Recognition Day Thursday - All Things Blue

According to About.com the Culture and the Meaning of Blue is as follows:

In many diverse cultures blue is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad spirits away.

Blue conveys importance and confidence without being somber or sinister, hence the blue power suit of the corporate world and the blue uniforms of police officers. Long considered a corporate color, blue, especially medium and darker blues, is associated with intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism.

With this in mind, I am featuring some awesome posts in the Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop that have blue hues in them. From this point on, I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

The V Spot's Twig Chandelier



Thrifty Decor Mom's Lamp



A Life of Uncertain Inevitabilities' Easter Pot



Peas and Crayons' Storage Cubes



My Wonderfully Made's Place Mats



Roundabout Shop's Glass Enamel



Molly Susan Strong's Coastal Chic Signs



A Southern Belle with Northern Roots' Vintage Jars



Thank you ladies, for your gorgeous blue posts.

Easter Egg Hunt Turned Model Home Visit

Last Saturday, I took the girls to an Easter egg hunt at our swap meet. While searching endlessly to the egg hunt's location, we meandered to a maze of beautiful home stuff such as these paintings, cute chests, rugs, and sculptures.



We finally reached the egg hunt spot but since the line was almost reaching New York, we decided to engage in some arts and crafts, puppet show, picture-taking with the Easter Bunny, and the highlight of them all, face-painting.



On our way back home, we passed by these artificial grasses and lo and behold, behind the seller is a model home. The girls were tired, but Princess One said, "Look, Mommy, a nice house." I thought, "Why not?" and so we all went in and took a peek.



Here's the living room.



What drew me in primarily is this much-coveted ottoman functioning as a coffee table, seconded by that huge mirror above the console.



Would you believe that this lovely floor is laminate? And are you also loving the warm wood tones of this beautiful furniture?



Here's the living room view from the opposite side facing the main door.



The dining area is staged so well with this welcoming table setting.



I so {heart} these cabinets.



Doing the laundry becomes so exciting because of this laundry room.



The simplicity of this hallway bath is endearing to me.



This master bedroom looks like a real sanctuary.



Please excuse my little girl peering through the window, feeling as if she owns this room.



I took a moment to admire this "his and hers" master bath.



Here's the bedroom that every girl will enjoy. I was thinking, "Those bed drawers are great for storage!"



On our way out, we passed by the kitchen and saw this real estate agent entertain a potential client.



Now, we're really on our way home. Those artificial grasses really look neat! They make the place look so green without using the water needed to maintain real grasses. How about you - are you, or are you not in favor of artificial grasses?

Crocheted Wall Arts

Crocheting is a valuable hobby skill that I learned from my mother which I hope I can also pass on to my girls when their time comes. Today, I'm sharing with you the crocheted items that we value so much that we ended up framing them.

This is called the Inspiration Angel that my mother crocheted.



In an Excel Spreadsheet, I meticulously marked 'x' the squares that will have double crochet to make out the words MAMANG, the name that we fondly call my mother. After printing out the pattern, my mother crocheted her name and this is the result.



Michael's ran a buy 1 get 1 free frame and that's how we got this. Originally, it was black but my mother painted it white to match the color scheme in her bedroom. The fabric was the leftover from her angels wall art project. My mother put pins to mark the placements of the angel and her name.



She used fabric glue to make them stick on the fabric.



Here's the wall art in her bedroom which echoes the crocheted angels wall art at the foot of her bed.



It's now hanging on top of her ruffled headboard.



***
Speaking of crocheted wall art, here are some of the framed items I still need to hang up.

Julian is the J in SJ, and a few years ago, my mother crocheted our last name. We had it framed up at Michael's for 50% off and as soon as I find the studs on our wall, this beauty will be hung up and displayed proudly.



Another one that I'm planning to hang up this week in our master bedroom is this crocheted God Bless Our Home. I read somewhere that displaying your intent helps it make come true so through this art, we are invoking the powers of heaven for God to bless our home. Since our family prayers take place in our master bedroom, my husband thought that this wall art is a perfect fit in there.



So there you have all our crocheted wall arts, my friends. More to come. Before I end this post, I'd like to share with you the book that I just recently borrowed from the library, Inspiration your Ultimate Calling by Dr. Wayne Dyer. In his true voice, he explained another trait that each of us have. Hope I can harness more creativity in me while reading this book :)




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Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop 04.24.11

Yay! You came to the party :) Thank you so much. Happy Easter and welcome to our 4th edition of Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop. If this is your first time, we only have 2 easy rules:

1) Link up your creative post - can be a DIY project, decor, photography, crafts, recipes, poem, thrift finds, or that informative syndicated post that can make us laugh, or cry - in short, whatever you're proud of! And if you like to link more creative posts, go for it! We'd love to see them :) (No links to businesses or giveaways.)

2) Follow as many blogs as you desire, preferably starting first with the one who linked before you and after you, before branching out, and let them know by leaving a comment. (Following me and the co-host will be very much appreciated, and we definitely follow back.)

