Made | DIY Mounted Animal Earrings

It's funny to me how much the trend right now is cozy-cabin-with-hunted-animal-heads-and-antlers-without-actually-killing-any-animals. The whole antler craze? My grandpa's been doing that for years before Anthropologie ever displayed a glitterized antler chandelier in its windows. But there's nothing like a little trend that ties back to my southern roots to get me wanting to jump on the bandwagon. I've made quite a few trips to the Artists and Craftsman Supply shop in Central Square the past couple months, and I kept walking by this display of tiny rubber animals. I kept trying to figure out ways to use them other than buying all of them and setting up a little farm on our bookshelf. These earrings were the only other option! They're super easy and would make a cute handmade gift this holiday.

All you need are some earring backs, super glue, scissors, and tiny rubber animals (or really any cute thing that you want to adorn your ears with).

1. Cut those little animals in half. 

2. Super glue each half onto an earring back.

3. Let dry for 24 hours. 

4. Pop those suckers in! Or wrap it up and put it under the tree. 

This year I'm trying to give a majority of handmade gifts. So often I find myself buying gifts just to have something to offer, and I think that giving someone something I made myself offers so much more than just stuff.

Have you made any gifts this year? For another DIY earring idea, check out this post. I'm making these tonight!

On staycationing.

What now seems like a long, long time ago, I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off of work. We weren't going anywhere until Thanksgiving Day (and even then, only an hour drive), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity of a week long vacation for the low, low price of three days PTO. What a steal!

I spent the week doing everything I imagine I'll be doing when I retire: quilting, waking up early, drinking lots of coffee and lattes, taking pictures, baking sweet things from scratch, and watching way too much TV. I love vacations as much as the next gal: the anticipation of visiting somewhere new, staying up late packing the night before, researching all of the places to eat and visit while you're there, charging up the camera. But there's something equally as magical to a staycation. I tried a new restaurant that I'd been meaning to, had a leisurely lunch and drank a beer with a friend, I stayed up late. I enjoyed my city the way I sometimes feel like I don't have time to in the daily grind of things.

Mike and I are going on a cruise come February, and I'm already itching for that to happen, but if someday we're not financially able to gallivant around the world, I know I'll be just fine with a few days off and some comfy PJs.

What's your favorite way to vacation?

This is my home | Kitchen

My favorite thing about our apartment is how much of it Mike and I have made ourselves. Last summer, Mike revamped the furniture that was rotting on our old back porch, and he even built a new bench out of the spare wood. I got some cushion on sale at JoAnn's, some fabric, and made a cushion for the top.

Our kitchen is full of bright greens and yellows. We spend a lot of time in there, so it was important that it feel like a happy place, even in the endless night of winter. 

Mike and I bought this bread box at a thrift store in Vermont around our first year anniversary. We were already anticipating our September move into our very own place, and buying this first piece for our apartment felt so very romantic. Even now, stuffed with bagels and leftover banana bread, piled with Oreos, it feels like the first bit of a home we're building.

As convenient as it is to use Pinterest as a cookbook, I like the meditative nature of working from a stained and floury cookbook every now and then. 

Yes, that is a Megatouch. As in those table top games you see at bars. Mike won it at a Boys & Girls Club auction in Western Mass last year, and now it sits on a little bar in our kitchen, entertaining guests without fail.

One of my best friends Nabila painted that painting. She and I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen when we lived together, so it's kind of nice having a bit of her there all the time. 

Where all the magic happens.

Mike's sister made this out of paint swatches. It's part of a really great series she did, and it matches perfectly with the colors in our kitchen. 

And here's our makeshift wine rack. It's not as impressive anymore; the holidays have drained us of our reserve. Guess it's time for another trip to Trader Joe's!

What parts of your house make it a home?

Light and dark.

I appreciate the contrast of shadow and light all the more in this season of so little sunshine.

Made | My first quilt.

About a month and a half ago, when I told Mike that I wanted to make my mom a quilt for Christmas, he was a little skeptical. He had good reason to be a little wary of my high hopes: making my first quilt in less than two months! I have piles of fabric, yarn, paper, stencils, paint, stamps...pretty much anything that can be found in a JoAnn's or the craft section of a store, I've got it. I love to experiment with things, and lately my mantra has been, Oh, I can make that. Which I enjoy, and Mike fully supports. But sometimes I get a little lofty in my goals, forgetting completely about my beginner status. So when I finally dive into whatever it is I'm diving into today, I'm often discouraged by my lack of expertise. 

The biggest lesson I learned through this whole process was that there are some mistakes I should make myself and learn from, and then there are mistakes that countless others have made before me, from whom I can learn. And learn I did. By some stroke of luck (or just the timing of my venture with the colder season), two of my favorite blogs posted tutorials and resources on making quilts. If you're thinking about making your first quilt, I highly recommend bookmarking Smile and Wave's Square Patchwork Quilt DIY and Enjoy It's How to Make a Triangle Quilt, if only for moral support and visuals of what you hope to achieve. 

I had let the project stall for a couple weeks when Rachel posted her tutorial, and that night, after reading her post, I got up and sewed all of my little squares into strips. The next day, I sewed those strips together and had my very first quilt top! After that, the quilt was as good as done with the momentum I'd gained. And with that, the second biggest lesson I learned was to just get to work. When you have as many interests and hobbies and ideas as I do, it's so easy to get sidetracked, or worse, overwhelmed, by all of the things you have want to do. But saying to myself, I'll sew all of these squares into strips tonight gave me a tangible and realistic goal that wouldn't leave me feeling like I'd bitten off more than I could craft. After I changed my mindset, I was on a roll. I work a 40+ hour work week that has nothing to do with quilting or crafting in any way, so all of these things must be done on my own time. I managed to take off the first three days of Thanksgiving week, which allowed me to work on the quilt for hours at a time. I was able to finish that week, and I'm very glad I took that time. But not having all the time in the world is still no excuse to not do it.

What big projects have you been staring in the face for a while? 

Made | Crocheted star tree-topper

After decorating our tree, we realized that we didn't have anything to go on top. We tried to find something at Target and the Dollar Store, but nothing really stood out to us. When that happens, it usually means you should just make it yourself.

So that night we put on Christmas Vacation, and I whipped up this little guy. I used this crochet star pattern, but you can find all kinds on Pinterest, depending on your size needs. It took me less than an hour to make this. First, I crocheted two of these stars in a mustard yarn. Next, I made a mini star pillow out of pieces of felt cut into a smaller star shape. I sewed them together by hand (pretty roughly, since the seams won't show), and then stuffed them with Polyfil before closing it up. Then I sandwiched the pillow between the two crocheted stars and sewed them together with the mustard yarn and a crochet needle. 

I would love to make another one of these with some yarn laced with gold or silver thread. Next up on the Christmas decoration to-make list is a tree skirt. Luckily, Rachel recently posted a tutorial on vintage-inspired tree skirts over at Smile and Wave.

What's on top of your tree?

Deck the halls.

December is really here, I can't believe it. My dad always jokes that time flies faster the older you get, but this year I'm inclined to believe him. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Mike and I spent the day putting up the tree, decorating the house, and listening to Christmas music. We hung up all of the ornaments Mike had and then made some new ones out of some Christmas Story stress balls in the shape of the famous leg lamp and bar of soap from the Target dollar section. Mike strung up a couple of his ViewFinders and their picture reels to go on the tree as well. 

And now I welcome the long evenings because there's nothing cozier than curling up under the glow of Christmas lights on your very own (first since moving to Boston!) tree.