Tori Spelling

One lady that defines the “mompreneur” title is Tori Spelling. In yesteryear she was Donna Martin from 90210, but now she is a bestselling author with four books under her belt and a new one launching next week, a jewelry designer, a craft designer, the owner of a home and lifestyle store in LA called "Inventori"  and the star of the Oxygen reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood

Tori's family with baby Hattie in US Weekly

She is a creative woman with great taste and attention to detail which can be seen in her beautiful website called "ediTORIal" It features style tips for the home (Dwell) and your closet (Style), party ideas (Entertain), recipes (Eat), creative projects (Craft), lifestyle articles (Live), parenting tips (Raise), relationship advice (Love), and updates on all her businesses ventures (Launch).

"Dwell" Interior decor on 'ediTORIal" website

Most of the stories featured on the ediTORIal website have a personal angle, for example she will show how she cooked a particular meal with family snapshots alongside the recipes, or a picTORIal from a recent family holiday or vacation.

Tori's family on 'ediTORIal' website

One of my favorite aspects of the show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood is the various parties she organizes for her children, friends and charities. The parties usually have a theme such as a children’s “Hello Kitty” or “Ghostbuster” party or a “Vintage Bunny” baby shower. Now Tori is sharing her expertise in a new book about party planning called “CelebraTORI” out April 3rd (pre-order on Amazon.com). 

Tori's new party planning book 'CelebraTORI"

She will be doing a book tour in LA and New York, unfortunately no San Francisco date, but my friends and I loved meeting her and her gay husband Mehran when she was promoting her “Uncharted TerriTORI” book. She was very charming and personal by taking the time to engage with everyone who stood outside in line on a foggy day. I also got a kick out of her taking particular interest in the bright yellow necklace I was wearing that day!

Meeting Tori Spelling in San Francisco

When you see Tori organizing a party or wedding on TV, she is running around multi-tasking the goodie bags, overseeing the dessert table and making flower arrangements, it is clear that Tori Spelling is the one in control and fanatic about detail. She is also an avid crafter who wants to make arts and crafts cool. To help get in touch with your inner-crafter, Tori will be the host and executive producer of a new TLC show called "Craft Wars" airing on June 26^th. The show will feature craft enthusiasts competing against each other in two rounds of challenges with Tori as their mentor.

Tori will host "Craft Wars" TV show

Tori Spelling also launched a new craft and stationary line on HSN last month which featured tasteful graphics in beautiful color palettes. The line included a stationary thoughts card kit, a stamp, block and card kit, a memory book kit and a craft clutch bag for your tools and materials.

Tori's new stationary & craft line on HSN

On top of all that, last week Tori announced that she is pregnant with her fourth child after only giving birth to her daughter last year. How does she find the time and energy to pursue all these creative ventures and run a family? Who knows, but we enjoy watching and following her inspirational triumphs along the way!

Start The Week Off On a Happy Note!

It’s hard getting motivated at the beginning of the week, so surprise your other half or colleague by serving their morning cup of Joe in these adorable coffee cup wrappers. They are available as free printables on the "Eat,drink,Chic" blog  by Amy Moss. 

Cup wrapper printables on 'Eat, drink, Chic' blog

Another way to cheer you and your loved one up is by hanging up this compliment bunting to give the words of encouragement you both need. The creative blog "How about Orange" offers a downloadable file to make them yourself!

Bunting on 'How about Orange" blog

Valentine's Day Crafts, Food & Gifts

Valentine’s Day is creeping up so here are some fun activities and gift ideas for the loved ones in your life.

For the Kids:

It is fun to make handmade crafts like love hearts or decorate cute photo frames with glitter and paint.

I adore this LOVE banner in my favorite circus inspired font by Roselyn Hellard, you can follow a tutorial on how to make it on her blog at Second street. You can also make your own version using different colored paper or fabric. 

atsecondstreet blog banner

Let them help with breakfast by making heart shaped pancakes with strawberries or bake cupcakes together with pink frosting and sprinkles. A good tip to create the heart shape is to insert a marble at the top of the paper case before you put the batter inside to create a heart shaped cake or muffin.

