Browse Category: projects

Craft/Bake Sale Success

tissue covers

mango sticky rice

On Thursday we had our Annual PediRehab Craft & Bake Sale.  I made tissue pack covers and cute little mango sticky rice shooters.  I sold 9/12 tissue covers and 45/50 sticky rice shooters for a total of $90!  Woo!!  Our sale was a success and we made a net profit of a little over $2800 towards our activity fund.  Sweet!

happy hour

After work, a small group of us went out to Marc 49 for a little celebratory happy hour.  It was such as relief to have the sale behind us and we had a very therapeutic evening of laughing and sipping wine.

I’m sewing!

sewing project

We have a fundraiser at work every year for our Pediatric Rehab Activity Fund and it usually involves a basic craft/bake sale and raffle.  I usually bake coconut macaroons and call it a day but this year I’ve decided to sew something!  I found a pattern in a book that I’ve had for the past year and finally decided to try it out.  Last week I bought some pretty fabric at the store next to Modern Mouse and borrowed Susie’s fancy sewing machine.  Thanks, Susie!

Teresa

I made a couple samples last night after figuring out the machine and this evening Teresa came over to help me cut fabric.  Thanks, Tiger!

dog

It turned out to be a pretty simple project and I managed to make 10 tonight in about an hour.  We sipped wine, ate some pizza, and Koa hung out under the table and nearly made me mess up by taking a nap on the sewing pedal!

half-way done

Here’s what it looks like while I’m half-way done.

All done!

Ta Da!!!  Here are all 10 stacked up together.  They look so legit!  I can’t believe I made these!

tissues

By the way, they’re travel tissue covers to keep in your bag.  I like to carry travel packs in my bag but the sticky tab gets all dusty and the whole pack falls apart.  With this cover, I’m able to keep everything together in a pretty little package!  Yippee!

Modern Mouse is now open!

Grand Opening

sign

Modern Mouse is now open for business and it’s located in a shopping center in Alameda.  It was kicked off this afternoon with friends, family, Haamoni drinks, and Teacake Bakeshop goodies.

Teacake Bakeshop

store_01

It was so exciting to see all of Eleen’s products alongside the 40 other designers’ items.

store_02

products

Everything was so cute and interesting that they make me wish I could quit my day job to do something more creative.

Eleen was kind enough to offer me a little space in her shop too but I couldn’t get my act together in time for today’s event.  But she was very cute in making me a nametag anyway with the name “Beakatude” underneath my name…funny.  I’m actually in the process of thinking of an actual name for my photog stuff so stay tuned.

Congratulations, Eleen!!!

Here are the rest of the photos.

Lights, Camera, Photoshoot!

backdrop

Last Thursday I agreed to take product photos for one of Eleen’s friends who also makes handbags.  She’s building a new website and needed photos taken of her bags.  Eleen warned her that I had never taken product photos before but Penny hired me anyway!  I don’t know how much others charge but I must be a bargain!

test shot

So, I borrowed Eleen’s 500-Watt light and supplies, rented a lens from Borrowlenses.com, and rented an umbrella from Adolph Gasser.  With Eleen’s foam sheets, I made a seamless backdrop and experimented with the set-up until I got it just right.  Here’s a test shot of a bag that I already had lying around the house.  Yay!  Not too much shadow and plenty to work with for whiting out the background with Photoshop.

planet penelope

This morning Penny came over and we spent 2 1/2 hours taking over 150 photos of her 9 bags in different positions and getting the details just right.  Here’s a sample photo of one of her bags.  Her website goes live next weekend (www.planetpenelope.com), which will be just in time for Eleen’s Grand Opening of Modern Mouse.

Speaking of Modern Mouse…I visited the space on Friday and it’s huge!  The products that she’s already received are really cute and I’m so excited to see them all on display next weekend.

Sprouty Update: Day 86

Sprouty_86a

Sprouty is still alive 86 days later.  Woohoo!

Sprouty_86b

As a matter of fact, he’s doing so well that I’m seeing some actual basil leaves growing!  However, I must admit that there was a scary moment when I returned from our week in Hawaii.  The leaves were limp and dried out and he looked super thirsty.  But luckily I got back just in time to give it a little water and it came back to life!  Good job, Sprouty!  Hopefully I will have some tasty basil leaves for a caprese salad by summer.  Mmmmm…

12 days

We are well within Week 2 of our “Veggie Experiment“.  I haven’t tasted fish, pork, chicken, or beef for the past 12 days and it’s been ok so far.  I guess I can think of only two big bummers so far:

  1. We attempted to go out to eat on our usual Wednesday last week and it was quite a learning experience.  We chose a place we go to regularly just to see how we could make this experiment work.  Unfortunately they were serving a special “BBQ Menu” that night.  Dude!!!  It’s bad enough that I had to go veggie but I couldn’t try any of their special BBQ items!  Jes explained to the waiter that we were trying to go veggie so he brought us the bar menu and we luckily found a few items to try.  But we didn’t get to have any brisket!!!  Bummer.
  2. Today I was feeding one of my patients who is an extremely picky eater and  I managed to coax him into eating some of his omelet and pancake.  He also had 2 strips of bacon sitting there on his plate, which he COMPLETELY REFUSED.  It was killing me!!  It smelled so good and this little kid was refusing the “magical animal”!!!!!  I wanted to just gobble it up for him and pretend it never happened but I reluctantly tossed in the trash.  Double-bummer.

So, last Friday we added egg to our “OK foods” and this Friday was supposed to be when we add fish again.  However, after figuring out that my brother’s wedding reception was coming up in 2 weeks, we decided to keep going without fish for an additional week.  So, by the time the reception rolls around, we will be back to our regular carnivorous diet just in time for the tasty Thai feast.  I can’t wait!