So one of the problems I have with our apartment is that we have a lot of clutter that looks cheap. I don’t think because things are inexpensive they need to *look* cheap. To prove this point here’s my next project: decorating the top of the microwave with expensive looking things that really aren’t.
The main piece in the photo above is the floral bowl/vase/whatever. You may recognise it from when James filled it with Slurpee, then proceeded to drink the whole thing within a few hours.
Project 2. The Glass BowlWe found this bowl in the Black Hole (the place people leave stuff for hard rubbish pick up downstairs)
I found some mirror strips in my craft stash.
Very simple project but it looks so expensive.
Wrap the mirror as a band around the top. Add some netting to the inside. Stick in a bunch of fake flowers!
Cost Breakdown:
Vase $0 (I’ve seen the vases for $5 at the junk store though)
Flowers $0 (you can get bunches at junk stores for $2 though)
Mirror $2
Netting $0.20
Total cost $2.20
I’ve seen ones just like the finished project in fancy home stores for like $60+.
So this is my base:
It’s basically a big tall glass bowl.
These little mirror pieces come on adhesive backing and were $2 at a junk store.
I cut them into strips of 3.
Peeled off the back and stuck them to the top of the bowl.
No seriously that’s it.
I added some random netting material I had to the inside so it had another texture then dumped a bunch of fake flowers in too.
Pretty neat huh?
To top off that area I put down an lace matt which I think my grandmother made (you can buy lace doilies at thrift stores for next to nothing) then added a couple of candles on top. Clutter like this looks so much better if you keep the colours similar so I used creams and pinks throughout.
I’m very happy with the results and that’s another area down in the house!
I’m giving my make up area a complete make over. The hilarity of that sentence isn’t lost on me XD
Anyway part of the Home Sweet Home make over includes my vanity table, more of that in the actual post but today I’m showing you one of the little organisational containers I made to put on there.
My theme was white picket fencing and I made it from stuff I already had at home:
So let’s jump in!
What you need:
Popsicle sticks
Hot glue gun
White paint
Decorations
Sharp scissors
Start by deciding how big you want the box to be, my base was 8 sticks. Lay out the correct number of popsicle sticks like this:
Now you need to make cross beams to stick it all together so cut the appropriate length sticks.
Glue three of them down onto the base so it’s completely secure.
Now to start making the sides. Cut the sticks to the correct length so you have one for each side of the base.
Then cut enough picket pieces for each side. Mine were half the length of each original stick so that make it nice and easy to measure. Glue them to the first side piece.
Then add two more sticks on top of that to make it look more fence-ish ^_^
Repeat for the other sides and you have this:
One by one glue each side upright onto the base.
And you now have a box!
For extra strength I glued in some cross pieces to the corners.
Now you just need to make it look prettier!
Paint the whole thing white.
Mine needed a couple of coats before it looked right.
Now it’s time to decorate, this is the most fun bit! I wanted mine to be very spring-ish so I used fake flowers to make it look like a window box.
I glued a sculpey flower between each picket.
Then floral lace around the inside so it was peaking out of the gaps between the pickets.
Pretty cute yes?
The last step was adding a nice bow to the front 😀
Done! The most time consuming part of this was waiting for the paint to dry because, well, it was like watching paint dry 😉 Other than that it was quick and easy but it looks adorable and is the perfect size to hold eyelashes still on their trays.
You’ll get to see how it all matches into my vanity when finish the diary entries on that 😀
So my first few projects for the Home Sweet Home theme are taking longer to write than I expected so I’m skipping them for now and moving on to the third… because I’m the god of my notebook and I say I can… so there ^_^
The result is that today I’m playing with flower arranging!
From my diary:
Project 3. That Stupid Corner!
There is a corner in our lounge that I hate. It has a box platform plastered in and because it’s next to the TV and the heater it’s terrible for decorating. I want to sove this puzzle by putting our black hole vase there and filling it with flowers and other trinkets.
I have a random collection of flowers and bits and pieces to use.
