Stuff I Made: A Skirt

I haven’t really had much time to work on anything new lately and was sick all of last weekend, (boo!) but I’m feeling much better now have lots of new projects planned!  I thought I’d show off this skirt I made a few years ago from old kitchen curtains.  I found the curtains at an antique store I used to frequent when I lived in Fort Wayne.  I loved how kitschy they were but didn’t have any windows they would fit on and they didn’t really match my decor so I made them into a skirt.   Let me know if you’ve ever made anything found into something wearable, I’d love to see your projects.  Have a great rest of the weekend and hopefully the weather stays nice for everyone!
-Jenna



Ben thought he was being funny in this one!

Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not!  The weather here was perfect and I was sooo happy to be outside after a long cold winter.  Saturday we drove back to Indiana to see my family and took a walk to the old rail road trestle by my mom’s house. 

My uncle and my sister being a goon!

On Sunday we went to Ben’s family’s Easter dinner and watched his nephew hunt for eggs for the first time.  I also took some pictures of his dad’s old gremlin.  I ate way too much candy this weekend, but hey that’s what Easter is for!



Oh and I got this adorable peeps skewer thingy from my friend Kelly.  Everyone that knows me knows I have an unhealthy obsession with peeps.  Thankfully they aren’t available all year long or I’d be in trouble!


Have a great week and Happy Spring!
Jenna ;)

DIY Photo Phone Case

Hello everyone, I have been busy trying to get things done so I can enjoy the warm weather that is finally starting to arrive soon!  I haven’t really made anything in about a week but I thought someone might find this diy handy.

This one’s pretty simple!  Buy a clear case for your phone.  I got this one on Amazon for about $1.99.  Print out a 4×6 photo, of whatever, and trace the phone cover and camera hole and cut.  I have an Iphone so depending on your phone you might need a bigger sized picture so be sure to measure first.  I used an exacto knife to make sure I got a nice clean line and voila! Try to use a photo that will work well with your case since it is long and skinny.  This is perfect for those of you who like to change your case often and don’t want to spend a small fortune on new cases every time.

How to make an old apartment a little less ugly

I’ve lived in quite a few apartments now in my 26 years, ever since college I’ve pretty much moved every year or so at the end of my lease, and have not been lucky enough to own my own home, but I believe in making the best of what you have.  We spent all of last summer looking for a house or townhouse to rent and after getting no where, (we live in a very expensive area where nothing stays available for long) we settled on our current apartment.  It has lots of space and two patios, but is older and not as nice as our last that was tiny and had no outdoor space at all.  I wasn’t thrilled but after I got my own stuff in and started to find what worked where I began to change my mind.  I’ve learned a few tricks over the year, and here are a couple.

…and my owl collection

I’ve lived in apartments before that have the phone jack right up on the wall which I will never use.  Ben and I just have cell phones and most people I know don’t have land lines either.  My solution to this ugly thing on the wall is to put up a vintage phone. It is a phone jack after all!  I was lucky enough to acquire a box of old phones when my uncle moved into a house that had been abandoned for quite a while, but they can also be found at antique stores or on Etsy.

Another thing I didn’t like about the apartment was the huge intercom and ancient thermostat.  My solution to this was to hide them a little with lots of small frames around them, so they don’t stick out like a sore thumb quite as bad.
White walls are boring but I don’t always mind because then I can add whatever colors to a room that I want.  Decorating should be fun and I’m still getting things to look how I want.  I’ll probably never be done, but that’s half the fun!
Let me know if you have more ideas, cheers!

I like clusters of different sized and colored frames

Tangerine Upsidedown Cakes

I don't cook to many desserts but I was in the mood and wanted to try this recipe I found on pinterest from
http://drizzleanddip.com/2012/09/10/clementine-upside-down-cakes.  I used tangerines instead, but whatever!  I varied my recipe because I used a cup of Greek yogurt and a cup of water instead of butter and eggs but I will give you the recipe from Drizzle and Dip and if you feel adventurous like I was you can deviate from the recipe.

