Obsession: Modern Fabric

Sewing gives me anxiety. Unlike Kaitlin, who can whip up perfect baby quilts and make her own clothes, I can't sew a button onto a shirt (really, I can't). A sewing machine might as well be a rocket ship when it comes to my ability to operate it.

But even though I have no natural skill when it comes to the textile arts, I do love fabric. When my pro-quilter sister-in-law Vanessa recently came for a visit, we hit a quilting store with loads of gorgeous modern designs and spent a couple hours picking out fabrics for a new quilt Vanessa is making just for me (how lucky am I?!).

If you're a seamstress (or know someone who is), here are four designers who make fabric that's anything but frumpy.

Cotton + Steel
A cult favorite, Cotton + Steel works with trendy designers to create lines any hipster would swoon over. Their lines usually all work together, making it easy to be a print-mixing master.

Parson Gray
These fabrics have a folksy, world-traveler vibe while still remaining completely modern.

Amy Butler
Amy Butler uses bold color palettes and lots of organic patterns to create happy graphic prints.

Tula Pink
Tula Pink fabric doesn't take itself too seriously: it's funky, whimsical, and totally magical.

I can't wait to share my quilt when it's ready. What sewing projects do you have in the works?

DIY: Wall Art for Under $50

As a woman with a keen eye for spotting metaphorical diamonds in the rough, my mom recently snatched up a coffee table book of botanical seashell drawings from the sale cart at Barnes and Noble.

Besides indulging a secret love for the skeletons of dead marine invertebrates, whatever would one do with such a book?

Create a beautiful wall display for less than $50, of course.

I love how the wall in her dining room turned out—and luckily, it’s easy to copy. My mom cut eight of her favorite pages from the book with an X-ACTO knife and used double-sided tape to adhere them to burlap. She then cut the burlap to size and framed it in glass clip frames, like these.

The symmetrical arrangement fits with the formality of the space, but you could use the same idea for a more freeform display. If you want to try it, here are a few books that will provide excellent prints for framing.

The Mandala Book: Patterns of the Universe - $16.19

Raphael to Renoir: Drawings from the Collection of Jean Bonna – 29.95

William Morris Textiles - $38.84

Goya: Order & Disorder - $41.36

The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss - $22.79

National Geographic Simply Beautiful Photographs - $29.51

All Natural Lip Scrub

We all know how hard winter is on our skin. We've shared our favorite solution for our hands but what about the area of our bodies where the skin is most thin and often dry and chapped? Our lips are often one of the most affected areas during these chilly months. And trying to wear a deep lip color on top of dry flaky lips doesn't make for a good look. Sure, you can find several lip scrubs at any drug store or cosmetics location, but why spend the money on something you can create at home? As an added bonus, the ingredients all come from your kitchen so ingesting some won't do you any harm. Follow this simple recipe to make your lips soft and smoochable any time of the year.

What you'll need: Brown sugar, coconut oil and honey. If you're allergic to coconut oil or don't have any lying around, swap out for some olive oil.

I like to mix just small amounts of scrub at a time just to get me through rough patches (pun intended) with my lips. A tiny dollop of each ingredient is good for a couple of scrubs. If you so choose, mix 2 parts sugar, 2 parts coconut oil and 1 part honey in a larger batch to give as a fun gift or to keep a larger quantity on hand.

Press down on the ingredients with your finger and gradually incorporate everything together. Once mixed, if you decide you want a coarser texture, add a little more sugar. You can also use white sugar or raw sugar for a grittier scrub.

To use: Gently massage into lips for 60 seconds. Rinse off with warm water. Finish with your favorite lip balm.

Child's Play: Valentine's Day Edition

Valentine's Day is such a fun holiday for kids. It's made for sugar and silly crafts. Today I'm sharing three of my favorite kid-friendly Valentine's Day activities. While these are easy enough for a two-year old, I think older kids would enjoy them too (and the end results might be a little prettier).

Hope you have as much fun doing these with your Valentines as I did with Max.

Giant Rice Krispie Kiss
Every Valentine's Day, my mom used to give my brother, sister, and me a giant rice krispie treat disguised as a Hershey's Kiss. I loved this tradition as a kid and decided to start it with Max. Making rice krispie treats and then shoving them into a funnel is the perfect kitchen activity for a two year old.

You'll need:
A batch of rice krispie treats (my ooey gooey recipe below)
A small funnel
Margarine or butter
Foil
Paper and pen

Grease the funnel and your hands with butter or margarine. Pack the treats into the funnel.

Turn them out onto parchment paper.

Wrap in foil and add a little paper tag.

Rice Krispie Treats
1/4 cup butter
1 16 oz bag big marshmallows
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 cups Rice Krispies

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the marshmallows and stir fairly constantly until they melt. Add the vanilla and stir. Mix in the Rice Krispies. (These will be more gooey and marshmallow-y than typical Rice Krispie treats...just the way I like them.)

Heart Attack
Growing up, my mom had a fun idea for letting people know we were thinking of them. We'd cut out tons of paper hearts and "heart attack" their door. I decided to repurpose this idea as a toddler-friendly way to decorate our front door for Valentine's Day. I had tons of die cut hearts left over from some other project, but you could make it even more crafty and cut out your own. Just make sure to use paint-friendly tape.



You'll need:
Paper hearts
Tape
A door (obviously)

Tape hearts all over the door. 

 Done! (That's my kind of craft.)

Potato Stamp Valentine
Like his mom, my toddler is not a crafter (see below for proof). For him to do a project, it needs to be simple with big mess potential--which in this case, he fully achieved.

The idea is to create stamps out of a potato for old-fashioned, homemade Valentines. At our house, this quickly devolved into a finger-painting extravaganza, leaving my kitchen table looking more like a crime scene than a Pinterest-worthy tableau of budding artistry.

