today i'm loving... ishtar olivera

it's been a very difficult month and to finish it up... i'm sick again! hopefully, february will be a better month. anyways, today i wanted to share something cheery and lovely. 

today i'm loving ishtar olivera. her designs are so joyful they feel like a clean breeze, a smile, and a warm cup of tea. whether it be a hand carved stamp, an illustration, or a sweet photo, a visit to her blog always leaves me feeling a bit more light hearted. stop by her etsy shop too! 

     

    

thank you ishtar for letting me share your photos! 

year of the dragon

i'm a day late but happy lunar new year! it's the year of the water dragon, my mommy's sign :) and it will be my niece's too!

here's my forecast as a piggie from proastro.com

"Well isn't this just sweet. You'd expect a letdown after an extremely favorable, Rabbit year. Not likely to happen. Here comes another, 11 favorable months. Things could get hectic. There's likely to be a lot of action. And, you might find the pace just a little too much. Not to worry. Go with it, and you can score some big successes. It's time to take some risk. You especially want to be bold when it comes to education, travel, networking and communications. These can flourish in a Water year. If you were smart, you did keep in step with the Rabbit's slower pace last year. If not, you might want to start the year off slowly. Then rev up those engines and fly with the Dragon."

and here is a bit of the year's forecast:

Hail mighty Dragon! Your arrival is most welcome. People and businesses around the world have had difficult times over the last few years, so the good luck you bring is timely and needed. The Dragon is in fact the major symbol of good fortune in Chinese Astrology. The Dragon constellation, for example, is accorded the honor of being the guardian of the Eastern sky. According to tradition the Dragon brings in the Four Blessings of the East: wealth, virtue, harmony and longevity. Indeed, of the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac the Dragon is the most special, as it is a mystical being rather than an earthly animal. It is sometimes called a karmic sign. In this context that means we can expect grand things this year. Bigger than life is very much a Dragon thing. There will be spectacular successes as well as crash and burn failures... Regardless of your sign, there will be significant upheavals in 2012. Soaring stock markets, natural disasters, and noteworthy, cultural and political developments will be more the norm than the exception. There will be celebrations of all kinds. And, good luck will be coming your way. Are you ready to fly with the Dragon?!

i hope the new year brings you good fortune and happiness!

today i'm loving... shimtokk

today i'm loving shimtokk. shimtokk is the beautiful brain child of sally j shim of shim + sons and joke vande gaer of tokketok. they feature the prettiest packaging ideas and offer plenty of printable freebies. i love their clean, joyful designs!

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1. hello gift tags; 2. merriest christmas patterned paper; 3. + 4. meant to be calligraphy goodies

burp cloths

my sister's shower was this past weekend! she and my brother in law were happy so i'm happy. and once i got home, i promptly got sick and was stuck in bed unable to eat anything for a day and a half. oof. i dragged myself to work yesterday and stumbled around until i could go home and crawl back into bed. but on to happier things!

as a part of my sister's shower gift, i made her some cute burp cloths. i had seen a few tutorials around the web and decided that it would be a simple and practical project to tackle. and i figured if my sister has a barfing baby over her shoulder, she should at least have something cute to catch the barf. apparently, burp cloths made from cloth diapers make awesome, super absorbent burp cloths. i used this tutorial by sew she sews. so easy and fast to make! just don't run out of thread like i did...

i found these diapers at target. nice and plush.

the joann fabrics that i went to didn't have the greatest selection of flannels so i went with regular quilting fabric.

tad dah! finished burp cloths!

little dose of love on a gloomy day

happy weekend :)

peas in a pod cake!

a little while back, my college friend kathy requested a set of peas in a pod (that's them on my blog header). a friend of hers liked them so much that she requested a set to give to her sister as a gift. she also asked kathy, who is a super talented cake baker/decorator, to create a cake to match and oh my goodness it's too cute! three little sugar peas in a pod! to see how she created this cake (and other amazing cakes) visit her blog sweet kat's creations.

happy new year!

happy new year! i hope you had a beautiful christmas. it was a busy (but strangely also very lazy) holiday and we're finally back in boston, ready to start a new year. i'm frantically working on putting together a baby shower for my sister so i won't be around for a few weeks but i wanted to share my little daruma.

i picked up this daruma on our trip to san francisco. back in high school, i had to do a project on japan and a part of it was to make a wish on a daruma doll. the idea really stuck with me and i've loved daruma ever since. daruma come in all different sizes, shapes, colors, and styles but one thing is always the same. daruma dolls come with both eyes blank. you make a wish on your daruma, fill in one of the eyes and once it's come true, you fill in the other. it's a symbol of luck and perseverance in japan. the story goes that a monk mediated facing a wall for nine years. he mediated for so long that his legs fell off!

so i made a big wish for the new year and filled in its eye... i hope it comes true!