Glitter feathers.

Anabela, of Fieldguided, posted this glitter feather DIY last week and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Isn't it beautiful? I think I'm going to make some glitter feathers myself; I'm not sure what I'll use them for, but they're so pretty that they'd look nice even in a simple glass vase.

P.S. Another super-easy DIY: gold brick bookends.

Photo by Anabela

Back to life, back to reality.

I take comfort—just a miniscule amount, though, I swear—that some of you may now have the song that this post’s title references in your heads now, too.

Anyway, happy Wednesday, friends—how are your weeks going? As of this past Monday, I am back to my usual routine after nine whopping days off—nine days in which I went to St. Augustine, spent time at my parents’ house, ate a whole lot of cookout-friendly food and also an $8 ice cream cone—yes, seriously, $8; I’m making my own from now on! What is the world coming to? (Also, hello, I have apparently turned 90)—and slept past 10 a.m. on several occasions. It was glorious.

But the return to work and the daily grind is always kind of a bummer, no matter how much you love your job, and for the past couple of days I’ve found myself thinking about what else I want to do from now until Labor Day—what weekend adventures I’d like to go on, what experiences I’d like to have, what things I’d like to make (that gold brick DIY from a few weeks ago has me itching to spray paint everything gold. Not the cats, though, don't worry). And I love making lists, so I thought, Hey, why not make a list? And then I thought, Hey, why not share it with the Internet?

So there you have it, Internet: herewith my rest-of-the-summer bucket list.

1. Take a road trip with my mom. Last year we went to Savannah; this year we’re thinking Charleston.
2. Make ice cream. The $8 cone experience reminded me that I do, in fact, own an ice cream maker—I won one from Shelley in a giveaway last year. Homemade mint chocolate chip, here I come. Oh, and key lime and graham cracker gelato, too (be still my citrus-loving heart). Also, how hard is it to make waffle cones, you think?
3. Swim as much as possible. Preferably in the ocean.
4. Cut my hair (more on this to come).
5. Paint one wall in my house with chalkboard paint. (I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit recently; at first I wanted to do a whole wall in my living room, but now I’m thinking the kitchen is my best bet, mostly because I constantly want a place to write weekly menus and scribble to-do lists that’s, well, not a small pad of paper. Also: I am kind of obsessed with chalk.)
6. String up café lights on my “porch.” I use quotation marks because my porch is not so much a porch as it is a tiny strip of wood that’s screened in, but a Very Awesome Person bought me said lights—which I’d been talking about incessantly and, let’s be honest, probably annoyingly, for a year—and I’m excited to get them up.
7. Go to Adventure Island with friends. (I love water and water rides but am terrified of roller coasters and have a tendency to get slightly motion sick, so this should be interesting and may require alcohol.)
8. Do a huge closet clean-out—opening the door and looking inside is starting to make me anxious.
9. Take a cooking class here.
10. Watch a lot of sunsets on the beach.

How about you—what’s on your summer checklist? Please tell me; I would love to know.

Photo: Scout and Catalogue

The easiest DIY ever.

I am not a particularly crafty person. I wish I was -- and I will read about and admire craft projects and DIYs until the cows come home -- but I'm just not. So the fact that this weekend I created something pretty for my home -- something that began life as an object totally different from what it ended up as -- is a coup for me.

That being said, this is literally the easiest DIY in the whole world, and it cost me a whopping $7. Here's the back story: I spotted this gilded bookends project in Martha Stewart Living awhile back and bookmarked it as something I'd love to make someday because it was so pretty and functional. But in typical Megan fashion, it got pushed to the bottom of my to-do list until this past weekend, when I was at my parents' house and knew I could scrounge up some stray bricks and a can of gold spray paint.

And that's pretty much the gist of it, honestly: Get your hands on a pair of bricks (I found four, so I made two sets of bookends) and coat them with metallic gold spray paint. Let dry, and then arrange on your bookshelves or nightstands as desired. Easy!

