sometimes the only thing that makes sense...

...is a teepee.

That's correct. I was quite jealous of all the child teepee pictures floating around the blogosphere so I made my own. As a headboard. Stay tuned... I plan on adding some pretty sweet embellishments and features to this guy!

guest post: kaylyn from the weir house

While I'm en route to Dallas, I have one of my favorite bloggers here with you today to get you in the mood for Valentine's Day (PS: how great is her man for helping out with this craft?). This lifestyle-meets-crafty-meets-my new best friend-blogger is always making me smile - from inspirational posts to personal emails...  if you haven't visited Kaylyn's blog, you should probably do so. Right. Now.

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What's up, love birds. It's Kaylyn from The Weir House blog bringing you a tutorial on how to make a festive heart pinata just in time for Valentine's Day. How you choose to use it - smashing it with a bat, stuffing it with candy hearts or hanging it over your dinner table for a Valentines party - is totally up to you. The good thing about this DIY is that it doesn't take much to get it started. The only thing you need to get is metallic foil, patience and a tall glass of wine (it's required).

1. Using any cardboard box around the house, remove the flaps on the top and bottom of the box. KEEP THESE! You will use them later.
2. Cut the box open
3. Now cut the walls into individual sections.

4. Draw a heart on one of the sections and cut it out (we free-handed ours).
5. Using the heart you just cut, trace it on another section of cardboard. After it has been traced, cut it out. You should now have 2 hearts. These will be the front and back of your heart pinata.

6. Remember the flaps we told you to keep? You will need to measure the width of your flaps and divide them in half (we divided our flaps at 4 3/4 inches because our flaps were 9 1/2 inches wide). Once measured, cut your flap down the middle giving you two pieces.
7. Roll your flap so that it will become more flexible. These flaps will become the walls of your pinata.

8. Form the walls of the pinata by curving the flaps around the edge of the heart (you can't mess this up). Tape the flaps to the heart by using masking tape. This doesn't have to be pretty! You can tape it anywhere you want to hold it in place. It will be covered by foil later.
9. Once you have taped all of the flaps around the perimeter of the heart, grab your second cut out heart.

10. Tape your second heart onto it, making the second heart the top layer. Again, this doesn't have to be pretty. Just tape it! ...HOORAY! You now have a pinata.
11. With the foil that you have (we ordered ours from dickblick.com) cut strips of it and fringe the strips.

12. Start from the bottom of the heart and foil UP. This hides the tape. Finish the sides the same way. THE KEY: FOIL UPWARDS! There you have it, you've officially been shot with Cupid's arrow. Enjoy your glimmery heart and feel free to send us pics of your finished product!

DIY: life is but a dream (catcher)

Growing up, I always had a dreamcatcher on my bed post to ensure that my dreams stayed light and happy. Somewhere between my family moving in high school and going off to college, though, my childhood dreamcatcher got lost. It wasn't until I saw this tutorial that I considered making one myself. All in all it was an inexpensive and easy craft... plus I channeled Free People when I was shopping for my supplies. 

Take your hoop and wrap the yarn of your choice tightly around it until it's completely covered. Then, take your doily and tie to all ends of the doily to the hoop. Use beads, feathers, lace and any other trinkets and tie them to pieces of leather and hang them from the hoop. Tie it to your bed and prepare for the sweetest dreams.

Speaking of DIYs, I'll definitely be making these awesome gloves by Katherine over at Of Corgis & Cocktails. How cute are they? I especially love the pair with the heart. They look like something out of a Madewell catalog; so adorable and unique!

branching out: home decor edition

Lately, my sista from another mista, Lori and I have been in room decorating-mode. She just moved into a new place and is working on making it her own and I've been wanting to mature my room a bit... while still keeping a good amount of my notorious eclectic clutter. Here's how we each utilized some awesome branches found in the park near our neighborhood in different ways, showcasing our very different personalities:

My branch serves as a headboard of sorts... I'm working on making my room/bed

a little more romantic and relaxing if you can't tell...

...and Lori's is a lamp! Also, how cute is her pooch?

There's something about incorporating a natural element into your decor... ya just can't beat it! Also, do the pillows look familiar? Check out the tutorial here.

