Day to Day Wonderments

Yellow and Blue Bathroom with a Chevron Hoodie Towel

2012-01-19T16:57:00.000-08:00

We recently did a little work on our guest bathroom or should I say kids bathroom. We hung a reclaimed wood shelf and bar of hooks from ikea. I also made a chevron hoodie towel for the new baby. I let August test it out. I like how the towel came out because it is a baby towel that doesn't look too baby it matches the whole scheme of the bathroom. Also this IKEA hook system it is supposed to be used in the kitchen, but when I saw it I thought it would be perfect for our long wall in the bathroom. I especially like the buckets that come with it. Anyway it just has a lot of flexibility and fits all our needs. I got the brackets at Home Depot and they were like $4 or something. Anyway, here are some photos of how it turned out.

37 weeks pregnant

2012-01-10T21:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while but I have been busy with nesting and the holiday. I am actually 37 weeks pregnant and now waiting for our baby girl to come. My official due date is January 28th we'll see if I make it that far. While I am waiting I will try to blog a little about the nursery soon. Here are a few family photos.

New Silhouette Mini Ornaments

2011-11-22T16:24:00.001-08:00

Here are some new mini ornaments that are on my Etsy site. I will custom illustrate a profile of your special someone and make it into this beautiful ornament. Come and check them out.

Fall at the Ranch

2011-11-09T19:47:00.000-08:00

This fall we were able to go out a spend some time with our friends at their ranch. We had a great day of horses, quad rides and warm apple cider. He are a few photos our fam. This first one melts my heart. Hope you enjoy!

Gray Morroccan Tile Stenciled Fabric

2011-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

I never can find exactly what I want so that is why I try to make a lot of things. I really wanted a Moroccan tile fabric but couldn't find it anywhere so I found this stencil and this fabric and joined the two together. I was really worried about the paint bleeding under the stencil or the paint smearing when I moved the stencil but I haven't had any problems yet. I used some left over house paint and so far it has turn out great. I am hoping to stenciling 5 yards of fabric and then starch it to the wall. I think I may stencil some fabric for pillows. I will post again if any of it works out. I hope you enjoy!

Augusts 1st Birthday

2011-10-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

So in our house we have a ton of carpenter ants, which are really large ants. Ever since August could scoot around he has been so into these ants, tracking them everywhere they go. So we thought an ant themed 1st birthday party would be perfect. We kind of did a letter A / Ant / Picnic theme. It turned out really cute but the lighting was terrible so I didn't get hardly any photos. I also included a photo shoot we did before his birthday. Hope you enjoy!

DIY Wallpaper Jars

2011-10-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like you need some cute containers for q-tips, pens, and other odds and ends, but can't find exactly what you are looking for? I just realized that Anthropologie will send you wallpaper samples for free. So I gathered up some old glass cups and jars and covered them with wallpaper samples and other crafty things I had laying around (upholstery binding, ribbon and twin). I am obsessed with this Cole and Son Woods wallpaper so I was excited to have in my home in some way. Hope you enjoy!

Oak Leaf Wedding Invitations

2011-10-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some wedding invitation I designed a couple of months ago. I just haven't gotten around to taking photos of them. I hope you enjoy!

If you are interesting in having your wedding invitations custom designed, email me for pricing.

Summer Photo Shoot with August

2011-08-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Well...not sure what happened. No morning nap...short afternoon nap...and ready for bed. We went from so happy to this. August is now happy in his bed 7:15pm.

yellow shower

2011-07-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

My friend Elizabeth recently came to visit, so we through her little shower. She is having a little girl but she isn't super girly so I decided to go with a yellow theme to tame down the girlishness. I already had this Dwell fabric to make pillows for my deck, so I cut it up into runners. Then I designed these yellow papers to use as the flag line and just printed them off. It is hard to find fun modern papers especially a chevron print. For the centerpieces I used apple sauce jars, I had 5 just laying around I guess that is your life when you have a little one. Anyway I wrapped them with the same paper and some twine. You can download these papers by simply clicking on the patterned images below. You can use these to mack your own flag line. Also if you print it in black and white it comes out as a really nice grey. Hope you enjoy.

