hearts

I haven't used my sewing machine in far too long. so with valentine's day coming up, I thought it would be fun to use a bunch of the leftover felt I had to make some little decorative hearts. I just cut out two hearts of the same size, sewed them together leaving a space at the bottom to turn them under. I stuffed them with batting & stuck in a wooden dowel that I colored with a gold sharpie. then I just threw a little glue gun on the bottom to seal them up. xoxo

black + gold wrapping

one of my favorite parts of the holiday season is wrapping gifts. I love having a theme (see 2011 theme & 2010 theme) & this year I decided to go with black & gold. I found the gold wrapping paper at target on clearance last year after christmas. I decorated the packages with gold tassels I made from a plastic tablecloth (like I did here), some pom poms (like I made in this post) & then cut out feathers as the gift tags (using this template). this sounds ridiculous & very unlike me, but I think I actually enjoy giving gifts even more than opening them. 

diy succulent place cards + favors

succulents are all the rage these days & it's easy to see why. they are gorgeous & practically indestructible (which is great for people like me, who can't even manage to keep herbs alive).  follow these simple instructions for making mini potted succulents to serve as place cards + favors for your next event. dinner parties, weddings, birthdays, you name it. they're easy to make & your guests will love taking them home at the end of the evening. 

here's what you'll need:

 step 1: line the bottom of the container with a thin layer of gravel (this will help with drainage).

step 2: add a layer of soil.

step 3: carefully loosen the roots of your succulent & add to the pot. the succulent should be placed at least 1-inch deep in the soil.

step 4: pack the succulent down & add another thin layer of gravel to the top.

step 5: cut & label the scrapbook paper with your guest’s name or a sweet message & glue it to the wooden skewer.

 step 6: place the skewer into each pot & use them to decorate each guest’s place setting.  

*you only need to water your succulent once a week, if not less. they also like bright, indirect light.

inspired by pinterest week: oilcloth baby bib

with a baby shower about every month, I've been trying to be somewhat thrifty with the gift-giving. I like to buy something off the registry & then thrown in something handmade (which I think people usually appreciate more than anything). I had all this extra vinyl fabric left from the vintage folding chair makeover that I did last summer. I was looking on pinterest for something to make & I came across this tutorial for making a baby bib on the you frill me blog. the directions were simple enough that I gave it a shot (minus the pocket on the front). it turned out super cute & also happened to match the bicycle shower theme as well! 

inspired by pinterest week: pom pom bunting

my second "inspired by pinterest" craft is this pom pom name pennant, found on kojo designs blog. I was asked to make some shower decorations for my sweet friend's baby shower last month, so I thought I'd put a little extra time & effort into something that could then be used in the nursery as a more permanent decoration. this project was much more time intensive than the rest of the pinterest projects I'll be featuring, but it was definitely worth it. 

I bought some yarn, one of these pom pom makers, put on some downton abbey & went to town. making these cute little poms got kind of addictive. the only thing I did differently from the tutorial (found here) was that I used duck tape over the wire in order to help hold the shape of the letter (the wire itself wasn't staying in place for me). after that, just glue-gun all 80 poms down & you've got yourself some pretty adorable bunting (thanks heather for choosing a name with just 4 letters. I don't think I had the strength for "magnolia"). 

inspired by pinterest week: felt flower baby hair clips

pinning things on pinterest makes you feel like you're really doing something, am I right? you feel a little rush of accomplishment for finding an awesome idea & adding it to your board. but in reality, the motivation usually ends there. you rarely ever really do anything with these brilliant ideas ("not that there's anything wrong with that").

I have probably completed a mere 1% of the bajillion projects & recipes that I have pinned. I thought I would share those few projects this week, in case you missed them on pinterest.

the first project are these simple little hair clips for baby, from make it and love it. they are easy to make a require only a few things: some felt, hair clips, a needle + thread & a glue gun. download the template here & make your own. they're so adorable that I seriously considered making a set for myself. 

burp cloths

I am still a newbie at sewing. I often get frustrated when the needle breaks or when the thread gets all tangled up. and quite frankly, sometimes I just walk away & abandon the project altogether. but I'd been wanting to attempt some burp cloths for a baby shower, so robert was sweet enough to "fix" my machine so that I could start fresh. the first one took awhile, but once I got going, they were really fun & easy to make. it's a great starter project for any of you in the same beginner boat as me. plus there are tons of great tutorials out there (I used this one) to help. now I can't wait to make more of these for gifts. 

