DIY Autumnal Garland

The year after I moved away for college, my parents moved about 2.5 hours north of Phoenix. The small town that they moved to was the place we had visited every summer and Thanksgiving for most of my childhood. It was where my dad grew up and where my grandparents had always lived. It's a special little place in the high desert, and the drive up there from the Valley takes you through all sorts of beautiful Arizona scenery.

Michael had to work over Veteran's Day weekend (boo) so I decided to take the girls up to visit my parents. The weather was perfect and the sky was that perfect color of winter blue. I've always loved the desert, but I think I can appreciate its unique beauty even more after living on the east coast for a decade.

On the way back home, the girls and I decided to collect samples of some of the plants and foliage along the road back down to Phoenix. We found everything from sage to juniper (with pretty little blue berries!) to gorgeous maple leaves in every shade from red to yellow.

I was surprised that we were able to collect something from every color in the rainbow in less than two hours of driving. How could I resist making an ombre garland with all those pretty colors?

Here's the easy how-to:

I've made a few wreaths with evergreen boughs before and the concept is very similar for a garland. It couldn't be simpler or much less expensive (it was actually free for me since I had the floral supplies on hand already).

To make a similar garland, you'll need a good collection of leaves and plants. Try to find plants that are either already pretty dry or that will dry out well (flowers usually do not dry that well). It can get a little messy, so try organizing everything on a canvas drop cloth to make clean up easy.

Here are a few things I used:

You'll for sure want two thicknesses of floral wire, wire clippers and floral shears. The Dried Material Preservative (available at craft stores) is optional, but is actually pretty helpful for keeping the brittle, dry plants more soft and pliable. And actually I've been giving my garland a light misting with this stuff every few days, just to give it a little more life.

So, I would say the trickiest part here is figuring out the flow of the garland. I wanted mine to have a gradient or ombre look, so it took a little planning to get the right plants with the right color in the right area of the swag so there was a good balance to the thing. I knew I wanted the juniper berries in the middle though, and the red leaves in the corners and the white grass at the ends, so then it was just a matter of filling in the rest.

Once all your foliage is ready to go, and you have a good sense of how long your finished garland will be (mine is about 15 ft long), measure out three equal lengths of thick floral wire and then braid the wire. It doesn't have to be perfect at all - and don't stress if the wires get a little tangled. The idea is you want a thicker but still pliable surface to tie the flowers to.

I used two of those stick-on hooks (in black, to match my fireplace) in the corners of the mantle. I looped the braided wire around the hook and sort of pinched it to help the wire stay put. If you want the finished garland to swoop down a little in the center, let the wire sag just a bit here, but not too much. The weight of the foliage will pull it down several more inches.

Then it's time to start layering on the foliage. The most important part is to start at the bottom and layer on top of each little bundle and work your way to the center.

To make each bundle, you just layer the foliage in your hand in a pretty way so that there are no gaps or blunt lines. And then you hold the bundle up against the braided wire and wrap it three or four times with the smaller gauge floral wire, just around the base of the bundle, mostly. For the lighter foliage, I used gold wire and for the greenery I pulled out my dark green wire.

Once I finished layering on one half of the garland, I started at the bottom of the other side, trying to copy the layout exactly. When both halves are finished, you should be left with two mirror-image symmetrical swags. I think it would look a little funny if you don't have a center piece that is sort of bunched up and less layered looking. So I made a little end cap for the very center out of more juniper bush. I used floral tape to sort of bunch and fan out some shorter pieces, and then attached it with wire just like with the other bundles.

Also, and I didn't end up needing to do so here, but if you've lost a lot of leaves in the process, you can strategically hot glue a few leaves back on to help fill things out a bit.

Finally, you can sort of bend and tug at the wire to get it to look right and you're done! It's easy and fun and only takes an hour or two. My garland has been up for about a week and a half and I think it'll still look great for Thanksgiving next week! The only plant that's shed at all is the soft gray sagebrush in the middle, and it's not been bad at all.

