Supper Club: June 2014, Eat Local

I either I was in a former life or I should have been a 50's housewife that threw fabulous dinner parties. I tried to host a few back in college, but what college student has the time or the money? I surely didn't. Back then, it was so much easier just to say "Oh, the [football] game is on, let's get together and watch it with food and beers." 

A couple years ago, I decided to start up a dinner club and call it Supper Club. The premise is themed dinner parties, once a month, potluck style. Jake warned me about going overboard with my decorating. Perhaps I did. But that's how I like to roll.

Supper Club June 2014

Theme: Eat Local. Each dish must include one locally sourced ingredient.

The morning of the party, I picked flowering oregano from my friends' garden for decoration.

The setup on our patio. OK, so I did go overboard and rent the chairs. They were only $1 each for the weekend (and the guy at Taylor Rentals Arlington was super cute.)

Hey oh! Beer cocktails!!

Yum.

Dessert: Strawberry angel food cake trifle, made in honor of Jake's bday. But he wouldn't let us sing to him.

The crew for the inaugural dinner. Great friends, homemade food, and tasty drinks make for an awesome evening. 

Cinco de Mayo 2014

Once, I threw myself a birthday party, secretly. At least I think I did it on the down-low. Enough chit chat, let's just look at the pretty pictures. 

According to Pinterest, it ain't a party unless you have fancy paper straws and homemade tissue tassels suspended from bakers twine.  

Sparkling sangria! Whut, what!? I used this ridiculous recipe which makes one super tasty AND super strong beverage. I was too cheap to throw the fruit out and cooked it down into a chunky compote after the party. Not shown, frosty margaritas and refreshing beers.

Food! Potluck style. Carnitas. Enchiladas. Sriracha fruit salad (drool). Spanish style rice. Oh and let's not forget the taco and nacho bar. 

Not sure how we had room for dessert, but we did. First up, Nom Nom Paleo's Mexican pot de creme. I left the cream off so that people could pick between real cream and soy whipped topping. Hey dairy doesn't like some of us. 

And finally, cake. Not just any cake. A homemade margarita cake, infused with Patrón Silver. Apparently, I made Sam cut the cake so I could take photos =)

The cake was based on a this lime chiffon cake recipe I found on the interwebs. The frosting is my reduced butter swiss meringue buttercream infused Patrón and lime juice. In case you are wondering, I have yet to recreate this cake. 

I am quilter

A year ago, on this day, I bought my sewing machine, Bessy. It's crazy to look back and see how much I've learned and expanded. The number of quilting tutorials available online is ridiculous. I have never taken a class in person. Everything I have done has been through reading/following tutorials and trial and error.

My first quilt: After seeing a Downy commercial, I was inspired to help Quilts for Kids. This was made using a quilt kit (pre-selected and pre-cut fabric). It was a lot of fun, but I wouldn't suggest using the using the quilt kit as your first project.

My second quilt: Quilt top made from a baby quilt kit from Bijou Lovely and quilted following Holly's awesome tutorial. The binding is completely machine bound!

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Nov 11, 2012 at 6:26am PST

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Nov 11, 2012 at 6:36am PST

This was technically #3, but it took me forever to finish it. This is the first quilt in which I selected the fabric. The colors are much more vivid in person (yay winter phone photography). Truthfully, I'm not a fan of the colors, but a friend saw it and loved it. Quilted in a circular pattern after seeing Munchkin Quilts do it. I made the mistake of pulling at the fabric too much in the corners so the quilt doesn't lay flat, oops!

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Mar 9, 2013 at 2:59pm PST

Quilt for Kids #4! I went with a simple design that I made up and pulled the colors from the backing.

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Jan 26, 2013 at 1:09pm PST

#5! I discovered fabric bundles. Someone else picks coordinating fabrics and I just buy them as a set. The mitered corners on this on were nearly perfect.

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Jun 2, 2013 at 10:11am PDT

In between the quilts I tried my hand at various things:

Baby blocks.

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Aug 18, 2012 at 4:25pm PDT

A jewelry roll in which I completely made up (no pattern)!

A photo posted by Celia Hung (@_celiamhung) on Sep 8, 2012 at 6:03am PDT

Then I sold a quilt!

