diy: glittery graduation.

With graduations left and right this time of year, cards are a necessity for all of the graduates, from high school, college, or any other kind of school really. As I've said before, I'm also not a big fan of store-bought cards with boilerplate messages that have no kind of personality. However, making cards en masse can be time-consuming and a bit of a pain. My easy solution here to streamline the process is to make the same style of card with slight variations. For example, a few weeks ago when several of my high-schoolers graduated I bought several different shades of cardstock and broke out my gold glitter to make a bevy of sparkly cards.

Glittery graduation cards galore.

I simply wrote a message on the front of each of the cards (ie. hooray, felicidades, congrats, etc.) and wrote the name of every recipient in a glue pen and covered it in glitter. With a personalized message inside, I think it was a great sendoff for my graduates.

diy: popping over with love card.

So I made this card for my boyfriend awhile ago (ahem...Valentine's day), but thought it was too adorable not to share. It was simple enough to make - just running to the craft shop for the right colors of paper and  cutting them so that I could glue them together to get the popcorn shape. I do have some tips that I have learned after making many cards that make your life a lot easier, for any of you that want to make cards.

1. Make a practice card on printer paper if you're making a card for the first time - it will let you practice and give you something to trace with. 

2. Pencil is your friend! It helps you avoid spelling errors and let's you decide what "font" to use, so to speak. 

3. Buy multiples of the same shade/pattern of paper. That way if you screw up, you have backup, and if not, you just have an excuse to make more cards.

Happy card-making!

diy: jewelry organization.

Over the years I have amassed a rather large collection of sensible and not-so-sensible costume jewelry that lingered in untangled piles and unseemly heaps. That is until I moved back to Albuquerque and my mom and I crafted some useful and actually pretty ways of putting together my rather large and colorful collection. This is not even the beginning of my jewelry, but it is a great way to show off a bit and keep it all neat!

Use large candy and flour jars from a kitchen store to  showcase  colorful bracelets.   These ones from Williams-Sonoma are very cute. 

I put a key rack on the inside of my armoire to hold long necklaces.  A very similar one is here. 

I got this small monogram tree hangy thing-a-ma-bob to hang some smaller necklaces and my rings on. The same one from Anthropologie is here. 

five blogs i love.

One of the things I really love about all the blogs online is the promotion of other blogs and ideas. This has also resulted in some newfound obsessions of mine in the form of outfits I want to try, crafts I need to do, and recipes I can't wait to eat.

adorable Valentine's card from afancifultwist.typepad.com

5. Atlantic-Pacific: I'm not sure where I found this blog, but the outfits are adorable - and more importantly - doable. Many of the pieces are staples from J. Crew, Gap, or other places that are relatively affordable or easy to find. Not to say that some bags and such aren't extravagant, but the high-end mixed with the normal clothes gives a hint of luxury that is achievable and wearable in real life.

4. A Fanciful Twist: This blog was introduced to me by one of my colleagues, Kristen. Her sister, Vanessa runs it, and fills it with whimsical designs and musings. She also runs her own shop on Etsy where you can buy posters of her designs. Lately, I've been really loving her printable Valentine's Day cards (see above).

3. Cupcakes and Cashmere: Another blog with wonderful fashion tips and other how-tos. I discovered this one from Ebbe, who writes Champagne for Ducklings (see below). The Home Improvement section is a particular obsession because it gives simple and beautiful design tips.

2. Champagne for Ducklings:  This blog is run by a college classmate of mine, Ebbe. I'm slightly in love with her photography, which is lovely, moving, and just plain fun. The recipes, often French-inspired, are also really great and easy to make.

1. Big Girls, Small Kitchen: This one I've been following for years, and I've mentioned it before. It's become especially useful in the last year because you can sort by ingredients you can't eat, which in my case, is lots of stuff. Not only that, the recipes are easy, simple, and completely doable when you're in a constant time crunch.

Now, give me more! What are your favorite places to find fun things to wear/do/cook?