Photo: My own.

loving: paper flowers from sunny & stumpy

although fresh flowers are, of course, preferred to paper ones -- i think that's a truth universally acknowledged -- i just love these beautiful dahlias and ranunculas from wedding planner rachel coddington's etsy shop, sunny & stumpy. see more here; read rachel's blog here.

movin' on up.

i’ve mentioned a couple of times in the past few days that i’m moving out of my tiny-but-well-loved studio apartment at the end of the month. full disclosure: i’m not entirely happy about this, but my lease didn’t get renewed by my idiot landlord (ahem. sorry), and you know what? that’s fine. i’m getting more space (a bedroom!) for a cheaper price in a still-downtown neighborhood, and that’s a good thing.

what’s not a good thing is the hideous, tomato-red living-room wall in (what will hopefully be) the new apartment, painted by the former tenants, and the ugly, circa-1970s mural hiding in the closet near the kitchen. i’m also not a huge fan of carpet, which this place has, but the landlord is going to replace it for me and i figure i can lay some huge, bright-and-cheery rugs down on top—i’m sure it’s going to be white or taupe. (the photo above of holly’s new nampshire living room is my inspiration.)

aside from that, i’m trying to think of paint colors and ways to make my new space my own. my current crop of stuff is blue and green and beachy, and i’m perfectly happy with it—however, since browsing through nicole’s flickr photostream, i’ve sort of been in love with the idea of having a purple room (above). my friend s. has a pink-walled bedroom and it’s feminine and romantic, so that’s also a possibility. and i know, without a doubt, that i want to have a chalkboard wall somewhere. seriously. (have you seen bee’s chalkboard office? it’s glorious.) i have this vision in my head of having a little housewarming party and my friends writing notes on the chalkboard wall—i really like that.

what have you been inspired by lately? and p.s., happy, happy weekend! xoxo

{ images via holly and nicole }

holidaze.

is it weird that i’m thinking about the holidays already? when the weatherwoman on the morning news announced that this monday is the first official day of fall (yay!), my mind immediately jumped to halloween, then thanksgiving and christmas.

due to a bunch of factors – my ever-growing love for etsy, my appreciation for all things diy, the purchase of lena corwin’s lovely printing by hand and, um, the usual budget constraints – i think many of my gifts are going to be of the handmade variety this year, and possibly come with a side of those amazing chocolate chip cookies i’m currently obsessed with – a good way to give my new stand mixer a workout, right? (as a side note, last year i whipped up a three-layer coconut cake for my office’s holiday party and it was to die. here’s the recipe if you want to try it yourself.)

i also want to do creative gift wrap, a la nicole from making it lovely. her presents are gorgeous, are they not? you better believe i will be referring to the gift-wrap tutorial in last year’s issue of blueprint magazine (r.i.p.) – the one with the sparkly pink tree on the cover (see below). (full disclosure: i came this close to buying a mini version of that tree from urban outfitters last year, when everything was on super-sale, and i’m still kicking myself that i didn’t. it’s a little gaudy, for sure—but with super-simple ornaments i think it could be quite pretty.)

and you know, i have to say, it took awhile for me to realize that a handmade gift has just as much value – if not more – than a store-bought one, not that there's anything wrong with store-bought gifts. i just feel like this year, going handmade sort of fits in with some of my personal goals: simply, make things more personal, let my friends and family know how much i care about them (read: a lot) – and, of course, if i buy from etsy, support independent businesses.

tell me, do you guys buy handmade? are you going to this year? are you as excited about the holidays as i am, or am i nuts for thinking so far ahead?

have a fantastic weekend, my loves, and i'll see you on monday...the first day of fall! xo

{ images via making it lovely and blueprint magazine. }

true.

i came across these jessica gonacha prints the other day and just had to share them with you. aren’t they sweet? i want to buy a bunch of different ones and hang them in my home somewhere on a clothesline the way jessica did in the photographs. and i love the messages on the prints – they’re something we all need to hear every once in awhile, right?

in addition to prints, jessica’s shop is filled with notecards, pillows and even a set of hand-printed cloth napkins, which i love. i’m really into hand-printed things right now – so much so that i think i want to start making my own, which is why i ordered lena corwin’s new book, printing by hand. ok, ok, full disclosure: i’m the kind of girl who gets really, really excited about a project and then stops just short of starting or finishing. (i talked about making my own patterned key racks for months and they never materialized…alas.) but hopefully this gorgeous book will motivate me to get moving. or printing.

