The Violet Hours

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 Spring Break Staycation Crafts

I just started contributing to a very cool, newish parenting website called Mom.me, where you can explore crafts, behavior advice, recipes...basically everything under the sun that comes along with the parenting gig. They asked me to come up with some fun Spring Break staycation crafts. I tried to make each project something that would be just that: a project; not something that would only take 5 minutes. So here are a handful of the ideas. You can see the whole gallery here at Mom.me.

Snap Happy ABCs sends kids on a scavenger hunt with a camera, looking to find something from every letter of the alphabet to photograph. Upload the photos to picmonkey.com to add text then bind it with zip ties in paper-covered cereal box sides.

Growing up, my sister and I had a self-cleaning Lego mat like this Road Mat. You just push all of the toys into the center, then pull the drawstring and there you go! Clean-up is done-zo! My 2-year old son Oliver cannot believe how lucky he is that this is Mommy's "work".

The play value in this cardboard castle is huge. Let your kids spend the week constructing, and they'll play with it endlessly!

I don't think there's anything more satisfying than putting together a terrarium. Send the kids out in the backyard to gather moss, sticks, and rocks, then arrange them on top of soil in an upcycled plastic snack container (the one I used was from Target's addictive trail mix).

In most homes with young kids, you can find a handful of popsicle sticks. Just add some velcro dots to the ends and watch the kids come up with a gazillion ways to play with them. I call this, Popsicle Stickies. It's good, I know.

Check out the rest of the craft ideas on Mom.me! My second story with them will go live on April 4th; I'll be sure to remind you when it's up. (And follow them on Pinterest...they have good taste, I swear!)

Time for Fresh Eggs: Modern Easter Egg Crafts

One of the last stories I produced as Lifestyle Director at Parents Magazine was this Easter egg story by the amazingly talented Jocelyn Worrall. Prepare yourself for some overwhelming cuteness!

These beauties were made with just a simple brush and tempera paint.

 

We've all seen the chick Easter egg craft before, but these yellow-dyed large eggs are sitting in jumbo egg shells. Genius. Watch the how-to video here.

 

This technique uses rubber cement. So easy to do and the results are gorgeous! Watch a how-to video here.

 

Wrap a ceramic or wooden egg in white yarn to make these fluffy bunnies that you can use year after year. Watch a how-to video here.

 

These little guys might possibly be my favorite. Keep clicking through the slideshow on Parents.com to see the instructions.

 

 

Time for an Elegant St. Patty's Day

Ok, I must confess, this is one holiday that I fully ignore every year. I don't wear green underwear and I don't buy gold chocolate coins. But it's 2013, the era of the elevated craft, so of course St. Patty's Day has taken on a whole new modern, elegant aesthetic. Oleander & Palm has shown me the path of the sophisticated St. Patrick's Day. I didn't think it could be done, but she did it. Bravo!

Not just green and gold silhouettes, but green and gold silhouettes of kids holding 4-leaf clovers. So sweet.

 

Seriously, I could live with this shamrock wall decal on my wall all year round.

 

Everyone should enjoy a green beverage on St. Patty's Day. And it doesn't have to be held with a coozie or make you belch. A lime shebert fizzy drink? I'd drink you even without the cute gold-heart shamrock.

Time for DIY Garlands

My daughter Sommer's birthday falls in early April, and here in New York, there is no guarantee of gorgeous, spring weather. So for her first birthday, I'm just going to do it up at home. We have a pretty big living/dining/kitchen "open-concept" room and I've been trying to figure out what broad-stroke decorations I can create to really give the room a transformation. I took this photo last weekend at Erica Tanov (best store!) and decided on pink and yellow, with a splash of navy, for the color world. The store has a Parcel pop-up shop in the back which is where these sweet garlands came from. Depending on how you make and then use garlands, they can do the trick to really take over a room.

My criteria for this project are... (1) Bold & Impactful (2) Quick & Easy (3) Inexpensive & Accessible.

Oh crepe paper, how I love you so! These big fringe garlands are so easy to make and can seriously take over the most blah of spaces. By Oh Happy Day.

I'm a little tired of the circle garland, but the half circle? I'm okay with it. But really, it's how they used this garland that really works. You can use it to take up a whole wall with this elegant swag. Via Pinterest, by Fellow Fellow on Etsy.

 

I love the watery, washy quality of these painted book pages from Lilla A. What if they are strung up around a room, sort of like the traditional Tibetan prayer flags? Hmmm....

 

Don't rule out paper chains as a totally viable throw-back DIY garland. They are super simple to make and you can craft a lot of them to really fill a space. Via Pinterest, via Parcel Post.

 

I think adding a little glitter twinkle into the mix is a good idea. I love how these strips of fabric looked dipped in glitter. And the idea of my guests leaving with a little glitter in their hair is just plain nice. Via Pinterest, by Michelle Edgemont.

