The Violet Hours

Time for Confetti

{via I Spy with my Salad Eyes}

If you don't love confetti, you don't have a soul. Ok, maybe it's a mess to clean up, but even the cheesiest of metallic confetti has a glittery, sparkly, ephemeral impact. Check out these surprising ways to use it....

Put a packet of confetti in your wedding invitation. I'm beyond in love with this one that I found on Pinterest!

 

How awesome are these tube confetti throwers from Oh Happy Day? Love love love...

 

I still love the confetti gift wrap that I blogged about two years ago!

 

Love the look but hate the mess? Try a stamped table runner (you can use a pencil eraser, a wine cork, or a sliced carrot) that gives the illusions of confetti like this one from Love Luxe.

Time to Decorate with Fruit

Yes, you heard me. And yes, you are reading The Violet Hours blog. I know, decorating with fruit may sound super grandma to you, but after you look at this post, your mind will be forever changed!

Oh Happy Day always gets it right, and this fruit balloon garland proves it. I'm obsessed!

I specifically sought out a pineapple wallpaper because I won't deny that I love it. And how perfectly crafty is this color-by-numbers one by Jenny Wilkinson found on Design*Sponge?

Call me crazy (Michael-husband, I hear you the loudest), but I could really get behind a glass fruit chandelier in my life one day. Found via Pinterest.

What is it with pears that make us love them so? I love all three of these lovely dolled up plastic pear crafts. Sources: Glitter pears, We Heart It; Chalk pears, The Empty Nest; Jute Pears, I Should Really Be Sleeping.

Oeuf never ceases to fail when it comes to their garlands. I'm in love with this crocheted cherry one.

If this pomegranate iPhone wallpaper were real wallpaper, it would be in my bathroom.

 

Almost as good as Willy Wonka's lick-able wallpaper, these bananas from Flavor Paper are scratch-n-sniff. For real.

Are you inspired now? But just pick one. You don't want your home looking like a giant fruit salad.

Time for Instagram Love

I am so not alone in my love for Instagram. It has definitely pulled ahead as my favorite form of social media. At this point in my life, I have time to look at pictures and not much else!

Some of my Instagram pics are among my favorite I've ever taken (like this one of my daugther Sommer at her first music class), and I'm desperate to free them from my digital devices and let them live in my world so I can actually touch them. Here are some great ways to do that...

LMNOP blogged about Origrami, a service that prints postcard-quality prints of your Instagram photos. And then packages them in that amazing box. I'm doing this. Even if I have to pay shipping from Australia.

 

I love the way A Beach Cottage arranged Instagram photos of a beach vaca on a wall in the shape of a heart. Because face it, who doesn't love the beach? And Instagram. So if you are a shutter-happy photographer on one subject, this project will visually link the imagery and colors nicely.

 

Seriously, this is a dream of mine: a huge frame with hundreds of Instagram photos. If only I had the wall for it. Found via Because I'm Addicted.

 

Young House Love framed their Instagram photos in jewel cases. Always a fabulous, photograph vehicle. (PS...I'm so proud to share a book publisher with them! How on Earth did that happen?)

Time for the Color PINK

I was driving to Michael's the other day, and heard a fascinating report on NPR. The author of a new book called Drunk Tank Pink, Adam Alter, was discussing with Ira Foster how hidden currents, from reactions to color to our attraction to certain letters of the alphabet, affect our behavior and thoughts in significant ways.

The term "drunk tank pink", I just learned from this website Color Matters, is the name that was given to the color that was used in jail cells to calm violent prisoners. It was discovered that this hue (R:255, G:145, B:175) had a calming influence, even affecting a person's heart rate, but could then create adverse effects after about 15 minutes of being subjected to it.

Then there's the story about the head football coach at the University of Iowa who painted the opposing team's locker room pink to weaken their performance on the field. Rumor has it that the visitors would cover everything with newspaper as best they could before entering the locker room to derail this bubblegum assault.

So naturally I began to think about pink in a new way...little girls clothed in pink, sleeping inside pink walls, chewing on pink plastic giraffes. Do we push this pacifying color onto them or is it a biological attraction? 

A few years ago I blogged about this project by South Korean artist JeongMee Yoon on Parents magazine's Goodyblog. Starting with her 5-year old daughter Yoon conducted a documentary-esque study of children and their possessions. She orderly arranged their belongings, from clothing to pencils to books, in their bedrooms. The resulting photographs are astounding. The diptych is of a set of twins that both started out in the pink world, and then went their separate ways to pink and purple.

I am usually not drawn to pink for my 1-year-old daughter Sommer and much of what she wears is hand-me-downs from her brother (she survived the winter being mistaken for a boy in a navy-blue coat). I'm curious to see how it all shakes out; if one day, she'll be fighting to paint her half of the room blush or bashful.

Time for a Toddler Bed (literally!)

