How to Go to a Sporting Event/the Races & Why you Should!

This will be kind of an odd/unnecessary/short post.

For Christmas 2013, I decided to out-do myself and all my prior Christmas presents to my family.  Money is just money, and I'd rather them have really cool gifts.  

For my dad this past year, I bought him tickets to all 4 days of Winternationals.  Winternationals are the drag races held in Pomona, California every February.  It's the start of the season.  Then, in November, the finals are held in the same place.  

My dad and I frequent these events because they are really fun and a great way to spend time together.  

Dad and I at the finals 2013

Not so sure when this one is from. I think it might have started raining.

Note my crazy hair and my dad's awesome shirt!

This one was taken at a NASCAR race, in March a few years back!

Right before we got rained out! Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014

I often will have my dad pose in front of things for pictures.

I really enjoy it.

No, seriously, it's my favorite activity.

See the sun on our faces?

Friday, February 7, 2014.

I love these pictures! The way I presented this present to my dad was by filling a huge frame with construction paper and these photos. Then I gave him his tickets in a nice plastic folder for safe keeping.

 Now he has a cute wall decoration and a folder to hold his things in.

I think that going to events like NHRA drag races can be a great experience. You can find interests between yourself and others and go out and enjoy yourself.  It's really nice to get out of the house and go on an adventure sometimes, and it's easy to find inexpensive days to do such! For NHRA events, you can save $7-8 on ticket prices just by bringing in a Mello Yello can or bottle.  I bought my dad's tickets on the NHRA website for $130 total, including all four days.  You can save a lot this way!

Races are awesome ways to bond with your parents, significant others, friends, and other family! You learn more about each other and get to share in the excitement. 

Now on to the actual "How-to".

California usually has awesome weather to be outside in, but February and November tend to be really chilly.  We have made several mistakes with what we have taken before, but those days are long in our past.  

We now know what to take with us.  Bleachers hurt to sit on after a time.  It can get really really cold, and those bleachers will only make it worse.  You'll get hungry and thirsty. I highly recommend you take a backpack with you, and fill it with some key items!

In your backpack:

1. Sunscreen, if necessary. Some events are hot and bright.
2. Jackets. Trust me, you'll need them.  We've gone to events that start in the day and seem hot, only to find it freezing after dark.
3. Sunglasses. It gets really bright! 
4. Small Blanket. GREAT to keep you warm and keep the wind off of you. You can also sit on it if you need to!
5. Seat Cushions. You REALLY need these, or something to substitute them with, like a small blanket or sweatshirt.
6. Snacks. We like Cheez-its!
7. Soda/Water.  It can get expensive buying snacks and drinks at events.  We've found that they don't care what you bring in, as long as it's not alcohol.
8. Hand Sanitizer. Port-a-potty's, need I say more?
9. Ear Plugs. If you're going to the races, you'll probably need these.  It can get VERY loud.  & even though I can handle it without them, I like to use them to protect my ears. 

On your person:

1. Layers, layers, layers! You will seriously high five yourself!

I'll definitely add to these lists if I think of more things you'd need to bring!

That being said, have fun at the Drags! :] ♥

My dad was SO excited he wrote it down in his calendar the day he got it.

This is what the tickets look like if you buy them online.

Pomona Fairplex.

Please let me know if you have any tip/tricks  to going to events, and what your family likes to do together!
 ♥ Riley

Engagement News!

My best friend is getting married!! 

Hayah, that is. 

Here we are at our "engagement shoot", after she had told me her amazing news!

If you read my blog, you know that I talk about her constantly.  She's my best friend of 12 years, and we're inseparable.  

I knew that there was talk about her getting married, but I was still so surprised to learn that she was engaged.  It seemed to come out of nowhere.  

Before I go on, I just want to say that the lucky guy is an amazing kid who I know will make her happy in life.  He's sweet and kind and pretty much a male Hayah.  

They had known each other for years before their announcement.  Their families have always been good friends and gotten along well.  It really only made sense that they would become family themselves. 

It's so exciting to see her life unfolding before me.  We've been there for each other in thick and thin for everything. See, the thing is, we've never really had bad patches. We've never been fair-weather friends.  We don't only call each other for the bad, or for the good either.  Our friendship is life-encompassing.  

Her engagement party was amazing.  It was a traditional Muslim affair, and it was beautiful.  It was intimate, with only family and some friends invited. [The wedding will be packed, however.]