Gluten Free Nutty Apple Muffins

2011-07-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

My auntie recently made me some nutty apple bread and I was obsessed. It was so yummy. But I usually eat gluten free so I decided to modify the recipe to gluten free nutty apple muffins. I am not sure but I think they are even yummer. My husband said, "These are the best muffins I have ever tasted and who even likes muffins." Anyway you should try them out. They aren't super pretty so I wanted to spice them up somehow, so I made these little oak leaf flags. I really love how they turn out. Make sure to pick the leave right before severing because they will dry out pretty fast.

Dollar Store Birds

2011-06-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

I really wanted some little accessories to put out on may deck but didn't want to spend too much money. I happened to be in the dollar store and saw these birds and thought they had some potential. So I painted them white and antiqued them a little bit. O and how cute are these pots...yep they are form anthropologie, but they were surprisingly cheep.

happy mothers on mothers day

2011-05-19T15:53:00.000-07:00

I recently had a few moms post their new mothers day necklaces on the their blogs. Check out these talented mothers: Lyndsay, Brianne, & Elisa

terrarium with handmade mushrooms

2011-05-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

So when I was a kid I was addicted to making things out of sculpty clay. Recently I was at a friends house and she had handmade mushrooms and instantly I was reminded of all the clay bunnies and such that I had made as a kid and thought I could make those with the same clay. So I bought some for like a buck and made some mushrooms. It is really nice because the clay fires for 15 min in the oven and the mushroom maybe took 10 min to sculpt. I defiantly love a quick craft, it makes you feel so accomplished. Anyway here is a terrarium I made with moss from my back yard and a strawberry plant. I also added some budding sticks and of course some handmade mushrooms.

Waisting Time

2011-04-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Rich, August and I headed down the coast to San Diego Thursday in the late afternoon. So instead of sitting in traffic we decided to go to the Santa Monica Pier. We took August on his first ride. Such a great day. Maybe you can tell by now that this is my go to hat when I am having a bad hair day.

Custom Silhouette Necklaces

2011-04-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Alright so I have really enjoyed making these custom silhouettes so I decided to start an Etsy store to sell some necklaces. I have made three for my self and I really love them, they seem to add that vintage look to every outfit. I also included with each necklace a printable PDF of the custom silhouette. Anyway here are some photo below of some of the designs. I have be teaching my husband about photography and he is getting really good. He took all these photos of me. (Can you tell I am proud.) Check out the store for more photos. If you are interested in purchasing one here is a 20% off coupon code for the month of April (11APRIL).

Hume Lake Maternity Shoot

2011-04-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

We're on On to Baby. Last summer Kristin Eldridge came up to Hume Lake and offered to snap a couple of maternity shots and they came out so cute. It really is weird to see my self prego after all these months. That's a big belly. Any way you can see the whole post on On to Baby.

My 28th Birthday

2011-03-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well this year I had an amazing birthday. With the collaboration of my husband and some of our friends we were able to spend two nights in Long Beach. We had amazing meals, wonderful conversation, lots of giggles with August and a nap on the beach. I was such a perfect birthday. We even finished it off with some hula pie from Dukes in Huntington Beach. Here are some photos of the day. If you can't tell we are obsessed with our little boy. O and I thought I would give a shout out to my friend Elisa who made my beanie it is my favorite.

DIY Birch Tree Wall Mural

2011-02-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to paint birch trees in our nursery but I didn't want it to look like a mural. I wanted it to look more like wall paper. So I got a quart of the same paint and had it mixed at 25% lighter than the wall paint. I used a small roller to paint the trunk of the tree. Then I went in with a smaller brush to paint the branches. Next with the same brush I painted the darker bark marks with the original wall color. This was probably the hardest part because it is hard to see what you have painted because the colors appear the same when they are wet. Now you are done. It is really easy, also because the colors are so similar it is very forgiving. Have fun!

modern vintage nursery

2011-02-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

Today I finally got around to photographing August's nursery. I still want to put a couple more things up on the walls but I thought it was time to post an image of the whole room. I really wanted a gray nursery but finding the right gray was quite tricky. Lucky we only had to go through two colors. Next I am also going to post a DIY on how I painted the birch trees. It was really so easy. I hope you like it. Try not to get distracted by the ugly carpet.

Picnic

2011-02-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

It is supposed to snow this Tuesday. So today we found a patch of grass without snow and had an amazing picnic. I tied everything with string and yarn which made it feel a little more special. My Friend made me this blanket for Christmas, I was so excited to have a chance to use it. Isn't it great.

August Bo-ga-gust: Dwell Studio Baby Bedding

2011-02-05T16:36:00.000-08:00

Here is my little baby boy playing in his crib. We like to call him "August Bo-ga-gust." We really don't know why. Before I was prego I entered my self into this thanksgiving decoration contests through dwell studio and ended up winning a $500 shopping spree. When I got pregnant I was so excited because then I was able to use this money toward all of our baby bedding. I feel so blessed because it is really hard to find cute boy bedding and my husband wouldn't let me spend that much on baby bedding. Another fun thing is this is my crib from when i was a baby and my husband painted it for me.

custom silhouette necklace

2011-01-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Well I felt like Christmas sucked the life out of me. The holidays really are a lot harder with a baby. We'll see if I ever get motivated enough to take my Christmas decorations down. So that is why i haven't posted lately. My husband has been working late on the weekends, so I have been inspired to craft. Here is my new "favoritist" thing. I am so excited to wear it but I pretty much stay in my comfy clothes all day so I hardly have a chance to show it off. For Christmas I illustrated silhouettes of all of the grandchildren for my mom and family...it was a big hit. So then I wanted to think of more ways to use August's silhouette and this necklace was the first thing that came to mind.
Check out my Esty Store!

photographer branding: Jesica Allen

2010-11-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

I did this photography branding a while back, but i am just getting around to posting it. This was a really fun project and jesica was great to work with. We did a package that included: logo with branding fonts, branding pattern, branding background, home page slide show template, blog post separator and watermark. We ended up designing the logo off of her beautiful signature.

twig mini caramel apples

2010-11-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

So I was in the mood to make some kind of fall treat for a group of our friends. Where we live there are a couple of wild apple trees so I thought maybe mini caramel apples would be fun. No one can ever finishes a whole caramel apple anyway. I didn't have any sticks to put in the apples so when my husband was picking the apples I picked up a couple of apple branches from the ground and cut them into small sticks. I soaked and scrubbed the sticks to make sure they would be clean enough to use. I also cut the ends at an angle to make them sharp. Then in between naps and poopy diapers I managed to stick the apples, make the caramel and dip them. My favorite thing was that a lot of the apples still had there leaves on them.

owl lamp: before and after

2010-10-17T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well i haven't quite finished the nursery so I thought I would post a couple of small details here and there until the nursery is done...
... So I got this lamp at a thrift store it was supposed to be $8 but it happened to be 50% off. Yes!!! I was so excited I grabbed it right when I saw it and kept it close by my side I was seriously worried someone might try to steel it. Then when i got to the counter they could not believe I wanted such a ugly thing. Even my husband thought i was crazy, but now I think it is beautiful. He still thinks it's "whatever".

my sweet baby boy

2010-10-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted in a while because on August 21st our sweet baby boy August Michael Baker was born. It is hard to take my eyes off of him long enough to get anything done.

1 week

8 weeks

prego photo shoot

2010-08-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

You may remember Kristin Eldridge from a previous post. I did a branding package for her earlier this year. She recently came to visit and offered to do a maternity shoot with me and my husband Rich. We were so excited. She is so talented and it was really fun to get to see her work. Here are a couple of the photos. You can see more on her blog.

watermelon salad

2010-08-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

So I have always wanted to make a watermelon salad so tonight I tested it out. Wow was it good. I decided to pair it with a grilled cheese with orange bell peppers. If you want to make this salad it is just watermelon, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and balsamic glaze from Fresh & Easy (if you don't have this you can reduce your own balsamic vinegar into a syrup). Got to love summer cooking.

nursery and me

2010-07-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here is sneak peak of the nursery. My mom took this photo... I think using my 5D has started her off in her photo carrier.

