diy | toy kitchen

DIY Toy Kitchen

nowadays the conversation
inevitably turns to children
it’s that Time, you see,
after Marriage
actually,
it’s been that Time
for awhile,
since i’m in my 30s

i like kids
though it has been easy in
the past for me to say otherwise
truth be told,
i adore children
but since i was sixteen
i’ve been assertively
against procreating
i have a running tally of
Reasons Why I Don’t Want Children
it’s in the millions right now

the main reason though,
the only reason that counts:
i don’t want to be a Mother
it has nothing to do with
the fact that i didn’t meet
bio mom until i was 30
or that i have barely concealed
passive aggressive emotions
twds my stepmother
but it has everything to do
with the fact that
motherhood is just not my thing

know what is my thing though?
being an aunt
like i said
i like children,
other people’s children
i see a kid
of holding in your arms age
and i will butt in line,
elbow grandmothers out of the way
to hopefully be the first Asian
to hold that child
when poop and tears make an
appearance
the package is returned
and my uterus can stop panicking

dw is a fine man
i wouldn’t have balled&chained him
if he wasn’t
and everybody knows
my lurve for him is so deep
the goddamn ocean is jealous
so when i see him like this
my ovaries quiver
and i start to think about
having babies with this man
and how our kid would likely
have shitty eyes
cus both of us have shitty eyes
or that our kid would be lanky
cus lord knows dw has a bottomless pit of a stomach
despite the amount of food he puts away
and i was all knees & elbows
until i discovered alcohol
and the Waffle House in college
he makes me realize that
fathers do participate
willingly,
that motherhood with him
could be my thing
if only the other million + one
Reasons Why I Don’t Want Children
didn’t exist

DIY Toy Kitchen

diy toy kitchen & what i learned:

|| i’m useless with carpentry stuff: i’d been wanting to make a toy kitchen since before pinterest came along. so when dw’s friends’ kid expressed interest in the culinary arts i decided the time had come. i basically told dw what i wanted and he went forth and made like Jesus and did a bunch of wood-working while i sat on the couch & told him what to do.
|| things add up: we thought that it’d be a quick and cheap project. then we realized we didn’t have any tools, like, oh, a drill. in the end it still was a relatively inexpensive endeavor because we added to our inventory of tools. i meant to keep tabs on all the costs but with the holidays and birthdays the receipts got annoying.
|| dw is detail oriented. i wanted knobs, he measured every single space to ensure it all lined up and made sense. had it been me, i would’ve plopped the dang things anywhere there was a smooth surface.
|| on the one side of the stand that i did not photograph there is a dry erase magnet board attached to it, for menus or you know, doodling. initially i wanted to paint a chalkboard surface but it seemed a lot of work.
|| miniature kitchen tools are adorable. i damn near bought an entire set for fake cooking use.
|| for the sink, the bowl is actually a doggie dish from the dollar store and the faucet is a plastic pipe i painted grey.
|| for the burners, i bought wooden circle thingies from Michael’s and painted the top red. i almost did the spiral but again, it seemed like a lot of work.
|| the side table was a craigslist purchase for $15, it used to be a record stand holder.

inspiration & resources:
i wanted a backboard to either put a shelf or hang kitchen tools.
for extra counter space.
knobs are from anthropology.
other supplies from Ace Hardware and Home Depot and Michael’s.

DIY Toy Kitchen

knit | sparkly wedding shawl

Wedding Shawl

when the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends. -Japanese Proverb

which basically tells you that
i’m batshit crazy
i’m incredibly blessed
and undeserving
from where i am sitting as i type this,
in the fading light of october,
a nostalgia has stirred in me
that must be indulged

Wedding Shawl

you know,
i have four much younger sisters
three on one side
one on the other
sisters who i did not pick
but are indelibly part of me
like an arm i could not cut off
even if i wanted to
but to have a heart sister of my choosing
well
it can be easier said than done
nuria makes it super easy though
she will bully her way into your life
she will watch really bad medical dramas with you
she will make you bawl when she hands you a kindle for xmas,
(a toy you’ve been coveting)
she will drive your car like a maniac
during her driver’s test
(which she failed)
she will have poop talks with you
she will pick meat off chicken wings for you
cus you have braces on
she will braid your hair like the
bohemian gypsy you want to be
she will run the zombie race with you
while your beloved runs ahead
she will take you home to her motherland
and basically feed you stupid
she will also drive you crazy
she will make you question if metallica really
is the greatest band ever
and she will take 5 weeks off of playing video games
to knit you not one, not two,
but three shawls for your wedding

Wedding Shawl

she is indelibly part of me,
of my choosing,
and i would never want to cut
that piece of me off

me+nuria

this is the pattern she used
wedding photo courtesy of Jonas Wilson, used with permission. my edit.
me+nuria pic courtesy of nuria gonzalez montelban mcintyre, used with permission. my edit.