In other news, after trying and trying to master homemade marquee letters, I finally gave up and out of no where found a nice little [random] collection of letters spelling out one of my favorite words: nom. Obviously.

coachella: the crafts

Coachella. Arguably one of the best music festivals of our generation. People from all over the world [literally] flock to Indio, California [read: the blistering hot desert] in April to experience one of the best weekends...ever. From Paul McCartney to Snoop Dogg... Coachella has had musical guests of every kind. My friends and I went back in 2010, camped [ugh], saw some of our favorite artists and had a damn good time. This year, similar to our last Coachella weekend, we sweated and sweated and sweated [did I mention it's usually well over 105 degrees?]. We raced from tent to tent to see our favorite musicians in action. We mingled with the Coachella folk [from hipsters to bros and everything in between]. And we discovered... The Coachella Art Studio aka... Craft-Chella... aka... my heaven. Once discovered, I spent several hours in this tent taking full advantage of the free [ish] craft supplies. Needless to say, this tent definitely rivaled the actual music... almost.

here are some of my creations: buttons and a zine*

*I'm still not entirely sure what a zine is... but I'm pretty proud of mine. If you want to read the whole thing [warning: some parts are PG-13] email me and I'll send ya a copy!

{Don't worry. This is just the beginning. More Coachella posts to follow!}

craft club: diy string heart

Craft Club is seriously something Lori and I look forward to each week. If i had it my way, Craft Club would be a daily event, but that's not fiscally responsible plus who has time for that. This past week we made a wall hanging with a slab of wood, nails and embroidery string. We found the idea {here}.

finished product

{let me know if you've completed any cool projects lately!}

a brief recap of the weekend

My weekend started out not so good, due to an unfortunate car accident [that I caused. boo boo boo] which has left me carless and with a sore neck, but somehow, maybe due to the art of positive thinking, it definitely didn't end so terribly. I spent friday evening feeding myself, first with pizza from urbn, le duh, and then with cupcakes and tiramisu from Heaven Sent Desserts.

almost too pretty to eat... but clearly I ate it.

"when am i gonna need to cook tiramisu? am i gonna be a chef? NO!"

after the feast, i took a walk around my little 'hood... exploring all of the awesome galleries 

[this was one of my faves] 

 Today, despite my sore neck, was finally the hot chocolate 15k 

that I've been training for for months (9.3 miles)

this was clearly my motivation: chocolate fondue and goodies at the finish line.

amanda and i post race, pre demise

my first bib. pretty proud of myself!

backtracking a little bit, last weekend, lori and i created a craft club. which consists of me and 

her for right now. cuckoo clocks were our first project.

this weekend, we stenciled pillows. i used a quote from the best movie ever, garden state... 

the scene where sam tap dances is my absolute favorite [and the song that plays is pretty great too]

{hope everyone had a lovely weekend!}

be mine valentine

Many consider Valentine's Day a scam. Overrated. A hallmark holiday. The list goes on. But even as a serial single lady, I have always liked this day. It's a fun opportunity to go to dinner with your friends... and who DOESN'T love homemade valentines and chocolate. My good friend and blog idol, Sam, has been doing diy valentines for several posts now and it inspired me to get crafty this past weekend. This is what I came up with:

orange crush bottles with homemade tags that display various messages such as "i'd be crushed at work without you" or "i gotta crush on you" and so on...

in honor of new year's resolution #1, i'm supporting local artists like my friend, lori, and her adorable creatures. they made fabulous valentine's day presents! visit her etsy store [here]

& a serious amount of cookies and candy, duh

Plus, one of my best friends in the entire world, AJ, came into town today for work And I think, even if I was madly and deeply in love, that I would much rather spend this day with her and my other incredible friends.

So let it be said. Even as probably the most hopeless of hopeless romantics, this day doesn't have to be a disaster. It doesn't need to be a day to reflect on lost loves or failed relationships. Spend it with your friends, the ones that will be there for you as guys come and go... cherish the people who cherish you in return... let yourself be hopeful [instead of hopeless] even if only for one day and be excited for what may come in the future.

{and, of course, enjoy all of the treats!}