Retirement, Independence and NYC

On any other day you might think you could have guessed where this post was going....retirement, to some, means independence and NYC may seem like a great place to retire (though, for me, I'd prefer something much sandier.) But alas, this is simply a page of general craftiness that, individually, didn't warrant separate posts. However, when put together, they create one super amazing, mega-post. That really felt like way too many commas up there...I may need to look into an editor.

So back at my old job, a really sweet lady was leaving for her retirement and a group of people all got together and threw her a party. They were collecting money for gifts and when I found out about it, they asked me to make a card for her. As I've mentioned before, word of my 'arts & crafts' skills spread quickly around my old office and I became a go-to person, or SME (subject matter expert) if you will, of all things crafty. When they told me about the party and the card, I was reminded of the hundreds of cards I've received over the years and how most of them eventually make their way into the trash. I mean how many card binders can you really have. Plus, this lady worked for the company for more years than I'm sure she cares to admit, so the amount of people who would want to show their appreciation for her would definitely not fit on one card. Sorry Hallmark, you just don't make them big enough for some events. So I thought of the idea below:

She loves the beach, so I went onto google images and found the one above. I played with the lighting and edging a bit in photoshop, added the quote "Life Begins at Retirement" then sent it over to Staples and had it printed on an 18x24 poster. I have a business account there so it was pretty cheap, maybe $20-$30. Not too shabby for a card/gift. Don't get me wrong, I love getting cards in the mail, but for such a milestone, I would think the recipient would want something they could look at all the time, and treasure always. I had a Michael's coupon so I picked up the frame pretty cheap as well, probably less than $20. We brought the poster to her luncheon along with my collection of sharpies (an obsession I may dedicate a separate post to, lol) and had everyone sign it for her. After the party, I brought the frame down and we put it together for her. Such a special gift and one that can be used for any occasion. 

 In the last few weeks at my old job, a chick on my new team was leaving the company to begin anew in NYC. My old company thrived on "food days" and looked for any excuse to throw a party so, of course, we celebrated her departure with a New York themed party. Everyone was asked to either donate money or bring in NY food. First of all, what is NY food really? I mean honestly, Ellis Island was a landing point for people all across the world who brought with them an array of different cultures, traditions and customs. In any short trip to NYC, you can find food from any corner of the globe....Having family from NY, the few things that come to my mind though are pizza (thank you TMNT), hot dogs (ala Coney Island) and bagels. So I decided to sign up for bagels, despite the fact that there is not a single place in PA where you can find bagels that are an eighth as good as on Long Island (which is odd since Philadelphia apparently makes the best cream cheese.) But anyway by this point, if you're still with me (bless you, if you are, lol) you're wondering what all of this has to do with the picture above. Well, I wanted to do something more creative than just getting below average breakfast food, so I figured I'd make carmel apples and slap an I <3 a="" amanda.="" and="" at="" bottom="" box="" but="" carmel="" do="" easier="" est="" get="" href="http://eatpraywearlove.blogspot.com/2012/10/harvest-party-fun.html?m=1" i="" just="" kit="" ll="" luck="" made="" myself="" next="" ny="" of="" on="" probably="" says="" sticker="" target="_blank" the="" there.="" time="" way="" yellow="">this idea

instead. The plastic stuck a little to the carmel, and it didnt harden quite right. But hey, they looked damn good! lol oh well...

This one was awesome. I'd do it again for any occasion and it was super simple. This wreath is made from coffee filters that were dyed in paint. The blog where I got this idea is no longer active, so the link doesn't work but it's pretty simple and cheap, which is always a plus!

Creative Ingredients:

1. Paper coffee filters: I got mine in bulk from Costco, since I didnt know how many I would need, plus it depends how tight/thick you want the thing to be...

2. Wire wreath frame from michaels or Amazon - size depends on your door

3. Cheapest craft paint you can find, I used Apple Barrel red and blue. No need for white, obv, but if you want to make it even whiter, I guess you could totally dye them white....

