[Make Your Own] Sparkling Mason Jar Candles

October 21, 2013October 21, 2013Leave a comment

I remember back in the day when Pinterest first came out – for a while, I was confused how it was different than Tumblr and I put off getting an account. But, over time – and the occasional peak at some kickass pin boards – I discovered that Pinterest was the perfect list-making tool for those out there like myself who enjoy being visually stimulated. As with any new social media tool, the first thing I did was sit there with my new digital moniker in hand, stare at the computer screen and mumble to myself “Now what?!” What I really should have said was – Now, what do I share?

You can compile pin boards on literally anything and everything under the sun like new recipes, fun nail polish colors, potential breeds for your future puppy, dream vacation spots, wardrobe upgrades, etc, etc – Maybe you’re beyond single but you love the idea of planning your dream wedding? You can create a pinboard for that. Or, let’s say you want to travel to Europe for a 20 day backpacking trip – you can save everything from destination photo spots, ideas for brunch, youth hostels, things to pack and books to read before you go into a pinboard. I’m sure you get the picture – they’re as creative, whimsical or as literal as you feel like and have definitely become one of my online guilty pleasures. Hands down, my favorite board to maintain is my DIY craft board because there’s nothing quite as rewarding as hand crafting a gift – whether its for family, friends, a stranger, your pets or yourself.

One of the more hilarious things about Pinterest is the perceived high arts + crafts skill levels of the people posting. For example, last year around Cinco de Mayo a blog I follow posted an awesomely daunting baking post about whipping up some Pinata Cookies. They were rainbow, donkey shaped cookies filled with M&M minis…..so, naturally, I had to try it – right? Well, suffice it to say that didn’t go so well. At one point I had a picture, but I quickly deleted it in humiliation….after texting it to three of my friends so at least someone could get a good laugh out of it. Thankfully, there’s a website – Pinterest Fails – entirely devoted to people like me who have failed at Pinterest inspired arts, crafts or cooking adventure and lived to tell about it. And yeah, even though that round of Donkey cookies ended up being a total bust – I discovered that I thoroughly enjoy finding new opportunities and ideas, otherwise known as “Pins” to their online community, to conquer.

Time to repurpose!

One of the things I’ve learned my years of beading and crafting is that you need to learn how to work with the world around you – there are ample resources at your fingertips if you simply open your eyes and look. Maybe you’re a wino in training – save the bottles and you could convert them into a menagerie of things: vases, candle holders or an essential oil diffuser; save the wine corks and you could create a pinboard, coffee table top or incense holder. The opportunities for recycling and re purposing materials are endless if we just take a chance on our intuition and creative powers! One thing that I’ve been compiling en masse lately are large mason jars – from pickles to pasta sauce and back down to large candles – I had a whole host of unused glass around the house. I promised myself that eventually, I’d find a use for all of them – so I converted a few into change holders so I could keep track of quarters for the laundry, then another three into containers for my makeup brushes, eyeliner and mascara so I could keep them organized. Well, that was a while ago and I was thirsty for a new project – after a few hours online, I had it all figured out; and quite frankly, was a little dumbfounded I didn’t get the idea on my own. One thing that old mason jars – especially the candle holders – do exceptionally well….is (drumroll please) holding candles; tealight candles to be precise. Per usual, I improvised from both the instructions and equipment in the original post because I’m a badass that abides by my own rules…plus, I trust the supplies I’ve acquired over time. The end result? The perfect holiday decoration! The mason jars transform into awesome orbs with a glittery glow that you can place all around the house for some holiday flare. Now let’s get crafty!

The View From The Top

Glitter + Glue – the essentials

Supplies:

Mason Jars [Pro Tip] – Next time you burn through a candle, keep the surrounding glass casing so you can reuse it!
Glitter: Silver, Gold, Irridescent, Multicolored….you get it, just make sure it’s sparkly and shit.
Craft Glue and small Brush[Pro Tip] I recommend Martha Stewart Crafts Decoupage ‘Glue + Sealer Brush Applicator’ because (a) its amazing and (b) the little applicator brush is perfect for this task
Aluminum Foil
Scissors
Tealight Candles
Ribbon

Swear By It: Martha Stewart Crafts Glue with Brush Applicator

Get your scissors and ribbons ready

Aluminum Foil and my trusty Hole Punches

Tools

Scissors –> Next Level Crafty: Shaped Hole Punchers

Instructions – Time: 15-30 minutes depending on how ~~anal~~ much of a perfectionist you are

If you’re reusing an old candle – handwash the glass candle holder to remove the outside label and leftover wax, then dry before next step
Use a small applicator brush to cover the inside of the glass in a layer of glue (but not the bottom!)
Dump a sizable amount of glitter into the glass and tumble it around until evenly distributed
Wait about 5 minutes to see where the glitter dries – retouch if necessary.
Cut a section of aluminum foil to fit around the top
Choose one of two adventures:
(a) Get your 1st grader snowflake making skills on: Bend the foil twice and cut a few geometric shapes – voila, snowflake!
(b) If you’re a next level ninja and have shaped hole punches, bend that foil and then let the foil have it
Light a tealight, light it and place it in the candle holder
Put your patterned aluminum foil on top and tie the foil down to the holder with a section of ribbon
Voila, you’ve successfully started your army of sparkly candle holders!

The Final Product

[Doing it Right] A Night Out with the Bev Cen + Klout

October 18, 2013February 22, 2016Leave a comment

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years in LA – it’s that there’s a very real power behind social media. It’s an idea shared by many, especially the beautiful minds over at Klout. I touched on the company a bit last year – almost a year to the day, if you want to get ironic about it! So here’s a refresher if you don’t feel like time traveling through my page:

Klout aggregates your social relevance by measuring your reach across multiple platforms, including – but not limited to – Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Youtube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogspot, WordPress; ‘m sure you get the picture. Then it spits out a score from 1-100 based on how influential it thinks you are. How does this benefit you, you might ask? Well – Perks; Klout Perks if you want to get specific. From small things like a $5 McDonalds Giftcard to care packages with Crest Toothpaste, a To Go Container of Scope and a $10 Wal Mart Gift Card, Klout rewards us social media ~~whores~~ connoisseurs in kind for our hard work and cult like devotion.

Last night I was invited to an event at the Beverly Center with fashion aficionados from far and wide. They were diving into photo booths, digging through goodie bags and frolicking through the mall with some of the hottest in the fashion and blogging industries. The purpose? The Beverly Center “Show us Your Style” Challenge. The entrants – submitted pictures of their hottest fall fashion for under $125 and the winner was gifted a $1000 shopping spree to the Beverly Center. And thanks to Klout, selected people with scores of 65 and up were invited to rub bows with the best of ’em. The event was hosted by three of LA’s hottest fashion and lifestyle bloggers: Shea Marie of Peace, Love, Shea , Chriselle Lim from The Chriselle Factor and last but definitely not least Liz Cherkasova who pens the Late Afternoon. Now, I blog about lots of things – life, laughter, my love of music, cats and photography – but clothing and accessories, eh – not as much! So it was fun masquerading around under the guise of fashion blogger all night.

They had a live DJ, yummy specialty made cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes, delicious sangria thanks to Pavan Liqueur and some awesome swag to take home. Thank you a thousand times over to the lovely staff of the Beverly Center and Klout for throwing such a classy event, a day later and I’m still feeling truly honored to have been a part of it.

More coupons and gift cards; can’t wait to go back to the Bev Cen!

Forever21 Goodie Bag with Gloss and Tweezers

New journal; love the binding!

[Doing it Right] Yelping + Yachting Around Marina Del Rey

September 21, 2013September 26, 2013Leave a comment

There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as manifesting your own reality and thanks to social media, I firmly believe that each and every one of us is fully capable of doing so. Whether it’s attending the right events, donning the right duds, being up on the latest makeup tips or rocking out to the latest and greatest jams – sites like Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Hypem, Soundcloud and Yelp. Over the past few years, we’ve essentially been watching sites like Facebook and MySpace – broad, umbrella social media sites that encompass the entire breadth of what you would want to share – dissolve into specialized verticals. If you’re shaking your head saying “No, that doesn’t seem right”, take these facts into account; in 2012 Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 Billion and last May Yahoo bought microblogging site Tumblr for about $1.1 Billion. Whether it’s to be part of the competition, or remove the idea of it by purchasing the competitors – both Facebook and Yahoo! seem more than aware that there are other verticals to conquer; so it only seems right to be jumping on that social media train with them and watching the journeys unfold! Now, social media (in my opinion) has primarily one of two functions – either individually promoted posts strewn across the interwebs in hopes that someone – anyone – will acknowledge them, or interactive and community building. Tumblr, for me, sits happily between the two as the perfect fusion of sharing and caring whereas sites like Instagram, Hypem and Pinterest rest their laurels on promoting your individual posts, siding more on the sharing and a little less about the caring. Yelp, for me at least, is on the other end of the spectrum – they’ve built an entire enterprise on helping people cultivate a “small town” community in a big ass city; exhibit (a): me in Los Angeles.

Over the course of my five years in Los Angeles I’ve developed quite the knack for being social media savvy – especially when you consider the fact I dropped my Communications major before the first week of college had started. Not to say that I hadn’t grown up around all sorts of cutting edge technology and extravagant modes of communication + connection, but compared to my close circle of friends it’s something that I’ve gotten to hone in on and develop on my own time as opposed to it being force fed down my throat. When Yelp surfaced a few years back, it was a resource – a way of determining what’s hot and what’s definitely not and to be honest, it fell more on the end of promoted posts versus community outreach. Back in the beginning, I was I guess what you’d call a ‘Lurker’ – I was a non contributing member of the community down to search some data and get what I wanted but somewhere, deep in the heart of my second year something changed: I found businesses – like retail boutiques and family owned restaurants – that I thought were either misrepresented or underrepresented on Yelp and I took it upon myself to start reviewing them. And then, well, it just kinda kept going…and going; what started out as a save-me-from-my-own-boredom style hobby fully escalated to being a Yelp Elite in ’11. What’s that you ask? Oh, just a collection of the nicest, friendliest foodies you’ll ever meet: we get to go to kickass events, try out tasting menus and explore the heart of our cities thanks to our amazing Elite Team Leaders but get something straight before you join, you gotta give a little to get a little – kapish? Over the course of a calendar year, I probably pen at least 100 reviews – yeah, I know what you’re thinking: that’s a lot of opinion! But I love it…I love telling stories and letting people in on the good parts of my life; I like letting people live vicariously through my proudest moments and my failures. Ultimately, it comes down to this – I love sharing, and Yelp has given me a great, warm and welcoming community to do it with.

My +1, with his flare

This past Monday, our Fearless LA Leaders took us out on the town to celebrate the amazing things that we’ve done and give us a taste of good things to come! Due to scheduling, time conflicts and availability I’ve only been to a handful of Elite events – of the ones I can remember, only a tasting at The Grill at the Beverly Center and a Spa Night at Blue Medi Spa. Truth be told, after I won their amazing Spa Package I had a heart-to-heart with myself and thought I’d rather sit a few out since I’d been so blessed with amazing luck and opportunity; but, when Yelp’s ‘Rock the Yacht’ event cshowed up on my radar there was absolutely no way I could say no – especially since there was a plus one! Ps. Ladies, take note – the key to a man’s heart is through his stomach – so, due to the transitive properties of math: being Yelp Elite is sexy, right? Right!

When Monday night came around I literally couldn’t sit still at work because I was so excited! One perk about working from home is that every half hour, I’d peruse my closet in search of anything nautical – I had snazzy stripes and a crisp color combination of blue, white and black in mind; and my closet delivered! We showed up to the Hornblower in Marina Del Rey around 6:30 and I’m so glad we did, the yacht was almost at capacity and it would have been beyond a shame to not get in. There was a hosted, open bar and so, so many vendors – including, but definitely not limited to: Bombay Sapphire, Hamilton Wines, Beach Pizza, Pork Belly’s Sandwich Shop, Krave Jerky, Balvenie Single Malt Scotch, Grants Scotch Whisky, Scott Cellars, B Sweet, Sapporo and Stella Rosa Wines. Needless to say, I left with a big smile and a full (and slightly tipsy!) belly. Kudos to Hamilton Wines, Beach Pizza, Grants Whiskey and B Sweet for finding permanent homes in my heart and a mega-huge thank you to Katie B, The LA Yelp Elites and Yelp in general for always putting on such great events with amazing crowds. Until the next one; xx!

The collection of Cheesecakes from B Sweet

The Winner: Glazed Donut Cheesecake

Sunset on the Marina

Tech Tuesday: Facebook Announces ‘Graphic Searches’

January 15, 2013January 15, 2013Leave a comment

It’s an Announcement, Bitches.
Facebook announcement days are always interesting ones – everyone crowds around their computer, headphones in their ears in a silent unison; seated in the most comfortable position possible to acknowledge what privacy settings are going to be thwarted today. Only, this morning’s Facebook announcement wasn’t about privacy, timeline conversions or a new API – today’s announcement was much, much bigger than that.

Facebook Graphic Search
First and foremost, I want to give Google credit where it’s due – their search algorithms are beyond out of this world and I really wish I could crack them; they’re starting to roll out personalized searches (which I just signed up for) and Facebook’s new ‘Graphic Search’ feature definitely takes a page from their book. But, unlike Google – they took the idea and ran a marathon with it: the GUI looks absolutely incredible and I want it now.

What this new search allows for is data dives into user content to search for answers to questions you haven’t even thought of yet, like:

How many of my girl friends in Hollywood own miniature dogs and love cupcakes?
Do any of my Hippie friends in Echo Park and Venice have a job and a car?

The crazy thing to me is that not only will you be able to search through your friends – you’ll be able to search the general Facebook public as well.

The Bottom Line
This doesn’t just make us more searchable for our friends, this simple feature will make it easier for Brands to perform deep data dives which help determine the value of each and every ad, as well as helping to boost site revenue via impeccable product placement. With new ways to search our Timelines, I’m guessing this also means more security measures to prevent unwanted data mining.

Patience Doesn’t Have To Be a Virtue
If you’re like me, when you want something – you want it now: if you wanted it in five minutes, you would ask for it in five minutes – correct? Anyhow, I digress. But Facebook is rolling out it’s new Graphic Search to anyone who’s willing to be one of their Beta Test Bunnies, so if you’re down for the get down – enroll right here.

The Audiofiles: [Shameless Plug] Beatnet EDM Forums

January 9, 2013August 14, 2013Leave a comment

One of the effects of living in Los Angeles, is that everyone, their mom and their step brother’s cousin’s dog has a side project that they’re feverishly working on.

Some people end up forfeiting nights out with their closest friends so they can turn their apartment into a deco-collage of crumbled paper, scribbled gibberish and lofty dreams; others end up with insomnia and a stomach ache – they eat, sleep and breathe these ideas and suddenly find their entire mind, body and spirit have been taken over by the ghost of what-could–be. Their passion is the difference between deference and pursuit; their perseverance is that thin line between fantasy and reality.

Passion, like happiness, is contagious.
The difference is that happiness can be passed from person to person on a completely subconscious level: I’m listening to a favorite song and drive into work, when I flash my badge a smile shows in tandem; the next person who enters the studio lot sees some pearly whites, no longer hidden by a stern look but framed by a smile and in parallel, one cracks on their face. And so on, and so forth, ad infinitum. Passion, on the other hand, is that fine line between action and reaction. Passion can’t exist without proactivity, nor would it exist without people to share it with.

Timing is Everything
The great thing about friends, especially as you enter adulthood (…I never said I was there yet; merely entering…) is you find symmetry in each others lives and ironically beautiful parallels between what moves us and what we want to accomplish. A few months ago, I was approached by a friend about an idea they had; and I sat there, open minded and ready to listen. This idea they had, they literally wanted to hit the ground running; they claimed it was only a side project – but what my heart translated was: ‘It’s only my everything.’

She wanted a place where music lovers, creators and promoters could get together and share sets, techniques and knowledge; in a sense, a forum for any and everything related to electronic music and the eclectic culture that surrounds it.

Some people need to be careful what they wish for; we are not those people.

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
― Aldous Huxley, Music At Night: And Other Essays

Beatnet EDM isn’t just the fabulous brain child of one of my best friends: it’s also an amazing resource for anyone remotely addicted to those four to the floor beats, pounding baselines, dissonant drops. Whether you’re a promoter looking for new acts, a DJ wondering what song they should open with or you just want to complain about how Americans are ruining dubstep – Beatnet is for you; so go ahead, check it out! Browse our blog, send us some tweets or subscribe and get in on the real chatter; who knows, you could even win a 3 Day Pass to EDC!

Monthly Subcription Boxes: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

January 4, 2013August 14, 20131 Comment

A few weeks ago, I was on this major beauty buying binge; I swear there literally wasn’t a single item at Sephora that didn’t deserve a place in my boudoir. Each time I opened a package from their website, it felt exactly like Christmas – especially with the plethora of free samples they give out (I swear, I could start a mini-perfume shop by now). But then, I started seeing Instagram and Twitter posts from my friends, boasting about their holiday ‘Boxes. My immediate thought was – “…boxes?! What am I missing out on?!” And as it turns out, a LOT!

So many different websites, PR companies and socially savvy sites are putting together these fun and fabulous ‘goodie‘ boxes that get sent out to subscribers either monthly and seasonally, both paid for and free. Oh, yeah – you read that right: free. You can sign up for a monthly subscription that rolls over until you say ‘quit’, 3 month, 6 month and 12 month subscriptions.

My Influenster VoxBox!

Boxes on Boxes on Boxes.
And at this point there’s basically a subscription box for everything: Beauty, art, crafts, sport, food – you name it, there’s a box full of it. There are monthly boxes for couples and there are boxes for your pets; boxes for sustainability loving, EcoConscious souls, paranoid Survivalists, worldly Foodies , Bookworms, Geeks and inner Glamazons.

Boxes on a Budget.
If you’re anything like me, then you’ve probably perfected the art of ‘ballin’ on a budget‘: I have big dreams, expensive taste and a small bank account. After finally budgeting myself this past Fall, I’ve started honing in on the ways to get the best bang for my buck, and enjoy it, too. One of my Twitter friends (don’t lie, you have them too) posted an awesome picture of like six or seven of her gift boxes the other week and my eyes literally bugged out of my head – that’s so much swag! A tinge of jealousy crossed my body and then I relaxed again, I’d find a way – I knew I would. I did some research on the boxes she posted and found out a social PR site called Influenster: they focus on social and digital PR, but instead of using company specialists – they let the Trendsetters do the talking. The website is built around user reviews, pictures, Q&A boards and chatter; simply put, it’s where social media junkies go to gush and reap the rewards.

I just got my first box from Influenster and have been slowly but surely trying out all the fun products. In our holiday VoxBox, we were given products from companies like Goodie, NYC, Montagne Jeneusse, Sole Society, Natural Energy and KISS Nails. Slowly but surely, I’ve been making my way through the plethora of products. The inner child in me says “DO IT ALL NOW!”, but I’m trying to be an adult (keyword: trying) and savor this experience – and so far, so good! Last night, I tried out the chocolate face masque from Montagne Jeunesse – it left my face feeling fabulous…and my sink looking a dingy brown. Loved the result but if I had my way, I would have picked a different flavor. This morning I dove head first into Quaker’s peach + almond oatmeal – since I actually detest oatmeal, I thought this experience would be over fairly quickly but to my surprise, I found it absolutely delicious; I might even go buy oatmeal for the first time in my life – fancy that one! And to boot, I swooped in on a $25 off coupon for SoleSociety and found myself a pair of sparkly flats that I fell in lust with. Needless to say, I’m anxiously waiting for the next one!

Quaker Real Medleys: Peach and Almond

Chocolate Face Masque

Tech Tuesday: Alpha Beta’s and the Wonderful World of Netflix

December 4, 2012August 14, 20131 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘Tech Tuesday‘ segment – but that’s because there hasn’t been a whole new lot to report. From my perspective, ever since the big Apple unveiling all has been more or less quiet in the world of beeps and bit logic – but, this week I definitely see some moving and shaking on my radar.

Alpha Beta‘s

When you breathe, sleep and eat tech, there’s nothing quite as exciting as getting to preview and help debug early renditions of applications and web clients. Back when AOL Instant Messenger was still fairly relevant, they had a portion of the webpage for their chat client devoted to Beta testing – we would get the client first, sure – there’d be some bugs here and awkward application crashes over there, but overall it was pretty neat playing around with brand spankin’ new features.

When the Facebook timeline was introduced and everyone was bitching about converting their profile, I took the exact opposite approach. Because I knew I’d be forced to use it anyways I decided to become an early adapter. When Timeline was introduced, Facebook wanted any and all willing developers to get with it and start creating new applications and widgets for the Timeline – but for them to use the API, they first had to understand it. This meant that developers were given a first pass at the timeline. Am I a Facebook developer? Definitely not! But, that’s pretty inconsequential at this point: I told Facebook that I was and that I wanted to create a new application, but I was required to produce or release a public, or final, product. The next time I opened up my user profile – babam, I was Timelined.

The Old:

The New:

Currently, Firefox has a web browser sitting in Beta testing – just waiting on people like me, and maybe even you, to come by and give it a whirl before it’s rolled out to the general public. Why is it worth testing? Firefox just added Facebook messenger to their Beta test. So now, instead of being forced to keep a Facebook tab open to facilitate chat – meaning you can roam the web as you please with your posse in tow and stop liking so many cat pictures. To boot, I can finally do away with the Facebook Toolbar add-in that I’ve been so loyal to over the past year.

Disney and Netflix: Streaming Sweetly

Huge huge huge news for Disney lovers, Netflix addicts and anyone paying attention to streaming media! This morning, the Walt Disney Studios and Netflix got together and kicked out a multiyear licensing agreement granting Netflix exclusive rights to Disney’s movie library which includes catalog titles, direct to video titles and New Releases.

Typically, this content is reserved for HBO, Showtime and Starz which make this a huge deal in the studio world; marking the first time a major Hollywood movie studio granted rights to a provider of streaming content over a premium TV network. Starting on Tuesday, members can start perusing the Disney catalog titles and by the time Spring of 2013 rolls around, Netflix users will be able to watch direct-to-video releases the same day they’re released in stores. Unfortunately, some movies distributed by the Walt Disney Company are still under contract with Starz and those won’t be rolling out until 2016. This deal comes approximately two years after Netflix began streaming Disney and ABC Family TV shows within weeks of the air date.

To me, this has super interesting implications – first of all, the Disney online store is saying goodbye to the world; meaning that Netflix will be the one and only place to go if you want to stream Disney content. Secondly, with a decreased presence on Network and Cable television, it should catapult amount of monthly streaming subscribers on Netflix – a path they’re willing to walk since they’re planning on phasing out their physical DVD services.

Secondly, since Disney has a hand in the ESPN cookie jar – would this pave the way for streaming live sports content? You could even have MLB, NFL or NBA streaming packages that you can subscribe to through the ESPN website or strictly through Netflix – the possibilities are basically endless!