Valentine's Series #2 DIY Beaded Bracelets

I wanted to make something for all the women I work with for Valentine's Day and I saw these cute bracelets on Food Coma (I love the Red Velvet Girls!)

You'll Need:

-waxed cotton/linen cord

- seed beads

-scissors 

-2 holed buttons

Here are the instructions from the original website. Check it out! There are other DIY bracelets that I can't wait to try too.

http://honestlywtf.com/diy/diy-beaded-bracelet/

If you want to make them into Valentine's Favors like I did the extras I used were:

-red yarn

-a hole puncher

-heart shaped doilies 

I has a bit of a hard time at first but after you do one bracelet you get the hang of it. I didn't take pictures of the process. (My hands were too busy! Hehe...)

 Here's the finished product...

I love how they turned out. Very cheap to make a lot of these too!

To make them into Valentine's "cards" or "favors" I took heart shaped doilies and made two hole punches at the top and tied yarn through the holes to make a bow. Then I attached the bracelet to the loop the yarn made in the back. 

I hope the girls at work like them! 

New Shelves & DIY Bookends

My very kind and generous husband had a great idea of putting up new shelves in our apartment. We had an old wood book shelf that we were using for DVDs and Blu-Rays but it was getting full and getting full fast. We had a great empty wall for this idea. When we put up the shelves and started putting up all of the DVDs and Blu-Rays we knew right away we needed bookends...

We started shopping for bookends and found the cute 'a to z' ones at Barnes and Noble (see second to last shelf). They were around $50.00! Kind of pricey to me for bookends! 

So I'm kind of addicted to Instagram (follow me! @jessicaneedham) and I follow Elsie from A Beautiful Mess and this weekend she put up a picture of a spray painted brick for a bookend. That got me thinking...I could use vintage looking wrapping paper instead of spray paint! Then my husband said, "why don't you use the vintage fabric you have just laying around?" ...So that's just what I did...

Brick bookends wrapped in vintage fabric... (see 3rd shelf in above photo)

You'll Need:

- 2 bricks (43 cents a piece at Lowe's!)

-vintage fabric (check the thrift stores, so cheap)

- Scissors

- Glue gun

Cut your fabric just big enough to wrap you brick, you don't want too much extra fabric

Wrap it just like you would wrap a gift and everywhere you'd put tape use the glue gun instead

Simple as that!

(see 2nd shelf)

Aren't they pretty! Super easy too!

DIY Chalkboard Wall

This is a fun idea to spruce up a wall in your kitchen or dining room! It's so much fun!

You'll Need:

- Chalkboard Paint (around $13.00 at Lowe's)

- Paint brushes

- Painter's Tape

- Chalk

- Patience (you'll want to start writing on it right away!)

I was so excited I forgot to get a full before picture!

(thanks babe, for getting the top of the wall!)

Let the paint dry for 24 hours...

it's hard to wait, but it's worth it.

Peel off the tape...

I was trying it out...

It worked! When you're painting you don't think it will come out like a chalkboard, but it does.

LOVE my new wall...