DIY or Buy: Ifs Painting

Posted in For the Home by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Falling Ifs Print by Matthew Heller, CB2

What do you do if you love art but live on a starving artist’s budget when it comes to decorating your home? Make it yourself! I am very inspired by this “Falling Ifs Print” at CB2 but at $199, I think I could probably make something similar myself using a blank canvas (usually on sale at Michael’s), paint or marker, and stencils (or even freehand if I was feeling adventurous). The word “if” is a powerful one, full of possibilities. When I see this, I like to think of encouragement to live in the “What If” of the future rather than the “What If” of the past. Wouldn’t this be fantastic hanging in your office?

There are certainly other words out there that are full of possibilities and hope — maybe LOVE for a bridal shower, or random letters or numbers to decorate a kid’s room. Endless options!

If you’re not a DIYer, here’s the skinny from the CB2 website on this special, limited-edition print:

“LA-based artist Matthew Heller asks infinite questions with two simple letters falling in a graphic cluster of repetition. Originally stenciled in black acrylic on canvas, ‘ifs’ gather in a spontaneous heap of contemplation; an unpunctuated world of possibilities; open-ended hopes and fears. ‘I often stumble through my work searching, exploring the human condition in order to discover the piece,’ Heller says. ‘While working on this series of poem paintings, I had been thinking a lot about the power of individual words and I was inspired to make a painting of a bunch of ‘ifs,’ using them as the figures or characters of a story.'”

24Jan2013

My big idea…stolen!

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Have you ever had a genius idea? Like a really brilliant one? Something so spectacular that you’re pretty sure you’d get a gajillion dollars from the investors on Shark Tank? (Mumbles is addicted to that show, by the way.) I did. Every once in a while, I come up with something great. Only thing is, they’re usually ideas that require skills, money and knowledge way outside my range. Wah wah wah…

A few years ago, my mom and I were talking about a mutual frustration: we know our cupboards, refrigerators, and pantries are full of food but we lose track of what exactly we have and don’t use it all. I wondered if there would be an easy way to catalog our purchases like inventory — grocery stores use scanners, maybe we could too. That was it! Mind you, this was before the whole “there’s an app for that” for everything, so I thought maybe we could invent something that attached to your refrigerator with a barcode scanner to log what was going in and when it expired. Or maybe, I thought, if the future gets all techy and awesome, maybe just maybe, it could even be built into the refrigerator! “No, no, no, let’s not get carried away,” I thought, that’ll make it too expensive. We want this baby in every household across America!

Taking it even further, I envisioned that this machine would also be able to pull up recipes using ingredients I already have at home, helping me to use up what I’ve got (for instance, if I input “chicken,” “black beans,” and “sour cream,” the machine might give me a recipe for chicken tacos). I thought it would also be helpful in telling you what items you use regularly and how fast you go through them so that it could alert you when you’re running low on items you need, and also provide a handy shopping list. This thing was going to be awesome, I tell ya!

Well, turns out I should have sold my ideas or taken them somewhere to someone who knew how to get projects like that started because low and behold, look what LG came out with last year:

And here’s an excerpt from the press release:

LG’s flagship smart French-door refrigerator is equipped with a full range of Smart ThinQ™ technologies. Key among them is Smart Manager, which transforms the refrigerator into a complete food management system. Consumers can use the refrigerator’s LCD panel or their smartphones to check the food items stored inside, as well as their location and expiration date. Using the Smart Manager’s Freshness Tracker, users can also enter various food items, such as eggs, milk and vegetables, and check their suggested expiration dates. Additionally, the refrigerator recommends dishes that can be cooked using the ingredients available in the refrigerator.

Blast! Someone should be writing me a check right now. I know, I know, they’ve probably had this bad boy in the works for a decade, but still. My idea. And not only does it do what I wanted, it connects to your smartphone so you can see what you need while you’re out shopping and don’t have to worry about forgetting your list at home or you can shop for home delivery groceries right on the screen. It also provides daily or weekly meal-planning recipes based on individual details like gender, weight, BMI, and age, as well as special dietary needs like diabetes or high blood pressure. It also has about twenty other features I never thought of, including adding technology that lets all of your appliances connect and talk to you so you don’t have to be downstairs to know that your laundry is done, and you don’t have to turn on your oven because when you pull up a recipe on your smart refrigerator, you can just send it to your oven and your oven knows the settings it needs already. It’s only a matter of time until we’re living like the Jetsons!

