Cabbage Dye:

1 head of red cabbage, chopped
5 cups water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 pinch baking soda

In a large stainless steel pot, bring all the ingredients to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 30 min. Strain out the cabbage, and separate from the liquid dye. You can pour the dye into glasses and soak your eggs overnight.

We chose to save the strained cabbage and use it to tie dye some of our eggs. We created a nest of sorts and buried our eggs in the left over leaves. Let them sit over night, and you’re left with white and blue tie eggs!

One of my favorite things to do on weeks is explore our beaches and hunt for treasures with my daughter. Sometimes it’s for beautiful gifts from the sea, and sometimes we have a craft in mind. This time we were on a mission to collect white coral and rocks so we could put some old nail polish to good use!

We piled all our brightly patterned creations into a milk glass bowl, and it makes the perfect centerpiece!

We had so much fun painting away, it was just what the doctor ordered on a gloomy day!

Still wondering what to get give your child’s teacher for Christmas this year? Why not brighten up the snowy season with a happy sunflower?

Plus, a painted pot adds a sweet personal touch : )

Good Morning! The last couple weeks we’ve had fun practicing storytelling with Sydney, all thanks to Elmer’s Early Learners Academy. As soon as our fun box filled with supplies arrived, Syd couldn’t wait to open it up and get crafting!

We used all different kinds of paper, foam, paint, and craft sticks from both the Elmer’s craft box, and our own craft drawers, to create our scenery and people.

We talked about shapes as we cut and glued to create fun backdrop…

….. and once it was all put together, we let our imaginations takeover!

Now, we can’t wait to come up with new scenes and all new adventures!

Today’s post is all about sea glass and driftwood.

I’ve had a giant bag of beach glass that I’ve collected over the years, and all it’s done is just sit and accumulate dust. I’m so happy that I finally put some of it to good use! The supplies for this project are simple: driftwood/stick, scissors, beach glass, string or wire.

You can use either string or wire to attach your beach glass to one another, and to the driftwood. I opted for string since it won’t rust in the salty air. The next step requires patience and time and tying a series of knots. Tie your first knot at the point where you want to insert a piece of glass. Slip the glass in place, and secure with another knot. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

You can get creative with different shapes, colors, and incorporating shells.
And it’s ready to hang….

indoors or out!

It’s already been a month since Sydney’s birthday, and I still can’t believe she’s four years old. My oh my, where does the time go?

Being busy back at work, I wasn’t able to be as hands on and crafty as I would have liked, but nonetheless, it was a fantastic party! And, the fact that we threw it at a super adorable beach house set the tone for a great afternoon. Here are a few pics to give you a feel of how adorable it was, including a super cute bathroom that I just can’t get enough of:

love, love this artwork idea:

… and these concrete succulent planters are adorable!

I was most worried about keeping the kiddies occupied, so we set up a pool, had a piñata, opted for a cupcake decorating session vs a traditional cake, filled beach pails with goodies, and finished off the evening with some crab hunting!

We were so thankful to have such great family and friends to help us celebrate!

p.s. no crabs were harmed, we set them free the very next morning…

We’ve been hard at work getting the house in order, and it’s really starting to feel like home. It’s been a slow start, but we’ve managed to get some major cleaning and painting done thus far. I know I’ve said it before, but man it’s amazing what a coat of paint can do!

When it came time to select paint colors, it was a battle of the sexes. I have been on this huge white kick lately, the hubby wanted shades of gray, and Sydney of course rallied for orange. Well I mostly won, with a compromise, and we settled on all white walls and gray in the bedroom. These few images below helped me with my win. I’m quite happy.

I don’t know what it is about white that has tickled my fancy lately. I suppose it’s the crispness the color offers to a room, combined with the opportunity to bring in a wide range of fun colors through furniture and accessories.

My husbands biggest qualm was that the house was already white, and it wouldn’t be a big enough change. But there are endless shades of white, and picking the right one can be just as tricky as finding the right shade of gray. After looking at and taping up what felt like hundreds of white paint swatches, we finally agreed on my first choice. Farrow and Ball’s All White. You pretty much can’t go wrong with their colors!

Here are a couple progress photos….

Finished photos coming soon!

LINKS in this post:
http://thedesignfiles.net/2013/05/melbourne-home-anna-charlesworth-peter-stephens-and-family/
http://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/bris-house-makeover/

May is nearly here, and so it’s time to get some new plants and flowers in our life! Sydney and I did a little indoor gardening this weekend, and we used a couple containers I spotted at Target. LOVE them and just couldn’t resist sharing!

I let Syd pick out the flowers and the candle (also from Target) and she did well.

Both the gold vase….

and the white porcelain urchin are from Target. This urchin one is actually a votive candle holder, but I prefer it holding pretty flowers  : )

What touches of Spring have you added to your home?

Happy Earth Day! In honor of today’s theme, I have created a roundup of my favorite succulent posts. Enjoy!

