Weekly Wishlist: Dreamy Home Goods

1. Confetti Flora Hall Runner: Anthropologie

2. LINDMON Wooden Venetian Blinds: IKEA

3. Graham and Brown Paintable Wallpaper: Urban Outfitters

4. Silent Fox Rug: Anthropologie

5. Striped Semi-Sheer Curtains: Country Curtains

6. Tufted Kaleidoscope Bathmat: Anthropologie

7. Little Boxes Wall Organizer: Urban Outfitters

Hey guys! Since I've got updating my house on my mind, I decided to share a wishlist today for some real pretty home goods. Some of these are super reasonable and will likely make their way into my home shortly, whereas some of them are a litttttttle bit out of my price range and may just stay in the house of my dreams.

First, up, guys, I have a hall. It's kinda cool. I think it would be super fun to jazz up that hallway with this gorgeous hall runner from Anthropologie. My hall is decorated with embroidery so I think this pretty rug would look perfect in there! And hey, ya know, why not pair a fancy rug with embroidery pieces you spent less than $5 on at the thrift store. It's more fun that way, I think!

In other rug news, while I certainly don't need a rug for my living room, this fox rug from Anthropologie is too dreamy for words and I would positively die every time I saw it if it were in my house. Seriously. So. Damn. Pretty.

I'm also really antsy to switch out the curtains in my living room. The place came with these green monstrosities (they're actually not that bad) that collect cat hair like nobody's business and really darken up the room. I'd love to make the switch to a combination of pretty wood blinds, like these affordable ones from IKEA, and some pretty sheers. I actually already have a couple of sets of these sheers in my bedroom since my neighbor was nice enough to give them to me, and I'd love to put them up in the living room, too. They give things a nice airy feel and really brighten up and tie together the room.

Storage in my place, while certainly not nonexistent, is less available than I'd like. I love the idea of this wall organizer from Urban Outfitters and think it would be a dreamy way to store craft supplies like spools of thread and paint. I've got some decent wall space so it might be a good way to go!

Last, but not least, I'd love to get a pretty new bathmat and probably some matching towels. Some certain cats of mine have totally destroyed the ones I have and I'd love to replace them with something pretty. Admittedly, while this is the easiest and most practical thing I'd like to replace, I'll probably wait another year or so and see if the cats get a little less kitten-like by the time they reach 3 years old. 

Anyway, that's what I'm wishing for this week! Is there anything you're after to liven up your living space?

Til next time!

-Becca

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Pretty Paper Snowflakes

Hi guys! Today I'm sharing a tutorial for these pretty 3D paper snowflakes, which happen to be one of my favorite holiday crafts!

Not only are they completely lovely, but they're also incredibly simple to make. The best part is, you can make them in just about any size, so you could make little ones to hang on your Christmas tree, or big ones to hang from the ceiling! They're a lovely, wintery decoration that really pretties up any space you put them in. In fact, I made some to hang in the office at work out of some recycled paper, and they look absolutely lovely.

So! Let's jump into making them!

As usual, it all begins with some supplies!

To make one snowflake you'll need:

- 6 squares of paper in the color and size of your choosing. I made mine 8 1/2"x8 1/2" when I made the large snowflake and 4 1/4"x 4 1/4" when I made the smaller ones.
- Scissors
- Glue dots. Or a glue gun. Or tape and a stapler. I prefer glue dots, but you can choose what works best for you, or what you have most readily available.
- A stapler
- A hole punch
- Pretty string for hanging your snowflakes

1. Fold one of your paper squares in half along the diagonal to form a triangle.

2. Use your scissors to cut lines parallel to the non-folded edges of your triangle. You'll want to cut from the folded edge towards the center point, being sure to stop a little bit before you reach the center. Repeat until you have three lines cut into each side of the triangle. Be sure to space the lines evenly so you'll have a consistent looking snowflake when you're all done.

When you're done, you should have something that looks like the above photo!

3. Next, open up your triangle and bring the center two points up towards each other. Apply your adhesive and bring one point over the other to form a cylinder.

4. Next, turn everything over and bring the next two points up towards each other, apply your adhesive, and form another cylinder. Repeat this, alternating sides, until all the points have been joined.

5. Once you're done, you should have something that looks like this! Repeat steps 1-4 until you have all 6 squares of paper done up like this.

Aren't these pretty just on their own? Love!

6. Next, take three of your pretty shapes and bring their bottom points together. Once you get them evened out, staple the points together.

7. Next, use your stapler to join the edges of your shapes.

Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other 3 shapes.

8. Now that you've joined your smaller shapes into groups of 3, you should have two pieces. Bring the bottom points together, overlapping them, and staple them together.

9. Then, staple the last two sides together, and you'll be just about done!

Ta-da!!!!!! Isn't that lovely???

10. Now that your pretty snowflake is all made up, you just need to hang it! Punch a hole in one of the points of the snowflake, knot a piece of your pretty string through the hole, and hang away!

Aren't they the prettiest?

I know they seem like they take quite a few steps, but each one of these only takes about 5 minutes to put together. Once you get the first one down, you'll be churning them out faster than you know it!

I hope you enjoyed following along with this tutorial and I hope you get a chance to hang some of these pretties in your home this winter!

Til next time!

-Becca

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DIY Paper Peonies

Don't you just love peonies? Me too! I love fresh flowers and used to buy a bouquet every weekend at the local farmers market to liven up my house. The problem was that they only lasted about a week, and sometimes you just want something permanent! Now house plants are great for that, but why not liven things up with some paper flowers?

These peonies are made from coffee filters and couldn't be much easier to put together. They are also absolutely gorgeous!