• 225g butter - room temp
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g flour
• 2t baking powder
• 4 large eggs - room temp
• finely grated zest of 2 small clementines, or in my case tangerines
• about 1/2 - 1 t of brown sugar for each cake
• 15 slices of peeled clementines (1 slice per cake)

Hot Syrup

• 1/2 cup of clementine juice
• 1/2 cup sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 c / 350 F
2. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing to fully combine between each addition
4. Add the clementine zest and mix.
5. By hand sift the flour and the baking powder over the mix and fold it in to combine
6. Sprinkle around 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of brown sugar in the the bottom of each cavity of a greased muffin pan.
7. Add a slice of clementine (cut about 1cm thick) on top of the sugar.
8. Using an ice-cream scoop, evenly measure out the cake batter and dollop onto each clementine (about 3/4 of the way up the pan).
9. Bake for 25 - 30 mins, until golden brown.  Mine took 30 minutes with the Greek yogurt.
10. Make the syrup by bringing the juice and sugar to the boil until the sugar has dissolved and it just starts to thicken.
11. Using a spatula gently loosen the baked cakes from the mold and tip out onto a cooling rack. Pour the warm syrup over the cakes to allow them to absorb.

Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as Drizzle and Dip's did but they were delicious and still look pretty good I think!
enjoy!

DIY Boot Forms

Don't pay lots of money to keep those boots looking nice. Just get done pool noodles from the dollar store, cut them up and there you go!

Working on beautifying my kitchen

For my fellow vintage clothing lovers...

Here is a coupon for the awesome site Modcloth. They have tons of cute stuff, some vintage, some vintage inspired.  It's $15 off of $50.  Plus I get $ off when you use it so it's win win for everyone! 

http://sharethelove.modcloth.com/a/clk/54STwK

How to upgrade a plastic hanging basket

So I've had this plant for about four years now which for me is an eternity!  I definitely do not have a green thumb, most of my plants die right away, but this little guy has been able to survive me so far.  I kept it in the plastic basket it came in because I was too scared to re-pot it but hated the way it looked in my house.  I figured a simple fix would be to take the plastic hanger off, drill four holes evenly spaced around the top of the rim and string twine though to hang, and it made such an improvement with very little cost and no replanting, yay!

Headboard DIY with cardboard

I have been wanting a headboard for our bed since we bought it a few years ago but have limited space to make one, and well you know how I feel about buying things I can easily make!  I came across this tutorial from http://james-michelle.blogspot.com/2012/01/30-diy-headboard.html?m=1 on pinterest.  It uses a cardboard form instead of wood, making it easy, cheap, and replaceable.  Plus no power tools required!  If you have one big piece of cardboard this is best but if not you can tape two together with packing tape.  Here are the materials and tools I used:

• cardboard
• 2 yards of quilting batting
• 2 yards of fabric
• packing tape
• staple gun
• utility knife
• heavy duty scissors (optional)
• ruler or measuring tape

Also note my bed is queen sized so you might need more if you have a king sized bed.  I was going to buy some of the cardboard used for science fair projects but then Ben ordered some floor mats for his car and the box was the perfect size, score!  I bought the batting and fabric at Joanne’s Fabric store.  Both were on sale, and I used a 50% off coupon on the batting bringing the total to around $14. I recommend using thick quilting batting if you can.
If you didn’t know all the large craft stores like Joannes, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby have coupons every week. I use the apps on my phone but you can look it up and print it out if you don’t have a smart phone.  I never shop these stores without coupons.
The tutorial I followed suggested using bowls to make the different curves so they come out even and perfectly round.  I used a pen to make the shape and cut it out using a utility knife and heavy duty scissors.

I had to tape the top curve on because I didn’t have enough at the top, but that’s ok, it’ll get covered up.

Next I put the batting under the  cardboard and taped and stapled it up around the cardboard.  I stapled and then taped the edges to the cardboard so they would be secure.  Then I repeated these steps with the fabric, making sure the fabric was tight in the front with no tucks and folds.  I cut off the extra on both the batting and fabric so that there were about three inches to fold over before I covered the cardboard.

I had a helper

After I was done I used those clear mirror hooks to attach it to the wall, and ironed it.  The best part about making a cheap headboard is that if we get a new duvet or change bedroom colors the fabric can be easily replaced.
Here is the finished product.  I need to do some more ironing, but I think it turned out pretty decent for about an hour of work and $14.  Lucy seems to approve!

now for some more wall art.

Dip Dye Ombre Curtains

 As I mentioned earlier I am all about dyeing so when I saw some thing similar to this on pinterest from a blog called http://www.vitaminihandmade.com/.  I thought I would give it a try to add some color to my boring white living room. I went with sunshine orange in the Rit dye and bought some inexpensive white curtains at IKEA. I didn't want to spend a lot in case it didn't work out.

