DIY: Simple Beaded Necklace Tutorial

Sometimes you're in a bind and need a quick gift for someone. Sometimes you have some beads and some chain. Sometimes that turns into a present and the day is saved! Like in the case of this necklace. I just couldn't find the perfect gift so I decided to make it.

You can never go wrong with a handmade gift. People will appreciate that you took the time to make it even if they don't wear it. But, hopefully, you know the person you're trying to buy a present for well enough that you know they'd love your gift (or at least fake it). So here's a quick and easy DIY gift that you can put a lot of love and personalization into. 

Easy Beaded Necklace Tutorial

Loving Right Now: Kitschy Vintage Kitchen Decor

I'm still in the process of trying to make my new apartment feel like a home and it's been so hard to focus on just one room. I want to buy everything, for every room, all at once! Anyone else understand this feeling?

Of course, I can't do that because as much as I wish I am, I am not a millionaire. So, I've been doing it slowly — paycheck by painstaking paycheck and cutting corners where I can. Like the responsible human being that I am. Unfortunately, all this has allowed me to do is continue adding items to an ever growing list of "wants". That combined with my inability to focus on one room has created an odd list and caused be to buy things on impulse - making for some very odd, half-finished rooms. To combat this insanity, I've decided to share it with you! Aren't you excited? In an effort to focus, I'm just going to share my wants, my loves, my hopes, and my dreams for my new apartment room by room. Maybe that way I won't wonder why I have an extensive plate collection for the kitchen walls but still no table for the craft room (yes, this is a real problem).

Favorite Things: Cozy Winter Necessities

If the constant snow storms and freezing cold are any indication, we're still in for a long month of winter ahead. Luckily for us, there are plenty of ways to bog down, get cozy, stay warm, and pretend that the outdoors don't exist. So to help each other out through these rough and windy days and dream of blankets, candles, and warm tea, I've put together a collection of all my favorite things that make winter hibernation not so bad.

First off, what everyone needs to start hibernation season is something warm to drink and nothing makes tea better than an adorable tea pot with an even cuter infuser. I'm a loose tea drinker mainly because I like the idea of wasting less packaging, but with all these new and adorable infusers, it's hard not be a loose tea drinker!

What I Wore: The Winter Wonderland Edition

We've had quite a few inches of snow here in Chicago the last few weeks. Meaning that I've hardly been away from my Dr. Martens and fleece lined leggings at all and while I do adore both of those things, sometimes you do start to hate wearing the same shoes every single day. This is why I own like 40 pairs of shoes - I like variety. Winter does not like variety. It's cold and bleak and snowy pretty much the whole time, meaning there is no place for tights or heels or anything cute unless you want to freeze and you like having everyone look at you like you're a maniac.

10 Funny Valentine's Day Cards for the Romantically Challenged

I don't really make it a secret that I hate Valentine's Day. Yes, hate. I'm not single or bitter or whatever else you assume about people who say they hate Valentine's Day but only really hate it when they don't have someone to celebrate with. I just greatly dislike the super forced fake sentiment that comes with it. If you love me, great! Tell me all the time and take me out on date on the regular. Don't save some grand romantic gesture or a day in February when you're jammed in a restaurant with 40 other couples. Oh geez. I'm going to break out in hives just thinking about it.

That being said, I like cards. I think they're funny and they're a nice gesture any time of the year to say, "Hey you, I was thinking about you. Here's a piece of paper I found to prove it." Cute, right? I'm sure I'm not the only romantically challenged girl on the Internet, so in a show of solidarity here are a few card options you can still pick up if your way of saying "I love you" involves Netflix and pizza.

10 Funny Valentine's Day Cards for the Romantically Challenged

First off, for the cat lovers:

By Tattoos and Love Letters on Etsy

What I Wore: The 60s Shift Edition

Ah, estate sale shopping. That is the life. If my day job could be hunting for gems at estate sales, I'd be one happy camper. Unfortunately, it's just a hobby for now, but when you hit a jackpot it's oh-so-satisfying! I stumbled across a gorgeous collection that belonged to a little stylish lady who travled a lot in her lifetime with her husband. The collection of souvenir plates in their home was out of this world. But, naturally, I gravitated towards the closets and I was not disappointed. This little number is definitely one of my favorites that I picked up recently. So simple, yet so eye catching with it's delicately detailed collar and sleeves.