Pinterest

For Him:

The new David Beckham range of underwear for H&M was the perfect gift for my husband this year; it also gave me an excuse to gaze at Golden Balls himself. Very sexy…and the underwear isn’t bad either!

David Beckham Underwear for H&M

For Her

A woman can never have too many handbags, so check out this red suede purse ($90) which is perfect for Valentine's Day, and deep red leather tote bag ($135.00) from British fashion designer Julie Williams who deconstructs one-of-a-kind accessories from vintage fabrics especially leather and denim.  

Julie William's red suede purse

Julie explains to The Marin Scoop:

"I am given jeans and leather as donations from friends and family which it makes it inexpensive except for hardware, beads, thread, needles and of course the time and love that goes into making each piece. With the old saying in mind "waste not want not", I would like to recycle that by giving back to the community I live in by donating $1 for each bag sold to Homeward Bound of Marin."

Julie William's deep red leather tote

Julie's love of reconstructing fashion and her one-of-a-kind designs inspires the modern day woman to express herself and her individuality in a fun and stylish way.  

For further information and to buy product check out Julie's Etsy Store 

Indoor Play at HABITOT

If you are looking for indoor activities to do with your children during this changeable weather, check out HABITOT in Berkeley. Habitot is a children’s play and learning center with various themed areas for plenty of exploration and dramatic play.

Children can dress up as astronauts and take a ride inside a rocketship full of lights, buttons, keyboards, and phones to call mission control beside it. 

They can dress up in other costumes in front of lit up mirrors and experiment with face paints. Take a shopping trip with their carts round the fresh produce market, or splash round with water in Waterworks area.

There is a great arts and crafts room which has a huge wall for kids to grab a paintbrush and go crazy on, or sit down for organized art and craft activities. My son enjoyed discovering GAK which is similar to Playdoh but has a sticky rubbery consistence (GAK Facebook page). We also played with glue and glitter together to make a picture of his name.

There is also a small soft play area called the Infant Garden for little ones which was perfect for my 8 month daughter who is less happy to sit in her stroller and wants to join in the fun by starting to crawl and cruise around.

HABITOT has some great resources like the good selection of books in their parenting reference library with their own parenting pamphlets on useful subjects like; learning to share, how to stop biting, and how to control anger (theirs and yours). Also a toy lending service which is a wonderful idea!

The discovery museum is a small part of the large building that has been hosting classes and art programs since 1998. The appearance of the museum and its play structures reflects how long it has been open, and they welcome donations to help update their exhibit. I just wish the toy store by the entrance wasn’t so close the play areas as my son just kept wandering into it and wanting me to buy everything he picked up. 

But HABITOT is good fun, especially on a rainy day and worth checking out!

For further information and opening times, please see their website

Baby & Toddler 

Weekly Activities Calendars

Looking for something to entertain your toddler or want to reach out to new moms with babies this week?

To view this week’s activities: Click here

Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco

Zelma Rose

On Sunday a girlfriend and I went to the 3^rd Annual Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Market that took place at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. We enjoyed mooching around the local and national talent and seeing the various handmade jewelry, clothing, paper goods, artwork, posters and Concourse Exhibition Center home products.

It got our creative juices flowing and inspired us to make our own versions of some of the things we saw. Here are some of my favorite things that I wanted to share with you:

One of the first booths we visited was Yes & Yes Designs which was a lovely designer called Laura, dressed as a girl scout, who makes these wonderful vintage inspired accessories in Oakland. She designs and laser cut them herself at TechShop workshop in San Francisco.  

