PS I Made This
Share great title, great book. Part designer DIYPart fashion Part lifestyle inspiration guide. I counted 27 projects in this book. All are practical and with easy (obvious) to follow instructions. Here is a sample of a project: How to Make a Fancy Ruffle Shirt (Upcycling a plain boring white t-shirt) Get Inspired Not [...]
Gorgeous Hearts :: Free Printables
Share THAT LOVING HEART: 15 free darling heart designs to embellish just about anything. Enlarge them: to create a wall-decal/ furniture print stencil or bleach-dye them on t-shirts (gifts or keep). Keep ‘m small: to print in red and adorn that Valentine Card; to create loving embroidery patterns; or make into stamps. Or make a [...]
Party Time: Show Us What You’ve Made
Share Pin It so humbled every time I am at a craft and home decoration link party. In awe of many pretty submissions, last week, to our first show-and-tell link party of “whatever you have made that is beautiful”. I’m glad to be back partying with you today. Hope you feel the same. [...]
Recycled Plastic Bottles to Awesome Vertical Vegetable Garden
Share We all must learn to grow vegetables. Whether we live in a small apartment without a balcony, a unit with just a small patio, or a luxury house with lots of land. Don’t you think? Growing veggies is easy & fun, once you know how, particularly with the ingenious plastic bottle vertical gardening system [...]
Beads Beads Beads
Share Oh, and the things you can do … with beads. And I’m referring to those beads that are iron-able and shape-able into pretty much any thing you fancy, called perler beads. Creations Made with Perle Beads After you’ve made Zhu zhu pet food [...]
Valentines Day Recipe : Breakfast Bars
Share Want to be sweet to your loved one for breakfast on Valentines Day? How about whisking up easy love gateaux, aka instant breakfast bars ? Love it. Serve up a sophisticated slice sprinkled with some icing sugar or candied hearts for breakfast and cut up a few take-away bars for mid-morning coffee. Filled with [...]
Fun Junk Antiques in Rome
Share Last week, we stopped by this fun and funky antique store in Trastevere, a favorite downtown area in Rome. This antique shop is a rare breed. It reminds of American lifestyle fashion furniture stores which also sell (vintage) Oriental furniture. Such shop is a rare find in Rome. What makes this shop more special [...]
Scrapbooking Canvas Art (Pinterest Fave)
Share ‘Soul Smile’ ‘Laugh with your eyes, hug with your soul, and smile with your heart’ (Anonymous quote) Wow. Powerful quote on canvas art. Paper art creation. Scrapbooking collage on canvas. Below is my favorite Pinterest pin today. Inspirational? Love the colors, style and sincerity statement. Comes with a very detailed [...]
Shabby Chic Mercury Glass Candle Holders
Share Mercury glass is so popular right this minute and I’m fully supporting this trend. I love its shabby chic look, and how you can transform plain glass object, from vase to goblet, into a magnificent vintage silver mirrored home accent. Eg. Look what I picked up : two darling glass candle holders. [...]
DIY ‘Porcelain Rose
Share Isn’t this an awesome glossy porcelain rose? However, it’s made from 13 old plastic spoons instead. Would you believe it?! Next time you have a party, save those plastic spoons! You’ve got roses to make… Find an excellent, step-by-step tutorial by Gail here, at the “Can’t Stop Making Things”-blog. :: [...]
How to Make a Topiary
Share Lets make a topiary. I will show you how. It is winter and not much creative gardening going on besides making winter veggies and protecting whatever you planted from frost. It is however a time that in Italy, the olive farmers clip their olive trees again, and loads of free branches are to be [...]
Italian Farmhouse Kitchen Table (Pinterest Fave)
Share Not fair that Pinterest followers were getting my best design ideas, instead of my loyal blog readers. Being Chinese New Year, I’m changing it now, and during the coming year, I’ll add a Daily Pinterest Favorite to my blog. I’ll feature a mix of interior design styles, home decorating DIY projects, knititng, crochet, paper [...]
Valentine Greeting Cards
Share Love this pop-up card. Classy, simple. Love the color ~ not pink for a change, with a universal message that any lover will understand. Perfect. Best of all, it comes with a free template. You will need some precision scissors however to cut this perfectly, but if you do, you’ll have a stunning [...]
New Link Party
Share Let’s celebrate the best of you. At least once a week, shall we. A NEW LINK PARTY !! Because today is CHINESE NEW YEAR: Happy new year of the dragon, which will be a year of lots of action !!!! (My free Chinese New Year Greeting Card, to print or as eCard). Because it’s [...]
Soy Wax Candle Making
Share 2012 comes with a commitment to myself it to live more soulfully and to reflect that on the blog. So, out with the paraffin candles and in with the soy candles. Let’s make some candles! Here’s the howto. Soy Wax Candle Making Supplies Needed soy wax flakes (European readers / I get [...]
