Friday Fotos: All in a Day's Work

TGIF always brings back something important if you're a working mom: Make sure you love what you do.   For inspiration, look at what Designing Mom Aya at Chronicle Books got to do along with her crew the other day...  A "fashion sewing book" that will be published in a year was in need of some creative styling and who to best model the dresses but some of the Chronicle team?  The first photo below is Aya striking a pose (go Aya!).  Click here for the full post.


Have a happy Friday and weekend everyone!

Best of our Blogs: Monster Surfboard

This ultra creative post is a favorite of Designing Mom Aya.  She along with other designers were asked to customize skate decks that were auctioned off for an AIGA fundraiser.  I am not surprised at all to see how "Where the Wild Things Are" and her boy Hayden ended up inspiring the design (after all, take a look at the cute Halloween costume she was crafting).
Read on to see how she designed the board and to view the full post click here. 

 

 I “heart” brown. – Aya Akazawa (me!)
“I was very charmed by the simple and natural feel of the plain deck, and immediately drawn to the idea of creating something that will retain these qualities. Then I thought of production methods that might work with this material. I couldn’t start working on this until Halloween was over, because Halloween IS a serious business here at Chronicle (but that is a story for another day.) So I had about two days to produce and wanted to do it by my hands, which narrowed down my options quite a bit. I am a big fan of Rex Ray and I thought that was my primary inspiration for this particular piece, but as my friend pointed out, the Carol costume that I was making for my little Hayden must have been subliminally driving my path of thinking to a crafty direction.”

Make: Origami Crafts

by Designing Mom Aya of Chronicle Books

I occasionally contribute to Chronicle Books' blog. This one was my very first. I am not a big crafter but enjoy making a little something here and there. These are some of my instant craft projects, using origami papers that I designed.

Click here to read the full post!

Father's Day Fotos: A Little Snooze

above: When baby sleeps, the parent sleeps. By Designing Mom Aya

Decorate: Nursery Wall Decals

by Designing Mom Aya at Chronicle Books


One of our nursery walls has been so painfully white and empty that I have been wanting to paint something or buy cute wall decals to fill it up. Turns out the wall decals are quite expensive! So I decided to give it a try to make one on my own. My sketches are definitely more ambitious than what I could actually produce, but Hayden still loves his new environment. I used brown drawing paper and origami papers to “draw” the illustration. I designed a product called Origami Craftpad so I have nearly unlimited supply of origami papers at home, which come in very handy when I am in a mood for easy crafting. The cutout papers are taped up with masking tape and craft tapes. I wasn’t sure how it’d turn out so I went with removable adhesive.

Do you think I should keep the rain drops? I like rain drops, but maybe the nursery should always be sunny...

Make: Felt Baby Counting Book

by Designing Mom Aya at Chronicle Books



I don’t know why, but I have been very keen on felt as a material. When a local Graphic Design organization, AIGASF, invited me to custom design a skateboard to auction off at their fundraiser, I ran to a fabric store and bought a pile of felt sheets to construct my design. While working on this project, I saw my little boy sitting next to me flipping the felt sheets like a book. That was when a light bulb went off in my head with a cartoon speech bubble that said, “I should make a book for him out of felt!”.





I used a thick, embroidery thread and tried to create different kinds of textures as I stitched. The extra long bookmarks aren't necessarily for him to remember hid place in the book (“was I reading 2? Or was it 3?”), but were added just because he loves tabs and strings. We’ve given him more books since then, but he still likes pointing to things in this book and dragging it around the house.

Need your Parenting Tips!

Chronicle Books needs your help! Designing Mom Aya passed this along from a fellow editor who is hoping we can all lend some of our very favorite tips on parenting. I know all of you have tons of great advice and juicy tips on parenting whether learned the hard way or gleaned from fellow moms. Please feel free to leave as many comments and tips below as you want! I'll pull one and you'll get the "French General Party Paperie Set" thanks to Designing Mom Aya.
I'm in need of some good tips myself so can't wait to hear from all of you!


From Chronicle Books:

We need your help. Here at the Lifestyle Headquarters we're developing a book on parenting time-savers, money-savers, and sanity-savers. It’s from Kerry Colburn and Rob Sorensen, authors of How to Have Your Second Child First and it’s aimed at parents of kids from birth to age two.
As a parent, it’s likely you have a whole lot of tricks up your sleeve to help you get through each day: small things that make a big difference. They may be new discoveries (if you put the Cheerios down low, your kid can now get them himself!) or things that have now become second nature in your house (naming each of her teeth helps keep her interested in brushing them). Either way, it's time to pass them on to other parents. We’re asking you to submit your best tips. We can’t pay you for your genius shortcuts, but we can offer you buckets of gratitude and perhaps some baked treats. Do it today while it's fresh in your sleep-deprived mind! Here are some examples to help you along:

• Keep a pre-packed diaper bag near the door so you can get out of the house more quickly. The longer it takes you to get organized, the more likely you’ll just bail on the whole outing. (SANITY SAVER)
• Bathe your baby and yourself at the same time. It’s a great solution when you realize no one has cleaned themselves in three days. (TIME SAVER)
• Get all your kids’ videos and CDs at the library. It never fails that once you buy their favorite one, they lose interest in it almost immediately. (MONEY SAVER)

Above: French General Party Paperie.
**Please leave a comment on this post with any of your tips. Thank you!

