Touch of Luxury

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I love this project. It’s super easy and I think it looks really fancy and lux.

Simple brass cuffs are pretty easy to get hold off. I got mine from Michaels Crafts, but I could probably find even cheaper ones at a thrift store. . .

The holes are cut out of this piece because I wanted to try polka dots, but it turns out it was too hard to get them spaced out evenly. Also, cutting leather is a little fiddly with things like circles so I’ll leave that idea in the hands of someone more competent.

I got this shape by rolling the bangle along and following along with my pencil – technical stuff. Then the only other trick to this is to glue and attach a little bit at a time so you can keep it straight and avoid any wrinkly bits.

I really like the way this looks. You can squeeze the bangle to the right size and the leather stretches along with it. Im going to be keeping an eye out for cool leather items at the thrift store I can cannibalize.

I Heart Robots

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robot 6

It’s true: I do love robots. I found this little guy recently & was totally psyched to make him into a pendant. Upon closer examination however, I discovered that he’d had his hanging bit (a.k.a. “little metal loop on the back”) either removed or snapped off at some point.

I don’t know if you can clearly see lack-of-bit from the picture below . . . but I thought it was such a neat picture that I’d share it anyway.

“Hello I am a robot & this is the back of my head.”

I tried a number of different pins, loops, & findings but none of them were cutting it. I then thought about mounting him on a badge/brooch back . . .

The problem was he doesn’t have a flat back— he’s 3D and lumpy to boot . . .

In the end, I glued behind his ankles & his back, then stuffed some fabric between his head & the badge to make it stable:

Here he is proudly riding around on the chest of my boyfriend. . . May you wear yours with as much pride.

Love, Em

Feeling Japanese: A Table Makeover

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This is my biggest adventure so far. . . Perhaps a bit too big.

We got this table at Ikea . . .

Ikea table — with Dog
(Dog not included.)

This photo of the table shows its initial inspection by our dog, Philbert. Once we finally got the table assembled, Phil seemed mostly unconcerned by its blandness. I, however, felt it lacked verve.

I should admit here that I’m totally loving the color Teal right now. Now,there is a sentence I never thought I’d write. But it’s true: I am loving Teal..

I picked up some testers of Martha Stewarts colors. I decided to go with a teal top & black legs. I sanded the table, because I know you’re supposed to do that. The table said it was non-treated (actually, that’s not true: the box said it, obviously tables can’t talk). So I put on the first coat:

I started to panic a bit at this stage: the paint seemed a bit streaky and thin. I lost confidence a bit, but pressed on with a second coat.

All good, big relief all round. Then I just decoupaged some circles of paper I got from the awesome Japanese book store, and “Bob’s-your-uncle“:

The whole thing took several days— most of that time taken up by paint drying. Also of note: I tried a spray sealant, which is just not going to cut it. Plus it’s why the table now looks a little blotchy. I need to get some proper varnish & give it a couple of coats, which should also take care of the blotchiness. . . But that’s next weekend’s problem.

Love, Em

Wrap Your Pictures

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Fancy Picture With Holiday Wrap (and owl)

Now, as I think you all may know, I’m not that great at wrapping things. . . However, wrapping pictures is pretty easy and fun. You get a lot of bang for your buck impact-wise, without a lot of outlay — just paper & ribbon, really.

Canvases are good because the backs are easy to attach things to without damaging the front. Also, they’re usually lightweight & easy to work with. Little pictures that stand on tables are a good bet as well, for much the same reason.

Also, because you can just stick on two bits of ribbon rather than actually tying it with fancy ribbon, making this whole idea look nice is a much more achievable goal: as long as you tape lightly to the frame, using Masking Tape or perhaps Painters Tape, you can whip the wrapping off after Christmas with little or no ill effects. . .

Yay, Christmastime. XO

Love, Em

Make Your Own Charging Station

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I don’t love a mess of cables. I’m pretty sure all of us have at least a couple of things that need daily charging, but somehow my charging needs have gotten a bit out of control. I wanted to set up just one area where everything could be charged together. Not sure why that appeals— sort of like a little dolls’ hospital for phones and iPads, I guess. However, charging them all in one place means you have a ton of cables all jostling around for position.

I’ve seen cool charging stations in the large collection of catalogues I keep in the bathroom. (Let’s face it:nothing passes toilet time like unbridled avarice or the pleasure of judgement, i.e. “People seriously pay $120 for THAT?”) But I can’t really justify spending that kind of money on such a thing— Plus, they are all very techy looking and that’s not my thing. . . And so:

I spotted this box in my boyfriend’s cardboard-box stash & claimed it as my own.

I cut a little notch in the bottom of the box for the power strip lead & one slit in the top for the charging plugs. This was actually the hardest part of the whole adventure: I’m not great with the X-Acto knife, for it seems to always want to go off at a different tangent to me.

Then I used some left over pictures from an old calender to decoupage the sides:

Then, I tidied it up & used some sample fabric for the top. I have to say I like this one: it makes me feel a bit domestically competent to have my cables tidied away.

Love, Em