Baby Shower #2

2010-07-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Take a look at my 2nd baby shower. This shower was complete with waffle bar, iced coffee and quiche. So much fun and full of details I absolutely loved.

bird themed baby shower

2010-07-05T21:09:00.002-07:00

My sister just through me the most adorable bird themed baby shower. I thought you all might like to see some photos. This was my first baby shower and it was so cute. Thank you Kim and the rest of my family for making me feel so special.

My cousin and her husband now own an event rental company so we were able to use their beautiful chairs.

wedding...weddings...weddings

2010-06-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

I have been to a wedding every weekend this month... it has been crazy. I had the opportunity to second shoot one wedding with my good friend Sean Walker. Here are just a couple of the image from the wedding I will try to post more soon.

napa inspired wedding reception invitation

2010-04-14T21:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some invitations I designed for a small northern California wedding reception. The reception is themed with lavender and Napa Valley combination. I hope you like it.

anthropologie inspired planter

2010-04-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

I want to the anthropologie in Carlsbad a couple months ago and was completely inspired by how they used moss in there store displays. So when i found this office storage box on sale at target and I knew just what I wanted to do with it. We'll see how long it lives for... I don't exactly have a green thumb.

baby shower invitations

2010-04-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

I designed these baby shower invitations a little while ago but for some reason I could not find the time to photograph them. I hope you enjoy. If you would be interested in having me design invitations for your wedding, baby shower, birthday party or anything else you could invite somebody to email me for pricing.

Orange Chocolate Mini Cupcake Recipe

2010-03-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

ORANGE CHOCOLATE MINI CUPCAKES
1 Box Chocolate Cake Mix
Replace Water with Orange Juice
Replace Oil with Grape Seed Oil
1/2 Orange Zested
Follow box directions with the added and replaced ingredients. For parchment cupcake papers cut 3 1/4” squares and squish down into cupcake pan.

ORANGE ZEST ICING
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
8 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
3 Tablespoons Orange Juice (add more juice if needed)
1 Orange Zested
Mix all the ingredients until smooth. Use a round piping tip to pipe the icing. Zest an additional orange for to garnish and sprinkle a little sugar on top.

Baby Baker Cupcakes

2010-03-08T19:48:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to think of cute way to tell my coworkers I was pregnant. My last name being Baker "Baby Baker Cupcakes" were the first thing that came to mind. So I made chocolate orange baby cupcakes with orange frosting. I went all out real sugar and not gluten free. They were so good. I didn't have any cupcake papers so I used square pieces of parchment paper, fortunately my friend came over and helped me cut out the papers. I think I like them better this way, it kind of gives them an organic look. I also made my favorite detail, cupcake flags, that said Baker No. 3. They went over really well all the boys ate multiple cupcakes, one girl thought I was starting a new business and another thought they were so cute she didn't read the flag. I got one hug for the cupcake and another huge hug once I explained I was having a baby. I might need to be a little more clear next time.

cupcake flags

2010-02-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

My two other friends and I through a 30th birthday party last summer and I designed these cupcake flags to help celebrate the day. I love how they turned out. I think a cupcake flag bring a fun charm to a cupcake. My friends made most of these yummy goodies. I just designed some other cupcake flags I will post that soon.

gluten free banana bread

2010-01-31T16:13:00.000-08:00

So I have been on a gluten free diet now for about 6 months. I just recently made this banana bread and I love it. I also cut out refined sugar so I try to bake with agave. I cheated a little bit though and put in organic dark chocolate chips.

