Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category
April 21, 2011
There’s a quick tutorial up on 100LC today for those of you interested in making Mexican paper flowers. They’re so easy and so fun and festive! I’m making a bunch for SIL’s baby shower in June.
Apologies for the lack of posts this week. My plan to unplug a bit and not have insomnia by not spending the last 2-3 hours of my day staring at the computer screen has meant that I occasionally (often, apparently) don’t have anything to post in the morning! You understand, right? I’m trying to figure it all out. Also I have an eye twitch at the moment, which means I’m even less inclined to stare at the computer any more than necessary. Hoping to get outside this afternoon and plant. I majorly need a break from pixels.
labels: DIY
March 14, 2011
My dear friend Deja is getting married in (according to her count) 47 days. How do I know this? She tells me every time we talk. It’s so cute. Plus her shower was on Saturday so I just got an update.
I helped her out with her pretty kraft paper invites and they are finally finished and mailed and in most people’s hands. Which is so exciting. I love it sending a project off to it’s final destination.
The little touch of gold ink really gussied them up, don’t you think? I’m in love with gold on kraft at the moment.
We tied them up with black and white baker’s twine and pretty vintage gold thread. Such a cute little package.
Next I think we’re going to tea dye shipping tags for her escort cards. Yay.
labels: DIY, pretty paper, wedding
January 31, 2011
Hitched was this weekend in Palm Springs. It was super cute and lots of fun, but it meant that the entire week was full of frantic snipping and tying and styling for Amanda and me. And driving. Lots of driving. But there was dancing too, which made it totally worth it.
pretty succulents for our table
pickled jalepeños
painting our biz cards
And a little peek of our table. I am a crazy person and spent all last week embroidering the sampler. WAY underestimated how long that would take.
Also, I finally got to meet Jamie and Elizabeth in person. That was awesome. And thanks so much for saying hi Courtney! Your little girl is so cute.
More photos from the pros on 100LC soon.
labels: DIY, wedding
January 20, 2011
For my dear dear friend Jen – the lovely lady getting married in Costa Rica. Her sis threw her a cocktail party bridal shower on Saturday eve and I offered to make invites and poofs.
I’m not sure how things got so pink. I sort of lost control at paper source and ended up with fuchsia envelopes and everything spiraled from there. Bridal showers are supposed to be pink, are they not?
And of course had to make the beet and fried chickpea salad from Lucques for the party. It’s sooooo good. Melanie is most definitely going to post the recipe. Promise. She’s just a little swamped with moving at the moment. It will be worth the wait.
labels: DIY, holidays + celebrations, pretty paper, recipes + food
December 23, 2010
I’ve been completely MIA this week! The prep for Christmas + finishing up some work + closing out 100LC for the year + making xmas cards + making last minute bridal shower invites was just about all that I could handle.
Here’s a little peek at our Christmas card that is miraculously going in the mail BEFORE Christmas. (Oh yes, I DID. Vintage Christmas stamps!). We’ll be up in Mammoth next week, frolicking in the snowiest December EVER, but I’ll be popping in with some holiday things. So excited to show Dashiell the snow. He’s going to freak out!
Hope you all have a gorgeous, joyus week! Love to you all.
labels: DIY, holidays + celebrations, pretty paper
December 2, 2010
Jaime has been working on this little project for some time now (along with the teeny project in her belly!) and I’m so excited that she finally launched Cactus & Quail! It’s a week of launches, isn’t it? She’s got such a great indie design style and her invite model is so cool. You buy the illustration, add your custom text, download the file, and print it yourself at home! Or she’ll do totally custom work too. Plus she’s got a little Flea Market where you can buy prints and other little projects that she concocts.
Cute, no? I ordered my bamboo birdie ornament this morning. So excited to have a little Jamie project on our tree! Shoot, I definitely should have added one of her rad pink and brown prints to my purchase. Must go back.
