It’s been 7 weeks since we moved to our new loft and things are coming together slowly, but surely. I think our kitchen and dining area are now really close to complete, I’d like to add some more things still, but I thought I would start sharing things finally — starting with some paint job I did…

Over the Memorial day weekend, I painted these little things for our kitchen and dining area…

A wine rack from Ikea:

A little corner shelf I bought in Japan:

In yellow! Ever since I had the yellow wall in my old kitchen, I am obsessed with yellow, bright and cheery kitchen. Our new kitchen is white so I decided to do spots of bright colors.

One side painted…

Other side painted, too…

and here is the new wine rack in our dining area:

**The letter A is a local flea market find, I’m hoping to find letter E and letter T so someday, it’ll say “EAT” and probably “DRINK” too :) **

The drawings above the wine rack are by Julia Rothman. I love her work.

and the corner shelf in the kitchen counter area:

They are actually really cute in where they are, I am so happy that I painted them!

More pictures of the dining room and the kitchen will follow!

Posted under DIY, home

How cute is this Puppy Love Cross Stitch Kit? It is a DIY kit so you’d get to cross stitch on your own! I am thinking to make the body a little bit long to look like dachshunds :)

(via Renegade Handmade, Store)

Posted under DIY

I hope everyone had a nice long weekend… I know it’s almost over now, but Happy Memorial day! :) It is summer time here already, it has been super nice and warm, I went to the Prospect park everyday besides doing house work and my work, I love that we live so close to the great park.

Speaking of Summer… Randy got me an ice cream maker from Cuisinart and so I made my first ice cream this weekend! It was fun and yummy! I thought for the Memorial Day post, I should share my ice cream making-of :) Enjoy!

First one is (sugar-free) strawberry ice cream. I modified the receipe to make it healthier…

Using fresh strawberries and lemon.

Slice up the strawberries and squeeze the lemon. (Note: I should have sliced them smaller because ice cream maker does not make them smaller)

Add 1/3 cup of Splenda (usually a regular sugar, but that’s gonna make me feel so bad so I used sugar-free here) and mix them together well.

Let it sit for 2 hours….

In a mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of soy milk (love soy milk!), 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 2/3 cup of Splenda and juice from the strawberries. (Note: I modified original recipe of 2 cups of cream, 1 cup of whole milk, 2/3 cup of sugar here… to make it healthy)

Light pink… pretty color :)

and here it is, the ice cream maker!

Turn the maker on and put the mixed milk, let it go for 25-30 min….

getting harder…

Put the strawberries 5 minutes before the ice cream is done…

and yaaaay, my first ice cream ever!!

(see, the strawberries are a bit too chunky…)

It was so good. Soy milk makes this more like sorbet, but it’s perfect for summer and low carolie so I don’t have to feel really bad every time… :)

I also made frozen yogurt. This is really easy and so good, I will be making this all the time, I’m sure…

In a mixing bowl, mix 2 cups of yogurt, 1/4 cup of Splenda, 1/2 cup of soy milk (or regular milk). *you can add chocolate or berries or anything you’d like to make a special frozen yogurt.

and have the maker do its job…..

and after 25-30 minutes later… enjoy frozen yogurt!

Posted under DIY, events

I started crocheting this neck warmer since thanksgiving holiday and it’s been done by the end of Christmas, but I just haven’t had a chance to take pictures… and now, here it is! It’s not perfectly done, but it keeps me warm and I like the color so it’s all good. I wear it out often and I am proud of it!

This happened by accident (haha), but the neck warmer has wider side and narrower side.

When I wear from the wider side, it comes around my shoulder so it’s actually like a mini poncho:

and when I wear it from the narrower side, it comes around my head and keeps my head/ear warm, too:

Single stitches all the way. Nothing complicated :)

Posted under DIY

I posted about this shadow box display a while ago and wanted to make my own… and here they are! I did make my own display.

The background I used is my letterpress print – I used vintage letter “S” and printed over and over again.

These number 3s are just sitting on the bottom of the shadow box.

For this, I had to put the letters together, taped together on the back and used double-sided tape to place the letters in that space.

(I wish I had a better lighting and so the pictures would turn out a little better…)

Posted under DIY

My friend Bernard just had a big birthday so I used my I “blank” You card and made a birthday card!

Happy Birthday!!!

What would you draw?!

Posted under DIY, letterpress

AMH Design booth was also at the trunk show last Saturday and I found it really interesting! They have a DIY needlepoint kit! Here are kit contents from their website – see here for more information.

With these kits, you can make your own needlepoint photo albums and journals – how neat!

and needlepoint key chain, too.

For your crafty friends, this might make a cool gift!

Posted under DIY

I have worked on another snowflake linoleum the other day! This time it’s a little smaller scale – about 2×2 inches. It came out so nice and I made holiday gift tags by using the prints.

Just got done curving the lino:

Used silver ink:

Stamped “To” and “From”

Punched a hole and had red hemp thread go through and here it is!

Happy Friday, everyone! I am traveling back to New York – see you on Monday!

*I am giving away this holiday gift tag for all purchases you make at my etsy store. Happy shopping!

Posted under DIY, art

I actually crocheted this sweater last winter when Maia was 4-5 months old and it was really big on her (I was a little disappointed), so I put it away all winter and didn’t see it since. This weekend, I was pulling Maia’s winter clothes as I was pulling mine out and I saw this sweater, put it on her, and found out that it fits her perfectly now! She has grown so much! (She is going to be 1 year old in a week, so exciting.) Now I’m glad that I made it in this size. She likes wearing clothes, too!

It looks too bright of a purple when I use flash… but you can see it better here.

Posted under DIY, Maia

My mom and I attended this DIY herb class when I was in Japan back in June and I’ve been meaning to share it here because it was easy and the result was so cute!

Lavender Stick:

All you need is a few lavender stems, ribbon, and thread.

Take the flower part together first and use the thread to tie the lavender, make it tight, and bring the stems down (opposite way) to wrap the lavender. Take the ribbon and start weaving like this:

and wrap the ribbon around however you like and here they are! Looks cute and smells good!

Mini Bouquet:

If you have a little bit of dried flowers, you can do this really easily.

Arrange flowers as you like and tie it together by using green flower wires.

When you are done with making bouquet, take the wrapping sheet and wrap it around.

Use the wires to secure them together and then have ribbon around it.

and here, you have your bouquet!

I couldn’t bring back these bouquets, but I brought back my lavendar stick and it still smells good and looks cute!

Posted under DIY