I tackled a pile of old skirts from college and upcycled them into toddler skirts for my friend's little girl. Which then led me to open up an Etsy shop.

I'm still too intimidated to tackle the large pile of clothes that need alterations, but hopefully that'll change in the near future. 

Like a real quilter, I can now say that I have a fabric stash (that I keeps growing, I may have a slight fabric problem) and a pile of WIPs (works-in-progress). I think there are like 4 finished quilt tops and a shower curtain in the pile.

Next on the horizon is Fabric Fest! I can't wait to see my friends from The Makerie 2012 (some photos posted here.) and learn new skills.

Riley Blake Fabric Fest 2013

*photos taken either with dSLR or Instagram.

Easter 2013

This post is only 2 months late. 

We hosted our first family dinner this year! We had Jake's parents over for Easter. Originally, the plan was to go out to a local restaurant. But as Easter got closer (the week before), we decided that it would be better to just stay home. No crowds to deal with! Plus, I could control the ingredients without badgering potential servers.

With only a week, I started compiling ideas (because you know that I can't keep things simple) and creating a menu. Honey Baked Ham took care of the ham, while I threw a few side dishes together: twice baked sweet potatoes, vegan mac n' cheese with quinoa pasta, spring salad, and hard boiled eggs. For dessert we had macarons from Macaron Sweeterie, chocolate covered macroons found at Whole Foods, and mini lobster tails I snagged from a wedding I had been working the night before.  

Now onto the decor details...

Bunny folded napkins! Whatever you do, do not follow the Martha Stewart instructions. They won't work. I think I followed this one.

Flowers and votives were leftover from the wedding I was working. Perks of being a wedding planner's assistant.

Calligraphy Easter Eggs! Get this, they're actually tattooed! I followed Oh Happy Day's tutorial. But saved some money by purchasing the tattoo paper from Amazon. So one tip that I want to share with you. You need to cut out all the excess tattoo paper. As in, cut out the blank space around the letters and between words. But leave enough so that it is still connected in one piece. This will help make the tattoo look smooth and seamless. 

Creative plans

via Oh, Hello Friend

I have a master plan for these. Let's just see if I actually get around to using them before I catch that plane to India.

May 2012

Bah! I meant to have this posted on May 31st, but I totally failed at that didn't I? Well at least it's technically the first full week in June.

My friends and their families have been keeping me busy with cupcake orders the last couple of weeks. I kicked started May with a bridal shower order for 5 dozen cupcakes.

Follow me on Instagram @hungc.

We attended our first wedding of 2012 (we were invited to 4 - at least for now). I don't know about Jake, but I got a huge kick out of seeing the props from the photobooth at our wedding reused.


Congratulations to the newlyweds!

Steampunk Festival 2012! Every year, our town hosts a steampunk festival. I remember wanting to check it out last year, but we must have been out of town or doing something wedding related. It was small, but there was a lot to see. A full day of people watching if you will. There was also an abundance of tiny top hats and goggles! I had to restrain myself from buying a tiny hat that I'll never wear.

Blimp!

I had my first photoshoot! Our friends asked if I would be willing to take 6 month photos of their darling baby girl. Um, YES OF COURSE! I'm still blown away and humbled that they trusted something so precious to me. After spending half a day together, I ended up with 606 photos! We had to stop because I ran out of space on my memory cards. 

The money shot, taken either during a diaper or clothing change (right).

Cross eyed babe! (left)

Baby M and I hanging out during her playtime.

Such a beautiful family! We <3 you!

For the last month, I had been frantically working on a baby blanket that I can FINALLY talk about. Let's start with the inspirations first. This colorful combination used for wedding ceremony decor caught my eye. It was pretty perfect since the mom-to-be was trying to decide between either a grey/yellow or a grey/red scheme for the nursery. The aqua-teal color added a nice punch and was gender neutral enough that I felt it would be safe to run with.

Ceremony decor via Style Me Pretty.

Following mom-to-be on Pinterest was also helpful. I was able to see that she was gravitating towards chevron patterns. So I started looking for a chevron baby blanket pattern and came across this beautiful blanket by Good Knits:

Chevron Baby Blanket by GoodKnits


Put the two together and TA-DA!

