A Dose of the Delightful

DIY Thread-Wrapped Air Plant Hangers

I have to 'fess up: this DIY was totally inspired by my '90s childhood. Like most girls, I was pretty into friendship bracelets and hair wraps. Frankly, I'm still pretty into friendship bracelets, although I draw the line at hair wraps. And overalls. So far. 

I've wanted to add some hanging plants to my bedroom for awhile now, but since I'm working with a pretty small footprint, they needed to be relatively small and unobtrusive. Air plants were the perfect solution - they're compact and don't require tons of care (fingers crossed...). Plus, they can be displayed in hanging glass bulbs, giving the illusion of not taking up space in the room.

I bought my air plants and glass bulbs at Sprout Home, a beautiful plant shop in Williamsburg. Just next to Sprout is Moon River Chattel, which is probably my favorite home store on the face of the earth. I picked up a roll of jute there with the idea of wrapping sections of it in bright embroidery thread. 

Here's how I did it:

I elected to create simple figure 8 (Flemish) knots for both the ceiling and glass hooks. They're prettier than a regular overhand knot, but quite functional. Knots by Grog's tutorial for Flemish knots is super clear - the only difference below is that I doubled up on the jute.

Next, it was time to wrap them. I used some of the way too much embroidery thread I have lying around, plus a little Gorilla glue to secure the ends.

Here are my wrapped jute hangers. I think they look best with a variation of colors, wrap sizes, and lengths.

Some closeups:

Next, I installed three 1.5" brass cup hooks in my ceiling. These puppies are super simple to work with - you just screw them right into the ceiling using a little elbow grease.

I like! I'm happy with the mix of natural fiber & colorful thread, and feel a little more like a human living on planet Earth having some plants within arm's reach.

Side note, the Tillandsia I bought is in bloom! I feel pretty lucky it's blooming before I inevitably kill it, since they only bloom once during their lifespan.

 

From Sad Sack to Rad Backpack: Breathing New Life into My Baggu

It's no secret: Baggus are my jam. I try to keep one of their nylon bags on me at all times so I never, ever need to use a disposable plastic or paper one.

When the drawstring on my favorite Baggu backpack broke, it was a bummer. But it also presented an opportunity to go one step further in avoiding waste. Rather than buying a new one, I turned tragedy into triumph and jazzed up my backpack with some new neon lacing from Purl Soho.

Drawstrings coming out of anything can be the most frustrating thing and used to leave me shaking my fists angrily at the sky. Turns out teeth-gnashing and hair-pulling aren't necessary; a simple safety pin saves the day in any drawstring emergency. The trick is to use the biggest safety pin that will easily fit through the channel (part where the drawstring goes) you're using. 

The poor, deflated little guy. Aw. 

I grabbed several yards of this neon lacing. 

 Start by putting a safety pin through the end of cord or lacing. If you're working with something that frays easily, knotting it's a good idea.

Then, put the head of the safety pin into the channel and begin working it all the way around. The bigger the safety pin, the easier it is to feel it through the fabric and the faster it will come out on the other side.

Keep doing that until the safety pin reaches the other side of the channel. That's really it!

This pink lacing frayed like WHOA, which sort of irritated me at first until I realized it looked like an intentional tassel. I let the ends of the drawstring fray up to the knots I tied. 

I also added a zipper pull to the backpack's outside pocket, just for funsies. I think the neon pink works great for summer; come fall, I may switch it out for a leather drawstring.

Color with Confidence: A DIY Challenge with Pantone, Valspar & Lowe's

This past weekend, I got to do something CRAZY fun. But first, a little back story.

Ever since I started getting to do a little design work in my job several years ago, I've been pretty obsessed with Pantone. You might remember the roundup I did when they announced the color of the year. Since I am obsessed with color, this should not be a surprise, since Pantone is pretty much the worldwide color authority. Pantone books may not be all that thrilling for seasoned, formally educated designers, but for me - someone who's more of a self-taught enthusiast - they're still so exciting. Something strange and amazing happens to me when I get to flip through one of those fan books full of color chips - the same thing happens to me when I pick out paint. Colors do something good to my brain - it's as if my brain suddenly wakes up and says to itself, 'WOO!!! COLOR!!!' I can't really explain it, so it probably sounds a little bizarre unless you have the same reaction. Several years ago, I used to think about (and talk about) the fact that Pantone should expand into, well, everything - from makeup (nail polish!) to tights to paint. Fast forward several years, and they've done tons of those kinds of collaborations!