interactive birthday card

just a little card I made for my sister for her birthday last week. has quite a jolly postman feel, don't you think? 

displaying old books

my mom is probably the biggest book nerd you will ever meet. when she was kid, she dreamed of being a librarian when she grew up. she also begged santa for a set of encyclopedia one christmas. oh, and I'm pretty sure she cried when she found out carolyn keene wasn't a real person. 

so yes, she absolutely loves books. she even saved a bunch of her old nancy drew books. but unfortunately, they were very well-loved & now look really old & beat up. not the prettiest thing to display on a bookshelf. so instead of putting them away, mom covered them with some glossy white paper. if you were born in the 80s like me, you might need to watch this youtube video on how to cover books (my mom couldn't believe that we never covered our school books). I think it looks so clean & modern when a bunch of them line a shelf. and not to mention, very simple & inexpensive to create.

make a felt flower pin

my friend jenny had me over recently for a little craft day. we had all kinds of projects we planned to tackle, but got a bit distracted & then ran out of time (due to a much-needed trip for some red velvet frozen yogurt). however, we did manage to make these fun felt flowers. jenny first spotted the tutorial from jones design company. they only require few supplies & are easy to make.

here’s what you’ll need:

cardstock to make the flower template

a quarter (to trace for the base piece)

a sheet of felt

a pencil

scissors

glue gun

pin

draw a flower-shape onto cardstock to make a template. we just drew ours by hand; it doesn’t have to be perfect. cut out the template & trace onto a sheet of felt. i made six or seven felt flowers for each pin.

for your “base”, trace a quarter onto the felt & cut out.

once you have all your pieces cut & laid out, fold a flower over in half & then in half again.

add a bit of hot glue to the end & press onto the circle base. hold until dry.

keep adding the petals around the circle.

once you have added four petals, add glue to the center & add two or three more to make the flower look full.

when you’re finished adding the petals, flip the flower over & add a bit of hot glue to the back & add the pin.

easy as that! you have yourself an adorable little flower pin.

these pins look really cute on cardigans; try grouping multiple flowers together. you could also add these felt flowers onto packages, hot glue onto headbands, or even clip onto ballet flats. they make great gifts & would be perfect for easter!

before + after: vintage vanity

I wanted to share my mom's latest diy makeover. she found this 60s vanity at a garage sale for $25. the piece was in good shape, minus the fact that it was pretty hideous. with a little light sanding, some primer, spray paint & cute fabric, she totally transformed it. right now it sits in the guest room, which is decorated in lots of silver, black & white. this pop of bright color really livens the space & adds a lot of warmth. nice job, mom!

  {before}

  {lovely pink cushion}

  {after}

  {fabric by amy butler}

 {I found these handles at anthropologie for $6 each}

tassel garland

so. bad news. this is my last week as a twenty-something-year-old; on saturday I turn the big 3-0. I feel like I should be excited, but I'm not. to be quite frank, thirty sounds kinda old (no offense to those of you reading this who are older) & I'm not quite ready to be an official "grown up".

in order to lift my spirits a bit, I made this adorable tassel garland based off this tutorial. it was a little time consuming cutting all the strips, but really easy to make. I may have to make this decoration a permanent fixture in the house. 

before + after: vintage folding chairs.

over the summer my mom & friend jenny convinced me to buy these cute vintage folding chairs at an estate sale. I ended up getting all four of them for ten bucks! while they were really cute as-is, the fabric was worn & looked pretty dated.

I knew I wanted to paint & recover them, but just wasn't sure what type of fabric to use. my mom found this great michael miller bicycle fabric in a vinyl material, which was absolutely perfect. I took apart the chairs & just wrapped & glue-gunned the new fabric over the existing fabric. I also sprayed painted all the pieces gray (taking the chairs apart was easy; putting them back together... not so much. thanks to robert & daddy their help, which kept me from ripping my hair out).

the best part about these chairs is that they fold up, so we can store them in the garage & them pull them out whenever we need more seating. $37 for four chairs = not too shabby.

chair $10
fabric $15 (free shipping)
spray paint $12

{before}

{after}