However, the card I made turned out pretty cute, giving me hope that this craft could be really cute in the hands of a more crafty mother-son duo.

You'll need:
A potato
1 or 2 bottles of water-based acrylic paint in red or pink
Cardstock

Cut the potato in half. Carve a heart.

Stamp away!

Decide finger painting is way more fun.

Looking for more Valentine's Day ideas? Check out our sequined wreath and embroidered felt hearts.

Valentine's DIY: Embroidered Felt Hearts

Embroidered felt has such a sentimental, vintage vibe, which makes these sweet little hearts perfect for Valentine's Day. As I've said before, I'm not much of a crafter and even less of a seamstress, so if I can make these, you definitely can.

My mom, who is something of a felt genius, learned to embroider from her grandma and kindly agreed to help me on my first-ever sewing project. I chose a monochromatic pink color scheme for mine, but you could obviously switch out the thread and felt for whatever color combination you like (cream and gold would be really cute). We got these done in just a few hours and for less than $5.

Valentine's Sequin Wreath

We have about a month until Valentine's day. This is great news for people like me who are already going through holiday withdrawal. As soon as I take down my Christmas decorations, I'm itching to find cute decorations to put up around my newly empty-looking home. And since I always love a little bling, I decided to make this cute and sparkly heart wreath to hang up this year. It honestly takes less than ten minutes to make and is so easy, a child could do it! 

What you'll need:

• Heart shaped wreath form
• 3 yards of two inch red sequin elastic
• Silver flat headed pins
• Pen or screwdriver

My craft store only had 2 2/3 yards left of the sequin elastic so I stretched mine out a little more but having some extra buffer will be helpful.

Mark the spot on the back of your wreath form where you'll hang the finished product. Push in and move around a little until you have a hole that goes about a half inch deep.

Use two pins to tack the start of your elastic directly above the hole you've created.

Let the elastic hook onto the bottom of the heart's pinch. Pull to the left of the hole you've created. You can use push pins as you work to secure the elastic where you'd like it to sit.

Continue wrapping the elastic around the form, slightly overlapping each time. You can increase/decrease your pull on the elastic to be sure no white shows through the sequins.

Wrap the elastic around right down the middle of the heart's point. I put a pin right at the top of the point to hold the elastic in place.

Keep wrapping until you get back to the top. Pin to finish right at the bottom of the hole. I like to keep an open spot so it's easy to find the hole fro hanging purposes.

Do another check along the entire shape to make sure the wraps are even and that there aren't any bare spots.

When done correctly, the sequins should start overlapping to look pretty seamless.

Then it's ready to be hung! I love the look right over an antique window or frame. You can also use command hooks to hang on a door or wall. Happy crafting!

Put a Bow on It

There's something about a classic bow that can turn the most simple of things into something lovely. It's no wonder you can find bows on handbags, gloves, tops, shoes (you get the point) everywhere these days. So why not carry the trend on to hair accessories? By placing the bow at the bottom of a bun or half bun, it makes a humdrum hairstyle a little more unique and fun. The problem is, most hair bows are made for children and aren't quite big enough for adults. But have no fear; we have an incredibly simple no-sew version of a bow that can be made in minutes.

Glass Dome Ornament

One of my favorite holiday activities each year is a friend's annual ornament and cookie exchange. It's always fun to see what cute ornaments people have found for one another and of course to bring one home for the tree. But it can be really hard to find something that stands out as being worthy of our event. Last year, after going to numerous places looking for the right one, I finally decided to make one myself. This cute little deer ornament was the result. And bonus: it's super easy. Like seriously, once you have the materials you can start and have this baby on your tree (or in a box ready to give) in less than ten minutes. So here's what you'll need:

• Fake Snow
• Miniature deer pack
• Miniature wire brush tree pack (also come in straw color)
• Hot Glue Gun
• Pencil
• Funnel
• Small Wood Circle (this one is 3.5" diameter)
• An open bottom glass ornament (this is the hardest thing to find. I searched everywhere online and found one here that should work but if you live near a Ben Franklin, everything can be bought there.)

First, you'll want to lay out your scene to make sure everything you want to include fits correctly on your wood. If your deer are small enough you could put a couple in there. Or maybe you've found a cute house to put instead of a tree. This gold deer is extra special which is why he is as giant as the forest trees. But I like it that way.

Then, before you glue anything down, plop that glass dome right over the top to make sure everything still fits properly and looks the way you want it to.

As long as everything is honky dory, start gluing everything down. It's ok if there are big glue blobs around the deer feet and trees because they'll be covered with snow anyway.

Channel your inner blizzard (DQ version) lover by tipping it upside down to make sure everything is held on nice and well. Check to make sure there aren't any glue strings hanging off the trees or the deer because the snow will stick to it later.

Place the glass dome back on the wood and trace lightly around the outside with pencil so you know where to put your glue.

Glue along the inside of your line, holding on to your trees to turn quickly and easily.

Place your dome on top of the glue line. Press down gently but firmly to make sure the glass sticks well to the wood.

Pull the little silver top off of your ornament and use a funnel to pour your desired amount of snow into the ornament. You may need to use a pencil to help push the snow through the little opening.

Put a little but of hot glue right on the underside of your silver top so that as it goes back on to your glass, everything is sealed up tight.

And that's it! It's ready for the tree. Excuse the cute little child hand in the background that came home from preschool right as I finished and was building his own forest scene with the leftover trees and deer.

I think you need this on your tree. And it's a great easy gift to make for friends too! Homemade gifts and ornaments like this one are always extra special. If you have any questions as you attempt this on your own, let me know and I'd be happy to help.