Can I help it if I like feminine and cute, however NOT “girly” tattoos?

Can I help it if I adore bright colors?

Can I help it that I am over the moon about DIY inspired tattoos?

*Except not actually DIY because I’m sure that wouldn’t turn out as good.

Can I help it that I have said I won’t get anymore tattoos because I don’t want to be 40 and covered from head to toe with faded, outdated designs that don’t mean anything to me anymore - but that today I am thoroughly craving some ink?

(We Heart It, The Dainty Squid, The Lone Knitta, A Beautiful Mess)

Hey-oh!  We have some sunny yellow inspiration AND a giveaway for you today.  First, the inspiration – a year ago MayDae hosted a formal tea party for a few of our family members and friends.  It was a lovely morning/afternoon of tea, good food made from scratch, handmade decorations, harmless games, and lots of laughter:

Earl Grey tea, Peach tea, and Indian Spice Chai were all served at the table.  I love this vintage metal tea pot, but the handle was scalding hot!

All of our decorations were vintage and handmade.  We were going for a very colorful and bright look.

The table was set up under a tent and we used lots of paper decorations, including these simple cut outs that we sewed together.  We used old magazine pages which added a lot of color, and we love how they turned out.

Our food table.  Lemonade, vintage trays, fresh flowers, cake stands, Anthropologie latte bowls, and pretty food labels on skewers were used.

I love the rustic feel of these bacon and onion tartlets.

Coffee cake, lemon cake, blackberry napoleons, truffles.

Egg salad sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, croissants.

Scones with Devonshire cream, raspberry preserves, and orange marmalade.  Yummm, we’re feeling very hungry all of a sudden…

And now, for the giveaway details:

MayDae is giving away this ultra cute Melmac cup and saucer, and this vintage hand embroidered sign that says:  You Are My Sunshine.  Aren’t they adorable?  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post (one comment per person).  We will pick one winner at random on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. MST.  Any comments left after 5:00 p.m. will not be eligible.  Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.  Happy commenting!

Tomorrow  is the big day.  May* and I are headed off to help out at a big music festival near our home and we are so excited for the day to finally be upon us!  We have been working diligently this week to get things done on the festival grounds – but before the madness began, I made sure I had enough time to make myself something I have been dreaming of using at the festival for months.  Of course I procrastinated a little and only made it last week, but it turned out wonderfully and I couldn’t be more happy with it!  Because I will be working all day at the festival, I needed something to carry everything I need in it – phone, aspirin, sun block, chapstick, etc. – without being weighed down by my super wonderful but big, bulky purse.  If you have been reading our blog for even a short time, you probably know that I am completely in love with “non” fanny packs, or “hip bags” so that is what I decided to make.

A few months back when I was looking around on Etsy.com, I stumbled across a seller named Carrot Cake and I FELL IN LOVE with all of her stuff.  I have a big thing for bows in addition to hip bags and she has created something she calls a “Fancy Pack”.  It is brilliant.  The sides of the bow are actually pockets so you can be super cute while being efficient with your storage space because you wear it around your waist.

I decided to try my hand at making one and I thought I would share a tutorial in case anyone else wants to try it.  It definitely would have been easier for me to just buy one from Carrot Cake and I’m sure it’s finished more professionally but mine will work great for tomorrow and I am so excited to use it!  If you are a little frightened of making one yourself, I would definitely check out her site – she has so many great things!

Materials:

1. Vinyl – I bought a yard from Walmart and it’s actually more like pleather(you won’t use a whole  yard)

2. An old messenger bag with webbing strap

3. Durable thread(I used upholstery thread)

4. Sewing machine and large needle in your machine to go through multiple layers of vinyl

5. Sticky back velcro

6. Scissors, pins, any other sewing supplies

Step 1: Detach the strap from your bag and cut 4 8″x16″ rectangles of your vinyl material

Step 2: Cut a piece of the canvas from your messenger bag small enough to fit inside the vinyl pieces.  Place your vinyl right sides together, pin and sew around 3 sides, leaving one of the smaller sides open(repeat with other 2 pieces of vinyl)

Step 3: I decided to put my canvas inside the “pocket” after I sewed the edge.  Put the canvas in the middle(this will make it more durable and able to hold it’s shape better).  Place the two double-sided pieces of vinyl together with one opening on the right and the other opening on the left, pin.

