my comprehensive pink hair guide

I've been dyeing my hair pink on and off since 2011, so I thought I'd finally assemble everything I've learned in that time period and write a post about it! I am not a professional, so if you're unaccustomed to fooling around with your own hair I'd definitely recommend going to a hair salon if you want to dye your hair pink.



Deciding to go PINK!

If you're considering pink hair and haven't dyed it or bleached it before, I'd definitely recommend trying a wig first, or at least photoshoping a photo of yourself to see how you like it. In the first photo above I was wearing a pink wig that I bought on ebay. I just wanted to make sure that I'd like the color before I went and dyed my whole head. At the time I went pink, I was already bleaching my hair and then dyeing it red with a box dye. Switching to semi-permanent pink dye was actually healthier for my hair than the red I was using! Even though most people need to bleach their hair before applying fun colors, the actual fun colored dye is usually completely harmless (depends on the brand, but most are free of harmful chemicals) and when mixed with conditioner it's actually like a deep conditioning mask that also dyes your hair at the same time!



The Bleaching

I usually touch up my roots once every five weeks, and touch up my pink hair dye two times in between. If you aren't comfortable bleaching your own hair, you should definitely go to a hair stylist for this part. After years of doing my own hair I feel like I know what it can handle and how to treat it. I have really thick, dry, medium brown hair. I usually use one of the bleach kits that they sell at Sally's (like Beyond the Zone or Manic Panic) that comes with bleach powder and developer. The instructions say to leave it on for up to like 90 minutes, which seems insanely long to me. I usually rinse it off about 10 minutes after I'm done applying the bleach to my whole head. For pink hair, you really don't need it to get super light. Mine is usually a light/medium yellow after bleaching and the pink shows up perfectly vibrant and true to color. Some colors (like when I was dyeing my hair purple earlier this year) require more of a whiter base to start with, but pink is really forgiving.

The dyeing

I usually apply the pink dye right after bleaching, since I mix it with a ton of conditioner. It's ridiculous how soft and healthy my hair feels after I had just bleached it the same day! I usually go for a medium pink, not super light but not neon either. Pour a tiny bit of your dye into a plastic container and then add white conditioner until you get the shade that you're going for. Always start out with a little dye and then add more as needed -- I can't even count how many times I put in too much dye and ended up using a whole bottle of conditioner to try to dilute it down to the right shade of pink!

Keep in mind, dyes are a lot like paint -- you can mix them to get a shade that's perfect for you! Sometimes I've bought pink dyes that were kind of magenta when I really wanted more of a coral, so I'd mix in a little bit of semi-permanent red dye to get the color I wanted. I'm not a big fan of Manic Panic (it usually fades fast) but I keep a bottle of their Wildfire Red dye on hand for whenever I want to coral-ize a pink dye.



The products

My all-time favorite pink hair dye is nowhere to be found anymore (at least right now it isn't) Special Effects in Cupcake Pink was A DREAM. One bottle would last forever, the color would last for like 3 weeks, it was a perfect candy shade of pink -- not too blue, not too red. Perfection. Unfortunately, my last bottle ran out earlier this year and I set on the path of finding a substitute -- 

1. Manic Panic cotton candy pink -- Sally's usually has this, so I'll get it if I need pink hair dye IMMEDIATELY and can't wait for something to come in the mail. It's a pretty color but it fades really, really fast. This is great if you're trying pink for the first time, though, because if you don't like it it'll wash out in like 2-3 shampoos.

2 - Creative Image Adore pink rose - This is my current favorite. The consistency is more of a liquid than any of the other dyes I've tried, but it's the closest I've found to Special Effects cupcake pink in terms of color, longevity and how much you get out of each bottle. The color is really saturated, so to achieve the color I prefer I usually add just a few drops to a big heaping wad of conditioner. I bought one bottle in April and I'm still using it!

3 - Ion Color Brilliance rose - I feel like this one was kind of deceiving. I bought it at Sally's earlier this year. It's one of Ion's pastel shades -- they just look SO pretty on the shelf, all sweet and dainty with perfect pastel packaging. Well, the hair dye was like intense neon pink, even when I diluted it with conditioner. And it faded almost completely after one shower. I would not recommend this one at all.