This is my vase, we found it in the throw away pile downstairs. I call that place The Black Hole because it magically makes cool stuff appear but more on that in another post! I like this vase because it’s tall and has a pretty floral pattern with a classic shape.
These are the flowers I had to fill it with. Some of them are from my junk store stash, some were given to me by Celeste when she moved and some are keep sakes. There’s the peacock feather James found me at the zoo and my flower from the Langham as well as some little jewel trinkets.
The reason I chose these flowers in particular was because they all had complimentary colours and interesting textures. Some of them are soft, some pointy, some little, some big and some tall, some short.
Most of them had wire stems so to get different heights I just bent them to the length I wanted or snipped off the bottom. I preferred to bend them though so the vase looked fuller.
To fill the vase I started with the biggest tallest pieces in the back.
I added pieces in odd numbers, so 3 long pointy pieces with small flowers.
Then the rest of the tall pieces around the back. There was no point adding them to the front as they would be covered by smaller flowers.
I didn’t stick to just flowers either, feathers, jewels and anything with a nice texture is good to fill in gaps.
Next I added a layer of medium flowers to fill the entire front of the vase so you couldn’t see in through the gaps anymore. The big roses were really good for this and because they also had some netting sections it was even better to give variety.
I put some large diamantes and crystals throughout the whole thing.
And lastly added some little tiny flowers to cover any annoying gaps.
To dress the corner up a bit I first put an old cake stand on the box. This gives the arrangement extra height and it’s a good place to store the cake stand which never actually gets used XD
Taadaa!
After playing around with the placement added a pretty green bow and moved some of the taller flowers so it looked like a one sided sweep and pointed towards the window. I really like the way it brightens up the room!
Ricrac roses are eeeeeeverywhere *_* I remember when my grandma used to make these and put them on the dresses she made for me as a kid. They were hideous dresses, she picked the brightest fabric she could because she was going bind and she had the same pattern she used for *all* of the grandchildren. *shudder* I still have nightmares about bright yellow dresses with matching hats. I don’t know why but when I was a child everything came with a matching hat >_<
Anyway tangent aside I actually always liked these roses and they have completely taken over the internet. I can’t open Pinterest or Etsy without seeing them adorning earrings or shoes… so if you can’t beat them join them!
This is the way I made a ricrac headband for a friend 😀
I personally think ric rac is pretty useless, it can work well in small amounts but it always just reminds me of circus costumes for some reason. I have several packets of the stuff which was at the bottom of a random sewing bag I got from a friend’s daughter’s school fete. Bought when
Australia still measured things in Yards XD
So you need:
Ric Rac
Glue or needle and thread
Cut two long pieces of ric rac or just fold it in half.
Twist the two pieces together so they form one long strand.
The length you need will depend on how big you want your flower but you do need a decent amount.
Roll the end into a little spiral. Fix it with a stitch or a dot of glue on the back.
Roll, roll, roll and roll some more until you have something along these lines 😀 Poke the end underneath.
Stitch or glue it all on the bottom!
Flip the outer layers down so they sit flat. I think its easier to do this if you’ve glued the bottom because stitching can have a lot less give to move it around.
Done!
Cute!
Just promise me you won’t be putting them on any scary dresses XD
Instead add them to something slightly more subtle and slightly less neon such as a pearl headband!
Hope you enjoyed and it doesn’t bring back any horrible memories of your grandma’s sewing XD
I posted this photo a little while ago on my mobile blog and a couple of people asked for a tutorial so here it is ^_^
A few weeks ago I was asked to model in the Asia Pacific L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival for local store Glamaz. They stock a lot of my favorite brands like Lizlisa etc so I said HELL YES :DAnyway the look called for white fur shoes to match the coat but they didn’t have any in stock in my size at the time so I figured it was a good chance just to make some myself.You need:
Base shoes with a decent heel and an ankle strap. I’ll do another version for non-ankle strap shoes later.
Faux fur
Material for the inside, I used polar fleece
Sewing machine or needle and thread (sewing fake fur by hand is VERY tedious though)
Ribbons (optional)
So these are my shoes. I love them a very inappropriate amount so there was no way I was going to do anything permanent to them.