Interior Design: Cozy Winter Cabin

Well, we're sitting pretty in the middle of a blizzard and when that happens, it's hard not to dream of cozy winter cabins and lots of blankets. So, in the spirit of the season, here's a chic and cozy modern cabin to dream about.

Interior Design: 7 Creative Work Spaces

I'm a lucky girl. I have the most wonderful and patient boyfriend who let me turn our spare bedroom into a craft room, while he suffers out in the dinning room with a table and a bookshelf. What can I say? I have more crafty crap and most of his hobbies involve the garage, so it seemed fair. But I've been feeling guilty lately because I'm not great at organizing, making it really difficult to actually craft in my craft room. Essentially, it's a giant, somewhat orderly storage closet. I have a tendency to grab what I need and just craft in the living room anyway. I know. I'm a jerk. So, I think it's time to start getting myself organized in a way that makes it easy to use the craft room. For that inspiration, I go to Pinterest (naturally).

Interior Design: Rustic Summer Getaway

This is apparently a summer home, however, I would absolutely live here year-round. It's bright, it's cozy, and it's got some serious family style. I love it. It's in New York state, but I don't really care because even if winters get snowy, all the windows and skylights would make is so worth living there. Now that I mention it, how does one clean a skylight? Hmmm...questions for a different time in my life.

Design Trends from IKEA: Colored Floor revolution

I'm sure by now you're well aware that IKEA is jumping on the mid-century design bandwagon and releasing a whole line of mid-century inspired gems. Great. Awesome. Love it. Looks great. Except, when I was looking through the new IKEA collection there is only one thing that really, really stood out to me...

For The Love of Blogging

I admit it. I've been M.I.A. lately. Okay, a lot lately. You may not have noticed it, but I've felt it. I thought it was just a case of blogger burnout (oh yes, it's real), and that I would snap out of it. That, just like writers block, it would eventually be washed away with new inspiration. Nope. I was wrong. It wasn't blogger burnout that was holding me back. I wasn't lacking in inspiration; I could think of 10 new blog post ideas just on my walk to the train. So what was it? What was killing my drive?

For The Love of Blogging

DIY: Easy Skull Earrings Tutorial

I'm a very bad DIY blogger because I've been holding on to these gorgeous skull beads for over a month because...well, life. Anyway, the very nice people over at Auntie's Beads gave me a $25 gift certificate to go nuts (as if I could ever buy just $25 worth of beads, but it was a nice gesture) and I picked these up along with a few other awesome jewelry making pieces and I knew exactly what I was going to make with them. These DIY skull earrings are super easy to make and you can customize with any kind of beads you'd like, so I thought they might make for a fun tutorial!

What I Wore: The Winter Has Arrived Edition

Yep. This is not a false alarm. It's here people. Winter has arrived already and it freaking sucks, already. Can you believe it? Well, actually if you're a born and bread midwesterner like myself, then yes. You can believe it and you think it's silly that I'm even talking about it, but I'll talk about what I damn well please and I hate the cold, dammit! 

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to bitch about the cold, it's to bitch about dressing for the cold. Does anyone else go into a panic when the temp drops below 40? It's like I forget how this works and start putting together some really odd combinations. Anything to stay warm, you know? One thing that is definitely essential is a good winter coat. If you can find one that's cute on top of good, you better buy 10 of them. After several years of attempting to look fashionable in the cold, I just gave up and decided that I need a large collection of warm coats and I'm always on the lookout for a good buy. When it's 20 degrees outside, your best bet at fashion is 2 chunky sweaters, a cute coat, a colorful scarf, and a big hat...under your hood, of course.

The SMEG Revolution

The SMEG Revolution is upon us. Yes, it's true. Hold on to your hats people. For those of you interested in the interior design world, those that follow interior design blogs, or, heck, even just hang out on Pinterest sometimes, you're familiar with the SMEG refrigerator. It's the vintage, candy-colored appliance of your dreams. And it costs a pretty penny to make your kitchen look like it has hopped out of the 1950s, so, for most of us, it has always been very much a dream. Well, dream no more my design friends! Your kitchen appliances are so close to being candy-colored, you should almost be able to taste it!