4 - Pravana chromasilk pastel too cute coral - I've heard a lot of good things about Pravana so I decided to give it a try last month. The color is really pretty, kind of peachy pink and perfectly pastel. It faded kind of fast though, and one tube didn't seem like enough to totally cover my hair (and my hair is not that long.) I'd consider trying it again, but I'm so happy with the Creative Image one I don't think I'll be testing anything else in the near future.

5 - Kevin Murphy color bug hair chalk - This isn't a dye, but it's a lifesaver if you're maintaining pink hair. I like this particular color and how it's packaged, but basically any pink hair chalk should do. If you miss a big chunk of hair when you're dyeing it, or if one section is fading fast (the top back part of my head always fades quickest because that's where the shower head is pounding the most water onto my hair) one swipe of hair chalk and a quick brush-through will help disguise the blonde peeking through.

6 - Pink temporary hair mascara - Again, not dye but another lifesaver. When your roots are coming in and you're not ready to touch them up yet, this stuff is a little miracle worker. I had bright blue hair mascara when I was a tween and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Earlier this year I did a search on amazon to see if it was still available and voila! Pink hair mascara. This only really works if you're still touching up your pink in between bleaching, otherwise your hair will be practically blonde by the time the roots are coming in. I touch up my pink often enough that it's always relatively vibrant, and the hair mascara still matches the color. Bleaching isn't the healthiest thing for your hair (duh!) so anything that helps stretch out the time between touch-ups is worth trying.



Some things to keep in mind

In addition to making sure that you're going to like the color, you really need to consider the time and energy that goes into maintaining pink hair. I don't pamper myself with things like spas, massages, pedicures, etc. so I consider pink hair maintenance my one little beauty indulgence. It takes me a few hours pretty much every other week to work on the dye. I'll camp out in the bathroom watching Netflix on my laptop while the dye is taking. It's actually enjoyable me-time! But if you don't have that kind of time to spend on your hair, definitely consider that beforehand. Also make sure that you either cover your bathroom with towels or own a bathroom that can get dye EVERYWHERE. My  bathroom was basically an art project for me all through high school, with so many layers of paint on the walls it's probably impossible to find the original color. So I don't really care if dye is flinging onto the walls while I work. But I'm guessing most people don't want pink spots on their white tile, so keep that in mind lol.

Also, especially if your hair is vibrantly pink, people will talk to you about it. I'm really shy so it's not my favorite part of having pink hair, to say the least. A lot of people will joke "is that your natural color?" (to which I always just reply "yes.") A few people might want to touch it. That's always super weird. But no matter which colors I try, pink always feels the most "me-ish" so I keep coming back to it. I guess I'm not really lying when I say it's my natural color -- it feels the most natural to me, it just doesn't grow that way out of my scalp (unfortunately!)



Right now I have a more muted pink. I did this in September 2012 and absolutely loved it, so I decided to go back to it again. I use the same pink, diluted with conditioner, except instead of bleaching I started with Clairol Light Red-Neutral Blonde (8RN) mixed with 20 volume developer. It gives me a strawberry/honey blonde base instead of a bright yellow one, which results in a more muted pink. I love that it's more subtle, but still pink! And the 20 volume developer is healthier on my hair than the 40 volume developer that comes in the bleach kits (plus, no bleach!)

One last thing that I love about pink hair -- whenever I've decided that it's time to switch to another color, be it red, brown or even purple, pink has always gone away nicely. I'll apply conditioning masks, rinse it with hot water, and after 2-3 showers it's practically blonde again and ready for whatever color I want to throw on next. Purple was NOT that forgiving. It would not rinse out no matter how much I tried. When I attempted to bleach over it, my hair turned green! Basically my only option seemed to be dyeing it green or teal to make it look intentional. Then I did some research and read on a hair forum (don't remember which one, sorry!) that there was a color you could dye over green-stained hair that would still look amazing. Guess what color? Go ahead, guess!

Yup, it was pink. My beloved pink to the rescue!! Seriously, it's just the best color ever.

DIY inner beauty artwork

I know this DIY isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I personally LOVE it and thought I'd share in case anyone else is equally enchanted with medical imagery.

