For Once, a Chalkboard I Didn’t Make

November 16, 2012 in family room/office, my shop with 0 Comments

I was gonna make one myself, but then I found exactly what I was looking for on sale at Hobby Lobby (30% off of $7.99).

I’ve been working hard to get my etsy shop ready for the holiday shopping season, and was growing tired of all the things I wanted to get done scribbled on scraps of paper scattered around my desk. Then when I saw this image on Pinterest I was inspired to make a chalkboard backdrop for photographing some of my listing items…

All the Frills

And bam, I got the idea to make a chalkboard that could double as a photo backdrop and to-do list.

I was at Hobby Lobby to pick up a piece of foam core to paint with chalkboard paint, but when I saw one with the perfect dimensions just sitting there waiting for me I decided to give myself a break and not DIY something for the first time in a while. I actually love the unfinished frame. The only downside is that I guess I have to erase it every time I want to use it for photos, but I’m still kind of unsure about venturing away from my standard white background anyway.

I’m so proud of how much I’ve done to get my shop ready! I usually have a big backlog of items to be listed, but everything on my shelves at this very moment is actually up for sale. I even bought supplies yesterday to craft a few more upcycled creations (including doily hoops–I’m going to try affixing it with fusible interfacing). My goal was to have it all done by Thanksgiving and so far things are looking pretty good! If you want to see all the cool new stuff I’ve got you can check it out here. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

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Pottery Barn Holiday Inspiration

November 14, 2012 in Christmas, seasonal decor, Window Shopping with 5 Comments

I’ve been receiving Pottery Barn catalogs regularly ever since I bought my sofa from them over two years ago. PB is usually a little rich for my blood so it usually goes straight to the recycling, but every now and then (especially around the holidays) I like to stop and peruse it as if it’s a magazine. I do love the Pottery Barn “look,” I just prefer my cool little whatnots to come a little cheaper. Here’s some holiday inspiration I gleaned from the latest catalog:

I love these colors for Christmas! I really like my holiday decor to be very colorful and bright, so this little smattering of ornaments is right up my alley.

I’m totally digging those glittery pinecones. Wondering if I could DIY something similar?

See those little silver balls lining the front walk? I think the catalog said that they’re mercury glass. I kind of have a thing for mercury glass but haven’t ever been able to find it inexpensively.

Silver ornaments filling cool containers? Yes please. Now I want a big metal birdcage just to fill up with stuff.

Galvanized tubs are really inexpensive in the paint aisle at big hardware stores. I actually have a small-ish one that I’ve used most recently to collect rainwater for my garden. Now that it’s out of service for the winter maybe I’ll use it to corral presents under the tree, especially the ones that I know we’ll be gathering up to take to see family anyway–we’ll just put the whole tub in the car.

I think those are pinecones in a jar on that side table.

I’m digging the little wreath here (makes me wish I had access to fresh eucalyptus to make my own), but what really floats my boat is the hobnail + mercury glass light fixture. I told you I had a thing for mercury glass and hobnail is also pretty high on my list of things I find charming.

Playing cards in a jar! Who can say no to a game of rummy when the cards are already right there? It feels so festive.

This is not Christmas-ey at all, but I was a little bit thrilled when I spotted some colored pencils in a jar because I, too, recently made the decision to store my colored pencils in a jar on my office shelves. It just seemed like a good idea.

Me and Pottery Barn, we love to put stuff in jars.

l’ve simplified my gift wrapping the past few years by using only white and brown paper. I think the rolls would look just darling hanging out in an oversized glass jug.

More mercury glass! Be still, my beating heart.

Being that I don’t have a regular paycheck I am even cheaper now than I used to be, so you probably won’t catch me running out to Pottery Barn anytime soon, but I definitely think I can take some inspiration from the way their designers pull rooms together and create a similar feel with stuff I already have/can find really inexpensively secondhand. There’s a strict rule in our house about saving Christmas decor for after Thanksgiving, but that’s right around the corner! I’ll be decking the halls in no time.

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Farewell, Fuzzy Photos

November 12, 2012 in On a Personal Note... with 2 Comments

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have already gotten a glimpse of what came in the mail on Friday.

When I first started blogging I thought it was so dumb that many bloggers had such expensive cameras. I thought I could get perfectly acceptable photos just using my point-and-shoot and basic editing software (and in all honesty I didn’t even edit my pictures at first!). But between my blog, my shop, and now my baby, I take a lot of pictures, and in a year and a half I’ve torn through three inexpensive point and shoots. When my last camera broke I had a choice: shell out about a hundred bucks for a new one that would probably take mediocre photos and break in a year, or save up for a good entry-level DSLR. I took a deep breath and braced myself for a few months of crappy iPhone pictures while I saved. Luckily for me, around that same time I came across a couple of great vintage scores that I could sell on eBay (I try to keep everything in my etsy shop under $20, so eBay is the better choice for big ticket items), and also discovered the wonder of selling unused baby gear in a swap group on facebook. In no time at all I’d built my PayPal account to over $300.

