DIY Home Archives - Creative Jubilee

Gardening in a high rise

By Christina Lee| March 20th, 2021|DIY Home|

Who says you can’t garden in a high rise smack in the middle of winter?! While many took to baking sourdough or gardening with their spare time, I too, decided to start an herb garden way up here on the 20-something floor. I’ve got my planters, two bags of soil, some seeds and my two bare hands ready to work. I mean, how hard can this be? You pour in the soil, dig a hole for the seeds, cover it up, water it and let mother nature do the rest.

While there were mixed reviews online about actually having the herbs grow, I’m going to be optimistic about it and plant a few of my favorite herbs: chives, cilantro and basil. In a couple of weeks, I should be plucking the “fruits” of my labor… or heading to the nearest Trader Joe’s for Plan B, which is buying a basil plant and some organic chives. But let’s not go there just yet, I’m confident that something will come of it.

Spreading Holiday Cheer

By Christina Lee| December 10th, 2020|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Are you making your gifts, buying your gifts, or do a little bit of both? I guess it’s a little late in the season to be asking you about your holiday gift-giving game plan, but it’s still fun to ask and hear about it. This year, I did a combination of both: making some gifts and buying others. Throughout the year, I went through a number of phases: making coffee cozies, trying my hand at new hobbies (ie: punch needle embroidery and marker drawing) and continuing to build row upon row of my knitted and crocheted blankets. Along the way, I made new friends after starting a new job the previous year and spent time checking up on old friends throughout this hard-hit year. If you haven’t already checked up on someone, it’s a good time to pick up the phone, write an email, send a card or mail a care package. All the while, I decided to dust off my crochet needles and put some finishing touches on my coffee cozies. I love making custom cozies that pair with a plain porcelain cup — especially for the holidays — since most of us are bundled up and ready for a tall cup of hot cocoa. There’s nothing more heartwarming than happiness in a mug.

For once, I ended up getting most of my holiday cards and Christmas gifts out by early to mid-December. Everything was wrapped, stuffed, packaged, sealed and stamped — all ready for my trip to the post office before the holiday rush. Some careful planning on my end helped make a handful of these gifts extra special. The best part about sending these gifts and spreading holiday cheer are the happy faces and photos of their Christmas cheer.

Hot Cocoa in my Cooper cup

By Christina Lee| December 1st, 2020|Creative Inspiration, DIY Home, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen, Oh My Crafts!|

With Thanksgiving out of the way, it’s officially Christmas season every single day of this month. Christmas music on KOIT 96.5, living fireplace (with the Christmas tree), warm scones and hot cocoa in my official Cooper cup.

Earlier this year, Cooper and I decided to make these photo cups as gifts to the family in honor of his tenth birthday. Each mug has a photo of Cooper as a puppy and a more recent one throughout the year, paired with a family photo. Of course the red and green ones have a special holiday family photo with Cooper. It’s especially difficult to get Cooper to look at the camera if we are all in the photo, but sometimes the photographer just has that magic touch. Regardless, I love that we have Cooper cups for every season, but the Christmas ones just seem more magical.

Well, now that I have my hot cocoa in my Cooper cup in hand, it’s onto holiday cards.

Floating Vases

By Christina Lee| November 12th, 2020|Creative Inspiration, DIY Home|

As the seasons come and go, so do the flowers in your home. I can’t remember the last time I replaced the flowers in my bathroom, but it’s time to lean into the Fall season and fill the room with luscious Fall colors. I headed over to Michaels to peruse the Flower aisle, and a sea of forest green and nutty brown pigments caught my attention. And what looked like freshly cut succulents with its purple tips would be perfect to make my floating vases pop. Sitting in a bed of moss greens, oatmeal and century old rice (I got creative with the food in my pantry!), these earth-toned succulents were exactly what I needed to breathe life into my living space.

Stepping up my soap-making game

By Christina Lee| September 13th, 2020|DIY Home, Handmade, Homemade Soap, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!|

With the soap charms I made earlier, I mentioned I’d be doing something special with them. Now that I have an abundance of these little guys hardened and sitting ready on my countertop, I am stepping up my ‘melt and pour’, soap-making game and taking it to the next level by embedding them in more soap. If all goes well, you should see the fine details of the flamingo, palm leaves, cacti and ice cream inside a clear glycerin base. If you can’t see them, well… something didn’t go quite right.

As a hobbyist, we all know it takes a few wrongs to get things right, so the sacrifice of a few flamingos and palm leaves were highly likely. The first batch of soap charms sat ready in their molds and I heated up the glycerin soap. The soap was near a boiling point, so I stirred out some of the air bubbles, then began to pour. Wrong move.

Shortly thereafter, the flamingo and palm leaf began to melt and ribbons of pink and green laced the soap tray. And not long after that the flamingo and palm leaf began to dissolve. Oh no, caught up in a frenzy, I tried to save it by scooping back parts of the pink and green ribbons to try to keep it intact. Was I successful? No. That first one was a goner.

The second time around, I heated up the next batch of glycerin soap and this time, I stirred and let it sit. I didn’t have a thermometer handy nor did I know how long to leave it out for. Every now and then, I poked my finger in. Too hot? No clue! Moments later, I began to pour the soap base in the tray only to find it thicken, cloud up and gel. It sat out too long. Doh.