 

I got the curtains wet in my double kitchen sink and filled one side up with hot water and the dye. I kept both curtains together at the top to make sure the dye pattern was the same on both. I wanted the top to have a little color so i dipped the whole curtains in for a few seconds and then removed all but about a foot, leaving the rest in the empty sink. I soaked it for about five minutes and gradually kept putting more and more in for about half way up. 

 

After I had what looked to be good I rinsed the curtains in cold water and washed and dried them in my washer and dryer. They were a little lighter than I had hoped they would turn out so I bought one more box of Rit, just to do the bottoms. After this time I liked the way it looked. I guess it just depends on the look you are going for and the color, so you may or may not need two boxes of dye. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out!  

Don't throw away those old towels

If you’re like most people you have your nice towels and your old towels that you use for dirty stuff like dying your hair and washing the dog, and I am no different, but I have been making my “good” towels last a little longer recently because well, I have better things to spend my money on, like shoes! I have pimples and use a face wash with benzyl peroxide, which as you may know bleaches any fabric it touches so I get nice bleach stained towels along with the general fading that goes along with washing towels. Fun stuff I know! Instead of buying new towels all the time I started dyeing them with Rit dye. Rit is the kind that comes in the box of powder or the little bottle of liquid. It can be found at most craft and sewing stores, and I think some stores like Wal-Mart carry it. I usually buy the powder because it’s cheaper, usually around $2-3. I just pour it in a sink full of hot water and let my towels soak for about 15 min. I always do my dyeing in my kitchen sink so I can use both sinks, one for dyeing and one for rinsing. Oh and always wear gloves when dyeing, or you will have dyed hands! After that I rinse it our and wash the towels in the washing machine on normal settings. I use black because all of my hand towels are black, it’s easy to match to and easy to dye. I would recommend dyeing your towels a dark color because it is easier to dye. Hopefully this saves someone from having to buy new towels! My next post will be about the curtains I dyed. I’m a big fan of self dyeing if you can’t tell. I just started using it about a year ago and wish I would have started sooner. I can’t tell you how many pairs of jeans I’ve redyed!

Make Your Own Post Earrings

Hello, everyone, for my first DIY I thought I would do an easy one that started when I couldn’t find any post earrings that I wanted to wear for everyday wear.

I used empty post earrings from Hobby Lobby and got out the ole’ bag of nail polish. Then I stuck the earrings in a ball of poly clay to keep them upright while they dried. I got out my favorite colors and dripped a few drops getting enough on so that there was a dome of polish on the surface. After it dried it was flatter than I had wanted so I repeated this step a couple times After I made the purple and blue pair I was pretty happy with the results so I tried something a little more challenging. I took some green loose eye shadow and mixed in in with clear nail polish in this bottle cap with a toothpick. (you use what you have handy!) I then used an old paintbrush to dab it on the same way as the first two.

(This looks like a face, I know!) Here is the results:

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello my name is Jenna and I have just entered the world of blogging.  Maybe a little late to the party but I love making things and saving money and want to share my thoughts and experiments in diy with  other people who are thrifty and have a need to create.

First of all let me tell you a little about myself.  I live outside of Chicago with my boyfriend Ben and our two cats, Lucy and Gatsby.  I’m originally from Fort Wayne, IN but moved a few years ago for my boyfriends job.  I went to school for art and photography and have an etsy shop called
Peppermint Emporium with my handmade jewelry and vintage finds at
 https://www.etsy.co/shop/PeppermintEmporium?ref=si_shop.

I love animals, especially cats, art, nature, history, antiques and vintage and making things.  I draw paint, sew, embroider, make jewelry, and find joy in decorating my home.  Unfortunately I live in a very expensive area and live in a small apartment but I try and make the most of the situation and have found ways to decorate for even the smallest apartments on small budgets.  I love making things and try to save money whenever I can, and whenever I can do both is an added bonus!
I want to share my diys and beautiful finds with you and hopefully you will like my blog! I am a pinterest addict and get many diys off of pinterest so of course I will try and give credit where credit is due, and others are things that I have come up with, either out of necessity, my cheapness, or just dreamed up.
Oh and did I mention I love cats?