I spent all of last week crafting for Thanksgiving. I wanted to make sure these handmade goodies were done as soon as possible, so I can mail them out at the beginning of the week. It was somewhat difficult for me to craft for Thanksgiving, as I was always gravitating towards Holiday crafting. Without using any Christmas card stock I managed to get these goodies done and sent out!


I was heavily encouraged by patterns this time around. I seriously had to sit there for a second and pull some patterns out since it was beginning to clash. I stuck with deep fall colors, many different shades of oranges and reds. Of course, I've had everything on hand. Believe it or not, the little pattern card stock with the floral is actually business cards, the ribbon i've purchased two years ago at Target during their after Christmas sale, the wrapping paper I used as the background is from Paper Source I purchased 3 years ago. As you can tell, I love to re-use and make use out of all the materials I have.

I've made it my signature to use the "I'm thankful for.." cards every year. This is my fifth year using them. I'm thinking for next year I should make some myself. I favor making thanksgiving cards, as it really expresses how thankful I am for the people in my life. Although, i'm thankful daily, this Holiday is just an extra step to show my gratitude and appreciation. xo

It's the simple fact that when the Holidays come around it's more of a reason to get together. I have been anticipating this time of year. I've been spending quality time with loved ones who are back in town. Prior to celebrating Thanksgiving, I got together with G, and we had our own little Friendsgiving.


I always adore G's space, and it's always so comforting and fun to spend time with her. Here is Penelope the infamous fabric mannequin. Which has a great collection of Jewelmint, and other great sparkles!


One thing I always appreciate about my friends, is whenever I craft something up and give to them, they always have it showcased in their space/bedroom. On the right hand side, is paper patterned flowers I made a few years ago. I used a Paper Source template I had, and added the handmade florals, in a vintage vase.


I brought over tea, along with Maple Cookies. We conversed and laugh over dinner. We indulged during dessert. It was a perfect start for celebrating the Holidays. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! xoxo

Along with Fall festivities, another thing I did try for the first time was go though a Pumpkin Field and do a little pumpkin picking. It's amazing how many different pumpkins they are. Whether it's different shades of oranges, greens, and whites.




I fell in love with so many different ones. I should of thought to bring a truck or SUV so I can fit all the different pumpkins in the car. My most favorite ones where the white ones. Especially the small white ones. I wanted to buy a few, and have it as Fall decoration. Although I ended up sticking with my white porcelain pumpkin. It was all priced by size, and they also had different squashes. The variety was endless. I can't wait to go back next year, and actually buy all the pumpkins!

Finally, the holidays are in full swing this week! I spent yesterday celebrating Lill's birthday at the Micheal Buble concert. We all dressed in pencil skirts, black heels, and white collared shirts. I'd like to the make the assumption Lill's was inspired with the movie Pitch Perfect, or a 50's flight attendant. Regardless, it was a blast! I look forward to seeing Justin Timberlake on Tuesday!


Since it's chilly in the evenings now. I've been taking full advantage on having late night tea. Tonight, I brewed Vanilla tea and had a variety of yummy French Macarons. The other night I made Lemon Poppy Scones with a cup of tea. The pairings with Tea are endless. I wish every night was like this. Now, back to Thanksgiving Crafting, lets give thanks this week. Cheers!

As much as I loved being cozy at home for the past two days and enjoying the comfort of great company, & warmth. I wanted to venture out today especially since it was a sunny, but chilly day. I did plenty of catching up today with my talented cousin.

It's been such a pleasure to have rain here in Southern California. Other states are immune to it, but here in LA we fall in love with it over and over again, because it's so rare. I've spent my days cozy at home. Keeping the oven on to bake chocolate chip cookies, and for the dough to rise for dinner. The rain came such at a perfect time, as thanksgiving is next week, and holidays are in full swing. If only we can have snow.. xo

When summer was ending, the transition to fall was a bit difficult as we had the summer Southern California weather during October.. I thought the best way to embrace and be in the mood for fall would be going to a Pumpkin Patch. On the way to Palm Springs, I stopped by a place right off the freeway. They had fields of newly grown pumpkins, corn fields, and lastly, sunflowers.

Whenever there is someones birthday in the group of gals I hang with, I specifically ask if they have any requests. Yesterday was no difference as we celebrated my lovely friend and cousin Lills. Her request was to indulge a great breakfast, go on a shopping spree, and have drinks in the evening. We spent most of our days shopping, and just enjoying each others company. We'd like to call it a girls day out, instead of night!

