DIY HOLIDAY GIFTS

Back from holiday hiatus! I had such a blast with all of my family and friends! But I’m definitely feeling the effects of having to get up at 6am again. Back to the ole routine!

**********

This year I decided to make some DIY gifts. And I’ll admit, they didn’t turn out exactly to my standards of perfection, but I liked them anyway.

I had to post this after the holidays because the two friends I made these for are readers, so I didn’t want to ruin any surprises!But if you’re inspired to follow the same gift idea, these are simple and would work for any gift idea.

All you need is a tote bag, iron transfer paper, an iron and a unique design:

I purchased the canvas bags and transfer paper from cheaptotes. And as the name implies, the items are really affordable and decent quality. The items also shipped really fast which was great.

I made three of these bags (one for myself, of course!), but I’ll show you the process for my ingenious Lady Gaga lyric design.

Start by printing your design (on regular paper, don’t waste the transfer paper) and making sure that it fits and is arranged the way you want it. It’s also important that you flip your design so that it transfers correctly.

Then heat up your iron to it’s highest setting but DO NOT use steam. Iron your tote bag so it’s nice and wrinkle-free.

You have to love old apartments, I have a built-in ironing board in my kitchen. I suppose it’s so I’m able to cook a full meal for my family and get the ironing done at the same time.

Anyway, then you’re ready to iron on your pieces. For a full sheet, you can just arrange it and iron across the entire length of the paper for 3-4 minutes. Although in hindsight, I wish I would have cut around the design more because you 1) have more paper to use later and 2) you won’t get that transfer excess on the tote bag which is sort of noticeable.

Since these pieces are cut up, I decided to iron them one piece at a time keeping the previous pieces down until I was ready to remove them all at once.

After you’ve ironed over each piece and applied a small amount of pressure with the iron, you should be ready to take the paper by one corner and removing it slowly. I was worried I would have a lot of trouble with this part, but it was relatively easy. If it started to tear, just move to another corner. If you find that you left some paper that’s not ironed down, take the tip of your iron and smooth it down. Very simple!

Then, you have your finished products! The Farmer’s Market tote is for my (I blurred out my last name in the picture for at least some internet anonymity).

I think my girls liked them! I meant to take pictures of the awesome gifts they got me, I’ll have to post those later!

Holiday Spirit

Today is December 1st which means it’s finally appropriate to be excited for Christmas!

Moving away from home has made getting together with my family during the holidays that much better. But even though most of family and kickass best friends are 12 hours away, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t enjoy some holiday fun in Providence.

To be honest I decorated my apartment before I left for Thanksgiving break, but since none of my friends have seen it yet, it’s almost like it didn’t count.

I decided I wanted to cut out paper snowflakes because what’s cuter than this darling window curtain:

via ohdeedoh

I mean, I used to make these things as a kid in elementary school all the time. Easiest decor ever. This is what I got:

They’re all square! I don’t know how I got square snowflakes, even after I followed Martha Stewart’s instructions. Ugh.

Not to be downtrodden, I decided to just go with what I bought and leave the DIY to others.

The ornaments are wall decals that I bought after Christmas last year for really cheap.

The deer are also an end-of-season wall decal. It came in a pack of three, so the other two are hiding in my hallway.

Even my moose got in the holiday spirit.

And of course, my Christmas tree. My first real Christmas tree ever.

Thanks Whole Foods! I’ll have to plant it in the woods nearby so that it can live on.

photos using CrossProcess and ShakeItPhoto apps

Neat Shit Worth Sharing (Holiday edition)

So because I failed on doing a recipe this week (spending $700 on application fees does not inspire one to go to the grocery store) and I may end up failing next week (impending standardized test don't help the appetite), I thought I'd give you a present.

As the holidays are approaching, we're all getting ready to give and receive. If you're like me then you've got bookmarks of cool gift ideas and wishlists from various stores filled with things you want. Wouldn't it be nice if there was one website that you could compile all of the things you want AND the gifts you want to give. Well friends, this is my present to you:

Wishpot lets you create as many lists as you want and lets you easily add items from any store. You can set the settings so that everyone can view your wishlist or that you can keep lists private (like your gift list). Now my anthropologie, amazon, etsy, etc favorites/wishlists can all be compiled into this resource! And you can list items based on how much you actually want them; currently this ring is in my "I really want it" priority:

How perfect for Christmas! Hence why I need it so badly.

Also they have this really handy toolbar that I was a little hesitant to download at first. This is because downloading allows them to access your history and see what stores you've been scoping out. But let's be honest, I'm posting on a blog and I have facebook, there is no such thing as internet privacy. So now with this toolbar, I can be looking at an item online, decide I want it on my list, click the handy wishpot button and BAM it's added to my list with an image, price, and link.

If your interested in seeing my list you can review it HERE or you can do a people's search if you already know my last name. I know I'll be adding to it a lot more as the holidays approach.

If you love this idea, you should join and add me! I'd love to see what people want!

Homemade Halloween!

I can barely put into words how excited I am about my Halloween costume! Hence why I'm posting on a Saturday!

I decided this year to go after the ultimate fashion no-no icon:

A completely ridiculous idea but I knew the whole outfit hinged on finding cheap, white feather boas. Once those had been found (4 to be exact), it was a matter of being patient and stalking salvation army. Fortunately today was my lucky day!

Here was my cast of characters:



Feather boas, a child's black t-shirt, an orange onesie (it was thicker than a t-shirt and I liked the color), a large men's white t-shirt and the piece de resistance: a child's Christening gown.

In the spirit of New Dress A Day, I couldn't help but put it on before snipping away at it



The muslin in at the bottom needed a little love to get right, but it was the puffiness of this dress that made it perfect!

I started with cutting off the...um, fringe near the neckline. I'm definitely keeping it for when I feel like dressing like a schoolmarm



From there I don't have a lot more photos because I was in full-on crazy crafting mode. But once the neck on the dress was cut off, I worked on the swan neck.

I cut up the white t-shirt into two long strips and sewed them together leaving both the top and bottom unstitched. Then I cut up the orange onesie (which made me feel kind of bad) into two sides to make up the beak and sewed those two pieces together leaving the one side open so that I could then sew it onto the white tube. Once I sewed together the white "neck" and orange "beak", there was visible stitching when I turned it inside out, so I covered this with black ribbon. I hot glue gunned the ribbon and black t-shirt to make the eye. After all of this, this is what I had:



I also glued some jewels on for the eyes that I found in my craft box. I stuffed the swan with the extra t-shirt & onesie fabric - reuse and recycle!

Then it was just a matter of securing the feather boas to the lacy part of the dress. I found that fishing wire worked perfectly -- it was so easy to knot it into a small part of the lace and just wrap it around the boa so that it held it in place. It took me 3 boas to wrap it around the front of my dress (I left the back plain) and 3 hours later...TA DA:



I left the lace sleeves on because I think it looks kind of cute and it will be warmer in the New England weather. Believe it or not the feathers keep me pretty warm, so I think it will be great for walking around outside.

*****



Happy High Fashion Halloween, ya'll!!