From Pin to Party

I agree with the majority of folks out there that Pinterest is pretty fabulous. While I’m not one of those people who has to “pin all the things!!!” I do enjoy having a visual space where I can collect all my favorite finds from around the web in one neat little package. And it’s a great planning tool! You can find all my pins right here.

I used my Pinterest as a planning tool for an event I put on over the weekend. I celebrated my 30th birthday! In reality, I had a 4-day celebration, starting on my actual birthday (on Thursday) and through to Sunday, but my little party was Saturday, and Pinterest was a big help in guiding my inspiration.

Ever since my wedding, I really enjoy planning parties and executing all the little details! This one was no exception. I had a handful of fun craft projects.

First, I have been enamored of this tablecloth idea from the moment I saw it:

DIY Bunting Tablecloth from The Sweetest Occasion

 I loved this idea for ages before I got around to making my own painted tablecloth.
I took a different design direction, but the process was the same.

Start with a plain white tablecloth or fabric. Line underneath with paper or dropcloth. Painting supplies: Acrylic Paints, Acrylic Fabric Medium, Sponge brush, paper templates cut into triangles

I wanted a kind of triangle confetti pattern, and I chose a dark orange, pastel pink and dark turquoise for the color palette. Fun party colors!
After an hour or so of stamping (M helped too, the sweetie!) this was the final result:

party tablecloth, finished!

Once the paint had thoroughly dried, the final step was to heat-set the paint with an iron (following the directions on the Fabric Medium bottle).

Once craft down! Many to go!
Next, I’ve loved the use of paper for decorations for some time. Whether it’s craft paper, patterned colorful paper, or tissue paper. Love it all! And these images really got me inspired:

pretty paper decorations, image from LeSueur Interiors

Pretty paper medallion backdrop, from Kara's Party Ideas

Tissue Paper Decorations, from realsimple.com

So for about a week prior to my party, I started folding paper into fans, and taping those fans into round medallions. All different colors and sizes. Some with petal edges, some just straight, some with doilies in the centers, some without. All of them coordinating with my blue-orange-pink color scheme.

My Paper Medallion Party Backdrop

I love the overlap of all the different sizes and colors! It just looks so cheerful!
To hang them, I used clear fishing line taped to the back of each medallion, then tied to clear push pins into the ceiling, visually gauging where each one would look the best with height and overlap. You could see the pins and the line if you looked closely, but for the most part they were invisible!

For party food, I knew I wanted to keep it simple (purchasing my veggie platter, sliced cheeses, hummus and pita, and mixed nuts), because the one thing I wanted to make myself was Cake Pops!

Cake Pop 101, from A Beautiful Mess

This was my first experience making cake pops. And in fact, my first time eating cake pops! But I’ve loved the idea and the cute presentation ever since first seeing it on Bakerella. I bought my sticks and candy melts from Michaels, and was all set to concoct these pretties.
I discovered that my mixture was far too gooey! One boxed cake + 1 can frosting turned out to be a very wet ratio! Next time I make these pops, I’ll start with less frosting and mix in more as needed, rather than dumping the whole can in at once (live and learn)!

cake pops, before being mixed

So as a solution, I quickly baked a half-recipe for simple chocolate cake from scratch, and added that to the mixture, which helped firm up the “dough.” All in all, my pops turned out super cute, and they were a big hit with everyone.

My finished cake pops

Another sweet treat that Pinterest inspired was Italian Sodas!

DIY Italian Sodas, from the Salty Pineapple

So I made  my own little drink station with fun soda-fountain glasses and fun stripey paper straws from HeyYoYo on Etsy!

Italian Soda station

My last bit of party planning wasn’t inspired by anything I’d seen on the webz. But as a ceramic artist, I wanted to share a bit of myself with my guests, so taking a cue from those “paint your own pottery” places, I set up a crafting table where people could glaze a piece of pottery I’d made especially for the occasion.

my very own "paint your own pottery" station!

A random assortment of mugs and vase cylinders that could be personalized! It took some coaxing to get people to jump in, but those who did enjoyed it! I’ll be firing those pieces later in the week and sending it to my friends who participated! Hopefully they’ll be a fun little souvenir of the evening.

