{video: easy holiday decor projects}

           

A few weeks ago, Glam asked me to come out to NYC and shoot some fun holiday DIY projects for their Haute Hostess video series (you can see more of their fun videos right here).  This video shows you how to make a few different easy DIY projects for the holidays- my personal fave is the floral table runner adorned with gold antlers! This was the first time I have ever done something like this on camera (so don't judge too hard!) and while it was a bit awkward at first by the end I was having a total blast.  We also shot another fun video all about holiday cocktails that I can't wait to share with you in a few weeks- see a sneak peek here.

{diy monogram moleskin agenda}

I recently picked up a brand new Moleskin agenda since I use the ones that are on the academic calender which start in July/August.  Like most Moleskin brand notebooks this one is pretty strictly no frills, but that is exactly what I need on the inside of a planner/agenda.  The problem is that I have never found a great agenda that has the set up like the interior of this Moleskins one, but with a little bit more flair on the outside.  So this time around, I decided I would fancy up my agenda myself.  Using barely half a yard of some amazing ribbon I picked up on my last trip to Britex and a new monogram font I came across, I was able to transform this simple agenda.

I used this extra sticky thin double sided tape from Paper Source to adhere the ribbon around both the front and back covers of the agenda.  Then I used this font to create my monogram (yes my initials are NZX- that's what you get when you are half Lithuanian and then you marry a man with a Greek last name).  I printed it on coated sticker paper that I had leftover from some wedding projects then used this 3 inch circle punch to expertly cut it out.  If you don't want to invest in the monogram font or figure out how exactly to format your printer for special materials, you can buy monogram stickers from this Etsy shop.

This was a quick project that significantly improved the look of my boring agenda- although I think next year I might get serious about finding a fun replacement that has the amount of functionality on the inside that I prefer- any suggestions?

{affordable Slim Aarons artwork}

I have been obsessed with the fabulous images captured by Slim Aarons for what feels like forever. He captures another time and place in a way that makes like you are sitting right inside the image.  Adding a Slim Aarons print to our art collection has been on my wishlist forever, but for the size of print I would want the price is pretty steep.  Also on my wishlist for a while now are the Slim Aarons coffee table books which I had never actually seen in person.  Recently I found out the books are pretty massive (as in 11" by 14"!!) with a lot of full page photos in them that are void of text or captions.  I thought maybe if I could find a used version of the Poolside book for a good price, I would be willing to cut it up and use my favorite pages for a little Slim Aarons gallery shelf in my office.

I purchased a used version of the book for only $25 that had some dust jacket damage, but was otherwise in perfect condition!  After spending almost an entire evening enjoying the gorgeous book, I took note of some of my favorite shots and then picked up some corresponding frames.  All the frames (except for the one on the far right and very middle which are vintage) are from Target right here.  I would have preferred to have them all in white, but Target doesn't make the larger frame in white so I figured I could buy the black and paint it later on if it bothered me (for now I sort of like the contrast).  You can find all white frames in practically every size at Ikea right here- I was simply not willing to spend half a day going all the way to Ikea for 4 frames.

Besides the time I took selecting my favorite images, the most time consuming part of this little project is to use an exacto knife to "cut out" the photos from the book.  In order to use the full page photos in an 11" by 14" frame you will need to cut the pages as close as humanly possible to the binding.  Using an exacto knife, a ruler and a cutting mat makes this entire process relatively easy. Simply push back the book binding as much as you can, place the cutting mat under the page and then place the ruler close the binding.  Slide the exacto knife in between the ruler and the binding while using the ruler as a guide for the knife you can easily cut out the pages.

I am pretty obsessed with how this turned out and love that I have such beautiful images to get lost in while sitting at my desk!