Step 4: Sew 3 sides together leaving one of the longer sides open to create a “pocket”

Step 5: Cut a 4″x6″ piece of vinyl and fold it in half long ways with right sides facing.  Sew the long open side closed and turn right side out.  Fold it in half again with short ends together and sew them closed to create a loop, turn the loop right side out with the seams on the inside.

Step 6: Accordion fold your large vinyl pocket how you want your bow to look and slide the loop on and over to the middle, now you have your bow!

Step 7: Thread your strap through the back of the loop and sew the strap to each edge of the bow(obviously not sewing through the whole pocket but just one side) so that the weight distributes evenly when you put things in it

Step 8: Use your sticky back velcro on the tops of the pockets so your goodies don’t fall out while you wear this super cool belt/hip bag around

And you’re done!  And it even has an adjustable strap  so you can wear it low on your hips or high around your waist.  Who says fanny packs have to be ugly?!

Even if you plan to try this project out yourself, go visit Carrot Cake’s shop – she even has suspenders and hair accessories with bows!  I definitely plan to purchase something from her soon!  And if you DO attempt this project, send me some pictures, I would love to see how it turns out and any improvements you might make!

Last weekend I took a much needed break and went thrifting for almost 3 hours by myself.  I found some cute stuff – wanna see 2 of them?

This vintage toy bin is made to look like a circus wagon of some sort.  Definitely hand made (which I adore), and so unique.  It immediately made me think of this.

When I brought it home, my thought was to have it hold stuffed animals in my kid’s bedroom (because we all know that stuffed animals are huge, never get played with, and just take up an inordinate amount of space), but, I quickly found out that little circus wagon here will never be sturdy enough for a bedroom that houses a 7, almost 5, and 3 year old.  I can imagine the first day – packed to the brim with toys, books, and blankets, and my 3 year old riding on top for approximately 1 minute until the handle comes loose, the wheels roll off, and the sides drop to the floor.  It would have made me cry.  Alas, circus wagon will happily adorn my “Make” space and hold my fabric; looking lovely whilst doing so.

My favorite part?  The casters.  I would love if everything in my house could be on vintage casters.  Actually, I read an article once that featured a man who lived in a big industrial warehouse with concrete floors, and all of his furniture was on casters.  He was able to move everything around whenever he wanted.  So cool.  I don’t remember anything else about where I read it, so if you know what I’m talking about – send a link!  My second favorite part?  The $3 price tag.  Such a good deal!

I also happened upon this bag of vintage wooden hangers (only $.25 each!), and fell instantly in love.  No, I won’t be using them for my pants, but maybe for something like this?  Sneak peek to give you an idea:

Second hand shopping and cheap unique finds – double yay.  What is your favorite purchase from a  thrift store or flea market?

*Update:  The contest is now closed.  The last counting comment is made by Amber Robbins.  Check back tomorrow morning 5.10.10 for the winners to be announced!

We love cake stands.  They can be used for a long list of goodness, like displaying delicious food, holding flowers, ceramic birds, jewelry, or your teeny tiny dog.   Cake stands are delightful but can be pricey, so we are thrilled that making our own stands is a piece of cake!

Scroll down to read our tutorial on how you can use your old plates and candle holders to put together a DIY cake stand.  *Also, read through to the end of the post for an exciting announcement and our first-ever giveaway!

Materials:

1. Plates(whatever size you want – we used salad size)

2. Candle holders or other “stands”(the dollar store has glass ice cream glasses that would be perfect)

3. Sandpaper or liquid deglosser

4. Paintbrushes and primer

5. Acrylic or latex paint

6. Epoxy

1. Collect your ugly plates and candle holders(if you want to use cute plates and holders, skip steps 2-4) and clean them off

2. Rough up all pieces with sandpaper or use liquid deglosser to get some of the ceramic gloss off so the paint will stick(DON’T SAND TOO MUCH)

3. Use primer to coat each piece and let it dry completely

4. Paint each piece with your acrylic or latex paint until it has a smooth finish and let it dry completely

5. Place a small line of Epoxy (follow directions on bottle for mixing) around the edge of your candle holder and gently place in the center of the plate underside(we put the normal “bottom” of the candle holder against the plate because of its flatness)

6. Take your “smart” books (the heavier the better) and place on top of the candle holder for 24 hours to let it set

And ENJOY!

*Note – without using ceramic paint and heat drying it in the oven, these stands are not food safe, hence the paper doilies.  They also require gentle care so the paint doesn’t chip, so get those dish gloves out and give them a light hand washing when they need it.

