DIY Eye Patch For Plushies

Our little Boston Terrier Lulu is such a sweetheart most of the time, but when she sees a plushie laying around, she turns into a monster! She's probably taken out about 6 eyes and torn off just as many ears.
If the eyes are the black plastic kind, it can be quite difficult to repair. Here's an easy and cute solution.
Create an eye patch for it!

Before

After

Here's how:

Snow Flower Ice

My husband Jason and I work together at our family run and owned commercial design/build company. 

Established in 1979 by my father, he mostly served Japanese clients who had a dream of opening 

up their own restaurants. In the 80s he was one of the few Japanese contractors who built sushi restaurants for clients, before sushi was as mainstream as it is now. 

J and I (the 2nd generation of this company), have been working together here for the past 10 years. 

We have been changing the direction of this company to incorporate green practices, such as using recycled wood, energy saving solutions, and a more minimal approach to design. (exposed ceiing ducts, using concrete floors, etc.) 

Here is our latest project, Snow Flower Ice.

Snow Flower Ice Opening 

Design+ Build: Green Eagle Enterprise Corporation

        Artwork: David Gilmore

Buzzfeed feature!

Our cinderblock and wood outdoor seating was featured on Buzzfeed!
Thank you Peggy for the feature! 

Another Curbly Feature!

Our DIY cinderblock outdoor seating was featured again on Curbly! Yay!

It was the 10th most popular blog post on their Best of Curbly - 17 of March's most popular posts!

How fantastic!  Thank you Curbly!

Happy Earth Day!

"Happy One" by Nathan Trivette 

Beautiful photographic prints by Nathan Trivette available for purchase here.

Living walls

I love vertical gardens aka "living walls".

 via Designboom

via Vtwonen, Netherlands

via Contemporist

Of course we had to go touch this one at the Del Amo Fashion Center, to make sure it was real...It was real! 

Pom Pom Bunny

Do you need a cute little bunny to add to your Easter basket? 

Or perhaps as a last minute pencil topper, or table decorations to embellish your place cards with? 

Here is an easy pom pom bunny you can make in 5 steps!

Rowley Eyewear

I am always in search of new glasses, so I wanted to try Rowley Eyewear by Cynthia Rowley.
I am a big fan of Cynthia Rowley fashion and an even bigger fan of Cynthia Rowley herself, so I was definitely interested in her eyewear collection!

You go to their site, select 4 pairs of your choice, and you have 7 days to try them on for FREE! from the comfort of your own home. They even make it easy by including a return label so all you have to do is slap on the label on the black tube and drop it off at your local Fed Ex store when you're done.
You can even go to your local mailing stores if they handle Fed Ex.

These are the beauties I tried.
Top to bottom: no. 29 (in black) / no. 51 (in black) / no. 18 (in pearlized blue) /no. 65 (in teal fade)

no. 65 ( in teal fade) was my favorite!
They have many many more styles for both men and women. Check it out here.

Tide pools

We had a chance to visit Abalone Cove Shoreline Park in Palos Verdes, CA this past weekend.

The view of Catalina Island from there was amazing!

Black & white photos

I added a touch of color to these black & white photos and I really like how they came out.

Maya is pretending to be the lead investigator in a missing persons case.
The 'crime scene' is suppose to be a graveyard which is really part of our backyard, and she
dug a hole and planted the shovel and notebook. You gotta love how serious she looks playing
the part, but yet she's wearing slippers on her feet!

 I highlighted her 'pretend' oversized glasses, and the 'red notebook', a key piece of evidence left at the 

crime scene. This scene is based on a recent book she read titled "Girl Meets Ghost" by Lauren Barnholdt.

As part of her school book report project, Maya is to pretend the main character from the story, Kendall Williams, went missing. She wants to create a  'missing persons police file' for her project. How fun is that? 

I might want to play more with this idea of adding touches of color to black and whites. I think it looks neat! 

Tipi Shelving System

The "Tipi" shelving system by Joynout is so cool and versatile.
I love that it comes with the storage baskets made from Veta Vera grass imported from Africa.

The tipi shelving system is made of solid oak and comes in three colors: black, white, or natural. 

You can purchase one here. 

Bubbles !

Bubbles are just so much fun! 

They are currently selling these bubble wands for $1.99 at Michaels.
Refills are available at Target for $0.99 for a pretty large bottle.
The kids will sure to be entertained for hours.... 

Happy Weekend!

photo taken @ Corona Del Mar, CA

We plan to hit the beach this weekend so the kids can check out some tide pools.
We're not quite sure which beach, but we were planning to go to one we haven't been to.

Happy Weekend! 

A Day In San Diego Part 2

After the San Diego Zoo we took a stroll over to the Spanish Village Art Center. Its a beautiful historic place housing hundreds of local artists' work. 

We took Maya to the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society museum and store located within the village, so that she can see all the beautiful gems and stones on display. It's a little place, but just enough "museum" for kids. They sold loose stones in bins and Maya walked away with a handful of semi-precious stones to add to her collection. 

I must say the most beautiful thing about this place is that the whole village has these amazing colorful walkways.

All the shops are so cute! I really loved the rounded doorways and pops of color everywhere! 

We did not get to walk into every single shop and see all the artists' work on display, but it still was definitely a beautiful place to visit. The kids were pretty pooped at this point, so we walked over to the trams and took a free ride around Balboa Park. My kids love tram rides, and so do I! It's such a great way to see the whole park, especially if you are tired of walking....and if you know Balboa Park it is pretty huge. 

It was an awesome day!