DIY ombre paper mobile

I have been thinking on a craft using the ombre technique, so trendy right now, and finally came up with a cute one to share.  It's so easy, and fun, and if you don't have a scallop punch, you can use any other one.  In fact, it would look as fancy in any other shape. For the tutorial, keep reading.

Have a spectacular Fall weekend

 Has the weather turned in your neck of the woods?  I'm in Florida still, but I can't wait to go back home and start enjoying the crisp, coldish Fall air.  We are quite enjoying our time here.   Doing lots of shopping and crafting.   Making newborn baby gifts and updating a few things around the house.  My mother made it a point to have me home so that we could both enjoy the process of changing up the seasonal the decor.  Although it never gets cold or crispy down here for the Fall, nevertheless, the shops are bursting with beautiful Fall colors, and inspiration isn't tied down to weather changes.  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  And here are my favorite links for this weekend, some DIY fun as well as amazing little truths.  Enjoy!

DIY:  I'm doing these funky ombre pumpkins! 


Dying to try these nutella chocolate cupcakes!


mothers and daughters


that's some cartoonish transformation!


Spooky:  Hallowenish children art work


NYC's hidden (roof) terraces!


Amazing:  What lies beneath a children's gumline


the cutest stamp shop ever!


Wow, these insects covered in morning dew!


Fall treats (so creative and fun)

Home companion: Bookshelves

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Hola friends!  Sorry I haven't been around here, but I'm taking things slow down in Florida with my parents and Emilu.   I've been making the rounds around my favorite shops, and catching up with family.  In the meantime, I love the orderly style of this bookshelf, simple, but not shabby.  Just plain awesome, isn't?  Happy Wednesday and see you guys tomorrow, I have a wedding to show you!

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia in a new "light"

Wow, these images are unbelievable!  Well, as you know well, La Sagrada Familia, is Gaudi's most famous unfinished work.  After Gaudi's death it continues to be worked on by different architects.  And since it was first begun 130 years ago now, it has been built from donations. Gaudí himself said: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." The building is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century

So it was absolutely breathtaking to see that Montreal-based studio Moment Factory is helping its cause by celebrating the basilica's intricate design and presenting a figurative interpretation of Gaudi's intent when he created the unique facades of the famous basilica.  The project was realized in front of a crowd of 32, 000 people.  The first multimedia projection on Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia: A large-scale piece, entitled 'ode à la vie', tells the story of rebirth and hope, cast on the basilica’s distinctively intricate nativity façade, presenting a figurative interpretation of the creation of the universe. the work was informed by original color sketches by the renowned architect, for whom color was the 'essence of life'.

Source and Credits via

Welcoming Autumn {in my own special way}

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The shorter days are bringing cooler weather. A chill is in the air. What is it about Autumn we love so much?  The bountiful feasts and seasonal food favorites?  Or the changing guard of color and shades of the outdoors giving our spirits a much needed recharge?  We get excited because Fall represents so many renewing energies.  Celebrations are planned around the globe, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and the Festival of Lights, and  we gather with loved ones to share our blessings.  We get crafty around the house, our closets get a makeover, and our kitchens get infused with the aromas of the season.

Photo by James Jordan

Autumn officially starts with the equinox, which this year enters around Sept. 22 in the Northern Hemisphere.  It's a day of balance, when the day and night are closest in length. At the equinoxes, the sun appears overhead at noon as seen from Earth’s equator, the moment when the sun crosses the celestial equator.  In fact, you might notice the arc of the sun across the sky each day now well into the Winter, because it's shifting toward the south. From now on, Nature begins its yearly withdrawal and rest in preparation for Winter. Birds and butterflies are migrating southward, too, along with the path of the sun. This arc is one of the signposts for wildlife to head to warmer climates. 