See how easy that was?  And now for the exciting annoucement:  Maydae is launching our Etsy.com shop next week, and in honor of that we want to give away our DIY cake stands to two of our readers!  To enter, leave a comment on THIS post between now and Sunday night (5.9.10 at 5:00 pm MST).  USA residents only.  We will use a random selector to choose two readers who will each receive one of these cute-and-made-with-love-from-MayDae cake stands, and announce the winners on Monday.  One entry per person, and don’t forget to post this giveaway on FaceBook and Twitter as well!

Your comment can be about anything you want, but if you need a prompt, tell us what you would put on these cake stands if you were to win one.  Happy commenting!

This week, I have been inspired by paper flowers.  The team of MayDae has been working with our mom and sisters on a baby shower for a friend, and we have been making lots and lots of paper creations.  The time and effort that goes into each paper flower means so much more than just going to a store to buy a $5 bouquet that will only last about 2.5 days.  Paper flowers are cheap, easy to make, and will last as long as you want them to.  Hooray for recycling and individuality!  Enjoy this little tutorial list of my favorite paper flowers.

Learn how to make these amazing tissue paper flowers.

Learn how to make these gorgeous paper flowers.

Learn how to make these newspaper flowers.

Learn how to make this Japanese kusudama.

Learn how to make these easy tissue paper flowers.

Learn how to make the famous Martha Stewart tissue paper poms.

Learn how to make this red rose paper flower.

Let us know if you try any of them out!

Wikipedia describes a cable tie as the following:

A cable tie (also colloquially known as zip tie, zap strap, zip strip, wire tie, tie wrap, quick draw, rat belt, or mouse belt) is a type of fastener, especially for binding several electronic cables or wires together and to organize cables and wires.

Today’s post has everything to do with cable ties, but absolutely nothing to do with fastening cables, binding wires, or organizing anything.

Art exhibit using cable ties, exercise balls, cotton batting, and halogen lights.

hmmmmm.  Believe it or not, the strangest part about this to me is the mask…

These plastic necklaces by Marc Jacobs and Maripol are not made from cable ties, however they inspired me to make my own DIY look using cable ties:

To make this necklace, I used 2 feet of black coated chain from Home Depot ($.54 a foot), and about 25 green, plastic, mini cable ties from the Dollar Tree ($1.00 for 100).  This necklace was quick, simple, and cheap to make, and I love the spiky fringe effect.

(necklace by Clases De Joyeria, sculpture by R Justin Stewart, cocoon exhibit via Apartment Therapy , black ‘melted’ chair by Tom Price, dress via Gizmodo, basket via 1 Design per Day, necklace by Meylenstein)

This past Christmas, I decided to make it my goal to make at least one gift for every person in my family.  That is usually my goal every year, but this year I wanted to find time to make it a reality.  My sister, Tredessa, had asked for a cool hanging lamp for her  bedroom so when I stumbled across this DIY lamp on Design Sponge, I was ecstatic.  If you have never visited the Design Sponge website, you are missing out and you should head over there right AFTER reading my post:)

I bet you are wondering what these delicious lamps are made out of.  Well, I will tell you.  The base is a pendant lamp from Ikea which I had my wonderful friend, Mia, purchase for me in another state because we don’t have one here.  We will soon though!!  It is covered with….wait for it…..felt!  Working with felt is a lot more fun then I thought it would be and it can be shaped into pretty much anything you want.

I decided that I wanted to make the petal lampshade in white and this was the result:

Go here for the tutorial.  One tip that I will give from my experience making this lamp is NOT to use hot glue with the white felt.  You can actually buy felt glue and I would suggest using that if you use white felt for your projects.  It definitely dries a lot slower than hot glue but I unfortunately found out after I finished my lamp that hot glue turns white felt yellow.  As much as I love yellow, it’s not a good yellow and it only turned certain sections of the lamp that color.  Thankfully you can’t really tell when the lamp is on but I won’t make that mistake again in the future!  This lamp is stylish and inventive and it’s stinkin felt people…felt!

(Sculptural pendant lamps from Design Sponge)

I know you have been on the edge of your seats waiting to see the rest of the decor, so alas…here it is.  As you probably noticed in some of the pictures, our centerpieces were made of wire.  We knew that we wanted to use wire because it gives great structure without weighing everything down.  It also transfers the Rodarte style that we love into decor elements.  In addition to the tissue paper poms from Anthropologie, another inspiration that came from the brilliant store was using chicken wire as they did in their honey displays last year.

