Humbling Hobbies and Habits Archives

‘A Starry Night’ in yarn

By Christina Lee| April 18th, 2021|Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Punch Needle, Yarn Addict|

One of my favorite museums to visit was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. I traveled there on a solo trip a few years back and this was one of the things you must do when you’re in Amsterdam.

Walking through the museum was like seeing the pages of your history book come to life. Well, it was better than that, but you know what I mean. His self-portrait, The Yellow House, The Bedroom, Sunflowers, and Irises were a few that I enjoyed. Of course my all-time favorites, The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum and A Starry Night were at a different location, but nonetheless, it was there in spirit.

It also inspired me to work on “A Starry Night” with the one thing I love: yarn. I found this starter kit on Etsy that came with just about everything you need to make this piece: punch needle, hoop, monk cloth, and a set of soft wooly yarn including shiny royal blue to make the village scenes pop.

This was indeed a fun piece to work on especially since I hear there is now an Immersive Van Gogh exhibit in San Francisco. The digital experience features some of his most iconic paintings across 300,000 cubic feet of space where you can lose yourself in an array of color, texture and light.

I can’t wait to check it out!

Because this is how we roll

By Christina Lee| February 18th, 2021|Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen, Learning from the best, Oh My Crafts!|

It’s been nearly a year since we’ve been working remotely and zoom fatigue is at an all-time high as we continue to buckle down on work and hang tight hoping the tides will change this year. Increased levels of productivity and stress call for a much needed time out and a chance to come together as a team to reset.

Our manager suggested a virtual team building activity — one where we can sculpt and make something out of clay or one where we can fill our bellies with chocolate goodness — and the scale tipped at chocolate making (which was almost a no brainer!).

We each got a kit from Tiny B Chocolate where we got to learn Brigadeiro Basics, Brazil’s most loved dessert and cousin of the chocolate truffle. The kit came with three jars of brigadeiro, eight toppings and a jar of spread along with plates, spoons and everything you need to get started on becoming a chocolatier.

Making these brigadeiro chocolates couldn’t be any easier than 1-2-3. You scoop out the chocolate and roll it into a ball, dunk it in your favorite topping, and set it aside or put it into your mouth. There is no need for baking. What’s great about this virtual team building activity is you get to make gourmet Brazilian chocolates and bond with your team without any “whoopsies”. And best of all, you create photo-worthy creations that are yet to impress your friends and family. What a fun way to break away from the office.

One line a day journal: year two

By Christina Lee| January 1st, 2021|Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits|

While many of us couldn’t wait to kick 2020 to the curb, there was still plenty of good that came from such a tumultuous year. From the pandemic to racial injustice, social strife and political upheavals that claimed to overtake our lives, came strength, fortitude, patience and empathy. Acts of kindness — small and large — filled our hearts and opened up our eyes to what could be a better tomorrow if we all pulled together. And these are the things worth writing down, recording and remembering.

This past year, we all got a lot of time to ourselves and learned to be comfortable with solitude. And with this time came the ability to focus on finding ourselves, looking inward and taking care of our own mental and physical wellbeing.

In doing so, I learned to disconnect, take longer walks, appreciate my neighborhood and find gratitude in people, nature and my surroundings. There were so many instances where I took all of this for granted and didn’t open my eyes up to the true nature of life and all of its beauty. With so much devastation, hurt and loss, I want to make a commitment to finding and practicing gratitude on a daily basis. I want to live in the moment, smile more and appreciate the very things life is offering me. I want to overcome the challenges that come my way and live up to the values that make me who I am. I want to make memories worth keeping and recording. Here’s to year two and life lessons worth remembering.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

By Christina Lee| November 26th, 2020|Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, In the Kitchen|

If you’ve got loved ones, a roof over your head, and food in your stomach, you’ve got more than many people around you. With the unforeseen circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic and the unsettling increase case count, this Thanksgiving will not be like any others. Friends, family and loved ones may or may not be able to pull up a chair at the dinner table, and thus, it’s so much more important to find meaningful ways to stay connected with the people you care about most. Inspired by safety and health precautions, I spent this year’s Thanksgiving with my Mom and sister.

While we missed out on our usual 30lb turkey and my Dad’s famous sticky rice stuffing, we did make it up with cornish game hen and sides of brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes and candied yams. And because no meal would be complete without dessert, we (over-) indulged in an apple and persimmon crumble along with pumpkin pies from Petaluma Pie Company (worth the extra trip!).

Today was all about being thankful for good health and being able to spend time with family. I am ever so grateful for these blessings and having my loved ones humbly share this holiday with me. Staying safe for a better tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Virtual Team Building: Terrarium Making Kits

By Christina Lee| September 29th, 2020|Craft Day, Creative Inspiration, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!|

With over six months of shelter-in-place orders in effect, the Covid-19 pandemic has taken both an emotional and physical toll on our well-being. The extreme work-from-home measure has left us craving human connection, mental sanity and work/life balance. While we aren’t able to get together as a team, we try to keep things normal — even if it means doing our team offsite virtually through Zoom.

Over the last two days, we blocked off a total of six hours (three hours per day) on the calendar and did what we could to connect as a team. Introductions, planning sessions, work break-out sessions, guest speakers, and of course, ice breakers made up the two day agenda. Never had I imagined the possibility of conducting these team activities online. But we did and it was fun.

One of our team activities came in a box which contained everything you need to build your own terrarium. A glass bowl, soil, moss, charcoal, rocks, succulents and even trinkets like sea shells, glass jars, and dinosaurs came in this terrarium kit that my manager found online at Etsy.

We emptied all of that good stuff out of the box and began building it together. Does the soil go in first or the rocks? What do you do with the moss, and does it go above or below the soil? How do you insert the succulents? While everything came packaged up nicely, by the time we poured out all the contents, the table was covered in dirt and my hands were black.

It was fun talking through the process and interesting to see the unique spin that each of us took designing the terrarium with the exact same kit. I now have faith that we can have fun and do great things as a team even if it is online.

Now, to find a home for this little guy.

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!

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