Laura @ Yes & Yes Designs

 I particularly loved these ‘Little Ladies’ pins that are made from old Reader’s Digest book covers, and regret not going back and getting the white one at the bottom of this picture:

Yes & Yes Designs

 Check out this great roller skate necklace:

Yes and Yes Designs

These great fabric button necklaces are by Zelma Rose Dry Goods:

Zelma Rose Dry Goods

Zelma Rose Dry Goods

I loved this fun T-shirt design from Fuzzy Ink!

Fuzzy ink T-Shirt

 This kid’s hooded sweatshirt from Diane Koss with a red fur lined hood with horns made me smile and reminded me of the monsters from Sesame Street.

Diane Koss

I adored the beautiful illustrations by Genevieve Santos who portrays the innocence of children in a very cute way; take a look at this talented artist website.

Geneieve Santos

Baby & Toddler 

Weekly Activities Calendars

Looking for something to entertain your toddler or want to reach out to new moms with babies this week?

To view this week’s activities: Click here

Best Playgrounds, Anthropologie Holiday Craft Ideas & Shopping in Madewell

Play Dates at Playgrounds

Take a look at my favorite playgrounds in Marin and other moms suggestions for the best parks in the Bay Area on the Circle of Moms website:

Shopping

While looking around the sales on Black Friday and over the weekend I found some cute things in Madewell and inspirational holiday items from Anthropologie in Corte Madera The Village.

I love the vintage style jewelry and accessories in Madewell; which is becoming my favorite store.

Black and white stripe bangle:

Madewell Bangle $7.00

Looking glass charm that can be attached to a delicate gold chain with three adjustable loops

Madewell Charm $12.00

These items are on my wish list:

Brown buttery soft leather bag:

Madewell Caravan bag $178.00

Brown leather biker boots:

Madewell Boots $248.00

Holiday Craft Ideas

There are some great crafts and holiday decorations in Anthropologie, I thought these snow globes made out of upside down mason jars filled with salt and little silver trees inside were a great idea to make yourself:

Anthropologie Mason jars $28 - 38.00

These sparkly birds with feather tails are beautiful:

Anthropologie Ornament $22.00

I managed to find a similar one in Michaels, along with the gold garland and glitter bow for my mantelpiece:

You could also go on a nature walk with your little one and collect pinecones, acorns and feathers to paint and make your own little creatures like this one from Anthropologie:

Anthropologie Hedgehog $12.00

Decorate big golden leaves with glitter and turn them into bunting or simply painting pinecones with gold or silver paint and place them on the mantelpiece, shelves or hang from fishing wire. They all make inexpensive holiday decorations and fun craft projects to do on rainy days!

Baby & Toddler 

Weekly Activities Calendars

Looking for something to entertain your toddler or want to reach out to new moms with babies this week?

To view this week’s activities: Click here

Land of Nod & Dwellstudio's New Furniture Collection

The new fall collection catalogs are arriving in our mail boxes this month and I wanted to share a couple of my favorites: The Land of Nod and Dwellstudio

The Land of Nod

Their colorful catalogue is full of wonderful gift ideas for the holiday season. Their durable wooden toys will last a life time and my son would love their Firehouse Collection

I grew up in a nation that runs on drinking tea, so I can’t wait to start having tea parties with my daughter, I love this eco-friendly 17 piece Tea Set that she can get her little teeth into, it is 100% recycled from milk jugs!

I am always looking for crafty ideas to decorate the kid’s bedrooms and love this make your own Fabric Chain Garland

DwellStudio

I am a fan of Dwellstudio's soft furnishings and their more affordable line for Target so I am super excited about their new furniture collection. Their couches, in particular, look great in wonderful colors and bold patterns. They also have unusual storage units that have a sleek vintage feel.

I dream of the day when the kids are grown, and I can decorate my house with these fabulous pieces without fear of sticky fingers and pen marks getting all over them. View their new Catalog online.

Baby & Toddler 

Weekly Activities Calendars

Looking for something to entertain your toddler or want to reach out to new moms with babies this week?

To view this week’s activities: Click here