As promised/threatened, the Bird is BACK.  I had some time with family to rejuvenate and recharge, and now I'm back with renewed energy. Or at least, that's what I tell myself -- there's always a bit of a vacation-hangover when you're back from a break. Uuuuugh. But whining aside, I wanted to share some simple DIY projects I worked on prior to my trip, something I like to call, You Look Cheap (in a good way).  Upgrade existing wardrobe pieces with inexpensive fixes!

This Birdy is forever inspired by handmade ornaments, this inspiration turning into outright envy and panic around the holidays, when I see all the beautiful handmade ornaments on places like Pinterest, turning me into the Green-Eyed Monster, coveting the precious craftiness. Which then puts me in a total tizzy over having enough time to make the dang things. Holiday vicious circle! My favorite example of a handmade ornament is from my Aunt Susan, who sent me these lovely creations she made years ago, when she was a newlywed and doing the perfect homemaker thing by reading Good Housekeeping or some such magazine, which suggested decorating some ornaments for the tree. Becauase at the time, it was the Betty Draper thing to do. The project asked for those retro-fabulous silk strand-covered styrofoam ball ornaments, which you use a meticulous amount of decorative pins, sequins and whatever fancy ribbon and brick-a-brack you have on-hand to make them into Faberge egg-like creations. 

Yeah, I didn't do any of that -- hence, their being inspiration-only. I  have no idea how long it took my Auntie Susan to make them, I'm just eternally grateful she passed them on to me so that I can enjoy them. In return for her craftiness, I wanted to bestow upon her and a few other lucky (or unlucky) souls some handmade ornaments of my own. My version was relatively easy to do with just the bare minimum of patience required. Thanks to craft stores which have things you never even knew you needed/wanted,  you can get boxes of clear glass ornaments. They're lovely and bubble-like on their own, and I've seen some amazing craft projects where people hang multiple sizes like chandeliers, making an incredible centerpiece. I'm not this ambitious. I loved the idea of filling the clear ornaments with fun, interesting textures, so I filled several with plain red feathers, which looked beautiful. Then I raised the bar and added gold leaf to ones filled with white feathers -- incredibly messy, but wonderful result. The last ornament "style" was care of our own paper shredder. I saw some filled ornaments with strips of paper having writing on it. I went the lazy/easy route and pulled some bits from our shredder, plus shredded some decorative papers of our own to fill it with some color and shine. Using a thin pencil, I slowly stuffed each ornament and used some super-duty glue that's both metal and glass-adhesive to cap the hanging hook back on. Get it from a craft store or just get a tube of Superglue - you want this to stick. The caps and metal loops are designed to hold on their own when attached to the glass ornaments, but I wanted to seal the deal and ensure the hook wouldn't separate, as sometimes they're a little loose. Broken glass = not holiday magic.

So, here's one of the Magpie's crafty attempts at a homemade Christmas. I hope my aunt likes the ornaments, although I'm fairly certain she doesn't even decorate a tree anymore. I'm a terrible niece.


Jaunty Fine Print:  Photos taken by Denise Sakaki

Sometimes the best shop to find a gift is your inner creativity. This Bird recently had a meeting of the Jaunty minds, gathering with a few friends to pool our vintage junk drawer finds together, as well as pore through magazines and catalogs for holiday gift ideas and inspiration. With gluesticks and crafty tools in-hand, we cut and pasted our way a little closer towards coming up with thoughtful things to give to loved ones this year.

Having a little flock of creative Birds all together for an afternoon kept the ideas and holiday cheer going, plus the sharing of helpful tips. One of the Magpie's good friends is a frequent visitor to rummage sales where people often sell miscellaneous bags of broken costume jewelry. These are gold mines of potential, where you can often gather stray charms or centerpiece items that could be strung on chain or ribbon for new necklaces.

It was a nice reminder that the greatest gift is thoughtfulness and good intent. The next time you're browsing for a gift, think about a creative skill or craft you're good at, and consider making something for your loved one versus getting something store-bought.


Jaunty Fine Print:  photos by Denise Sakaki

 

It really must be the chill of winter nearly upon us, but the Magpie has been busy with projects to fluff the feathers of her nest these days, so keep an eye out for more Jaunty J'Adore craft and home projects in the coming weeks!

They say one should surround oneself with the things that inspire them or by objects of affection -- what better items of sentiment than notes and postcards? This Bird has said it before that there is no greater ray of sunshine on a person's day than mailing a handwritten note to a loved one. That said, I know I totally owe several people some notes, so I probably better get going when I'm done with this post!

But one of the recent mini-projects I did was to dress up a dresser, or rather the plain mirror hanging above our dresser (repurposed from a bathroom, funnily enough), with collected ephemera over the years, including postcards from afar, photos of friends' children, and funny little odds and ends like a sushi-shaped air freshener. No, I don't know if it smells like a salmon skin roll, I never got the guts to open up the package and check. Sure, it's cluttered looking, it's got the look of a burgeoning career as a serial stalker, but every item means something to Mr. Magpie and myself. And it makes the bedroom feel a little more personalized, even if it raids our supply of wooden clothespins. I know our home will never make it into an interior design magazine, but that's fine by me, if it means I can keep the meaningful things closer and make our home-sweet-home that much sweeter.


Jaunty Fine Print:   photos by Denise Sakaki