Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Day in my Life with the Beautiful Mess App

Elsie and Emma from A Beautiful Mess released a brand new app this week and I love it!  It's only available for apple products (not androids) so I bought it for my iPad mini.  It cost a whopping $0.99 and it's packed with doodles, phrases, and borders to enhance your photos.

I wasn't blown away by the photo filter options, as there are only 3 color filters, but that's not much of a hinderance because it's possible to export your photos directly from the Beautiful Mess app into Instagram where there are tons of filters to choose from.

Here's what a day in my life looks like through the eyes of the Beautiful Mess App:


I spent the morning at the ice arena where I did some skating and coffee drinking.

Then I came home and made the easiest lunch ever: baked grilled cheese and mashed potato smiles.  I love making my grilled cheese this way because I don't have to wash as many dishes.

After lunch I pretended to pack for a while because I'm leaving for my next contract soon, but I really just ended up knitting on the couch.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the boys replace a giant window.  Doesn't Justin look right at home on top of my dad's truck?

Life is so great when I'm at home between contracts.  I don't think I want to leave yet!

Have you tried the Beautiful Mess app?  Did you like it too?
xoxo
Laura

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

DIY Washi Tape Recipe Notebook (with free Printable)

There's only one week left until I head off to my next ice show contract.  (Eek.)  I've been doing a bit of packing and a lot of crafting to gear up for this next adventure.

I'll have a full kitchen on this next contract and I couldn't be more excited about it!  I've been pinning recipes on pinterest, checking out cookbooks from the library, and leafing through cooking magazines in checkout lines like a woman who is totally obsessed.

The obsession has been paying off, though, and I've amassed tons of recipes that I can't wait to make this summer.  I wanted to keep all those recipes in one organized place, so I decided to make a recipe notebook.  This notebook needed some washi tape on it.  Obviously.


You can download the Yum! printable right here.

Here's what you'll need if you want to make this notebook too:


1.  A notebook.  I used a 9" by 12" sketch pad that was on sale at Micheals for $5.
2.  The printed out Yum! printable
3.  A piece of thick paper to go in between the notebook cover and the printable so the design on the cover of the notebook won't be visible through the printable.
4.  Two kinds of washi tape
5.  Scissors

Directions:


Start by printing and cutting out the free printable Yum!

Now set the Yum! aside and start washi taping the notebook.  Yes, I did just use "washi taping" as a verb.


1.  Cut the thick piece of paper so it's the same size as the notebook, place it on top of the notebook, and use washi tape to secure the two outside corners (the top right and bottom right) so that it looks like there is a triangle of washi tape in those two spots.

2.  Place 4 more strips of washi tape on the bottom right corner of the notebook, parallel to the strip in the corner, wrapping the excess tape around onto the back of the cover.  Do the same thing on the bottom left corner, but don't wrap the tape around the cover yet.  Instead, leave the excess tape hanging off the cover (as pictured above) and then cut it off of the side with the spiral binding with scissors once you've placed all 5 strips of tape.  Now you can wrap the excess tape on the bottom edge around the cover.  Tape the top corners exactly as you taped the bottom corners.

3.  Now that all of the corners are taped, it's time to fill in the middle.  Starting at the bottom and working your way up, apply 5 more strips of washi tape as pictured above.  This time the tape will be horizontal instead of diagonal.  Cut off the rough edges of the tape strips diagonally so they match up with the diagonal tape.

4.  Repeat step 3 on the remaining 3 sides of the cover.  Once you've done that, your notebook should look like the 4th picture above.

Now it's time to place the Yum! printable in the middle of the notebook and tape down it's entire perimeter using the second type of washi tape.  You're notebook cover is all finished (yay!) and it should now look like the very first picture in this post.


Fill the inside of your notebook with recipes from all over the place: cutouts from magazines, printouts from websites, handwritten notes from your parents' kitchen, etc.

