Christmas in January

Today, January 24, my friends and I had Christmas. We like to do creative things for Christmas gifts--last year we drew names and only bought one big present for one person, and this year we got something small for each person.

They were all so delightful and thoughtful! When we got home I took pictures of all our new loot... incidentally, the coffee table is new, too. We got it for free from a family at church, and I painted it. Oh, how I love a good can of paint. This is the same stuff I used on my free dresser. Read about it in this post!

Person number one bought us gorgeous earrings. These are the fun posts I scored! (I know one of the gold flowers has a pearl missing--I glued a new one in that night.)

Person two, being myself, made flower barrettes for everyone. I picked out a special fabric for each girl--gotta love fat quarters at Walmart! These can be clipped onto a coat, a purse, in your hair, or used as a bookmark for easy access to the current week in your planner.

Check out these AMAZING homemade candles, poured into teacups! I've always, always wanted to do this. And friend number three beat me to it. Wow!

OK, can you say "classy"? We drank sparkling white grape juice out of these personalized champaign glasses at dinner! Way to go, friend number four!

Friend five made us a homemade almond honey body scrub. Yum! I hope I don't eat it while scrubbing my hands and feet!

Last but not least, friend six made us each a little treasure box with the best of all treasures inside--gourmet chocolates!

Yay for Christmas in January! Can we do this every year?

Something of My Mother's I am Actually Jealous Of

Can I just say, I love Polish Pottery? My grandmother buys it for my mother and all the other wives on that side of the family every Christmas... I need to figure out how to get on that rotation. My favorite pieces are the coffee mugs my mom has, particularly the one above. She sets it aside for me when she makes coffee in the morning. They are the perfect weight and size, they fit to the curve of your hand, they are hand-painted in a whimsical pattern--I'm telling you, it just doesn't get any better.

Unfortunately, they also cost about $15 each. Imagine my surprise, then, when I stumbled across some real Polish Pottery for about $5 while browsing through the shelves at my local Ross store! (For those of you not familiar with Southern discount store chains, Ross is similar to a T J Max or a Marshalls) It's not quite as pretty as my mother's pattern, so I'm waiting for a more opportune time. Every time I go, I look at it! It's always there!
Here it is, with its guarantee of authenticity.

Paper Planes--and the Start of the Last Semester

Today was my second day of classes for my last semester of college. You know what I know so far? I am going to be reading and writing

all

the

time.

Fortunately, I now have a desk chair (donated by my roommate's mother), so after I finish painting it I can sit and work at my desk and be inspired by this lovely, whimsical strand of paper airplanes I hung from my ceiling:

The picture is a bit blurry. I'll try and get a better one. While you wait, make your own strand of paper airplanes! Make a whole lot of airplanes, of all different sizes, with fun paper. Newspaper or old maps will do the trick. Glue them to a long strand of twine. Drape them around your room. Bask in their inspiring effects.

Cheap Style Tip

Cheap Style Tip of the Week:

Read the post below this one. Then get out there and find that wallpaper store! Free paper, here we come!

The Fan Mobile

I am in love with these pretty paper fans. I saw them at (where else?) Anthropologie some time last semester, and promptly went home and made this mobile for my our living room! This mobile is from a pack of stationary paper at Target. I think it cost me $7.

This semester, I was inspired enough to make a mobile for my room, which has been in dire need of some decorating attention.

I started off with some wallpaper sample books I got FOR FREE from a wallpaper store back home. Seriously. Just ask them what they do with their old sample books, and they will offer one to you. Beautiful, free paper.

Cut the pages into various size rectangles.

Fold them into fans accordion-style.

Push a yarn needle through the middle.

Put some hot glue on the inside bottom.

Press together, and you have a fan.

Once you've made about a gazillion, string them all together. I thread my yarn needle with twine--every time I added another fan, I made a knot about 4 inches up from the last fan.

Find a stick from the backyard. Seriously. Glue your strands of fans onto it.

You can do a single stick, like the one above, or several sticks strategically twined together for a more 3D effect mobile, like this.

Hang it up! I used command hooks from Walmart in my room, looping the twine around them. It worked perfectly.

What To Make a Father for Christmas

This is always a dilemma. What do you get for dad? The problem is extrapolated when you have decided to make all of your Christmas gifts. I had absolutely no idea what I could possibly make my father that would turn out to be anything he would enjoy.

And then I realized, knowing my dad and his total oblivion of any sort of interior decorating, he probably had nothing up on the walls of his office.

So I made him some art.

