A Very Vera Shower

One of my beautiful friends is getting married soon, and her soon-to-be sister hosted a shower for her last week. It was my honor to be in charge of the theme/decorations. As she is a lover of all things Vera Bradley, we went with a Tutti Frutti theme, which is a beautiful pattern of pinks and mint. We had "He put a ring on it" ring pop favors, lips and mustaches for a game of "He said She said," and an entryway chalkboard sign. Check out the details below!

Cuss Yeah, Joelle's Birthday!

While I'm catching up on events, I thought I'd throw in a post for Joelle's Wes Anderson themed birthday party. 

I had so much fun making the details for this one, from Wes Anderson character wall portraits, to Mendls boxes, to faux Margot Tenenbaum publications.

Everyone did an awesome job with costumes, and we had characters from Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole group:

Easy DIY Pumpkin Vase

FALL IS HERE! Well... officially tomorrow, but in preparation, I headed to the Farmers' Market yesterday to start decorating.

Here's an easy way to use a pumpkin for indoor or outdoor decorating this autumn! AND it fits in the $5 DIY category!!!

You Need:

• a pumpkin
• a plastic cup
• a marker
• cutting/scooper implements for the pumpkin
• flowers!

Cut your plastic cup to the depth of the pumpkin, and then trace the rim of the cup on your pumpkin.

Cut and scoop! Save those seeds to bake and eat. (yummmmm)

Place your cup into the pumpkin, fill with water, and trim flowers down to the correct height...

TA-DA! Ten minute autumnal centerpiece!

Elbow Patches!

Finally patched up the worn out elbows of my two favorite cardigans! 

Some iron-on patches and embroidery floss later, they're good to go!

An easy way to save a cardigan. =]

Make Your Own Nutella!

Happy Wednesday, friends! I want to share something with you that I just made. And it’s delicious.


So most of you are probably familiar with Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), but did you know how easy it is to make your own?


Tonight I made a version using chocolate and almonds (yummm) but this recipe works with hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, or peanuts. You can even play around with other nuts or combinations if you want!


Here’s what you need:
16 ounces (2 cups) roasted nuts (I used lightly salted because I like that salty sweet combination.)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Grind the nuts in a food processor until smooth, about 5 minutes. Use a spatula to scoop down the sides as needed.

Add in cocoa powder and sugar. Blend until smooth.

Transfer to a jar and store in a cool place for up to a month… (it doesn’t last a month before getting eaten in my house.)


You could also tie up your jar with a pretty ribbon and give someone the gift of delicious homemade chocolate nut butter! Voila!

Possible additions or variations include cinnamon, honey, mixed nuts, and more.

Let me know of any combos you try!

Crocheted Flowers: How to

If you follow me on instagram, you may have seen some pictures I posted of the flowers I just learned how to crochet:

 

 

If you are friends with my lovely friend Courtney, you may have seen some pictures she posted of the flowered headband and scarf set I made her:

(Isn't she beautiful, everybody?)

I recently learned how to make these flowers using some great video tutorials by Mom of 5 Daughters.

The tutorial is split into three parts, and you will need to know some basic crocheting, including chain, single crochet, and double crochet.

If you don't know those, there are great tutorials on youtube for basic crocheting too. In fact, I taught myself to crochet a few years ago using youtube videos.

So without further ado, how to crochet flowers:

part one

 

part two

 

part three

 

 

Let me know if you give these a try, I'd love to see some pictures of your creations!

DIY $5 Dessert Stand

Hi there! Welcome to the first edition of $5 DIY!
And by "edition", I mean, this project only costs $5, and maybe I'll post more $5 projects at some point. ;]

My most recent project was this easy-peasy three tiered dessert stand:

Supplies for this project are:
Two glass candle sticks (I found mine at the Dollar Tree)
Three glass plates of different sizes ($.99 each at thrift store)
Glass glue (I used E6000 because I already had it from prior crafts)

Make sure you clean your plates and candle sticks well before you start because 1. whatever is on there will be on there forever once they're glued and 2. dust/dirt affects adhesion.

I started by spreading the glue with a toothpick on both the plate and the edge of the candlestick, and gluing the two candle sticks to the tops of of two bigger plates.

I initially tried using a compass and paper and tracing and finding centers and such... but then I just decided to eyeball it. =]

Glue them wide side up so that you have more usable surface area on your stand.

Let dry fully. (Dry time varies by glue.)

Glue them in succession of largest to smallest, allow to dry again, and then serve dessert on your beautiful new tiered dessert stand!

Christmas Light Upgrade!

Hi friends! If you have a string of Christmas lights and ping pong balls lying around, you're in luck; those are the two supplies needed for today's project! Put together, they make a pretty string of soft glowing bulbs!

Okay, so I didn't have ping pong balls just lying around; I ordered them in bulk from Amazon specifically for this. But they're very inexpensive if you look in the right places! I've found that if you search for "beer pong" balls, you can get the cheap ones for, well, cheap! The thinner the material, the easier it is to poke an "x" into the ball with an exacto knife.

