01Feb
Yes, the Swedes are at it again with their most unique and beautiful interior design. Swedish interior design blog, Annaleensa HEM, has a DIY section that is super inspiring to me right now. I especially want to try that basket lampshade. Wouldn’t it be so fun to paint it a neon pink or yellow color?
Here are the DIY links — I want to try them all!
1. Geometric Chair 2. Lace vase 3. Basket lamp 4. Fabric wrapped vase
14Dec
Today I’d like to show you my very own first DIY!
It was super fun to make and so I thought that I should show you all. So here we go, my first DIY: Yarn Snowflakes!
Ok, I have to admit, I did not come up with this idea out of thin air. One afternoon, I was shopping at West Elm and they had a display of something similar. And I thought, wow, this is something that I can actually make myself. So I did.
Here are the materials needed:
1. Yarn. One package is plenty, but it depends how many snowflakes you make. I used an off-white alpaca yarn that is super-fuzzy for that ‘rustic’ ‘crafty’ look. I was really close to getting metallic yarn though which would also look super snazzy.
2. Dowel rods. I used 12″ long ones that came in a pack from ACMoore. I cut some down to make smaller sizes as well. You need three rods to make one snowflake.
3. Glue. Elmer’s glue specifically. I just used the spray glue for reinforcement but it’s not necessary.
4. Scissors. And fishing line and thumbtacks (to hang).
Step 1:
Take three dowel rods of the same size and lie them in a snowflake pattern as above.
Step 2:
Without cutting the yarn, start wrapping the yarn around the center of the dowel rods in a “over” “under” “over” “under” pattern until the dowel rods are loosely holding together. Then reinforce it by looping the yarn around one time on a rod then move to the next rod and loop the yarn around it. Basically you just need to get the rods to not slip out of their “snowflake” shape.
Step 3:
You should get to this point where it’s secure but that the dowel rods may shift back and forth for adjusting (just keep them all even).
Step 4:
Now start wrapping the yarn up around one dowel rod — make sure the wrapping has some spacing in between (you’ll fill those in on the way down)
Step 5:
Once the yarn reaches the top of the dowel rod, add a tab of glue at the top and cover the glued area with yarn. Hold glued area with your finger so the yarn sticks and holds as you start to wrap back down. I found that after you cover the glued area, it’s easier to also hold the yarn about quarter of an inch down the rod and wrap the yarn around the top part.
Step 6:
Now wrap the yarn back down, filling in the gaps along the way.
Step 7:
Now the yarn should be back at the center where you can continue onto the next rod and repeat steps 4-6 until each rod has been “yarned” (yep, just made that up).
Step 8:
Ta-da! Once all rods have been “yarned”, your yarn string will back at the center where you can cut it off and tuck it in at the center to hide the end. No need to knot or anything, just tucking it in with the yarn at the center will be fine.
Now I made various sizes of snowflakes but it’s up to you! Now you can hang them or just have them arranged in a vignette around your home.
To hang them, you’ll use fishing line and thumbtacks. This is what you’ll need to do:
Step 9:
Loop fishing line under a strand of yarn near the top of one snowflake point. Then double knot the fishing line (double knot seems to be the trick for fishing line) and take a thumbtack (I have white ones — for my white ceiling) with the other end of the fishing line, fasten together and tack it up on the ceiling. Yes, you’ll have tiny holes then in your ceiling. However, thumbtacks are much tinier than a nail hole or anything else. I bet a strong tape would work as well.
I used varying heights and location of my snowflakes to create some depth. I apologize, my dining room gets no natural light (it’s also the room where we haven’t done anything to it. looks pretty sparse.) so it was tricky to show you guys a good photo…but here are they are hanging:
Voila! There you have it. Lots you can do with them. And, if you get tired of them, you just unwind the yarn and reuse it!
I’d love to hear if anyone tries this out! (And if there are any gaps in my instructions… it’s my first DIY… so let me know if you need more details.)
08Dec
Just wanted to show our first tree together! It didn’t take us long to find it at the Christmas tree lot. We like it. My sad little tree skirt needs some help though. I think I want to make one for next year. Soft white with pom poms maybe. This is just gray felt left over from when I was a shark for Halloween.
Oh and here’s the easiest DIY ornament ever. Since we didn’t have many ornaments and a lot of time to make many, we bought some clear ornaments at ACMoore and some red floral wire (the basic green stuff would work too). We then just stuffed the floral wire inside. That’s it. It comes out to be a crazy wire design which looks pretty cool!
05Dec
We decked the halls this weekend and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to make a terrarium, so I did!
I had this dear red-felt deer that was perfect so I just built around him. I bought some reindeer moss at ACMoore and gathered some pine cones and pine branches from outside. I then spray painted the pine cones with a gold metallic paint, assembled, and voila! Simple and easy. And a little cute.
02Dec
Happy Friday! This weekend we are deckin’ the halls (Ok, our apartment). And, I’ll also be busy fulfilling orders (yay to Etsy!) and printing up a storm because… I’ll be having my first show next weekend! I’ll be squeezed in with a 6-ft table at the Christmas Market in my hometown in Lancaster, County.
So lots to do for preparation but I can’t wait to decorate the table and figure out how to display my letterpress holiday goods. Any advice?
Happy weekend!
{image source}
01Dec
I’m looking for a rug in my studio because it’s just laminate squares over concrete (cold feet!) and just naturally started to look on Etsy. I veered my search a bit and looked into the vintage section and found some great rugs (but not for the studio…too nice for that. Ink, grease, ink, oil, ink, ink…).
I never would have thought to look on Etsy but there are a lot of great and reasonably priced oriental and kilim rugs. And a few kitschy ones if you’re into that. What I like about oriental/kilim rugs is that the older and more worn they are, the prettier. At least to me. And buying an antique or vintage rug also means…recycling! Yay!
{1. red wool Kilim rug 2. Antique stair runner 3. Round ruffle cotton rug 4. Vintage Navajo rug 5. Vintage Moroccan rug}
Keith, the illustrator behind 