I pinned this photo from a French blog a while ago as aspiration. This is my goal for how I want my kids' room to look. Loose, fun, casual. I'm on my way, for sure...we have a knitted bunting, a mushroom table lamp, a poppy, apple green side table, cool wallpaper from Fine Little Day...and now, we have a toddler bed.

Yes, Oliver has graduated, and thank goodness! Poor Sommer has been waiting for her fashionable, Kalon Studios Caravan crib for months now. We got Oliver the Gulliver bed from Ikea; now I just need to hack it a little bit to give it some European style. I wanted something simple that could compliment the Caravan, but at a lower price point. I plan to style it like a little day bed, and honestly, I can't wait to start pinning textiles.

Tonight will be the first night as a big boy. Must mark it down in the calendar.

Time for Map Crafts

I'm so attracted to maps, both for the actual use (navigation) and for their design and craft aesthetic. Obviously I'm not alone in this, as maps have been decoupaged on everything from coasters to lampshades. But these crafts, like this amazing map dress by Elisabeth Lecourt, are taking maps to new destinations...sorry, it had to be said!

This looks crazy hard I know, but I think the artist just covered this cardboard deer head in maps. Love. Found via Babble.

 

This could be a very cool abstract embroidered design, but it's actually the Paris Metro system. By Needle & Compass on Etsy.

 

I love the link between transportation and navigation with this folded paper map boat by d. Sharp Journal.

 

A travel scrapbook made with map pages? Yes. Found via Scrapbook.com.

 

Ok, so I'm ending with the decoupaged map chair found via Pins for Your Home because I just love it.

Time for Jar Lid Crafts

I save every jar, every lid, every bottle cap...my husband is about to go insane! But if ever there is a post to prove that my obsessive hoarding of trash has a point, it's this one. Here are 6 lovely, clever ways to upcycle jar lids.

This fringe technique that Design*Sponge is showing is what makes these lids looks so smooth and perfect. Love.

I love people that embroider the unexpected, like these lovely jar lids that I found on Pinterest.

 

What I love about this amazing owl craft found via Recycled Aw Blog is that the lid isn't painted, covered, or disguised in any way.

 

Are you serious? You can bake a tart in jar lids? I would probably never do it, but that's just amazing. Found via Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body.

 

I've seen a gazillion jar lights, but never have I seen a light with just the lid. Found via Pinterest.

 

How cute is this printable jar-lid matching game from Smashed Peas & Carrots?

Time for Last Minute Easter Egg Crafts

We are just 3 days away from the official Spring kick-off...Easter. By now you should have made some eggs or planned what you were going to make on Sunday, but if you don't have more specialty craft supplies on hand like rubber cement or candy sprinkles, then just use your basic craft supplies...Tim Gunn would say it's a make-it-work moment!

Colored pencils on eggs by Fine Little Day—seriously simple, seriously gorgeous.

 

Sharpie pens on Easter eggs by Mom.me! Yes!

 

I'm crazy about the soft, washy quality of watercolor Easter eggs. Two lovely examples by Spoon Fork Bacon and Oh Happy Day.

Time for Easter Candy Decorations

I'm usually very anti- the idea of decorating with sugary, edible items as craft materials for all the obvious reasons...the waste, the insect-attraction factor, the potential for decomposition. But honestly, Easter has me rethinking this rule of thumb. And I think because you don't typically leave Easter decorations up for weeks on end, it's totally excusable. Pass the Peeps please!

I made these sprinkle and icing Easter eggs for Parents magazine a bunch of years ago. They are so much fun to make, and there a ton of different techniques! I used corn syrup as glue...worked better than hot glue!

Martha Stewart always takes Easter to a different place. I wouldn't let my kids anywhere near these beautifully styled jars of Easter candy!

 

What's prettier than a sugary, gumdrop wreath like this one from A Pretty Cool Life? Just shellac it and save it for Christmas!

 

I love the idea of using candy-dot paper strips as easter basket decor like this one from Parents magazine (ok, I know...but I used to work there!).

 

You can't talk about Easter candy decorations without Peeps. This sweet topiary by Country Woman magazine is amazingly easy to make. Go ahead and use your glue gun on this one...who wants to eat peeps anyway?

Time for Easter Egg Craft Smarts

Really and truly, I could come up with dozens of topics for Easter egg posts...animals eggs, people eggs, egg totems...but I feel the need to think outside the shell a little bit. Today, I've chosen to feature egg crafts that are a specific color for a specific reason. Huh, you ask? Take a look...

 

As a New Yorker, the brilliance of these MTA Subway eggs just can't even be put into words. I'm just mad I never thought of it. Made by The Soho.

 

Oh Pantone, how we love to use you as a motif! How About Orange dyed eggs, then accurately matched them to her Pantone chips. Smart lil lady.

 

Leave it to Martha Stewart to bring color theory into Easter egg crafting. And turn out a gorgeous, modern result. Found via Present & Correct.