The supplies you'll need to make these paper peonies are easy to come by and relatively inexpensive, so you could make yourself a giant bouquet of them for under $10.

Paper Peony Supplies:

• Two sizes of coffee filters. I used some meant for a 4 cup coffee maker and some meant for an 8-12 cup coffee maker. They are probably about 1/2" different in size. You'll need 5 filters of each size (10 total) to make 1 peony.
• Stem wire
• Floral tape
• Scissors
• Two colors of embroidery floss (optional!)
• Embroidery needles (optional!)

Begin by cutting your stem wire to the desired size. I ended up cutting mine to approximately 9 inches. Then put a bend in the wire that looks like the one in the above picture.

Fold your coffee filter in half four times until you have a small wedge like the one pictured above. You can do one at a time, or 2-3 at a time.

Using your scissors, cut a rounded notch into each side of your folded coffee filters. When you unfold it once, it should like kind of like a long, thin heart.

Since peonies have a bit of a jagged look around the edges of the petals, you'll want to try to recreate that look! To do so, rough up the edges of the cut sections using the part of the scissors closest to the joint. You'll sort of sandwich the edges between the scissor joint and then rub the scissors back and forth along the cut line to make that happen. 

Once the edges are roughed up a bit, use your scissors to cut very short lines (no more than 1/8")perpendicular to the cut edges. These two steps are going to make your paper flowers look much more realistic.

Once you've done the above steps with all ten coffee filters, you should have a pile that looks something like this.

Using the unbent end of your stem wire, poke a small hole in the center of each filter. This will make the next steps easier! Next, slide one of the smaller filters up the wire to just under the bend.

Once the filter is up to just under the bend in the wire, lightly gather it upward. Then, twist and pinch the base of the filter lightly around the bent portion of the wire. This should achieve something like what's pictured above (there's no perfect here!).

Repeat the above step until you have gotten through all five of the small filters. At that point you should have something that looks like this! Cute, right? But it's not done quite yet! To get the look of a peony, you really want a big ol' gorgeous flower, so you'll continue the previous step with all of the larger coffee filters.

Ah, glorious! Look how pretty! Now it's time to secure all of your hard work.

Begin by grabbing the filters lightly an inch or two up from the base. This will keep things twisted and gathered, but also give you some room to apply your floral tape.

Now floral tape is kind of a weird creature. It's quite stretchy, and not particularly keen on sticking to anything but itself. Begin applying it by taking an end and wrapping it tightly about 1/2" up from the base of the flower. Wrap around this section a few times until it's secure, then wrap downwards until all of the paper is covered and you've reached the floral wire. Be sure to continue down on the the wire a bit so you get a nice clean line, then cut the tape and wrap the end around until it lies flat.

So there you have it! A beautiful peony made out of coffee filters!

But wait! There's more! Want to jazz things up a little bit? You can do so by wrapping colorful embroidery floss around the floral tape. Here's how:

Thread an embroidery needle with about 2.5 feet of embroidery floss and knot the end. Insert the needle through the base of the flower, just above the tape, and pull through. At this point, wrap the embroidery floss tightly around the tape, working down towards the stem. Once the tape is fully covered, tie off the embroidery floss and cut the end.

If you would like to add an additional color, you can do so by inserting the needle between some of the previously wrapped embroidery floss and then repeat the steps above to your liking. Annnnnnd you're done!

Now that you've got one made up, try making some more! Once you have a few you can tie a ribbon or some yarn around a vase, arrange the peonies and you've got a lovely, permanent bouquet!

Til next time!

-Becca.

P.S: This DIY was adapted from the one found here that I stumbled upon in Pinterest!

DIY Wall Hanging

Hi guys! Today I'm going to show you how to make this super cute wall hanging!

I've been looking for something to hang over my bed for a while now, but am always wary of hanging anything heavy or glass over the bed since I can be a bit of a worry-wart (What if there's an earthquake? What if the cats knock something off the wall while I'm asleep? Oy vey.), so I was pretty excited to put this project together.

It's a pretty quick project and relatively inexpensive to make. You can make it any colors you like, but I chose some bright ones to go with my very bright bedding.

Supplies:

• 1-2 sock organizers, depending on the size you want. I found mine at a garage sale, but you can find them on amazon (this honeycomb one is pretty!), or on ebay (this is the kind I used), or any number of other places!
• Acrylic paint. I used two small bottles
• Sponge brush
• Picture hooks
• Fake flowers (I used about 5 bunches)

To get started, apply a single coat of paint to your sock organizer(s) using the foam brush.

After applying the first coat, let dry, then apply a second coat of paint and let that dry too! Be sure to go through and touch up any spots you missed when you do the second coat.

Next, choose where you want to put your wall hanging, mark, and nail in 1-2 picture hooks. I decided to off-set mine, so one hook was higher than the other, but you could do them straight across if you prefer and hang them level with each other.

Now we're on to flower time! You will want to cut your flowers to a length that's just slightly longer than the depth of the sock organizer. I started by cutting mine, and then realized that when I pulled the flower sections off of the stems they were already the perfect length, so I did it that way.

Once you have the flowers ready, make fist sized bunches and place into the holes of the organizer. I placed them at random until I got a nice pattern going. Place as many or as few as you like. You could fill up the whole thing if you wanted to, but I like the sort of rounded honeycomb shape of the organizers, so I left quite a few spaces empty. Once you've got it to your liking, you're done!

So there you have it! A cute and easy wall hanging that you can make in just a couple of hours!

If fake flowers aren't your jam, you could also fill it with dried flowers, air plants, trinkets, fabrics, etc. The possibilities are endless. I think I might try air plants sometime in the future to change things up a bit.

Til next time!

-Becca