 {slim aarons poolside book available used here}

 {exacto knife and cutting mat will make this project significantly easier}

 {it was so difficult to narrow it down to only five choices!}

 {frames from Target: smaller one here and larger one here}

 {displayed in the office on shelves from Ikea}

{target lamp from right here}

{bachelorette party pins}

This past weekend was the bachelorette party for my good friend Katie who will be getting married in just two short weeks from now!  We spent the weekend up in Santa Barbara going wine tasting, dining and other general bachelorette activities which I won't go into detail about here.  I have blogged in the past about cute bachelorette party accessories from my friend Heather's bachelorette weekend and my own bachelorette party out in Palm Springs so I am obviously a big fan of the matching girly group flair.  

For Katie's bachelorette, we debated between embellished sashes or some sort of headpiece, but ultimately we decided to create some custom pins with girly ribbon and sequins inspired by this image.  I designed the simple pink heart design and then we ordered 3" custom buttons through Zazzle.  This was my first time using Zazzle and it proved to be completely painless- the shipping was free and the pins looked picture perfect for less than $3 each!  I created a "bride to be" pin for the guest of honor and a "katie's final fling" pin for the rest of the group since we had a mix of bridal party members as well as good friends otherwise I would have done a "bridesmaid" option. 

We picked up a mix of grosgrain ribbon, satin ribbon, lace, sequin strands and fringe in the fabric district of downtown Los Angeles.  The bride's pin included some exclusive striped pink ribbon as well as white lace while the rest of the pins featured a mixture of light to bright pinks in the varying materials.  We cut each of the pieces of ribbon/sequins about 6 inches long and hot glued them directly onto the back of the pin.  

These were such an easy project and would lend themselves well to a variety of events- even if you are just making one singular pin for the guest of honor at a birthday or baby/bridal shower.  Since there is no minimum order quantity on Zazzle, you can order one singular pin and the price/shipping does not change.  How amazing would a simple version of these pins be as personalized place-cards for a wedding or dinner party?!?

{nightstand makeover with ikea overlays}

This project has been on my to do list since before we even moved to Chicago and we finally completed it this weekend!! Our nightstands back in LA were far too small.  The place we lived in before our loft barely even had space for nightstands so we didn't realize how nice it would be to have large nightstands since we were just happy to have them at all when we moved to the loft.  You can see the painting makeover we did on those in one of the first posts on this blog right here.

Although I loved those blue nightstands, they were far too small and could barely fit a lamp and a glass of water at the same time.  In our Chicago place, we went in the opposite direction and purchased these Ikea dressers to be used as nightstands.  They are massive as far as nightstand sizing is concerned and I love it!  You can't beat the price of the pieces in Ikea's Malm series and the clean lines lend themselves to many different types of decor.  While I like the simplicity of these, I did want to put my own stamp on them which is where My Overlays comes in.  There are a handful of sites out there that make overlays specifically sized for Ikea furniture, but I think the ones on My Overlays have the best range of shapes.

The reason this project took us so long to finally complete was not based on the difficulty of assembling them, it was simply because for a while I couldn't pull the trigger on exactly which overlay I wanted to buy.  Then once I made that choice and received the overlays in the mail, they sat in our bedroom forever while I debated which color I wanted to go with.  The overlays arrive in a white color which you can leave as such if that works for you.  I debated between matte black or metallic gold, finally deciding that the black would prove to be a better choice in the long run.

I absolutely love the simple transformation these overlays give to the nightstands, plus the entire process of spray painting them and adhering them to the furniture took a total of an hour and a half (including dry time!)

{lamps from right here}

{our new Chicago place: in progress}

{taken when we first arrived into our new place}

Somehow we actually survived driving a 26 foot moving truck and a car all the way from LA to Chicago and we are now just getting settled into our new place after arriving here last Wednesday.  Moving is always a long process filled with multiple trips to Home Depot or Ikea, searching through countless boxes for the cord to connect your tv and debating paint choices.   We have gotten all of the boxes opened and unpacked and most of our furniture assembled, but we still have a ways to go before I would consider our new home to be complete.  Some of the projects on our to do list right now include painting almost all the rooms (especially the bedroom since our DIY headboard currently matches the blue wall perfectly), setting up our fauxdenza and hanging all our artwork. 

