Color block jewelry for spring

This weekend I was so lucky to have a whole day to spend with two of my favorite creative ladies, Alisa and Staci. We spent 12 HOURS beading on Friday. When all was said and done, we'd created 36 pieces of jewelry. The above are all of the pieces I got to take home! I made all of them except the long coral and green necklace on the right and the ring on the bottom left. Staci made the long necklace and the ring is actually from our shopping excursion on Saturday to the Funky Zebra, but it fit the collection so nicely, I couldn't resist putting it in the picture too!

I just returned from a work trip to Alexandria, VA. I had some free time that I spent shopping on King Street in Old Town. I picked up three very pretty strings of beads at the Potomac Bead Company. The larger coral beads above were one of my finds. Coral and mint ended up being my theme of the day.

The other theme of the day was color blocking. I have been seeing these styles around and pinned a few inspirations. I saw quite a bit of color blocked jewelry out in DC and knew that I wanted to try my hand at it. I absolutely love all of these necklaces - and chose my outfits the last two days just to wear them! The mint teardrop faceted jade and the coral rose quartz (both on the 3rd necklace) were also from my trip to Alexandria.

I traded Staci for the long necklace in first picture that she made. The two sets of coral earrings on the right went home to Colorado with her!

I have been loving the faceted teardrop shape too so I made a couple of little wire pendants. It's been a long, long time since I attempted wire wrapping and the rose gold wire was very simple to manipulate.

I couldn't get enough of the jade beads so I made some earrings to go with the pendant and/or color blocked necklace. Since yellow slipped in the pallet of the collection in a couple of the necklaces, I just kept going with it. I adore both of these pairs of earrings.

These little wooden yellow beads caught my eye when I was digging for yellow beads for the earrings. With the ombré blue beads, it somehow reminds me of My Little Ponies...but in a good way. Ha!

Sorry for the horrible phone pics on these but I wanted to share what Staci and Alisa made too. For some reason, they didn't let me take of theirs home with me to photograph! The above photo is Staci's creations - 4 bracelets, 2 anklets, and 3 long necklaces.

Alisa is the real jeweler of the three of us and it shows! She cranked out so many beautiful pieces. 5 pairs of earrings and 7 necklaces. I'm not even 100 percent that's all she made! If you ever looking for one of a kind, handmade beaded jewelry, you can find her over a 4 Square Studios.

It was a fantastic day and Alisa is so generous to share her studio, home and stash with us. Thank you, Alisa!

My legs are WARM!

I am obsessed with tall boots with long socks or leg warmers. Yes, leg warmers. No, I'm not confused about what decade it is. I'm not talking about 80s leg warmers over spandex in neon colors. These leg warmers are worn under boots so no one will ever know that they aren't really socks. I've seen them all over at stores and online. Some for as high as $80!!

I'm on a budget and even if I wasn't, I could never spend $80 on a pair of socks. So I decided to make my own. $12 at Salvation Army got me 6 fairly ugly sweaters in random sizes - and now I have 6 new pairs of leg warmers to wear as boot socks!

Like them? Do you want to make some too? Here's how:

( I used a serger, but I think you could zigzag stitch all the places I serged and still end up with the same effect.)

Step 1: Acquire some ugly sweaters at a thrift store. Make sure the knit has some stretch to it because, in all likelihood, your legs are bigger around than the sleeves of most tops.

Step 2: Measure from your heel to the back of your knee and add 1 inch. Measure that length from the cuff of your sweater.

Step 3: Cut both sleeves off. Stay perpendicular to the sleeve - don't follow the shoulder seam.

*At this point, slip the sleeve on your leg. If it is loose at the top (3 of my 6 pairs were), turn them inside out and serge up the underarm seam to make them smaller. 

Step 4: Cut a small (1/2 inch) slit at the underarm seam and serge all the way around the raw edge.

Step 5: Flip the edge in and ZIGZAG stitch with about 1/2 inch seam allowance.

And you're done!

Unless you're not done. I thought I was, but then went a bit embellishment crazy.

I sewed buttons on 5 pairs and trim on 3.

Learn from my mistakes: Decide from the beginning which will get trim and buttons - then put the trim on BEFORE the buttons. I sewed the buttons on first and they were constantly in the way when I was trying to put the trim on. Also, don't forget to zigzag trim on and stretch the knit a bit as you sew. You need to be able to get them over the widest part of your calf, even if the trim doesn't have any stretch.

I left the argyle ones unadorned, but they are super long so I can put them up high above my knees or slouch them down a bit for knee high length.

Good thing I have seven pairs of tall boots because I want to wear a pair of these every day!

Update: Here's a really bad picture I took with my cell phone this morning but you can see the cream lace pair with brown riding boots.

