home sweet home

For this post I wanted to share the details that dwell within the walls of our home. My hubby and I moved into our house in the middle of April of this year. When we first moved in we barely had any decorations and furniture for the living room, the only thing we had was a couch and some of the decoration we used for our wedding. So we had to start fresh and search around for goods to fill our living room with. Honestly we didnt have much money set aside for furniture and whatnot, our budget was pretty tight. So I first started off thrifting for small things that I could possibly revamp. Spent a great amount of time at Ross and Marshalls; I was surprised with the amount of neat stuff they carried, and of course the prices. Aside from shopping, a great amount of my time was also spent on crafting. Most of the wall décor was handmade, such as the macrame and collages. The overall feel I wanted to shoot for was a boho/urban style, lots of geometric shapes, soft colors but yet hints of bold colors here and there. 

I used gold hoops and tons of yarn to make this 3 piece wall decor. Hung this piece on top of our bookshelf and scattered below stuff I found from thrifting. There I found tons of cute teacups and transferred succulents into the cups. 

This is our little "fire place" which I personally think is a little chaotic as of right now. There is definatley alot of things going on, but I'll keep it like this for a bit until I figure out what else to do. 

We covered the fire place with fabric and strung across our polaroids and photobooth pictures. We also displayed our "love tree" from our wedding, which has all the sweet messages from our guest.

Purchased the hexagon mirrors at Ikea and hand painted an abstract design with acrylic paint. It took me forever to figure out the placement of the mirrors. 

This spot over here is my favorite area in the entire house. We snagged this gold tree trunk lamp for such a great deal at Marshalls and we also found the hexagon terraruim there as well--score! I also created this macrame wall decor and hung yarn in the middle to give it some flair.

Our sweet Ramona nestled in her favorite spot.

I'm obessed with rugs! I bought a couple aztec design rugs from TJMax and purchased the geometric rug from Urbanoutfitters. 

And this is the chair where I am currently plop down on as I finish this post. Hope you guys enjoy these photos! 

Bowtie Pops

Yesterday we celebrated Valentines day in my Awana class, which is a children's ministry at my church for those of you who dont know. In my class, I have a good group of cheerful and energetic 3 & 4 year old kiddos, who by the way never cease to make me smile. It really is a beautiful thing to see these precious kids give their attention to God's Word and understand His amazing love. You may think these kids are too young to comprehend anything, but they honestly soak in what they hear, and I've observed them practice love through their actions. Its a joy to guide these kiddos in the path towards Christ and witness them grow throughout the months.

So to make the day festive, I put together some goodie bags for each kid in my class. The bags were filled to the rim with a bunch of goodies and surprises. Target had a bunch of  sweet and cheap stuff for Heart day, I had to restrain myself from buying too much cause I wanted it all! Anyways I purchased a bag of simple heart lollipops and made them more appealing by dressing those suckers up with bowties and smiles.

These bowtie pops are perfect for kids and are so easy to put together. Just cut out bowtie shapes from colored paper and use a hot glue to stick em in the bottom of each heart. Dont forget to give these pops some eyes and smiles, oh ya and probably a nose. Hope you guys like the idea and try it out for yourselves!

A geometric kind of love

 Valentines is just around the corner, so now is the perfect time to craft up some love. Jumping into this project, I really didn't know how I wanted the end results to look like. I started off with the desired to use heart shapes and triangles and went on from there, piecing everything together. Try it out for yourself!

The supplies your gonna need is: 

• a glossed wood heart (you can purchase it at Micheals or ACMoore. the one i purchased was painted red  ) 
• scissors
• a few of your paint swatches
• modgepodge
• paintbrush
• yarn
• spray paint (its optional)
• fabric glue or hot glue gun

 Grab all the supplies you need and grab color swatches that you think would look well together, take into consideration what color you want the heart to be, and think of a color motif that works for you.

 I wanted to stray away from the typical Valentines day colors and use gold for the heart and a cool color scheme for the triangles. Spray paint both the front and back of your wooden heart.

 This is where the fun part comes in, cut out the paint swatches into different size triangles and  start arranging them together. To be honest with you, this takes a while to piece these geometric shapes together, its quite the puzzle. Use modge podge to paste the triangles to the heart. Once your composed a desiring piece with your triangles,  apply modge podge on top of your design to give it that glossy look.

 Once the modge podge has set and dried, grab your fabric glue or hot gun glue and yarn. Use the yarn to spell out the word "love in cursive". To make it easier you can first write it out on the wood and use that as a guideline. Trace the writing with the glue and immediately place the yarn on top of the glue. I personally rather use fabric glue because its strong and tacky. It doesn't dry as fast as hot glue, so you can take your time. The disadvantage using fabric glue is that it takes forever to completely dry (about 8 hours), but when its dry, its really secure. So after finishing the last letter, measure out how long you want the heart to hang. Take the end of the yarn and glue it to the back of the wooden heart. Make sure the glue is completely dry before you hang it up.

Display your piece of art or even give it as a Valentines gift. You can make this piece as personal as you want. Experiment with different shapes, textures, and you can even use cut out photographs to add to the heart. Really make it your own!