First a little back story -- In 2005 I was getting crippling migraines, so my doctor ordered an MRI of my brain. After a super scary couple of weeks in between my doctor saying she thought I had a brain tumor and a specialist telling me I didn't (PHEW) I was left with some incredibly cool images of my brain. I've always wanted to find a way to turn them into artwork, but couldn't really figure out how. I also didn't really want to have super dark pictures on my walls, and these images are always mostly black. I finally worked this out a couple weeks ago and now I'm trying to talk my (super reluctant) family to do a really unique family portrait wall. haha!



Okay, so the first thing you need is a medical image. Basically MRIs, X-Rays, CT scans, etc. If you have a printout (like an ultrasound) you can skip this step, which helps to capture the negative image. Just hold it up to a light source, like a window or a lightbox, and take a close-up photo. This highlights all of the details that you normally can't see on the negatives sheet.



When you open the image on your computer, it should look like the first image here, with a dark background. You want to invert the colors, so that the background becomes light. I used photoshop, but you can invert colors in a bunch of different programs, even MS Paint! If you aren't sure how to do it in a specific program, just try googling "invert colors [program name]" :)

Now this is where you can start getting creative! I played around with the hue/saturation controls to get a really bright purple image. You can even do hue/saturation in Preview on a mac. Just drag the controls until you find the colors that you like best. After I settled on hot pink, I used the Fill tool in photoshop to fill in the background with a light pink color. You could always do this part manually, printing out your image, cutting it out, and then mounting it on a colored paper background! Another idea, if you don't have access to photo editing programs, would be to have the image inverted and then printed on bright colored paper at Staples or Kinkos!

I really wanted artwork that showed my whole head, but maybe you want a more discreet way of showing off your inner beauty? ;) Simply crop the image to create a really cool abstract art piece. Here I used a close-up from a CT scan of my sinuses.



If you have photoshop or a similar program that allows you to select specific parts of your image, you can change the colors in sections, instead of the whole image. Here I selected two little areas in the pink and then dragged my hue/saturation control so that the colors would be teal instead.

Like I said, I know it's not for everyone. Personally, I'm absolutely fascinated by images like this. I mean, my brain is processing the fact that I'm looking at a picture of my brain. That's so awesome to me!!

my favorite photo editing apps

I have a *real* camera but I use my iphone for almost all of my photos anyway. It's just easier - it's always with me, and since my cats tend to be my subject 90% of the time (okay, 99%) it's most convenient to grab my phone and quickly shoot whatever adorable thing they're doing. For blog photos I usually end up lightening them up in photoshop on my computer, but for instagram I like to edit right on my phone. I have an arsenal of (what I think are) pretty awesome photo editing apps that help make my pictures bright, sunny and beautiful! Here are my favorites --



Afterlight has been my go-to for the last year or more. It has controls for adjusting things like saturation, contrast, exposure, shadows, fill light, etc. The ones that I tend to fiddle with the most are brightness and exposure, and then I'll usually bring down the contrast a bit, too. This also has tools for straightening crooked pictures, adding white bars to non-square pictures so they'll fit in instagram and tons of really pretty filters (with opacity adjustment, yay.)



One of the first photo editing apps I ever downloaded was Photoshop Express and.. it kind of stunk. I was expecting it to be the best one ever because, well, Photoshop! A couple weeks ago I decided to try it out again and they've definitely updated the app. The exposure control on is KILLER. It comes with some nice filters, too, but you can't adjust opacity so I think that makes them kind of useless. For me this app is totally all about the exposure. I swear it brightens SO well without washing out colors, something I sometimes have a problem with in Afterlight (and even real Photoshop!)



Genius is my outfit posting buddy. I open the Genius app and stick it on self timer with a ten second repeat. It beeps to count down the seconds, and then takes a picture every ten seconds & saves it to the camera roll. Sometimes I use a camera remote but this is usually a lot easier and I'm just used to it now. It has other timed settings (you don't have to choose 10 seconds) and some other nifty features too but it's, by far, the best self timer app I've tried.



A Beautiful Mess is the only app I use for adding things like borders, images or text. In Afterlight you can add white bars to the sides of non-square photos, but I don't like posting them to Instagram that way. I need color! So whenever I have a picture that's formatted like that, I add a pink scalloped border with this app (example). I love that every embellishment has a bunch of color options and the ability to resize, change opacity and rotate. Plus the app designers are sweet and kind of super awesome.