Hayah and I, on her engagement day. ♥ [I love borrowing her clothes!]

Cute little table decorations outside, where the kids sat!

This picture is a little blurry, but I love all the flowers on her! This also shows her mehndi [or, henna] and her new shiny engagement ring!

Treats I made for the event! Mickey and Minnie Mouse chocolate dipped oreos!

The best girls I know, or the self-deemed "Bridesmaids"! :]

They had these adorable boxes of treats made up with their names on the ribbon!

Her BEAUTIFUL engagement ring that I just had to steal to take a picture of.

It was a very sweet ceremony, and we have hundreds of thousands of pictures to remember it by! 

I don't really feel comfortable posting pictures of people without their approval, so that's it for now! But isn't it just the sweetest?

Update: I now have approval to post some more pictures, this time with the groom-to-be, as well! 

Hayah's house was done up beautifully for the event, with lights, curtains, chairs, rugs, tents, you name it!

All of the pictures captured are sooo cute.  It's hard to have them be anything else with how adorable they are!

All the girls got ready together. I can't post pictures of that, but here was my  look!

Gal-pals, the bride, and the groom!

I feel the need to tell you all that this photo was staged! We forced them to reenact the proposal so that we could film it. They've already thanked us for making them do this!

They're currently hoping for a December wedding, and I cannot wait.  More opportunities to wear shalwar kameez? I'm in! 

♥Riley 

P.S. If you're reading this Hayah, sorry if it was awkward! LOL

Valentine's Day!: Cookie Valentine Pockets ♥

Here is another quick and easy craft, just in time for Valentine's Day!♥

For this craft, you'll need: 

• Two or more colors of felt, 25-33 cents each
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks, or another kind of glue
• Puff Paint or other paint in a couple colors choices

All together this craft should cost you less than $1!!

 Cut out a good sized heart out of paper for your pattern.  Place the paper on biscuit colored felt and trace two hearts. This is how much of the felt sheet my biscuit pieces took up.

 A closer picture of the hearts traced on the felt.

 Then I cut out a smaller paper heart with rigged edges to look like frosting.

 You can see here, I drew a heart and then drew wavy lines around it to make it look more symmetrical.

 Here is what you should have by this point. Two biscuit heart pieces and one icing heart piece.

 Hot glue gun the pink to one of the biscuit pieces so that there are no holes.  Another way to do this would be to only glue the bottom of the heart so that it could be a pocket.

 Then glue the bottom edges of the biscuit hearts together, so that it forms a pocket.

 Here you can see that it is a pocket.

 This is what the edge looked like.  I hot glued the edges together, to save time but still make it cute.  You could also sew this all together.  Another way to do this would be to glue or sew all around the biscuit hearts and stuff them, then leave the frosting as a cute little pocket. 

 Then add some decorations! I put little blue sprinkles on using deep turquoise puffy paint.

Then I added little pink dots to add some more dimension to the heart!

Thank you for reading! I would love to see if you made a biscuit heart pocket like this! 

♥Riley

P.S. I think this would be a really cute way to give candy or a note to your Valentine! Send me a picture if you make this craft and show me what you put in your pocket! :]

Valentine's Day!: Puffy Hearts ♥

Here is a very simple Valentine's Day craft!

You could make one as a Valentine for someone, or you could even make a bunch of them and hang them from a tree or around your house!

The best thing about them is that you can personalize the colors and styles.

You will need: 

• Two colors of felt, 25-33 cents each
• Embroidery floss
• Needle
• Stuffing

All together this craft should cost you less than $1!

 First thing's first! Make a stencil.  Now, we all know how to make a perfectly symmetrical heart! Think back to elementary school and fold a paper in half.  Cut a half heart out of it and unfold it. Voila! A perfectly symmetrical heart.

 Cut two larger hearts out of red if you're copying mine, or whichever other colors if you are making it different from mine!

 Sew a smaller heart onto the front of one of the larger hearts.

 Here is a zoomed up picture of the top heart.  It isn't perfect, but that's why I like it!

 Sew the two larger hearts together! I pinned them together to try and keep them straight for this step.

 Before you have finished sewing it all together, stuff it to optimal stuffiness.

Sew it shut and you're done! This is a really easy craft to do if you know how to sew or are learning how to sew.  It is very inexpensive to make and I think they are very cute!

DIY Glitter Ocean Chevron Themed Phone Cases!

