Category: boun-sing ideas

October 23, 2011

Easiest Fall Wreath Ever!

This rag wreath is one of the easiest decorations you could ever put together, and it will bring festive fall flavor to your front door or living room wall faster than you can say “buy it at a craft fair.”

Materials:
*about 1/4-yard fabric (or shirt material, leftover ribbons, etc) in warm fall colors
*a twig wreath
*fabric scissors

Directions:

1. Cut your fabric into strips about 1/2 to 1-inch thick and long enough to tie around the wreath.

2. Double-knot the strips at regular intervals around the wreath.
3. Um, wait. That’s it!!! Well, you might want to trim the bottom ties so they don’t hang too far down.

You can vary this in so many ways. You can vary the colors and textures by alternating two, three or four different fabric patterns. You could glue an arrangement of leaves and acorns at the bottom corner. I found my twig wreath at the thrift store for $1. I already had the fabric. Keep your eyes peeled, because you can often find gaudy already-decorated wreaths at the thrift store that are super-easy to take apart. Red, orange and brown fabric can come from anything from rags to shirts to faded corduroy pants. Then, for Christmas, you can start over with red and green strips!

October 22, 2011

For the Love of the Vignette

Vignette [vin-yet] n.
1. Any small pleasing picture or view.
2. A small, graceful literary sketch.

Turns out I love a vignette in any of its forms. In high school Honors English, after reading a book, the teacher asked us what the biggest lesson we learned from it was. I was astounded to learn about a new way of writing. I never knew you could write a whole book in vignettes. What an epiphany! I never thought I could manage writing an entire novel with plot climaxes, antagonists and foreshadowing. But I knew I could piece something beautiful together with soft, intertwining vignettes.

Fast forward a few years, and I have another epiphany. What? You can create vignettes in your home too? I’ve said it before, but interior design is something I knew almost zero about. But oh, the idea of beautifully-curated little landing spots for the eyes. I had been using them from the time I had my own room growing up, but I didn’t have a name for them and I hadn’t learned the skills of scale, balance and color.

In her Style Your Space e-course, Rachel Denbow makes the compilation of the vignette seem absolutely why-didn’t-I-do-this-before, do-able. My favorite part of the vignette? The way they can prevent “dumping zones.” These are my least favorite parts of the house where library books, mail, random tools and toy parts pile up like pigeons around a bag lady. And they zap my energy whenever I look at them. Place a graceful vignette in the same spot, and like magic, the dumping stops. It’s as though all the males living in the house actually realize the aesthetic they’d be destroying if they “dumped” there. Yessss!!!

So, here’s my first shot. I’m no pro, but I grabbed a few things from the house that I already had, a peacock feather my husband bought the same day for me, a thrifted pot, some acorns from one of our picnics and some little seed pods I plucked at a local corn maze. See, I’ve already started to notice the beautiful patterns and colors around me, even in subtle, easily-overlooked places.

I love the mix of feathery and sharp, round and triangular, short and tall. Obviously green is my favorite color. The pumpkin stands out a little, but is anchored back in by the peeking green ridges. Plus, this makes my least-favorite piece of furniture (an old VHS cabinet) so much easier to look at.

October 20, 2011

Best Place to Work

I work at one of the best places to work. Really! It’s official. We were voted in the top 10 best places to work in the nation.

Here’s the proof. Where else do you get henna tattoos for free on your work break?

Business owners take note: One of the best ways to ensure customer service exceeds your expectations is to treat your “internal customers” with just as much respect and gratitude. Well-taken-care-of employees will naturally feel more inclined to take good care of customers.

If I’ve learned anything from working where I work, it’s that some of the best ways to honor employees are free:

1. Start some lunchtime or after-work clubs for people with similar interests. Give new parents, crafters, gardeners and others a place to gather and form long-lasting relationships. Allow participants to relax their professional demeanor a bit and show their true colors. Bring in a guest speaker every once in awhile.

2. Offer free workouts at lunchtime. Use a TV or projector to show workout videos. Exercise TV has all those free workouts on demand.

3. Host a supply exchange: Set out a table and invite employees to swap extras of an item that you choose. Some ideas are books, craft supplies, tools and kids’ clothes. The rule is, you bring one to take one.

4. Relax the dress code, even just once a month.

5. Send out a weekly internal email updating everyone on what’s happening inside your company. You might showcase one employee per week, revealing something no one knows about that person. This is a great way to keep everyone in-the-loop and start conversations.

5. Have employees donate business books that are in good condition to the company library and allow everyone to “check out” books from the selection.

