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

Weekend Wardrobe, plus Buddy and Hank!

Cardigan: ModCloth; Dress: Target; Belt: Anthropologie/Similar; Tights: Nordstrom; Shoes: Swedish Hasbeens.

Well, it's been a bit of a drizzly weekend here in Seattle. Fortunately it hasn't been too chilly so I've still been able to bust out some cute spring clothes!

I found this dress on sale for $8 at Target on Friday when I was doing some birthday shopping and obviously had to snatch it up for myself! I think it looks adorable with navy tights and my red Swedish Hasbeens, but will also look great with boots or flats and with or without tights depending on the season. You gotta love dresses you can wear year round!

The cats were pretty involved in the photo taking process today. Buddy definitely wanted to be in the pictures WITH me, as seen above. I was also CRACKING UP while I was looking through the pictures, because I didn't realize while I was taking the pictures, but off to the side of the frame, this was happening:

Hank's pretty intrigued by the sound of the shutter on the camera, so he stared at it for a while and then decided he better go attack it. Sheesh!

Hope you had a lovely long weekend!

Til next time!

-Becca

String Art Portrait Plaques

Looking for a craft project to do over the long weekend? How about making a string art portrait plaque (or 3!)?

These plaques are super cute, easy, and surprisingly quick to put together! I was inspired by a tutorial I saw on the Country Living website, but wanted to put my own twist on the idea. Since my living room has a lot of beautiful wood in it, I decided to stain my plaques rather than paint them. I also thought it would be pretty cute to make one of Buddy, one of Hank, and one of myself, so I created my own templates.

Creating a template can be done relatively simply in Photoshop using your own pictures, but if you want something quick you are welcome to use the ones I made, which can be found here. They will need to be scaled accordingly for whatever size plaque you choose.

Now, on to making them! You will of course need some supplies:

Wood plaque, wood stain or paint of your choice, hammer, art template, 3/4" nails, waxed cord, rag, sponge brush (not pictured), scissors (not pictured, but come on, you have 'em handy, right? You're crafting!).

Begin the process by staining your plaque. I bought a Walnut colored Soy Stain, which worked great! The directions recommended applying the stain with a cloth, but I found the easiest way to apply it to this plaque was to brush it on with a sponge brush and then rub off any excess stain with my rag. I really loved the way the color came out and found the stain dried fairly quickly.

While your plaque dries, cut out your template. When the plaque is dry, place your template and tape it down. Be sure to use a 
relatively un-sticky tape so you don't inadvertently remove any of the stain when you remove the tape!

Now you'll need to hammer in the nails around the perimeter of your template. If you have any areas with more detail, I would recommend starting with those. For a larger template place nails approximately 1/4-1/2" apart. For a smaller template, place nails approximately 1/8-1/4" apart. They don't need to be perfect, but you'll want to space them as evenly as possible.

My many years of staring at sewing rulers and tiny seam allowances have gotten me pretty used to eyeballing things, but if you're not comfortable doing that, feel free to use a ruler to mark the nail placements before placing your template.

Once you've hammered nails in around the perimeter of your template, remove it! It's string time!

Begin by tying a knot around one of the nails. I chose the one at the base of the design. Then take the cord and bring it to the next nail (you can go on the inside or the outside of the design), pull taut, then loop the cord around the nail, and repeat for each nail until you've completed the other shape of the design.

Admittedly I did my first plaque with the cord to the inside, then tried the next one with the cord to the outside and found that I slightly preferred the look of that one. Live and learn! I still think either way looks great.

Once the outline is complete, it's time to fill in the middle of the design! To do this, just continue pulling the cord taut and looping it around nails, but this time do it randomly, creating lines that go from one side to another (top to bottom! Left to right! Upper right to lower left! Etc!).

At some point while you're filling in the middle, you'll think to yourself, "Golly this looks good!" and then you'll probably keep going for a little longer, and then you'll think to yourself "Golly, this looks less good." If that happens, feel free to undo a few of your lines, which is fortunately very very easy. When you've achieved a design that YOU like, cut the cord (leaving enough excess to tie a knot), tie it around the nail and trim the ends.

Guess what! You're done! Wasn't that easy? Since I stained all my plaques at once, once that was done, I was able to turn out all three of these in about an hour.

Now all that you need to do is figure out where you want to put them. Want to hang em on your wall? Get some of these, nail them into the back of your plaque and hang away! Want to display them on a mantle or on top of a cabinet? Well, you could lean them, but WOAH precarious! So you could get some of these and make a fancy little display that isn't about to fall over at any given time.

I'll be hanging mine in my living room near the front door. I can't wait to get them up!

Til next time!

-Becca

P.S! If you haven't heard, Craftgawker and Whimseybox are holding a challenge right now! The submitted projects that receive the most "Favorites" on Craftgawker will have a chance to have their project turned into a DIY kit with Whimseybox! Super cool right? Well, yours truly has entered, so if you are feeling generous help a sister out by favoriting my String Art Project on Craftgawker!

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Phinney/Greenwood Garage Sale Day!

Who doesn't love a good garage sale? And hey, who doesn't love a whole neighborhood full of garage sales?

