She's At It Again!

Another day of rushing home after work to catch the sunlight! I have another point and shoot post today -- Eric taught me how to fix that quality issue and it looks much better! I always feel a little anxiety when I have  to use the point & shoot after using a dslr, but post-shooting, I remember how fun it is to get creative with cameras with limited functionality.

I received two bouquets on Thursday from the only person who would send me flowers. I was moseying around my room trying to find the right spot for them but they looked so out of place wherever I put them. So I decided how I would "fill" my room with flowers. See below!

A quick and easy solution to spreading a variety of flowers on every surface of my room. I put those glass bottles to good use (you know, the ones that I'd promised that I would constantly reuse ;) and put two or three stems of the bouquet in each. It would be nice if I could suspend them by the bottle necks with twine! For future event decorations, I might just buy a whole bouquet instead of individual stems! Haha I might need your pro help to correctly name all these flowers though, Tim Du!

Below are instructions on how I put them together. Drawing it out is so much more fun than simply typing out steps! 

Happy Saturday! Don't let the gray skies get you! :)

Circling Union Square

I love featuring other people's talent on this blog. Any chance I get, I try to post links to other people's blogs to encourage others to broadcast their hobbies and passions, no matter how small of an audience I reach. This post will showcase one of Eric's many talents -- photography. All photos were taken by him!(except for the ones that he's in, of course :P) The great thing about Eric's pictures is that they barely need processing, if any at all! Because of that, this post was quick and easy to put together :)

Last weekend, Eric and I spent a day at the Union Square Green Market. This might sound boring to you, but this kind of eye candy makes my heart skip. It was gray and overcast out and we had a rough start to the day (which foiled our original plans!), but we were able to fully enjoy it. Eric bought a 7D that very day, so he was too giddy to try it out.

Tried some mini cupcakes from a little shop called Baked By Melissa.

Left: We were able to catch the Seoul Food Food Truck! 

Right: You should know by now that I get excited by the strangest things. I spotted this pot of wheatgrass and freaked out. Eric jokingly gave me strange stares as he voluntarily forked over $3 to the shopowner. I am now a proud owner of a happy little pot of wheatgrass. Thanks EC hah.

One of my favorites.

Next time, I'm buying a succulent to add to my collection of growing greens! :)

We decided on The Green Table at Chelsea Market for dinner. Very satisfying after a full day of walking around!

'Til next time!

Point & Shoot

Eric needed his dslr back for a project he was working on, so I used a point and shoot for these photos. Excuse the lower quality photos! Since I can't get great quality with a point and shoot, I figured I'd focus on composition more than anything.

It was kinda disappointing how the photos look alright during processing, but after saving and uploading, the image becomes pixelated and the text is virtually unreadable (see above.) Originally, I had created "red + yellow = orange" graphic designs, but I ended up scrapping it all because the quality was so bad. Hope you'll still enjoy the short post!

By the way, that tissue paper flower tutorial won't be coming as soon as I thought, but stay tuned! Should be fun :)

70's

I wish I could spend more time outdoors relaxing and enjoying the weather. I love that rare feeling of being able to breathe slowly and really soak in the warm temperatures.

I got home from work around 7 PM and had to shoot in my front yard since there was barely any natural light in my house. Luckily, I was able to catch that last glimpse of sunlight before dusk, my favorite time of the day. 

Anyways, I'm going to make a tutorial on those tissue paper flowers shown below. I created the method a year ago and never thought to share how I create them. A tutorial post coming soon!

   

On the three photos above, I used these Instagram-like Photoshop Actions. Thanks for sharing!  

Another Quiet Thursday Night

Last night, I brought home Gerber Daisies for my Mom. I set the vase on top of the car so I could pick up the rest of my things from the back seat and saw a photo op. I wish all photos fell into my lap as easily as this one. Anyways, just another quiet Thursday night. ;) Hope you all are enjoying the beautiful weather!

I thought I'd credit the fonts I used: Prophecy Script and CAC Champagne. Thanks!

Waiting for Lily!

The warm sunny weather on Saturday was a sure sign that a beautiful spring is arriving soon...and so is precious baby Lily! This little one hasn't hatched yet but that didn't stop us from celebrating her pending arrival. Since I was lucky enough to be in charge of table decorations for Dorothy and Eric Han's baby shower, here's a run down of how each table setting was made. Prices are included just to show you how party decorations don't require breaking the bank. Also, a big thanks to Jen who organized the whole thing -- from sending out invites to making countless phonecalls to guests to organizing all food and game preparations and everything in between. 

That's enough of me now, let's get on with some pictures of this springy celebration!

Warning: a photo and text-heavy post ahead!

The centerpiece was composed of four parts: two store-bought and two hand-crafted. I bought one sheet of moss for around $6 and cut it up into 5 squares for each table. The thin strips of wood which made my "nests" was around $4. To make the baby bird, I bought a pack of 9 small styrofoam balls for about $5, and a bag of feathers for $4. Some tacky glue was all that was needed to attach feathers and a paper beak onto the ball. Very easy! I had a lot of left over feathers which I used as table confetti. Next was the tree stumps. Originally, I wanted to use real wood disks for the tree stumps, but they sell for about $6-10 per disk (which was way out of my price range, considering I was financing this by myself) So I did my research and found this tutorial for felt tree stumps. These took a while but it cost me only $5 for 5 stumps -- so it was well worth it, i think! In all, these centerpieces cost me about $5 dollars per table. Not bad in my opinion ;)

The string chandeliers pictured on the left required a few simple inexpensive supplies: balloons, white school glue, vaseline, yarn, and a few hours. A lot of people asked me how they were made so I'll provide the tutorial I used here. The leftover balloons were used in the awesome Twister game organized by Jen. Gotta be resourceful!

Crystal and Jamie prepared the entrance and welcoming area with the table for encouragement notes and gifts. Jamie and I both share the same taste so it's only natural that I "ooh" and "ahh" over her picks for the table :) The bottles holding the flowers (as pictured below) were the only items that I allowed to go above my expected price range. All 10 glass bottles cost me a hefty $15, but I rationalized the purchase by serving the drink at the party (which the guests put to good use and finished them off) and by promising myself that I'd use them over and over. Finally, twenty stems of tulips cost me $14.

Anyone who knows me knows that pretty flowers are one of the highest items on my priority list :) 

I wanted to figure out a pretty and inexpensive way to label the food items on the lunch table. I decided to use packaging paper as a table cloth, so it would be easy to write on. Pictured above, you can see how easy it was to label and personalize any unexpected food item that came through the kitchen!

Thanks to Kaitlyn for making these adorable cupcakes. Everyone should know that she's SERIOUSLY pro at baking and cake decorating! Check out her other awesome baked creations here!

And a shout out to Jen Yu for helping to set up the day of and to Eric for spending many hours with me to make the handmade decorations. 

And most of all, a great shout out to Dotty and Eric! You guys are going to be wonderful parents, and knowing you both makes me sure that Lily is going grow up to be a fantastic person and a great blessing to those around her. God bless! :)