shimandsons

thinking

:: about all those who lost loved ones in the earthquake in central China ::

:: feeling grateful Appah is safe and sound :: holding my boys a little closer :: remembering each day on this Earth is a gift ::  

happy mother's day

now I know my ABC's

:: alphabet + prints ::

:: personalized + flats ::

:: in the shoppe now ::

:: big sale over at my other shoppe ::

the shoppe :: spring 08

It really felt like spring today with the beautiful blue skies + crisp breeze. Three of my favorite things about the day were watching the boys wear linen pants for the first time this year, eating a yummy bowl of Skinnidip yogurt [they finally have mochi!] and celebrating Children's Day with some of our friends. Spring is my favorite time of the year and although it tends to be the busiest season [birthdays, end of the school year, business travel for Appah], I somehow feel inspired and compelled to create more things--goodies for the shoppe, clothes for the boys, birthday presents for friends and those long-awaited quilts [I finally picked out the fabric!]. Oh, and it is hard not be to inspired by Martha and her One A Day making marathon for her spring prints COLLECTION [I'm so excited!].

This month the shoppe is celebrating its 1-year anniversary. The last 12 months have been a fun ride and never in a million years did I ever think I would be selling my handmade goods to anyone. So a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who has provided support and encouragement to me along the way! Instead of one large update this month I will be adding new products every week. I'll have a mix of old favorites [push + pins, button + magnets and patchwork + towels] as well as new goods [alphabet + prints, square pin + boards and stitched art + cards.] I'm also excited to announce that I'll be offering personalized stationery in the shoppe, just in time to give your favorite teacher a nice end-of-the-year present.

Oh, and I added a batch of boxes + bags [sans tags + labels] in the shoppe for those you who have an affinity for packaging. I most likely won't be restocking these in the future, so you might want to stash some away for Christmas cookie season.

the dinosaur birthday party :: part two

It is hard to believe Big J is 5 years old. I'm not sure why "5" seems so big boy-ish to me, but it does. I was at a Kindergarten parent meeting the other night and they showed a little "day in the life of a Kindergartener" film and it made me teary. Watching the kids get on the school bus and eat their lunch in the cafeteria made me feel like time was slipping by all too quickly. Speaking of school, we prepared some little goody bags for Big J's classmates. I was volunteering in his classroom so we brought snacks, sang him "Happy Birthday" and watched him wear his birthday crown during classtime. I found these cute soda pop bubbles at the dollar store. [Yes, I'm a bit obsessed with repackaging things.]

And I made little personalized notebooks [similar to these] for all his classmates.

The notebooks were packaged in glassine envelopes with a few washable markers.

Then in assembly line style, Big J put the bubbles, notebooks + pens and dinosaur fruit chews into white paper bags. I then closed them with a simple zigzag stitch and added a little personalized sticker.

And on the subject of packaging, I will be putting some bakers + boxes and bakers + bags [sans gift + tags and labels + twine] up for sale in the shoppe in the next few days. I'm trying to clear out some space in my studio and figured there might be some folks who could put the boxes + bags to good use.

the dinosaur birthday party

Big J had a wonderful birthday celebration last Saturday with twenty-five of our family friends. I am happy we went with the dinosaur theme because it made the party so very "Big J". I really do love party planning and focusing in on the little details. But most importantly I am thrilled that my boy is still telling me that he had the best dinosaur birthday party ever!

I printed out a birthday banner and mounted each card on to yellow + peacock blue cardstock. I also put up a few photographs of Big J from his "photo shoot". The dinosaur "skeleton" is from the $1 bins at Target.

The dinosaur mobile was made out of embroidery hoops, monofilament and paper dinosaurs + circles.

It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to but at this point there was no time to start over.

I always set up the favor table near the front door so people can pick up their goodies on the way out. 

My "go to" favor for the adults is repackaged candy, which is funny because I never include candy in the children's favors. For these favors I just removed the Lifesaver wrappers and replaced them with new custom labels. 

The children received a little take-out box filled with bubbles, playdough, dinosaur capsules [you add water and watch the dinosaurs "grow"], a dinosaur pencil and dinosaur fruit snacks.

There were a few infants attending the party so they received a little stitched up bag containing a soft board book.

The birthday cake was a simple vanilla + cream cheese frosting cake topped with a few dinosaurs.

