gatsby girls

Well, if it's quiet on the blog front, it's a good bet that it is busy-busy on the actual doing-of-projects front. Now if only I could slow down long enough to take pictures of everything I'm working on.

Meanwhile, my sisters (minus one who's waaaay far away in sunny Pasadena) came over to watch The Great Gatsby with me. I decided we should dress up, and we had some fun with it.

It's hard to express how awful we look in these pictures. We really looked much cooler in real life. I did up Faith's hair in a fabulous head scarf which turned out to be the perfect choice as every other girl wore one in the movie. And my hair was twisted back into a low, wide bun - sort of like this - with a cool black and jeweled headband. Plus, I had the perfect shoes. Again, horrible angle in our photo. We really just need to invest in a full time fashion photographer to follow us around and capture the genius in each outfit the way no husband can (love you, sweetie).

These are no longer available, but they're Jellypop, and I got them from good old DSW. Mine have a gray stripe and black grossgrain ribbons. Don't they kind of look like tap shoes?

Speaking of tap, the music from the movie might have been my favorite part (okay, second favorite. hello, the clothes?), and my feet were tapping all over during this little number.

Thanks, sissies for making it a fun day!

tshirt necklaces

Here are some pretties I've been making lately!

They're made out of up-cycled t-shirts, and I'm selling them for $8.00. 

When I started this post I had a whole rainbow of them, but they all sold!

Here's one in action. I usually wear mine doubled over.

You can also wear them long, knotted, or with a funky brooch around one side. I'll be making another batch soon. Leave a comment if you're interested, and I'll hook you up!

you make me feel like a natural woman

Spending the afternoon with some lovely ladies today.

My grandma and my mom

My mom and me

 Me and my baby girl

So glad we live close by to these amazing woman. We're all oldest daughters, and, man, can we get stuff done. Just wait till Jaina's old enough to really join the gang. We're gonna be a force to be reckoned with!

I love you, Jaina Carol, and I'm so happy to be your Mama. You're pretty cool. 

ribbon bunting sneak peek

Here's another little peek at Jaina's birthday preparations. It's still over a month away, but I've been having fun doing the handmade projects for it over the past few weeks. Hopefully that'll keep me sane once the time comes.

Ribbon buntings are totally trending right now. I realize it doesn't look like much against the wall, there, but it's actually over ten feet long at this point.

I've had my vintage ric-rac,

and yarn,

 and ribbon all cut and laid out.

 I'm curious, do any other crafters end up using their ironing boards as desks?

I find it keeps the little one out of everything. That is until she's strong enough to knock

over the board. (Don't worry, I don't leave the actual iron, or scissors, on it during the day.)

 As always, I took the strategically-planned-to-look-as-random-as-possible-approach. ; )

It's been a fun project these past few nights. And the best part: all of the supplies were things I already had around the house. Free party decor, yay!

Ribbon bunting like this is a great way to use up all of the half-spools of ribbon and teeny balls of yarn that just won't be that useful otherwise. I have plenty of it left, so I hope to make a lot more of these.We're gonna make that park pavilion look tassel-tastic!

P.S. For those of you who've followed KDL for a while, you might remember a post I did last December with a lot of these colors and textures. BIG clue to Jaina's party theme. ; ) No link help. See if you can find it!

jaina's thought for the day

peekaboo

Someone's turning one year old soon. And while I'm not ready to share all of the party details yet, I couldn't help but share just a peek of the coolest birthday present ever.

Isn't she sweet!?! I got the pattern from Interweave Store.

I love parties, and I haven't been able to throw a real one since our wedding. Zach's not super into it for his birthdays, and you can't really throw a theme party for yourself (especially when your birthday is Christmas Eve.) I'm just realizing how much fun I'll get to have throwing special parties for Jaina and future kiddos. Major mom perk!

the icing on the lamp

Over a year ago I shared one of my most labor-intensive projects. I took one of those cheapy college lamps with the bowl on top and wrap-wrap-wrapped it in jute (or hemp, maybe?) string. You can read about it here.

 Just say no to bowl lamps.

It took forever, and I was really happy with what it did for the body of the lamp. But in the end I was stuck with a lovingly hand-wrapped lamp.... with a yucky plastic bowl on top.

Well, that. has. been. rectified.

 Laaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Ka-blaam!!!!

Booyah!!!

Hello!!!!

I found this beautiful Ikat shade online at Target a while ago. Check out how much it looks like this shade I've been oogling on Etsy for forever. (The Etsy shade is no longer available, but it was by a seller named StudioJOTA. I'm pretty sure it was around $70!)

 Crazy, right?

Before I could order it, the site said it was no longer available online, only in stores. I went to go get it, and it wasn't there. So bummed! I would check the lamp section every time we were in Target, and they only had the tan version. (It was pretty, but not with our tan walls.)

Then, one time I cruised through the rest of the home section, and there it was with some stools and picture frames! Yippee! Now all my hard work on that lamp is worth it. It looks pretty snazzy. Now we just need some equally snazzy artwork for above the TV.

At home, snug in the corner. We need as much light as we can get in this cave of a living room!

Featured in Thrifty Decor Chick's Little Thing's Link-Up.