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diy leather handled cutting board
now that we’ve started using my stepdads tools for projects, all i want to do is wood projects. so sorry for them not being the simplest if you don’t have a saw, but don’t worry because next weeks project is BEYOND easy. to make your own cutting board, you essentially just need some wood and mineral oil. they say that certain types of wood are better for food, and others are more prone to bacteria — and i’m no expert, but i say just cover the thing in food safe mineral oil and you’re probably fine. but i live life on the edge clearly.
materials
a piece of wood
sand paper
* jigsaw
food safe mineral oil
coffee grounds for staining (optional)
leather
awl or leather punch
2 brass screws & 2 brass washers
drill* if you don’t have access to a saw, you can always make the board without the inwards cut and just do a rectangular board with a leather strap too!
01. measure and mark how you want to cut your board. using your saw, cut your board. duh.
02. sand like a maniac without rounding the edges. clean off all dust.
03. if you want to darken or richen the color of your wood, mix together some coffee grounds and water and apply with a cloth or paper towel. it works surprisingly well and you can do a couple of coats, but i actually wish i hadn’t stained mine because i now prefer the original color. but i’m also cray.
04. apply your mineral oil liberally and let dry. i believe you’re supposed to do another coat the next day to make it extra food safe.
05. to make your leather strap, cut a piece of leather to the size you’d like. once you have it centered in place, poke small holes through the leather into the wood to mark them. drill pilot holes into the wood. get your screws all the way into the holes to ensure your leather won’t spin around a ton.
06. put your leather strap in place, beneath the washers and screws.
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wedding stuff : the planning
so as i’ve complained a few times now (or more than a few) — you might know that the wedding planning is a lot more stressful than i anticipated. it’s not that it’s even hard work, it’s that i feel like with it coming up so soon – it’s hard to not have something i need to focus on almost at all times. this makes regular life and work and blogging really hard. but i decided to do a personal post on where we are in terms of the planning.
my mom decided we didn’t need a wedding planner and that i could do it and she would help, frankly we couldn’t afford one anyway, but i’ve done all the planning so far with the help of an old friend turned event designer and her partner of mein shatz. they’re helping me with all the design decisions and rentals and they’ll be coordinating on the day of. it helps so much just having someone to talk to and getting opinions on things. the absolute most stressful part of wedding planning is the budget. especially when you have zero experience budgeting a wedding. once i signed a couple contracts for a couple vendors – i realized i had already spent way too much of the budget. which i’ve found out is on the small side for the number of guests we have. my fault for having way too many relatives.
we’ve booked our photographer, color me rad and her photos are unique and stylish and she’s really sweet too.
we’ve booked our caterers, which was a hard decision for me to make, but ultimately, i decided i should just make a decision and little nelly was an easy choice. being decisive is not my strong suit, so it’s been a learning exercise for me to just choose.
we’ve booked our dj, smiles davis – which was an easy decision in terms of her, but i decided it was worth rearranging the budget and getting rid of a few things to have an amazing party.
we’ve also arranged our shuttle (a schoolbus!), our rehearsal dinner, sunday brunch and booked bartenders.
things we’ve had to sacrifice so far are : a calligrapher, a makeup artist (my maid of honor will be doing our makeup), a videographer (we’ve hired a coworker of my brothers to shoot), and possibly a photo booth — but i might spend my tax refund towards one.
we’re heading to palm springs in a week to meet with a florist, eat at the restaurants where our weekend events will be, and have our engagement photos taken! lots to do in two days.
we’re now trying to tackle rentals, which is way more expensive than my budgeting had anticipated. gideon and i always pictured using yeah rentals – but we’re just trying to figure out if that’s at all possible for us. we’re having these discussions about flatware that seem so important to me, but then i step back and think jeez. it’s just a wedding and no one will really notice if our flatware is gold or silver. if our budget was way larger, the planning would definitely be easier. not that i think it’s easy for anyone.
but i can’t help but think – all this for one day?
by the way – i sound a little bitter, but i’m not. planning has been fun, but i really am excited to get past the vendor stuff to the design fun stuff. which i should have already started by now. oh shit.