Big J loved hearing people sing "Happy Birthday" to him and blowing out his candles [and opening up the gifts and playing with the toys he received...].

I also baked a little herd of dinosaur cupcakes. [The "cupcake holder" is actually a candle holder from Ikea. As soon as I spotted it I thought it would be perfect for holding cupcakes. The smaller version would work great as a mini cupcake holder.]

The week before his party we made some dinosaur terrariums with my friend Sumi.

Technically these are not terrariums since they are not fully enclosed, but they were so much fun [and easy] to make! [I'm eyeing this terradome to add to our collection--via SFGirlByBay.]

You can find more information on terrariums here and here and here.

We placed several terrariums on the kitchen island with the rest of the brunch spread [waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon, muffins, fruit] as well as on the favor + coffee tables.

So now we're writing the last of the thank you cards and soon enough it will be time to start thinking about Baby J's birthday party in June. Oh, and Baby J has told me that he wants a dinosaur birthday party!

pillows :: take two

We had loads of fun at Big J's birthday party over the weekend. Of course we're a little wiped out from the festivities and it doesn't help that another wave of colds has hit our house. [Please, oh please let this be the last of the illnesses this year!] I'll share photographs from the party later this week. In addition to preparing for Big J's party this month I have been fully immersed in spring cleaning. After a few trips to Goodwill I've been able to clear out some closet space around the house. I've also written lists for changes I would like to make in each room of the house and have prioritized the list. It feels so good to have a "game plan" and to dedicate some time each week to make it all happen.

One of the projects on my list was to make new pillows for our family room sofa + club chair. Last month I picked up the grey tree fabric from Bolt even though I wasn't crazy about the colorway.

Sure enough as soon as I made the pillows I knew they were not going to work for me. I love the print, but the color palette just doesn't look right in the room.

So earlier this month I ordered a few pieces of Cake Rock Beach fabric [designed by Joelle Hoverson of Purl] from Sew Mama Sew. I think these pillows are keepers, or at least until I can replace them with some textured pillows like this or this.

P.S. The shoppe will be celebrating its 1st anniversary on Thursday! I was originally planning to have a big update on May 1st, but I am going to push it back a week or so since this week is packed with volunteering in Big J's classroom, going on a field trip and working on a few project deadlines. Stay tuned!

cute + mad

:: a little bug has hit our house again ::

:: being sick is no fun ::

birthdays all around

Thank you for the birthday well-wishes! Having my dear friend Sumi in town for five days was such a wonderful treat. I had no idea she was flying up here from California, so you can imagine how surprised I was when we drove up to the airport and saw her waving at us! We have been friends for over ten years and even though we've lived in different states for almost 4.5 years, we have remained the closest of friends. Our five days together went by quickly but it was a nice mix of lounging around the house, shopping in the city, eating yummy baked goods [our weaknesses], working on a few craft projects, making dinosaur terrariums with the boys and of course, hours of chatting. I'll share some photographs of our projects next week.

Big J + I are not the only ones celebrating our birthdays this month. Our sweet friend Sam celebrated his 4th birthday last week. And yes, Melissa's baked goods were as DELICIOUS as they look!! I was complaining about my full stomach on the drive home and I'm not sure if Sumi was more amazed or disgusted by the quantity of food I consumed [I suspect the former]. Melissa even gave us a plate of baked goods to bring home and we devoured them within a few hours. And of course this all convinced me that I need to buy "the book" Melissa + Amy have been raving about so I can make my own bread-y goodness.

Anyways, back to Sam's birthday [I get so easily distracted by food]. We gave him an alphabet print [Melissa hinted she wanted one] as well as some personalized everyday + flats.

Since I knew he wouldn't be very interested in the paper goods, we also included a dinosaur/train book and a matching tee. Can you see the Shims are trying to force our love of dinosaurs upon Sam? Although based on what I saw the other day I think he may be coming around. Oh, and you know there will be lots of dinosaurs popping up here very shortly since Big J's party is in three days!

an early birthday present

:: Appah surprised me by flying in one of my best friends from California :: non-stop chatting :: eating good food :: shopping :: brainstorming creative ideas :: wishing five days would go by s-l-o-w-e-r :: best birthday present ever :: thank you, Appah! ::