4. Hot Glue - like a TON

5. Cloth - I used a few of my husbands old, ratty white button down work shirts to glue the coffee filters on

6. 4th of July Ribbon to hang

7. String and clothes pins

Directions:

1. Pour paint in disposable cups, or reusable tupperware if you want to be green and water down. I'd say a 

maybe about a 2:1 ratio...for every 1 part paint, double the water. I just squirted paint in the bottom of a red solo cup and filled half way with water....very technical I know....

2. Shove as many filters in there that will fit. I think I used about 10 cups, 5 blue and 5 red and shoved about 10 in each. I let them soak in there for a good 10 minutes or so...

3. After they're done, and look like they have enough color (or theres no water left) pull those bad boys up and hang 'em to dry with the string/clothespins. Word of warning...the paint drips, and doesnt come off easily. I did these on my front porch, figuring they'd dry better in the sun, and while this is absolutely true, it also absolutely stained my porch while drying....

4. While they're soaking or drying, wrap the cloth around the wire frame. The idea is to leave as much surface area as possible. 

5. Once they're dry just start crumpling them up and gluing them to the frame in whatever pattern you like. Confession: mine has more white because I didnt dye enough red or blue, lol...

6. Slap the ribbon on there and hang away. 

A Few Notes: 

1. Theres no wrong way to do this, and you cant mess it up. I had the help of my 11 year old sister-in-law... and it looks phenomenal

2. You will be the only one to see the mistakes, holes, nobody else can so quit your whining

3. The paint will get all over your hands, and table, and floor, and wherever else you do this project so prepare well with newspaper and gloves...unless you're like me and find the mess to be the best part of any project :)

So looking back, I probably could have separated these into 3 different posts, but I'm too lazy to copy and paste them now into individual ones so here you go. Just remember the best part of any project is the fun you have doing it, and for the feeling you get when the recipient is in awe with your talent. If you get frustrated, hey- it happens. Walk away, take a breath and go back to it later. If you're not having fun, then move on to something else- the project definitely isn't worth it. TRUST ME. 

Thats all she wrote kids. So Live Zen, Be Happy and never forget your smile when you leave the house!!

xo

Jen

#1 Mouseketeer

As I continue to reflect on 2013, I continue to realize just how many special events there really were. My family has always had a special kind of closeness. The older I get, the more I realize how rare and incredible our bond actually is. My parents were born and raised on Long Island, NY, but after graduating medical school, they decided to make their way down to Philly. After moving to the 'burbs almost 30 years ago, we're now just a quick 2.5 hour trip from the island. A trip we make on the reg. We see each other as often as we can as are closer than most families who live in the same town.

One of my favorite people in this world, who happens to be married to one of my cousins on the island, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in 2012. He celebrated his first birthday this year with an awesome Mickey party! Below are a few of the pictures I took during his first birthday shoot, along with the gift we gave him.

Isn't he the cutest little kid you've ever seen!? On the left is a board I made for his birthday gift (inspired by a combination of this idea and this idea), something he can treasure always....well maybe not when he gets to be "too cool" for Disney, but hey- I'm almost 30 and still completely obsessed, so you never know. I know his parents will always treasure it though!

Creative Ingredients:

1. The board is just from Michaels, you can use any shape/size you want. I wanted to use 8.5 x 11 stock card, so I got a board just big enough to fit around

2. I downloaded some Disney fonts from my favorite font site then put it together in Photoshop

3. I printed it on thicker cardstock to make sure the colors popped out, but you could always print it on regular copy paper. Step by step instructions can be found here on how to get them together, but its super simple. 

4. I painted the board white, with red trim around the edge, then mod-podged it, stuck the card stock on top and mod podged the top to give it a nice finish (NOTE: make sure the ink is completely dry or it will bleed with the glue, it took me 3 times to get it right). You could always sand paper the edges if you wanted, but I wanted it to stand out a little from the background. 

Here are more pictures from the photo shoot...Such a happy kid. Always smiling and laughing, spreading happiness everywhere he goes! I love this kid, and his family holds such a special place in my heart so I'm always looking for an excuse to hang out with them! What a fun day it was.