We wanted to start with a stable structure to add to so the centerpieces would be easy to carry in and set on the tables without any type of assembly required.  Small 32″ high tomato cages turned out to be our starting point.  I cut off the tops to make them a little shorter so people would be able to see over them and attached small pieces of chicken wire to one side.  Once the chicken wire was in place, I covered the remaining empty space with 14 gauge baling wire in a haphazard design.  Next the centerpieces were wrapped with embroidery floss and the entire wire sculpture was spray painted white.  We added 3 tissue paper and dress pattern poms to each one and our textured yet simple centerpieces were finished.

We also finger knit 2500 feet of cotton twine(with the help of our sister, Tredessa) to use between the mason jars on the table to add more texture.  MayDae are huge fans of finger knitting and we take any and every opportunity to use it.  It is especially nice to do while watching movies(which we did) because it goes fast and you don’t have to watch what you are doing after awhile.

We made a larger version of the centerpieces to put on the stage.

(photo by Lilac Photography)

For the buffet table, I used a 48″ high tomato cage and wrapped chicken wire around the entire thing to create a cylinder.  I then attached 90+ tissue paper and dress pattern poms to the chicken wire, cutting up and scraping my arms in the process(pain is beauty, right?).  Lights were placed inside to create the glowing effect.

On the opposite side of the entrance from the fabulous drapes, we had around 15 tree stumps of varying widths and heights where we placed mason jars of candles(Thanks Dave for cutting those for us!).  The result was a warm and welcoming glow to bring people in and help create the mood from the second they stepped through the doors.

(photo by Lilac Photography)

And that is it my friends.  These are the things MayDae spent many hours working on over the last few weeks.  We absolutely love how everything turned out and are excited to now focus our efforts on getting our Etsy.com shop up and running!

The team of MayDae has had an exceptionally busy month.  On top of starting this blog, and getting ready to open our Etsy.com shop, we have also been creating all of the decor for the Heaven Fest Fundraisers.  The fundraisers were held over the past two weekends, and had about 450 people in attendance over the four nights.  They were held at the Stonebrook Manor in a very large neutral colored room, but instead of trying to fight against the calm expanse, we decided to go with it, and keep things light, airy, natural, and fresh, while giving some glow and sparkle to the space.

One of our inspirations for the color scheme and texture was the Rodarte spring 2009 line.  I love the different types of fabric and the layering effect:

(Photos via Style.com)

Another major inspiration of ours was Anthropologie.  Creativity is bursting out of every corner of that store, and we could spend days in there wishing it was our home.  This photo is of my daughters in front of a huge tissue paper pom wall in the Cherry Creek Anthropologie:

After finding our inspirations, and getting somewhat of a game plan, we decided to create some fabric drapes to hang in the back of the room where the guests entered, and another drape in the front of the room on the stage.  We used different neutral colored fabrics, and cut thousands of squares that I then proceeded to sew onto bed sheets for hours and hours and hours to create these:

This is the back drape – 15 ft wide by 7 ft tall.  We wanted a haphazard look to the squares, and wanted them to be plentiful.  The focal point in the middle was made up of sewing a piece of embroidered fabric in the middle, and attaching finger knitted garlands and large poms made of tissue paper and old sewing patterns.  We back-lit the drape for a glowing effect.

(photo by the talented Lilac Photography)

This is the fabric drape that we placed in the front of the room on the stage.  This one was 10 ft wide by 4 ft tall and was also back-lit.

(photo by the wonderful Lilac Photography)

I absolutely LOVED how these drapes turned out, but if anyone asked me to do these again, I would most surely decline!  I sat at my sewing machine for longer than I ever had before, and it was murder trying to stuff all that fabric through the small opening.  Needless to say, my sewing machine and I are taking a break from each other over the next couple weeks.

My next big project was to find the mason jars.  We absolutely adore the look of mason jars with candles in them and we wanted to have lots and lots of these.  We needed almost 300 and didn’t have the budget (or the will) to buy new, which meant for 7 weeks straight, I was scouring Craigslist, the flea market, and thrift stores to find these for no more than $.25/jar.  Impossible you say?  In the beginning, I thought so too, but I am ecstatic to say that I actually got them for less!  The mason jars looked beautiful and made the tables sparkle and glow in the dim room.

You might be wondering about some of the other decor elements in the photos, don’t worry, because we are not finished!  Come back tomorrow to hear all about the wire centerpieces, tissue paper and sewing pattern poms, finger knitting garlands, and candle-lit tree stumps.  Are you excited?  You absolutely should be.

(*Happy Birthday to our wonderful Dad – MayDae loves you)