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This year I'm feeling more attuned with the seasons and want to celebrate the beginning of Autumn by aligning myself more with Nature.  It's how people lived in the past.  I started by bringing a little  Fall into the house. I hung a canvas bag filled with green, red and orange eucalyptus branches in the hallway, infusing a nice fresh piney scent around the house.  I'm planning on celebrating the Moon Goddess (and Goddess of the Harvest) by creating a corn husk doll (more on that later). Also, I'll be eating some pomegranate seeds and sharing them with Emilu in honor of Persephone, the virgin goddess who is abducted by Hades (her husband) to the underworld, leaving her mother Demeter to grieve her absence during Autumn and Winter. But here's a few things we can all do to celebrate the Fall:

• Give thanks: Look around you now and reflect on the past blessings bestowed on you and your loved ones. If you feel inclined, you can bestow gifts on Mother Nature (the Moon Goddess or Goddess of the Harvest) by pouring some wine on the ground, or feeding the birds seeds, even recycling, if you never do.

• Seek balance:  Create balance in your life now.  Pay attention to your thoughts and your feelings.  If you are outgoing and love to be among people, seek time alone, to reflect, to plan, to feed your soul.  If you are the opposite, call a friend, or write her a letter.  

• Create and nurture:  Just like Mother Nature, this is a time to withdraw and rest.  But if you look closely you can begin to nurture yourself and those around you.  This time is perfect to create new projects, concentrating and nurturing a seed that will blossom once Spring makes its entrance. We have more or less six months to nurture our projects. See, Nature is already working with us!

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Art for children

This weekend we visited the National Gallery of Art.  It was a nice afternoon and it wasn't crowded with visitors.  Emilu roamed the halls of the Dutch and Flemish, and the French 19th Century masters collections.  It was rather a short visit, but we did make it a point to stop at the famed gift shop, and I couldn't stop giggling at the beautiful and well stocked art shop.

But what can you buy children who show an interest in art?  Well, almost anything really.  And this shop is full of possibilities.  Just the books are incredibly interesting, and they have an endless choices for parents and educators to choose from.

If you are ever in DC, and there are tons of things to do from visiting all the museums and the monuments around the Mall, all for free, DO stop by the gift shop of the National Gallery of Art. Your kids will love it!

Unravelling, the e-course

Last week, I told you about an online course called Unravelling about creativity, community, and connection. Alas, what a great class it is!  A personal journey to finding and making profound connections with your self through shooting pictures and personal journaling.  I will be sharing a picture once week here in the blog of what my lens is shooting.  I invite you to take a look at Susannah's amazing blog. 

Kids Zone: Papercraft alphabet

Are you good with paper crafts? I have yet to try them. And this would be the perfect first time project. It might look intimidating, but I'm up for a challenge: 26 paper craft templates for each letter of the alphabet in cute shapes. Isn't this fun? Here's where the magic happens (and it's free!)
 

Source: digitprop.com via Patricia on Pinterest

Home companion: Bookscases

Sometimes a bookshelf is just a bookshelf. But, other times, it's a statement.  And this one says ...my adventure side dictates how my classic side behaves. And I agree.  We all have very opposite tastes sometimes, and by marrying them together we can satisfy our desires.  For example, I love that I can pull my favorite poems anthology from this bookshelf and marvel at the small pair of elephants carved from onyx I recently acquired from Madagascar.  Wait there are no elephants in Madagascar, are they?  Oh well, you get the drift. 

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Inspiration: Organizing with pegboards

Happy Monday to you! For some reason, come Mondays and I'm ready to tackle almost anything. The energy level is high and my organizing spirits are soaring. Appropriately, I started browsing your my Pinterest boards and I found these lovely pegboard ideas to organize and display almost anything.  Julia Child was a genius when she thought of them for her kitchen. 

Sources: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Shop alert: Chewing the Cud

I recently discovered this amazing shop online.  It reminded me of  when I was pregnant with Emilu and was dreaming up what I thought were wild entrepreneurship ideas. I have always like things that you can reuse a hundred different ways and times.  So one idea was to use  plastic rental bins for moving.  I actually thought people, especially urban dwellers would be uniquely attracted to these, but I never calculated, they could become a flourishing business.  Same with these beautiful printed fabrics used as gift wraps. They are so clever, green and a lasting gift. 

It proves that some wild ideas are really good, actually.  You just have to put forward your hardest effort to make them happen. 