Some of these ideas are taken directly from my own workplace. We incorporate some of these things and so much more, you probably would never guess. But henna…that’s when you know you’ve got it good.

October 15, 2011

Current Obsessions

Every once in awhile I become completely obsessive over someone or something. The objects of my obsession all relate to my deepest passions in life in one way or another. I love studying people who are doing exactly what I want to be doing or things that trip my heart a little. Here are some of my recent and past obsessions:

1. Sylvia Plath: her intelligence, way with words, and desire to follow her writing dreams. I don’t like to delve too deep into the dark side, but I think her writing is genius. I’m a little bit of a nerd when it comes to reading scholarly articles that analyze her works, just don’t tell anyone.

2. JK Rowling: her background story is riveting. Her keen intelligence and humbleness makes her oh-so-likable. The way her ingenious, detail-driven mind works is astounding. I love how protective she is of her own creation too. She will never sell out to anything that doesn’t completely match her vision. I never hear ego when I hear her speak, I just hear a passion for her creation.

3. Creative, playful, self-driven girls making their own ways in the world like Ginny, Amy, Elsie and Rachel. I have to go back and read earlier posts just to soak up as much as I can. I find that when I steep myself in all their charm, beauty and creativity, it jumpstarts the inspiration in my own life. A big thanks!

4. Zee Avi music: my soul does a happy little skip when her voice comes on my Pandora channel.

5. I somehow can’t soak up enough podcasts about thinkers, ideas, literature, big dreams, fitness, and weird science. I will be a student until the day I die.

6. Diana Vreeland: I can’t help it, but I’m hooked. I read her biography, researched her life and fell in love. Yes, there’s the arrogance, but she has no apologies for it. I just think it’s riveting how she pretty much inspired fashion in her time. She didn’t just track fashion trends in Vogue, she actually dictated fashion to the world. She knew exactly what she wanted and never wavered even a smidgen. I got stuck on Jackie O for the same reason–she had vision. I like that.

7. Mad Men: A friend and I started watching the series at the same time just because we thought it looked neat. “Looked neat” is such an understatement, no? The clothes, the interior design, the juicy plots, the inside look at the advertising world (I’m a copywriter, I can’t help it). I’m in a love/hate relationship with the moodiness, but it’s better than frothiness if you ask me.

8. Christian Hedonism: I’m reading Desiring God by John Piper (bless him!). I want to lap up every last drop. Who knew Christians were really supposed to be that happy? My spirit is growing from having a solemn attitude (which has its place in certain contexts) about faith to a downright giddy one. It’s exciting!

9. Oprah’s LifeClass: I’m not going to be trite and gush about how Oprah has changed my life, but you have to respect the woman for her self-built empire and unprecedented gallery of information. That said, I’m finding the LifeClass immensely groundbreaking for curating a life built upon my deepest, most pure potential. Even some of those listed above have been creative, lifestyle role models and have helped me realize some key things about myself and what I want to accomplish.

October 1, 2011

Some Soule Mama Inspiration

If you don’t already know about her, you have to check out this awesome mama/writer/pioneer/artist… I just got done going through her Handmade Home book. I am completely smitten with the concept of handcrafting things for your home that nurture your family, entertain your children, mother your sick, and personalize your space. I swoon a little bit every time I read through the pages and gaze longingly at the pictures. I am reminded again and again what the purpose of my life is at this very moment, for my three-year-old and husband–to nurture my family and carve a loving home.

I did, however, actually complete one of the projects in the book. Yay me!!! Mind you, my sewing machine had tragically been sitting unused for at least five years before this. I suddenly had a strong desire to make something that had a certain purpose in my home that I couldn’t find any other remedy to.

My husband has this annoying habit of grabbing a second towel to put on the floor for his feet. It’s sloppy, but I didn’t have any better solutions. We had tried a carpet square, but the second that that started, um, smelling, I had to throw it away. It was unwashable.

Enter the washable bath mat. Hooray! This was also the least intimidating sewing option for my rusty skill. I found a microfiber cloth at the dollar store and a pillowcase at the thrift store. I cut a piece of the pillowcase fabric the same size as the towel, sewed ’em both together, and voila! I got a tiny bit lazy and skipped the part about layering towel pieces over the top, so it doesn’t look quite as cute as Amanda’s. But it works!

In putting together one’s sewing toolkit, Amanda also suggests finding a sewer’s user manual. She says new or old, the basic sewing principles have not changed much. Guess who was a little giddy when she snagged a vintage copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Sewing Book in mint condition? Oh yeah. And that $2 price tag tasted oh-so-sweet.

