NEW Smile & Celebrate Collection: Fly High Mug Cup

Introducing the NEW Smile & Celebrate collection:

Inspired by the joys of motherhood and the love from my little Pham-ily, I created the Smile & Celebrate collection. The designs featuring Niko Darling the Penguin, remind friends that everyday is a celebration of life and everyday deserves a smile on your beautiful faces.

The Smile & Celebrate Mug Cup can be used as a pen holder, a vase for flowers, and a piggy bank. Or if you're a coffee or tea drinker like me, you can simply drink out of the Mug Cups every morning to start your day off with a smile. I hope the Smile & Celebrate collection brightens your day as it has for me throughout its creation.

The first to be released in the Smile & Celebrate collection is the Fly High Mug Cup!

Grab onto a handful of balloons and FLY HIGH with Niko Darling!

Nothing will weigh you down when you use this darling mug cup.

Now for another exciting announcement! The Fly High Mug Cup will be available tomorrow at noon PST over at My Dear Darling Shop.

Since I'm so excited about this collection and want to spread some love (and smiles!), the first 10 Fly High Mug Cups will be available for 50% OFF! So make sure you order yours when the clock strikes 12! :D

Update (Nov 2): The first 10 have now been sold. Thank you oh so much! :)

Phamily of Pumpkins

our phamily of pumpkins

It's Halloween weekend already! Have you chosen which costume you'll be wearing? Bruce will dress up as a monkey, a costume my sister got him last year. We didn't use it previously because he wore his Bruce Lee yellow jumpsuit I made him. (Brandon is to blame for that one. Hehe.) I'm wanting to take Bruce trick-or-treating but is that a little silly with a one year old? Maybe I'll drag my friend and her daughter out too. ;)

Although I won't be wearing a costume this year, I did get my Halloween spirit on by baking lots of pumpkin goodies: pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin whoopie pie, chocolate chip pumpkin bread! And I'm still not tired of this pumpkin goodness... and neither is Brandon and our friends that I've been sharing all this with. I also carved 3 pumpkins after Bruce finished pudding painting his. So before I run off to look for more pumpkin recipes, I'll share the rest of our pumpkin decor!

my dear darling, niko the penguin

p for pham

this carving tool is my secret weapon

happy halloween!

Did you have a pumpkin carving party? What did you carve? :) And please tell me I'm not the only pumpkin happy person!

Have a wonderful Halloween weekend! *evil witch laugh*

Wait List Status

I have now closed the Wait List for all personalized gifts and made-to-order gifts. Thank you so much for your patience as I work through the current list! :D It's an amazing feeling to know that there are so many friends out there who want a special My Dear Darling gift. I'm very excited to work with every one of you!

Unfortunately, if I did not receive an email to be added to the list, I will be unable to create your gift at this time. If you'd like to find out when the Wait List will open again, please follow my blog or sign up for the mailing list here. Thank you!

Lots of Smiles,

Akiyo

Sneak Peek

almost ready

My Dear Darling Shop

Just updated the My Dear Darling shop to display available gifts that are ready to ship. :) Thank you for your patience!

P.S. There's a couple items over at my Etsy shop too.

Bruce's Pudding Painted Pumpkin

chocolate pudding painted pumpkin

On Saturday, we had a little Pumpkin Party at our house. A couple of my girlfriends came over to carve pumpkins that we picked out from the Petaluma Pumpkin Patch. It was Bruce and my first time going to an actual pumpkin patch so we had a blast seeing some animals, playing with the haystack, running through a mini corn maze to find the chickens, and picking out our favorite pumpkins from the farm. Once we loaded the wheelbarrow and purchased our finds, we headed back home to start decorating.

trying to decide which way to go

during the mini corn maze

helping to push the wheelbarrow

Since this was Bruce's first Halloween where he's old enough to participate, I had to make sure Bruce could join in on the fun. He's not quite ready to carve a pumpkin and I was too afraid he'd eat actual paint so I came up with the idea of having him paint his own pumpkin with chocolate pudding. The pudding painting idea was from Jon & Kate Plus 8 which I knew I'd do with my own kids after I saw that episode. And my wish came true.

painting his tray with chocolate pudding

All you need to do this activity with a toddler is a pumpkin, a pack of chocolate pudding, and duck tape or painters tape. Oh, and old clothes since pudding will get everywhere. After I duct taped a bruce-o-lantern face onto the pumpkin, I scooped a generous amount of chocolate pudding on his tray and he immediately started painting... the tray. I had to encourage him to paint the pumpkin and to my surprise, he didn't try eating the pudding! After he finished painting his pumpkin, I peeled off the duct tape and let the pudding dry. A simple fun project for the little ones.

once he realized he could eat the paint...

bruce's pudding painted pumpkin

Needless to say, Bruce had fun painting his pumpkin while we all watched laughing away. I definitely recommend this fun activity if you're okay with a little mess. Let me know how yours turns out as I'd love to see! :D

I'll be sharing our carved pumpkins at the end of this week. ;)

Sneak Peek

Can you guess what inspired this work-in-progress jacket? :)

NEW Pumpkin Penguins

pumpkin penguin 2011

with a happy jack-o-lantern tummy

Katsu-Bee with my pumpkin bear

I hope you're in the spirit of a little Halloween. I've been wanting to make the pumpkin penguins but always forgot once October rolled around. So this year, I made them two months in advanced so I wouldn't forget.

The Pumpkin Penguins are inspired by the Pumpkin Decorating Contest entry I made for my art school way back in 2007! My pumpkin bear won "Most Original" and I was super proud! The only sad part of this story is that the stuffed animal bear I used for the contest was thrown away. I had it with me since I was 5 when I won it in Las Vegas. So as awful as these photos are (quality wise) I'm so glad I have them because it reminds me of those two victorious moments. :)

handwritten trick or treat on back of pumpkin bear

pumpkin penguin

I'm A Mama Of A One Year Old!

My little boy turned one last week and we celebrated with family and friends and delicious food! I don't have a single photo of the event as of yet so I thought I'd share what Brandon got me as an one-year-later push present. :)

my first tattoo "bruce"

I love it. It's perfect. Just like my son. :)