DIY: Crochet Dishcloths

DIY: Lavender Body Scrub

DIY: Restoring Børge Mogensen Rocking Chair

The rocking chair in is original state from the seller.

DIY: Christmas Decorations - the 2014 edition

It has become somewhat of a tradition for me to make my own Christmas decorations – I make a few each year for my mother and for myself. I make them myself because I find it very calming and soothing to create something with my hands. Also, it is cheaper than buying them. And so I thought I would share…

What you will need:

• Metal wire (I used 1,5 mm wire, but 1,1 mm or 1,3 mm would be just as good).
• Glass beads in transparent and blue/black (I had mine in two bowls, as it was easier).
• Thread and needle (note: the needle should be able to get through the beads).
• Fabric in black or blue.  
• Jewellery metal wire.
• Sequins.
• String.
• Tools (side cutters and round-nose pliers/ flat-nose pliers).

Most things I already had, so I didn’t need to go out and purchase anything. But if you don’t have these materials, you can find them in a mix of supermarkets, DIY retailers and hobby shops. 

For metal wire Christmas decorations, you start by cutting an appropriate size of and shaping it with either your hands or pliers. I recommend pliers if your wire is 1,5 mm like mine because I struggled. I did a leaf and a heart. It won't be perfect, but that is the charm of homemade Christmas decorations! 

For fabric Christmas decorations, you start with getting your needle and thread ready. Now, you can decide whether you want to cut your fabric in a shape from the beginning or wait until after you have sewed on the sequins. When you start sewing, your needle and thread should go through the fabric, then sequin, bead, sequin again, and lastly fabric; this secures the sequin and bead to the fabric. Remember to tighten!

My finished wire-bead leaf decoration.

After you have shaped your decoration with the metal wire, you take the jewellery wire and cut a piece off. You wrap a bit of the jewellery wire around the metal wire to secure it. Then you put beads on the wire and then wrap it around the metal wire. My leaf decoration is tightly wrapped with beads, but you can do it loosely. Afterwards you attached a piece of string so you can actually hang it somewhere. 

My finished fabric-sequin-bead leaf decoration.

You continue with the sequins and beads by placing them close to each other and let them shape whatever you like. I went for a leaf again… surprise! On the back I sewed on longer beads that would form the general outline of a leaf, so it would be easier to guess for others and because I thought it looked nice. For my mother I made a Christmas tree, where I replaced some of the tiny beads with bigger beads to replicate Christmas baubles and as the Christmas star/angel/whatever you place on top of your Christmas tree, I attached a big bead to replicate that.

Do you make your own Christmas decorations?

Until next time,

Mia ♥ 

DIY: The 'What Does The Fox Say?' Make-Up Travel Bag

big edition and small edition

Some months ago, I came to realize I was in need of a separate travel make-up bag as I was searching through my toilet bag at my parents’ house, looking for my lipstick. Many girls have probably been in that situation, which is just bothersome.

Online shops didn’t offer any I found interesting or special, so I decided I could make it myself and began googling DIY make-up bags, which led to this Danish one: http://stjernefroe.blogspot.dk/2012/09/diy-makeuppung.html. While I know not everybody understands Danish, the tutorial is illustrated with so many pictures that the actually text isn’t needed. I didn’t read the text myself as I need to see it visually to understand the steps, however I can translate if somebody requests it.

The make-up bag has the right measurements in my opinion as my brushes can easily fit into it, which is why I adore it so much and why I wanted to share this DIY. Also I can easily spot this in my bag/suitcase due to the fabric selection.

What you need:

·         Two fabrics, unless you wanna make this completely mono (26x15 cm if you want to make the big one on my picture).

·         1 zipper (25 cm).

·         Thread.

·         A sewing machine.

Then there is simply to follow the steps in the link – again, if you want a translation (and Google fails at that), let me know and I will piece one together.

What is the last DIY you have made?

Until next time,

Mia ♥ 

DIY: Print & Quote Pictures

… I am not happy with the title of this blog post, but seeing as I can’t come up with anything better at the moment I suppose I have to survive with it. It doesn’t please me, however. Anyways, this blog post is a DIY to make something decorative for your apartment/house’s walls without spending a lot of money or a lot of effort into the actual making step.  

Excuse the bead-heart decoration!

This first idea is a picture with the Danish word ‘hygge’ and below the word the definition of it that I looked up in a dictionary. I realize not everybody reading this is going to be a Dane or able to read Danish, but you can make this with any kind of word you like and in whatever language you prefer. I got the inspiration from a store called Inspiration (yes, that is the name of it) where I spotted a picture having some text about hygge. As I obviously didn’t want to spend a fortune on buying that picture and honestly thought I could do it myself, I turned to my computer, word and a dictionary. I have absolutely no idea what the picture from Inspiration actually said as I was a distance away and weren’t wearing my glasses, so really, it was just inspiration. I printed it out on my university’s printer and put it in an IKEA frame… and I am pretty pleased with the result.

