Fashion. Music. Family. Life.
This has been a difficult month for so many out there who have lost, especially those in Newtown, CT. When I think about those families and the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I hold my boy a little more tightly than I ever have before. They are all in my thoughts and prayers this holiday season. I hope you all have a blessed Christmas and remember to enjoy these precious moments with all of your loved ones.
Pine Cone Christmas Tree by Mei-Lin Jiao
My niece brought this pine cone Christmas tree project when I picked her up from school recently, and I thought it was completely adorable! I remember a time a few years ago during the holidays, when I first moved out of my house right after college. I came home to visit my parents and was greeted by the smell of pine. As I entered the kitchen, I saw dozens and dozens of pine cones. As I made my way towards the family room, the amount of pine cones multiplied. My mom decorated those pine cones with glitter and hung them up everywhere: on the Christmas tree, on the garland on the walls and doorways, in bowls and vases. In addition to those sparkling conifer cones, I think my mom could have added an array of these pine cone Christmas trees. With just a few more days before Christmas, I included the instructions for this festive and easy DIY. Have a great weekend!
By Jane Lake
Turn pine cones into pretty miniature Christmas trees with three easy steps in this free Christmas craft project.
Craft Supplies for One Ornament:
Project Instructions:
1. Paint the pine cone completely green. If desired, you can add sparkle by dusting the pine cone with glitter while the paint is still wet. Alternatively, wait until the paint is dry, then randomly add glitter glue to the tips of the pine cone.
2. Glue the bottle cap to the bottom of the pine cone.
3. To add beads, small silk flowers or other Christmas embellishments, use tweezers to dip each piece into a small puddle of craft glue, then into a space on the pine cone. Make sure that you push each bead or embellishments firmly into place.
(From AllFreeCrafts.com)
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some prototypes of my attempt to create a themed mini-cupcake display for my niece’s Adventure Time birthday party (Mei-Lin is pictured above, dressed as Fionna the Human, which is Finn’s gender swapped version). After watching several episodes of Cupcake Wars and many trial mini-cupcakes later, I figured out how I wanted to set up the table and which characters I would feature. To make the process go by more quickly, I did use all Pillsbury products: boxed cake flavors in strawberry, yellow and chocolate with a vanilla cream frosting. I also used a mini-cupcake maker that was given to me by my mother-in-law. I liked using it because each batch only took 8 minutes to bake. The cupcakes cooled very quickly, and I was able to make 150 in a few hours. The next day, I executed my final designs and display, just a few hours before the party. I was very happy with the finished product, and received many compliments at Mei-Lin’s party. Next project: cupcakes from scratch!
These were the prototypes of the final product. Originally, I only chose four different cupcakes, but Mei-Lin added one more later.
Mei-Lin and Dominic, posing for pictures between batches of cupcakes.
The center display featuring store-bought figurines of Adventure Time characters: Finn the Human, Jake the Dog, The Ice King and LSP (Lumpy Space Princess).
There were five different characters represented in mini-cupcake form. These represent Finn (blue sprinkles) and Jake (yellow sprinkles).
Mei-Lin asked that these rainbow sprinkles be included to represent Lady Rainicorn.
Princess Bubblegum
Peppermint Butlers
The whole display, which included a map of the Land of Ooo, where all of the characters live. I adore the Adventure Time cartoon series and found all the information about the characters and the series itself on The Adventure Time Wiki.
(Photos 4 to 10 by Rholnna Jiao)
Since I went on a European adventure with my best friend, Janice this summer, it was only fitting that my husband take his own trip with a buddy of his for a football weekend to The Steel City of Pittsburgh. He watched my San Diego Chargers go against his Pittsburgh Steelers at home. Although my Chargers won 34 to 24, Deon still had a great time. He took some fantastic pictures during game day. Enjoy!
Franco Harris greets you when you first arrive at the airport
Heading towards Heinz Field
Tailgating, Pittsburgh style!
(All photos by Deon Chen)
Happy Friday everyone! A winner has been selected to pick their choice of a bag from Jump From Paper: Please help me congratulate Luna! I will contact you by email later today to get your information to send to the folks at Jump From Paper. Congratulations Luna, looks like your sister will get an awesome birthday present!
Thanks to everyone who participated, and thank you for following Any Second Now!
FTC Disclosure: The winner of the Jump From Paper contest was chosen at random using Math Goodies. As stated in the initial post, I did not receive compensation for the review, but was offered a contest for readers of this blog. The opinions in this post are strictly my own.
Yes that’s right, I’m finally on Pinterest. I discovered the joys of Pinning just about a month ago, and I love it! What moved me was that I was trying to save links on my “Favorites” bar, then sharing links on Facebook and Twitter, with a final realization that I could do that all on Pinterest. So, I created my account, linked it to my blog, and here I am. The pictures in this post are from the awesome live Pinterest board at the newly renovated Westfield UTC mall in San Diego. From music to food to fashion, follow me at pinterest.com/any2ndnow/ to see what interests me these days. Happy Pinning!