Planting Succulents In Tea Cups

Waterstone Succulents via Etsy

Checkout the newest tutorial I did for Shutterstock! I created a custom wall collage in my house by simply using printed illustrations. I even did a gel medium transfer to get some of the images onto canvas. Click here for the full instructions!

These suncatchers are easy to create, and Sydney had lots of fun making them! All we used was wax paper, a marker, white paper, school glue, and a few shades of blue tissue paper. Sketch your cloud and raindrops onto white paper and cut them out. Then cut up your blue tissue paper into small squares.

Now, trace your raindrops onto wax paper and cover with glue. Allow your little ones to go crazy gluing the tissue into each raindrop shape. Then, coat with a thin layer of glue to make sure all tissue is glued down and secure. Allow to dry.

Cut out your blue raindrops, and they’re ready to hang and admire on your windows!

Now, if only these april showers would bring some pretty May flowers…

Good morning! I hope everyone is set and ready for a great weekend!  I am really excited to share a DIY feature I did for Delighted Magazine! Sydney and I had so much fun with it.

You can check out the full tutorial in the online publication by clicking here.

We finally painted our eggs! Instead of messing with natural dye again, or picking up the boxed kind, I opted to find something around the house to reuse instead. I can never seem to use my nail polish fast enough, and it always ends up goopy. So using some of my bright colors from last year worked perfect! I started by blowing out the eggs, and of course making some omelets.

Use whatever technique works best, I went with the ol’ pin and aspirator method. A straw can also be very helpful if you don’t have the aspirator.

Then, once the eggs were washed and dry, a little white spackling paste makes the holes vanish. I also created some little egg stands by cutting up all the sections in the egg carton, flipping them upside down, and adding pins to carefully cradle and hold the eggs in place.

Then I put some q-tips into the polish jars, and let Syd go to town painting. She opted for a drippy paint look.

I went for my go-to black, white and gold palette, using sharpies & metallic nail polish.

We cut strips of paper bags to create little nests for our pretty eggs. Here are Syd’s colorful creations:

For the last couple weeks Sydney has been learning about plants and growth, and sprouting some beans. And now we’ve added the plants to our easter egg centerpiece.

We used egg shells as planters.

Added with a little soil….

And now Syd’s sprouts have their new homes.

These yarn wrapped candles are the perfect way to add a bright & cheery touch of spring to your table!

And they couldn’t be any easier to make. You just need candles (I picked up mine at Target for under two bucks a piece), colorful yarn, and some glue.

Start by glueing one end of your yarn to the candle, then get to wrapping. Make sure you wrap tightly, and add a dot of glue every so often. If you’re using hot glue like I did, be sure  to just use a little dot. If the glue builds up it creates bumps under your yarn.

Switch up the colors to make different designs.

Then they’re ready to display! As always use caution when working with hot glue, and make sure you keep the yarn far enough away from the tops of your candles!

I am so excited to share another fun craft project I made for Shutterstock! Head over to their blog to check out the full tutorial. I used Photoshop for this one, but if you don’t have the program you can simply print out your patterns & use stencils to cutout your letters.
(if you’re liking the neon animal mobile, you can find that tutorial here)

Good Morning! I have been so busy working with a few different clients, helping them to refresh and update their homes. But, yesterday I finally found some time to break out my glue gun again! I made this cute little shamrock plant to add a festive touch to our window sill. All I used was green & white felt, wire, scissors, and glue.

Cut out some hearts. Use glue to give them a little dimension. Then, glue the heart shaped clover leaves to your wire. I also made larger clovers by turning my hearts upside-down. Get creative with it.

Then stick them all into  a cute little cup or pot with some foam in the bottom. And done! A super quick afternoon craft!

I posted awhile back that we finally got around to taking down the crib in Sydney’s room. Well, we salvaged as many pieces as possible, and that included the drawers. With just a few bucks, and five min, I adapted those drawers to store toys under Syd’s big girl bed!

All I needed was a hammer, and 8 furniture glides (found at the hardware store). You can also use casters, but her bed was too low for those.

Turn the drawers over, and hammer a glide into each corner. Flip over, and…..

…that’s it! You can do this with almost any drawers. I’m thinking of using some cool vintage ones on casters under our bed!

I finally got around to using the great pieces of driftwood we collected during our little Kauai getaway. I made candle holders!

If you already have a drill, then these are super easy to make. You just need your driftwood, and a drill bit that can make 1 1/2″ holes. I picked one up for about $8.

First, I used my tea candles to  figure out exactly where I wanted them to sit on the driftwood. Then I drilled away. Make sure to used extreme caution when handling a drill, work on a safe surface, and wear protective eyewear. I also recommend holding your wood in place with some sort of clamp.

Now clean them up with a vacuum, drop in your candles, and…

… light!

Not only do my driftwood candle holders make the perfect addition to our coastal navy bedroom, they’re also a great keepsake from our trip!