Save OUR Internet Liberty
Share Today, NO new tutorial. Instead, we protest over the SOPA and PIPA bills that are before the US House and Senate. We unite with many sites who are taking their entire site down for a day. SOPA/PIPA = prohibitive for bloggers like you and I. If you want continued creative finds from around the [...]
How to Save Your Cosmetics
Share Pin It Save yourself hundreds of dollars with this handy eco-friendly cosmetics saver tip! Got some broken cosmetics ranging from compact blush, powder to eye shadow? No longer be sad; no need to throw it away. This photo explains exactly how you can recover it. In essence, what you’ll need is a few drops [...]
Designer Lamps from Recycled Drinking Straws
Share How novel. Recycle 3000 clear drinking straws, and you can make this wonderful lamp. According to designer Tim Fishlock, it takes 7 days to complete. Like it? Make your own? The Howto 1. Tim does not give us a clue as to how it’s made other than sharing that he interconnected all [...]
Succulent Wreaths
Share Now that all your holiday decoration is gone, does the front door look a bit barren? Not for long, because here’s an idea for you that you wished you’d tried before: year-round colorful succulent wreaths that need next-to-no-attention to good looking. Best of all, the plants on these wreaths are alive! Like a [...]
Chinese New Year Greeting Card
Share Chinese New Year will be really early this year, January 23. To celebrate with your Chinese friends, I’ve designed you again a Chinese New Year card. As a gift. This year will the year of the Water Dragon. Meaning of the Chinese Dragon The symbol of the mythical Chinese dragon [...]
Personalized Desk Calendar Tutorial
Share January 2012 Here is the scrapbooked January page in my personalized CD Jewel Case Calendar. Like it? So easy, so fast, so fun. How-to: Calendar Page: Recycle a cereal box; cut to CD-case size. Glue on wrapping paper remnants. Glue on printed calendar month. Embellish with (very old) recycled foam flower. CD [...]
Recycle Holiday Cards into Tags
Share Yes, the holidays are really over now that the three wise men are arriving (the 6th). So now is the perfect time to get the ship back into order and clear received holiday cards and gift packaging. Rather than tossing them away, reuse recycle as next year’s gift tags. Simple and fast. Get [...]
DIY Animal Stencil Mugs
Share : this fun and easy way to spruce up plain white mugs and to personalize them with the kids (or your) favorite animals and designs. Stencil your way to the farm …. Country Living offers free stencils to download of cows, sheep and pigs.
New Year Umbria Jazz Festival
Share Happy New Year from Italy!!! We were partying here on the first day of the New Year. Umbria Jazz Festival is held every year around this time in the gorgeous Italian city of Orvieto. As this year, New Year’s day fell on a Sunday we enjoyed the happy opportunity to actually go see [...]
Party Shoes
Share : Gorgeous shoes spotted in my Beverly Hills window shopping trip earlier this month. Here is Rodeo Drive’s shoe fashion parade for Winter 2012. Fashion and glamor shoes. I felt like in a museum, walking by exhibits. While I love the cultural aspects of gorgeous shoes, high heels, fashion colors, innovative designs, display [...]
New Year Table Centerpiece
Share We all celebrate New Year’s Eve in our own merry way. This year, my hubby & I are not planning to give a party but to kind of quietly stay at home instead…, (although Italy is FULL OF SURPRISES and one can never be sure as to what kind of fun might actually happen…). [...]
Wall Design Stencil Cutting Machine
Share A few days ago a reader, Shannu, commented on my Inspiring Stencil Projects that he/she wants stencil cutting machine for wall design purpose. Features of stencil cutters is really good point to cover, so I thought to answer it here on the blog instead of in a personal email. Not all stencil cutting machines [...]
Letters and Flowers Paper Art
Share Promised I’d show you this artful paper quilling shop window in LA, California. Well, here it is. Pictures were taken of the Sephora shop, 3rd St promenade in Santa Monica. I hope it will inspire you to a paper art or quiling craft decoration project or so…. and who knows, if you keep on [...]
Free Christmas Gift Tags
Share : The Christmas countdown’s almost over. The house is probably already decked out, and last minute gifts bought just now. To wrap everything up, I have some free printable Christmas gift tags for you today and tomorrow. To make your gift giving special, and especially easy. From Dardik: cute tags which will [...]
Auguri!
Share That’s Italian for "Merry Christmas", "Congratulations" and more such happy wishes. It’s my wish for you in this XMAS season. With lots of delightfully happy & creative projects over the days to follow. On that, I’m sharing one such projects: Here’s a basket of wrapped little chocolates that just went out of the door. [...]