Now the second idea… The quote has been all over Tumblr quite the amount of times, and every time I find it really entertaining and amusing. Obviously, I couldn’t just leave it at that. I could like with the ‘hygge’ picture just made something in Word and printed it out, but I felt I needed to do something different so they wouldn’t look alike. From my book clutch DIY project I had a lot of old book pages lying around, so I decided to reuse some of them (trust me, you will make mistakes) and wrote on them. It took some tries and it still isn’t the most perfect one, but it has a lot of charm. Instead of a new frame or in the likes of the IKEA frame, I found one of the old frames I have and used it instead as it makes the overall look even more charming.

‘Hygge’ picture – what you need,

-       A typing program (e.g. Word).

-       A printer (I used one of the printers at my university).

-       Paper (I used A3).

-       A frame (I bought one from IKEA that had been reduced in price).

Step by step,

1.     Open your typing program.

2.     Type whatever word and definition.

3.     Save it on your computer (just to be certain and/or if you want to change in it later).

4.     Print it.

5.     Frame it.

‘Home is where your wi-fi connects automatically’ – what you need,

-       Old book pages (books can be purchased for no money at flea markets).

-       A black marker.

-       An old frame (I bought mine at the local thrift shop).

Step by step,

1.     Rip out a couple of pages from an old book.

2.     Select the page you want to use.

3.     Write on the page, though perhaps practice on a couple of pages before.

4.     Frame it.

Would this DIY be something you would want to try yourself?   

Until next time,

Mia ♥

DIY: The Sequin Hairband

 

the beginning of the project!

I absolutely love hairbands and wear them often to ‘spice’ up an everyday outfit! I think they are a great accessory to any coloured and styled hair you may have at the moment, and can help a perhaps dull outfit become more exciting for any occasion. There is no end to how great an accessory they can be!

Now, I purchased most of my hairbands some years back and then their style was spot on with whatever fashion that was rocked out. Fast forward to now and most, if not all, are really… yeah, outdated to say the least. Instead of throwing a perfectly good hairband out and purchasing a new one, I have altered a few of mine with little means and the results have always been many compliments, fascination and wonder. Apparently people do pay attention to hairbands!

The sequin hairband is my third DIY hairband project and my third favourite (I may, perhaps, at a later point show one of my other), where I had chosen I wanted something subtle, yet could stand out. Yeah, that didn’t even make a lot of sense in my head. You can obviously choose many different colours to do one in, but I opted for black/dark blue. I am really happy with the result, although I was surprised by the amount of time it took to finish it.

me wearing the completed hairband... sorry about the quality of the picture!

What you need to make this,

·         A hairband (one that is covered in some fabric).

·         Sequins… loads of sequins (buy them on sale).

·         Beads... same amount of beads as sequins (you can buy beads in most thrift shops).

·         Needle and thread.

·         Patience!

Step by step,

-       Get your needle and thread ready.

-       Sew into the hairband first to secure the thread, and don’t worry, you don’t be able to see the knots of the thread in the end.

-       The thread goes through the sequin, the bead and then through the same sequin again.

-       As you have tightened the sequin in place, you sew into the hairband again.

-       Repeat the above steps necessary to complete your hairband.

Note: You don’t have to COMPLETELY cover your hairband in sequins, as in, I did sequins until it reached the tip of my ear (I put on the hairband and measured). I did that due to the possibility of using the hairband for many different hair styles, but also… it can get rather itchy, I find, with sequins and beads behind your ear.

What do you think of this DIY? Could you image updating one of your hairbands?

Until next time,

Mia ♥

DIY: The Diary Calender

The few steps... and the end result.

A few years ago I spotted this this post and was instantly loved the idea. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I suddenly remembered the DIY idea and decided to make it as a birthday present for one of my best friend, although with a few differences in terms of practicality and personalised. My friend is the type who has almost everything and is a creative soul as well, thus a more sentimental present seemed rather suiting. This diary calendar is definitely that in my opinion.

What you need to make this,

·         approx. 122 pieces of paper (I made for 9 years – one line by).

·         A scissor to cut the paper.

·         A pen or stamp to make the dates on the papers.

·         12 pictures, cards or postcards (one for each month; I have illustrated with far less mainly because I didn’t want to show private pictures).

·         A box (I choose one that had a timeless design) you can bring with you.

·         Patience and time.

Measurements and calculations,

·         9 lines per day (for 9 years), 27 lines per page, 3 days per page, 365 days a year / 3 days per page aka approx. 122 pieces of paper (perhaps a little more in case you make mistakes).

·         A paper day is 15cmx8cm (lengthxheight).

·         A picture is 13cmx10cm (lengthxheight).

·         The box is 17cmx11cmx5cm (lengthxwidthxdepth).

Step by step,

1.     Measure and mark your papers (you can buy linear paper, print paper with lines, draw lines, etc.).

2.     Cut the days to its proper size with a scissor.

3.     Take a pen or a stamp and mark each day with a date (remember February 29^th!).

4.     Take 12 pictures, cards or postcards and place them as month dividers (I got 12 pictures developed, which doesn’t cost much nowadays).

5.     Place everything in the box.

6.     Wrap it up… and voila!

I shall wrap up the present in the best way I can and then hope my friend will like this present when I finally present it to her. At least I enjoyed making it and looking through old photos of us.

Do you think my friend will like this? And what is the latest DIY thing you have made?

Until next time,

Mia ♥