There aren't enough Jiraffes on Urth

Iced Coffee and Fresh Lemonade


Panini Roasted Turkey (Urth butter roasted turkey breast with Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, grilled to perfect on a poppy seed crusted honey wheat bread & served with small green salad and whole grain mustard sauce.)

Urth Cafe
2327 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405





JiRaffe
502 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Sorry for the dark photos, but I had forgotten my camera that day and my phone camera has no flash. Although not pictured we had the Prime Caramelized Pork Chop (long grain wild rice, smoked bacon, spiced apple chutney, aged cider sauce). The boyfriend claims it was one of the best dishes he's ever eaten!

Charm/Jewlery Case Reconstruction

The perks of cleaning your room every so often is magically finding random things that you “thought” you lost. Before I begin, let me share a little something. Buying watches are one of my many obsessions and you can imagine that over the years of buying them, I've accumulated many watch boxes. I recently rediscovered this box and decided to perform a reconstruction.

Here is a Roxy watch box that I wanted to throw out, but figured that I should put practical use to it instead. Although the process is not photographed, I used black acrylic craft paint. I know it wasn't a wise choice to use because the paint isn't going to hold on well but I didn't want to spend money buying more materials. :)

I found the box quite dull and decided to decorate it. I used the backing of a border sticker (that I was going to throw away) and glued it on to the box.

Here is the final product, finished and ready to use!

Please tell me what you think and thanks for looking!

Quilted Black Wallet Reconstruction

I fell out of the blogging world again! I'll spare you the excuses this time and get straight to point. I've been on a recon roll lately and with March as National Craft Month, it is just the muse I need.

I found this lifeless black quilted shoulder bag sitting in my sister's donation pile she left behind, unused and collecting dust. Although I LOVE quilted purses (reminds me of those Chanel handbags I could never afford), I personally find this purse impractical. Since I'm not a big fan of pull string type bags, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to put good use to it. I immediately grabbed my scissors, started cutting and threading away.

I'm not the type to always plan things out when I work on projects as I like to improvise and “go with the flow”. However, I knew I had a sense of what I was going to construct using this black purse. The rule I gave myself was to only use the purse pieces.

After intense hours of cutting, measuring, and sewing, this was the end result. I know what you're thinking, I sacrificed a shoulder bag for a puny wallet?! I like to think of it as putting something into good use, I saved that bag its misery! :)

Sunglasses case recon w/ small tutorial

In celebration of March as National Craft Month, I decided to focus more on DIY's and Recons! Which is totally fine with me because I haven't had time for a proper manicure! I originally tried to do a tutorial with this project, but for some reason it didn't work out...(hehe). So, this is somewhat of a tutorial but the photo process is lacking.

Sunnies are another one of my obsessions! I love sunglasses and I also love buying them, but not all of them have cases! Since I'm trying to not spend excessively, I decided to do a recon with what I had laying around. I came across a Fucci (Fake Gucci) sling bag that I got as a gift, sitting in my closet collecting dust. I saw it as a recon opportunity. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the bag before I tore it apart, but that's okay. :)

Since this is a recon, this is going to be an easy and a quick project because everything is already pre-cut. (which I love about recons!)

Step 1:

Proper tools are very important when it comes to crafting (at least in my opinion). I used a self-healing mat, rotary cutter, metal ruler and a sewing machine (not pictured here). You can also hand sew, if you have the patience.

Step 2:

Materials are just as important as tools, as you need them in order to create your desired project. :) (I included the Gucci wallet for comparison with the Fucci print. :D)

Step 3:

Sew on the border to: (1) make it look good and (2) to minimize the fabric fraying. If there is no border, then you can fold the fabric down to create a border.

Step 4:

Be sure to measure the dimensions of your sunglasses to make sure they will fit. Fold the fabric in half and sew according to what you measured with the wrong side facing up. The wrong side is the side that will be facing inside of the case (as shown in the photo)

Step 5:

Flip the case inside out, use and enjoy!

I hope this tutorial made sense and should you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask!

Cosmetic Cupcake's birthday giveaway!

I'm so bad, I think this giveaway is ending in 3 hours or so. So here I am frantically advertising her giveaway, LAST MINUTE! haha....