Look how sweet the old-time pictures are.

To top off all the great feelings and motivation that came from making something practical with my own two hands, I even thrifted a new sewing machine cover. Ok, I think it was intended to be a toaster cover, but it fits over the guts of the machine perfectly. And the sunflower print was much too perfect to pass up.

September 30, 2011

My Vintage Romance

I am currently taking Rachel Denbow’s Style Your Space e-course. Those girls over at Red Velvet are the coolest, and it was hard to choose which e-course to start with. But I am pretty inept when it comes to interior design, so it made the most sense to start there. I’m only about a quarter of the way into the online class, but I have to say, I am looking at my home in a whole different light.

I enjoyed Rachel’s story about her vintage romance and her bff Elsie’s recent story and tips for thrift-shopping, which made me want to explore my own second-hand story.

It all began when I was a tiny little girl spending the night at my grandma’s house. Grandma volunteered at a local thrift store and the staff there appreciated our voluntary afternoon help so much that we often left with fistfuls of items that never had a chance to make it to the racks. Many of the treasures I don’t remember, but I do still wear the vintage nightgown I once found. But the thrifty legacy my grandma afforded me has shaped my entire existence.

Grandma would admonish us for buying her anything new for Christmas or her birthday, because she’d always say “I can get that at the store.” And indeed she could find anything there. Her closet was lined with the cutest “dancing outfits” she’d go out with her boyfriend in and the most darling matching clutch purses. Her reading material, including the latest issues of her favorite magazines, were stacked neatly in thrifted baskets. Even her well-kept furniture looked like it came straight from a modish 1950s department store. She may have even laid the foundation for my active lifestyle, because we never visited grandma without the requisite stop at her local YMCA.

I spent my school years begging my mom to take me to Goodwill. After making sure no one saw me enter (someone did once and I never heard the end of it), I entered my zone. I abhorred anything mainstream, so this was the place to get a completely personalized look.

In college, 100s of miles from home, I scouted out the thrift stores before anything else, scooping up some mismatched vintage plates and ephemera for my dorm room. A friend took me to a thrift store in her hometown where I found the requisite college shot glasses (despite drinking very rarely). Another friend and I snooped around for cool T-shirts we could re-size. My all-time favorite is an “I Have Kaleidoscope Eyes” from the Beatle’s song. When I first starting working out, after transferring back to my hometown, I scoured the thrift store for workout clothes and came away with a nice starter athletic wardrobe. And I squirreled things away for my own home one day.

Some of my most interesting memories come from the thrift store. My sister and I watched two guys get arrested in one. They were just browsing, making hilarious comments, so I’m not sure what they got called for.

Before I even knew what “vintage” was, I would raid my mom and dad’s old collections of 1970s clothes. I wish I remembered what we did with them. I just knew I loved the look and I knew I didn’t want to wear the standard-issue Abercrombie look everyone else was wearing.

Now I love to search out nightgowns, sheets and curtains to re-purpose into other things. Craft supplies. The racks I turn to again and again are the dresses, skirts, crafts, books and scarves. I peek in the toys for my son and only grab things if they’re in mint condition and include the play pieces.

I am also highly likely to donate a bag on the same day that I shop. It’s too easy to accumulate too much, so I make it a point to go through some things and pitch a few things that don’t suit us anymore before I go in and buy more.

I’ll have to show you some Rachel-inspired changes around my home as they come. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your romance story!

September 29, 2011

DIY Wedding Unity Candle

Remind me to give you the story one day of how my husband and I put together our super-budget wedding. And when I say budget, I actually mean it. Not like when Jessica Simpson says it. Anyhow, I refused to spend money on a few things that I knew for certain I could do myself. A $35 unity candle? No way!!!

A $5-or-less, 5-minute unity candle that looks less cheesy? Yes, please.

This is all you have to do. Find a little modern-day version of the dime store. The Family Dollar would probably suffice. We found this little local party wholesale store. Now, find a large white pillar candle and two tapered candles. You might even look for a nice candle stand while you’re at it. Even the dollar stores have some candle holders that would work.

Then, head to your local craft store and find some pretty lace. I picked a beautiful strand for just pennies.

Wrap the lace around the candle and hot glue in place. I wrapped two strips of lace around mine because it was so delicate. Do the same with the tapered candles.

Ta-da. Insta-unity candle without the outrageous price tag. Because I knew that the candles would only be lit for a few minutes, I wasn’t worried about burning up the lace. However, if you do plan on using the candle later, you might want to take that hazard into account.