This time, they've created a paint line. To celebrate the launch of the Pantone Universe Valspar collection, which is available exclusively at Lowe's, the three companies invited a bunch of bloggers and editors to check out the paints, as well as participate in a DIY upcycle challenge. Needless to say, when I got this invite, I responded in approximately one billionth of a second. Color AND DIY AND upcycling??? What more could I want? 

Read on for the full recap of a delightful two days, plus the how-to on these upcycles.

DIY Style: Varsity Letter Sweatshirt with the Cricut Mini

I'm a little nervous - this is my first ever style post! I'd like to make these a regular part of the blog, with a focus on incorporating DIY elements. Hope you guys like it!

Jacket: Levi's. Shirt: J. Crew. Sweatshirt: American Apparel (but there are MUCH cheaper options out there). Bag: Loeffler Randall (old). Sunglasses: Oliver Peoples. Shoes: Sam Edelman (old; similar here). Pants: YSL (best sample sale find ever!)

I had the pleasure of meeting the very kind team over at Cricut at the Maker Faire this fall (otherwise known as crafter's utopia). They were nice enough to send me a Cricut Mini to try out!

I have to confess: in the past, I totally associated Cricuts with scrapbooking or children's crafts, which is to say I wasn't thinking nearly creatively enough! After I saw what the Cricut Mini could do at the Faire, tons of DIY ideas popped into my mind. When I realized it could cut fabric (!!!), the possibilities seemed endless.

For this DIY, I was inspired by the recent varsity letter trend. 

1. Atlantic-Pacific. 2. Style with Benefits 3. ASOS

Here's the how-to:

Materials
Cricut Mini + Varsity font
Sweatshirt (I used one I had on hand, but like I said, there are tons of below $10 options out there. If you want a more fitted look, try a youth size).
Fabric for letter in color of choice
Sewing machine + thread if you're sewing
Heat 'n Bond + iron if you're not sewing 

Steps
1. Create the letter of your choice in Cricut Craft Room on your computer - I sized mine to be 5 in. tall.
2. Heavily starch & iron pre-washed fabric for the letter.
3. Stick letter fabric onto cutting mat - press down REALLY hard! If you're ironing, use the Cricut to cut the same shape out of the Heat 'n Bond.
4. Set Cricut pressure to 5 and number of cuts to 3.
5. Optional: If you're ironing rather than sewing, definitely use Fray Check on the edges of your letter to prevent any fraying. I sewed but used Fray Check anyway to make it easier to handle my letter without worrying about fraying.
6. Sew: Sew your letter to your sweatshirt using a wide, tight zigzag stitch. I went over mine twice to make it extra thick.
or
Iron: Carefully align your Heat 'n Bond letter with your fabric letter and position on sweatshirt. Affix letter to sweatshirt using Heat 'n Bond instructions.

7. Put on your new varsity letter sweatshirt! 

The shot below represents the very first time I'd EVER used a Cricut. It was super easy to set up - the directions are very straightforward, and it hooked up to my Mac without issue.

Tomorrow! Country Living's Live Holiday Pinspiration Party

I told you guys that Country Living asked a few of us New York City-based crafty bloggers—Jodi Kahn from Simply Sublime, Brett Bara from Manhattan Craft Room, me, Laura Fenton from Little House in the City, and Michelle Edgemont—to join them for their first ever Holiday Pinspiration Party.

CL's Pinterest followers voted on which projects each blogger will make and this is the final list:

Pinata ornaments » 
My jingle-bell wreath » 
Potato wheel wrapping paper » 
Pom-pom gift bows » 
Infused vodka » 

Tomorrow, CL will be live-pinning the party on December 4 from 5-8 pm ET on their Pinterest board, showing you step-by-step how each of us make our crafts. Then, they'll post all the projects on CountryLiving.com.

If you've got the time and are itching to whip up some holiday crafts tomorrow night, or check out what we make and bookmark it for the weekend, I hope you'll join us and Country Living on Pinterest for the party! 

P.s. If you make one of these projects, be sure to Pin it and tag Country Living - they'd love to see your efforts!

Join Me for Country Living's Holiday Pinspiration Party!

DIY Jingle Bell & Rope Wreath

First of all, I absolutely love Country Living. They do such a good job of combining well-designed but livable interiors, chic crafty projects, fascinating profiles on new & heritage small American businesses, and everything lifestyle in between. I hadn't opened an issue of it in years until a year or so ago, and after reading it cover to cover, promptly subscribed.

