Let It Snow... DIY Inspiration!

Too early for Christmas puns? (Answer: never.)

I have been crafting since long before I started blogging. In fact, since as long as I can remember, my two sisters and I have been making homemade Christmas presents for one another! Now, the DIY’s have certainly changed over the years, and in some cases been forcibly simplified by busyness, but I wanted to share some of the past projects my siblings and I have put together that I am still using today! Maybe we can inspire you a little bit to make something of your own, especially as the holiday (AKA do-it-yourself), season arrives.

Mirror Necklace Hanger

Sammy, my older sister, made this adorable necklace hanger for my birthday a couple years ago and it is still a vital piece of my décor. It lets me display my somewhat massive collection of necklaces in a gorgeous way, keeps them from getting tangled up, and serves as a lovely little, positive reminder every time I accessorize! This was just the result of a wooden plaque, acrylic paint, a small mirror, and cup hooks—much like our DIY Nostalgic Key Hooks!

Adventure Banner

This was a collaboration between me and Sam for my graduation party at the end of last school year! Sam overlaid word art letters on top of free PDF’s of vintage maps, about 3 to a page, and I cut them out with a craft knife. The clouds were traced from a cardstock stencil onto some adorable scrapbook paper and cut out. For the party, we just stuck ‘em down with double sided tape, but I loved the banner so much that I wanted to take it a permanent wall art piece. I secured the letters with rubber cement, and simply hung it with pushpins. I do regret to say that this version is still lacking the mini balloons that were suspended in the corners of the original, so I hope I can find some metallic, fake balloons soon!

Don’t You Forget Memo Board

I definitely produced this little beauty sometime around the time the first Pitch Perfect came out because I couldn’t get this song out of my head! It’s just a scrap of a corkboard, some acrylic paint, and a bit of lace glued down the edges to hide where the cork was messy and cracking! Don’t you love it when ugly little aesthetic issues inspire you to make something even more beautiful?! (Sorry about the poor picture quality! The letters are metallic but I had a really hard time getting them to reflect for the camera!)

Postage Stamp Pillow

In case you were wondering when I was going to show you something my baby sister made, here is an adorable postage stamp style pillow I got for Christmas a couple years ago! And it still goes gorgeously with my new room design! The image was simply a free download from this online tutorial that she flipped and printed onto an iron-on transfer sheet. DIY pillows are such fun and so easy! When I get a minute I wanna make all the pillows!

If you have any questions on how we put together the various projects here, leave a comment or send me an email! If I get enough requests, I would even be happy to remake something similar and put up a real DIY! Ooh, and I’d love to see what you’ve made too!

Stay lovely,

Monday in Wonderland: You Are What You Love

Happy Monday Lovelies!

Download here

I saw this week’s #MondayinWonderland quote on a sticky note stuck to my older sister’s bathroom mirror a little while ago, and it’s one of those phrases that I haven’t been able to get out my head since! I quick google trip informed me that this witty phrase is a from a Fall Out Boy song (no surprise there), but it’s really just a nifty way of proclaiming a humble truth (apparently in preteen slang): Forget the haters and do yo’ thang. (This would be very amusing if you heard me saying it. Or if you heard me try to rap it!)

I’ve already kind of talked about why not to be a people pleaser. So I guess apply all that nonsense to your passions too. If you spend all you time doing things you don’t enjoy just to make people like you, you won’t be having any fun. You may have a bajillion (guys, this is actually a word!) friends, but your friends don’t make up who you are--your passions do!

I mean, at least as far as I’ve seen, it’s all kind of a cycle. You do the things you love, meet the people you end up loving, and, if you’re lucky, find a way to manifest your love and friendship for them WITH the things you love doing! And then you are just killin’ it.

So translation and then some: Forget the haters (seriously though) and do WHAT you love (that undefined “thang” I referred to) for THOSE you love (bffls).

Stay lovely,

PS: Haters gonna hate. Potatoes gonna potate.

Eat Me: Cinnamon Sugar "Dough Babies"

It just so happens that patience is not one of my strong points. I think a have a reasonable degree of patience with other human beings, but for some reason, inanimate objects sometimes get the best of me. Whether that’s sewing, or my occasionally incorrigible hair, or even kitchen matters, I just get unreasonably frustrated when things don’t magically take the shape I want them to. Now I will admit, this doesn’t happen with everything, for example, drawing my little word doodles. I can handle those. It just seems that in this case, crescent roll dough was something I could not.

My sister had this idea to make bone shaped crescent rolls for our Halloween get-together, and of course I volunteered! And then my excitement quickly turned into the “how the heck do you do this” panic and then transformed a big ball of dough on the counter. Luckily, as usual, she came in with a brilliant way to salvage that valuable crescent roll dough (seriously valuable though)! Everyone really liked these “dough babies,” so I thought you might too! 

You will need:

Pillsbury crescent roll dough (Also comes in sheets. Or make your own!)

Cutting board or silicone baking mats

Butter knife or pizza cutter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Unroll the dough and cut into bite-sized pieces on top of the cutting board or mat. Then spread the pieces out on a cookie sheet or two! Throw them in the oven (not literally, ya sillies!) for 8-10 minutes or until they get all pretty and golden brown on top.

While those are baking up all nice, combine the powdered sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl, and mix well with a small whisk or a fork. After pulling the bites out of the oven, let them cool enough to handle them, and toss them in the powdered sugar mixture to coat on all sides. You’ll want to do this quickly while the dough is still warm because the powdered sugar mixture will stick better! You don’t need to coat them with extra butter though—the “original” dough as it comes is just that healthy for you ;)

 As you can see, it’s an incredibly simple “recipe” (does it even count as one?), but definitely worth munching on! It’s also nice that they are bite-sized because you can snack throughout your evening get-together, study session, or whatever it is you’re up to! I also really want to try and make a savory version of these guys—with butter and bread, any flavor is possible, right?!

And that that is what happens when you combine the ingenious Samantha and my comical kitchen conundrums. (I’m not an English nerd who uses alliteration. I don’t know what you are talking about.) What recipe fails, successes, and re-imaginings have you tried lately!? (Please share—I love food!)

Stay lovely,