So before I start just a quick tip on sewing faux fur: make sure the hairs and pointing away from the stitching as much as you can before you sew otherwise it will get caught in the stitching and be very annoying to get undone later. Also if you’re going to cut, separate the pile down the cut line before you snip so you get minimum hair all over the place.
Right, so we need to measure how long the faux fur needs to be. Wrap it around one of the shoes and use that as a length measurement. Remember to include a seam allowance and it’s always better to cut too much than too little.
So this is the height and width I ended up with. Make sure it’s tall enough to cover the top of the shoe easily as well as hide your toes.
I made sure to leave plenty extra on the top and sides for seams.
Cut out a matching piece of polar fleece but make it around 5cm shorter in the height measurement. This is because we really don’t want it sticking out on the wrong side.
Place the polar fleece on the furry side of the faux fur and stitch down both long sides so it makes a tube.
You should have something like this, see that there’s more fur than polar fleece when it’s laid flat.
Turn it inside out and you can see how it’s supposed to sit better.
And wrapped around the shoe you can see it coming together.
Measure how big it needs to be to get around the shoe and then stitch the ends of the tube together. I started at the end of the polar fleece, went around to the fur then finished up at the bottom of the polar fleece again. You can’t do the whole thing on the machine because it needs to turn slightly inside out to finish up so you will need to leave a gap at the end, it’s easier to hand stitch polar fleece so leave it there.
Afterwards you should have this:
Hand stitch up the gap and make one for the other shoe too.
Now to hold them onto the shoe you have a couple of options:
Slide them on and hope they don’t fall down during the day. Not recommended.
Add two ribbon loops that you can slide the ankle strap of the shoe through so it stays in place all day. Recommended.
Rush out the door because you are running late for your own fashion show and cut a couple of holes in the polar fleece so you can slide the ankle strap of the shoe through it. It’ll hold for now until you can do something a bit better and more permanent like the ribbon option later.
So guess which I chose.
Anyway, ribbon is obviously the best option, just stitch a couple of little pieces on the inside that line up with the ankle straps on the shoes and you’re good to go.
Pop the cuff on the shoe and you’re finished! Really much easier than it actually sounds XD
I added a pin bow off one of my dresses to each side and that’s how the crisis was averted 😀
And for bonus points, here’s a photo of me wearing them during the practice run 😀
I really like them and now I’m thinking of buying a couple of other colours of fur so I can have different cuffs for different shoes. What do you guys think?
So you’ve probably noticed the lack of craft here lately. It’s come from a combination of having no crafting time and being uninspired.
My life is very heavily scheduled, until this year James and I didn’t take weekend or evenings off and when one thing goes out of whack the rest tends to follow quickly until I feel I’m constantly treading water instead of actually moving forward. And for a while that works, I’ve crossed off so many long term projects from my list this year and I’m making decent progress toward some more, but eventually I just get burned out.
I’ve been running around so much trying to get things done that the house is a mess and when the house is a mess I feel less like doing things. It snowballs until I end up back in front of the computer for 14 hours a day rather than crafting or doing something creative. And if I do have a minute spare all I want to do is procrastinate. I’ve gotten distracted already several times just writing this article >_<
Being in an apartment that isn’t particularly appealing doesn’t inspire me and if I’m not inspired I just don’t want to craft.
So it’s time to do something about that 😀
Welcome to my new series “Violet and Jimmy’s Home Sweet Home” ^_^
We’ve lived in this apartment for almost 2 years now (in fact my birthday is the 2 year anniversary) and in that entire time I’ve never done much to make it ours because we only ever sign a 6 month lease and every six months I think:
Oh well there’s no point getting new furniture, I can’t afford it, I don’t have any time to DIY something that big. We’re only going to be here for another 6 months anyway…
Oh well there’s no point unpacking those boxes, we’re only going to be here for another 6 months anyway…
Oh well there’s no point getting/making nicer things, they probably won’t fit in with my awesome new decorating colour scheme when we move into our dream home and we’re only going to be here for another 6 months anyway…
And after 2 years worth of “we’re only going to be here for another 6 months” I’m at the point that I’m sick of waiting for *someday* and I am more interested in *right now*. Someday is when we’ll finally get that dream apartment but there’s really no reason that I should sit around making excuses to live in a place that doesn’t look the way I want until then. RightNow is a very important step to get to Someday and so it’s time to do something about.
