DIY (reusable) burlap wreath for Valentine's Day

I don't usually decorate for Valentine's Day, but this year I held a (fun!) Valentine-making class for 11 children and I wanted the house to reflect the theme. I made crayon hearts (here's a link to a tutorial for them), a red heart banner for the dining room (where the class was held) and a wreath for the front door. In the spring I made a butterfly wreath, which was cute, but the butterflies faded and it needed to be recycled. So I took the butterflies off, got out my burlap and started…

The wreath is a foam one from Michaels. When I made the butterfly wreath, I had wrapped it in old book pages. I left that on, but took the butterflies off.

The best thing about this wreath is that it's reusable! You can easily remove the Valentine decorations, and you're left with a plain burlap wreath to redecorate! Read on for the supplies and directions.

You will need:

wreath (mine is 12")
burlap
hot glue gun & sticks
white and red cardstock
embroidery thread
markers
thumbtacks

Directions:

1. Cut strips of burlap that measure about 12 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. (If you cut smaller ones, you'll just have to use more of them.) I only needed five or six total.

2. Wrap the strips around the wreath, hot-gluing it as you go. It's messy. Don't worry about it.

3. Get out your cardstock. I used red and white, but you could use any color you want. I cut 4 small hearts (1.5") and one large (4.5") from the white. Then I used Sharpies in red and black to decorate the small hearts. I printed L O V E on the small white hearts, and then doodled with red around the edge. One red heart (3.5") was cut out of the red cardstock with fancy scissors. I glued the red heart to the large white one, and then doodled around the edge with a black Sharpie.

4. Punch two small holes in each of the small white hearts. Thread a piece of embroidery thread through the holes to make a mini banner. My thread is about 18" long. I used an orange one, but you can use any color you'd like. (As you can see below, the lettering isn't really neatly done. That didn't matter to me because it's not noticeable when it's hanging on the door.)

5. Now for the thumbtacks. I used them because then the plain burlap wreath is reusable. If I used glue to adhere the mini banner and the larger heart they wouldn't be as easy to remove. You can tack each end of the mini banner to the back of the wreath, and use a red one to tack the larger heart to the front.

 

6. Hang it on your door! (I covered a small section of the wreath hanger with burlap because the silver was distracting to me.)

  

Wordless Wednesday: art wall

Reorganizing in the new year

Hello all and happy new year! I had a fantastic year in 2011 with milkshake. Thank you to everyone who supported me and my little biz this past year.  And by supported, I mean - kind comments, help with shows, purchasing artwork, asking me how business is going. I am thankful that I get to do what I love every day.

During the week between Christmas and the New Year, Jimmy and I reorganized a few rooms in our house. We live in a 100+-year-old house, and storage space is practically non-existent. Also, our house isn't small, but it's broken into small rooms. On our first floor we have a living room, dining room, a kitchen, a (tiny) mudroom and an extra little room between the dining room and kitchen. When we bought the house the realtor called it a breakfast nook. We originally put a table and chairs in there, but we never used it since we have a dining room right next to it. Then about 10 years ago we turned it into an office. At the time, we were both working from home a lot and needed somewhere to put our computers. Jimmy built a big L-shaped desk in the room which had lots of storage underneath. Since we only have laptops now, the room hasn't been used much in the past few years.

BEFORE:

 {Our dining room during the transformation. Yikes!
This just made me want to keep working and get it finished.
By the way, anyone watch Hoarders?}

 {Jimmy taking the desk apart.}

Malayna's toys had been stored in the dining room - pretty much because that's the only place we could put them. Her bedroom isn't very big, and she doesn't really play in there. Since the office space wasn't being used, we decided to convert that room into a small playroom. My intention was just to create a place to store Malayna's toys, but since we converted it she's been playing in there. This is a big deal - up until now she's been loading up our dining room table with all her toys and stuff. We eat there every night, so we'd have to clear the table every day. Big pain in the neck.

 {The armoire before.}

 {After! The chalkboard will go on the wall
to the left of the armoire.}

 {And inside. Lots and lots of Polly Pockets!}

The difference in the organization of her toys is huge! Everything has a home, and it's all accessible. Before this, her games were all piled haphazardly on top of her toy storage bins, and if you weren't careful when taking one out they'd all fall. I bought an inexpensive armoire from Craigslist last year, and we now use that (after I painted it) for all her Polly Pocket toys (there are many!).

{Art supplies. I did have paper and pencils inside here, but I found
Malayna wasn't using them as much as before. So I took them out and
put them in plain sight. They're being used more now.}

 {View from the dining room. I may eventually
change the color of the bins.}

There are still a few things I'd like to change about the room. I'm not crazy about the contact paper on the doors of the craft storage, but I just wanted it done and that's what I could find locally. A few spots on the walls have to be touched up with paint. This past weekend I painted a 2x4 with black chalkboard paint, but I'd still like to build a frame for it.

{Desk in the dining room.}

Our desk is now in the dining room, and is less than half the size of the previous desk. That means less space for me to fill with papers, which is good. We reused the wood from the original desk. I have gray fabric tacked up around the edge of it, which eventually has to be sewn into "curtains" to hide all the stuff under the desk. The bulletin board above the desk is a piece of fiberboard covered with Ikea fabric. Easy and inexpensive - we already had the fiberboard and the fabric cost $16 (and I have a lot left over). You can put thumbtacks into fiberboard easily. This area still needs some work…

By the way, we donated or threw away lots and lots of stuff. Board books, baby toys (yes, we still had those lying around), things Malayna didn't play with. Facebook was a great way to get rid of things that were in good condition.

