Serious Craft Blog

I love the farmer's market here in Hermosa Beach on Friday afternoons. Tons of local fresh fruits and veggies, and even fish!

But what I like the most are the fresh flowers from the local LA growers. I get cut flowers from this one guy almost every week. He has the prettiest asiatic & oriental lilies and dahlias and roses, for super low prices. A bouquet of lilies for $3+!

Today's winners are these chrysanthemums. At least I think they are chrysanthemums.

Did you know?
Filling your vase with half warm water, half 7-up or clear soda, and a 1/2 tsp of bleach will extend the life of most flowers significantly? Repeat daily and clip the ends of the stems diagonally each time. You can keep lilies alive for over 2 weeks this way! It's true, I've been doing that every week. Sometimes I have three weeks' worth of flowers blooming at home all at the same time (it gets crazy). Also, try to pick flowers that have buds in them, that'll also keep the flowers poppin'.

I wanted to do something quick n easy to liven up my place a little bit, since I haven't had the chance to visit our local farmer's market lately for fresh flowers. I saw on marthastewart.com yesterday a pom-pom howto that looked like a cute and quick project. So I dashed over to the 99 Cent Store and Target to pick up a stash of tissue paper. Target has such a great selection of tissue paper! Sooo many colors, and inexpensive too. Highly recommend A+++++!

Here are some of the results of my one day pom-pom craze. Instructions on how I made them are after the jump (plus a simple sangria recipe). If you're a lazy one and don't want to do all the shopping and cutting, there's also an Etsyian who sells great pom-pom kits in many different colors. Check her out and at least get inspired from all the pics!

Here's a big ol' aqua pom-pom for the front console. I love aqua-teal-ish colors.

Giant tri-colored pom that is a full sphere. It's hanging on the ceiling by a hook. It's helping to fill in the negative space between the dining and living areas and front entrance. I might add more here to give a bigger impact. Notice the colors! Just like our logo and my favorite flower, the Alfred Grille Dahlia!

And then I got a little ambitious. I attached a lightbulb fixture to a smaller gold pom. The light didn't shine through that strongly, so maybe a more translucent paper would've worked better. Also, the bulb is a mere 3 watts, because I didn't want the paper to get burned by a hot bright bulb.

happy independence day!

I'd like to wish everyone in the States a Happy Independence Day today! I hope your days are full of joy and good food and good beers and good friends!

In addition, I think today should be extended to celebrate personal independence for all of those in the world who are lucky enough to have it. Independence Day shouldn't just be about America's liberation from Great Britain; but rather, it should be about recognizing and valuing the freedom to make our own life choices. There are many in the world who do not have such priviledges (but we should fight for that to change). Being in a country like the US, we have the freedom to run our own private businesses, choose our own homes, make our own money (and keep it). We can make independent choices to live a life we choose. So to that, happy independence day to everyone!

E and I decided to celebrate our 4th a little earlier to avoid the mobs and crowds. We drove down to San Diego on the 2nd for the night, and then the next morning we took a day trip to East San Diego to Cuyamaca and Julian and their neighboring towns.

What fun! In the morning we went to row a boat in Lake Cuyamaca. Some cute little duckies greeted us as soon as we boarded our boat.

Then we stopped by Julian for some derishous apple pie at Mom's. Mmm...apple crumb is the way to go, I tell ya.

So derisssshoouuusssss....

Next, we stopped by Pine Hill Egg Ranch on Route 78 (map) for some fresh eggs. I wonder if it's possible to hatch chicks from them... They even have a drive-thru to buy eggs! Check out the price differences from my visit in November 2007 to this visit in July 2009. Times sure have changed. Still a great deal for fresh eggs though! Sometimes the jumbo ones even have double-yolks.

Our last destination was Stone Brewery in Escondido to wind down with some refreshing beeah. Ah...

All in all, a great day trip!

In coming up with a design for this new website look, I struggled with a tough decision: should the background be white, colored, or patterned?

Seems like a trivial matter, right? Just do whatever you like! But as I kept thinking about it, it seems to me that the choice of a background can have a underlying effect on how visitors receive your site and build loyalty to it (well, aside from quality content, of course). Unfortunately, there isn't much out there that discusses this topic. It seems to me that most of my favorite blogs and sites have white backgrounds, with very standard large image headers, and narrow 2-3 columns layouts. Why is that? Is it because of the crisp, friendly, bright white backgrounds that draw me to those sites, or is it simply a coincidence?

Anna Maria Horner, Apartment Therapy, ~>O<~, good-ness, How About Orange...all white backgrounds. Not that any of them is lacking in color though... I think a background, white or not, contributes a lot to the mood of a site. Like, would you rather go out on a bright sunny day with clear blue skies, or a grey and wet gloomy day?

I couldn't stand the idea of having a white background though...I love color, it would be so unlike me to do it. I've probably never put a plain background on anything but sheets of white paper...but I didn't want to sacrifice personal style for the sake of being generally accepted. So to compromise, I came up with this mostly-white background that still reflects a bit of my style. It frames the content of the pages in a non-obtrusive way, and still provides a sense of airy-ness to it. At least I think...

What do you think? Share with us your site in the comments below! What's the background like? If you have any insights on the topic, I'd love to know!

Yay, new website at long last!

Welcome to the new hyperartpro.com, home of hyperart :: handmade goodies & sewing patterns.

I've spent a long few days putting this together. Its purpose is to better serve all the materials and information that I am going to be offering. More products, more tutorials, more communication, more pictures, and more goodies! Please take a look around and let me know what you think. I'd much appreciate it. :)

If you notice, in this blog, I've imported some of the more useful entries from my last iteration of the site. So some entries may be a little old (or a little amateurish...), but with still valid info nonetheless.

-Karen