(photos of prints and napkins via jessica gonacha; photo of lena corwin’s book via amazon.com)

my attempt at art.

i have a bit of a thing for birds – at least, in regards to home goods. i love owls and have been coveting this lamp from urban outfitters for a few weeks now, and when i saw the post that holly at decor8 did on her new owl umbrella holder, i immediately tried to figure out whether a similar piece was within my budget. alas, it wasn’t – maybe for my birthday, though.

anyway, after my beloved blueprint shuttered its windows, i decided to subscribe to domino, and i’ve been pretty happy with it so far. i loved last month’s cover feature on drew barrymore, and the front-of-the-book departments are generally really interesting. as someone who’s become increasingly interested in home décor, it’s certainly fun to flip through.

full disclosure, though: i had a mixed reaction when i saw the cover of the may issue. it went something like this: “oh, julianne moore! i love her – she has really pale skin like me! wait, why is she laughing like that? and why did they put her in a vest that makes her look like she works at wal-mart? hm, i like those bright yellow curtains. ooh, i really like those bird prints. wow, they’re $400. i could probably make those myself!” and so it went. (you can see the prints in the background of this cover shot.)

so the other night, as i mentioned, i sat down on the floor with a pencil and some paper and began sketching. not only was it therapeutic in light of all of the events that have recently taken place, it was really fun. and i realized that i could make my own art – complete with cheapie frames that i priced at michael’s (going to pick them up this weekend) – for about 40 times less than what i would pay for the actual prints. i don’t claim to be an artist of any kind, as you’ll see from these sketches, but now i have my own, hand-drawn bird series to hang in my apartment. all i have to do now is figure out where to put them! (i’ll post a photo of them in their frames on monday.)

what was your last diy project?

sparkle, shine, create.

i meant to write a longer post, but today was incredibly busy and i can't wait until it's time to go to crawl into bed and get a good eight hours' worth of sleep. tomorrow i'll have something a little more in-depth, but for today i wanted to post this picture that i discovered over at the lovely blog poppytalk. this craft cabinet is one of those "why didn't i think of that myself?" things that i love, and though i have no craft cabinet to speak of, i think i'm going to be stealing scrabble pieces from my parents' house this weekend to recreate this on my bathroom mirror. seriously, perfection.

personal thoughts on pretty things on a budget.

[pricey-but-beautiful ($88/roll) orla kiely "blossom" wallpaper from anthropologie.]

i’ve been incredibly focused on decorating my apartment lately thanks to wonderful blogs like design*sponge, oh joy!, bluelines, etc. i’ve come across so many lovely items from independent designers and sources – three potato four, the curiosity shoppe, reform school, karin eriksson, the vast world of etsy – that my oft-mentioned “must-buy” list has nearly tripled in size over the past couple of months. i mean, really, who needs urban outfitters when i can buy something much cuter on etsy and support an independent vendor?

[this storybook tile ($30) from three potato four is a good example of the kind of stuff i'm talking about. how cute!]

that being said, even though my “must-buy” list is now mostly composed of $20 items (as opposed $100-plus items), things still add up, especially for someone who, like me, is on a fairly strict budget. full disclosure: i do not make enough money to support my shopping habit. however, before you feel too sorry for me (ha!), i should tell you that i am definitely one of those people who would rather eat noodles with butter for a week but have a beautiful piece of clothing or something pretty for my home. sad? maybe, but true.

still, my 25th birthday is fast-approaching, and if there’s anything i’ve learned over the past year-and-a-half of living on my own, it’s that i’ve got to start being more financially responsible. yes, i want pretty things for myself and my house (and, ok, even my cat). but i also want to be debt-free and start saving for retirement, travel, my next move, etc. like most 20-somethings i know, i have a monthly car payment, rent, student loan debt (that my parents, as of now, graciously pay for) and a little bit of credit card debt – not enough to where i need to be super-worried about paying it all off, but enough to be annoying, especially when i’m not making as much money as i’d like. (let it be known, though, that i adore my job and would rather be poor – which i’m not – than making tons of money in a stifling corporate job.)