So in conclusion, I had a fantastic time turning 30.  And I am truly looking forward to a new decade and a new chapter in my life. I absolutely loved my 20s, but I have no regrets leaving them behind. Maybe because I enjoyed my 20s so much is why I’m optimistic about the next 10 years! Life is basically good, and I have a lot to look forward to. Not least due to my wonderful friends and family. <3

I Chewie, Chewie, Choose You!

I just wanted to share real quick-like.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but M is a graphic designer and talented artist. And this was his Valentine to me yesterday:

my chewbaca valentine

Clearly, this is smile-inducing on many levels. And mainly, I love that we share this strange sense of humor. ^_^

If you want to check out some more of M’s drawings, doodles, and visual musings, take a look at his deviantArt page! <3

a litany of teapots

Is it ironic that the more stuff I have to do, the less time I have to share what I’m doing? I hate having the radio silence on the blog here! But I’m just so dang busy with all my orders…I feel that the blog has been neglected quite badly. But hey, when you don’t hear from me for ages, just think to yourself, ‘Ahh she must be quite busy right now!’ That would be the truth.

But if you’re curious as to what I’ve been doing the last two months, let me show you with a picture:

32 tardis teapots

Teapots have been my life for the last 2.5 months (and no break in sight!). I did take a few days off at Christmas, but my timetable suffered for it, and I am behind in my ETA’s. Not only because of a few days rest, but I just didn’t have a clue as to how long each one would take to make, realistically, when they all piled up at once. I am trying desperately to catch up, and I am busting my butt! I am just so grateful that I have awesome customers who understand that handmade items take time.

But the above image is kinda fun, huh? (click on the picture for a larger version) You can really see that no two are identical. There is also a kind of evolution going on. Mainly due to the shape of the spout – I make each one by hand – forming the solid shape, letting it harden slightly, slicing it down the middle, hollowing it out, re-attaching both halves, and then attaching to the body.
*There is a great video tutorial on how to make a curvy spout here.

And yes, I had a request for a green Tardis teapot!

Alright, well that’s enough from me for now! I gotta get back to work, hah!
Until next time!

Holiday Traditions

The last two months have been a blur here, and it appears there will be no sign of let-up any time soon!

However, in between building Tardis Teapots, glazing Tardis Teapots, firing Tardis Teapots and shipping Tardis Teapots (ahem, no joke), I am trying to find at least a little bit of balance. It’s especially important, yet ever so difficult, during the Christmas season!
M and I have done a bit of Christmas decorating around the house, but haven’t finished. I’ve attempted to start a few DIY gifts, but really find that if I even think about using my time for other activities, I get a bit anxious.

However, one thing I definitely will take time for this Christmas is a tradition I’ve observed ever since I was very small. I’m sure there aren’t that many people who share this yearly act, but for me, it’s not Christmas without it! I am speaking of watching my very favorite-est Christmas special ever – Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.

This is old-school goodness! First aired in 1978, and it has awesome music, and of course, the best Sesame Street Muppets, including Big Bird, Grover, a snarky Oscar the Grouch, and Kermit the Frog (yay Jim Henson!). My folks had a taped-off TV copy of the special for as long as I can remember. A few years back I found a VHS copy of it of my very own. And yes, I pop that baby in to my VCR (I do still have a VCR!) and watch it every year

After attempting to have Matt’s little second-cousins watch the special last year while we were having Christmas with his family, I realized that this movie is “edgier” than the stuff kids watch these days (what the heck??) but you can be sure that my (future) children will learn early the magic that is Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

happy post-halloween

Before it is completely un-relevant, I want to post a few pics from Halloween!

M and I decided to dress up as Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers from one of our favorite movies from the last  year or so! M had it so easy, but my get-up was a little more involved.

ramona flowers costume

But of course, I never make anything easy for myself!
Here’s what I decided I needed to make a sweet Ramona Flowers costume…
My reference pictures of the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead

And…

And…

So let’s start from the ground up!
*Fuzzy brown knee high boots (yay, I already owned a great pair!)
*Opaque pink tights (I found mine on Ebay)
*Navy blue nylon shorts (scoured the local thrift stores and found a cheap pair)
*Blue hoodie sweatshirt jacket, preferably with a white zipper (I totally lucked out at Value Village)
*Military style green coat (yay, already owned this too!)
*She wears a purple-pink fuzzy sweater under all this, but I figured this would be way too hot, so I just wore a light pink t-shirt
*A black double string necklace (I literally just tied a black string around my neck)
*Of course, some kind of colored hair! Pink, blue, green! (This wig is reeeeeeally bright pink, but I couldn’t find a good cheap wig in the right color and style. This one was $10 from Goodwill…and it was new, btw)
*And lastly, steampunk goggles (I found mine on Amazon for a great price, under ‘welding goggles’)

*Her make-up is easy, a little eye liner, mascara, and bright peachy red lipstick

ramona flowers costume, head shot!