I started with two hideous frames one of my best friends had salvaged for me from the duplex next door, which is being totally remodeled after the tenant of thirty-some years moved out. The landlord was going to throw them away. "Sarah can use these," said my friend, and, just like that, they were mine.

She was right. I could use them; but they took a lot of work. They were awful. I bent up the staples holding the pictures in place and removed the pictures and the matting. I used a flat-headed screw driver to pry up the staples.

I cleaned the "glass," which turned out to be some sort of thick plastic. Almost better. I couldn't break it.

I removed some random nails from the wood frames (they were not performing any conceivable function, I have no idea who in their right minds would have nailed them in), laid them on garbage bags, and painted them gray.

I used this paint and I applied two coats. I must say, they looked pretty good.

Due to time constraints (and poor drawing skills), I decided to hunt for an old book I could cut up and use the illustrations to fill the frames. My dad works for a large-scale construction company, so I wanted something architecturally based. The find: an incredibly tall, skinny book about skyscrapers around the world. $9 at Half Price Books. Perfect! Love that place.

I cut out the pictures I wanted, as well as the names of the towers and the interesting facts about them: when they were completed, how tall they are, etc. I glued them to poster board using a spray adhesive--fortunately, I had a friend with me who had used spray adhesive before, or I would have turned it into a disaster. My idea was to lay the pieces upside-down on a garbage bag in the garage, spray them liberally, pick them up, and place them where I wanted on the poster board.

This would have resulted in a sticky, gooey, horrible mess. I had two poster boards worth of pictures to spray, but after the first batch the garbage bag would have been a tacky from the spray adhesive, and I would have had to place the next pictures exactly where the old ones had been, or I would be headed for trouble.

Instead, my friend told me to put the poster board on the garbage bag, arrange the pictures exactly how I wanted, and then spray each piece on at a time, holding it up in the air to spray it before placing it back in its place on the poster. It worked beautifully.

Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of this endeavor, due to the fact that it was, by my best estimates, -30 in the garage while we were working.

We stuck the corners of the poster on the plastic with mod podge. NOT a good idea. It never really dried clear, and you could see it through the plastic like a dark smudge. I wish we would have sprayed just the corners with the spray adhesive and stuck the pictures on that way. Oh, well!

I replaced the plastic in the frames and bent the staples back down tightly on top of it.

I put command strips on the top two corners so they would be all ready for him to hang. These are the best kind for hanging anything like this--one sticks to the picture, one sticks to the wall, and they velcro together to hold the picture up. Perfect!

I like to velcro two pieces together, place them where I want on the back of the picture, and then stick them to the wall, just so I know each strip is exactly where I want it.

I thought the finished products looked pretty good. My father agreed. Here, we have Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building, and the Woolworth Building.

And now, just a sneak peek of what's to come: a tutorial for this fun mobile to hang in your favorite room!

The First of Many... Tutorials, That Is

Here, at last, is the first tutorial. I have become completely obsessed with making this pretty little headbands; some for friends, more for myself.

Aren't they adorable?

May I also say, I now have a greater appreciation for free online tutorials. It takes a lot of work to put these together! I am in awe!

Here's what you need (I bought all supplies but the glue gun at Walmart):

Headbands. A pack of 5 costs $3.50. Also, they are made for little girls, so they are uber comfy.

Ribbon (2-in wide, unwired). $2 a roll.

Extras (silk flowers, more ribbon, beads, buttons, feathers, etc.).

Here's what you do:

Begin by positioning the ribbon like this behind the headband. (This is the inside of the headband, the rest of it is coming towards me, behind the camera.)

Make sure the shiny side is facing out and the ribbon is at a sharp angle. (It is difficult but VERY important to keep the sharp angle of the ribbon while you wrap the headband. If you are not careful, you will very soon find yourself wrapping around and around in circles.)

Glue down the raw edge, then begin your first wrap. Use a small line of glue on the underside of the headband to secure each rotation of the ribbon.

Continue until you have wrapped the entire headband.

Cut the ribbon, fold raw ends under, and secure with hot glue.

Now you can decorate your headband however you like. For a simple flower, cut out circles of various sizes, layer them, and sew them together with beads in the middle.

Cheap Style Tip of the Week:

Why not try handmade for gifts? If you have a crafty or artistic side, and you're willing to put some time and effort into your projects, the results are often well worth the effort... not to mention, making your own gifts can be cost efficient. Extra plus: the receiver knows you spent time thinking about what they would like, and you can personalize each gift with to match that person's taste. Need I say more?