delight in life

the failed shelf

Blogland has a lot of perfect DIY tutorials out there. If you believe everything you read, no one ever tries anything and doesn't end up with a perfectly fashionable and stylish result. I am here to cure you of those thoughts.

Our apartment, as great as it is, gets almost no sunlight on the balcony. I attempted a small herb garden last summer, but it didn't do well. I had a brainstorm last month, though, when I realized that our bedroom window does get a ton of light. The only problem is to keep the cats away from whatever burgeoning greens I might have on the sill. I came up the idea to build a hanging shelf that would hold a few pots. Not a lot, but enough to keep me stocked in basil and mint all summer.

My dad sketched out a blueprint for me (I wanted it to hang but not swing, and I didn't know how to do that) and off Chris and I went to Home Depot. I realized I still didn't know what I was doing, so Dad provided some expert advice. (My favorite part was when I asked if the bolts I was using were going to be ok for ceiling mounting. Dad answered, "probably." I said, I'm only asking because it's going to be over our heads while we sleep, and he belly laughed.)

Got my supplies, came home, and started staining the pretty piece of oak I picked out. Over the course of a week I got the wood stained, sealed, and drilled—all set. I bought seeds and potting soil. I went to drill the holes in the ceiling, and surprise! It turns out that under the quarter inch of plaster, our ceiling is made of steel. Behold: a terrible photo of the steel:

So this summer, no basil for me after all. What a disappointment. And what am I going to do with this piece of wood, anyway?

hand-painted mugs

This year Chris and I gave a bunch of hand-painted mugs as Christmas gifts. I saw the idea/tutorial from Wit & Whistle a few months ago on Pinterest, and I was really pleased with how mine turned out! I used the same herringbone pattern in the tutorial, and I also tried to come up with a few of my own. That part was harder than it sounds, because they had to be patterns that were easily free-handed with a shaky hand and uneven paint applicator. Several of my ideas had to be discarded, though I do like the two I ended up using.

I got plain white mugs from cb2 and gold, black, and copper paint from Blick. This is one of those handmade gifts that was fun to make at first, but after 2 or 3 I was kind of over it. It's always good to keep in mind when you're planning handmade gifts in larger quantities that some things are not so fun the 7th time around!

We paired the mugs with hot chocolate from Ticket Kitchen. Of course I had to get some for Chris and me too so that we could make sure it was worthy. ;) Man oh man that stuff is good! We really loved it and I was sad I was giving the rest away because I wanted to keep all of it for us.

 

fall wreath

I loved making this pretty wreath of paper mums! It was a perfect way to spend a few quiet evenings while watching tv.

I used a kit from Paper Source. The only benefit to that is everything is precut. If you have more patience than me, you could easily do it without the kit. Each large flower is made of a stack of 4 large and 4 small daisy cut-outs, and I used a bone folder to curl the petals in. The small flowers are just a stack of 4 small cut-outs.

The colors are so pretty, especially the shimmery brown. Perfect for fall.

the storage bench project.

One of my 4 November goals was to convert an old trunk into a padded bench. Mission accomplished!

I used this tutorial from design*sponge to create a little slipcover for a trunk I've had since college.
I've wanted a padded storage bench for our bedroom for ages, but the ones I find are either too ugly or too expensive! I ordered a 4" piece of foam to pad it and give it a little more height, and just slipped the fabric cover right over the whole thing.

We'll have to remove the whole cover in order to open the trunk, but we won't need to access the items inside very often. The whole project cost about $60, and that includes some exorbitant shipping on the foam and about a yard and half of extra fabric. (I'm a big believer in buying more fabric than you think you need!)

I think some piping around the edges would make it look a little more professional, but that's beyond my current skill set and I decided to just keep it simple.

Pretty, easy DIY. The best kind. I love having somewhere to sit while I put on my shoes and the bright pop of color it adds to our room!

sparkly stars

Who doesn't need a little more glitter in their life?

I made this garland thinking of Christmas decorations, but I went ahead and put it out.

While Cara read me Harry Potter over iChat, I was cutting out glitter stars. I cut out a few different star stencils out of cardstock and I used a roll of silver glitter wrapping paper to make the stars.

I glued two sheets back to back so they'd be double-sided, and cut around my stencil.
I tried a few different hanging methods, but I settled on using glue dots to attach the stars to some thin silver ribbon.

Strung it up on my mantle and presto! A little sparkly magic for the living room.

I will probably make a longer one to drape around the tree when we put it up. It will be so pretty with the tree lights!

green and yellow

There is a baby shower at work this week and I volunteered to help decorate. Of course I am making the tissue poms that I will probably use at every party I ever throw from now until the end of time. I also made a simple fabric banner to hang. The new parents can take it if and use in the baby's room, but if they don't want it, I'm happy to leave it hanging on my wall!