Did you tackle any home improvement projects lately? Or is there something you're planning to do?

Obsessed with Hipstamatic

Anyone else?

Small Business Saturday sale!

{The Lola Show desk calendar!}

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and everything in the milkshake crafts shop is 15% off! (Just enter code CYBER11 during checkout.) The sale continues until the end of the month, Wednesday November 30th, at midnight.

{5"x7" owl print.}

 {5"x7" seahorses print.}

Lots and lots of new items have been added the past few days. There are new prints, desk clocks, pendants, wall clocks and art blocks.

{Red clematis pendant.}

{Blue seahorse wall clock.}

Happy shopping!

Small Business Saturday sale!

{The Lola Show desk calendar!}

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and everything in the milkshake crafts shop is 15% off! (Just enter code CYBER11 during checkout.) The sale continues until the end of the month, Wednesday November 30th, at midnight.

{Seahorse print.}

Lots and lots of new items have been added the past few days. There are new prints, desk clocks, pendants, wall clocks and art blocks.

  
{Red clematis pendant.}

{New seahorse wall clock.}

Happy holidays!
Lisa

milkshake {shop}

sweet inspiration {blog}

milkshake crafts on FB {facebook fan page}

Updating the website

I just finished taking the last of the photos I need for my website update. Finally! This has been on the back-burner for months now. Good thing I finished when I did - it started pouring after I finished. Paper and water don't mix very well.

 {The most popular desk clock - blue chickadee.}

I take my photos on my falling down, in need of repair shabby chic picket fence in front of my house. I have to bring Lola outside with me when I do it or else listen to her bark and cry inside the house the whole time I'm out there. (And be prepared for whatever toy of Malayna's she's chewed up during that time.) So she's in the backyard and I'm in the front yard taking photos, and she still cries and barks at me even though I'm less than a foot away from her. Or she's jumping on my plants and ripping them apart. Fun! I'm glad I at least have a well-behaved child.

I'll be updating my site for the next day or so and then having a Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday sale! I've decided to leave "Black Friday" out of the mix because I really despise everything about that day. What would I need so badly that I would have to camp out overnight for it?!

Support locally-owned shops and artists!

Waldorf Holiday Fair recap

One of my favorite shows - The Waldorf Holiday Fair - was this past weekend (Friday night and Saturday). It's held in a beautiful space in the Waldorf School of Philadelphia (all the classrooms are painted different colors and don't have distracting posters on the walls like lots of schools do), the food is delicious (seriously, my roommates and I decided that one of the reasons we do the show is for the yummy food!) and the people who come to the show are very supportive and positive about our handcrafted art.

I shared a room with Cara of Cob Studio (we've been in this room together for at least the past four years), Renee of Tadpole Creations (our second year together) and Sarah of Gritty City Beauty Co. (who made the room smell good with her candles and body butters). We had a good time as usual, catching up with each other and chatting during the (little bit of) down time. The only drawback to a good show is that you don't have time to go around and see the other vendors and all the good stuff for sale. I'm sorry I didn't get to take home a scarf from Untold Imprint - her work is beautiful!

The new seahorse image I created was a big hit! Sold a few clocks, prints and magnets featuring that image. I'll be adding those products to the Etsy shop this week!

Next up: The Abington Friends School Craft Fair on December 3rd from 10-3 and then the MamaCita Holiday Party & Show on December 11th from 1-5.

Skippyjon Jones reading and book signing

{Halloween, 2011.}

My daughter, Malayna, loves Skippyjon Jones. She discovered the books about a year ago and reads them over and over. We have also listened to some books on CD while driving to the shore over the summer. She dressed as Skippyjon for Halloween (in a costume that I made), and gave me very specific instructions on what she wanted it to look like. I made many pairs of paper ears and paper masks before she gave me the "okay" to make them in felt. She knows what she wants.

We had the opportunity to meet Judy Schachner - the author and illustrator of Skippyjon Jones - over the weekend. She held a reading of her latest book, Class Action at a bookstore in downtown Philadelphia. When I told Malayna about it, she was thrilled - way more excited than I thought she'd be. She wore her Halloween costume and took a book with her for Judy to sign. It was a great reading - Judy was funny, animated and told some jokes that only the grown-ups got. She had Malayna stand up and show everyone her costume. (Afterwards Malayna told us she was a little embarrassed at that part, so I think if it were just one year later she wouldn't have worn the costume.)

 {Showing everyone her costume.}

When it was time for the signing, Malayna was the first one in line. It was like she was meeting a movie star. She gave Judy a drawing she had made and a picture of Lola dressed up in Malayna's Skippyjon Jones costume. Malayna smiled the entire time Judy was talking to her. When we were on our way home, she said, "I wish the reading didn't happen yet so I could do it all over again."

 {The drawing and the picture Malayna gave to Judy.}

 {Thrilled!}
The two photos above were taken by the husband
of one of the women who designs the Skippyjon Jones apparel.
http://www.skippyjonjonesstuff.com/

Thank you Judy Schachner! You inspire Malayna every day.