Friday Flan

Wouldn't you like a little flan?

Sorry! This flan is actually soap! Haha!

Specifically, a cupcake mold filled with a layer of clear glycerin soap (2 drops red, 1 drop yellow and 1 drop green), and a layer of shea butter soap (2 drops yellow).  The scent is apple pie, since I don't have uh, flan scent.  I don't know that anyone wants to smell like an egg custard anyway.

I typically have an aversion to soap that looks like food, but these are kind of cute! I'm going to send them to Penga-Sis as part of her summer camp care package.

Now I've got a craving for real flan though. That's the high-calorie side effect of using flan soap.

Do you like flan?

DIY Faux Pearl Jewelry

I kinda looked for my bridesmaid jewelry last minute before Cousin T's wedding, and you know how it goes...When you're looking for that one specific something, you can never quite find it! I was looking for some pale pink pearls, but everything I found had too much white mixed in with it. Boo.

So I thought I'd just wing it, and bought four $1 faux pearl strands from Michaels.  They have a pretty large variety of colors and pearl sizes, so I got two different shades of pink in two sizes to make a double strand necklace.  I also bought a small pack of silver clasps using a 40% coupon.

Other supplies include some beading wire (fishing line would work too), regular wire (or jump rings if you have them), and an earring stud set. I also used a little glue to secure my beading wire, but it's not really necessary if you can tie a good knot!

Most of this stuff I had on hand already since I went on a little jewelry making binge back in college. :P

Anyway, make two jump rings (or just buy some).  To make them, roll some wire around a round nose plier.

String the pearls on some of the beading wire, and tie each end to a jump ring.  I made each strand 21" long, which left me a handful of beads left over!

After making two strands (attached to the same two jump rings), attach the clasp on and you're done!

Gotta trim up the extra beading wire though >.>"

With the extra beads, I glued two of the larger ones to the ear studs for instant earrings!

Only, it is still a bead, so there's a funky hole in the side.  No one can notice from far away though, right?

Not bad for ~$5 in supplies!

And an action shot from Cousin T's wedding..

I love pearls for some reason (fancy but not too shiny, maybe?) so I've already worn these to work too.  My co-worker wants to make a set in black pearl, I think that'll be pretty! Maybe a black/grey combo?

Do you have a favorite type of necklace? Pendant, illusion, choker? Does anyone even wear chokers anymore? I remember those plastic stretchy "tattoo" chokers and bracelets everyone used to wear back in the 90's. If they ever make a come-back I am totally wearing them again, they were fun. Ha!

San Mateo County Fair 2012

Summer is here! Time for the county fair!

This year we went with my cousin and her boyfriend. They are from socal but came up to the bay for half a week on a mini vacation.

We started with some fried artichokes and curly fries to tide us over before the concert.

We saw Boyz II Men this year, which was really amazing. They have great voices.  And they dance.  They just released a twentieth anniversary album.  Can't believe they've been around so long!  I remember they were really popular back in middle school.  All the slow songs at the 8th grade dance were Boyz II Men, hehe.

After the concert we ran through the rest of the fair, and Cousin A and I both decided we needed a pet bunny. They were all so cute!

Baby chicks were cute too!

And baby goat! Or maybe it's just a mini goat?

Another goat had a pretty cool name.

The sheep were stylin' in their neon jackets.

And this chicken had the weirdest neck.

In another hall we saw some pretty artistic centerpieces/flower arrangments along with other plants.

I don't know what this green ball plant was but it is pretty cool looking!

And in the recyclable section there was a dress made of plastic bags, and a bag crocheted from plastic bags.

I really like the recyclable section, and I think it's funny that they have a judging category just for compost!

Unfortunately since it was a weeknight, we didn't get to stay up late and see all the other exhibits this year.  It was fun though! And we definitely didn't forget the annual funnel cake! Cousin's bf got a deep fried twinkie too, but the rest of us weren't feeling well enough at that point to try it! :P

Cousins! 

 Have you been or plan to go to your county's fair this year?