I’d originally thought I would need closer to $500, so imagine my excitement when I realized I could save about a hundred bucks by buying refurbished!

I was a little bit nervous about it, but a quick googling revealed that the general consensus of the Internet seems to be that buying refurbished from Cameta Cameras is a good deal–they offer a one year warranty, speedy shipping, and excellent customer service. I chose the Nikon D3100 mostly because of the HD video, but it also had great reviews everywhere I read. I bought it on Monday and had it in my hot little hands by Friday afternoon.

One of the first things I did once I got it out of the box and started shooting was upload the first picture to a site called myshuttercount.com–it reads the mysterious data hidden in your image file and tells you how many pictures your camera has ever taken. This particular camera had only taken seven pictures before arriving at my doorstep! Refurbished = a winner in my book.

I uploaded another one this morning to see how many pictures I took over the weekend and the new shutter count was 635! I’ve been busy snapping lots of photos as I learn the ins and outs of using such a complicated camera. I started out mostly photographing Juliet, since she’s pretty good at looking cute and staying still.

This was part of my first attempt at shooting in manual mode. I realize that I’m not holding the camera properly. Still learning over here.

Do you like my camera strap cover? It’s actually the waistband of an old skirt that no longer fits. I just cut it off and sewed under the ends, then slipped the strap right through it. Waste not, want not, I always say.

Yeah, it’s been a while since I fit in a size 4.

The top photo here is one I took with my phone last week. Below it is basically the same picture shot with my Nikon. It’s the reason I wanted to wait to list the book page clothespins in my shop.

I am so happy to finally be able to take better pictures of Jack!

As excited as I am, I’m also a little bit terrified. Nick and I tend to be The Kind of People Who Break Things. We are just very relaxed about material possessions, sometimes to a fault. Every other camera I’ve owned in recent memory has been dropped at least once. I’m trying to be diligent about always putting the strap around my neck, but then I worry I’ll forget it’s there and swing it into something accidentally. Nick hasn’t even touched it yet (and probably never will–he says it’s way too complicated looking). But the nice part about having a quality camera is that even if I do break it it can probably be repaired instead of being a total loss. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that it doesn’t come to that.

I’ve been furiously working on my etsy shop for the last two weeks to get ready for the holiday shopping season, so I’m off to work on listing all the items I photographed this weekend! I hope you all have a lovely Monday!

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DIY Vintage Book Page Clothespin Magnets

November 9, 2012 in Crafty Goodness, How To, my shop with 9 Comments

Friends and family have often suggested to me that I sell some of my craft projects on Etsy, but my response was always that I take too many shortcuts and am too sloppy in my work to feel good about selling anything handmade by yours truly. But after making (and selling) my chalkboard silver trays, I started to think that maybe it would be fun to come up with some very simple crafts using vintage stuff. Projects so simple that even I couldn’t mess them up. It’s probably not a smart business decision to publish a step-by-step tutorial on how to make something that I plan to sell in my shop, but I think these are just so adorable that I had to share.

decorate with book pages

Perhaps you’ve noticed by now how much I love to decorate with book pages, and clothespins are quickly moving up on the list of things I find charming, so this simple craft project using wooden clothespins and book pages is right up my alley. I started with a 1989 Reader’s Digest Condensed Book. I understand that some of you hardcore bibliophiles out there may be offended by my apparent mistreatment of a book, but keep in mind that it was 50 cents at an estate sale and likely headed for a landfill. The cover isn’t especially beautiful to me so I figure I might as well make something pretty out of the pages. I also gathered a pencil, small paint brush, mod podge, and some clothespins (duh).

First step: carefully cut or tear a page from the book and trace the outline of a clothespin lightly onto it. I didn’t want any blank space on my clothespins so I started inside the margin. Then I just moved my clothespin over and traced it again right next to the first one, repeating across the page.

Now cut along the lines you traced to get a bunch of little paper strips. I was able to get nine strips out of one page. If your book is taller you may be able to get two rows of paper strips, but mine was too short.

Next, I painted a thin layer of mod podge onto the front of the clothespin, laid a paper strip down, then painted more mod podge on top. I figured out I got the best seal by smoothing it down with my finger.

If the paper overlapped the edges I just smoothed it down along the sides. You could also trim with a sharp knife or maybe even tiny manicure scissors.

Bam. So easy.

To turn them into magnets, I cut small strips from this roll of magnetic tape I had left over from this project.

The adhesive wasn’t all that great and they kept rolling up, so I ended up using superglue to get ‘er done.

It would be fun to try to arrange them in order so you could read the paragraph! It’s like a puzzle!

clothespin crafts

How beautiful is that paper card I’ve got clipped to the fridge here? It was actually a thank you note I received recently. I loved the paper so much that I held onto it.

book page crafts

I’ll have a couple sets of these listed for sale in my shop sometime next week. Another bad business move: writing about something on your blog before it’s ready to sell! I’ve got a pretty good reason for waiting that I’m excited to tell you about on Monday. Have a fabulous weekend and stay warm!

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