 {our new tree-lined street and ivy covered building- you cannot even imagine what a pleasant change this is for us coming from the concrete metropolis of downtown LA}

 {supplies for my black & gold bathroom- the mirror is from Ikea and it is currently on my to do list to be painted gold}

 {the Malm dressers set up as night stands awaiting their overlays.  As much as I loved making our previous nightstands, they proved to be way too small to hold more than a small glass of water and a tiny lamp. Robert Abbey Delta Lamp from right here}

 {a new houseplant from one of our Home Depot trips}

{supplies for our "fauxdenza" tv stand.  we are still  trying to find a good resource for the wood top- if anyone knows of a good (not sketchy or creepy) lumber yard in the Chicago area I would love to hear about it!}

I'll be back with updates on these project as we start crossing them off our list!

{DIY triangle fringe garland}

In case you missed it last week on Green Wedding Shoes, head over there right now to get the full tutorial on how to make the fringed triangle garland we hung over our dance floor at the wedding.  This garland is basically the same process as the photobooth backdrop.

Right now we are currently living in moving box world (looks something like this) as we prepare to move to Chicago on Saturday morning.  We will be driving a moving truck along with these good friends for four days so posting might be a little light next week.  As soon as we are up and running at our new place I promise to share all the details!

{DIY "printed" wedding signs}

One thing that was on my project list for the wedding from the very beginning was to create a very large sign for the bar menu.  There is always a mad rush on the bar as soon as cocktail hour begins, but guests usually can't see the bar menu choices until they get to very front where they can finally read them on a small sign.  We decided the way to alleviate this issue would be to make a huge stained wood sandwich board sign and then paint all menu choices in white paint.  The second we painted the first letter onto the sign, we found it was looking incredibly messy with the paint lines seeping into the grain of the wood.  After a little brainstorming, we figured we could print all the letters onto white cardstock and then glue them to the wood signs.  This method worked so incredibly well that we decided to make more than just the bar sign- adding in a sign for croquet, restrooms, parking and the photobooth all using only two 4' by 8' plywood boards!

You can even buy the signs from our wedding here & here.

See below for step by step instructions.

what you need:

• plywood for signs - we used two 4' by 8' pieces of plywood which yielded two 3 ' by 4' sandwich board signs and two 2' by 4' flat signs
• wood stain 
• two hinges per sandwich board sign
• cardstock
• spray adhesive
• exacto knife
• scissors
• painters tape
• level

1. cut all wood to size, stain and assemble sandwich boards using two hinges for each sandwich board set.
2. write or type up exactly what you want your signs to say before printing letters so that you dont forget any letters or words.
3. now you will print out your actual letters for the signs. First you need to select your font, I highly recommend an all caps font that is relatively thick. "Bebas" (available for download here) is what we used. As a reference, for our large signs we did about two letters per page and for the bar choices we made the letters about 2.5 inches tall.
4. In order to cut the letters, we typed them up in a light grey color and then mirrored them before printing- you can follow this tutorial for mirroring the letters in Microsoft word.  Once they are printed you can follow the outline of the light grey in order to cut out the letter and the "front" of the paper will remain white. 
5. Using painters tape and a level create a line as a guide for your letters. The painters tape guides will help you from having uneven text lines- especially if you are doing a sign with a lot of text like our bar sign.
6. Before attaching your letters, lay them out in order so that you can get a good sense for your spacing and to save you from forgetting or searching for letters in the middle of your project.
7. Coat the back of each letter with spray adhesive and firmly attach to the wood along your painters tape guide. 
8. Since this is cardstock not paint, it does have the ability to get dirty or rip so if you do not plan on using your signs right away, I recommend wrapping them in saran wrap to protect the letters.

 {sandwich board assembled}

 {mirrored letters ready to be cut- grey on the back & solid white on the front}

 {use an exacto knife to cut out the centers of letters}