For collage purposes, Diptic is definitely my favoite. I actually use this a lot for personal photos, just to compare pictures -- like if I try on a couple outfits for a trip I'll take photos & put them all in a Diptic to see them at a glance & decide which ones I like best. My favorite feature about this app is that you can delete the borders, so your entire image is just filled with photos. You can also keep the borders if you want, and resize them to be thick or thin. I think you can even change the color, but I love when they're borderless myself. And there are SO many layout options. Like a crazy amount.



Last but not least is Retouch. I can't count how many times one of my cats has done something SO cute but there's a bobby pin laying on the floor right next to their head. Or a picture of my workspace is done-in by a pencil smear on my table. Little details like that might not be noticeable to everyone else but YOU see them and can't see anything else, you know? Anyway, I get rid of tiny imperfections with Retouch. It's kind of like the content aware function in Photoshop except honestly I think it works even better.

And that's it! If you want to see my iphone-edited-photos you can always take a peek at my instagram ;)

DIY shiny wall covering

I had every intention of posting this on Saturday but my body thought it would be more fun to get food poisoning instead. It definitely wasn't fun. I'm better now but it probably wasn't my favorite holiday weekend to date, lol.

Anyway! On to the DIY! My new bedroom was missing a key component that most bedrooms have -- four walls. One of the walls in my room is a half-wall with an opening into our front entryway. It's blocked off and concealed with a set of bookshelves from the front, but on my end I just see the back of the shelves, a kind of ugly that paint doesn't sufficiently hide. I have a white curtain hanging behind them but it still looks pretty makeshift. So I came up with this quick, easy (and most importantly, cheap!) project to hide the weird wall and make my closet oh-so-glam in the process! :D



All you need are door curtains from the party supply store and command strips. How many you need of each depends on the wall you're covering, but for me it was five curtains and 20 strips (four per curtain.) The total project came in under $40 and the most effort involved was just moving my clothes out of the way while I worked and then moving them back again!



All you have to do is attach the command strips to the top of the curtain and adhere them to the top of the wall. In my case, since I was trying to hide a half-wall, I attached them to the ceiling since there is no wall in the area where the bookcases are standing. You can't even tell that it isn't one complete wall now!

This next step is really only necessary if you have cats since the shiny door curtains just SCREAM "come play with me" to felines. After you attach the curtains to the ceiling, cut off the excess so that it isn't dangling to the floor. So just make sure the ends are safely out of reach. And make sure there aren't any stray pieces laying around after you've chopped off the hem.

It's definitely a bold (possibly a little bit gaudy?) statement wall but I kind of love it! It started out as a cheap solution to an ugly problem but turned into one of my favorite projects in my new room! :)

how to be a happy blogger

Whenever I'm on pinterest I see a ton of pins for posts like "5 ways to increase your blog traffic" or "Make your blog successful with three simple steps" or "Sell your soul and gain 100 blog followers!" etc. But I never see anything about actually enjoying blogging.

In February I posted less than any month since 2010. Yikes! Part of it is because I was on vacation and had limited access to wi-fi for about a week, but I'd be lying if I said that I was the least bit bothered by being unable to blog. I was kind of relieved. I've been having major blog fatigue this year and there have been countless moments when I've given serious thought to throwing in the towel. I'm not going to, but I thought about it... a lot. So this post is really as much for me as it is for anyone else.

Blogging is fun. First and foremost, it should always be fun. Obviously if you're a full-time blogger who makes your living from blogging sometimes it won't be fun and you'll have to do it anyway, but this post is directed more towards people like me (and maybe you?) who primarily blog because we enjoy documenting our lives and sharing our favorite things and connecting with other people. There are a lot of things that can put a damper on blogging but if you can maneuver your way around them and concentrate on the good things, you can be a happy blogger.

Step 1: Ignore any and all numbers.

ALL OF THEM. Trust me. When I first started blogging I used to check my follower count constantly. It would go up by two and I'd get excited and then it would drop by three and I'd be horribly crushed. At some point I just stopped looking on a regular basis. Every once in a while (like if I'm updating my advertising traffic statistics or if I happen to catch the number out of the corner of my eye) I'll notice the number but if you only see it once every few weeks or months you don't see the daily fluctuations that can potentially hurt your feelings. (I know not everyone is as insanely sensitive as me, but if you are, keep this tip in mind!)