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passover printables : four questions place cards
happy passover! while i’ve never done a jewish holiday project or post, i’m attending my cousins seder this year and she asked me to make some special place cards for the occasion. well, i figured i must have two or three jewish readers, so why not share them?!
even though the four questions are usually for the kids – i thought they would make a fun theme for place settings. i’ve designed them so you can use them two different ways. you can cut out and keep them as is for placing on top of each plate, or you can fold them in half to create a more common style place card. there’s also a light grey box for writing your guests names.
download the PDF and print as many as guests you’ll be having onto standard 8.5 x 11″ card stock or any thick paper. these would look great on some colored paper too! carefully cut along the lines using an xacto.
enjoy and happy passover!
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payday wishlist
i finished my taxes yesterday, so i’m feeling very very ready for the weekend. i’m assuming everyone else did theirs like… weeks and months ago?! well good work. we’re sttttill working on the wedding invitations and the website, so i’m going to try to spend as much time actually finishing those this weekend as i can. it is SO hard to design for yourself, but it’s especially hard when it’s your wedding and nothing feels perfect enough, for our vibe and personalities and all that we have to consider. but we did lock down how they’ll be printed! hope you have a lovely weekend!
01. i was obsessed with birkenstocks when i was a kid. everyone at camp was replacing their adidas sandals with them, and i had to have some. so i subscribed to the catalog and would daydream about my own pair. i finally got some and never took them off. when birks started coming back a few years ago i was like “BLEGH” but i’ve now seen them on enough cute people that i want some again. this is how it works right? very easily brainwashed.
02. denim + triangles. i mean. so naturally i want this throw blanket.
03. the perfect beach / farmers market / summer / vacation bag ever.
04. i want every hanging planter i see, but especially love the color blocked yarn accents on this one.
05. who doesn’t need a pretty new notebook? well, probably me, but still i can want them. -
wedding stuff : bridesmaids dresses under $100
01 / 02 / 03 (sold out online! sorry!) / 04 / 05 / 06
i might be unlike most brides when i say firstly that i don’t want my bridesmaids to wear dresses that are bridesmaids dresses – they’re overpriced and i find most of them kinda stuffy. i definitely wanted the girls in a pale color, and have been scouring the every dress site on the internet with the terms “maxi / cream, beige, blush, tan” it’s way harder than i thought. i want something low-key but still dressy and i’m definitely not insisting they spend a couple hundred bucks on a bridesmaid dress. i’m just considerate like that!
i’m loving the matching on these super boho dresses, but i do have a hard time recognizing which one is the actual bride. (via style me pretty)
i also love all the pale tones of these mismatched dresses working together, which i know can end up looking messy if you do it wrong. (via ruffled)
but i ended up buying three of one of #3 (which is now unavailable online – but i had to include it since it might be the dress! it’s still available in stores) so we may have found our dress, i’m just still a little confused on whether or not i want the three of them all matching or mismatched. the bridesmaids say matching. i’m not 100% convinced! so i could return two of them and keep one girl wearing it… do you guys have thoughts? it feels surprisingly uncommon to see matching bridesmaids dresses lately — so maybe i’m just used to that trend?!
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diy ombre leather coasters
can you tell i’m not sick of hexagons yet?! also not sick of this white faux leather i have. ok i’m lying. i’m so so sick of it, but i accidentally bought a ton more than i thought i did (this is what happens when i buy supplies online) so i’m trying to use it all up. remember when i used it here? oh and how about here?
rachel of the crafted life has been “barely” spray painting glass to create this gorgeous ombre effect, so inspired by her – i half spray painted these!
materials
leather or faux leather
printable template for stenciling
rotary cutter
pen
spray paint in the color of your choice
directions
01. print out your hexagon. if you know what size you want and use photoshop, make yourself a template. if you want to use mine, click below to download. (these measure about 4″) cut it out.
