Now that all of my Valentine’s day party invites have gone out in the mail I can share pictures of them. I drew out the image and scanned it into my computer to edit it. Then I printed them out and affixed them to super cute polka-dot notecards from Paper Source. Can’t wait to sip cocktails and inhale cupcakes with my girlfriends this weekend!
Quebec City is the pinnacle of Christmas decorations, they go all out with garland and lights and ornaments. I snapped lots of pictures of the holiday trimmings, but the ones that really caught my eye were actually made out of recycled bubble wrap. They looked so pretty that I didn’t realize they were made of recycled materials until I got up close. I thought it was fitting for a holiday that causes so much excess trash!
Thanks for all of your sweet comments yesterday about my tree skirt, it made for a pretty awesome Wednesday. I’m not done yet though… I also crafted up some felt garland for the tree and thought I’d show you a few more pictures than the sneak peek you got the other day.
I followed the super simple instructions from The Purl Bee. The hardest part is cutting the circles — I recommend either buying them pre-cut on etsy, or finding a few romantic comedies on your DVR to watch if you plan to do it yourself.
It’s a very felt-y Christmas this year. I used the leftover hot pink felt I had from my jewelry box project and whipped up a skirt for my tree; then I cut out bright green reindeer to prance around the border. If I can pat myself on the back for a moment, several hours of meticulously cutting out santa’s favorite woodland creature was well worth it, look how cute it turned out:
More crafts later,I still have to share my felt garland project!
I kept my promise and reworked the old toolbox I bought at Brimfield into a glamorous jewelry armoire last week. I can’t wait to share the “after” pictures, but first, let’s revisit the “before” picture of the rusty old tool box (this picture doesn’t do it justice, it was pretty banged up and dirty):
After hours of sanding down rust with steel wool (lots of help from a loving boyfriend) and several coats of spray paint later, I have to say, I’m a bit obsessed with how it turned out:
I’m mostly excited because I can’t believe how organized all of my accessories are now! There’s a little surprise on the inside, hot pink felt lining to keep my necklaces from rattling around in the metal drawers:
And to corral all of the teeny-tiny bits of baubles I spray painted an egg crate to match the metal.
It was quite the facelift — from holding to wrenches to cocktail rings!
Finally getting around to sharing the first of my Brimfield refurbishment projects! The story of my nightstands is a long and excruciating one. To start, I searched for nightstands to fit in the small nooks next to my bed for weeks on craigslist to no avail. At Brimfield though, I magically happened upon two matching nightstands, that fit my measurement requirements, and were only $20 each! Here’s what they looked like before:
They needed some love and some new paint and hardware. I found the perfect color, Glidden’s French Grey, and scored an amazing deal on some knobs at anthropologie. I fell for the intricate carvings and worn ivory texture of the knobs. They were perfect! (Or so I thought).
After painting the nightstands, and adding on the hardware — I was, to put it lightly, devastated with the outcome. From far away (as in — at the end of the bed), the knobs looked like unfinished wood and made the grey paint look much more like a blue. They had a shabby-chic-country look and that wasn’t my intention at all.
After some deliberation (and whining and moaning) I settled on changing out the hardware to see if I could “save” the look. I’ve admired ring pulls before and decided to bite the bullet and order them:
The result? A total save — I’m so happy with the new hardware. The grey looks more grey, and the nightstands no longer look like $20 outcasts!
Today I’m going to be sharing the second of my CREATE COUTURE: The DIY Blogger Challenge tutorials, the Woodland Headband.
If you like what you see, don’t forget to vote!
To make Woodland Headband you will need to first gather your materials. You will need: scissors, a glue gun, a plain, thick headband, two large butterfly appliqués, and four large leather flower appliqués (I used the light brown and dark brown colors).
After you have all of your materials, take your scissors and cut the butterfly appliqués in half along the edges of the wings, and then again alongside the edges of the wings, separating the patch into quarters. This should leave you with four pieces for each appliqué.
Next, take your scissors and cut the leather flower appliqués in half, and the separate each half into three individual pieces. Cut the pieces at angles to shape each piece into an individual leaf shape.
Now you should have a pile of leather leaves and butterfly pieces. Arrange the pieces however you like, slightly layering each piece over the next and gluing them down onto the headband.
Keep gluing until you reach the bottom. I layered mine in such a way to try and create a braided effect. Make sure to let it dry before you try it on — you don’t want glue-gun strands stuck in your hair!
Remember: Head over to NewYorkDesignShop to check out all of the bloggers’ designs and VOTE!
Other than my eternal gratitude, there’s something in it for you too: by voting for the DIY projects you like the best, you could win one of the winning bloggers’ creations, so head over and cast your vote!
(PS: Thanks to my BFF for taking pictures of my completed projects!)
I finally finished my upholstery class and have a brand spankin’ new desk chair to show for it. Here is what the chair looked like before:
And totally stripped down during the class:
And voila! My finished project:
And just for good measure, a nice before and after shot, side by side:
Now I’m already scheming my next upholstery project, practice makes perfect, right?
I’m beyond thrilled with the outcome of my kitchen chair makeover! As a reminder, here are the craigslist finds I was working with:
And onto the big reveal:
I’m obsessed with them. Can’t wait to have the kitchen all set up and see how they look with the kitchen table!
I’m so excited, my cousin just gave birth to her first child, a baby boy named Samuel. And also exciting, I just finished a baby quilt for her… and don’t act surprised, I went with yellow and grey.
I’m jealous of the baby though, I want to keep it for myself. At least I have some fabric leftover, because I’m obsessed with the grey faux bois Joel Dewberry fabric:
