Raise your hand if you like funny guys and mexican food

I may be biased, but I think my brother is pretty entertaining.  He and his friends have this project going on right now called 88 Night of Cinco de Mayo.  They live near a mexican restaurant with 88 items on the menu, and they decided to try everything on the menu in order, film their meals, and edit them into short movies.  Some episodes are funny, some are thought-provoking.  They're currently on episode 21, but since the episodes are only 1-2 minutes each, you can catch up pretty quickly.  Take a look at my favorite episode so far, "If You Had to Guess...":

And if you live in the LA area--or are willing to travel there (at your own expense, naturally)--they are having a funny little contest called the "Making Dreams Come True" contest.  Details HERE.

Find 88 Nights of Cinco de Mayo

on the interwebs

in the youTubes

on facebook

on twitter

Event Sponsors Wanted

Hi Readers.  I help organize Bliss Handmade, a semi-annual shopping event featuring handmade items from local crafters and artists.  We have our 2011 Holiday Boutique coming up on November 12th and are looking for sponsors.  We need items donated for our door prize drawings during the event as well as small items donated for goodie bags that we are giving away to the first dozen shoppers.  If you are a crafter or artist and would like to donate items, you can click HERE for all of the details.  In exchange for your generous donations, we offer lots of free advertising and exposure (online, in print, and in person), which is great for anybody trying to get the name of their shop or business out there.  Check out the Bliss Handmade website for all of the important info.  Thanks!!

New Projects

We have been busy busy busy this summer with projects.  I'd like to share them all with you.  Here's the biggest project we worked on this summer:

Welcome James!

Literary Inspiration: Shades of Grey

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde

I have loved everything I've read from Jasper Fforde, and I've read everything he's written. His work is witty, hilarious, smart, and fast-paced, and Shades of Grey is no exception. As with the Thursday Next series and the Nursery Crimes series, Shades of Grey takes place in a sort of alternate reality; the world is ours, but the society is not, and we never really find out what happened to our society other than it is gone.  This new society is all based on color:  people are born being able to see varying levels of only one natural color--or sometimes no color at all, in the case of the Greys--and how much of their color they can see gives them social standing, decides who they can marry and what jobs they can hold, etc.  On the surface it all seems like a pleasant place to live, but of course, all is not as it seems, and both intrigue and hijinks ensue.

All of the images below are inspired by parts of Shades of Grey.  Because the whole book is about color, there was a ton of visual inspiration; it was really hard to choose just a few things!

{top row from left:  Pantone Mugs, available from Pop Deluxe;  Round Color Stickers from SilvermintSupplies on Etsy;  Lapis Lazuli necklace from PoleStar on Etsy;  Baby Giraffe No. 3 by Sharon Montrose, available from The Animal Print Shop;  Risk by Parker Brothers Games}

{top row from left:  Superior Servers from Ladies & Gentlemen;  The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer;  Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC;  cute rabbit;  Elderflower Cordial}

Literary Inspiration: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry

*This post is the first in what I hope to be an ongoing series: Literary Inspiration. We'll have to see how long I can remember to keep this up!*

One of my favorite pastimes is reading. I love getting lost in a good book, and my list of books to read is miles long. After a one-year stint on the list, The Elegance of the Hedgehog finally made it into my shopping cart at Target and then onto my nightstand. It is the story of two lonely souls, Renee Michel, the unappreciated but highly intelligent concierge at a posh Paris apartment building, and Paloma, a 12-year-old resident of the building who is searching for true beauty in hopes that her faith in humanity will be restored. It is a touching read that is both laugh-out-loud funny and grab-your-hanky bittersweet. Full of references to food, gardening, literature, art, music, and cinema, it made for a very interesting read!

top row: 1) florentines, photo and recipe at foodnetwork.com; 2) Still-Life with Oysters by Pieter Claesz; 3) leather-bound journals from Kate's Paperie

bottom row: 1) variegated camellia by Kristina Simms via flickr; 2) Paris courtyard; 3) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

For Jozen {Oh Hello Friend's Collection Trade}

Several, several months ago I signed up for a Collection Trade sponsored by Danni of Oh Hello Friend. My sweet partner Jozen and I seemed tailor-made for each other, from our love of baker's twine and cute packaging supplies to our tendency to procrastinate and our complete disregard for the swap deadlines! Luckily, months later, Jozen has finally received her package from me, and my package from her is on its way (although possibly stuck in Canada due to the Canadian postal strike).

Here's what I sent to Jozen:

baker's twine; striped straws; pink polka dot balloons; white circle labels; tiny kraft bags; colored tags; toothpick flags (not pictured are a yellow teacup, a tiny wooden scoop, and some sweet vintagey notecards)

everything got these cute white paper lace and kraft paper tags (and I do mean everything)

these notecards were too cute to resist--not to mention they were the right color--so they got a tag too

it was all packed into the little wooden cigar box; somehow, everything fit (except the teacup, which was lovingly wrapped in lots of not-cute bubble wrap)

Teacher Appreciation Gift--Last Minute (Is there any other kind?)

We were at Costco this afternoon for what has strangely become a new family tradition--Monday lunch at the Costco snack bar. We ran into lots of people we knew, and one friend mentioned that she had just come from dropping off a teacher appreciation gift at preschool. And that is where I smacked myself on the forehead because I once again forgot teacher appreciation day! I do this every year. Luckily, we had a couple of packs of those oh-so-delicious Costco muffins in the cart, and about as quickly as I smacked myself for forgetting, I forgave myself because I came up with a plan for an easy, last-minute-but-sure-to-please gift for our preschool teacher and teacher's aide.

Here are the directions: 1) After buying the muffins, go to Starbucks on your way home from Costco and buy a $5 gift card for each teacher. 2) Place a Costco muffin--any flavor--in a small bag and tie bag shut with ribbon, baker's twine, etc. 3) Make sure the gift card is taped into the totally not secure Starbucks gift card envelope, then close up the envelope and punch a hole in one corner. 4) Tie the envelope to the muffin bag with the aforementioned ribbon or twine.

So this entire gift, which I happen to think is pretty darn good, took about 10 minutes of effort total. And who doesn't like Costco double chocolate muffins?!