Kids Zone: Pretty tents

These kids' tents are so unique and creative. Kids love a tucked corner just for them, where make-believe happens. And they can be fun and even soothing, as they retreat into their own space to think, create or just play.  I know these images have been posted thousands of times all over the internet.  But, I couldn't help but feel like a kid again with these pretty tents.   I think I know where to put one. 

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{Images via MPMK}

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photo credit

Kids Zone: Watercoloring

I can't say it runs in the family.  Art, that is.  My husband and I are both design and art-loving people. But, we are no artists.   So, when I recently discovered that my 14-month old baby loves to paint, it dawn on me:  Art could run in this family.  And you wouldn't not know it!  She has a steady aim, from paintbowl to paper and from paper to waterbowl.  Of course, I'm thrilled because we, parents, live vicariously, and sometimes, entirely, through our children's passions.  It's a deep yearning of mine, to see my daughter excel in the arts.  No matter what this turns out to be.  Acting, dancing, painting, designing, writing, hey, even graffiting. Anything would do.  As long as she loves it, we'll love it.   I happened to snapped a few photos of D-day (dawning day of art could run in this family)

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Isn't this exciting? I bet your kids love to paint, too. I can't wait to see her masterpieces on display.

Kids Zone: Ceative playtime

Kids play with the darnest things. When I was a child we played elastic band, a game where two kids get inside a long (35") elastic tied at the corners and held by their ankles.  A third kid jumps inside the loop doing a variety of tricky jumping steps as the band gets higher and the game gets harder.  We'd play for hours on end, and sometimes when there was a shortage of kids we would use chairs to hold the elastic in place. We also played with marbles and the game of STOP, with paper and pencil we would go down the alphabet writing all the things we knew with that letter and adding points.

There's an undisturbed innocence when you watch children play with the most creative and organic things.  I always said my kids would play with toys and things that sparked their creativity and curiosity.  I'll do my best when Emilu starts playing seriously.

{Images via HipHip Hooray}

Here and now

{Photo by me}

Sometimes I have no time to do the things I love.  If I'm not tired, which is never, I'm backed up with housework, which is not the same as being up to my neck with mindwork (usually a good article I have put aside, or the email message from a lost friend,whose reply beckons 30 minutes of my life.) Most times, however, I'm simply struggling to complete a thousand things, which I've began simultaneously in a effort to multitask.

I tell myself if I had the time, this would be an award winning blog.  I would redesign, and go on a one woman-one blog, journalist exploration of themes I'd like to write about, and share.  My pictures would be edited and published in a flash.  My posts would not linger in the draft section for months. And my stories would capture the stumbles and tribulations of womanhood in modern times. Writing used to be second nature. Although never easy, it used to put me at ease.  Like a cold smoothie in a hot day; writing was my treat.  Now, it seems something I must conquer everyday.  Insurmountable and intimidating.  I started this blog when I was pregnant, thinking my creative juices would be flooded with hormones too.  But, it was the opposite effect.  A downward spiral of pregnancy symptoms, followed by a lack of sleep, then REAL lack of sleep when baby was born, and finally, exhaustion in so many levels.

I read many blogs, and every time I find a post that reminds me of something I want to write about or clicks a light on in my head, I immediately find an excuse to avoid writing. Why?  Fear. Insecurity. Tiredness.  Lack of drive.

I don't like this person, I don't even know her.  I want to start writing.  Something.  Anything.  Consequently, and things are always consequent, I decided to start writing. Period. And posting more about the things I want to write about. Period. The changes will be subtle, but permanent.  I will make time for my writing.  And this blog will log those hours.  Making an effort to live in the here and now,  instead of the If I or when I, will be an exercise in perseverance and submission.

Kids Zone: Newspaper forts

Now that Emilu is officially walking, and her infant months are way behind her, I have been scratching my head collecting ideas for play, and creativity.  She has already tried watercoloring and loved it.  So, I will be setting up a small corner of creativity for her when we get home.  Yesterday, I found this amazing DIY play activity that I can build by myself at home, using only newspapers and tape.  It's a newspaper fort, but really, they have a variety of uses from tents, and structures for toys, or just plain forts for your little ones to play.  So if you have a surplus of newspapers or kraft/wrapping paper this is the perfect toy to build. Click over at Modern Parents/Messy Kids for the entire tutorial. Have fun!

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