Friday, April 30, 2010

Connor's 1st Birthday

I had a busy week, so my apologies for such a late posting! The party was a huge success last weekend! I had so much fun making the invitations and all the decorations for Connor's big bash. Easy-going clients are the BEST! His mommy's only request was for bright colors. So bright & happy colors she got for her very bright & happy baby.

[Connor with his Mommy - sorry I didn't get a good picture!]
[Connor with his Daddy][Connor in his king's outfit...?]Connor's 1st BirthdayConnor's 1st Birthday
[Cake from Deerfield's Bakery — they did a fabulous job copying my robot!]
Connor's 1st BirthdayConnor's 1st BirthdayConnor's 1st BirthdayConnor's 1st BirthdayConnor's 1st Birthday

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sneak Peek: Connor's 1st Birthday

Connor's 1st Birthday
More pictures of the party to come tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Baubles & Bling

Aren't these necklaces by Elva Fields gorgeous? They're so fun & glamorous. I wish I had somewhere to wear them to!

Monday, April 26, 2010

A Curious George Inspired Party

This is a beautifully designed 1st birthday party I spotted on Hostess With the Mostess. I love the bright and modern colors of the red, light blue, and yellow. My favorite thing of the party are the felt garlands. They look awesome hanging over the dessert table. I'm gonna have to borrow that idea!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Inspiration: Paper Rosettes

When I spotted these tablescapes last year, I immediately saved them into my file of party inspiration ideas. I really liked the different ways the paper rosettes (or pinwheels) were used to decorate a space. I loved their simplicity and playfulness, and they seemed easy enough to replicate.

Sure enough, the rosettes were easy to make! I made a bunch of them for a 1st birthday party I'm decorating for this weekend. I'll post pictures next week!

Style Me Pretty

A Lifestyle Thing

Design*Sponge

I used this tutorial by Amy Butler Design. Click here for the PDF instructions.

Cute + Comfy Spring Shoes

Spring is my absolute favorite season. I love when the trees start to bud and the flowers bloom. Shops display bright and colorful clothes. The birds chirp in the crisp morning. Ahhh...spring! These shoes just scream SPRING to me. Especially the yellow pair. They're so sunny and delightful. I'm all about comfortable footwear. I'd take a pair of flats over heels any day! What's your favorite season?
(1) Keds Meadow Moc Toe (2) Forever 21 Laced Boat Shoes (3) Tretorn Nylite Canvas

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Fabulous Dessert Tables by Amy Atlas

Check out these amazing tables Amy Atlas set up! They're inspiring!

You Know You're in Seoul When...(Part 2)

There's good food and bars aplenty! Apparently, Korean food in the motherland is significantly better than in Chicago. I suppose being Chinese is affecting my palette. =( I think the food here tastes just as good!

We ordered room service as our "fourthmeal" (as Taco Bell calls it) on our first day there. We woke up at 3:00am unable to go back to sleep and absolutely famished. Unfortunately, there weren't any nearby restaurants open so we had to order a ridiculously expensive meal. Here's what we got with our $36 bibimbop. The soup and other banchan were delicious. I'd say this meal was almost worth the money. Haha.
Our friend, Joel, took us out to experience the Korean drinking culture. This is what was brought to the table when we sat down. I was confused by the bowl of ice water. It looked like Jobie's dog bowl! It turned out to be a communal water bowl. Sharing water is kind of strange. But...after a few drinking games, I didn't care. One of the drinks we had was this Korean rice wine called makgeolli (I'm not sure if this is the best spelling.) This was my favorite drink of the evening since it was mixed with Sprite. What can I say...I'm a total lightweight.
One of my favorite meals of the trip was dak kalbi (chicken kalbi.) Everything was cooked at the table in a large pan. There were various vegetables and jjol myun (korean rice noodles) mixed with chicken. I loved the fresh cabbage salad with the apple dressing. My stomach is grumbling just thinking about it!

My second favorite meal was teji kalbi (pork kalbi.) This was our last meal in Korea, and I'm so glad we went there!
Samgyupsal (Korean bacon) at this restaurant was also deliciously scrumptious. I think there's a running theme. We're definitely not vegetarians and love our meat!
Korea had the most creamy and delicious frozen yogurt. I tried a few different places and they were all equally yummy. Mmm! I like my coffee really weak and milky. The lattes I ordered at the Starbucks and Krispie Kreme were the best.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Girls' Generation: Run Devil Run Music Video

I saw this music video playing at the Incheon Airport when we were waiting for our flight home. It was so catchy, it stayed in my head for days. Those Korean girls are sooo tall and skinny. It's making me want to go running right now. I saw another version of this with Ke$ha singing. Who sang this first??

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Current Project: Robot Themed 1st Birthday

Here's the invitation I made for Connor's birthday party. It's coming up in a week, so I'll be working on some decorations today.
Connor's 1st Birthday

You Know You're in Seoul When...(Part 1)

You find cool technology... I was seriously blown away by all the gadgets they had. Like this touch screen subway map. It works like Google Maps. Choose your start point and end point, and it'll tell you what lines and stops to take. There were a bunch of other functions too. It was extremely useful. We should have this in the States!The subway stations have these glass doors that open when the trains arrive. They installed them to prevent people from falling or jumping onto the tracks. What a smart idea. I'm always paranoid that some kid will get too close to the edge of the platform and fall down...or like that freak accident in Australia last year where a stroller rolled in front of an oncoming train! Oh, never will you find flat screen tv screens mounted like this here. (See top of photo.) Some punk kid will undoubtedly steal them. Haha.All SUVs and vans had these mirrors in the back. We couldn't figure out why they would need them...to see inside?? We discovered that they're actually quite ingenious. It helps you with parallel parking! You can see the back bumper. Another nifty gadget I saw were the huge GPS's all the cabs had. It indicated their speed and when they go over the limit, the screen flashes and the voice says to slow down. Haha. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of them.

Next, I'll show you guys all the delicious, authentic food we had. Mmm... stay tuned!