You read that right – you’re not required to include the party button but if you’re so inclined to display it in your blog or your post, you’re very much welcome to do so :)

Link opens up every Sunday at 5:00 pm, PST.

Because I like something different, I'm using the reverse entry for inlinkz - so the most recent participant will show up as number 1, thus giving everybody a chance to have the #1 spot.

Co-host
My co-host this week came from Indonesia but right now she lives in England with her husband. She loves photography but then she found a new obsession since she moved in England, which is having TEA, collecting teacups and teapots and also visiting TEA Rooms, thus the name Tea Diary. Friends, I'm happy to introduce my co-host, Susan, also known as Miss Tea!

Readers' Favorite Blog
The readers' most viewed link this past week is Nancy's blog called Style 'n Decor Deals for her no sew project - a canopy bed crown! This is such an eye-candy that attracted our eyes to behold! See what I mean? This bedroom has a captivating royalty feel because of the canopy bed crown.



Blog Tips
You are having a giveaway and now it's time to count the comments of the participants so you can pick the winner. Did you ever wonder how you could number your comments? Wonder no more because I'm sharing you this tip here.

Our Party
To the main course of this post.


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Happy partying!

Recognition Day Thursday - Spring and Easter Tablescape Ideas

Lynda from Focal Point is an amazing fashion & home lifestylist & merchandising expert. Friends, she really knows her stuff inside and out. From her own words:

THINK - PLAN - EXECUTE
From a simple shift to shopping thrift, you can create a FOCAL POINT in a room, a photograph, or a tablescape to restyle your home. Get organized, concentrate, and give it all you've got! Inspiration and motivation are all around us. Apply yourself, and surprise yourself!

Her blog is a feast for our hungry eyes. She has so many fabulous tablescape ideas such as EASTER KARATS TABLESCAPE IDEAS



and SPRING TABLESCAPE IDEA: A MODERN NEST



When you visit her blog, you'll be mesmerized, impressed, and awestruck of her creativity. Colin Cowie credits Focal Point as noteworthy blog on his blog. You'll even see her pictures with celebrities like, oh, somebody named Kenneth Cole and David Bromstad. Oh, by the way, while you're there, you also have the option to vote for her photos in the Better Homes & Gardens Easter Decorating Photo Contest.

Thank you, Lynda, for sharing your talent at our Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop!

Inlinkz As a Link Party Tool Totally Rocks

Ok, you've thought deeply about it and you know you're ready to host a blog party. You're roarin' to invite your blog friends to join you. What now? Here comes the daunting task of choosing your linky tools. The three popular linky tools in blogland right now are InLinkz, Linky Tools aka MckLinky, and Mr. Linky's Magical Widgets - and I've registered to all three of them. If you're simply after a text link party, then Mr. Linky's Magical Widgets will do fine for you. This is the very first tool I used in my first blog party but switched to Inlinkz in my second party because the “moderate” feature is missing, meaning, I can't delete a link had it been a malicious link. That left me on the crossroads between Linky Tools and Inlinkz as top contenders. At that same time, I received an email from Linky Tools saying that all my collection of links will be deleted if I didn't pay at a certain date (huh?! Thank goodness, I don't have a single link collection with them.) I read from many bloggers that they were extremely annoyed because even after paying Mr. Linky, they never get to retrieve their link collections. I got the impression that many bloggers have been blackmailed into staying with Mr. Linky because their link collections have been held hostage. As a result, I subscribed with Inlinkz using text links at first (this is a free service), then for only $19.99 a year, I upgraded to thumbnail links. I'm extremely satisfied with all their cool features and services.

Let me show you the reasons why I am happy with Inlinkz. Here's what it looks like when you're logged on. They have a blog which can give you details on their latest upgrades (see the orange arrow). Then there's the dashboard where you create your collections (see the green arrow).



After clicking the dashboard, you'll be directed to this page. From the previous party, you can see how many clicks and views it received, thus giving you the vital stats on how effective your party was (see orange arrow). I am creating in this instance a new collection for Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop #4 which will go live on April 24th, so I clicked Create New Collection.



I then typed in the name of the new collection, indicated when it's going to start and when it's going to end, and chose Thumb linkz instead of Text links.



Scrolling down gave me this screen where I chose 100 px for the picture size of each link, 50 characters for the description, and chose reverse entry for sort order of links.



When I clicked Submit, a code is generated which I can copy and paste to my post. Please note that there's a code for blogger users and a code for wordpress users.



Here's the most useful part of Inlinkz for me. When in the dashboard, you can click moderate links and these info will show.



InLinkz totally rocks!

***

Onto my other passion. Here's my Christopher Lowell favorite book - One-Of-A-Kind Decorating Projects - that I borrowed for many times at our library. The title itself tells everything and I love every project he showcased. I've been trying to buy this for a long time but I've always been outbid (or is it outbidded?). For now, I'd settle for my definition of a bargain - no spending, just borrowing.



Linking here: