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Last Minute DIY Halloween Mask

If you still haven't organized your Halloween costume and you're feeling crafty, check out Steve  Wintercroft's UK website. You can purchase (for around USD $10) and download a template for a cool low poly mask that you can print out and assemble yourself. We made the bear, at my place. It looks so cool that we're probably not even going to paint it, though you could. The instructions call for Elmers white glue (they call it something different in England),…

(Butternut) Pumpkin Risotto

Roasting veggies is one of my favorite things to do (and eat!) when the weather cools down. The Word Health Organization's announcement this week that processed meat causes cancer, and that red meat probably does, gave me (and everyone else who cooks for themselves and their family) pause. So, I pulled out some of my favorite cookbooks for inspiration. You can use any basic risotto recipe for this dish. Simply start by peeling and chopping up a whole butternut, splashing…

DIY Painted Pumpkins and other Halloween spookiness

I'm painting instead of carving this Halloween. Pearlized paint from my local craft supplies shop, transformed these grocery store pumpkins into magical fairy tale creations. It was an easy job which I did over the course of an evening to allow for drying time between the two coats needed for coverage. Bandage-style ribbon and stick-on wiggle eyes turned the biggest gourd into a mummy. The painted pumpkins plus a pair of black tinsel wreaths were fun upgrades to my small…

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(Fall) Flowers at my place

Changing the flowers at my place is an easy way to decorate for Fall. Chrysanthemums are an inexpensive flower to use when bringing Fall colors into the house. I've combined pink Spider Chrysanthemums alternating with rust colors of the same variety to create a modern Fall bouquet. You might remember the white orchid planter we made here for the summer. Once the flowers began to drop from the stems, I moved the old plants outside to rehab them, and swapped…

Día de Muertos & Halloween cupcakes

While these two traditions are celebrated on the same day their origins are not believed to overlap. Dia de Muertos is the Mexican tradition when people gather together to pray for and remember close family and friends who have died. The holiday is observed on October 31 and skulls and skeletons are used as symbols to support the dead on their spiritual journey. Halloween, also celebrated on October 31 has it's roots in Celtic harvest festivals. A fun holiday, this…

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Favorite places – Magnolia Bakery, Los Angeles

I love hearing about other people's favorite places, and then exploring them myself. It's a great shortcut to discovering the hidden gems in each city and town you find yourself in. It was kind of weird when my own son took me to his favorite L.A. bakery. He knows things now! I absolutely love where he took me. It was hot and humid outside. The sun was really burning. We parked, then walked along West Third Street, three blocks east…

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5 Delicious DIYs

Once a month, I get to sit with a bunch of women and men, many who are friends, and play - we draw, we paint, we sculpt. It's such a cool  break from our everyday lives. We take the lessons we've learned and teach them in schools. It's a fantastic program called Young At Art designed by parents, to make up for the lack of funding for the visuals arts in schools. We get to go out into the schools…

New look!

Welcome to my new look blog. I've been thinking about how I wanted to update "Trace" since the beginning of summer, but it took me a while to pin down how I wanted it to change, and how to go about making that happen. I spoke with a web designer friend who wanted to know what style I was after. More decisions that I didn't know how to make. Last week I started looking at templates online. They've come a…

tiny house inspiration – links

Jessica Helgerson designed tiny house. Sauvie Island, Portland (source: lincolnbarbour.com) The popularity of tiny houses and micro apartments is gaining momentum, especially in and around high density American cities like San Francisco and New York, but these well thought out, compact gems have a lot teach us all. Cost is one of the most compelling motivators for living small. The thought of making less of an impact on the earth is another one. (more…)

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flowers at my place – modern roses

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought roses this week. Roses do not like the heat and Los Angeles's heat wave does not look like letting up any time soon. These pretty yellow flowers were tightly closed and amazing value at my local (air conditioned!) supermarket at $12.99 for 18 long-stemmed roses. While not often used in modern arrangements, you can make any flower work in a modern setting by keeping it simple and upping the drama.…

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