Oh, and of course, the big accessories! I had a heck of a time at the thrift stores finding a round purse I could transform into Ramona’s signature star purse. So I looked up some tutorials and attempted to make my own. I am super happy with the result, and I will totally use this as a normal purse! Here are some good resources if you want to make your own: Dulce Et Utile and this Instructables post.
And then there’s the giant hammer. I used a big cardboard tube and a make-shift cardboard top part, held together with hot glue and tape, haha, and spray painted silver. Awesome, right? Hey, it’ll do!

And here’s all M had to do…pose with his guitar

M as scott pilgrim

But really, he’s kinda spot on…

Anyways! Fun time over the weekend. Now looking onward. The long march to Christmas! busy busy busy

 

Crazy times

Ok. It’s been a crazy week here.

Mainly because of some awesome internet exposure for my Tardis Teapot. I don’t know who kicked it off, but my friend let me know that it was here(the bird and the bat), and clearly, this lovely lady has some awesome followers. I can’t tell ya how blown away I am at the response to this funny li’l teapot, and how exciting it is!

So now I have an order list for Tardis Teapots a mile long (!) and still growing, and I guess I know exactly what I’ll be doing every day for the next couple of months, lol! (ahem, building teapots…)

BUT, in other events, things I finished up before the madness began… I want to share a few project I’ve finished. If I wait any longer the moment will have passed!

Back in August, my mom and I started a project to re-upholster an armchair that I bought at Goodwill for $15. It was such a comfy, well-built chair that I couldn’t pass it up at that price. The only downside was its awful color. It basically clashed with everything M and I own.

This is the only before picture I managed to get before Mom and I started ripping it apart:

the pink armchair, BEFORE

It wasn’t in bad shape…it’s just that it was, well, pink velour. Yeah, not so much.
So after 3 months of working piece by piece, just learning and adjusting as we went, HERE is what we finally finished with (drumroll, please!)

my stylish reading-nook armchair, AFTER!

The fabric is this fun light canvas print that M and I picked out together from Joann‘s

Fabric: waverly floating petals in black

We thought it was a great modern print, and there’s a bit of bling, in the silver colored branches (yes, sparkly!), in addition to the clean black and gray of the other branches.
After several days of hard work, Mom and I succeeded in finishing my awesome chair.

NEXT, another sewing project that I just finished was this awesome round purse:

ramona flowers subspace purse!

This is a sneak-peak at my Halloween costume…yeah, I’ll be Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And yes, M will be Scott Pilgrim. I’ll post pics after Halloween, for sure.
The purse was definitely a hard project, and I just figured out how to sew it from looking at pictures and trying to make sense of a round shape. Oh, and sewing with piping is a bitch! That’s all I have to say about that.
But I think it turned out better than expected! Now I just have to pair it up with my pink wig and giant cardboard hammer, hee hee.

OK! Too much time spent bloggin’ already! Gotta get working on those teapots!
Oh, and one last update – here’s the current NEW & IMPROVED shape of the teapot spout, for anyone who is interested:

Jadeflower Tardis Teapot,with updated spout

Do You Realize…

We’re officially in to Fall now?

That must be why my tomatoes are finally turning red! After waiting all summer long, it looks like M and I will finally have some home-grown tomatoes for our salads. Ah well, it’s worth waiting for, I guess!

1st home garden tomato

We’ll have about 8 more before they’re all gone. It just gets me brainstorming for how to do better next year!

You can feel the change in the air here, although the days are still pretty nice.
We had the chance to go to the Puyallup Fair for the whole day on Wednesday, thanks to my very favorite radio station, KEXP. Not that they were simply giving away Fair tickets – I actually won two tickets to see The Flaming Lips play!! I got the tix way back in June, and eagerly awaited Sept. 21st ever since! I can’t tell you how excited I was. And surprised, since good bands very rarely play the Fair (sorry P-town, I’m allowed to say it, since I used to live there).

