luau for little miss d

my friend mrs. pk has the most gorgeous baby girl who is just about to turn one! sadly, i couldn't make to the party since we live on opposite sides of the country... *tear*. i sent them a special gift though! it's more for my friend than little miss d since it's a huge choking hazard. she had been looking for cake toppers to go with the party's luau theme so i decided to paint her some as a surprise gift.

sorry! these photos really aren't the best (i took them when we were getting some much needed rain here in boston). the greatest challenge was figuring out how to make an aloha shirt on something so small! the answer was lots of dots using the smallest paint brush i could find. and little miss d's dress went through a few revisions. it started as a plain pink dress but the result wasn't special enough. i found a photo from their recent trip to hawaii in which she was wearing a super cute white dress with eyelet lace and a pink flower in her hair so i designed version 3.0 using that as a model. one of the great things about working with these dolls is that if you make a mistake or change your mind, a bit of sandpaper gives you a clean slate to start all over with. so don't be intimidated!

i purchased the unpainted dolls from goose grease undone, the same place where i got the dolls for our wedding cake topper. i really do love their customer service and products. i had actually purchased two larger adult dolls that once i had in my hands, were huge in comparison to the baby doll. the ratio was a bit too much for what i had in mind. thankfully, goose grease undone had included a free sample of their fair trade columbian dolls which were a bit smaller than the regular adult dolls and a perfect fit for what i was looking for. the wood is gorgeous and i'll definitely be ordering more in the future. to learn more about their fair trade agreement with a little columbian carpentry shop, visit their website. and be sure to check out their video to see how a doll is made! i love it when cuteness does good in the world :)

happy, happy birthday to little miss d! and mrs. pk, i cannot wait to see photos of the party. i know it's going to be amazing. little miss d is so lucky to have you as her mommy!

paper presentation

a few weeks ago, we took a trip to new york for a wedding. i managed to find a few spare moments to check out paper presentation in the flatiron district. they have a ton of cool stuff though i didn't take any photos of the interior because their staff have a bit of a reputation and i was kind of intimidated going in. it's a large store with a fantastic selection of gifts, card/invitation making supplies, art supplies and scrapbooking goodies.

once i found the scrapbooking section i was terrible... i lost all self control and went on a shopping spree. they had so many of the brands that i've been eyeing lately and i couldn't help myself even though their prices were a little on the high side.

love these dear lizzy fabric papers by american crafts.

amy tangerine papers by american crafts. look at all those bright and juicy colors!

i don't have a plan for this one but i couldn't resist this sashiko-like paper by pebbles.

papers by kaiser craft, hello summer by echo park, dear lizzy neapolitan and i do both by american crafts. i'm totally giving into the trendy chevrons.

amy tan(gerine) did a recent post about hoarding pretty papers. i'm definitely guilty of that. i save papers because they're too pretty to use and then years go by until they're no longer in style or my tastes have changed. such a waste! so my goal is to use these all up this summer and enjoy seeing them in my layouts rather than in my box of papers.

nail art

i have a friend, let's call her elle l. cool jam, who is a nail art extraordinaire. this past weekend, all the boyfriends and husbands were gone for a bachelor party so elle invited the girls over for a little nail art party. of course we all said, "heck yes!" i am terrible at painting my own nails (the last attempt took two days and the results were questionable) so any time that i can get my nails done is a real treat.

so many colors to choose from

elle has the sweetest, friendliest kitties in the world. they hung out with us and kept us company.

 nebula! so gorgeous.

 the artist at work

 omg. robot nails! aren't they cute??

 and my tuxedo nail! the little bow tie just kills me. seeing it just makes me all happy and smiley. i can feel a new addiction growing. it doesn't help that pinterest is filled with amazing inspiration. i totally have my eye on this design.

elle, thanks so much for such a great girls' night! you are super talented and i can't wait to see what you come up with next.