Vanessa, Jennifer and Paulina
You know the saying, “No man is an island”? I think the same applies to bloggers. We can’t and shouldn’t blog in a vaccuum, so it’s important to develop blogger friendships and networks, not only for support, but to share fresh ideas from other perspectives. I was invited to the most recent San Diego Style Bloggers meet up, arranged by founders Rachael of Da Paura and Paulina of Lil Bits Of Chic along with eco-friendly VavaVida. It was held at Bubbles Boutique in the Gaslamp District of Downtown San Diego, and was so much fun! We had snacks, champagne, and even little gifts from VavaVida and Bubbles Boutique. Not only did I get to meet the lovely Paulina and reconnect with Jennifer of Malcriada and Vanessa of Fashion Mixtape, I got to know a few more awesome local bloggers: Pat and Paula of Pat Flor, Jess of Jess Glam Diary, Tuyayamya of White Tee Black Dress, Lua of Miss Lulu Blogs and Lindsay of Elle Web Style. In addition to meeting a bevy of fashionable bloggers, I also met two talented San Diego based jewelry designers: Deneace of Mad Rain Designs and Suki of Suki Bijoux (check out my cute ring by Suki Bijoux, pictured below). I had a wonderful time chatting with both ladies, and I will have interviews with both of these designers in future blog posts.
We are all individual, beautiful, and stylish. We are of different ages, sexes and walks of life and we all have something to offer. If you have a chance to attend a local blogger event, I suggest you do so and often. Get out there and get to know your fellow local bloggers!
Posing with Vanessa (and my Wendy Brandes rings…again!)
Chatting, sharing, mingling, and shopping! (My Jump From Paper bag can been seen in the backgroung while I’m chatting with Suki Bijoux.)
Ring by Suki Bijoux (made from a vintage map)
(Photos 1, 2, 3 and 4 are courtesy of San Diego Style Bloggers)
I know it’s a Friday, and I usually do my “Weekend in Pictures” posts on a Monday, but I had to move this to accommodate my niece’s birthday post. I’ve spoken about my love for Nutella in a couple of posts (here and here), and my hubby has been eating Nutella since he was five, back when he visited Germany. Although it’s not very Whole30, my family had to visit their truck when I heard that the Nutella Breakfast Tour was coming to San Diego. They made a stop at the Mission Valley Mall, and we got free samples, stickers and shirts. I think I was way more excited than my husband or son about the whole event!
On the same weekend, I checked out the Target + Neiman Marcus Collection. I was glad to see that the Target at the Mission Valley Mall was pretty well stocked. I’ve had my eye on the Proenza Schouler sweatshirt, so that was the only thing I bought during that visit (it’s completely adorable, and I’ll be sure to think up an outfit to post). I think I’m going to have to sneak off on my own to spend a little more time looking at everything to see if I like anything else (the Marc Jacobs rose gold pouch, Brian Atwood studded leather gloves and Prabal Gurung cape come to mind). This is not at all a hint to my husband for possible Christmas gift ideas…
My hubby will be off this weekend to see the Pittsburgh Steelers play the San Diego Chargers in the Steel City with his buddy. Since I had my girl’s trip with Janice this summer in Europe, it’s only fitting that he has a get away as well to see his all time favorite team with just the boys. We’ll be busy celebrating Mei-Lin’s birthday with a get together, which will be this weekend as well (I’m making the cake, so I’ll post pictures of the finished product). Hope you have a great weekend!
Photos 1 & 2 by Deon Chen. All other photos taken with an iPhone.
I found out about this line of bags by accident while searching for cool stuff at Fab.com (love that site). The one pictured above is called “Cheese!” and initially, I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at: was it a sketch of a purse or was it maybe made of cardboard? The brand is called Jump From Paper and is the brainchild of communication design majors Chay Su and Rika Lin from Taiwan.
Cartoon-like outlines and bright and cheerful colors add a brisk yet funky flavor. And despite the slim appearance, each JumpFromPaper™ bag has a roomy interior to accommodate personal belongings and even iPad/tablets.
At first glance, the bags look completely flat. Up close, you will see that they are fully functional bags made of canvas and polyester fabric, that expand in the back and have several pockets. You can order them online, but when I went to the US site, I was able to find the bags at several locations close to me (which mainly consisted of museum and home stores). I purchased the Bonjour! while in Las Vegas and I used it when my husband and I went on a date night to see the new James Bond flick, Skyfall. There, I had him take a picture of me in front of the movie concession stand to enter a Twitter contest from Jump From Paper (it had to be in a 2D pose in front of a crowd). Since then, I have carried this bag everyday and it’s amazing how many comments I hear while walking, including this funny quote from a group of people I was passing during a stop on the way home from Vegas, “Dude, that girl’s purse is tripping me out. I can’t figure it out…is it real?!” Oh it’s real, and I love that I’m carrying a unique, yet useful work of art.
CONTEST!
The folks from Jump From Paper are giving the readers of Any Second Now a chance to win one of their wonderful bags!
Here’s what you have to do to win:
1. Go to the Jump From Paper US site and pick out your favorite item.
2. Come on back to Any Second Now and post a comment listing your favorite item.
(Please post your comments by midnight PST 12/12/2012.)
3. Next Friday (December 14, 2012), one lucky reader will be chosen at random to win their favorite bag, so please check back later that week to see if it’s you!
To keep up with the latest from Jump From Paper, be sure to like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter and Pinterest!
Photo 1 (Cheese!), 2 (Travel Fever) & 3 (Bonjour!) courtesy of Jump From Paper. Photo 4 by Deon Chen.
FTC Disclosure: I did not receive compensation for the review, but was offered a contest for readers of this blog. The opinions in this post are strictly my own.
Today is my niece’s birthday, and I wanted to wish her a wonderful day! She is at school, but she will have a fantastic soiree this weekend. I’ll be making her Adventure Time themed cake and will post pictures after the big event. Happy Birthday to my little Shmei-mers!