From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

By | December 25th, 2014|Handmade, Holiday Fun, Oh My Crafts!|

Lee Family Christmas 2014 | CleeSF

All too soon, Christmas is here! This year, I’m making a batch of candied pecan yams and brussel sprouts with prosciutto and white wine sauce. Part of the fun with staying in the kitchen is sipping on a glass of wine, while also doing a bit of tastings before all the guests arrive.

This year’s warm Christmas Day is joined by two of my sister’s friends and of course, the family. With Christmas music in the background, a fireplace in the making and a glass of raspberry champs in hand, I think the family’s ready for a healthy competition of building gingerbread houses. I kid you not, it’s a lot easier than it looks.

Gingerbread Houses for Christmas | CleeSF

Each team had varying tactics. While others were set on designing the house, my dad stuck to building the foundation and making the house stand – even if it did take the entire tube of icing. Hands completely sticky and iced, confetti dots and gumballs stuck to his sleeves than on the roof, he was done in a matter of 20 minutes and left the house for my mom to design. In the meantime, my cousin Clifton was all about details in designing the exterior. He carefully squeezed the icing and aligned all the gum drops and licorice around each side of the house. WIthout testing it, he later realized the side of the house where he added a window and a door was really the rooftop. On the other hand, my aunt and I were all about designing the house partially and then moving on to the foundation. WIth a few collapsed houses and falling candy, we finally got it to stick. Our friends on the other side of the table stayed away from the classic design of windows, doors and garages, and instead branded it with their names. Clever.

When it came down to voting, Ricky and Zenaida were our two winners and each got Santa hats and reindeer antlers to wear for the evening – all in good fun.

Hope you too had a wonderful Christmas!

The Lavender Velvet Collection by SEI

By | November 16th, 2014|Craft Day, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Scrapbooking|

SEI Scrapbook Album Kit

For Craft Day, I’m putting the finishing touches on an SEI Album I started at Scrapbook Expo. I love these mini scrapbook kits not only because they’re adorable, but because you get to focus on learning a new technique, applying it to your project and then doing a few customizations to make it your own.

SEI Scrapbook Album Kit

The instructions for this album focuses on creating specialized tags for embellishments and using an exacto knife to carefully make pockets out of the plastic encasing to house the tags and create fold-over flaps to extend the album.

SEI Scrapbook Album Kit

And when you have a vibrant selection of paper stock with an assortment of knitted ribbons, trims and charms, you can easily turn plain album into a timeless piece.

SEI Scrapbook Album Kit

Pretty neat and it’s a great takeaway and useful concept to apply to my next album.

Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo

By | August 9th, 2014|Handmade, Learning from the best, Oh My Crafts!, Scrapbooking|

Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo

This is my 4th Annual Scrapbook Expo with the gang and this time we’re in Santa Clara. I’m going to admit, I am a forever fan. You can consider me as one of “them,” since I’m no longer embarrassed by carrying a roller bag of ever-growing supplies of paper pads, trinkets, stickers, glue dots and albums. In fact, I might even need a larger roller bag, since I am hardly able to zipper it up!

Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo - SEI Album

Today, I’ve signed up for the S.E.I. album-making class that focuses on specialized tags, fold-over flaps and pockets. I’m looking forward to learning a couple of new techniques. But before my class I’m warming up and working on this mini album. I just love these fancy letter blocks, “I Love Yuo” (!) Oops, I’ve gotta fix that one.

Santa Clara Scrapbook Expo - Make and Take

And today’s Make & Take session is all about my passion for sewing packaged up in this palm-sized heart. Working with mesh and a hot glue gun can get pretty messy sometimes, but everything usually falls into place — especially when you can dress it up with all these beautiful textures and embellishments. My favorite part was wrapping ribbon around the spool. What a clever touch to this little handmade project.