The last article I read said these refrigerator robots run about $4,500. So, yeah, clearly not going to be in every household and surely not mine. wah wah wah…

Let’s dwell in what could have been, shall we? Have you ever had a genius idea that is now available? (I say it like that because I’m sure you don’t want to share your best ideas if no one’s made them yet!)

23Jan2013

Mommy to Bee Baby Shower

Posted in Family & Motherhood by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Mommy to Bee Baby Shower.jpg
I have been dying to share this with you and what better time than now, right? Have you ever really wanted to throw a party? Since my first pin on Pinterest, I’ve been pretty obsessed with bee-themed parties and last summer I was lucky enough to finally bring the idea to life in the form of a Mommy to Bee Baby Shower for my sister-in-law. I had so much fun finding decor and props, and my SIL’s best friend was a wonderful host with a beautiful home, which made planning and putting it all together quite a lovely affair. I think it’s such a sweet, playful theme with lots of details to incorporate like honey, honeycomb shapes, flowers, and beehives. Perfect for spring or summer showers for brides or moms-to-be, and also a festive theme for birthday parties too! Here are some insights from the day:

I found some great hive vases in various sizes and colors that tied in the theme with hexagon shapes on sale from west elm, along with this darling beehive cake stand.

Hive Vases from West Elm

These cute honey pots and dippers were great props to use on tables and to hold yummy organic honey hard candies (I found them at Whole Foods, and they’re available online at Soap.com).

Honeycomb botanical vase from west elm and honey pot and dipper from Williams-Sonoma filled with Go Naturals Organic Honey Candy

On the food front we had a nice salad bar with various types including pasta, Chinese chicken, green, fruit, and a wild rice to give guests options.

For the drinks, lemonade and individual pink and yellow bottles of Barefoot wine helped guests stay hydrated and happy. I stumbled upon the mini wines at Rite Aid of all places, and I think BevMo! has great options for cute libations (like the individual Sofia sparkling wine cans that come with straws).

For dessert, beautiful bundt cakes in red velvet and pecan praline from our trusted favorite – Nothing Bundt Cakes – we’re a big hit. I tried the drizzle frosting on one of them to have a varying look to the dessert table and it was just as yummy in frosting-to-cake ratio, and the folks at the shop had the beautiful flowers already on the cakes when I went to pick them up so all I had to do was put them out!

Nothing Bundt Cakes and the Beehive Cake Stand dome (10″ cakes do not fit under that dome; see smooshed frosting)

As a thank you to the lovely women who attended, bundles of flavored honey sticks were wrapped with burlap and a little note that read “thanks for being so sweet!”

honey stick party favors

A wishes for baby book let guests leave messages for baby and mom, a sweet memento of the day, and during the party guests played a mom/baby animal name game which I’d never played before (and wasn’t very good at), and a guess how many game with Burt’s Bees products as prizes.

As a gift for the mommy-to-bee I made some little yellow pom poms and tied them to a basket filled with bath towels for baby, some onesies (including an adorable peacock one from the bodysuit line at Gap), Burt’s Bees products for mom, and a stack of thank you cards I made to go with the theme.

Mommy to Bee gift basket

handmade baby shower thank you cards.jpg

handmade thank you cards

Check out my Baby Love and Party Themes & Ideas Boards on Pinterest for more celebration inspiration.

Is there a theme you are looking forward to using for a party?

22Jan2013

The Bachelor Recap episode 3, season 17 – Sean

Posted in The Bachelor/Bachelorette Recaps by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

Shirtless Sean is back for episode 3. It’s not that tense yet, but the fun is just starting, right? Here’s a recap of week 3:

One-on-One Date: Lesley M. — “How long will this love last?”