[pretty/unique: lotta jansdotter's sweet chick zipper bags ($16).]

so, needless to say, i’ve been thinking a lot about how to reconcile my penchant for pretty (and, ok, pricey) clothes and home décor with my limited budget, and i think the answer is threefold: 1) most importantly, curtail the spending in general (i.e., stop buying $80 anthropologie shirts; 2) do more diy projects (um, remember the key rack i was so excited about? still haven’t made it, and why not? there’s no good reason and it would be such a great addition to my home); and 3) start thrifting and etsy-ing more. sarasota is a treasure trove of rich people who donate their clothes and home goods to consignment and thrift shops. why pay full price for a cakestand at a big-box store when i can get a pretty, one-of-a-kind one for $5?

i guess the point of all this is, like i said, that i’m going to start making a conscious effort to make my home look lovely without sacrificing my whole paycheck – and hopefully, with this new mentality, my savings account will grow. and hey, maybe one day i’ll be able to afford an eames chair without cringing when i hand over the plastic – but for now, i know that’s not the point. i'll be sure to keep you posted on my decorating-on-a-budget progress.

how do you guys mitigate your budgetary issues (if you have any) in terms of things you really want – be they home décor, clothing or technology? let me know; this is a subject i’m very curious about!

[see you tomorrow for our weekly style file and maybe a little something else – after this post, i'm thinking a big-ticket "obsession" item might not be the way to go!]

guest blog: mel of color me crafty!

[today's fantastic guest blog is brought to you by mel, ex-roomie, dear friend and craft queen. by way of a little background, mel is one of the most artistic people i know. as mentioned, one of her custom pieces hangs in the "entryway" of my apartment and one of her beautiful scrapbooks sits on my coffee table. appropriately, her guest blog today is on scrapbooking, and i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i did.]

Meg has been kind enough to invite me to write a guest blog and, by way of guest blogging, introduce you all to my very own blog, Color Me Crafty. I can't say it's all about scrapbooking and crafts, but I definitely have a passion for all things colorful and crafty.

The great thing about scrapbooking is that, like anything that requires creativity, there is no right or wrong. It's up to you what you want to do, and you should do whatever makes you happy. Unfortunately, I think that some people who are drawn to scrapbooking think that it requires too much time or too much money to take part in. But that's just not true! Sure, I could definitely spend hours on a page and my entire savings in a craft store, but that doesn't mean it's necessary.

So, what I'd like to share with you all are a few little things I have learned. First of all, craft stores have sales on scrapbooking materials (especially paper) all the time. There is no reason to buy it at full price. Also, most of them have these great sections with $1 items in them, and a lot of times those items are all made to go together so you can buy just from that section if you want.

For example, around Christmas-time Michael's had one of these sections and everything was coordinating colors -- red, black and white. They had ribbon, stickers, note cards and some other things. I used the note cards to make accordion folding scrapbooks for my cousins and decorated with the ribbon, stickers and a few other black, white and red papers that I already had. This is a great example of a simple scrapbook. All the materials were already coordinated, and I stuck with a simple layout too -- just one picture per "page." Once all the pictures were cut to size, all that needed to be done was to pop them on some background paper and glue them to the note cards. Sticking to the same layout for each page makes the process a whole lot quicker and easier (and therefore less daunting), and you still get a great finished product that you can be proud to show off. (I wish I had a picture of the finished books that I made for my cousins, but unfortunately I didn't take any before I gave them out, trust me though, they looked great and the girls loved them, and I promise they didn't take that long!)

If you're still not into the whole cut and paste idea, but you want a way to display your pictures in something more unique than a photo album, Shutterfly has these great photo books that you can get. You upload your pictures, choose which ones you want to go where, what color scheme you want for the backgrounds, how many pictures you want per page, etc. You get the personal touch of customizing your own album, but without the fuss. And if you still crave a little bit of depth and texture, once you get your photo book in the mail, you can still add your own stickers or ribbon or other embellishments.

Here is a screenshot from the photo book building process. I just made my first photo book last night, (Shutterfly kindly gave it to me for free -- I guess for being such a loyal customer :) ) and it was really simple and really fun. Below is another screen shot of one of the finished pages. Didn't it come out cute?

The whole album was a Christmas theme, and I can't wait to get it and show my whole family all of the pictures. Anyway, that's all I have to share for now, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I hope you feel inspired to try your own project now!

[thanks again to mel for this terrific, informative guest post. again, to read her blog, click right here. coming up tomorrow: our thursday style and another fashion-related post!]