Versatile blogger award!

Thanks to Laura at Fall In Love, I received a special blog award!!! Blogging is so much fun!

Following Laura's example, I must tell you 7 random facts about myself and pass this award on, so here goes:

7. Most people tend to brush their teeth, do mouthwash, and then floss. But I brush, floss, and then mouthwash. Weird?

6. Tiny patterned areas give me goosebumps and I have to look away.. like bee hives, or a million pin holes.

5. I LOVE stripes. In any store, I always gravitate toward striped items.

4. Baking is my go-to stress reliever.

3. When I watch basketball or futbol and get really excited or stressed, I hit the person nearest to me. When I watch by myself, I hit myself. :)

2. I don't know how to ride a bike.

And finally the number one random fact about me is...

1. When a character on shows does something embarrassing or something happens to them, I also get really embarrassed and have to pause the tv before I continue to watch. Or if it was a really good acting moment for them, I rewind and watch that scene like 50 times. Is that just me???

So there are my random and unnecessary facts about myself! :)

I pass the Versatile award onto..

My dear friend Joyce for her cool fashion tips:

sip-n-wear

Also to a lovely fashion tumblr:

Gabba Gabba Gorgeous

Here is an awesome blog about Dallas:

lavender+pink

And finally Priscilla Ahn's blog. How can you not love her?

Girl In A Tree

Thanks again to Laura and I will keep blogging about what I love! Have a wonderful Friday!

Shaken

I went to Paper Affair today and even though I could not afford to get anything, I saw some cute things.

A cake pin cushion!

And this card..

Haha!

I want to make this with my name!

Today was definitely a day I could have used some beautiful thinking. With everything that's going on with the news, and personal struggles.. life just really brings you down sometimes. But somehow God gives us the strength to keep going. No matter how many times we fall.

DIY bulletin board

I love DIY projects. Especially easy  DIY projects. I've seen this one all over pinterest and my friend has done an awesome chevron one, so I was excited to try my own!

Here's what you need:

Fabric covered bulletin

Materials:

bulletin board
fabric of your choice
adhesive spray
decorative nails
scissors
newspaper or other work surface
staple gun*

Directions:

1. Lay newspaper or over covering on the floor or table you are working on. I took my old bulletin I used for school to refurbish.

As you can see from the photo, the edge tore off, so I decided to cover the whole board. (If you want the wooden border, cut the fabric the size of the cork area only.)

I love the pattern and colors of this fabric!

2. Take your fabric, laying it over your bulletin making sure there's at least 1-2 inches border around it and cut accordingly.

3. Spray the front of the bulletin with the adhesive spray (make sure you work in a well ventilated area). Careful! My fingers got pretty sticky.  Quickly place fabric on the board smoothing out wrinkles (start from the center moving out)

4. Once the fabric was glued to the cork portion, I sprayed more adhesive on the border to secure the fabric. I folded the fabric back and used more adhesive on the back. If you have a staple gun (which I didn't have) you can staple the back to secure the fabric as well.

5. Take the decorative nails and push (or hammer) it into the corners of the board. The nail point sticks out slightly in the back so be careful! They were covered by my fabric so it wasn't a problem for me.

5. And voilà! Your fabric covered bulletin to use any way you want!



tumblr-esque

Yesterday I went to my very first doggie birthday for my sister's dog A.J.(Air Jordan). I had a great time AND won the raffle prize! And I never win anything! So needless to say, I was pretty happy.

My golden ticket won me a movie themed raffle basket! Woohoo!

I made a little party hat for him because the ones at the shop were so expensive! I used things I already had at home so I didn't spend extra money and it was super easy to make.
Cost of a store bought hat: $8-10. Cost of my custom made hat: $Priceless :)

Here's how I made the hat:

Dog Party Hat

Materials:

Martha Stewart circle cutter
Martha Stewart cutting board
Modge Podge (love this stuff!)
thin cardboard
decorative paper
confetti assortment
super glue
sponge brush
ribbon
glitter
scissors
stickers or letter cutouts*

Directions:

1. Get a thin piece of cardboard (I used the back cover of my scrapbook pack). Set the cutter to about 8 inches or any size you need. Place the cardboard on the cutting board and cut a semicircle (instead of a full circle). Roll the cardboard into a cone shaped hat. You can either staple the hat in place or tape it.

2. Cut your decorative paper the same way. Using the sponge applicator, spread modge podge around the surface of the cardboard hat. Carefully line up the paper to the hat and cover the cardboard. Make sure to smooth out any bumps or bubbles before the glue dries!