Well to end this post I want to leave you with a video of The Civil Wars singing
"Tip of My Tongue". I had this video on replay and I typed up this tutorial, such a lovely song. Happy Saturday guys

Paint your heart away

 CURRENTLY LISTENING TO OsakaLoopLine BY DISCOVERY

Just as I listed as one of my goals this year, I want to spend more time painting and drawing, and really be consistent with it. Often times, ideas come to me but I honestly don't do much with these visions, instead I set them aside with the rest of my collection. To release these ideas on an empty canvas and paper is what I hope to do. I thought I should discover and try out new techniques, use different mediums, and allow life's wonders inspire me. So I took a trip to my local craft store and purchased a pack of 4" by 4" tiny flat canvas. With these little blank surfaces, I plan to paint on a canvas every week. Each piece will portray the significance of my week or anything that really inspires me. After a few months I hope to have collected a bunch of tiny paintings/drawing/collages displayed on my wall. I'll try my best to post up my creations every week. For those of you who have a crafty and creative mind, I encourage you to put those skills into practice. Whether it be through art, photography, or music, embrace them. Dont you dare let them run dry, let those creative juices flow. Happy Friday y'all!

2012

One thing I have certainly failed at is keeping up with this blog of mine, but worry not, I havent completely abandoned it. January has been a busy one for me, started a new job, been working on some projects, studying, started school, and been occupied with other activities. I know we are well into the new year and I still haven't blogged about 2012, but trust me, ive been meaning to post my goals. It has taken me quite a while to come up with some goals for myself this year. Every now and then I find myself opening up my journal and adding something new to this list of mine. If any of you guys know me, you know how goal oriented I really am. On the daily I write a to-do list and check off as I go, it can be a little much at times but thats just who I am. Anyways, I'm so ready for 2012 and extremely excited to work on accomplishing these goals.

+ Paint more-- i have boxes and boxes of painting supplies and i have loads of ideas stored up. So i really plan to try out new techniques and get more into painting.

+ Play guitar-- i know how to play a few chords, play a few songs, but ive always wanted to be good at an instrument and this is the one for me. I need to practice, practice, practice.

+ Learn how to harmonize--its kinda sad how i can sing but never can i harmonize, so i'll be training these ears to find em.

+ Write more--whether it be through blogging or journaling, making an attempt to express myself more through words. I already journal here and there but i really want to write about anything and everything in my journal. Dont care if its about my banal uneventful life.

+ Get my license-- not my driving lisence but my cosmetology liscense

+ Craft more-- i want to design more things, play with different mediums and such, oh and of course share my crafts and do more DIYs

+Save money-- theres so much i plan to save up for and i really need to start keeping track of my spendings. Use my credit card less, eat out less, and not splurge on things that aren't really necessary.

+Sew-- i want to further my skill in sewing, learn how to make more clothing and especially dresses!

+Reinventing clothes--i am crazy thrifter and with the clothing i usually purchase, i revamp and alter pieces i find into more of a delightful piece. So i'd really like to do more of that.

+Participate in a crafts show-- during the summer and spring, i'd really like to put together a collection of my designs and have a booth to display my work.

+ Reconnect with people-- even though life can be busy at times and tough, i want to focus on keeping my friendships alive. Really reach out to others and invest my time with em.

+ Get down with the buisnazzz-- i am currently majored in business now and im super duper excited to start classes.

+ Photography-- take more pictures of course and develop my skill in photography. 

+ Get more involved in children's ministry-- God has really given me a heart for children. I'm currently working with children through Awana but i pray that He will further me in this ministry, to reach out to other kids.

+ Draw closer to my heavenly Father-- this is my number one focus and should always be my priority. My desire is to seek him with my whole heart and be completely immersed in his love. To honor Him, to glorify Him, worship Him, trust Him, and fall deeper in love with my Savior. A consistent spiritual harmony with Him is what I long for. I also pray that God keeps me humble and selfless, to think of other people's needs before my own.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8

So that does it for my goals. I'll probably add to this list every now and then but this will do for now.Hope you guys are excited about this year as much as I am!

Can i sell the sunrise in exchange for a sunset...

I was surely blessed to spend the new years with a few close friends in the west side. Although my trip was quite short, I enjoyed every minute of my vacation. I just love those moments when you can catch up with the people you cherish, and thats exactly what my stay consisted of. Oh and of course snapping away on my cambam. Here are some shots I took in LA and San Diego. There are mostly shots of one of the things i go weak for...sunsets.

   California i miss you dearly!

Adios 2011

                                Currently listening to  Phone Call by Washed Out
It took me a considerably long time to look through all the photos i took throughout the year of 2011. Looking back i can say i am quite pleased at the amount of pictures i took over the year. I so happen to capture all the precious and notable moments, or at least i hope i did. Its always a wonderful thing to look back and reminisce. 2011 will forever be a year i always remember, i know i probably say this with each and every passing year, but this year has endless reasons as to why it will forever be an unforgettable year. Getting into detail would probably take forever to explain, but overall I have accomplished and learned so much through out this year. Like every year it had its ups and downs, there were plenty of challenges but constant growth. All praise and glory to my Heavenly father who has brought me through the year.  I'm so grateful for all the experiences ive been through and all the wonderful people He has placed in my life. After taking a glace at the past, feelings of pure excitement has hit, excited to see what God has in store for me in 2012. Lets  be hopeful and prayerful . Hope you guys have a wonderful start into the new year.

 I carefully picked out pictures that have a significance for each month in the year. So here is a quick peek of my 2011. Hope you enjoy the array of photos!

Thanksgiving Week

A glimpse of my Thanksgiving week...

    Currently listening to Someone,Somewhere by Jason Reeves

A Filipino Thanksgiving meal

Victoria & Ruth// a game of basketball before we stuff our faces with food

Friday afternoon, a few of us took a road trip up to NYC. It was the perfect time to visit the city because NYC was transformed into a winter wonderland. The twinkling lights and and festive decorations warmed our hearts and put us right in the Christmas spirit.

The city lights and the Brooklyn bridge was just breathtaking.

 

-JENN