Sometimes Facebook sends me this email saying “Fafafoom fans want to hear from you,” clearly implying that I haven’t been posting that much lately. Well, Facebook aside, some of you are curious about when my next DIY posts will be. So, with less than 30 minutes, I am writing what I am up to these days. Here goes!
Lately, I made thank you notes from wallpaper samples. I got amazing wallpaper samples from Fabmo lately, a non-profit organization that rescues designer fabric samples from going to landfill. If you live around Mountain View or are in driving distance to Mountain View, I HIGHLY recommend you go to their monthly fabric selection days, where you can pick and choose fabrics you want for exchange of money donations. This month’s fabric selection days are Thursday to Saturday, June 12 – 14, and their warehouse is filled to the brim with fabrics. They need to get more people to attend the fabric selection days, so if you haven’t already, check them out. Seriously.
It’s quite fun cutting my beautiful wallpaper samples to smaller sizes, putting another layer of paper for message writing inside, sewing its “spine” with my sewing machine, decorating the inside with ribbons, silk petals, and other materials I have on-hand, writing the message, and making envelopes. It’s a total handmade commitment :) Below is an example of a thank you note and envelope to my friend (you know who you are!) who’s an amazing writer and gardener.
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Fun, right? A totally personalized note that takes about 1 hour to make, from start to finish…OK, maybe 1.5 hours. I plan to make more notes from these wallpaper samples decorated with stamps, ribbons, flowers, feathers, buttons, or anything I have in my craft supply boxes.
I also have two DIY projects in-progress: a “Frankenstein” checkered dress refashion and a vinyl and silk makeup case. The checkered dress was originally an Express dress from about a decade ago, and now I just have some fun cutting it up, refashioning the bottom part as a mini skirt and the top part as a dress or a tunic. The skirt is done, but the dress / tunic is still in-progress; my zippers have not arrived.
This is the skirt:
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And this is the rest of the original dress along with other fabrics I’m combining it with:
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The vinyl and silk makeup case is a very challenging project for me. It’s a project in which I have to become more focused as the project is closer to the finish. It’s mostly because vinyl and silk are unforgiving materials; one mistake and there’s no undo. That being said, so far so good. I’m looking forward to share the process of this DIY once it’s done!
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I also have at least 15 more fashion DIY projects in my to-do list (including a Tetris top, a white swiss-dotted skirt, and a “fake” waist corset), so I’m very motivated to up my time management skills. Having way too many hobbies can be challenging…oh, and as if I’m not busy enough, I want to learn Korean.
Anyway, aside from DIY projects, I also plan on having another Fafafoom blog theme (skin) update. I’m cleaning up my past blog posts that were too casual in nature, thinking up ways to consolidate my blog categories and navigation, as well as considering this new blog theme from Elegant Themes, Divi. It’s no secret that I’m only using (and customizing) WordPress themes from both WooThemes and Elegant Themes. For the past year, Fafafoom has been using a WooThemes blog theme, and I feel it’s time to update with a better skin.
But updating Fafafoom’s skin needs to come after careful deliberation of content publication and management strategy, something that I need to put more time into if I want to have the blog skin update by August. Examining which topics and what kind of content resonate well with you readers will greatly affect my decision to retain or discard certain blog topics in the near future. So if you have specific feedback for me, please let me know!
In addition to the blog theme update, I also have to decide the social media sharing plugin: do I keep AddThis, go back to ShareThis, or just use something else entirely. Page load speed is also very crucial, as well as trying to make Shashin, the image plugin I’m using to work in its full capacity. For Fafafoom that’s very picture-heavy in content, those three are very serious concerns of mine.
Last but not least, I’m looking forward to see Art Institute of California San Francisco’s Style Now 2014 Fashion Show this Saturday, June 14. It’s going to be exciting because for the first time, Chris and I will be covering both the backstage and runway happenings. Having two angles mean two perspectives, and that means two separate stories. Therefore, it’s very likely that I will be writing, picture editing, and posting two articles about Style Now. If you have not gotten a ticket already, please buy it soon! There will be two fashion show times: 5pm and 7pm. I believe it’s going to be great.
OK, my 30 minutes was up 30 minutes ago….so until next time!
Have a great one,
Musank