homemade gift: lemon-vanilla body scrub

I recently spent more than I'd like to admit on a scrub that I love, and I was thinking - why not make my own? During the cold winter months, the oil base is just what my skin needs. And it makes a great DIY gift alternative to the typical bottle of wine.

You will need:

• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup Sugar in the Raw (or other larger grain sugar)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 1 cup olive oil
• Jars (I used 8 ounce ball jars, typically used for canning)
• Optional: Add small wooden spoons, tied to each with twine, for easy use

Note: This recipe fills about 3 jars. If you don't have Sugar in the Raw, you can use 3 cups granulated sugar instead. The consistency will be a little grainier, but the scrub still works well!

Mix your ingredients together in a large bowl and then scoop into your jars. Tie with something beautiful, add a label, and you're done! (This is almost too easy to make.)

Do you have a favorite DIY giftable? I'd love to hear about it!

why I'm avoiding Black Friday 2013

I'm going to tell you a secret:  I love giving gifts. I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I gift something that someone truly loves. But that can wreak havoc on my bank account, because no matter where I am, I tend to see something that reminds me of someone - and BAM - huge credit card bill.

That, my friends, is why I am avoiding Black Friday this year. Rather than grabbing items because they are a good deal (and figuring out who should get them later), I want to give meaningful gifts. Head over to my Pinterest board to see what kind of DIYs I will be tackling this year. The best ones may show up here next year!


image via

how to dry a bouquet

The bouquets for my sister's wedding were gorgeous. The flowers were exactly what she wanted, and after the weekend, I took her bouquet home to preserve it for her while she got ready to jet off to the honeymoon.

I used a crochet needle and yarn to string up the bouquet and hang it upside down on a hanger. It's important to hang it upside down so that the flowers keep their shape. Then into a dark, dry closet it went for two weeks to dry.

Mold or mildew may start to grow on some of the flowers, and you can easily kill this with white vinegar. It's amazing stuff. I put some white vinegar into a spray bottle to easily get to the spots I needed to.

Two weeks later...

With the flowers dried, I took them outside and used a Krylon clear spray to seal them. It's tough to get into the stems, but do it as best you can. Coat all of the leaves and flowers (and berries), and then let dry for about an hour.

I tested everything first on my bridesmaid bouquet before doing her bridal bouquet. My bridesmaid bouquet is definitely not as pretty dried as it was on the wedding day, but it is now dried and preserved. Once you've dried your bouquet, the best place for it to go is into a tissue-lined box so that nothing snaps off.

glitter pumpkins DIY

It's Fall, which means pumpkins are a necessary decoration. Yesterday I broke out some glue and glitter for a very easy DIY to glitz up these ordinary white baby pumpkins.

I find that it's easiest to use a brush to spread the glue (I used just a regular white glue). You can use the same brush to dip into your glitter and brush onto the glue spots on the pumpkin.

I have very limited mantel space, thanks to our upgraded TV size from last year's Black Friday. I basically only have about ten inches on each side. A photo of Sprout's paw prints in his first-ever snowstorm, some silver initials, and these glittery pumpkins add just a touch of style to an otherwise boring mantel.

small change, big difference

I feel like I have a brand new kitchen (well, kind of). One of the first things I wanted to change when we moved into our house was the faucet in the kitchen sink:  It was so low that I had to fight it to get a pan into the sink. T recently ordered a shiny, new faucet and installed it while Sprout and I lounged. It is amazing. I highly recommend investing in a good faucet, if only to cut down on things that bug you about your house. 

before (rusted around its base, annoying to work with):

and after (shiny, with a place for the soap so we have less stuff on the counter):

friday linkup

Some of my favorite links from the week:

A list of really happy facts. My favorite? "11. Penguins only have one mate their entire life and “propose” by giving their mate a pebble." (penguins image via National Geographic)

This easy day to night outfit that is perfect for office to bar

A really simple DIY for the built-ins I've been dreaming of

A reader-favorite post about how to clean your flat iron

organize your Monday: prioritization tool

I wanted to introduce some organization tips, starting with life organization. I like to think of my life as "organized chaos"- there is a lot going on, but somehow (for the most part), everything gets done.

This is a tool that has helped me in working full-time, going to school part-time, and living life the rest of the time. The importance/urgency matrix is helpful in prioritizing and learning helpful time-management skills. If you work in a corporate environment, this concept is not going to be new to you. But it's not only for the workplace- bringing it into your personal life can work wonders!

The upper left quadrant is for items of the highest importance and highest urgency. These are items that you must do today (or this week, or this month- whatever time frame you are looking at), such as "go to the grocery store to shop for tonight's dinner party" (because it's 3PM and you haven't done that yet). As you move to the right (upper right quadrant), these are items that are of high urgency but low importance. This might be responding to emails that are filling up your inbox.

The lower right quadrant contains items you should delegate to others because they are of the lowest importance and lowest urgency. They're those things you think you should do, but there is no time frame necessary- so often they don't get done. For me this is something like "clean the oven". And the quadrant on the lower left is items of high importance but low urgency. Often these are important tasks that somehow slip through the cracks and don't get done.

I start in the upper left quadrant, then prioritize between the upper right and lower left, and then delegate tasks on the lower right or cross them off the list altogether.

Hopefully, this will help you in creating a better sense of time management. And with this system, rather than thinking, "I have fifteen minutes, so I guess I'll go on Facebook," you'll be more likely to think, "I have fifteen minutes, so I'll tackle something important". Good luck!

brushstroke dress: do I dare DIY?

This Amy Matto Brushstroke Jacquard Dress showed up on ideeli today and I immediately thought to myself, "That is awesome. Can I recreate it?" It definitely looks like something that Jen would be able to make. I'll keep you posted if I decide to take the leap and paint up a dress!