Lesley packs her bags just in case she gets the boot (what a way to start off your date, right?) and saunters away with Sean to the Guinness World Records in Hollywood. Lesley says it’s normal and fun to hang out with Sean by herself, ya know, doing normal date-like stuff. But let’s face it: she’s totally bummed there’s no helicopter or fancy diamonds.

Sean tells Lesley that his dad set a Guinness World Record for driving the 48 states in the shortest amount of time. And then he tells he lays it on her (well, not yet, actually) — they’re there to try to break a world record of their own: longest on-screen kiss! A crowd has gathered in Hollywood to watch and cheer them on, which is super awkward and I’m surprised I’m not in the crowd live tweeting the awkwardness. P.S. In addition to wishing I was a florist so I could make a killing as a sponsor of this rose-filled show, I now also wish I had some stock in Chapstick. That’s gonna come in handy right now. Seriously, advertisers should be clever like that. Write that down.

The current on-screen kiss record has stood for over 10 years at 3 minutes and 10 seconds and I just tell Mumbles that I think they must have it wrong because I’m sure there’s lots of films with more than three minutes of consecutive kissing but most people just won’t cop to watching it. Ha. I kid. But seriously. Perhaps it’s for the rule that their lips must not break from one another (apparently no extra points for tongue here, which is fine by me).

“At first it’s so passionate and then it’s just a little awkward.”
– Lesley, who keeps making it awkward whilst she continuously claws at his head and opens her eyes.

More than three minutes later, the record is broken and they get a fancy framed certificate (but still not a lip balm in sight). Yay! Confetti. Now, onto alone time…Sean says he feels very comfortable with Lesley. And he’s even more smitten with her when she talks enviously about her parents’ marriage. It’s like these girls know that the family thing could possibly be a soft spot with this guy. I wonder…

Lesley shyly tells Sean that he makes her very nervous…she giggles a bit, tucks the hair behind the ear, blushes…and then they make out. Meet Lesley’s move. Works like a charm! Watch for that in future episodes. I’m sure it’ll be back.

To conclude their evening on the Roosevelt Hotel rooftop, Sean gives a lovely little speech about how quickly he’s developed butterflies for Lesley and as they kiss there’s a loud bang but not to worry, this isn’t my wedding night and that bang isn’t a drive by shooting (true story, but I digress…), it’s just more confetti being released.

Group Date: Kacie, Robyn, Leslie H., Kristy, Catherine, Desiree, Taryn, Amanda, Lindsay, Daniella, Jackie, and Tierra — “Who’s going to win my heart?”

“I’m glad I’m not on the group date because I have a feeling it has something to do with activity…” – AshLee

It doesn’t take long for Sean’s shirt to come off, at the ladies’ insistence, of course. After some frolicking in the sun, buzzkill Chris Harrison shows up and splits the group into two teams. After a horrible, clumsy game of beach volleyball, the blue team wins and the red team is frustrated, sad and doing a bit of sore losing if we’re being honest. Furthermore, I’d say Sarah probably would’ve played better than most of those girls.

Now that the group is down to half, everyone is vying for some quality time with our stud muffin Sean.

Lindsay is getting even more swimfan-like if that’s even possible and she’s already talking about being best friends and reading each others thoughts and I’m sure producers cut out a part about bunnies and sunshine to go along with those roses but surprisingly, Sean’s not scared off yet so they just make out.

Sean says he loves Desiree’s confidence and he doesn’t think he’ll tire of spending time with her. “You won’t; I’m fun,” she replies. I like her. She continues to share her philosophies on life, explaining that she sees beauty in the world and enjoys life and that’s why she’s so happy. Gosh, she’s just a doll, isn’t she?

Amanda tries to bring a funny lady vibe to her time with Sean and fasts forward to tell him how awesome she’s going to make their marriage. When she returns back to the group of girls, she makes sure to let them all know she’s getting a rose, which only grinds Desiree’s gears. And now Kacie can foresee there’s drama a brewin’ so she’s going to put herself back in the friend zone and tattle to Sean. But good boy Sean knows well enough to ask Kacie why she would bring that to him because both the other girls seem fine and haven’t said anything to him. “But why are you involving yourself in that?” says Sean, perplexed. “I just want you to act like Kacie, not like this crazy person.” Wah wah wah… You’d think by now she would know that the person who runs to tell the Bachelor something about the other girls never gets anywhere but gone.

