I threatened this punny post title last year, when I sewed a planter bag for one of my big fiddle leaf figs. That fig and another have outgrown their pots again, so I’m sewing new planter bags for them. I’ve … Continue reading
I’m not usually a big Valentine’s Day person, but then again, a holiday built around chocolate can’t be all bad! Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, I got the urge to make something – anything! – and I put together … Continue reading
If you’re already familiar with Spoonflower, then you know how amazing their site is. If you haven’t been introduced to them yet, be prepared to be completely addicted! They can custom print anything on fabric, and you can design your … Continue reading
Every year, I make a handmade holiday gift for my coworkers and our kids’ teachers. I love bringing them into school and the office and spreading joy! I’ll list all the past ones at the bottom, so you have more … Continue reading
It has been a busy few months here, but I’m sitting by the fire and finally have a minute to share our Christmas decorations – just under the wire this Christmas Eve. If there were a graph showing how many … Continue reading
I’m really excited to be a Guest Participant again in the One Room Challenge! This is a great way to get inspiration and motivation for your home. This spring, I re-decorated our boys’ bathroom. For this fall’s challenge, I’m transforming our teen’s bedroom. His new space is inspired by an industrial loft, with an exposed brick wall and other great features! Thanks for following along!
Recap:
This week, I’m so excited to show you the lighting projects for this space. These are both moderately easy DIYs, and that’s exactly what I need right now with everything else going on at home and work!
Macrame Cord Hanging Lamp:
TOTALLY in love with this project. More details, including materials and instructions, in this post. For now, just enjoy the pictures!
Stenciled Drum Pendant Lamp Shade:
This is actually one of the first projects I did, when I started blogging. The detailed instructions are in the original post. This room used to be my craft room, so I gave myself some license to use more feminine touches. Kai’s not picky, but I did want to update this lamp for him. I originally thought I might be able to just change the shade, but it was fixed in place. While changing out the light bulbs, I realized that the room looked a lot brighter – and the light looked a bit less feminine – without the bottom glass and finial, so I left it that way for a little update.
Here’s an earlier before-and-after of the light.
And here’s how it looks without the bottom finial and with some fun Edison-style bulbs inside.
Oh, and one more look at my friend the macrame cord light…
Not sure what I’ll tackle this coming week. The answer might be nothing, because I’m co-hosting a big crazy birthday party this weekend…
A huge thank you to Linda for creating the One Room Challenge community, and high fives to all my fellow bloggers whose hard work and creativity were great inspirations! Be sure to go back to the One Room Challenge page to check out all the other projects!
Julie aka “Jewels”
I love the look of shibori – which is hardly surprising, since I love all things blue and white, and fabric. I finally overcame my skittishness about dye and tried this technique… now, I am 100% addicted! I’ve got lots … Continue reading
“DNA, you’re in my heart
DNA, in fact you’re in every part of my body
Each cell has a nucleus, each nucleus has chromosomes
And DNA, baby, that spells DNA”
-That Spells DNA by Jonathan Coulton
I can thank Steve, who is at the forefront of all things nerdy, for introducing me to Jonathan Coulton over a decade ago. Of course, as a genetic counselor, I have a particular soft spot for “That Spells DNA.” If you’re as nerdy as we are, and you don’t already know and love this song, you will want to check it out!
So, when we found out we were having a mini baby boom in our work family, with two babies due within two months, it wasn’t too hard for me to decide on DNA-themed baby quilts as gifts.
I found the DNA-themed fabric, Color DNA stripe by Melissa McCulloch, on Spoonflower. The fabric in the quilts is actually left over from a few Halloweens ago when our group dressed up as (if terrible puns cause you pain, skip this next part!) Gene-gnomes. The colors were a perfect jumping off point for this colorful gender-neutral patchwork of yellow, blues, greens and coral-red.
This pattern is called Stacked Coins and is easy to adapt to scraps of all kinds.
Here are some close-ups of the beautiful fabrics. I wanted to use every last scrap of the DNA fabric, so there is one patch in each of the quilts that I like to call “CRISPRed.” Can you spot one?
And here are a few more pictures of the quilts during their photo shoot, before they went off to their new homes!
All the colors and patterns together make me so happy! I am excited to meet the newest babies of our work family and give them their quilts, so they can start their genetics lessons early!
“Jewels”
Whether you lean towards Scandinavian-inspired, Modern Farmhouse, or California Casual, everything light, white, and wood is in right now – and I love it!
While I’m always excited to incorporate new looks into my home, it takes some creativity to do this – we’ve had most of our major furniture pieces for a decade or more.
One strategy that’s easy on the budget and environment is to change out accessories like pillows. Here are some light and bright ideas that you can use to give your room a new look!
Admittedly, my “things I have in the house already” is rather extensive, but I’m still proud that I managed to make all these pillows with them.
Here are the links to a tutorial on making simple throw pillows and tutorials for the window seat pillows, including bolster and flanged pillows.
Starting with: Ribbon-embellished geometric pillows:
Mudcloth-inspired contrast stitching:
Neutral doesn’t have to mean boring! I took some plain canvas fabric I had and, inspired by the oh-so-popular mudcloth trend, cut it into panels and sewed it together with contrasting navy thread:
There are a million more ideas for sewing simple pillows to change the look of your space – and when I try them all, you’ll see it here!
“Jewels”
I’m really excited to be a Guest Participant in my first One Room Challenge! This is a great way to get inspiration and motivation for your home. For this challenge, I’ve decided to re-do our kids’ bath. It started out with a cute beach theme that seemed perfect when the boys were little, but now I am ready for it to grow up with them. Our new look features neutral colors, natural touches, and enough personality to stand up to three boys! Thanks for following along!
Recap:
For week five, I am personalizing towels for the boys. I wanted the look of matching towels, but I still wanted to be able to tell their towels apart, because there are some things that even the closest family doesn’t want to share…
Fortunately, I remembered how I had added trim to our master bath towels, so I adapted that project for the boys. I started with solid grey towels and white grosgrain ribbon in 1.5 inch and 5/8 inch widths. I sewed on one stripe for our oldest, two for our middle boy, and three for our youngest.
I’m showing the towels folded nicely, but I actually have robe hooks for the boys to make it easier for them to hang up their towels.
Time to head back to the One Room Challenge link-up page to check out the progress on all the other exciting projects!
Final stretch this week! Hint: I am enlisting Steve to do play with electricity!
“Jewels”