Baby Y's blanket! Guess I didn't take any shots of the whole blanket.
Red Heart Soft (red, grey, and aqua) and Vanna's Choice Baby (yellow) resulted in a super soft blanket.

Project: No Sew Placemats

I finally "found" placemats for our new dining table! We've been searching for linens for months now, but it has been a battle between the chairs and our new dishes. It finally dawned on me that we should forgo a tablecloth and go with placemats. That way the beautiful wood wouldn't be covered up, but still be able to protect our table top.

LOVE it!

Have you ever priced out placemats? The pretty ones are redonkulously expensive. At least I think so. Then again, I have this tendency to not buy anything that I can make myself. DIY placemats...so freaken easy!

Our almost naked table.

Let's get this tutorial started.

Materials:

fabric (look for something mashine washable)

fusible interface (try to match fabric type: cotton, polyester, blend) - You could skip this step if your fabric has a nice weight to it.

self healing cutting mat

straight edge

tape measure

rotary cutter with pinking blade (pinking cut will keep fabric from fraying)

iron

damp cloth

First up, you will need fabric. I found this 100% cotton body pillow cover at Target ($9.99 + tax) and instantly thought it would be perfect. It's bright, has a subtle pattern, neutral without being beige, and it's roughly 20" wide; placemats are 19".

Next, rip out the seams. This is a little time consuming. You could just cut the seams, but then you'll have little bits of thread to pick out. In hindsight, it would have been fine because it'll get cut off.

The zipper side tricked me. Thought the fabric was serged all the way around. It wasn't.
This fabric frayed easily, but it wasn't a problem.

After ripping out all the seams, iron all the wrinkles out. I had a piece of fabric that was 20" wide and just over 100" long. From Joann's, I picked up about 3 yards of cotton fusible interfacing ($7 after 50% off sale!). Just my luck, it was 20" wide. I had never used the stuff prior to today, but it's awesome.

Position your fabric, wrong side up. Line up the fusible interface on top (nubby side down). Put down a damp cloth on top of it all, (I had to do it in sections) apply hot iron and press firmly. Repeat, slightly overlapping until all the interace is fused. Be sure to keep your cloth damp.

In the photo below, I've ironed on half of the interface. I screwed up at the fabric store and had cut at 50" before realizing that I needed 100"; I ended up purchasing two 1.5 yard pieces.

My ironing setup. Yeah...we don't own an ironing board.
I actually, don't know how to iron. I own steamer for a reason.

If you get a bubble here and there (I definitely did), go over it with a damp cloth and the iron. Before cutting, try to iron your fabric complete flat. I rolled mine to keep the wrinkles at bay.

Now it's time to cut! Be careful, a new blade is extremely sharp. Whatever you do, do not retrace your cut. Just move over and make a new cut. Well, I guess you could, you just won't have a consistent wavy edge unless you painstakingly line it up. Mine were cut into 19"x 14" rectangles. I was able to squeeze out 7 placemats.

Finally, pat yourself on the back for a job well done and decorate your table! You could wash these first, I was too excited to. Plus, it's not like you are going to eat off of them.

Close up of pinking edge

Total cost (not counting my new cutting tools) for 7 placemats is a wopping $17.47. That's $2.50 per placemat!!! Not shabby for about 2 hours worth of work. Probably would have been just a touch faster if a) I hadn't been working on the floor, and b) I hadn't been watching tv.

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Invitations: Cost

Anyone want to take a guess as to how much our invitations cost? Lower. Lower. Still lower. You'll never guess.

Design: $0.00
 - Designed it ourselves
 - I can't even begin to guess how much it would cost for a graphic designer.

Labor: $0.00
 - Did it ourselves myself, mostly
 - You don't even want to know how many hours have gone into printing, cutting, punch, gluing, etc. went into this. I would be rich if I even charged myself minimum wage.

Postage: $107.55 (rsvp - $0.44/each, domestic - $0.88/each, 3 international, 5 sent in one package to be hand delivered to family, 4 hand delivered locally, and one for a keepsake)
 - I already knew that because of the shape (square), our invites would be slightly more. But I was crossing my fingers in hopes that they didn't tip the scales. Thank god they didn't!