To add a little extra flair, use washi tape to tape in the recipes.  That way the inside of the notebook matches the cover and the whole thing will feel more cohesive.


I found that most printouts from websites will already have the recipe source printed somewhere on the page (like the Caramelized Peach and Brie Quesadilla with Honey Recipe from Oprah.com).  If the printout doesn't have that, or if you're using a recipe from a magazine or a book, make sure that you write down where the recipe came from.  That way you can refer back to the original source if you ever want to share the recipe with a friend or write about it on your blog.  (I'm a firm believer in citing your sources!)

I'm super excited to get cooking, and I hope that this post has inspired you too!  What are your favorite recipes?

Happy cooking!
xoxo
Laura

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day

 I made my mom a little box of tea for Mother's Day this year.


I got the idea from Martha Stewart, and her instructions for this project are right here.  Oh, Martha, you never cease to amaze me.

I bought a couple of craft punches for this project and fell madly in love with them.  Punching through thick paper and watching a perfect little butterfly pop out of the punch is endlessly satisfying.  I may or may not have punched a whole lot more butterflies than I needed, just because I was having fun doing it...

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  I love you!
xoxo
Laura

Saturday, May 11, 2013

The Great Gatsby DIY: Daisy's Earrings

Before I saw the new movie version of The Great Gatsby I was a little unsure how I would feel about it, given that it's my favorite book of all time.  (Did you know that I majored in English in college?  I read a lot.)  Anyway, I saw it yesterday and I absolutely loved it!  I loved that the script stayed so true to F. Scott Fitzgerald's words, I loved Leonardo DiCaprio's portrayal of Jay Gatsby, and I loved, loved, loved the aesthetics of it all!  Oh, the costumes!  The jewelry!!  The headpieces!!!

Image via Tiffany & Co.


I was particularly taken with the earrings that Daisy (a.k.a. Carey Mulligan, shown above with director Baz Luhrmann) wore for most of the second half of the movie.  Aren't they lovely?  I did a little digging and it turns out that Tiffany & Co created all of the jewelry for the movie in conjunction with Catherine Martin, who designed the costumes for the movie.  No wonder everything was so insanely sparkly.

Obviously I can't head over to my neighborhood Tiffany's and pick up a pair of those earrings, but I couldn't get them out of my mind.  I decided it was time for a good old fashioned DIY and I ended up making myself a pair of similar earrings for less than $10.

Supplies:
-  2 sparkly buttons (I got mine at Joann Fabrics where all buttons are on sale for 40% off right now.)
-  Silver lever earrings from the jewelry findings section of any craft store
-  Tape... I'll explain that in a minute.


Directions:
1.  Start with two buttons and two lever earrings.
2.  Place each button onto each lever earring, as shown.
3.  If the hole on the back of the button is significantly larger than the circumference of the earring like mine was, you'll need to use something to make the hole smaller so that the button doesn't flop around on the earring.  I tried several different fixes and realized that tape is the best option.  Roll a small log of tape with the sticky side facing in, then wrap that log in another layer of tape with the sticky side facing out.  Force the tape into the button hole.  Cut off the excess tape.  Push the earring through the tape-filled hole.  Now the button won't slide anymore.  There's an arrow pointing to the tape in the button hole in picture #3.  See it?
4.  Put on your earrings and feel glamorous like Daisy!


I thought it would be fun to model my new DIY earrings dressed in a full 1920s outfit like Daisy, but it just didn't feel authentic without a bob, and I am way too attached to my long hair for that.  I just modeled the earrings dressed as myself instead.


Have you seen the movie yet?  Did you like it?  How did you think it compared with the book?

Happy button shopping!
xoxo
Laura

Friday, May 10, 2013

Blog Redesign


This is just a quick heads up that things are starting to look different around here, but I'm still the same old me and my blog posts are going to continue just as they always have (except they will be a little bit prettier).

More info on this to come...
xoxo
Laura
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