Craft Day

Craft Day - Blue Blanket Group Photo

It’s Craft Day with this crazy bunch. Knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking and sewing… we do it all! This time around, I’ve got my special little helper, Kendall helping me crochet this blanket everyone is sitting on. Yes, that’s how big it really is – 10 people can fit on this thing! I’ve been working on this for the past decade, well I started it five years ago and took a sabbatical, so it feels like a decade. My goal is to finish this before October. It sounds like a long time away, but that’s what I said last October (!)

Floating Vases and Spring Floral Arrangement

By | April 5th, 2015|DIY Home, Handmade|

Floating Vase and Floral Arrangement - Spring

This is my second attempt at making, or should I say re-making this bathroom floral arrangement. I found this elegantly fun, DIY project online courtesy of ToDoDesign last year during the Fall and you can bet that previously I had a Fall arrangement. But with Spring in the air, I opted for some of my favorite colors: purple, ivory, and green to liven up the bathroom. I appreciate the simplicity and elegance it can bring to virtually any room, and all it takes is buying one or two floating vases (which you can find on Amazon), shopping for your favorite floral arrangement at JoAnns or Michaels, and then picking up an old frame and adhering it to the wall. You can also spring for some fresh flowers from the farmer’s market as well, but I chose this bunch since my bathroom doesn’t get  any sunlight. It’s a great addition for the household and it’s currently a lovely centerpiece for my bathroom.

Christina’s Cupcakes

By | July 7th, 2014|Amigurumi, Crocheting, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Amigurumi: Chocolate Cupcake with a Cherry on Top

If you don’t already know, I’ve got one heck of a sweet tooth which doesn’t help with keeping up with my figure. Part of trying to stay lean and eat healthy is to refrain from eating sweets. And how do I refrain from eating sweets? Well, I acquired a new found hobby, amigurumi. If you can crochet and count, then you’re all set. In fact, it’s a ‘piece of cake’ if you know the basics. Each layer is it’s own separate piece from the cake itself to the frosting and the cherry. One by one you end up with everything needed to make this zero calorie cupcake and it’s all a matter of sewing it together and paying attention to the details. The eyes and the lips are what make amigurumi so cute. I finished making the doughnut the other day and since my sweet tooth is beckoning again, I decided to go for the cupcake.

Amigurumi: Chocolate Cupcake with a Cherry on Top

Freshly baked from my house to yours, Christina’s Cupcakes. Enjoy!

Hamburgers and Craft Day

By | February 12th, 2014|Amigurumi, Craft Day, Crocheting, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Craft Day - Amigurumi Cheeseburger

Girls and their crafts in one house, and boys, chicken pot pie and ribs in the other. That’s a pretty good divide, don’t you think? Today will be somewhat productive without all the kids running around. On the craft agenda today is some knitting, scrapbooking, card-making and painting. There’s so much to do, but since I just started exploring my new found hobby of amigurumi, I think I’m going to continue in that direction and create a hamburger. Lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, meat and buns – just the way I like it.

Craft Day - Amigurumi Cheeseburger

I will start out with the buns and then work my way through to the meaty center. There’s lots of counting and details to make each piece come alive.

Mmm…. I can already taste the burger.

Dunkin’ Donut

By | January 4th, 2014|Amigurumi, Crocheting, Handmade, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Amigurumi Coffee Donut

Well, I’ve decided to pick up a new hobby and it’s about time I explored another because personally, I’ve had my run with crocheting scarves, hats and towelettes. I decided to pick up a book on amigurumi. In case you don’t know, amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words “ami”, meaning crocheted or knitted, and “gurumi”, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. I’ve got a couple of books – one on stuffed animals and one on culinary delights. It was hard to decide which one to start with, but in the end, I let my growling stomach do the choosing and we landed on culinary delights. This donut in particular excited me. I couldn’t resist it because I am such a big fan of donuts. I decided in this expresso flavored one because it is an all-time favorite and I can just imagine myself dunking it into my non-existent coffee at the time. Plus, the best part about it is I’m on a diet and you can’t go wrong with a zero calorie donut. In fact, you can enjoy it at any moment. This donut is the first of many batches that I am going to have to make. One down, five more to go….