This series is going to be something different. It’s going to be 1 part rambling post like this, 1 part craft tutorials as I go and 1 part art journaling the progress.
It will be on going, I have a whole apartment to make pretty and when we do finally own our first home I will obviously have that too. Hopefully some of you who are in the same boat as I am can relate to this and it will inspire you to stop waiting around and give things a go!
So the first step to changing things is making goals.
Throughout these posts you will see my diary pages which are a combination of pen, water colours and stickers. I don’t have neat hand writing and my style tends to be very chaotic so I will provide transcripts below them with other notes included. My math teacher used to say that clever people always had terrible hand writing because their brains worked faster than their hands could and that’s what I’m sticking to 😉
Also my spelling and grammar sucks so there you go!
So what am I trying to get out of this project?
To make every part of the house pretty without losing functionality -> I don’t think functional and beautiful are mutually exclusive. Our house needs to be practical so I refuse to settle for less function just because something is pretty.
To spend as little money as possible -> I have pretty much no budget for this so I’m probably not going to spend anything unless it comes out of the change jar. (Oh who am I kidding, all THAT money goes to claw machine!)
Regain my creativity and problem solving skills -> Not doing things regularly makes me lazy and I don’t like that.
Replace all ugly things -> Our place is full of mismatched junk that we’ve collected over the years which I want to replace or rework so it’s visually appealing as well.
Practice decorating for our real home -> Use this space to decide on the themes and colours we want for the next place.
Stop procrastinating! -> Self explanatory, stop over thinking things so much and just do them! *she types as she has an article about the Titanic, Realestate.com.au and Youtube open in the other tabs* >_>
Surround ourselves with beauty -> I think if our place is brighter and happier then James and I probably will be too.
Stop waiting and start DOING! -> Well… duh ^_^
Basically I want to go through everything we have and reevaluate whether it should be here. If I can make it better I will but if it’s something that doesn’t fit and has no use it will be de-cluttered!
So what kind of obstacles will I be up against?
Lack of inspiration
Lack of money
Lack of time
Inspiration isn’t something that I can magic up but I think that by having a well kept to do list with a range of small quick projects as well as the bigger ones I can combat that. Money is something I can control to a certain extent and I will work harder at putting some savings together but realistically I’m just going to try to reuse the things I already have in different ways and burn through my craft stash.
Time will probably be the biggest killer here. James and I have been trying to cut back on working after hours so no more nights and weekends which is nice but not particularly realistic. To a certain extent at least, working for yourself means working when there’s work and that means sometimes you have to do late nights or weekends. What I am going to do is make an effort to have at least one evening a week for doing these projects. If possible I will actually do them in the mornings so I can take better quality photos and not have to set up flashes but that will obviously depend on schedules.
I think posting here about it will make me feel a lot more accountable especially for procrastinating because I’ll feel guilty if I don’t follow through XD
Funnily enough I think it also has a bit to do with what we have to watch or do in the evenings. I always do my best craft when we’re watching great TV or playing great games but nothing is really grabbing my attention at the moment. I’ve re-watched most of my favorites fairly recently and James is playing Grand Turismo 5 which is one of the most boring games of all time to watch. Let me know if you have any good recommendations!
So all in all I’m feeling pretty good about this! I’m looking forward to doing some of the projects I’ve been wanting to tackle for years and I’m really looking forward to having and awesome looking apartment which will make me feel great until we can buy our first place.
Hopefully it will be a good start to make bigger changes and better things for the future and I hope you all enjoy it too ^_^
Super props if you actually read all of that, I think this is the most I’ve written here in months… so that’s a good start *_*
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