Live Zen.

xo
Jen

Beer Cake

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 2013 has been a pretty big year in terms of milestone events. It started with a friend from work celebrating his 30th birthday in January. A few of us were trying to figure out the perfect gift for him, other than the customary Thursday night happy hour at a local bar or potential Phils game. So I was tasked with creating SOMEthing for the occasion. By this point I probably dont have to tell you where I went searching...

So if you search 'beer cake' in Pinterest, you will be met with an unbelievable amount of options, along with some ideas which, for me, were a bit too literal...they made the cake in the shape of an actual beer can/mug. But I went with more of the "beer tower" look:

Believe it or not, this was a relatively simple project. Not to mention inexpensive. I'm a big fan of upcycling, so it was really just a matter of purchasing the case of beer. 

Creative Ingredients:

1. Case of beer - choose the recipient's favorite. I also got cans because they're easier to stack and a case of 30 because, well, duh its a 30th birthday gift. 

2. You can use pretty much anything sturdy and round to put in between the tiers. Some have used cardboard cake rounds, which can be found on Amazon or Michaels, some cases of beer come with round discs inside to keep the shape of the box, but I just used extra Amazon boxes I had in the basement and cut them to the right size. 

3. Ribbon/Bow

4. Metal pan or tray for the base - Since it was January, I had left over cookie pans from the holidays. 

Then its just a matter of putting it all together. Since I was transporting the cake from my house, 45 minutes down to work in the back seat of my car, I used hot glue to stick the cans to the tier below it. Then just ribboned it up and stuck a bow on top. I traced a 30 on the box and cut it out. Since it was a promotional case, it had the Eagles logo on it, which I thought was a nice touch so I cut that out and stuck it on there. 

And thats it....not too difficult. I've seen some for fathers day and 21st birthdays where you use less beers and put a tupperware container in the middle of each tier to hold the shape. There are some with lottery tickets, some wrapped in ties....seriously there are an infinite number of ways to put this together. 

Live Zen kids...

xo

Jen

Photo Gallery Wall

Back in 2009, my husband and I moved into an absolutely gorgeous home. It was less than 5 years old and the former owners didn't do any decorating, so when we moved in everything was white.... Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a bit of an artist so for me, walking into a white house evoked several emotions. Anxiety for one because, oh my god everything is WHITE and I feel like I'm in a mental institution and I have to paint everything today! Excitement secondly because oh my god everything is WHITE and I can do anything I want! Which, admittedly, proved to be much harder than I thought. Our house is set up very openly, in that each room flows into the next. I'm not a fan of boring old tan colors and, being an artist, need color in my life so with the help of my trusty aunt, and fairy godmother, we were able to get the colors flowing very nicely. I'll upload house pics in another post but for now lets get to the kitchen...

As always when I need a creative idea, I made my way over to Pinterest....while we're on the subject, thank god for Pinterest, I mean honestly...how did any of us survive creatively if it wasnt for this site? At least those of us (like me) who need to be inspired before great ideas formulate in our right brains. So being that its in the center of our house, and since its a kitchen which for families is a high traffic area, I thought of doing some neat little organization center with a calendar and a bunch of sections organized by family member...pottery barn style and eventually I will probably get to that point. But its just 2 so I felt like that would be a bit of a waste. So then the photographer in me piped up and thought you can never go wrong with pictures. Being from such a large family, and because my mom is never caught dead without her camera, we always have an abundance of pictures readily available. Plus when we host family parties, I want people to gravitate into the different rooms and photos have a way of doing that...I also love that when people are looking at pictures they begin to tell stories of that moment in time. Like little windows into the past, scattered about the walls. Kinda neat. But anyway, I found this idea, and there are hundreds like it:

Before & After

Creative Ingredients:

1. Curtain Rod - this was an extra one we had hanging (hah, no pun intended) around so FREE!

2. Michaels Ribbon - green to match the rest of the house, plus its my fave color

3. Photo Gallery Set - Target, less than $20, but i know they sell them at Michaels too (I liked this one because it had a chalk board on it - bottom right - which I use for invitations or writing whatever's on my mind, lol)