Wee li'l pumpkins

Last month I visited a friend in Brooklyn. She had the cutest tiny velvet pumpkins that she had bought in Kansas City. I very badly wanted to pack them up in my suitcase and bring them home. However, she appeared to be rather attached to them too, and she'd been nice enough to let me stay the weekend at her apartment, so I thought better than to repay her kindness by stealing her things! Instead I came home and made my own.

My camera was really struggling with these. I think it was actually the bowl they are in. Clockwise from left they are navy, red, purple, green, burgundy, magenta and orange (center). I bought gourds and small pumpkins, snapped off their stems and let them dry before glueing them on.

I just love how the stems look on the fancy, jewel-toned velvets. Makes me think of Cinderella for some reason.

I started out with five. Then decided I wanted more colors, so I went back to the fabric store (and grocery store for pumpkins) and made two more - one of each color for a total of seven. That wasn't enough, so I made a second of each color. What the heck am I going to do with 14 tiny velvet pumpkins? No idea. Don't care. I love them.

These three are my favorite. Again, the colors are off. They are magenta, navy and burgundy.

Simple custom wedding gift

I don't like to buy off wedding registries - especially for close friends and family. I know the bride and groom hand pick each item, but I like to put a little more thought and effort into a gift I'm giving. I prefer to make something custom for gifts as well.

I am a paper nerd. I love paper. I love how it feels in my hands, the saturated colors, the texture and pretty much everything about it. I love cutting and folding and working with paper in all manners. So, unsurprisingly, one of my favorite things about weddings is seeing the invitations. I've made custom gifts from invites before. One fun idea is to scan the invite, print it on a self-adhesive label and adhere it to a bottle of wine. Throw in two wine glasses and a corkscrew from the registry and a note for the couple to enjoy the wine on their first anniversary. But what if the couple aren't wine drinkers? Make the invite into pretty Christmas ornaments! It's super simple.

Cut the invite into narrow strips. Try to get each line of text onto a strip. You'll be able to read some of them later.

Curl the strips around a narrow pencil, taking care not to rub off the ink with your fingers. The heavier weight cardstock will hold the shape nicely.

Buy clear glass Christmas ornaments at a craft store and fill with the curled invite!

I love that you can still read some of the elements like the date, names and location. You can buy the bulbs individually or as a set. For this particular wedding, each piece of paper (and the envelope) were all different colors.

So I made one out of the accommodations card.

And one out of the envelope! I sent back the RSVP card, so I cheated and bought the right color of paper at a scrapbooking store to make a 4th ornament to complete the set. You can add fun things like glitter and charms too. I put gold, silver and bronze glitter into the balls.

It's quick, simple and very affordable. Throw in a couple of other Christmas related items or another handmade item and you'll have a memorable, custom wedding gift!

Hello. My name is Tonya and I am an addict.

It's not drugs or alcohol or even chocolate. It's Pinterest. I cannot stop.

Wait. You don't know what Pinterest is? I don't know whether or not to gush about it and encourage you to sign up, or yell "Run! Run away and don't read on!" So proceed at your own risk and know that Pinterest is wonderful but it will steal hours and hours of your life.

In their own words, "Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

It's a personalized, virtual bulletin board with beautiful pictures of food, clothing, home decor and anything else your little heart desires. You can categorize everything onto different boards. The best part is that it all links back to the original source, i.e. the webpage with the recipe, tutorial, online store, etc. I love that I can look at all my recipes at once.

I have been LOVING Pinterest for fashion and sewing ideas too. However this seems to have lead to a bad habit of clothing and shoe shopping online. Which makes my PayPal account sad but me squeal in delight when brown paper packages show up on the doorstep.

So what else besides recipe and fashion am I pinning? My 301 (yikes!) pins are on 20 boards including sewing inspirations, crocheting, tattoos and henna, travel, home decor, color combinations, graphic design, Halloween, gift ideas and products I want. Check them all out on my Pinterest page.

It also has a fun element where you can follow boards and people so your homepage has a cornucopia of ideas handpicked by like minded people you've chosen to follow. Pinterest will send you an email (if you want it to) to let you know when people repin your pins. I get a silly amount of pleasure when I get one of these with a huge list.

It's an ego boost. "They like me. They really like me!" Or at least my pins... But whatever. I enjoy it! Joining Pinterest is by invitation only, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll email you an invite. But remember - don't say I didn't warn you about the hours, days and weeks of your life that will suddenly go missing.

Hang your hat on that

I've been looking for some unique vintage hooks to put in our kitchen to hang purses, keys, etc. on so that our kitchen table can stop being a catchall. I was just going hang them right on the wall until I found Kate's pretty paper coat rack via Pinterest.

Photo from Design Sponge

Oooo. Pretty! I use fabric instead of paper. The board is a piece of a drawer that never made it into our entertainment center. Under $10 and this is what I ended up with:

And now the table is clear and purses and keys are easily found!