homemade UP! buttons house

Up! Buttons hot air balloons

it might sound boring, but i think the boring stuff is the stuff i remember most. -up!

for our fourth or fifth date
(or based on the link below, the third date…)
dw invited me over to his home,
for a movie and dinner
i learned a few things on that date
most importantly,
for a white guy he’s very asian that he
requires shoes to be taken off the moment you enter the abode,
(a habit i promptly discarded the second i left home)
he’s fantastic in the kitchen
and he’s a great kisser
{blush}

let me just go ahead and disclose that i’m
an awkward person
touching is not my forte
i’m not a feely kind of girl
i tend to say inappropriate things to alleviate stress
and diffuse a situation
and farting cracks me up
every.single.time.
from a clinical standpoint,
the meshing of two people’s lips is weird
i have a hard enough time with my own lips
introducing another set is just odd
we were reaching a point in the whole dating thing,
where it was going to be a fabulous friendship
or a glorious love story
my inability to move toward that really painful
gawky First Kiss
and moving beyond it
was decidedly stressing me the eff out

we watched Up!
another thing:
i don’t like cartoons
but i sat through it
because sitting next to him was nice
while the credits rolled
i was in the middle of saying something
when he leaned in and laid one on me
i paused and thought
“oh there it is. that’s out of the way. that’s nice.”
and then i awkwardly kept talking

Up! Buttons hot air balloons

moral of the story:
i’m graceless
we survived the first kiss thing
we continued to kiss
we continue to kiss
and we are now living our glorious love story

for his groom’s gift i made him this picture
lawd knows i have a bunch of watercolors
and a container of buttons for some reason
when i saw this tutorial on pinterest
you bet your ass i had it in my head to make my own
we happened to be visiting his hometown of Rochester
i made him take me to his childhood house
snapped a pic of it on my phone
and then spent about three hours putting it
all together

busted buttons has a great tutorial,
hello, i was able to follow it,
go there for instructions
in the meantime,
you see that little attic window at the top
of the house?
little boy dw would crawl into that space
and yell down to people in the street from it
how effing adorable and weird is that shit???

Up! Buttons hot air balloons

wedding | diy envelopes

DIY Envelopes

as simple as the wedding invites
turned out to be
i had to make them a shape
that normal envelopes don’t come in
oh you know, this girl likes challenges

supplies/how to:
watercolor paper – i didn’t want to use regular paper since the invites themselves were of thicker stock, and plus, i wanted the option of possibly painting on the envelopes
x-acto knife
ruler
deconstructed envelope of choice, this is your template
scotch tape
envelope glue
protective board

carefully unglue the envelope of choice that you want to mimic. tape it to the watercolor paper to keep in place. using the ruler to help you keep straight, very carefully cut the shape out.

once the envelope has been cut use the ruler to help with folding. glue along the edges to make the shape of the envelope. i used the remaining scrapes to catch the excess glue. allow to dry completely, a few hours before stuffing the envelopes. to keep it flat i would put a heavy book on top. address accordingly and if you’re feeling it, paint on them. i realize the post office is not the cleanest and the mail goes through various machines and is handled by many people before it reaches its final destination but it does make for a festive and pretty letter.

diy envelopes

wedding | diy watercolor invitations

DIY Watercolor Wedding Invites

i don’t know what inspired me
to make the wedding invitations
when it’s just as easy to shoot off an email
print them out on fancy schmancy paper
and call it a friggin day
but no
i took an online watercoloring class,
a class that i enjoyed
but ultimately did not use any
the techniques i learned
in the finished product
(dw says i like to sign up for things
and then kinda show up
halfheartedly,
and then deuce out)
maybe that’s why i went balls to the wall
with the diy stuff
to show him that i’m entering this
whole marriage thing
with all my heart

anyway,
i currently have an infatuation
with billy balls
lucky me they’re just fuzzy balls on a stem
which are easy enough to paint

DIY Watercolor Wedding Invites

supplies/how to (the last 4 items can be purchased at any arts/craft store:
inkjet printer
scissors or paper cutter
watercolor paper – i used Strathmore 400 series cold press watercolor paper
paintbrushes
watercolors

i decided early on that i’m not much for the bulky-tissue-paper-and-confetti-in wedding invitations. for some people it works, for me, that’s just the sound of trees weeping

so, i wanted to keep the information concise and to the point, on a square shaped paper. most important info: date, location and a website with all the other information

dw & i worked on the wording, the location of the wording on the paper, leaving enough room on the left side for me to paint. i think we managed two invites per sheet of paper

i think i chose to ignore what i learned from the online class because i didn’t want to have to worry about color blending. i went with the simple orange-yellow hue with grey stems. i kept it to just 2-3 balls. tip: stenciling might be a good alternative, using colored pencils instead

dry the invites overnight, on a flat surface

all in all, this project took just a weekend to do, 12 hours of which spent for drying

inspiration:
Bdesignsinvitations
BubbyAndBean
paper & ink