Time for Alt Summit NYC!

If you tried to register for Alt Summit NYC, then you know the agony that I went through on Friday at 12pm EST. Servers crashing...error messages...it was nasty. And sadly, I didn't get a spot.

But, by the grace of the design-blogger gods, I got an email yesterday that, in fact, I'm in! I just had to finish my registration and click submit. Best submit button ever.

This photo illustrates my extreme elation that I get to rub elbows with the craftiest ladies of the interweb!

Time for Washi Tape Walls

{image via pinterest}

I'm not sure that there has been an invention of a craft material in my lifetime as monumental as washi tape. I can't get enough of the stuff. I'm hard-pressed to find a tacky washi-tape project. If I see it in a store, I can't not touch it. Should I see a doctor? Maybe. There are a gazillion awesome uses for the stuff; here are totally clever (and simple) ways to use washi tape on your walls.

Image via.

 

Image via Plenty of Colour.

 

Image via Objects & Use.

 

Image via Design*Sponge.

 

Image via.

 

Image via At Home In Love.

 

Image via Stylizimo.

 

Image via Studio Tout Petit.

Buy washi tape to your heart's content here at happytape.com. And find the new giant washi tape here! I need some!

Time for Keepsakes

I thought I'd just finish out this week of family/photo love with a little post about creative ways to preserve keepsakes. Right now, I have 2 boxes, one for each kid, where I toss all of the little meaningful objects from their short lives...their hospital bracelets, their Welcome to the World cards, their sonogram photos. At some point I'm going to need a new solution. Here are a few thoughts...

I'm so crazy about these lovely shadow boxes. They are just the right amount of delicate, with their soft colors and simple white edging. For the life of me, I can't figure out where they are from (if you know, leave a comment!), but I think they are pretty DIYable. Image via Pinterest.

 

Have you ever seen Darcy Miller's (from Martha Stewart Weddings) scrapbook shadow boxes? They're amazing.

 

I love the idea of this sweet book keepsake box for love letters, gift tags, or photographs. Image via One Sunny Afternoon.

 

And for the most nostalgic (read: sappy), I can't get enough of these clean and modern, enamel lockets. I'd love to wear a few together. (Husband, if you're reading, bookmark this.)

Time to Photograph Children

I feel like this is an appropriate follow-up to Monday's reflection post. I saw this on Design Mom today, and it literally made my eyes well up in loveliness. You Are My Wild is a weekly portrait project that brings together 14 photographers to document how they see their children. Here are a few stand-outs for me... (There are so many amazing ones...you have to see for yourself.)

photographer: Anje Marie

why i love it: the post-mortem joy of the celebration, the parade, the party...all taken in with studious black glasses.

*****

photographer: rebecca zeller

why i love it: you can read two different personalities of these children from above and below the table. the purple tights and the crossed feet speak volumes.

*****

photographer: brooke schwab

why i love it: this photo truly felt like a moment in the day of this family. there is no sense of performance at all. just the transference of pure love in the grasp of her ponytail.

*****

photographer: shelby brakken

why i love it: he is looking out the window, plotting how buzz will make it to infinity.

*****

photographer: kati dimoff

why i love it: the band-ade'd knees and sidewalk chalk scribble make me think this girl is a fearless artist.

As a photo major in college, I always imagined that my kids would only know me with a black box in front of my face, but little did I know that the iPhone was to be invented just 15 or so years later. So instead of the black box, there is this little rectangular, deck-of-cards sized object that can sometimes capture a moment on the fly. How lucky am I that not only do I get to preserve my kids' moments constantly, but I can also see the light of day.

Time for Patchwork Inspiration

I can't even describe the visceral feeling that I get when I see these amazing aerial photographs by Normann Szkop of tulip fields in Holland. Those colors! I'm obviously not the first nor the last to think of gorgeous patchwork quilts when looking at these squares of bright hues. But then it made me wonder if patchwork has a place off the bed and into other design-y places in the home. I think I've discovered the answer to be yes. {Photo via This is Colossal.}

Patchwork walls are a dime-a-dozen, but this one from Decor8 grabbed me because of the mix of paper genres, so to speak—scrapbook paper, posters, book pages. I think if you try to control it too much you get trapped into a corner of color, style, or shape. But when you fully let go and let it be as random as possible, you can't mess it up.

 

I'm crazy about this patchwork tiled floor from an old issue of Budget Living that I found on Pinterest. Individually, I would never pick most of those tile patterns, but once they are all put together, they form such a soft, cool patchwork effect.

 

Fabric is obviously the logical material to use for patchwork. These lovely cushions spotted on Chic & Posh are a great surprise when you pull the red chair out from the table.

I'm feeling the patchwork itch. It's a perfect motif for kids since it's so free form. Where will it end up in my book?