DIY: vinyl geometric necklace

hello hello! :) it's been too long! a good friend of mine asked me a while back to update, and with the holiday and everything, i definitely spaced and forgot, but Amber- this one's for you!

i have a super simple DIY today. i have seen similar necklaces made of metal, so i thought i would recreate one out of a material that is more easily... manipulated? anyways, you know what i mean... it's cheap and easy and pretty cute if you ask me ;)

okay so here we go...

you will need: chain in the color of your choice, matching metal loops & clasps, vinyl (easy to work with, keeps it vegan, cheap.. love it.), and i invested in a 1/16" hole punch (for a whole $5.50 @ the craft store) to make the holes for the metal loops. i bet you could use a box cutter too if you'd like!

step 1: cut out your triangles from the vinyl. you will need 6 for the necklace i made. step 2: i used my 1/16" hole punch and punched holes in all 3 corners of 5 out of the 6 triangles, but only 2 corners for the bottom one since you won't be connecting the furthest bottom point to anything. step 3: connect all the triangles with your metal loops and connect a piece of chain to each side. also attach a clasp to the top of one of the pieces so you can put on & take off your necklace :)

that's about it! it's pretty simple. total cost with the hole puncher and vinyl (got on sale in the scrap bin at joann's!) is about $15, but with that you can make about a thousand necklaces (not really) so it's really inexpensive! hope you enjoy!

ps: amber, if you're reading this... i made you one too since this blog is for you ;)

thanks for reading! xxo.

DIY: vegan pumpkin spice lattes

so the weather has been cooling off in virginia (yay!) and i'm starting to crave things that remind me of fall. so of course, the best way i can think to celebrate is with a pumpkin-y treat... enter starbucks- my holy land. i'm so excited to get off work to go grab my first warm drink of the year- a pumpkin spice latte. as i announce my excitement to the office (of only 2 other people, mind you) i am immediately disappointed when my co-worker says "i heard those have milk in them" WHAT?! this can't be! so after a bit of research to confirm this sad, sad comment (it is true, btw for all you vegans! it's in the concentrate, so even if you get soy... :( ), i decided that i will find and tweak a recipe of my very own! it goes something like this:

Ingredients:
2 cups soy milk
2 tablespoons pumpkin butter (you can def use canned pumpkin, my grocery was out)
2 tablespoons sugar or splenda, though next time i will probably only use 1 tbsp
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (this stuff is pricey, i found out! lol)
1-2 shots espresso (i don't have an espresso machine, so i used 1/2 cup of bold flavored coffee)
(original, un-tweaked recipe can be found here)

the originial recipe calls for you to cook things all seperately, but to be honest, i threw everything in a sauce pan at once and mixed it up with a whisk and it frothed on it's own (like at the coffe shop!)

once it heated all the way through, i gave it an extra whisk and poured it into my mug and really that was it. the hardest part was finding pumpkin in the grocery store! lol. but this really takes like 5 minutes. i also stored my leftovers in the fridge over night and has an iced one this morning and it was just as amazing!

i hope you all get a chance to try this out, especially all the vegans out there looking for your fall drink fix! i promise you, you will not be disappointed. it was worth the pumpkin hunt, for sure ;)

enjoy! <3

diy: lace table

so the boyfriend was not in town this weekend like he usually is ... (sad face)

what a cutie ;)

BUT that usually just means i get creative and find projects to entertain myself. sadly i usually get too busy/tired during the week to do much heavy crafting, but the weekends give me plenty of time to get motivated, gather supplies, etc.

so i read a really fun diy project on a beautiful mess' blog recently (her stuff is really neat, btw) and since i have a fairly inexpensive and boring living room coffee table, i decided this project would be perfect! and it was...

i ran around town collecting supplies after lunch with my momma (who knew it would be such a pain to find a pretty colored spray paint!?). i grabbed a yard and a half of lace (the least expensive with the prettiest pattern- since it's getting trashed anyways) and a can of spray paint. i already had the table and sand paper at home. i got in my yucky painter's clothes and cleaned both levels of my coffee table really well. then i taped the lace to the top of the table as straight as i could get it. i took the bottom level off and took both pieces outside. i sprayed down the top with the lace; then with the bottom piece, i just sprayed the whole thing as evenly as possible (it's ok if it doesn't look perfect, it's going to get roughed up anyways). then i let it sit outside for about 2 hours to be safe. 

slowly peel the lace off and viola- beautiful!! now with the bottom half, i took sand paper and roughed it up around the edges and center making it look old and antiqued. each step looked something like this:

after some wiping and vacuuming of paint dust (i distressed the bottom inside like a dork), i now have the prettiest coffee table i've ever seen! and it cost me less than $15 (minus the table- mine's from ikea, so it's pretty inexpensive anyways) check it out:

now i'm feeling accomplished! yay :)