One Month Over At Violets & Laurel!

We've had a great first month over at our Violets & Laurel.  It's been a fun experience developing a blog with Amanda.  Here's a re-cap of what we've posted so far:

Welcome to Violets & Laurel

We gave our big introduction, explained what our clever name means and what the blog would be about.

Etsy Everything // Mother's Day Cards

We are doing an Etsy Everything series with great things found on Etsy, a website with shops of handmade items.  In May, Amanda found some great Mother's Day cards.  The one pictured here is LittleLow.

DIY // Crocus Flower Crown

We showed a tutorial on how to make fresh flower crowns.

Weekend Casuals

Fashion posts are back!  Amanda shares her spring weekend casuals.

Travel // Wethersfield, CT

Check out what I did on Memorial Weekend.

Go check us out at Violets & Laurel if you haven't already!  

We would love to hear from you over there!

xo 

Erin

DIY: Pallet Deck Furniture

 Here are some more ways on how to jazz up your deck with pallet wood just like I promised!

My husband acquired a few free pallets and went to work.

Above he put his pallet wall below our deck stairs.

A chess board was next and then below, a planter bench.

 One more bench below!

Presto! Our deck is so much more fun with all our new pallet furniture!

See our DIY Pallet Grill here.

Check out our bright benches here.

See our Autumn dinner party on the deck.

View a dinner party on our patio here.

See more of our yard.

xo 

Erin

DIY: Brighten Up A Bench

Our house came with the bench above and we later bought a bench on sale.  I soon found myself with two very weathered benches that were never used.  In an effort to jazz up our deck I took on the project of redoing our benches.  We live in the middle of the forest with a brown deck so I knew I needed a pop of color on these guys.  I had my handy husband take them apart for me, sanded them a bit and used primer spray paint. After priming the wood of the benches I put a couple coats of this nice bright color on with outdoor spray paint and put them back together.

I couldn't be happier with the results.  These benches have instantly livened up our deck and created an area where Ryan and I play outdoor chess and relax.

More ways to jazz up your deck with pallet wood here!

xo

Erin

DIY: Bleach Heart

I got inspired by this project and decided to make one of my own, just in time for Valentine's Day!

1. Start with buying a cheap a sweater or shirt or use an old one you want to jazz up.  

2. Place cardboard under the layer you will be bleaching.

3. Bleach your design!  I went with a simple heart and used bleach in gel form thinking it wouldn't get everywhere.  You could also use a bleach pen or paint liquid bleach onto the shirt.

4.  Let the bleach sit until it reaches your desired color.  I waiting about 45 minutes for mine.

5. Rinse out the bleach thoroughly and let dry.

I'm wearing the shirt here.

I might try this bleach tutorial next!

xo

Erin

DIY: Shadowbox Earring Organizer

After getting my necklaces organized, I needed some organization for my earrings.

Materials needed:

-Shadowbox (they come in all shapes, colors, and sizes).

-Wire

-Scissors

-Decorative paper, fabric, or painting

The shadowbox I bought had adjustable depths, so I was able to take out an insert and wrap wire around each side of the insert.

The hardest part about this was making the wire tight without bending the sides of the insert.

I put a piece of scrapbook paper as my backdrop but you can also use fabric or a painting.  When I need a change up, I'll just trade out the paper for a different design.

I'm happy with the end product and find myself using the ledge on the bottom to put my post earrings on.

Happy organizing!

xo

Erin

DIY for my Mom

For my mom's birthday I decided to try out the latest DIY floating around on Pinterest.  

My mom likes her some coffee so I hand drew these mugs for her.

I got some inexpensive coffee cups at The Christmas Tree Shop and used a black magic marker to draw on them. 

The first cup says "Good Morning Mom, Love you" and is decorated with some flowers and a bird.

On the second cup I drew a picture of a coffee cup (how ironic) and on the reverse side it says, "Today's Coffee Tally" and there are some tally marks.

I ended up baking the cups two separate times for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  I had to do this twice because after the first, I really tested how permanent is was by trying to scratch it off.  I was able to make a small scratch in an area that I colored in  so I touched it up and baked them a second time.  Now, I'm confident that it is permanent if hand washed only.

I got my tag from here.

Happy Birthday Mom!

xo

Sea Glass Wall Hanging

Do you have a jar full of sea glass you aren't sure what to do with?

Well I sure did, until a friend showed me how to display them!

To get started you will need:

Your sea glass and other items you've collected (such as shells and driftwood)

A stick (I used a small piece of driftwood I found but you can also use any ordinary stick you find outside)

Wire (copper wires works well)

Wire cutters

String (To hang your art onto the wall)

First cut some wire (you can vary the lengths like I did if you want) and wrap it around your first piece of sea glass.  There is no perfect science to this.  I found I got better at this the more I did.  Wrap it so it has no room to wiggle out.

Continue on the same wire and leave some room at the top to attach it to your stick.

When you are finished with adding sea glass to your wires you can attach them to your stick.

I found that using the wire cutters or a pliers helped to wrap the wire tight around the stick.

Once you've attached all the wires, tie a string or another wire from both ends of the stick so you can hang it  on the wall or in your window.

Now your sea glass can be admired and not stuck at the bottom of a jar.

I find myself looking at the uniqueness of all the glass pieces now.

xo

A Thank You Gift

I'm coming to the end of my internship at the high school and I wanted to get the counselors a  thank you gift.  Being a very organized group of people, they use highlighters on everything.  I came across these pencil highlighters by Stubby Pencil Studio on Pinterest and knew they would make a perfect gift!

I used tags from the Packagery store to stamp each of their names onto and used extra pieces of string and yarn to tie the tags to the highlighters.

I got an Eco Highlighter for myself also and find myself using it all the time!

I'm hoping the counselors will love them as much as I do!

xo