“This has been a night I’d prefer to rewind and start again or completely forget about.” – Kacie

Sean gives the group date rose to Lindsay and now Kacie can’t stop crying.

One-on-One Date: AshLee — “Do you believe in magic”
Before this date starts, there’s a bit of controversy because Tierra thinks she’s being he house jester by saying Selma’s name is on the date card too, leading them to believe it’s a two-on-one date and someone might be going home. You can almost see it in Tierra’s eyes: the “OMG girls, tots just kidding! I’m such a jokester!” And the girls are not amused. And it’s probably a good thing it’s not an elimination date because I already had AshLee pegged to be going home. Ha.

While AshLee’s waiting for her prince to come swoop her up for her date, Tierra falls down the stairs. When the paramedics get her in the collar and on a stretcher, Tierra refuses to go with them.

“She will go as far as she can minus the hospital.”
– AshLee on Tierra’s performance.

The “magic” is at Six Flags Magic Mountain, a place for which AshLee is completely inappropriately dressed. The amusement park is shut down just for them for the day, but Sean has invited two girls with chronic illnesses who love The Bachelor to join them for the date. It’s a darling story, actually. Kudos to you, ya big teddy bear of a Bachelor!

AshLee says her heart is thrilled to see Sean choosing to give back. After a day of riding roller coasters, playing carnival games and winning oversized stuffed animals, the Eli Young Band performs a private show for the four of them. And it’s so sweet when one of the girls says under her breath that she’s never been to a concert. Precious. Also, Sean cannot dance. Awful.

During alone time AshLee tells Sean she wants a big family and would like to adopt older kids, and Sean confides that it’s also been on his heart to adopt children. After she tells Sean the story of meeting her dad for the first time, Sean tears up and AshLee goes in for the friendly hug. Sean gives her a rose. The band plays a slow song, they stare into each other’s eyes and have their first kiss.

Cocktail Party:
Sean takes Sarah outside and a limo pulls up which freaks her out because she thinks he’s escorting her out to send her home but it turns out he has arranged for her dog, Leo, to come visit. Very nice, but all I can think is maybe he should have brought the dog at the beginning of the week since he left her lounging around the house without a date. Just sayin’.

Tierra is pissed off when Desiree interrupts her alone time so Tierra steals him back. And then that happens with every other girl. Steal after steal after steal. And poor Desiree was still waiting on that couch because hours ago Sean promised he’d return. Oops.

Kacie tries to apologize but Sean seems disinterested. Looks like having played this game before has not put her at an advantage. She’s been around crazy too long! Before the rose ceremony Sean pulls Kacie outside to tell her that he thinks they are better off as friends. Kacie says she left Ben’s season with no regrets but she’s got a lot of them to mull over this time around. Should make for some fun fodder for The Girls Tell All.

Roses:
Tierra
Leslie H.
Catherine
Daniella
Robyn
Selma
Sarah
Jackie
Amanda
Desiree

Going Home:
Taryn is sad she didnt open up more but wonders if shes not sweet enough for him. Kristy is level-headed but somber. And then the tears. Do you think Kacie going home was a set up to possibly make her the next Bachelorette??

Coming up:
Fast cars, fancy jewels, cuddling close, plane rides, bad come on lines, roller derby, and the reign of Tierra.

What were your favorite moments of the night?

21Jan2013

Resolutions

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by Jennifer | Stick Girl JAM

How are you doing with the resolutions and goals you set for yourself this year? I find that doing small things on a regular basis gets me closer to accomplishing the bigger goals I have. How about breaking up a big goal into something you can do each month to get there?

This year I set out to become a better blogger and so far I purchased a new MacBook, completed a two-day photoshop course, and signed up for two more online classes. I plan to continue learning and expanding my skills with new courses, workshops, tutorials, and classes each month.

I’d love to know what fun, bold, big and small things you’ve been lining up for a tremendous 2013…please share!