This goes for comments as well. I don't look at how many comments each post gets anymore. I do read each comment when I moderate them but I never go back to look at the collective number on a post.

Ignoring numbers isn't just about avoiding disappointment, it's also about enjoying blogging for the act of blogging and not for the goal of gaining followers. That's a perk that comes with blogging, not the reason for doing it.

Step 2: Let it go.

Type up your post, hit publish, share on your various social networking sites if that floats your boat, and then let it go.

Don't baby your blog post. Maybe check in a few months later to re-read it or visit over the holidays when you're working on your year-end round up. But right now, let it go. Let yourself feel the satisfaction of having published a post that you're happy with.

If you are content with a blog post, let that be enough. If you get a positive comment, consider that an added bonus.

Step 3: Blog about what you like.

If you blog about things just because you think other people want to read them, you're not going to be a happy blogger. Blog about what you like. My favorite blogger is Kaylah from The Dainty Squid. I love when she posts about her unique interests like her tooth collection and her interest in the funeral industry. Being yourself and posting about the one-of-a-kind interests that make you YOU will make you a happy blogger (and, uh, oops.. this is probably a tip for being a successful blogger too.)

Related -- don't stop blogging about something because it's lacking in feedback. I'm so guilty of this myself. I can't even tell you how many times I've gotten my hopes up about a new series, broken my first rule (checked the numbers... a lot) and then cancelled said series because nobody seemed to like it as much as me. That needs to stop. If you find joy in scheduling your weekly round-up of marsupial photos, by golly you should keep doing it.

Step 4: Comparison is the thief of joy.

Yup, that quote. It's true. I think this is probably one of the biggest obstacles to being a happy blogger. Finding your own voice in a sea that seems to be populated by thousands of girls who are the blogging equivalents of Ariel from The Little Mermaid can be rough. In comparison you end up feeling like you're one of those little pathetic shrunken (poor unfortunate) souls Ursula keeps on a shelf in her lair.

It's definitely easier said than done. I mean, look at this cartoon by Gemma Correll. If an artist as talented, successful and universally respected as her can feel this way, it's no wonder the rest of us do, too. But as hard as it is to accomplish, it's important to try.

Whenever you find yourself thinking "why can't I have blog photographs like..." or "I wish my life was like ...." just stop for a second. You're awesome. And so are they. You can both be awesome in your own unique ways.

Step 5: Blog when you want to.

I've always thought my worst posts have been the ones I published because I felt like I had to blog that day. My favorite posts are usually the ones that I plan in advance, or the ones I whip up in the spur of the moment on a whim. Schedules are great, and I've stuck with a loose one on-and-off for a few years (obviously not for the last month or so) but if your schedule is getting in the way of your fun, stop.

Summary

Basically blog about the things you love, don't let your blog numbers get you down, and be proud of the work that you put into your posts. Post what you like and then like what you post. And above all, have fun. Enjoy blogging and just be happy.

DIY giant tissue paper heart

This particular wall in my apartment has been causing me headaches ever since I moved in. I painted it white so I'd have a plain backdrop to use whenever I needed one (mostly for etsy product photos) but I still wanted something hanging there in the mean time. It had to be light and easy to remove whenever I needed the plain wall, but large enough to fill up the space.

First I bought a huge projector screen and did a painting on it, thinking I could easily roll it up when it had to be out of the way. But the paint made it difficult to roll up and the big black bar at the top drove me nuts. Then I bought a lightweight cotton tapestry and stretched it on a wooden frame. It was way too dark and busy for the space, so that didn't work either.

Finally I remembered seeing this project on Bri Emery's instagram. I love the way the heart looks but I wanted to make a wall-hanging version without the frame and chicken wire. I LOVE how it came out! It was probably the most time intensive DIY project I've ever worked on but it was definitely worth it.



