Home Decor - Styling Your Jewelry

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In addition to using my office as... well... an office, I also use the room to store my jewelry and makeup. As a result, I tend to spend a bit of time in there getting ready.

For those of you who are looking to create displays of your jewelry for easy access, here are my tips on doing it in a way that is attractive and not too cluttered.

Mirrors.

I place a lot of my items on a mirror that sits on top of my jewelry table. This really serves two purposes. First, it helps me find things. But, perhaps more importantly, it keeps things light and shiny. I feel like the whole purpose of jewelry is to spice and shiny things up, so why not do it with your table, too?!

Tiered Trays.
This was originally a three-level glass hosting tray, which is perfect for hosting a party with cupcakes and hors d'oeuvres. However, I realized that it would be even better when put to use holding my bright, colorful, shiny jewelry.

It makes things easy to see, and because it is made of glass, it lets light down onto the lower levels so that everything is showing up as its true color.

Small cups and holding trays.

I also like to find other small cups, holding trays, and hanging items that can be used to separate out my jewelry and trinkets. This is a ceramic egg holder that holds lip gloss, earrings, bobby pins, and perfume, among other things.

Picture Frames.

I love using picture frames to hold an oddly shaped necklace or two. I tend to choose frames that are shiny or visually interesting, so that they feel like jewelry, themselves. This allows me to throw them in with my jewelry without making them feel out of place.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• How do you display your jewelry?
• Do you use any of these techniques?

Be My Bridesmaid? Pt. 2

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Last week, I showed you how I "proposed' to my bridesmaids. It was a crafty gesture that combined dorky, sweet, and awesome (if I may say so myself).

While I'm sure you can appreciate cuteness just from the pictures of the box, I wanted to share some of the extra cuteness (squeal! ...seriously) that evolved because of the boxes. Pictures taken of or by the real girls in my wedding party who received them!

Note: I asked my girls in the order of how long I've known them. So, I started with my sister on Christmas morning, then the next day asked my cousins, then my girlfriend from High School, and then my girlfriend from College.

First, here's a cute series of images of my sister opening up her box... 

The funny thing is, we were staying in the same house this week, because my fiance and I spent a few days up at my parents' place. So, Ailie (my sister) knew I was up to something. I even borrowed a few supplies from her. I pretty much just holed up in my bedroom and got crazy with the hot glue, if ya know what I mean. :)

Next, I asked my cousins, Clara and Maggie, at a big family gathering. While everyone was distracted (probably by food), my sister and I snuck out to the car and grabbed their boxes. I pranced back inside and pretty much plopped them down in front of each of them. Sneaky Carly!

My cousin Maggie Instagrammed the above picture of her box, right after opening it, with the caption "Of course I'll be your bridesmaid, @createliveblog!" So cute.

Next, I met my friend Emily for dinner and popped the question there. She later insagrammed this picture. Instagram, meet my wedding. You're going to be on very close terms, I guess!

To ask my friend Kelsey, I had to mail the box to Texas. After receiving it, she texted me this picture...

Because I put the scrabble tiles spelling their name (or a nick name) in their box, Kelsey had the tiles to spell Y-E-S. So cute. I had no idea she even had the letters in her box to do it - it wasn't something I'd thought of - so it was a clever surprise when I got this text from her!

Anyway, now on to all of you...

• How did you (or would you) ask your bridesmaids to be in your wedding party?
  

And now, as I've promised to start doing, an exercise in gratitude...
Dear Melted Brown Snow Water that is all around Chicago,
Sometimes, when I'm getting on the bus, I pretend that I'm hopping over lava instead of nasty, polluted, melted snow. Thanks for making me feel like a kid again!
Love, Carly

5 Tips For Alternative Christmas Decor

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When it comes to Christmas decorations, I'm non-traditional. So, some of you will hate this post because you swear by the red and green decor, the Santa figurines, the stuffed animal reindeer. Try not to hate me! We're all different.

When it comes to finding alternative, modern ways to decorate your home (or apartment) for a Christmas party without becoming swallowed up in the red and green, here are a few tips!

1. Globe Lights

First, purchasing interesting lights will help with the nontraditional vibe. Look for large globe lights, or the larger oval bulks. Consider stuffing a few of the lights into a mason jar (I found a blue mason jar a few months ago and it worked beautifully here).