Gluten Free Banana Bread recipe
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup agave
2 eggs
3 ripe banana
1-3/4 cups Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup organic dark chocolate chip

Beat together butter, agave, eggs and banana. Add remaining ingredients and mix together. Pour into a large greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

vision dinner invitations 2

2010-01-31T15:26:00.001-08:00

Here are the 2010 vision dinner invitations. We were going for a sort of vintage look so I used the national forest signage as my inspiration. Hume Lake was established in 1946 so we incorporated a lot of our old imagery to comment on the foundation that was built over the years. I also really like how the envelopes turn out we used vintage elements from the old air mail envelopes.

kristin eldridge photography

2010-01-20T19:38:00.000-08:00

I recently had the privilege to redesign all the branding for Kristin Eldridge Photography. We had so much fun together and I love the concept that we ended up with. This branding really seems to embody Kristin and her feel of photography. To see and hear more go to Kristin's Blog.

vision dinner invitations

2010-01-17T20:37:00.000-08:00

Every year the non-profit I work for does a series of fundraiser banquets, which we call Vision Dinners. These last couple of weeks i have been working very hard to get the materials done for this year's Dinners. So I thought I would show you last year's invitations and later this week I will show you this year's. Last year's invitations were really fun because I was able to do this really elaborate die cut. I really love how they turned out.

my wedding

2010-01-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

Recently I posted something about my wedding so I thought I would do a little post and show you my wedding invitations and a little bit of it. I have been married for a little over 3 years to my favorite person in the world and my wedding day was one of the best days of my life, fortunately we had an amazing photographer to capture it.

anthropologie dish towel pillow

2010-01-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

I had been trying to find some fabric to make a pillow for my guest bedroom and found my only luck in an anthropologie dish towel. So i found some other fabric to make piping and this is how it came out. I am really excited about how it brings all the different oranges together.

christmas gift tags

2009-12-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

This year I thought it would be fun to design my own simple Christmas name tags. I printed these out on craft paper and put a glitter outline so that the tags would stand out from the craft paper boxes. I also decided to add some buttons in my Christmas wrapping and I really like how they turned out.

I came home to my parents house for Christmas and found all these old birch branches that are left over from my wedding. I think they make a fun back drop.

kristin and nate's wedding invitations 2

2009-12-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

I wanted to show you a couple of photos from the wedding I designed the invitation for. I love when everything comes together perfectly. These photos are from Mark Brooke Photography.

christmas wrapping

2009-12-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

So I love wrapping presents. For the last couple of years i have been really into using yarn instead of ribbon. It is a lot cheaper and you can use a lot more of it. Here are some of this years gifts.

reused arrangements

2009-12-06T16:10:00.000-08:00

I replanted my succulents from thanksgiving. My mom gave me these beautiful tiny pots that are perfect for my succulents. So I replanted them and put them in my kitchen window seal.

kristin and nate's wedding invitations

2009-12-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

I love designing wedding invitations! I love the new freedom that there is in wedding design. Weddings have become almost an artistic expression of the bride and groom. This makes designing invitations that much more fun. I recently got to design Kristin and Nate Strong's wedding invitation and directions card. I hope you enjoy. I will try to post more of the wedding invitations I designed soon...

bewsey family thanksgiving

2009-11-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

My Mopsey (my grandma) asked me to do the thanksgiving decorations this year. I felt a little intimidated by this task because there were going to be around 35 people at thanksgiving dinner and they are all very artistic. . . so I wanted to do something new and fresh. I have been seeing a lot of succulent plants being used lately in arrangements, and I have started a petite obsession with succulents as well. So i thought i would give it a try. My Aunties let my borrow some of their pedestal dishes and then i headed out to Lowe's to collect my succulents. . . then Micheal's. . . then Trader Joe's for the fruits and vegetables. Fortunately my husband and I live near a lot of tree fruit farms so i was able to pick the persimmons up at local fruit stand. . .25 cents a piece is much better that 2.00 dollars a piece.

My cousin and her husband now own an event rental company so we were able to use their beautiful chairs.

terrarium

2009-11-27T23:14:00.000-08:00

My friend and her husband gave me this piece of wood and glass cloche for my birthday last year but i never knew what to put in it. Finally one day i decided to make a terrarium. I went in my back yard and found some moss...a strawberry plant...some willow sticks...and another unknown plant and put it all together on an old tea cup saucer. I love it. It has been glowing so fast. I have only watered it once and it just keeps growing.