You might not be aware, but I’m a little bit of a Star Wars nerd, as are many of my friends. So it only made sense for me to make a little Ewok for a friend’s birthday a few weeks back.
He’s a little guy but this was my first attempt at crocheting a character and turns out it’s pretty quick to make & assemble. I found an Ewok pattern on Etsy and the seller also made patterns for 11 of the other characters.
Chilly days call for bright accessories. Last year was infinity scarves and this year I’ve been knitting myself tons of colorful, semi-slouchy warm hats.
Since I started knitting last year with this aviator baby hat for a friend, Ravelry has been my best friend. You can hunt down a pattern pretty much anything you’re looking for. For the knit hats, I used Boyfriend Hat Pattern and the Rikke Hat Pattern. Both are pretty easy and great for practicing. After doing a few of each I was even able to make a hat freehand, without a pattern. Achievement unlocked!
These past few weeks have been pretty busy for both Ned and I. After 2 years of running my own business and freelancing I’m starting to look for a full-time gig again. For Ned, after over 10 years of working at Space150, the past 2 years spent being the Creative Director, he’s decided to leave and start out on his own. It’ll be a big transition so I wanted to do something for him to make it a little easier. His last day was Friday so for the past few days I have been re-organizing our office to make room for him (aka clearing out all my junk). The first big step in this was to get a new work table, something substantial, durable….and cheap.
I wanted something that would match the wood work table I’ve been using since they’ll be in the same space. I picked up the supplies below and although I knew it would be sturdy, I honestly wasn’t sure how pretty it was going to be. It’s pretty minimal/industrial but I’m really loving the end result. I used a dark walnut stain and a semi-gloss varnish just to give it a little shine. The door that we used for the top is 80″ x 30″ and fits perfectly against the wall with enough space for 2 chairs. Ned just set up all his stuff on it today and so far, so good!
So now, or at least for the time being, we get to work back-to-back. Naturally, with both of us wearing headphones.
I wanted to share one more piece of the wedding that saved us some money. Programs & flowers. Everything in these pictures we made on our own.
The programs were fun to design. I bought bulk paper which was more than enough, cut it to size, printed everything on my inkjet (since it was just black ink), and assembled them all. In lieu of a guestbook, we had little cards in each program that the guests filled out. That way we can put them together in an album with photos. I bought a bolt of muslin and sewed each bag to the size I needed. The smaller bags were used for the candy table at the reception.
I’m not a huge flower person so cutting back on budget by making my own sounded like a win-win. Especially when you think about the cost for flowers for 2 days! We used real flowers for some things like the aisle decorations and bouquets/boutonnieres but everything else was handmade. I picked up TONS of fake flowers from Michael’s, JoAnn’s, IKEA and the dollar store. They take time to assemble, but you can save tons of moolah, you get to keep them forever…or just sell them on craigslist to another thrifty bride-to-be.
If you’re new to the blog, check out some of the other things we made/designed for our wedding:
Wedding Things to DIY
Our Invites
Bridal Party Invite Boxes
The Story of Our Rings
Something Old Made New (The necklace I wore at the wedding)
cheers!
About 2 months ago I took on my largest sewing project yet, my first quilt! It was a triangle square quilt pattern that I had from Rachel Denbrow’s Home Ec course last fall. Well friends, after much measuring, cutting, re-cutting and more measuring, it’s finished! With wonky lines and squares that are not-quite perfectly straight, you can definitely tell it’s my first attempt but I love it (and proud of myself that I stuck with such a huge project).
All in all I really enjoyed making it, there are so many different steps that you don’t get bored with the process. Mine is smaller than what was recommended but it really was helpful on my first piece…it’s easier to work with and you finish much faster!
cheers!
I spent a good portion of this lovely sunny Friday dying fabric for this project I’m working on for my wedding. I wanted the colors to be a bit more dusty so I added just a bit of brown dye, dunked each piece and let them dry.
I’d love to know what my neighbors think with all of my projects that spend time outside drying.
Happy weekend!
A few weeks ago my aunt was in town visiting from California. We decided to meet up one night and during dinner, she handed me a little box. Inside was a locket my grandma had given her when she was 16 and had originally been given to her as a gift from my grandpa (scroll down to see the locket). My grandparents both grew up during the depression and so gifts were few and far between. This past fall my grandma passed away so receiving the locket meant so much.
As many of you know from my constant tweets and posts (sorry!), I’m getting married this September. (YEAH!) I also have a few other pieces of jewelry from relatives on my mother’s side and wanted to find a way to include those and the locket in one single piece of jewelry for the wedding.
I was having a hard time finding the perfect chain to put all of it on. Everything I was finding at jewelry stores wasn’t the right style (read: bright, shiney granny gold) and WAY too expensive. One day I wandered into J.Crew (like ya do) and saw this necklace for just $25. Done! It was perfect…plus it had some cute pieces of sparkle that I could keep for my necklace.
So I bought a few jewelry-making essentials and started removing and adding to the necklace. I had a vision of a really chunky, long, vintage-y looking necklace that would be more of a statement piece than a subtle, delicate chain.
I finished it and instantly fell in love! It turned out exactly like I hoped and cost in total (including supplies) about $35.
I’m so excited to wear all of these heirloom pieces together on my wedding day. It’ll make for another great little story detail to the whole day.
cheers!
About 3 years ago I found this adorable little basin stand sitting in the corner of an antique store in Minneapolis. Thinking it was quite cute and a good price for $30, I bought it and hauled it back to Chicago with me in hopes of refreshing it with some paint the following weekend. Fast-forward 3 years and with a rare plan-free rainy weekend, I finally got around to re-vamping this piece and I think it really turned out great!
I removed all of the fixtures and the lid, sanded it down and gave it 2-3 coats of white wash.
The back hinges were pretty rusted so I tossed those but kept the front piece. I love how the dark, aged metal looks with a bright white. It’s really tough to find interesting little details like this in mainstream hardware stores and I liked keeping part of the original intact.
I love how the wood is separated. I’m not going to lie, it was in pretty rough shape so I’m not sure the inside rim could handle a real water basin but I’d love to find one and try.
Before I painted it I was just storing some miscellaneous stuff inside but turns out it double as a giant yarn bucket!
After putting everything back together I wanted to add a little something more. I made up a little pattern, played around with some color options.
I loved the look of bright and sunny yellow/orange tones so painted those to the inside of the lid.
Old pieces are great and if you can find something a little banged up and polish it up yourself and make it your own, even better! I always prefer a piece with a story.
cheers!