I'm already dreaming of ideas for a winter palette of all blues and greens and grays for my next garland. Maybe a double swag!

On Choosing Stone Remnants

I'm so excited - today our fireplace will be finished!! Early this morning the stone fabricator will install the limestone I chose for the fireplace surround and later in the day I'll help Jason hang the TV in the recently painted black millwork. I think we're going to install the Gossip Girl sconces today as well.

I found a really interesting piece of stone remnant for the surround area, for (comparatively) almost nothing!

If you're buying stone, the general rule is you'll be buying full slabs from a slab yard. The slabs are priced by the square foot usually and most slabs are around 50 or 60 square feet. $10/sq foot is about as low as you'll find for pricing. Some of the stones that are prettiest to me are priced more than $50/sq foot, which adds up fast for a kitchen application where you'd probably need several slabs.

Often the slab yard will only give pricing to a stone fabricator, so usually you shop for slabs by yourself, taking note of your favorites, and then have your fabricator call in for pricing later. Sometimes you can beg the slab yard salesperson and they'll give you a ballpark number without your fabricator present. Clearance pricing is usually posted on the slab.

I went to a few different slab yards a couple weeks ago, shopping for my dream kitchen and for remnants for our fireplace surround. I found this really lovely black granite at Arizona Tile, but the slab was going to cost me about $600 and I only needed about 15% of the slab for our fireplace. What I loved the most about this piece was the texture and the variations of dark colors. I decided to keep looking and asked to see their remnants area.

There usually isn't much of anything in the way of remnants at a slab yard though because they don't cut stone at most yards. Sometimes they'll have a small section with broken slabs though, so it's worth checking out. Your best bet if you want an inexpensive, small remnant piece, is to call around to stone fabricators and ask them if they sell their remnants.

I found a pretty great selection of remnants at Allpride Granite and Marble fabricators. I was immediately drawn to this black fossil shell limestone. It had a similar textural quality to the meteorus granite I was loving before.

They sold me the half slab for $75! Such a deal. I had them cut it to size and in the morning they're going to install the pieces around the firebox. I can't wait to see how it finishes the who look of the fireplace! I'll be sure to post an update here soon, and on Instagram in real time in case you want to follow along. :)

I'm so curious - have you been shopping for natural stone lately? What's catching your eye, and was it priced anywhere near the $50/sq ft mark I seem to keep getting quoted? :)

Our Holiday Cards

Holidays are made for you at Zazzle. Find cards you'll covet at http://www.zazzle.com/holiday+cards.

Years ago, I used to really go all-out with our holiday cards. I'd spend hours and hours on the things, hand-crafting every part. But that was before my life became virtually one giant creative outlet, and in recent years, when I have actually managed to get cards out, they've been pretty generic. I had made it a goal to do something manageable AND special this year.

So when Zazzle invited me to use their site to make my holiday cards, I was happy for the chance to get them done early and done right.

For the front of our 5x7 card, I wanted a family photo that had a little something to do with Arizona and that told the story of our recent move. I made a tiny tissue paper pom-pom garland and strung it on a cactus patch sort of near our house to make things look a little more festive. While we were taking photos, a huge flock of about twenty peacocks came wandering by! It was awesome (and a little terrifying, to be honest). The girls have been talking about it non-stop since!

On the inside of the card, I wanted to do a photo booth strip insert. I drew some words on black foam board using this google search as a reference and I painted in the lettering with white acrylic paint. Looking back, it would have looked a million times better to use a white paint pen, but you know, whatever. Thank goodness for grainy photo booth photos.

We found a photo booth at a shopping center and took one strip of photos each while holding one of the signs. This photo booth made things super easy on me and automatically uploaded all the images online, which I was able to access later with a code. I picked one photo from each of our photo strips and photoshopped them into one new strip. I had the strips printed out three to a page to save money and I cut them to size for the inside of the cards.