DIY Glitter Ocean Chevron Themed Phone cases!

It's so much more beautiful in person, but hard to photograph!

What you will need for the Chevron Print:

• A Plain Phone Case, Plastic Preferred, $~2 on Amazon
• Glitter in a Couple Different Shades, Any Craft Store
• Mod Podge, Craft Stores/WalMart
• Electrician's Tape or Any Other Non-Sticky Adhesive
• Foam Brush or a Throw Away Brush

For the 3-D Elements you will need:

• Sea Shell and Bubble Buttons, $2-4 a Pack at Michael's, I Used Parts of 3
• Any Other Decoration
• Rope for a Bow, I Already Had Some on Hand
• E-6000, Hot Glue, or Another Strong Adhesive
• Nail Clippers

"Tiny Seashells" and "Bubbles" from Dress It Up, found at Michael's

"Seashells at the Seashore" from Dress It Up.  I chose to use plastic seashells for durability.

Here are some of my glitters I thought about using.  The teal and blue in the fat containers are the ones I ended up using, and are found in a set of 12 at Michael's.  I used a 40% off coupon and they were around $5-6 I think.  

The long skinny containers are from Walmart and were much less in price.  They are much chunkier.

The ones in the little baggies are from the Dollar Tree. 

The gunmetal glitter in the big ziploc is from Hobby Lobby.

I first tried to figure out how I wanted to use the bubbles.  When I bought the buttons I had no idea how I was going to use them.  I thought it would be cute to focus them around the top of the phone, where the camera and speaker are!

These are all of my buttons laid out.  To get them to stick to the case, you have to clip the backs of them off of the buttons.  The little semi-circles in the box are what the backs look like after they had been clipped off.  I have found that nail clippers work the best for taking these off, thanks to a suggestion from my dad!

Then I got to work on a stencil for the chevron print.  Electrician's tape isn't very sticky and leaves no residue, so I used it.  I took cardstock and drew a little chevron print.  I measured it out but I don't quite remember my measurements. I just wanted it to be very uniform.  Then I took electrician's tape and covered the card stock.  I cut the excess off, so that the points were cut. 

This is what my measurements looked like on the front. 

After I had cut out the points, I put a strip of Electrician's tape over the other tape.  This way, I could peel it off itself, and not touch the tape on the paper.  It shreds the paper if you peel it off.

Then I cut the excess black tape off and peeled it off.

I put it on the case where I wanted to protect it.  I centered it the way I wanted so that I could add Mod Podge.

This makes a pretty good stencil, but I'm sure there are other ways too! I might have made it sound complicated, but it really wasn't.  I had to replace my tape a couple times, because glitter would get stuck to it.

These are the supplies I needed for the next part.

Dab the Mod Podge on generously.  Don't drown it, but make sure it's covered well.

Add the glitter! I used a translucent kind of white shade, that I would probably describe as snow colored, for the top.  I let it dry for a minute and shook of the excess.  Then I dabbed on more Mod Podge and gave it a second coat.  This is the easiest time to give it a second coat, before all the other layers have been applied.

Decide how large you want your second stripe to be, and secure your stencil.  Then repeat dabbing on the Mod Podge and sprinkling on the glitter. 

This is how I ended up doing mine!  It's very different than what I first wanted to do, but I like it so much better!  The glitter had not fully dried for any of the layers before I would go on to the next.  I was impatient!  The only problem with this is that it's still a little squishy and easy to mess up, so be careful :]

I used E-6000 to secure the bubbles where I wanted them, around the top.  Then I used it to secure the seashells.  I started with the bottom shells, then attached the other seashells where I wanted them.

It took me a couple tries of moving them around to get them where I wanted.  I remembered I had beachy looking rope and tied a little bow with it.  I used E-6000 for this too, which surprised me.  I thought I might have to use hot glue, but the E-6000 worked great!

 These were taken very early in the morning by whatever possessed me to make this phone case so late in the night!  This craft took me a couple of hours to do, but I love the way it turned out! There is a lot of glitter fall out, but I don't mind.  If you don't want yours to do that, dab on Mod Podge over the finished piece.  It won't be as sparkly, but you won't lose much glitter.

The snapchat I sent out once I had finished it! Ignore me.

I loved doing this phone case! Please let me know if you make one like it or completely different!

♥Riley

P.S. I'm considering making phone cases for my Etsy store.  Any thoughts on price or variations of my design? Thanks! ♥