d.i.y. - it feels good.

designing . touching . making . creating

all the various bits and pieces for our celebration 

is not only incredibly economical but 

OH SO GRATIFYING !

sneak peek

been quite busy working on multiple projects.  more to come. 

d.i.y. chalkboard

Was recently introduced to chalkboard paint.  This is such a rad concept because you can make anything a chalkboard surface!  I am sure you can OVERDUE the use of this big time! In an effort to play, but not overdue, I have been creating small framed chalkboards.  I made this one here for me and e:

Basically, I am just repurposing old picture frames or framed mirrors that I am picking up from thrift stores for just a few bucks at most.  This one above was a picture frame, so I painted the frame a light blue, and then the glass of the picture frame is painted with chalkboard paint.  Pretty cool, eh?!

I made my friends a white one, and photo doc-ed the project so I could share it here, with you!

Above is the mirror I found at a thrift store in Concord for $2.99.  I know it's hard to even notice the frame with gorgeous Zoe admiring herself in the mirror... 

It was easy to take the mirror apart.  All I needed was a screwdriver and the frame popped right off the mirror.  Below is the frame after I spray painted it white.  

Then I painted the mirror piece with chalkboard spray paint. 

Then reassembled the mirror - screwed it back together.  Eh, voila.

easy as pie

Side note,  after creating this, I had spray paint guilt.  It can't be good for the environment, right?!  So, I did some googling...  And as I suspected, not great for the world.  Just like the car.  Hey L, what's the name of that website you were telling me about a while back... where you can find out what products are good/bad for the environment?  

o m a r ' s ABCs

It nearly took 1 year to complete, but I am so happy to announce that the alphabet block project I have been working on for my nephew Omar is complete.  We gave them to him yesterday during his 2nd birthday celebration. I photo documented the entire process, and I really LOVE the finished product.

Last March, Jesse and I journeyed to San Francisco, met up with Zeina, and headed to Urban Hardware to see our friend Mason at his new location.  A wheelbarrow filled with small wooden blocks sat at the storefront.  I asked Mason what these were used for, and he replied that they were decoration, however they kept children entertained as the parents looked around.  I asked him if I could purchase some, as immediately I knew what I wanted to do with them.  He kindly suggested I just take them which was totally awesome and generous!

They were small unfinished wooden blocks - with rough edges desperately needing to be sanded down.  So that became my first step:

Next step involved painting all the sides white.  I searched all over for non-toxic kid friendly paint, and found a few different options out there, but felt most comfortable with what University Art on J. Street had to offer.

Non-toxic paint:

After all sides were painted white, I then painted borders in various colors around each edge of the blocks.  Every step involving painting was pretty time intensive as you had to wait for sides to dry in order to begin opposite sides.  

And finally - adding letters!!  I tried to do each side with various styles, uppercase, lowercase, fancy, serif, san serif...  Zeina was able to help with some of these as well!

sarah barkawi

And the finished product was boxed up in a nice wooden box and opened by lil Omar yesterday at his birthday brunch!!  Super stoked about this entire project!

If you are interested in doing this yourself, you can find unfinished wooden blocks available for sale.  I am thinking about repeating this project so I did a little searching, and if you google "unfinished wooden blocks" all sorts of options appear.