The Flaming Lips @ the Puyallup Fair

Wayne came out in his space bubble and walked the crowd. They had giant balloons and huge confetti canons.

Giant Balloons and Confetti

The big screen behind the band was awesome. And there were lasers.  They didn’t tone down the show for the Fair, which I was very happy about! I really wonder if the Grandstand people knew who these guys were when they booked them, hehe.

M  & I had an awesome time and yelled our heads off. What a great way to kick off the season. ^_^

Tea anyone?

I was contacted recently about making a Tardis Teapot.
I thought, what a wonderful idea! And immediately got to work. Here is what I produced…

tardis teapot by jadeflower

I couldn’t be more excited about the result! It takes the same design as my Tardis coin bank, but clearly with alterations

The Tardis Teapot will be available in my Etsy shop shortly, as a Made-To-Order item. But for now I will leave you with a little demonstration of the pouring power of this teapot (i.e. a 14 second video). Allons-y!

 

Finding time

If one thing is true, it’s that this summer has been a busy one!

Which is why it is nice to be able to find the time to just do something silly, fun, and unimportant every once in a while.
Over the holiday weekend, M suggested we make cocktails, and then pulled out the Star Wars edition Trivial Pursuit game that he bought ages ago off Ebay.

chipotle pineapple martinis

Yes we are big nerds. And I practically won the whole first round before M even had a chance to answer one question! But I love that I can share my real self with the person I chose to spend the rest of my life with. We understand each other so well – there is hardly a more comforting and happy feeling than that.

star wars trival pursuit

But so as not to leave you with only the revelation that M and I are huge geeks, here’s the recipe for the drinks we made!

Chipotle Pineapple “Martini“

1/2 oz Chipotle Simple Syrup (Simmer 2-3 Chipotle peppers -ours were canned in adobo sauce – with 1 cup sugar & 1 cup water for 20 minutes, then strain & cool – store in fridge)

1 oz pineapple juice

1 oz good tequila or rum

Combine all ingredients in a Shaker with ice. Shake vigorously! Pour into martini glasses & enjoy.

Reflecting on July

This month I had another small re-vamp project that was on the list for ages. I seem to have a penchant for mirrors with decorative frames, especially if they are oval. So when I found this large ornate brass-colored mirror frame at Goodwill (for $5!!), there was no way I wasn’t taking this baby home with me.

brass-colored mirror frame

Yes, it also had a mirror, it’s just not pictured here….because – wait for it – I decided to paint the frame! I’m sure you saw that coming.
The moment I saw it, I knew this frame would look so great in a solid color, to update the look, give it a more modern vibe. It is plastic (not metal), and the brass finish was a bit too grandma’s-house for my current decor tastes. So I settled on a glossy white (mainly due to the fact that M had purchased a can of spray paint in this color recently and there was nearly a whole can of it left over, score!).

So after many many thin coats of paint later:

mirror frame refinished in white

I love how it almost looks like a plaster, with just a hint of gloss.
You may notice in the reflection…yep, those are garage doors. I’m hanging this guy in the garage, in my studio to be exact.

the jadeflower ceramics studio

My studio space is still ever-evolving in the decor arena; for the most part it is strictly functional. But here and there, I am trying to add little touches to make it a pleasant place to spend my hours. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may recognize some past projects like this and this.

Our garage is a quirky place. Did you notice it looks like outdoor siding on that wall above? Well, M and I have a (strong) hunch that the garage was added much later to the house. Exhibit A: outdoor siding. Exhibit B: that rectangle the mirror is hanging in front of is actually a window that the landlord covered up with a big sheet of foam insulation (and which I then covered up with some striped vintage wallpaper because it was ugly!). Oh funny old houses

In unrelated news, we had a busy July. One highlight was a housewarming party M & I hosted, now that we are pretty much settled into our new abode. We celebrated with tacos, fun drinks, and lawn games (with thankfully cooperative weather!). At the end of the evening we lit sparklers saved from the 4th of July! ^_^ Everybody loves sparklers, right?

sparklers!

The party was also to celebrate M and my first anniversary. Awwww It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since this fantastic day. My mom and dad brought us a vase of hydrangeas cut from all the plants that were bought the year before; she says that they’ll always have a reminder of our wedding with all the pretty blues/greens/whites of the hydrangeas that now decorate their property.

hydrangeas

A very fun and event-filled month! And August should be just as busy! Until next time