One thing I definitely inherited from my mom is a love of plants. She has extensive gardens, and often during the summer she doesn’t stop weeding and planting until it’s too dark to see (although I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept going with a headlamp). While growing up, often I was drafted into helping, […]
Starting My DIY Vertical Garden
When it warmed up outside and the plants began poking their heads above the ground and growing leaves again, I started thinking about fixing up our yard. Last year we didn’t do much other than put in some raised vegetable gardens and try to keep the grass mowed, so it needs a lot of work. […]
DIY Striped Soap
Recently I saw some striped bars of soap, thought they looked cute, and had the classic, “I could make that!” realization. I had soap base leftover from my coffee mint soap, so all I needed was some soap colorant. Turns out it’s just as easy as it seems: pour colored soap in layers, then slice […]
DIY Exfoliating Mint Coffee Soap
I’ve wanted to try making my own soap for a long time. Actually, real soapmaking involves making the soap base from scratch, using lye, oils, and precise measurements. But melt-and-pour soap couldn’t be much easier. It’s all in the name: melt the base, stir in additives like essential oils, herbs, colors or scrubby bits, and […]
DIY Geometric Himmeli Diamonds
Once I got started making himmeli-inspired shapes, I couldn’t stop. The only thing that stopped me from making brass versions of the other straw prototypes I came up with was that my hands were sore from cutting too many brass tubes. But this morning it occurred to me that a cutting wheel on a Dremel […]
DIY Himmeli Geometric Gem Decor
Before I started this project I thought the hardest part would be figuring out how to put the shapes together, so I started by practicing with some cocktail straws. I worked out all the kinks with the straw prototypes, and then I moved on to the brass tubing versions. It turns out that cutting the […]
DIY Cake Stand
Everything looks better on a pedestal. Even in ancient times they put statues up on stands, and at some point somebody decided that cakes and desserts deserve to be treated as objects of worship, too. And so cake stands were invented. The Mosser glass jadeite version kills me (it comes in a bunch of lovely […]
DIY Inspiration: Geometric Shapes Decor
At least some of these modern-looking geometric shapes are inspired by Himmeli, which are hanging Scandinavian ornaments originally made out of straw and thread. These have been popular around the blogosphere for quite some time now, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon pretty late, but they’ve really grown on me to the point where I […]
Faux Fur Scarf DIY
I’ve been wanting to make a colorful faux fur scarf ever since I posted this roundup of inspiration back in November. In the meantime I encountered even more examples of colorful faux fur looking stylish. From left to right: This slideshow, Anthropologie, this slideshow. Although spring is well on its way here in Portland, I know […]