I don't think this project needs much explaining, so I'll stop talking and give you the pictures. Here we go!

I love the soft glow these produce, so I leave them up year round. I've even put them out on the patio for special events!

Note: Some commenters have mentioned that ping pong balls are flammable, so you should use LED lights which don't get hot! I, however, have had mine on normal Christmas lights for several years now, and no heat issues yet!

Christmas is Coming: Font Roundup!

There are several things that make me feel excited enough to use all caps.
CHRISTMAS TIME is one of them. TYPOGRAPHY is another.

Therefore, FREE CHRISTMAS FONTS make me really excited!!
 I've rounded up some of my favorite new fonts for your downloading pleasure, should you feel so inclined.

(Remember, click the grey Download button on the righthand side of the font preview. other "download" links are ads!)

Simon Script

Kingthings

Channel

Christmas Eve

Olive Charming

Admiration

Before the Rain

Contribute

Christmas Lights

PW Christmas

British Museum

Raindrops on Roses and Foxes on Mason Jars

I’m STILL finding uses for all of those mason jars from our wedding décor. Last weekend, I decided to top some with plastic animals.

My husband’s first response was to question the functionality, but I’m afraid there is none…

They’re just cute.

They function as jars, so you can fill them with your craft supplies, like beads and crayons, or bathrom good, like qtips and bath salts, or with your sewing notions, like pins and buttons, or office supplies, like pushpins and paper clips, or fill them with delicious treats to give to your friends. I’m sure they’ll say, “my, what a cute animal lid!” and not, “what purpose does this animal serve?”

ANYWAY…

Supplies:
Mason jars
Lids that fit your jars- these can be upcycled salsa or pasta sauce or jam lids, or new canning lids.
Figurines for on top- animals, toy cars, action figures, etc
Super glue/gorilla glue/ any glue that bonds both surfaces
Spray paint (I used Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Spray in Jade.)

Instructions seem a bit silly, as this is quite self-explanatory. But I will share my pictures as well as the mistakes I made so that you don’t make them too.

Starting out…

Animals successfully glued to lids.

Tom’s creation- some sort of flying deer hybrid creature.

Painted! This one was more successful than my first attempt, where I sprayed too close and too thick, causing bubbling during drying. Lesson learned: obey the spray paint can instructions.

I’m going to use these for crafty bits and bobs.

Voila! Quick and fun project. =]

Photo Frame Memo Board

Here's a quick post about a recent project. One of our friends/neighbors uses a picture frame as a weekly calendar. I loved the dry erase idea, and happened to have an unused collage frame (kinda like this one) laying around. I put a picture in one of the frames, and scrap-booking paper in the others. Now it's our memo board/ notepad, and occasionally we try out new dry erase hairdos and facial hair on the pictures. ;]

Playing Catch Up

Hello friends. As you can see, I've already fallen behind in my regular posting schedule, but I'm back with some updates!

So, Thursday was Valentines Day, and Thomas and I celebrated our first as a married couple by going for brunch at Yolk, and checking out this sweet new non-profit bookstore in our area that supports literacy programs.  We had a lovely day, and I was glad to share it with my best friend.

Because Valentines Day has been turned into something pink and fluffy aimed towards girls, I thought I'd man-up Tom's gift with some DIY wrapping paper.

I carved an eraser into a mustache stamp, and transformed some classy floral paper into wrapping paper fit for a gentleman:

"Valentine Fit for a Gentleman" was actually my theme for the gift, and I substituted the usual chocolates for beef jerky and Altoids, and other manly things. 

I made the card using some awesome free fonts featured on this cute little blog, and played around with my watercolor pencils. 

Thomas did the whole shebang with flowers, chocolate, and a beautiful day together. I hope you all enjoyed Valentines Day (or the 50% off valentines chocolate the day afterward).

DIY Scarf Organizer

Happy Monday, friends! A new week begins. I'm back in Chicago after spending last week in Wisconsin with my mom. We did some cooking, baking, and shopping, but the main purpose of my visit was to learn to drive stick shift. Mission accomplished! Mom gave me several lessons, starting in parking lots and progressing to suburbs, and eventually out on the roads on my own. I can now proficiently drive a manual car, but I have yet to try to do so in downtown Chicago. If you haven't been here before, then you should know that driving in Chicago is a challenge in any car, let alone a manual. So that will be an upcoming adventure to look forward to.

While I was in Wisconsin last week, one of my projects was to make a scarf organizer for my mom. She had been looking into closet organization solutions, so I thought I'd try and help out. My mom is also the only person I know who has more scarves than I do. Which is a lot of scarves. Here's my solution:

Yes, it is a hanger, some dollar store shower curtain rings, and tape, covered with ribbon. Maybe not the most aesthetically pleasing solution, but it's functional, and cost $2.00 to make, versus the $20.00 organizers in stores. Hang it in your closet, thread in your scarves, and voila!