Christmas canvas decor DIY

Early in the Christmas season, I came across this canvas tutorial by View Along the Way and decided to try my own version of it. Rather than using the wooden letters and nativity Kelly did, I used all acrylic paint (aside from the silver Sharpie I used to write "adore" and the gold Sharpie I used for the North Star). 

I was pretty excited with how it came out and hung my little creation at the bottom of the stairs, visible from the living room (where you can also see our navy curtains in the dining room). 

I don't always love how my DIYs come out, but I'm packing this guy away to use again next year.

DIY Christmas tree decorations

It's getting to the end of my semester, so it's been quite the busy week. I cannot wait until this accounting class is over!

I recently found a blog by Shauna Mailloux where last year she posted about some handmade Christmas decorations she made. It looked so easy that I took on the little project. While mine didn't come out as nice as hers, I think they're cute. Plus, I used a gray scarf I've never worn and pieces of an open-stitch white cardigan I have stopped wearing, along with the cereal box cones Shauna suggested and glitter I already had, so they were completely free decorations. Definitely check out her tutorial!

Please ignore the obnoxious cord hanging in the photo. For some reason the people who owned the house before us had really high outlets, so we need to lower them. It's on the never-ending to do list.

With a very busy Black Friday weekend trying to finish my Christmas shopping, packages are rolling in this week (see photo below with Sprout strategically in the line of the photo). I'm a huge fan of online shopping - it's like getting a surprise gift that you get to open. (Gratuitious Sprout photo now)

DIY glitter invitation keepsake ornament

Have you had enough turkey and want to do a DIY project? Here's a simple one that leaves you with a great gift for a newlywed friend. I recently attached this ornament to a larger gift, and the bride loved it! It's a nice way for the new couple to remember their wedding at the holidays.

To create the invitation keepsake ornament, you'll need:

• Glass fillable ornaments (these are the ones I used - you want glass rather than acrylic so you don't have a seam)
• Ribbon- a 10" piece
• Piece of invitation (or save the date, whichever you choose) about 4"x4"
• Glitter, about 1 tablespoon

Instructions:

Cut your piece of invitation into thin strips, about 1/8" wide. Wrap a few pieces at a time around your pinkie finger so they have a bit of curl to them. Insert pieces into the glass ornament until you have the desired look (I like it to look almost full). Pour in the glitter. For this one I used silver glitter, but you'll want it to match the colors of the invitation. Then put the cover back on the ornament and attach your ribbon, leaving enough to hang from a tree branch (about 10" long, folded in half).

And voila! 

Holiday Gift Guide 2012: For the Traveler

I'm kicking off my Holiday Gift Guide 2012 series with my picks for the traveler in your life. 

Check back this week and next for my other gift guides: For Home, For the Little Ones, For the Foodie, For Her, and For Him.

Destination Boxes - New York & Paris Set from Z Gallerie, $120

Brookstone Nap Travel Blanket, $35  one of my must-brings on every trip

B&N Brown Bombay Tie Journal, $17

Naughty Betty travel tag, $12  bring a little humor to the baggage area

Kate Spade tote, $248

Cocoon "Grid-It", $25-50 based on style  keeps everything in its place

DIY: Terrycloth Travel kit from Etsy, $10  fill it with travel essentials

Scratch Map from Z Gallerie, $30  to display past travels in the home

Plus, add in a subscription to Travel + Leisure, a monogrammed tote with travel-sized goodies inside, or a round trip airport ride in a luxury car.

DIY: blue sprayed shoes

I had a pair of BCBG black heels that were great aside from the fact that the heels were once gnawed on a bit by my small fluffy housemate. Even though I touched them up with black nail polish, you could tell that there had been a touchup if you looked close enough (granted, who is actually looking? but I had a thing about it. And also after a while the black nail polish would turn sort of white? It was weird.). 

While I was cleaning out my closet recently, I set these aside and figured I'd decide what to do with them later. And then I came home one day and decided to fix them then and there, and thus begins the story of why I went to work with a blue hand.

I taped up the sides of the shoes so that the heel and a bit of the back were exposed.

Then I took a can of Krylon blue spray paint in Regal Blue that was conveniently in my basement and sprayed down the heels.

Then this happened. Important tip: Make sure the paint is spraying toward what you want painted, not toward your hand.

Sprout wasn't very impressed by my DIY attempts and whined at me from inside the fence. So while I waited for the paint to dry (on the shoes- the paint on my hand was pretty dry already), I played fetch with this guy. 

And then I came back to the shoes. I sprayed a clear coat on them when the blue was dry, thinking that would help seal them. What it actually did was create a weird ombre look that probably could have been okay, but I wanted these shoes to be black and blue, not black and ombre blue/gray/drip. So I did another coat of blue, played some more fetch, and let the shoes dry overnight.

iced coffee at home

A few years ago, I found an amazing iced coffee recipe in In Style magazine. Luckily, I held onto the recipe.

image via

1. Soak coffee grounds in cold water (8 cups of water, 1.75 cups of coffee grounds - I use a mixture of French Vanilla and regular grounds) in the fridge overnight. 2. Strain into a fine sieve or cheesecloth into a pitcher. 3. Pour into your favorite glass, add ice, and stir in milk or cream and sugar to taste. Coffee can stay in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

sparkle & feathers

I'm totally in love with this Sue Wong cocktail dress. It has sparkle, feathers, and a deep V back - what more could a girl ask for?

images via ideeli

So then today I came across this feather dress tutorial from Meredith & The New Yorkie, which inspired me to DIY my own version. I'll post as soon as it's perfect. (It might be a while - I haven't started it yet) :)