All that glitters...

Over the last few years, one of my favorite holiday traditions has become creating ornaments for the annual Freshly Blended Holiday Ornament Swap. Although the "official" swap wasn't happening this year, my group of fabulously creative designer friends kept the tradition alive. Many thanks to Alisa from Sibling for coordinating the whole thing! It's such a rare treat to get actual mail anymore but I honestly enjoy the act of planning, creating and packaging my ornaments even more. It really IS better to give than to receive!

For this swap, I decided to create layered snowflakes from found/repurposed items. I used old tart tins, court documents, poker chips, checkers, pearl buttons and lots of vintage rhinestone jewelry. I had the snowflake shapes laser cut from chipboard and I covered them with GLITTER. The whole process was very similar to the ornaments I made two years ago, so I will spare you all the details. In the end, I was absolutely in love with this set of ornaments. Since I ended up with enough material to make an extra ornament, I was able to snag this beauty for myself. SCORE!

In total I made 12 ornaments, so this is just a sampling of them all. Like real snowflakes, each one of these sparkly gems is one-of-a-kind! I always have my eyes peeled for pretty rhinestone broaches or earrings and sparkly buttons, so I'm sure to make more of these babies in the future. If only people would stop making broach bouquets! Those bitches are buying up all my supplies! 

Succulent Terrariums

The third Pinterest Challenge hosted by Young House Love couldn't have come at a better time! I had already decided to end the cycle of houseplant genocide that's been taking place in my living room for the last few years. I wanted some sort of greenery to replace the numerous houseplants that have fallen victim to my not-so-green thumb, but wasn't sure what to do. When I saw the terrariums that Brittany created for the last Pinterest challenge, I was completely taken with the idea! Succulent terrariums seemed like the perfect fit since they are lovely and require very little maintenance. (i.e. they are hard to kill!)

Drawing inspiration from Brittany's original "pinspiration" I knew I wanted to create something layered with multiple levels of rocks, moss and dirt. I wanted the layers to showcase the stones I've picked up on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan beaches over the last few years. (Stones and shells currently reside in little Ikea jars tucked away in my office) My original plan was to use tall apothecary jars for the containers but as I shopped I realized that I was drawn to cleaner shapes and open vessels. The jars started to seem like they would be too "fussy" for the look I wanted to create. After a foray to HomeGoods and TJ Maxx I ended up with six possible containers. (Yes, I only planned to make two terrariums but I like to have options!)

For my plant material, I found a wide selection of succulents at both Home Depot and Lowe's. They seem to have recognized the succulent trend and totally jumped on the band wagon. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many types. True, some look like scary alien plants but I found plenty of cute ones. Of course, I bought too many plants as well but I actually needed more than I had anticipated. Sometimes it's good to go overboard! The left-over plants will all find good homes, I'm sure. The last nitty gritty part of the project was the dirt and moss. I picked up a special "Cactus & Succulent" soil and sheet moss at Lowe's to complete my supply list.

So with all my supplies gathered, I started to look at my containers and narrow down the selection. I pared down to three shapes I really liked and then kept editing until I figured out which two shapes worked together and would fit the space I was going to place them in. I ended up with two very simple cylinder vases as the winners!

Next I just layered in the rocks, soil, plants and VOILA! The terrariums took shape. Arranging the plants and rocks "just so" did take a little finagling, so don't worry if you injure a few plants along the way. The succulents can seem fragile since their pudgy little "leaves" break off easily but they are pretty resilient suckers. The broken pieces will just grow back!

As with any project, there are a few things I would have done differently but overall I'm really pleased with the look of my terrariums. Here's hoping we live a long and fruitful life together!

Antique Paperie

I'm super pumped that Antique Paperie, my newest collection for Colorbök, will be premiering at CHA this month! Antique Paperie is totally my style with a cool modern palette, playful patterns and tons of texture. This collection was so much fun to work on because I was able to incorporate an eclectic mix of flea market style and vintage ephemera into the design. If you look closely, you might even find some personal touches (like text from my old family documents, maps from my Grandfather's antique atlas and postmarks from Ann Arbor and Detroit) hidden in the pages.

Look for the collection at Joann's next month. Until then, here's a sneak peek!

Better late than never...

One of my (many) goals for this year is to be better about blogging! It's not that I don't think about it. I've had blog posts stacking up in the back of my mind for over a year. The problem for me is actually taking the time to sit down and type up all the crazy ideas in my head. As someone who sits at computer almost non-stop from 9-5, it's usually the last thing I want to do at home.

So... in an effort to catch up on past "blog-worthy" events, here are the ornaments I created for this year's freshlyblended Handmade Ornament Swap. They are handmade clay snowflakes made by moi, glazed and fired at one of my favorite places in Ann Arbor, Motawi Tileworks. I jazzed them up a bit with cute ribbons and decorated boxes. I'm all about presentation, so I packaged each ornament and embellished each box with paper, ribbon, washi tape and assorted cuteness. I topped off the boxes with a handwritten note and a personalized monogram.




I was very excited to participate in the swap again. (especially since my super talented friend, Alisa was hosting this year) It's always so fun to receive little treasures in your mailbox. Unfortunately, it's rare nowadays to receive even a handwritten letter in the mail, so receiving these small gifts (from strangers!) is a unique treat. This year I sent my ornaments all across the country and around the globe to the UK, Australia and Iceland. (Iceland!!!)

Already looking forward to the next swap...