{L - R} me, Lisa Leonard, Ciaran Blumenfeld, Ana Roca-Castro, Lara Galloway

I was inspired by everyone I met at the conference. Blogging and social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube have come so far so fast, and the conversations throughout the conference were truly engaging and intriguing. As a communications geek through and through,  I ate up every bite of delicious social media conversation with great hunger and I left with a full belly, full heart. (Well, the full belly is partly from the food workshop: check out my foodie post on Lola’s Table!).

In addition to speaking, I attended some pretty powerful sessions, including one with Jon Sinclair and Andrea Wishom, producers for The Oprah Winfrey Show. Now, if you’ve followed Urban Bliss since we first opened up as Event Bliss in 2005, you know that we started out as a custom stationery company. During the second year of business, we had the pleasure of being recommended to Andrea and working with her on some custom stationery. Since she lived in Chicago and I lived in Portland, we did all business over email. So I was absolutely GIDDY with excitement when not only did I get to hear her speak about the future of television and social media, but I also got to chat with her briefly afterward and she remembered the work I did for her! Giddy! She is an amazingly smart, talented, kind woman and it was such an honor to meet her in person at last. I’m not the type to get starstruck with Hollywood types, but when I get to meet a customer or client for the first time in person after working with them long distance? It’s THE BEST thing in the whole world! I love, love, LOVE our Urban Bliss design + strategy clients!

Me & Andrea Wishom

One big take-away that I got from the conference was that I just need to start vlogging. I watched Lara Galloway do at least five Flip cam videos & post them to YouTube over the weekend. She’s amazing! I watched as others posted their videos from the conference to YouTube. So at the end of my work day yesterday, about 10 minutes before I had to pick up the kids, I grabbed my Flip Mino, and pressed record. I had no make-up on, hadn’t cleaned my desk, but I was going to just do it and be done with it. And I did. A vlogging virgin no more, my very first ever vlog…and since I’m going off the premise that these can only get better and not worse (right?), this won’t be the last!

Finally, starting next week, our Urban Bliss Design + Strategy Summer Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9:30am – 5:30 pm.

Happy 4th of July weekend, everyone!

-Marlynn

Part of the Home Tours: The Beitcher Residence

Dwell on Design, the “West Coast’s Largest Design Event,” is happening June 25 – 27th and if you are anywhere near the LA area, you won’t want to miss it! Bliss Off readers and Urban Bliss Design friends get a super special discount! More on that later, but first a look at the can’t miss events happening at Dwell on Design.

Dwell on Design is a showcase of modern design products, ideas, and practices. In addition to amazing presentations by architects, artists, environmentalists, and designers – including author/environmentalist/actor Ed Begley Jr. and designer/HGTV show host Angelo Surmelis -  there are also home tours featuring incredibly diverse examples of contemporary architecture and interior design. There is also an exhibit area open throughout the weekend that would be cool to attend if you weren’t the industry but have an affinity for modern design. One of the featured exhibits is Asia Now, a showcase of contemporary designs from 11 countries throughoust Asia. This year, there’s a section on the show floor called Modern Family showcasing design ideas that are hip and functional for busy families. In this section you’ll find a whimsical playhouse “Playgoda” (pictured below) designed by acclaimed artist, architect and inventor Gregg Fleischman, a photo booth by photographer Sarah Welt, and -what would likely be my kids’ favorite section – a Paul Frank Reading corner.

The Playgoda in the Modern Family section

If you happen to be in LA and do attend, be sure to let us know what your favorite part of the event was! We wish we where there with you.

Urban Bliss Design friends & Bliss Off readers can either save $15 off the Dwell Exhibit Plus ticket OR get 50% off the two-day weekend pass by using coupon code DWELL8B when you register online before June 23rd. Click here to purchase tickets: http://www.dwellondesign.com/tickets

The kind folks at iFrogz sent me some hot pink CS40 EarPollution headphones for free to test out. Music moves my life, and sometimes I need to listen to really loud music in order to meet deadlines. Trust me: it helps. A lot. What I love about these EarPollution headphones are that they really are super comfy and I can have them blasting but you could be standing next to me and maybe hear a whisper of my music. Perfect for commuters! These would also make awesome graduation or Father’s Day gifts.

The CS40 EarPollution headphones come in five colors (black, white, pink, red orblue) and retail for $39.99. You can also create your own  custom set of headphones online – iFrogz has some sweet color combos and designs from which to choose. You can check them out and get some for yourself on the iFrogz website.

{note: Lego Star Wars images are heavily licensed and therefore I made these strictly for personal use, and will not be making any for commercial use. Please do not try to steal any images/ideas for commercial use}

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Invitations

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Banner, Tissue Pom Poms & Cupcakes

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Dark Side Cupcake Toppers {chocolate chiffon cupcakes w/vanilla buttercream frosting}

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Light Side of the Force Cupcake Toppers {vanilla dream cupcakes w/vanilla buttercream frosting}

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Light Side & Dark Side Favors {included stickers by UrbanBlissDesign.com, Lego crayons from http://www.etsy.com/shop/chasedreams & Star Wars crayons by http://www.etsy.com/shop/craftygio}

Each child got to choose to take home either a Light Side of the Force favor bag or a Dark Side of the Force favor bag. I made the stickers, favor bag labels and printed out some blank Star Wars coloring sheets, and included crayons in the shapes of Legos and Star Wars characers {see captions above for stores}.

Lego Star Wars Homemade Light Sabers

My son had the most fun helping me make these light sabers, which are just foam water noodles cut in half and wrapped with alternating reflective duct tape and black duct tape.

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Yoda Soda

My kids have yet to touch real soda, so for my son’s 6th birthday party, we made the Yoda Soda from lime sherbet ice cream, lime juice, and tangerine lime sparkling water. YUM!

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Wookiee Cookies

There’s a cookbook out that offers a recipe for Wookiee Cookies that’s really just chocolate chip cookies, so we decided to make star-shaped chocolate shortbread cookies the color of Chewbacca

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Decorations: cups with custom stickers

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Jedi Training Completion Certificate

Each child received a Jedi Training Completion Certificate {made super fast by me & printed at home} after completing a game a Pin-The-Light-Saber-On-The-Light-Saber {explained more below}.

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Masks

I found some decent images of Star Wars characters that were a high enough resolution to print out onto 100# cardstock on my laser printer, cut them out, punched holes on the sides and tied together with string.

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Obi-WanTons {fried wantons w/chocolate hazelnut filling}

The Obi-WanTons? A HUGE hit!

Lego Star Wars Birthday Party Tatooine Tartlets {chocolate pastry filled with chocolate ganache}

And we had a ton more Lego Star Wars themed items, including Bow-Tie Fighter Pasta {farfalle salmon pasta salad}, Leia & Luke’s Lumpia {a Filipino egg roll}, Darth Malt {malt shakes!}, Jabba Java {coffee for the adults!}, Boba Fett Brie and more. I also printed out a large Star Wars wall poster that matched the invitations and party cup stickers, and we played Pin-The-Light-Saber-On-A-Light-Saber. The kids each got a sticker for a turn, and the one who landed on the most light sabers won a packet of stickers.

5″ x 7″ birth announcements professionally printed on shimmery Pearl cardstock