Shop: Rubber Duckies

by Designing Mom Aya


Our little boy’s first birthday is around the corner and I thought of getting him a rubber duck since the poor boy has been playing with his poor-man’s rubber ducky (=an empty shampoo bottle) in the bath for a quite some time. But I have been having a rather difficult time finding a good simple rubber ducky made free of PVC, BPA, etc. So far the one from Dano and Kid O are the contenders, but wondering if I could pick other moms’ brains on this. Any and all suggestions will be much appreciated!

Shop: Papier-Mache

by Designing Mom Aya
I was doing some styling research for a craft book photography and stumbled upon this unbelievably charming online magazine called Papier-Mache. I instantly fell in love with it and wanted to share this with designing moms readers! Aren’t they drop dead cute?

Make: Baby Love Letters

Today's "Make" comes from Designing Mom Aya who received such an amazingly thoughtful, heartfelt gift made from her talented intern, Grace. Read on to find out the meaning behind the maps!


by Designing Mom Aya

I wanted to share the loveliest hand-made gift that Hayden has received. Grace, who was interning at Chronicle when I was pregnant, created these map letters for Hayden. It came in a super cute hand decorated envelope, hand-sewn fabric case. But I was most touched when I realized that she used the map of San Francisco (where we live), subway map of Tokyo (where I am from), a map of Vancouver (where she lives) etc. She calls this project “love letters.” Hayden is a one lucky guy to receive such a love letter.

I will have to try and make something like this for a new mom to be one day :)

Make: CD covers and Gift Tags

If you have a photo project that's been on the back burner, now's the time to get back on it. Designing Mom Aya has absolutely adorable *free* downloadable cd covers and gift tags for you to use for your Valentine's Day creations! Click here to download!

Our Projects: What's in My Sketchbook

Thought I'd switch it up for Monday and show you what's in the sketchbook of talented Designing Mom Aya and her work with a few creative titles from Chronicle Books. Our bambinos share a wonderful nanny together and I look forward to them being partners in crime (or...hopefully design!) together. I also look forward to seeing more of Aya's future Chronicle releases!
*On that note: keep reading because I will have a great party book from Chronicle to give away right after this post...


from Designing Mom Aya: (above) My sketches when I was illustrating patterns for a product called CD packaging kit. The kit comes with 25 stickers to decorate CDs and I draw 5 patterns with a nature inspired theme which I called it Candy Orchard :) Cd2 is the front of the finished kit box.

above: My sketch for a layout of book called The Pillow Book. It’s a how-to book on sewing DIY decorative pillows. As you can see, I wanted to have some kind of ornamental frame to hold text on the right hand page. I tried a few different things, but in the end, I actually stitched a frame on a fabric and used its scan. This was fun.


above: My sketch that I sent to a photographer, Leigh Beisch, to show the kind of photograph that I wanted for a chapter opener of a cookbook called Sticky Chewy Messy Gooey. The second photo is the final sticky-chewy-goodness that Leigh captured for me. Yum! Leigh is a local photographer, and while she doesn’t “design” she is a creative mom of a super adorable little girl :)

Our Booklist: Sticky, Chewy...

The countdown to Halloween is on! Designing Mom Aya has two of her favorite recommendations from Chronicle Books for spooky, sticky, gooey books for the little ones.



1. (above) The title speaks for itself...Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids. The little meringue ghosts are easy goodies to make with the kids.


2. Great Pumpkins takes carving to another level. You've gotta love "Frosty the Skeleton"!

Friday Fotos: A Hat for Hayden

This adorable, wide-eyed cutie belongs to Designing Mom Aya. And lucky that Hayden has such a talented and crafty mom! Aya recycled her Old Navy maternity shirt by sewing this stylish sun hat for Hayden.

Happy Friday and weekend everyone! We'll see you Monday.

Giveaway: Reprodepot Stationery Set!

As you know, we are mad about stationery around here...designing it, using it, dreaming about it. Well, Designing Mom Aya is offering a great giveaway here that made me drool: a set of Reprodepot stationery and books from Chronicle! The set includes a Reprodepot Journal (my favorite), Notecard Book, Hot type (with iron-on transfer sheets) and Mix and Match Stationery. You'll be getting it hot off the press because it won't officially launch to the public until this Fall.

To enter, just leave your comment and email (so that I can contact you if you win).
The giveaway ends Friday and is open to all Designing Moms and readers. Goodluck!