There’s a lot more where this came from my friends:)

September 23, 2011

What to do with an English Major

The most unjust thing a college counselor can say, with brows furrowed, to an English major is: “So what are you going to do with an English major?” You can either become a teacher or a starving poet. That’s what everyone thinks. Even the most trusted, well-meaning adult authority figures in your life will nudge you toward something “more lucrative.” You’ll get annoyed by the dollar signs in their eyes. Don’t they understand that words and literature give your life meaning, thrill you to the soul, and push blood through your very heart?

I’m here to tell you to go for it! There are ways to go about a career with an English major in the right way. If reading, writing, analyzing words or editing give you a rush, don’t ignore that. After all, the most fulfilling concept you can practice is: Feed your hopes, not your fears. Here is a list of lucrative and exciting careers that having an English degree can prepare you for:

1. Internal Communications
2. Public Relations
3. Social Media Marketing
4. Product Copywriter (that’s me!)
5. Advertising Copywriter
6. Freelance Writer
7. Journalist
8. Editor
9. If you’re as lucky and strategic as some, you could make money as a blog writer.
10. Resume Writer/Consultant
11. News Writer
12. Technical Writer
13. Magazine Article Writer (on almost any subject, might I add: food, travel, fashion, sports, fitness…)
14. Magazine Editor
15. Author (fiction, non-fiction, adults, children, young adults…chick lit? Oh yes!)
16. Grant Writer
17. Screenwriter
18. Speech Writer
19. Songwriter
20. Proofreader
21. E-book or E-course writer
22. Website Content Writer

There are so many more that I’m missing and so many careers outside of reading, writing and editing. Check out this list of famous people with English majors to see how they’re using them. Some of these careers take a long time to infiltrate, building a portfolio, making connections and such. But just take a look at the jobs being posted on sites like MediaBistro and freelancewritinggigs.com if you’re feeling discouraged.

Good communication skills are a dying, yet highly valued art form. Good writing is also one of those skills that translates well to every single business and even to the the digital world. It will not die with technological advances. In fact, technological advances have actually opened up whole new opportunities for writers, including SEO content, social media marketing and brand writing.

A lot of writers defect into the business world, but you can always pen and submit your personal essays and poems on the side. I myself have several poems and a short story in print. One that even provided some pocket money.

An English degree? Lucrative it is!

September 12, 2011

Vintage Flower Theme Around My House

I’ve noticed that I have a vintage flower theme going on in my house. I just love the petite fragile flowers in hearty shades of pink and red. Here is a little peek:

This is a set of three antique postcards standing along the ridge of my cupboard.

I found this giant flower at the local pharmacy of all places. It was on clearance for like $2.50. I have it hanging between two art pictures on my dining room wall.

This is a pretty vintage flower print on a closet door in our room. I’m not usually a fan of wallpaper, but just this tiny little snippet of it on a tiny little door was just enough. The door needed some TLC and this was an easy and charming fix.

Here’s a little trivet I picked up at a flea market that I keep on the dining room table:

My mom bought me this set of adorable jars at an antique stores. I still don’t have anything inside of them. I just like to look at the little pretties:

And finally, a thrifted botanical print that hangs over the stove:

Of course, there’s a lot more where that came from. Perhaps I’ll do another post with even more flora.

September 5, 2011

A Successful Thrifting Adventure

Remember how I said I needed a picnic blanket and tablecloth for our weekly picnics? Just Saturday I went thrifting and came up with everything I need and then some. What a rush!

I found a beautiful quilt that I’m going to have a hard time using on the ground. I feel like I should be using it on my son’s bed or something rather than the great outdoors. But for $3, I think it’ll be OK.

The vintage tablecloth has a beautiful flower pattern on it. Again, I feel like I should be using this on the dining room table, but we have enough tablecloths for the whole year already. And this beautiful specimen was only $2.

A few other things I was psyched to find:

A nearly complete/barely used set of oil pastels for the youngin’ and I to get artsy with. And yes, that’s what I paid for it. Nope the other price. A whole quarter!!!

And this gorgeous vintage serving platter for $0.75. I think this was there last time I visited my favorite thrift store. I had my eye on it then too. I even picked it up several times and drooled over the pretty design. Why did I even hesitate for that price?

Especially when it dawned on me what I could use it for. It makes a nice display piece for my homemade hair bows, doesn’t it?

Then, there’s the beautiful stack of extra pillowcases I found. I was looking for some extras that match the sheets we already have, because pillowcases always seem to be in short supply.