Prior to Lill's birthday festivities, I did a little Sunday morning crafting. I got her jewelry from Kate Spade. I was heavily inspired with bright pops of color, so I instantly went to bright greens and blue. All the material I had was on hand, and it was actually fun working with green ink! I normally don't use colored ink pads unless it's the Holidays. It was definitely a good little pop instead of using regular black ink! It was also fun mixing up patterns as I used stripes in different directions, dots, and gingham. Maybe, that's something I need to do more often be a little more daring in crafting. This is a good start!

As summer was coming to an end. A dear friend squeezed in some major travelling. I was feeling heavily inspired with reds and navy blues. I thought a little crafting for my dear wanderlust would help her safe travels to Brazil run smoothly!

Always, I used materials on hand. Mostly all of these goodies are Martha Stewart Crafts I got throughout the years on sale (basically everything was $1.00 ea). The little Air Mail envelopes I got 2 years ago when I stayed in the Philippines for a month. Happy tape was a gift from an old friend when visiting Downtown.

One of my favorite things that I added on was the check list for packing. It's one of my favorite note pads. I purchased it this past summer at Target in the dollar section (as you can tell i'm for the deals!). I made the bon voyage card, and added two little travel checklist for my dear friend and one for her boyfriend. It was a quick thoughtful craft goodie to give for anyone who's going on an adventure!

I'm nearly over fighting this horrible cough/cold that I've had for the past few days. As many days as I didn't work, it did not feel like a vacation. Although, I did manage to see Smokey Robinson perform and boy ,was it a blast! It made me miss my love for Motown. Also, I took a trip to Sprinkles and indulge in a few sweets while drinking cups after cups of hot tea.

As you can tell, i'm such a sucker for table tops, kitchen necessities, and a good fabric with patterns/textures/colors. One of the things i've been wanting were oven mitts. I've been using his old Thanksgiving oven mitt set for years, and it was coming apart. I added Anthropologie oven mitts to my birthday list earlier this year.

Of course one of my dearest friends did deliver. She surprised me with these bright hues of blue oven mitts. Since then, I've been baking everything with them and it just compliments all of my dessert plates, dish towels, and cakes themselves.


I decided to try out the Marble Pound Cake again this time around, without using a Bunt Pan. I've also got down the "adding the fudge into batter" technique now. This cake could possibly be apart of the many baked goodie tin boxes for the Holidays. I still have a list to go thru and see! This gives me more of a reason to keep the oven on and fill the house with warmth!

All last weekend I was prepping, crafting, and baking for last Sunday's Birthday Brunch. The birthday girl loves owls, so the other girls and I decided to make this Birthday Brunch an owl theme. I wanted to incorporate festive Autumn colors, and use the materials i've had on hand. The only things I ended up purchasing was the ingredients to make the Owl Cupcakes. I got the idea of the cupcakes a few years back, when my little cousins and I would bake these little goodies during Halloween.

The place cards were very simple and only took about 15 minutes to make! Talk about quick labor. I used white card stock, Halloween ribbon from 2 years ago, and this owl stamp from Paper Source. The little owl cut outs we're easy printables one of my girlfriends made, it instantly made the setting much more fun and colorful.


Brunch itself was amazing. Endless mimosas with strawberries, on going conversations, and delightful laughter filled our table. Not to mention how impeccable the food was. I ordered the Lamb Hash, and had a bit of Ricotta Pancakes. Overall it was a Happy Sunday, and I can't wait to celebrate more this month! xoxo.

As things get busier, I find that sometimes rest is sometimes neglected. With little sleep, and the weather change, I found myself staying in today from work in need of rest. This morning, I thought the perfect remedy to cure my sickness would be plenty of sleep, relaxation, and endless cups of hot tea..

Instantly, I headed over to my collection and brought out one of my favorite cold trimmed burgundy tea set and brewed a tea pot of hot Honey Vanilla Chamomile tea. The timing was perfect as it was early in the morning, and everything was cold, quiet, and calm.


Trying my best to recover, I took medicine, and had cough drops on hand. As much as I wanted to roam around in the sun today. I strictly made it a point to stay home as much as possible so I can feel better. Crossing my fingers, I hope the rest of the week will be filled with errands, lunch dates, concerts, and galavanting.

Staying in bed is sometimes hard for a woman to do,
when there's so many places to go ad things to do!

Cheers to a grateful October. As much crazy-ness is going to occur here on out, the last two weeks of October was quite a Thrill. I took a trip to Palm Springs, Visited my first Pumpkin patch ever (believe it or not), had a successful work month, went to a few NBA games, and really get in the spirit for what's to come the next two months..

Btw, i'm not ready to put away my porcelain pumpkin just yet!