Homestyler

Have you discovered HomeStyler.com yet? If you don't have time to get completely sucked in, I suggest you avoid it because it is engrossing! I am a total nerd when it comes to home decor and especially rearranging furniture. I am embarrassed to admit that I bust out the graph paper, draw a room to scale, then cut out scaled versions of all the furniture. Then I spend hours positioning and repositioning the scraps of paper until I find a suitable arrangement before I so much as move a rug.

Now there is HomeStyler.com. Start with a room, which you can make completely to scale. Add doorways, windows and closets. It is literally as simple as clicking and dragging elements into place. Now add flooring from the hundreds of choices, paint the walls and start adding furniture. Here's my current living room setup:

Why did I create my living room, more or less exactly as it is now? Who knows? But it was fun.

Then, with the click of a single button, you can make a 3D rendering of the room. It's magical. Spin it around, get a feel for it, take a look from every angle.

The only complaint I have is that there is limited control on things like furniture coloring, but you can just your imagination on that. I don't really have a black leather chair with a red velvet ottoman, but I do have a brown leather chair with a matching ottoman. The versions available work just fine as placeholders.

The usefulness does not end at creating your current rooms and rearranging furniture. You can connect rooms to build an entire house, restaurant or office. Add a yard with landscaping and everything. The possibilities are endless!

I did a little dreaming and made a master bedroom complete with enormous walk-in closet, raised claw foot tub, shower with multiple wall-mounted jets and reading area with fireplace.

That looks familiar

I'm on Tip Junkie today!

Imagine my surprise when I opened an email titled "Home Decor Wall Art Ideas" and saw my living room wall! I'm the 4th picture. There is also a link this post on my blog.

There are several other really great ideas for affordable DIY art. I love typography so I think my favorite (besides mine, of course!) is How Does She...'s ABCs with vinyl. 

 

It could be very cute in a child's room too. 

Anyway, check it out. Thanks, Laurie.

Climbing to the top

Pottery Barn has sold various home decor ladders for years. They can be used as magazine racks or to hold throw blankets or pretty scarves and a multitude of other things. I really like them, but they are expensive! Depending on the size, I have seen them run anywhere between $100 and $300. Ouch. I can't afford that. So I decided - like I often do - "I can make that." Typically that phrases ends with varying results, but this time, the outcome was even better than I was envisioning.

My picture might not be as nicely staged as the Pottery Barn one above, but it does have an Alven in it, who refused to move while I was taking the photos. I guess he was feeling particularly handsome. Anyway, this project is really simple, and most people will not believe you did it yourself.

The two vertical pieces are just 6 foot long 1.5 inch diameter dowel rods from the craft store. The rungs are a couple of 48" long, half inch diameter dowels, cut into thirds. I made this ladder a few years back, before I owned an electric saw. I cut the dowels with a steak knife - which I am not suggesting you do! A handsaw would work just fine if you don't have an electric one.

I wanted my ladder to look old and weathered, so I distressed it with various objects. Just whack, whittle and hack away at the dowels with a screwdriver, keys, claw hammer, small knife or whatever you think will do the right amount of damage. Do this before you assemble the ladder, it's much easier and you're less likely to have it fall apart in your hands.

Use a 1/2 inch drill bit, to make six small holes, equal distance apart on both your larger dowels. Fill the holes with wood glue to affix the rungs. Once it is completely dry you can paint.

Again, I was going for an old, weathered look, so I painted the entire thing a reddish brown with spray paint. Once that was dry, I used black spray paint and did a lighter, sloppier coat, leaving the sides of the ladder and tops of the rungs with some of the brown showing. I figured if this ladder had ever been really used, that's where the paint would have faded and worn away most.

As I am sure you've figured out by now, this ladder is decorative only and while it stands up to our cats trying to climb it and occasionally knocking it over, it should never actually be used by people, including kids.

DIY wall art

I did this project a while back, but I get so many comments on it when people visit, that I thought I'd share how cheap and easy it was. Under $10 for a 3' x 3' piece for your wall.

First off, the squares are 12" square scrapbook paper. I just picked papers from two different sets that had designs I liked with colors that go in my living room.

I bought a couple of 1-by-2s at the hardware store. They sell for a couple dollars for an 8 or 12 foot piece. Cut them into 10" pieces with 45 degree angles. Put them together into a square and use a staple gun to connect them together. Wrap the paper around the squares and use tape or glue to stick the paper to the wood. Done.

One good trick to hanging a set of frames like these is to use a long level. I used a sharpie to make small marks on the edge of my level, transferred those lines into dots on the wall, hammered in small tack nails and hung them up. So easy and cheap, but they look really nice. Most people think I painted them because of the texture of the paper I used. Very few people realize they are paper.

Another idea for something like this, although it would not be as cheap, would be to use vinyl record frames to frame the paper. You kind of lose the three dimensional look of having the squares be 1" deep, but it's mostly the same effect.