02. if you have faux leather like mine, the back might have a soft backside which is easily draw-on-able. if you’re using real leather or a leather without a backing, decide which side is prettier and trace on the other one around your hexagons.
03. over a cutting surface, using your rotary cutter and a ruler, cut out your hexagons.
04. once you have them all cut, take them outside and place on a piece of cardboard. spray paint them by spray painting your cardboard surface and slowly work your way from side to side to cover some of your coaster. in retrospect, i may have liked them with less spray paint than these have. try the less is more approach, and add more after taking a step back. let dry.
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wanting / home items
i ALWAYS want new stuff for the house, i don’t think there will ever be a point in my life where i wouldn’t be totally willing to purge everything and have a shopping spree at west elm. but right now with the wedding looming, it seems wrong to buy anything new for the apartment. but i want to so badly. here’s everything that i think about pretty regularly.
01. as comfortable as our office chairs are, i really hate that they’re black for the most part. it was my bad. the office would look so much cleaner with white shell chairs (or these if i’m feeling nice to our butts). and when i say cleaner, i mean cleaner because there is crap everywhere.
02. i reeeally want a new rug for the bedroom. right now we have a cowhide that doesn’t reach our feet, i’d love for the room to feel a little warmer with a big chunky simple rug.
03. i’ve been saying we need lamps/sconces for a while now. still haven’t done it. and every time these onefortythree sconces come back in stock, i debate it until they sell back out. maybe i need to just DIY, right?
04. we have a docksta table, which i am ok with, but it barely fits four peoples plates. i’d love a big dining table for sprawling out my craft projects – because honestly that’s all i use the dining table for.
05. i’ve always wanted a butterfly chair, and i’ve never gotten a butterfly chair. not sure why. just one of those things.
06. you’ve seen our shelving unit, but you don’t know that it’s a pretty big eye sore at this point. i mean, i still like it, but i do kinda miss the bare walls. we want to move after the wedding, so it’s not worth taking down probably, although i mean, we’ll have to take it down at some point anyway, right? would be so nice to just see a simple cabinet with the tv at this point.
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payday wishlist
friday came fast for me this week, yesterday after our couples therapy (yep, we’re trying to be smart about getting married and going to couples therapy weekly) we were rear ended super hard while stopped at a light. so we’re taking it easy today to make sure our necks aren’t hurting too bad. it’s supposed to get warm this weekend, so we’re going to head down to the lake and take the pedal boats out! i’ve finally convinced the boy it will be fun. hope you have a great weekend!
01. i’ve seen cheesy specialty keys i’ve wanted in hardware store, but i’ve never seen ones this rad.
02. i am SO getting this little rug for the bathroom.
03. a lovely little ceramic cup i want ten of.
04. ever seen france, i’ve been wanting a pair of these. almost every woman i saw was wearing them.
05. i saw this jungalow hanging planter yesterday at west elm (the local section) and it’s amazing.
06. this claire vivier tote would be the perfect work bag. -
i link you
such chic diy faux labradorite earrings (via fall for diy)
how stoked would you be to receive an adorable little bouquet like this (via paper & stitch)
shibori dyed easter eggs – maybe the best ever. (via tuts+)
my friend called the other day to say watch louis ck’s monologue on snl immediately. so i did. now i’m sharing it with you. (via digg)
would you be terrified if a turkey was chasing you? this woman is. so much. (via youtube / image via)
salted. chocolate. diablo. cookie. ice cream. sandwiches. ridic. (via the artful desperado)
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diy jewelry display wall hanging for design*sponge
you always looking for a way to store your jewelry that isn’t wretched? then you can check out this diy copper + rope wall hanging i made for design*sponge. you could also use it for keys and outgoing mail at your front door — possibilities are just endless i tell you, endless!
for more photos and the full tutorial – visit design*sponge.