4. Vinyl Lettering - Amazon for $16.99 (word of warning - vinyl letters are a gigantic pain in the ass!)

So the only troubles we had hanging this sucker were the vinyl lettering, at times it bubbled, didnt come of cleanly, ripped at points but since its so high up we are the only people who know where the imperfections are. Then, for the life of me I could NOT tie the damn bows up there. Its at a weird angle because i wanted to make sure they looked ok, which obv. in this picture they're a little.....limp......but what I'll probably do is get a bow tying expert (read: Aunt Kathie) and then just hot glue them to the rod. My husband drilled photo hanging screws into the wall, through the ribbon to make sure the frames were secure and didnt fall. Plus, it makes it easy to switch out the pictures when all you have to do is pull up the frame, rather than take down the whole row of ribbon. And thats it kids...simple enough! 

Let me know if there are any questions or you need clarification with anything!

Live Zen.

xo

Jen

30 Years Cancer Free

2013 was quite a year in my family. Not only did my husband turn 30, but my mom celebrated her 30th anniversary being cancer free on May 26th. Just to provide a little background:

When my mom was 28, she went into her GYN after feeling a lump in her groin area. Both her and my dad are in the medical profession (she is an RN, he is an MD) so they knew it was something they should have checked out. Initially her GYN said it was nothing, and sent her home. Feeling uneasy with the response, she went for a second opinion. The second doctor did a biopsy and found it was Ovarian Cancer. My parents had only been married a year or so at this point, so this shook them to the core. After going to see a gynecological oncologist, it was determined she would need heavy chemo, radiation and a complete hysterectomy. Now, if you know my mom, you know that her dream in life was always to be a mom so this news also meant she could never bear her own children. Completely devastated, she held my dad close as they prepared for the worst. Apparently the waiting room she visited while undergoing chemo was also home to a OB/GYN office, so as she sat waiting to consume a drug that would never allow her to bare children, she was next to women who were pregnant and elated to be growing families of their own.  Talk about adding insult to injury. Those who know and love my mom give her tremendous credit because she defeated this monster, and crawled out of the "depths of hell" as she put it. Have I mentioned she is my hero? So, here we are, 30 years later and she adopted 3 incredible children without a single recurrence of cancer. It was no question that we needed to honor this milestone in her life, so my brother, sister and I set out to organize this incredible celebration.

In my usual fashion, I searched pages upon pages of ideas for "survivor parties" and to my disappointment, was met with tons of information on parties surrounding the TV show. When I switched my search to "cancer party" I found about a bazillion ideas for Breast Cancer. Simply changing the colors from Pink to Teal wasn't going to be good enough for this party so most of the ideas are my own. Coming from a large family, about 30 in all (my mom is the oldest of 6, who each had 2-3 kids of their own), there was no shortage of help. I cannot thank everyone enough for coming together to make this happen! Below are pictures from the event. Browse, enjoy and if you know someone who is celebrating defeating cancer, whether it be a year or 30, please feel free to use my ideas. I also have the templates and fonts for everything so just let me know how I can help!

I designed everything, including the above logo in my go-to design program, Photoshop. Ovarian cancer color is Teal so I just googled teal backgrounds for the invitation/menu, then put a white square on top. Designing the logo was also relatively simple. I found a butterfly (if you cant tell I'm obsessed with them since to me, they symbolize rebirth and renewal) and recolored it in photoshop. I grabbed the darkest teal color from the background image, with the dropper tool, and then used it for the butterfly. To give it an ombre look, I simply adjusted the lightness by using the slider in the color selection window. Then found a teal ribbon online and used that as well, and put it behind everything else. 

Clearly, she had no idea...Since the party was the weekend after mother's day, we told her we wanted to take her out to a fancy dinner at a new restaurant near my house. The party was formal, so we needed to make sure she came dressed for the occasion. HUGE props to my sister Marissa for getting her to my house and helping her pick out the most perfect dress. We asked everyone to wear teal to show their support, and gave everyone teal bracelets to wear during dinner. They were also part of the favor for each guest to take home with them at the end of the evening. 

Friends and family greeting her as she opened the door to the backyard. 