I used a little washi tape to attach the strip to the inside of the card. I think I'll go back to the store to find some different colors of tape for when I finish assembling the cards over the next month.

I kept the printed message pretty short on the inside of the card to leave room for a place to write a personalized message.  I love getting (and sending) hand-written notes, especially during the holidays when we're all so busy. The extra care and thought feels really special to me.

Another one of my favorite things to do is to buy vintage stamps for the envelopes. You can get full sheets on eBay for just a few dollars and then just mix and match.

Zazzle also offers a custom stamp option that I was so tempted by! I had thought about printing out a photo of Linus with a big Christmas bow around his neck! :) They also sell some really cute vintage-looking stamps if you're not wanting to deal with the eBay route.

I'm so happy with the quality of the Zazzle cards and my large order came so quickly. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have these done this early! I'm feeling majorly on top of my game here. :) And now I'm wondering what are my chances for getting all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving? Can you imagine?!

DIY Les Touches Memo Boards

Remember that DIY Les Touches project I posted here (and another great one here)? A reader used a Sharpie marker to recreate the classic Brunschwig and Fils snow leopard pattern on her dining room chair seat cushions. The idea came to mind as I was brainstorming an easy way to add some texture and interest to the simple cork memo board I have on my kitchen desk.

Here's how I made it...

I pulled up a photo of the fabric pattern on my laptop and started tracing out the general pattern.

I found it looked best to just draw vertical marks with the Sharpie.

I ended up not liking some of the thinner lines I started out with, so I just went right back over them with more vertical marks.

And I kept filling in until the spacing of the dots looked even. 

I had two of these IKEA cork boards on hand so I think I might try doing the pattern again and maybe leave the frame the natural wood color. I think it would be a prettier contrast against the wall. My gold leaf pen would be great here too, but we're already approaching crazy town with the black and white striped chair, so I'll probably try to exercise a little restraint here. :)

Painted Desk Accessories (Including Gold Scissors!)

I love small DIY projects because they can usually come together quickly and simply and they really solve some design problems in a pinch. My favorite projects usually happen right before a party or a photo shoot in a last minute spurt of creative energy. For my little desk redo, I wanted some shiny and bright accessories and there was no way I wanted to spend a penny on any of that.

Well, I ended up spending a couple pennies (about 60 I think) to pick up these neon acrylics paints. And using the rest of my new favorite gold spray paint and some things I already had on hand, I got just what I wanted - bright, colorful and unique desk accessories.

Here's the how-to...

I got this glass footed bowl for the laundry room redo a while back and never used it. I think I bought it on clearance at Homegoods for about $4.

I thought the shape would make a perfect shallow planter. If I wanted to use this as a bowl for keys or jewelry or whatever, I would have used a paint made specifically for use on glass (Porcelaine is a great one). But since I planned to just fill this up with soil and plants, no need for anything more than cheap craft paint.

I poured in a bunch of the paint, brushed it up toward the rim and then let it sit.

The paint dripped back down onto the thinner layer and created a cool, glazed effect. I like how different it looks, but if you want to paint just a single layer of paint on glassware that works too.

And that's actually what I did with this little cut glass tumbler. I painted the inside with two coats of the neon yellow acrylic and let it dry outside for a good day to let the thick paint really cure.

I've been using it as a pencil cup and I love the dimensional look of the paint on the inside of the glass.

And didn't those cheapie plastic-handled scissors take paint so well? If you want, you can tape off the blade, but I just sprayed right over it (I didn't spray the insides of the blades though - they sat in the closed position the whole time I was spraying).

I sprayed a clear lacquer coat on these too and I think they'll continue to hold up well. No chips after a few weeks of use.

It's so fun to see how a little paint can transform the simplest items. The details really do make a big difference. Before I painted that footed glass bowl pink, the sparkling version of the desk area was really bland. The pop of color made all the difference. And how long would I have had to search online and in stores to find a bright pink bowl (and how much would I have had to spend on it?). Sometimes you just have to make it if you want it.