AND, she’s also one of my sponsors over there in the left column. Say hello, sponsors! They’re a great bunch of ladies and they’d probably like some company, so anyone who thinks their little project would be a good fit for my readers, email me! Rates are cheap, since I’m just starting out and all.
labels: DIY, buy handmade, pretty paper, wedding
October 27, 2010
I picked up a copy of ReadyMade last week for the first time in years. It’s definitely more refined than it used to be and kind of a strange combination of indie crafts and Martha Stewart and budget Dwell? It used to have projects like “Make a tool box out of your old snowboard deck!”, and now it has recipes for an Indian dinner party. Definitely a step in the right direction, IMO. It’s actually pretty cute.
And look what I found on the last page:
A super simple and very cute toy made from vintage wooden thread spools. I happened to have a handful of these in my sewing drawer that I bought a a flea market years ago. Insta-toy!
I used two colors of leather (to make it cuter, of course) and actually tied knots between each spool, which gave it a little more movement. It’s so perfect for little teethers. And it took literally 4 minutes to make. I was feeling so Made By Joel this morning! (side note: he has another super cute use for spools on his blog right now.)
Dashiell snatched it right up the moment he discovered it on the living room rug.
Just reinforces my revelation (shocking, I know) that babies are so happy with things you find around the house. Yogurt tub, cracker box, magazine, ANYTHING made of cardboard. They’ve proven to be much more entertaining than most toys you can buy. Now if I could only come up with these ideas on my own.
labels: DIY, baby + kids
October 26, 2010
Paper + Craft showed up in my mailbox while we were away for the weekend! I’m fairly certain it was sent because we posted about it on 100LC ages ago when we first found sneak peek photos online. But it’s sooooo perfect for crafty moms, I had to post about it here too.
First, it’s gorgeous. It’s small and paperback, but printed so nicely. The projects are concepted and crafted by Minhee and Truman from Paper + Cup. And the photos (by Johnny Miller) are styled by Randi Brookman Harris (who is a styling genius if you ask me) which means it’s completely satisfying just to flip through the pages. It’s so inspiring. And making me very excited for the planning of our first baby birthday party. I’m a little afraid I’m going to approach it like a mini-wedding. Which is a big problem with blogs and blog-born projects: they feed us TOO many good ideas. Sometimes it’s thoroughly overwhelming.
Look what’s inside:
See?? Don’t you want to make everything?!!
Highly recommend it. For yourself and/or (probably both) for a gift.
Of course it’s from Chronicle. I’m fairly certain they publish the best books in the genre. Buy it here.
labels: DIY, baby + kids, pretty paper
October 15, 2010
FIRSTLY, you can subscribe to my feed now. I hope. There’s a little icon in the right column for you reader peeps. Or you can just click here. (Pls. let me know if you still have problems!)
Next, I finally got around to making a little set of those bean bags I bought from M•O•M for Dashiell, for a friend’s baby. Born in June. I’m a wee bit behind.
They’re really pretty easy to make. Little squares, sewn into bags and filled with lentils.
They are so perfect for tiny hands learning to grab and squeeze and toss. And such a great way to use pretty fabric scraps. I think they’re going to be my go-to present for new mamas.
Let’s all go on and enjoy the weekend now, shall we?
labels: DIY, baby + kids, pretty projects
September 16, 2010
Fabric, I love thee. Even though I am barely competent with my sewing machine and have learned that sewing things yourself, while satisfying, is not necessarily less expensive than buying them premade.
I was hunting around Etsy for some bits for our Hitched decor and found this lovely Liberty print with tiny white leaves. Which I thought was black and white. So I purchased it, along with 2 other little pieces for good measure. Once you’re paying for shipping from the UK, you might as well add a few extras to your purchase, after all.
And then my little package came in the mail yesterday (which I had already forgotten about, is that a sign of a problem?), and my perfect B&W Liberty print is actually navy. But still very very pretty. And by some stroke of luck, I actually picked two other patterns that make up the perfect trio.
If only I were a quilter, and had about 23 times as much fabric, I’d be set. So the question is, what do I do with these? Again, if I had a girl baby the possibilities would be virtually endless. But I don’t. Any ideas? I’m actually don’t mind just keeping them close to my breast and adoring them for their perfect, soft, silky cotton-ness. But I would also like to actually make something from them one day.
labels: DIY, pretty projects