3. That's it for the main part of the hat! Now you can decorate it how you want.

I used glitter to decorate the hat and customized it with his name using cutout letters. I had some sequins and stickers to decorate also. I didn't have pom poms, so I improvised by using those party favor blowers. I just took off the plastic part and used a toothpick to stick the ribbons in. I curled the ends with scissors.
For the hat's elastic band, I didn't have the thin one, so I just cut one of my hair bands and super glued it to the inside. :) *If you want it to look cleaner, you can cut a white or any color semicircle piece of thin paper and line the inside of the hat to cover your work. I didn't think of that until now..It's not bad for my first hat. I can't wait to make another one!

You can paint letters, use ribbons around it, hole punch and hang beads; the possibilities are endless!  Use your creativity!

I enlisted the help of Dwight because I didn't have a dog to put it on when I finished. Don't worry.

I told him he could be acting manager again. :)

So I tried a fish tail braid on my hair which is hard to do on yourself, but I think it turned out okay.

What do you think?

I bought these earrings from Forever 21. I love them!

After AJ's party I went to Walmart to pick up my Harry Potter book set I ordered online. I was so excited I brushed off the sales clerk's offer to bring me a cart. No, I can carry a huge cardboard box of SEVEN Harry Potter books to my car! Well, I regretted my decision after taking about 10 steps. And I'm sure I looked funny carrying it through the store with a huge grin on my face. But it was SO worth it.

Too bad the teasure chest isn't wood.

Whew, that was a lot of pictures.

I want to send my prayers to all those in Colorado and their families who eperienced the tragedy in the past two days. Although I cannot understand the why of it, I can only pray that we become stronger, wiser, and kinder inspite of this terror.

Philippians 4:7

Yoga does a body good

Today I spent most of the day with my mom. She came over to my apartment to watch War and Peace. I've never read Leo Tolstoy's classic or watched the movie, so I didn't know anything about the story. It was pretty long (208 minutes) and the battle scenes were kind of comical. I cringed at the firing squad scenes though. I hate seeing that. Overall the movie was okay. Audrey Hepburn is amazing of course! If you have not watched it, find a chance to watch!

At 6:30 I finally dragged myself to workout and went to yoga class. I need to keep going until I can do the plank without shaking! The yoga instructor always closes with this: "Remember, yoga does a body good." Haha. Well, if you grew up in the 80's you might remember those zany milk commercials. I found one on YouTube that my cousin always used to quote as he drank a tall glass of milk; 'Milk, it does a body good. Pass it ON!"

1983 Milk Does a Body Good - Cow in the Moon

I love watching old commercials. :)

While perusing through many many blogs, I discovered an interesting one on making words with objects. Here is the link: we make words
It's just so creative and pretty! Then I remembered back to my first year of teaching when my sweet student Jaden ramdomly made one for me using wood chips at recess!

Ms. Kang Rocks!

Cool huh? So my eunoia for today is that creativity has no age limit. :)

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After yoga I caught the tail end of a show on ABC called Suburgatory and heard this song. Check it out!

Isn't this the perfect father daughter dance song? :)

Brand new blog

I FINALLY (after what seems like months of researching and discussing with friends) created a name for my blog, madebyfirenze. Apparently the blog name is a big deal.

The idea behind the name: my name is Florence, hence firenze, and I used 'made by firenze' because I want to post food, crafts, and school idea crafts I make. That's not to say everything will be made by me. I will definitely post inspirations as well and give them full credit!

I hope this blog will create some eunoia (look it up!) and inspire, entertain, encourage, etc!

Here goes...


Today was Bible study day, so afterward we went to L&L Hawaiian Barbecue in Frisco.
I ordered the 'Healthy' Chicken BBQ. The meat was very flavorful and a bit salty. I did like the brown rice and the veggies were fresh.

Healthy Chicken Barbecue

 We stopped by The Container store and I saw these cute apple containers. I just love all the colors!

The Container Store

 Okay, so when I was little I was a TOTAL book worm. I would read all day, on weekends, and when it was time for bed, I would say goodnight to my parents and secretly read by my night light (that's probably why my eyes are so bad now). As I got older, I read less and less. Now I am trying to get back to that, especially being a teacher and all. How can I expect my students to read, when I don't even read other than childrens books? So to motivate me, I am thinking of joining a book club. My sister's friend invited me to join hers and the book for August is called Roses by Leila Meecham. So far I am really liking it!
It's a historical fiction book about a cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and another founding family (the Warwicks) of Howbutker, Texas. From what I've read so far, she is selling her farm and giving her estate, not to her great-niece, but to Percy Warwick, who she grew up with as a child. She wants to spare her great-niece from the "Toliver curse" and that entails lies, hidden desires and tragedies. It probably sounds really boring the way I'm describing it, but it's really interesting! Once you get past all the vocabulary (I had to look up 25+ words in 5 chapters) it's a good read. I can't wait to find out what happens (and happened). I will up update with a review once I finish it. Until then, check out the book club on Meet Up and you can join too!

Food for Thought Book Club

Well that's a wrap for my first post! Since it's too late for today, create some eunoia tomorrow! :)