Screenprint Bridesmaid Shirts

Cousin T's wedding is coming up soon, and since she has eight (!!!) bridesmaids, I thought it'd be nice to have some matching shirts for any pre-wedding festivities. The majority of her bridesmaids are artists, so one of them kindly came up with some awesome art to put on the shirts. I slapped on some names/date and then went to town!

After the transparency is printed, you can expose the emulsion on the Yudu screen.  We used a 220 screen since the details in the line art include fairly fine lines.

Lots of puckering in the screen this time, we didn't stick it on well enough.  :(  Luckily it didn't affect the print though!

I bought shirts from Michael's, and since they didn't have the shade of pink I wanted (I know - a little obsessive), I dyed a bunch of white shirts.

Cousin T's colors are pink and navy, so I went with a navy ink for the art.

Surprisingly, all the prints came out nearly perfect! Even the test print I did on a random canvas bag. This is a very, very rare occurrence in this household.

I just wish the image was a little bigger -I can only do 8.5"x11" on my printer, bah.

The following day we did the back of the shirt, which says "bridesmaid" up by the collar.  Luck ran out that day since one has a slight overbleed in the letters. I'd make that my shirt, but it's a small size. :(  I'll have to give that girl some candy or something as an apology.  And I didn't take any pictures of the back, for some random reason. *Gives blog candy* More apologies!

So after all the printing was done, I bought this pretty pink lace to spruce up the bride's shirt a bit.

Sewn to the bottom, I think it makes this plain white T just a little more bridal!

I rolled up all the shirts and tagged them with the corresponding shirt size letter.

Except for Cousin T's of course.  She gets a T!

Package them away in the test bag, haha!

Which would have been super cute had the test bag not been a 511 bag!

Oh well.

This is my first time being a bridesmaid. Can you tell I'm just a little excited? Hahaha!

Cal Poly Graduation 2012

Last weekend we went down to San Luis Obispo (SLO) for my younger brother's graduation.  It is always such a joy to go back to our alma mater! The school, the town, the ocean - everything is so lovely there. But with only one day to play nostalgic-tourist (mostly in the Pismo area), it was hard to squeeze in all our favorites. We tried though!

The P!

We ate heavenly Firestone's tri-tip sandwiches and tromped around downtown SLO..

Braved down the creaky boards at Pismo pier...

A wild otter appeared!

Ate a ridiculously mouthwatering Old West Cinnamon Roll..

Looked for the sinkhole at Dinosaur Caves Park. But couldn't find it! Sob sob...maybe it eroded away?!

And finally ended the day with a "love boat" and sushi at Yanagi's.

The next day was the graduation! It was a great thing to watch Penga-bro walk.  The whole family is extremely proud of him.  It's been five years since Sak and I walked onto the same graduation field, so I felt extra emotional thinking about our own Cal Poly family from way-back-when.

Soooo many people.

After the main ceremony, I got to give him my washer lei! I can't say that the extra five pounds of weight was really appreciated, but that's not the point. Huhuhu.

And there's my perpetual derp-face. >.>"

Actually my mom and I ended up making so many leis that he was able to sell some prior to the graduation to raise money for his SF summer mission trip (in the tenderloin - please pray for him!).  Of course we still saved some leis just for him though.  I think he had over twenty at the end from friends and family. Not bad for a mainland grad.

There was a smaller ceremony just for mechanical engineers where all the grad's names were called.  Except the microphone broke and no one could hear anything.  You'd think that at a well-known engineering school, someone would at least try to fix the problem? Nope! No sound the whole time!

 Anyway, I'd say even more fun than the leis were these silly face fans I made to hand out. They were just slightly too small, but still a big hit!

Which is the real one?! Gah!

They were also useful for keeping cool, as it was a pretty warm weekend!

As sad as I'm sure Penga-Bro is to leave campus (and if he's not sad now he'll miss it later, I promise), he's got a great future lined up.  He'll be working in the Bay Area too, and it's always (or maybe I should say usually? Ha!) nice to have the family not too far away.

Classic, everyone-look-at-a-different-camera-now shot

Penga-Bro's duct-tape decorated hat. "He" being God. It's a clothing company in Hawaii. 

How was your graduation season? I always find them to be such joyous occasions!

(credit: some photos (mostly the good looking ones) taken by family members)