Materials: Assuming you want a giant heart, Elmer's makes really massive foam board sheets. I got mine at Staples for (I think) $7 each. They're seriously huge. (see board-to-Hubble size comparison above) If you want to make smaller hearts (maybe as Valentine's Day decorations!) you can get smaller foam board at the dollar store or any craft store, or even just use cardboard. You also need Elmer's glue (I needed two bottles to fill the entire heart) tissue paper in the color of your choice (I used about 75 sheets. They came 5 per pack at the dollar store) cut into squares about 2" x 2" and a pencil.

Step 1 - Draw half of a heart onto one piece of your foam board. Cut it out using an x-acto knife (it doesn't have to be too smooth because the tissue paper will cover the edges) and then trace the half-heart onto your other sheet of foam board. Cut out that half.



Step 2 - Line up the two halves and tape them together with clear packing tape or duct tape. Tape both sides.

Step 3 - Cut a rectangle out of your foam board scraps and tape it to the back seam of the heart. This helps keep the heart sturdy, so it won't bend in the middle.

Step 4 -Pour some glue onto a paper plate. Take 2 pieces of tissue paper and wrap them over the top of your pencil. Dip the pencil into Elmer's glue and then adhere it to the foam board. It's the same method you probably used for art projects in kindergarten except instead of one class period this will take hours and hours and hour. But it's fun, I promise.

I used two pieces of tissue paper at a time because I was finding it filled up the heart quicker and the glue wasn't sticking to my pencil eraser. I started out using one piece at a time and pretty much every piece stuck to the pencil.

Once everything is dry you'll probably notice that the heart is incredibly warped. Just flip it over and paint a thick layer of Elmer's glue on the back and let it dry -- that will snap it flat again. To attach it to my wall I screwed a sawtooth hanger to the back and hung it on a single nail. It's incredibly lightweight so it doesn't need much help staying on the wall and it'll be SO easy to take it on-and-off whenever I need to.



I think this would also be cute for a handmade wedding decoration or a photobooth backdrop! Also, like I said, tiny versions sprinkled around the house for valentine's day would be so cute (and less time intensive lol)

DIY embroidery hoop wall

One of the first projects I did at my new apartment (and definitely one of my favorites!) was this embroidery hoop wall displaying some of my favorite family photos. I have a DIY post explaining how I did it over on Bubby and Bean today! You can check it out here.

DIY candy dot cardigan

Modcloth asked four bloggers (including me!) to do a DIY makeover on their charter school cardigan. I went with a really super ridiculously easy project that doesn't even have to be permanent. I used brads from the craft store to create a candy-dot border around the neckline and I love how it turned out! You can view the whole project on the modcloth blog here and watch my little tutorial video below :)

here's an idea: TTFN sign

We're big Winnie the Pooh fans in my family and we each have a character to represent us -- mine is Tigger! I decided to pay homage to my favorite bouncy tiger with this sign above my front door :)

My apartment is on the second floor but you enter at ground level and go up a private staircase to get there, so I thought I'd put a hello sign at the top of the stairs to greet guests when they're arriving (I haven't decided what that one is going to say yet..) and a goodbye sign at the bottom for when they leave.

It was so simple it doesn't even require a DIY post -- I just bought wooden letters at the craft store (already painted white) and attached them with Command strips. The whole project cost like $12. I haven't been super cautious about being renter-friendly (I got a list of how much each thing will cost to replace when I moved in and I'm just planning on owing some money when I move out, lol) but this project is definitely renter-friendly and so fun! :)

my cat-friendly menorah

My dad was raised Jewish and my mom was raised Christian, so I'm one of those lucky people who gets to celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah! We've always made a bigger deal out of Christmas since my dad's family was never big on holidays, but lately I've been making more of an effort to celebrate both sides of my heritage this time of year.

The one hindrance to doing so in my own apartment is that I have very ornery cats (and, I have to admit, I'm a huge klutz myself) so lit candles are just not an option. Even if I sat at a safe distance with my cats locked in another room I'm pretty sure one of us would still manage to set my building on fire. Enter -- the cat (and Kate) friendly menorah!

I purchased this wooden toy menorah from amazon and simply painted the base pink with some leftover wall paint. The candles were already colors that I'm smitten with so I left them the way they were. Now here's the awesome thing about this set -- the little flames are removable! So you can technically "light" each candle! I love it!