Third time’s a charm, right? Back to the stove, I stirred in another batch. I let it completely dissolve, then took it off the stove to stir out the air bubbles. I knew not to pour right away since it would melt the soap charms and now I knew not to leave it out for so long or it would thicken. It’s around that five minute range from what I could estimate, so then I dipped my finger in, acknowledged it was hot, but not overly hot. I took my chances and poured into the soap tray. It didn’t melt! However, I still didn’t know whether it would melt in time so I acted quickly. I poured in the rest, sprayed it with alcohol and transferred it to the freezer for three hours — all while hoping for the best.

It worked. Ta da!

Gorgeous sunset, ain’t it?

By Christina Lee| April 26th, 2020|DIY Home, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

The sun is shining, the weather is warm and the yarn box is overflowing. With the days growing longer and the shelter-in-place order extended, many of us have a lot more time on our hands. For craft enthusiasts such as myself, that means catching up on hobbies and dusting off the shiny new punch needle that I just got last month.

Inspired by the East Bay sunset, I found skeins of cotton candy pink, sunset yellow, aquamarine and capri blue yarn that would make for beautiful skies and lush green mountains.

Weaving together the colors came naturally. The warm pink, ivory and yellow pair well with the tranquil blue, gray and navy — each bringing their own ray of sunshine and a burst of colorful personality.

These timeless projects bring such joy in times of uncertainty and unease. What are you doing to keep your head up and your spirits high?

It’s like making Jello

By Christina Lee| December 8th, 2019|DIY Home, Handmade, Homemade Soap|

Ok ok, I think I’ve got the hang of this soap-making thang. Grab the soap base of your preference — glycerin, Shea butter, goat’s milk, oatmeal, etc. Chop it up in cubes, throw it in a Pyrex and microwave. Then shake in your favorite essential oil, splash in a bit of color and pour into the silicone mold. This is the classic Melt and Pour soap-making technique in a nutshell and it makes for a great crafternoon because you’re just a few hours away from washing your hands with homemade soap you whipped up yourself.

Now that I have the basics, it’s time to get a little more creative. Since I’ve tried all four of the soap bases, I’m beginning to see the benefits of doing some mixing and matching. I really like the Shea butter for its smooth texture and glycerin for the opacity which exposes the vibrant colors of the pigment. In this case, I’m using three colors: Haze, Powder and Black Sea from Soapy Mica Powder Pigments. With the powder, you really need to blend it well when you mix it in the melted soap base otherwise you end up with clumps of powder that gather at the bottom of the soap mold (which can end up being the top at times).

It’s almost like making Jello. I made a batch of the glycerin soap and poured it into the mold. Each batch went straight in the freezer to set while I mixed in different colors to the glycerin base. Then, it was time to melt the Shea butter and pour it right on top of the glyercin soap when it hardened. This added layer gave it definition and got many ‘oohs and awes’ when I took it out.

If you’re beginning to make some of your gifts or throw them in stalking stuffers, these make a beautiful present for the entire family to enjoy!

Susanna’s Surprise Birthday!

By Christina Lee| May 6th, 2019|Craft Day, DIY Home, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Scrapbooking|

If you haven’t already heard, I’ve accepted a part-time job as an event planner! With my sister’s 40th Birthday this year, my parents and I decided that we had to make it extra special. We were a little late to the game planning her surprise because initially a trip to Hawaii was going to be her big celebration, but we realized celebrating such a milestone without her friends by her side just wouldn’t cut it, so we’re now in crunch time for picking a theme and getting all the logistics into place. Since riding a cable car has always been on Susanna’s to-do list, we made that our theme and planned this ‘Susanna Style’ meaning every detail from the invitation to the party favors to the food and overall experience needed to be thought through carefully. In our family, Susanna is usually the one to plan all the family reunions and get togethers, so having to fill her shoes is a tall order. But I’m ready for the challenge (!)

My Mom and I divvied up all the tasks. While she did the research on cable car and thought through the decorations, I made the reservations and became the point of contact for all the guests. Her close friends and family dug through old albums to find photos representing ages 1-39 as I began putting together her birthday album. Her best friends Audrey and Lisa found ways to clear her schedule and come up with a story to keep her occupied on the big day. I made reservations for the cable car, food and cupcakes. My parents and I made running lists of all the food, drinks and decorations. Needless to say, there were plenty of trips to Michaels and the grocery store. Keeping in mind the small things such as the ice box, basket to carry the party favors and wine opener was a task in itself and one that my Dad happily tracked. There were many nights we spent talking about all the logistics and the fine details, and I think just about all of us — including her friends — nearly slipped when talking to Susanna and planning for her big surprise party. But we kept going. Susanna had her suspicions but couldn’t connect all the dots.

Much of the planning unfolded one to two weeks before her celebration. For party favors, we worked with Felix the Cook to custom paint cable cars on sugar cookies. Aren’t they cute?! They are so Susanna! Pairing them with mini cable cars and custom made birthday tags makes for a great memento and keepsake. And yes, I went to every Walgreens in downtown SF to sweep the shelves for 30+ SF cable cars.

With all the logistics in place, a plan to pick up Susanna, and her friends and family at the door 20-30 minutes ahead of schedule (repeat, ahead of schedule!), the day went off without a hitch and we took to the streets of San Francisco in style.

A big thank you to all her friends and family for being part of her big day and making her epic celebration a complete surprise!

Happy Birthday Susanna!! We love you so much and wish all of your dreams come true!!

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