DIY, functional work space, home office, ideas, Ikea art studio, Ikea hack, Ikea office, maker, organization, PAX wardrobes, sewing room, workshop
October 18, 2017 · 6:10 pm
While I’m more than willing to spend a lot of time and effort decorating my house for Christmas, for some reason I just can’t get it together for Halloween even though I love a good haunted house. Usually we just throw a few pumpkins on the porch and then process them after the holiday for pies and soup, but this year I thought I’d try something a little more fun…as long as it was still easy, cheap and fast! I bought a fairly ugly gigantic spider on Amazon and then basically just made it look a little better with glue and paint. I love the ridiculous scale of it on the house! After we hung it, we realized it needed a little something more, so we grabbed some cobwebs from the drugstore and abracadabra, our house is home to pretty creepy monster spider! Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as altered, black widow, cheap, DIY, fast, front door, giant spider, Halloween, house decorations, house spider, idea, semi handmade, simple, spider
October 13, 2017 · 12:07 pm
I can’t count how many times people have suggested that Halloween must be my favorite holiday because I have a degree in costume design or that my kids are so lucky to have a parent that can make their costume dreams come true every year. Maybe it’s just me, but once something is your profession, even if you aren’t currently working, it’s not really something you seek to also do at home! Around this time of year, I’m always already neck-deep in making Christmas ornaments for my store so Halloween always sneaks up on me! Despite what people may assume, I am perfectly happy to just BUY a costume if it already looks great or is something I can alter or easily make into something better. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as animal, costume, DIY, easy, Halloween, handmade, how to, lion costume, mane, semi handmade, toddler
October 5, 2017 · 1:41 pm

A train car at Travel Town Museum!
It wasn’t difficult to pick the theme or location for G’s 4th birthday party this year because he is SOOOO into trains right now! He has to be holding some sort of toy train, train photo, train sticker or train book at all times and at the dinner table, they are allowed to sit and “watch” us eat from a short distance. He even sleeps with them the way most children would sleep with a beloved stuffed animal. It’s amazing. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as activities, cheap, cheap party decorations, DIY, easy, favors, Griffith Park, how to, kid's birthday party, simple, train cake, train party, trains, Traveltown party
June 23, 2017 · 10:00 am
When we closed escrow on our rental house, I wanted to make changes in each room to make it more “ours” without a lot of fuss or money. Our bathroom was redone cheaply in the early 90’s and it is definitely on the top of our list for a major makeover, but we aren’t ready for that kind of expense quite yet, especially with a $10,000 fence somewhere on the horizon. I decided to give it a quick makeover to tide us over until we could redo the whole thing with new flooring, tile, sinks and hardware. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as bathroom, cacti, cactus flower, cactus print, cheap, design, DIY, makeover, modern, mural, quick, temporary, towels, wallpaper
April 17, 2017 · 7:53 pm

Aunt Anna’s Easter Bread
I don’t know who Aunt Anna is…probably my mom’s aunt or maybe even her great aunt, but her bread will live on in my family for generations if I have anything to do with it. I’ve been eating this bread since I was a baby and making it for about 12 years now. It is DIVINE. You could just call it “Challah with raisins” because, well, that’s basically what it is! It’s soft, chewy, a little bit sweet and best the day it’s baked with a hefty smear of good butter. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as baking, bread, challah, comfort food, detailed, easter bread, family, home cook, how to, raisins, recipe, sweet, tutorial, video
March 23, 2017 · 10:59 am
When we moved into our house three years ago, our landlord at the time asked us to keep his giant Mexican cabinet in the house that we absolutely didn’t need. I loved it, don’t get me wrong, but it was useless as a storage piece and didn’t fit visually in the house. It was just way too clunky for the space. When we bought the house last summer, I finally had my chance to move it outside and rethink our entryway! Our house has NO storage…I repeat…NO STORAGE. We have one and half closets total so figuring out a way to store toys, shoes and bags was quite the challenge. Here’s what we did. Continue reading →
Like this:
Like Loading...
Filed under Uncategorized
Tagged as bench cushion, entryway, home decor, Ikea, inexpensive, interior design, modern, Nornas, spanish revival house, storage solutions, string art