This picture cracks me up for a few reasons, but several people commented that it's a "Pope pose" 

Now, this is a Pinterest inspired idea that can be found here. It was built by my sister's boyfriend's step-dad after a lot of time, effort, energy and hard work. It was such a perfect compliment to the party. The idea was to set up my camera to my tripod with a remote shutter so the guests could pose behind it and take pictures themselves, however it was a rainy, dreary day (I think my grandma was watching from heaven and it was just her tears of happiness celebrating with the family!)

My incredibly creative and super talented Aunt and Godmother helped us with these centerpieces. We took cheap frames, put in pictures of mom throughout the past 30+ years, hot glued teal ribbons, took a whole bunch of candles/glitter/glass confetti then scattered them around each table. When the sunset, we lit the candles and everything illuminated beautifully. 

Here are the favors we had at the party. On the left are little pink and teal boxes with a teal ribbon hot glued on the top, filled with life savors made by my mom's good friend Kathy. On the right are chocolate covered oreos made by Triciallicious who can be found on Facebook. My Aunt Pat made these favors (if you browse her site, you can find TONS of damn good chocolate and sweet treats, all hand made) which were a big hit at the party. She has chocolate molds made for oreo cookies, so these favors are oreos, covered in white chocolate with teal ribbons on top. Delicious! 

These are just the thank you notes I made to match the party theme. Wicked is her new favorite Broadway play, so the quote is from there and was her mantra for the evening:

"Because I knew you, I have been changed for good" 

All in all the party was a HUGE success and, despite the weather, a perfect evening. If you have any questions or need help, please let me know: JenniferLCarelli@gmail.com. 

Always remember to Live Zen.

xo

Jen

Ahoy Matey!

This past 4th of July I had the joy of helping my sister's boyfriend's family plan a birthday party for the cutest little boy. After much debate he decided on a pirate party. I was brought in to help with the decorations and overall party theme. Below are some of my creations. I tried posting a link to the original blogger where the ideas came from, so if any are inaccurate or missing, please let me know so I can update! As general practice, I stick with photoshop for all of my designs. I'm most familiar and comfortable with that program. 

So a few weeks before the party, I was at my favorite crafting store, Michaels, on the look out for anything pirate related. To nobody's surprise, they didnt have much, but in the  $1 aisle I found a whole bunch of circus themed stuff. I got these cupcake wrappers there for like $0.50 for a pack of 10 or something so it was pretty cheap and pirate-esque enough for a bunch of 4 year olds. Plus I was able to tie in the red/white theme to my other more pirate-y designs so it flowed nicely. 

Creative Ingredients:

1. Boxed cake mix - bake according to box directions :)

2. Cheap red/white circus cupcake wrappers

I was looking around for pirate themed cupcake holders, or anything I might be able to pass off as a pirate ship...and after a few days of searching I realized there was probably something easy and cheap I could make from the billions of Amazon boxes I have in my basement. So, after some creative brainstorming, I came up with the above Treasure Chest design. Pretty simple and only used a few items. 

Creative Ingredients:

1. Empty boxes - taped shut with packing tape

2. Wrap empty boxes with brown paper

(I used the packing paper that came with the boxes since it was already wrinkly, but you could also use brown packing paper and crumple into balls first. Makes it easier for wrapping as its not so stiff)

3. Purchase gold duct tape - actually found this at AC Moore 

4. Black sharpie - draw side clasps and "nail holes" if desired

Now the funnest (is that a word?) part! Decorating! I found a couple of different ideas on Pinterest, but none of them looked right. They were mostly of pirate faces. So then I found this idea for a pool party and adapted it for my pirate theme. Super cute and a HUGE hit with the kiddies!

Creative Ingredients:

1. Cream cheese icing - pillsbury. Pipe onto cupcakes in a swirl 

(I find this much simpler than trying to spread icing with a knife. Plus its less messy when grabbing from a platter, and the icing doesnt get all over fingers when pulling off the cupcake wrapper!)

2. Teddy Grahams - black gel icing with a toothpick to draw the eyepatch

3. Chocolate cannon balls - AC Moore sells sixlets in pretty much any color

4. Graham cracker sand - just throw them into a food processor or into a baggie and roll with rolling pin

I couldnt find any flags I liked at a store, so I make these using sticker paper and tooth picks

Finished product. Special thanks to my sister Marissa Schwarz and her friend 

Tori Behnkie for helping me make all of these a few hours before the party...