(Large globe lights stuffed into a beautiful blue mason jar)

2. Homemade Signage

Then, to up the ante, make your own festive signage. I posted a tutorial over the past few weeks to show you how to make the sign pictured above. I'd suggest decorating with doilies, stamps, or anything you can glue on (I seriously considered Mod Podging glitter all over the place, but didn't want to end up with an obscene amount of glitter on my couch, because we all know glitter tends to spread like, well, let's go with the flu and keep it PG).

3. Framed Signage

For those of you who don't have the time to put together a homemade sign (or perhaps you can't find a good place to put it), there's also a much easier way to include special quotes or phrases. In particular, this works well for quotes that are too long to put on a sign, like lines from poems or music.

Justin and I love this line from a traditional Christian hymn, so I wrote it out and framed it. It's not exactly in the holiday spirit, but it's a good reminder to keep your thoughts on what the holiday is all about.

4. Ornament Display
Instead of displaying all of your ornaments on your tree, create a festive display on a countertop by placing a few ornaments in a small (or large!) bowl or glass. I suggest going with ornaments that are in a similar color scheme. You can work with your existing collection, or stop by Home Depot to pick up a package of ornaments in the same color family.

I put the ornaments in a thrift store bought, Kate Spade-esque bowl that was a gift from my Aunt Betsy and Unka Toby as at my housewarming party.

5. Unconventional Colors
You may have noticed as you browsed the images in this post that my color scheme for Christmas decor is somewhat unconventional. To replace the traditional red and green, I used blues, silvers, and other "cool" hues to keep things fresh. In picking these colors, I was inspired by snow and ice, by songs like "White Christmas" "Let It Snow."

I also played around with a new Christmas tree idea. For those of you who, like me, are renters and city dwellers, sometimes it's just a big hassle to get a live Christmas tree in the city, haul it to your place (or pay for it to be delivered), and then deal with disposing of it afterward. Instead, we went with a small, shiny white tree from my mother and decorated it with blue Christmas ornaments.

We also strung blue ornaments in front of the windows, to add a bit of festive flair without making things too cluttered.

DIY Gold Chevron Computer Case

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When I purchased my Macbook Pro, I bought a black case (this one). It was thrilling for a while but then lost its sex appeal... as with any good teen movie, it was time for a makeover! Thanks to a random purchase of some Gold Leaf paint on my last trip to Home Depot, we were ready to rummmmmmmble (hear: daaaa bulls)!

What you need:

• Computer Case (Any will work! I used this one but anything that fits your computer will be jusssst fine)
• Masking Tape / Painter's Tape
• Gold Leafing
• Paint Brushes

What you do:

1. Remove the case from your computer. Be sure to paint your computer case and not your actual computer. Seriously. 

2. Tape your design on the case. I went with a slightly off-center chevron stripe. Be sure to wrap the tape around the edges to make sure you get everything!

3. Paint! Shake up the gold leafing first, then stir it a bit with the brush. Slowly spread the leafing paint around the designated area.
*Note: Depending on the material of your computer case, you should end up with some really neat crinkling of the paint, which is what creates the typical crinkly-leaf look that most gold-leaf-covered items have (though, for the record, painting silver hoop earrings did not produce the same effect. I suspect that painting metal allows the paint to dry much more smoothly).

4. Remove the tape. The active chemicals in this gold leafing paint dry quite quickly (even in 15 minutes). Check the paint with a towel or finger to be sure it's dry, then begin peeling the tape off on one of the ends, just in case it's not fully dry.

And... Voila!

 

DIY Camera Bag

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This year, I was determined to get to work on a homemade-yet-extremely-useful gift for my mother. We both shoot with a Nikon D5000 and had been working with fairly standard Nikon camera bags.  At the end of the day, however, those bags pose two problems. First, they're not particularly glamorous. It felt like lugging around a huge, unattractive... diaper bag. Shouldn't it feel badass to be shooting in downtown Chicago? Not when you're carrying around a diaper bag! Second, the bags were total theft magnets. I can't even keep track of how many people I know whose cameras have been stolen. Why does that surprise me when we carry around bags with NIKON or CANON written across the top? 

From now on, I will carry a camera bag that screams neither "Steal me, I have $1,000 of equipment inside!" nor "Look, a diaper bag!"  No, sir. I pledge (ha!) to carry a bag that is attractive. Chic. Fabulous. 

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