Reusable materials: approximately $100 (after discounts and taxes, but not rolling this into the final cost)
 - White gel pen used for the "please recycle" message
 - Stamps of our graphic (Purchased from Paper Source. We have both the large and the small one (two for whatever reason my bridal brain came up with back in December of 2009!)
 - ColorBox Pigment Stamp pads in black and scarlett
 - VersaMarkStamp pad
 - Clear embossing powder
 - Paper punches (border and corner)
 - Embossing heat gun
 - PVA glue (left over from lord only knows what project)
 - Printer and ink. I got this printer at 50% off waaaaay back when.
 - Font

Raw Materials: $76.11!!!!
 - This amount does not include shipping as other paper products were also ordered at this time. All paper was ordered from Paper and More. I highly reccommend them!
 - 12x12 100# cardstock in black for the enclosure
 - 8.5x11 100# cardstock in cherry red for the invitation and name card backing
 - 8.5x11 80# cardstock in bright white for the invitation, information card, rsvp card, and name card
 - 4 bar envelopes in bright white
 - 6x6 square envelopes in bright white
 - 96.75 yards of twine. Barely made a dent in my giant spool of twine.

Grand total: $183.66
 - Each invitation suite cost just over $0.88!!! $0.885 to be exact!!!
 - $2.20 including all postage for invites shipped within the USA. Can you believe that?!?!  The postage was the bulk of it!
 - Paula told me that our invites could have easily run $1300 if we had a real staionary vendor do them.


45 days.

Invitations: The guts

Every day after work, I rush into the apartment hoping to find more RSVPs waiting for me. It's like having mini presents to open everyday. Well kind of. It's exciting regardless.

We got 5 RSVPs in one day! This was the third day in a
row that we had them in the mailbox. No stalkers please.

Now that I think everyone has received their invites, I think it's time to share them with the internet. You ready for the reveal? First up, the envelopes. They are kind of plain on the outside, but it's what's on the inside that counts right? I had grand plans to embellish the envelopes but got lazy. Names and addresses were printed on my Epson R1900. The font is Monterey BT.

We didn't print, stamp, or use wrap-around labels for the return address. Instead, we used our handy-dandy address embosser. I was a little bit afraid that if an invitation had to be returned, it would get lost in the mail. But, so far so good.

You ready to tear into the envelope yet? Guests were greeted with a red and white polka dot liner. Want to know a secret? That liner is wrapping paper that I cut up and glued in. Our invitations were strategically placed so that the backside was facing up. I did this for two reasons. 1) The envelopes were kind of thin. I didn't want the embellishments potentially causing a tear. 2) So that the "please recycle" message was received.

Turn the invitation around and you get, personalization. Each invited guest had their name printed on the invite. The embellishment I mentioned above is the baker's twine that I used in lieu of a pocketfold. The goal was to minimize paper and weight of the total invitation package.  

Let's take a closer look at the details, shall we?



 

The names are in Kon Tiki Enchanted. See the faint outline behind the names? That is actually an embossed stamp of the graphic we picked for the wedding. You can kind of see that the twine is flush with the edge of the cardstock in the photo below. A edge paper punch was used to make just enough of a notch to keep the twine in place.

Now for the real guts of the invites: the actual invitation, the information card, and the rsvp card. Sorry for not posting a close up of the invitation card itself. Not much to see after bluring out our names and dates. Our names are in Kon Tiki Enchanted and everything else is in Century Gothic.

More embossed craziness.

The information card. Since most of our guests are from out of state, we chose to make our wedding a weekend affair and invite everyone to all the events. We are hoping that this will give us more time to catch up with folks rather than trying to squeeze it all in the day of. Headers and website are in Kon Tiki enchanted and details are in Century Gothic.

RSVP cards and return envelope. Since it was just coming back to us, I decided not to add embellishments.

The card is folded card. I have never been a fan of traditional rsvp card verbiage for names. I also tend to think that people get confused by M__________. So I changed it. It's pretty straight to the point if you ask me. Let me tell you, printing this card so that the graphics bled to the edge of the paper was a big pain in my backside. I fiddled with my printer settings for a good two hours before it came out right. Let's not count how many test sheets of paper I had to use.

The entire suite together.

Everything you see here was handmade from blank cardstock, with the exception of the envelopes.

Next up, the cost breakdown. I'm curious to see how much it actually cost me us.

50 days.