Which is why when CL asked me to participate in their first annual Holiday Pinspiration Party, along with some other crafty bloggers, I was beyond psyched. They've asked each of us to submit 3 images of crafty holiday DIYs, which they've pinned on their Holiday Pinspiration Party board. For the next week, CL's followers will repin the projects they like most. Then, each of our projects that gets the most repins will be the one we make live at a party they're hosting in early December!

I have to confess - I didn't have any holiday-appropriate projects, so I made all of these just for the Pinterest party. But it was so fun! It's tricky coming up with holiday-themed DIYs that avoid the cheese factor, and I loved the challenge. Here's what I made! If you like any of these and want to make them yourself, check back soon - I'll be posting the how-tos here soon.

Here's a front view of the wreath I made:

 And these are the festive version of my first coaster tutorial.

I wanted to make something that would seem festive but that was still stylish, so I whipped up this detachable collar.

Check back in the next few weeks for all of these tutorials - and in the meantime, get on Pinterest and vote for me with repins, please! :)

 

Second Sewing Month Project: Upcycle Sheets into PJs

Okay, so it's not National Sewing Month anymore - not even close! But I'm determined to finish my original list of projects:

• Creating throw & lumbar pillows with piping & invisible zippers
• Finishing a set of pajamas I'm making out of old sheets (how Sound of Music of me!) and thisfree Colette bloomers pattern
• Creating some fun drawstring bags using this free pattern from Purl Bee - I'd add a waterproof lining.
• Trying out at least one of Colette's fall clothing patterns once they're available (coming in the next few weeks!)

Now I've done 2 out of 4! Next on the list is pillows.

A few years ago, my mom was doing some spring cleaning and preparing several bags of goods for donation. I saw some seldom-used flowered sheets and decided to pull a Maria Von Trappe and turn them into pajamas.

I made the top using this easy Simplicity pajama pattern, and wanted to try out this free Colette Madeleine mini bloomers pattern for the bottoms.

I have to admit, I was pretty daunted - I'd never done anything like making my own elastic casings or even making a buttonhole! I learned a lot with this project, and I can't wait to apply my new skills again. Here are the results - not too bad, if I say so myself!

I do, actually, have two arms! The other one is out of sight of the mirror I used to take this.

A couple of notes on some adjustments I made: I thought having the ties in the front of the legs was a bit too baby-doll for my taste, so I moved them to the sides of each leg.

Also, every pattern review says these bloomers are extremely low in the waist and super short - and they were all right! Next time, I'll cut the pattern an inch higher in the waist and 1.5 in longer. For Step 3 on the Leg Openings page of the pattern, you're supposed to fold the 1.5 in of the leg opening hem over and then create two rows of stitching for a casing.

I felt if I had folded the hem over, these would have been unwearably short, so I cut out two strips of fabric and used that to create the casing on the bottom inside of each leg.

I love that I was able to give new life to these old sheets - have you ever upcycled used textiles into something new?

Crafty People United: Maker Faire 2012

This past weekend, I got a chance to visit Maker Faire for the very first time. How did I not know about it until this year? I was definitely in my happy place as I walked around the grounds, taking in the both fantastical and practical creations Faire-goers made. There were plenty of interesting how-tos, including a session on how to solder that I'm bummed I missed, demos of new and interesting products, group craft sessions, and fascinating lectures. Here are a few shots from the day - enjoy!

Kollabora's booth proclaims "We Are What We Make" - have you guys heard of Kollabora? I hadn't until this weekend and was excited to discover it. It's a social platform for DIYers and has all kinds of cool tutorials, sewing patterns, and a craft store.

This colors on this couple were so bright and complementary!

 A row of tents houses stall after stall of handmade goods.

Another discovery I was excited about: Mondays Projects. These three Brooklynite ladies meet in their ceramics studio on Mondays and create this beautiful, organic pottery.

Homemade bunting put a crafty touch on temporary fences. 

 This woman explained how spinning works as she sat working at a spindle.

These letterpress baseball cards by Left Field Cards were hilarious! The ones below were a series of Marvelous Moustaches. My favorite? Definitely the Magnum.

Fifty Five Hi's makes funny & inspiring prints, posters, cards & wallpapers.

Mochimochi Land showcased some of the super cute little guys you can make with their kits.

 These girls tried their hand at off-the-cuff sewing at the Improv Sewing booth. 

 The Textile Arts Center showed people the art of shibori (textile dyeing) and weaving on a loom. 

 The Faire grounds, punctuated by two rockets.

I'll definitely be heading back to the Maker Faire next year! This was a great activity for families, too - there were plenty of kid-focused crafts, plus lots of delicious food trucks.