I tried finding some of those chocolate gold coins you see at Hanukkah, but since it was July they were in short supply, and the ones I did find were way too expensive. So I went to Michaels...you know, by now I should learn to just go here first :) I found these molds for...I guess its a regular candy shape?...the picture on the package had them in white/blue/pink, probably for a baby shower. I just used yellow instead!

Creative Ingredients:

1. Chocolate Mold from Michaels

2. Wilton Yellow Chocolate - prepare using instructions on bag

(as a side note, I made these a few days ahead of the party and kept them in the fridge) 

The mom I was helping came up with the menu, so I'm not sure where her ideas came from, but I made the above signs for each item. 

Creative Ingredients:

1. Peg Legs: Soft pretzel bites

2. Treasure Chest: Crockpot Mac & Cheese recipe here 

(altered: I only used American cheese and substituted elbows for spirals)

3. Pirate Booty: my sister found this somewhere, blue jello in cups with Swedish fish and oranges

4. Fish & Chips: Potato Chips & Gold Fish

5. Cannon Balls: Cheese Balls

 At the end of the party, when the kids left with their goody bags, we had a candy buffet. I made these signs. On the left was the buffet table sign, the right is a square sticker we put on the bags each kid put their candy in. Both designed by me in Photoshop. I had to google different pirate sayings to make sure I used them in context :) We used plain white bags with handles so it was easy for the kids to carry. I dont think we got a picture to show what it looked like, but use your imagination and search Pinterest for "Candy Buffet" TONS of  really good, creative ideas!

If you have any questions about what you see, shoot me an email: JenniferLCarelli@gmail.com

Being Self - Employed

My favorite office pal: Tasha

I think one of the scariest things you can do, is take a leap of faith. I mean after all....you're putting your hopes, dreams, wishes and fears into something you cant see, or hear, or feel....ok maybe you're one of those lucky few who actually do feel. Not me. If it doesnt exist on paper, I have a hard time believing in it. But that's exactly what I did. I left my comfortable, familiar and reliable job (read: paycheck) to pursue something scary and unknown. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, but I did know that helping businesses and financial advisors with their 401k plans was not it. Deciding to leave that job was admittedly one of the hardest things I've done in my professional career simply because I loved the people I worked with....well, most of them anyway. Towards the end it became more and more evident that my time was up though. The biggest wake up call was realizing that people I thought I could trust, people I thought were my friends, were actually nothing more than greedy, power hungry machines who would stop at nothing (including stepping all over me) to get to the top. I will say that I did have a great mentor during my 5 years, who - for full disclosure sake - did warn me that nobody was my friend, and that I shouldn't trust anyone. I guess it was one of those things you have to figure out for yourself...

Long story short - too late, I know - I decided to leave and focus on growing my business. I think all of us feel like we have some type of purpose in this world. I mean, how else could we continue to survive as a population if we thought otherwise. What would be our motivation? For me though, I've always felt that I was destined to do something great. Something bigger and better awaits me out there. There has to be a reason certain things happen and there MUST be a reason I was put here. Recently, I realized that there is no way I could find whatever that is by sitting behind a desk in a stuffy office (oddly enough, now I find myself sitting behind a desk in my home office, but hey at least my window here opens!) So I took a leap of faith, mostly in myself, and left. It took me about a month, maybe two, to make the decision and while I was contemplating the best course of action, I kept running the scene from Shawshank Redemption in my head where Red is reflecting on his friendship with Andy (SPOILER ALERT: after he breaks out of prison) and says: "...I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright...." My feathers are just too bright to be cooped up inside doing something I'm not passionate about. 

I encourage everyone to take a leap of faith. Go out on a limb. Do something every day that scares the crap out of you. You'll thank yourself when you're old and cant get out of your rocking chair. Not to seem like a bird freak with all these references, but honestly the best way I can put it is like this: 

Always remember to Live Zen

xo 
Jen