Saturday was the annual Phinney Ridge/Greenwood Garage Sale day, so my friends Nicole, Elle, Ira the dog, and I got an early start to check it out and see if we could make some good finds. Here's a little of what we saw on our garage-sale-ing adventure:

Spring-time ice skates.

Zoo bricks? 200 bricks? Either way, bricks. 

I loved this pink flower broach.

Pretty pretty packaging.

My first find of the day. 

I loved this green shelf, but left it behind since I had no idea where I would put it.

1920s lace collar.

Tiny things!!!! 

Beautiful hardware. 

My partners in crime.

We all ended up with a lot of great finds! Elle managed to find some Hunter rain boots for a measly $8, Nicole found some great stuff for the kids she works with and some good stuff for around the house, Ira found ALL of the other dogs that were out and about, and I came home with all of this:

Sock organizers for a future DIY project, copper bundt pan, vintage bird and birdcage print skirt, buttons, tiny things.

My haul cost me a whopping $9.50. I'm the most excited about the vintage skirt because of its adorable print (and $2 price tag).

Buddy and Hank are clearly the most excited about the tiny things, which are little ceramic statuettes. I got a bird, an owl, and a kangaroo to add to my collection!

It's just like they say: one person's trash is another person's treasure!

Til next time!

-Becca

Friday Night Dinner with Levi

Levi came over Friday evening for a simple meal and some good conversation. While he sipped on some Russian Caravan tea with some of my homemade sour cherry preserves, I whipped up a quick meal of fresh pasta with over easy eggs and roasted asparagus.

Other than preheating the oven, the meal itself took about 15 minutes to make from start to finish! Wanna make it yourself? Here's how!

Ingredients:

• Fresh pasta (I used Manini's Gluten Free Roasted Garlic Fettuccini) 
• One bunch of asparagus
• 2 eggs (or enough for 1 per person)
• Olive oil
• Salt and Pepper
• Pecorino Romano cheese

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Rinse the asparagus.
3. To remove the woody stalks of the asparagus, simply hold each piece at each end and bend lightly until it snaps. Discard the bottom tough part of the asparagus. (Discard it well or your asparagus thief cat might steal it in the middle of the night and put it on your bed. Seriously.)
4. Place the asparagus on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (use your best judgement).
5. Once the olive oil is drizzled over the asparagus turn the asparagus over in the pan until it's well coated.
6. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the top of the asparagus, and then put it into the oven to roast. Let it cook for about 15 minutes turning it once about halfway through.
7. While the asparagus is cooking, bring water to a boil and cook your pasta according to the directions. If you are using fresh pasta, it should only take a few minutes.
8. Once pasta is cooked, drain it, put back into the pan, toss with some olive oil (once again, use your best judgment- I believe in you!), and plate.
9. In a small skillet, heat about 1 tbs of oil over medium-low heat.
10. Crack your eggs into the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and let sit for a bit. To make an over-easy egg, I always cook on the first side until the whites look cooked through, but the yolk is still pretty raw. 
11. Once the whites are cooked, flip the eggs and let cook for just a few seconds. This will set the other side but not cook the yolk through. (You want it runny so it will essentially make a sauce for your pasta).
12. Once the eggs are done, pull them from the pan and set them on top of the pasta.
13. At this point the asparagus should be done too! Plate the asparagus next to the pasta and grate some Pecorino Romano cheese over everything. As much as you want! I always do a whole bunch of it. Now all that's left is to eat up!

After dinner, we spent the rest of the night chatting and listening to records. Hank, never one to miss out on anything, made himself at home in the middle of Levi's stack of records. He also left a toy in Levi's boot. Something to remember him by?

It was a lovely night, and I even got a couple of Bowie albums out of it!

Til next time!

-Becca

Saturday Snapshots

Don't you just love the weekend? It's two whole days to spend however you like! I got mine off to a great start with a day of exploring and relaxing with amazing weather and good company.

Old maps, wrought-iron fence salvaged from the King Street Station restoration, white heating grate with aqua highlights, and so many windows.

My day started off with a relaxing yoga class, followed by a trip to The RE-Store with my friend Hollis. They're a non-profit store in Seattle that sells reclaimed materials from buildings of all eras. That means it's full of gorgeous old windows, beautiful doors, ornate heating grates, and awesome light fixtures. 

Old sewing machine table, awesome hanging lamp, small chandelier.

The Re-Store is one of my favorite places to comb through in Seattle and I find that I always leave feeling inspired. Admittedly that inspiration is usually to do many projects using many doors that would never fit anywhere in my house, but today I left with some more tangible ideas. I'm now planning to go check out the King Street Station restoration after seeing the old wrought iron gates salvaged from the project and I'm going to keep checking back at The Re-Store to try to find the perfect light fixture for my kitchen!

Did I mention that they have a shop cat?

Globes at Ludlow Home, Doves at Terra Bella Flowers.

We headed to Phinney Ridge next to look through the cute shops up there. Hollis and I both initially mistook the doves above for taxidermy until we noticed them moving. So pretty!

Running errands in Ballard, pretty flowers by my house, amazingly manicured tree at the Woodland Park Rose Garden.

Buddy and Hank!

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating ice cream in the Woodland Park Rose Garden, running errands, having a nice walk home, and snuggling up with Buddy and Hank! What a lovely, lovely day.

Hope you all had a wonderful Saturday!

Til next time!

-Becca