Target is carrying wooden menorahs this year, too. As long as the shape is pretty you can really paint it any color to suit your own style! Obviously I will always go the pastel route, but I also think it would look so pretty painted white with gold candles and light blue flames!

daisy button restyle

Lately I've been toying with the idea of updating a lot of my clothes with quick easy little DIY projects. It's so much cheaper than buying new things but it still gives your wardrobe a breath of fresh air! And some minor tweaks can make a plain old garment look really special. There are some things (like big daisy buttons on a coat!) that would make me click "add to cart" in a heartbeat, when it's such an easy thing to just do at home myself!

So for my first project I bought some plastic daisy cabochons to attach to the buttons on my winter coat. It originally came with big round pink and gold shiny buttons which I didn't like, but I knew eventually I'd find the right ones to replace them. (Here's what the coat originally looked like.) These are actually cabochons, not buttons. They have completely flat backs, and no holes to attach them to fabric.



First I found some plain flat buttons to replace the big round ones that the coat came with. I sewed them into place using embroidery thread, and then used masking tape to tape off around each button, just to make sure I didn't get any glue on the fabric!

E6000 glue is my favorite for projects like this. It's incredibly strong and works on practically every surface. You just apply some to each object, let it cure for about 5-10 minutes, and then press the two objects together. I used clothes pins to hold the buttons and cabochons in place and then let the glue dry for 24 hours. One thing to double check is that the new buttons will fit through the existing buttonholes. Mine are a little snug so I'll probably have to open up the holes a bit.



The cabochons came in packs of 4 with varying sizes so I decided to use some of my leftovers on an old cardigan! I love how it turned out! This is such a simple, ridiculously easy project but it makes such a huge difference!

DIY television cozy (my favorite project ever!)

Ever since I got my first tv when I was a teenager, I've had a hard time striking a balance between how much I love watching it when it's on and how much I hate seeing it when it's off. Unless you have a monochrome bachelor pad or enough money to make your tv disappear into a dresser, it's kind of difficult to fit these big dark behemoths into your decor.

It probably wasn't super safe, but I covered my first tv in faux concrete acrylic medium so it looked like a big slab of cement. For my last tv I covered the frame in vintage contact paper. Neither of those were perfect (and neither of them covered the screen, which still looked awful when it was turned off) but they definitely helped.



I recently upgraded to a pretty big television (42") and in my tiny pastel room, it just stuck out like a sore thumb. I finally came up with a way to hide it when it's not on, and I wish I had thought of this sooner! It was SO easy to whip this up, and it's equally easy to take it on and off of my tv. And I love it!!

I also spray painted the base light blue (Valspar satin "Encounter") and decided to hang one of my favorite Bette Davis photos from the top when its not in use. It's just on a skirt hanger, so it literally takes 2 seconds to hang it up or take it down and it's lightweight enough to not be doing any damage to my television. Just another simple way to make the tv blend into my room a little more ;)



To make your own tv cozy, first you have to measure your television. Make sure you get exact measurements so that the fabric will fit snug. Also, make sure you actually measure it, don't go by the size of your screen. The advertised screen size is measured diagonally, so my 42" screen is actually 38" across.

Next you want to measure your fabric. Draw out a rectangle that measures the width of the tv by the height of the tv. Then you want to add the depth + 1 inch to each side.



Hem the edges and then sew the corners to create a box. It's kind of like you're making a fitted sheet for your tv! If you're confused at all about what I mean just take a peek at your bed sheet lol :)

Now sew elastic right above the hem. You want to be stretching out the elastic while you're sewing so that it bunches the fabric. Once the elastic is in place, you're done! Just slip the cover over the front of the tv and you're all set.



I found that on my tv the fabric was sagging a tiny bit in the middle (not entirely sure if it's because I wasn't pulling the elastic tight enough while I was sewing or because my tv screen is so big) so I devised a little elastic suspender. I just threaded elastic through small alligator clips (I got mine on etsy) and knotted them tight. One clip at the top and bottom of the cozy helps keep it nice and snug on my tv screen!



When I showed my brother he said "you must be the only person on the planet who would buy a 42" HD television and want to HIDE it!" lol! I just can't stand the way modern tvs look, and don't think we should have to sacrifice the prettiness of our rooms at the altar of entertainment :)

Also, an added bonus to using a cozy -- it also functions as a dust cover! yay!