I mentioned last week that I put together a little Bored Jar inspired by a few different projects I saw on Pinterest (just searching “boredom busters” there brings up an endless array of ideas for any age group). I thought it would be fun to give you a little peek at our jar and some of the things Samantha has done with it.

I know I gave you a headband DIY last week, but I just couldn’t help myself from posting this one. It’s so easy and so versatile! You can make one as a gift for your best friend’s birthday or for your bridesmaids to wear on your wedding day. You can wear it to the supermarket or you can send your little lady off to her first day of school wearing one. It’s magical, really.

Seriously though, it takes about 15 minutes and is super inexpensive. Why wouldn’t you make one? Here’s what you need:

• headband (I used a plain silver one but you can pick up any color your little heart desires at just about any drug store)
• silk flowers
• felt
• glue gun
• needle and thread
• if you want to be all fancy like, you can also add a vintage brooch or sparkly beads (I ended up ditching the brooch because it interfered with the petals of my fluffy little dahlia)

First, take your flower apart. Remove the stem and all of the little plastic pieces holding it together. Don’t be afraid to really pull at it. Those little pieces can be stubborn, but fret not; you won’t tear the petals.

Once it’s all disassembled, sew a few stitches through the middle to keep all of the layers together. Don’t worry about messiness on the underside. It will be covered.

If you’re going to add anything sparkletastic, now is the time. You can sew a few beads in while securing your petals.

Once your petals are nice and secure, break out the hot glue gun and attach a patch of felt to the bottom of your flower. Make sure the piece of felt is a decent size. It will help anchor your flower to your headband.

Next, attach your headband. Put some hot glue on the felt that’s on the flower then push the headband into the glue before applying another piece of felt over both the headband and the felt that is already attached to the flower. Push down on the felt firmly to make sure everything sticks nice and securely.

That’s it! Once the glue has dried you can put it on and prance around the house with a goofy look on your face thinking you’re the bees knees (what the hell does that even mean?). Or, you can put it on your daughter’s head and wonder aloud how you gave birth to such an adorable little creature.

If you can manage to ignore the dumb look on my face and the awkward pose (hey, I was singing and dancing in between taking self photos to keep my little bean happy. This is as good as it gets!), you’re going to love this super easy DIY. In fact, it’s so easy, it hardly qualifies as a DIY.

I’ve mentioned how much I like buns. And I’ve mentioned how I need to accessorize a bit more to escape the rut I’m finding myself in. This super quick, super easy (and super cheap!) headband combines all of my favorite things.

All you need is some tulle (you can buy 25 yards of it for less than three dollars on Amazon!). The piece that I used was roughly 26″ long by 8″ wide. Wrap the tulle around the back of your head and tie a knot in front as if you’re about to tie your shoes. Make sure it’s snug so that you’re not tugging at it all day! Once you’re happy with how secure it is, knot it again. You can either leave the ends out for a bow-like look that’s fun and whimsical or you can tuck them under (like I did here).

Cute. Easy. Inexpensive. Just how I like it!

What do you think?

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an organizational post–and you can tell if you take a peek inside my house. I always think summer will be when I get myself together. You know: clean out the basement, organize the closets, get rid of kids toys that never get played with. But this seldom happens. Who wants to stay inside when we can be at the pool or running around in the sunshine? Who wants to do manual labor when you’re sweating just sitting on the couch? Not this girl!

Still, I need to find some way to wrangle the mess that is my house. Since I’m both cheap and always looking for ways to be eco-friendly, I love the idea of organizational pieces that can easily be made from things I already own (or things that would only cost me a few dollars).

So off to Pinterest I go…

Bloggers are always showing you their beyond perfect crafty creations, but you rarely see any missteps. And you know there are missteps.

I happen to think that you can learn just as much from my DIY failures as you can from my successes, so I thought I’d chronicle one of my recent mishaps.

Have you seen the seriously adorable hanging yarn balls that are all over Pinterest (the picture at left is just one of seemingly endless examples)?

I thought a couple of pink ones would be absolutely perfect for the “About to Pop” baby shower I threw for my sister.

Since I had all of the supplies on hand anyway, I figured I’d give it a whirl. First, I gathered my supplies.

I collected a balloon, scissors, yarn, Mod Podge and a sponge brush and was ready for action (or so I thought). Since I knew it would get messy, I laid out some newspaper– although I’m not really sure why. The table I was using is already full of crafting war wounds. I’m hoping to tackle that in a future DIY, but I digress!

I took my (blown up) balloon and smeared Mod Podge all over it. Next I started wrapping my yarn all over it. As I was doing this, I started to wonder if I should have checked out some tutorial beforehand. Would there be enough Mod Podge to make the yarn good and stiff? What about the layer of Mod Podge on the balloon? How would that work?

I had a feeling I knew how it was going to work out, but I charged ahead anyway. Next time, I’ll look around for some tutorials or go with my gut instead of wasting time on something I was pretty sure wouldn’t turn out right.

When I was satisfied with the amount of yarn on the balloon, I tried to put another layer of Mod Podge on top (mostly because I was concerned the yarn wasn’t saturated enough).

I left it to dry over night and was greeted with this when I popped the balloon in the morning:

FAIL. Of course, my first layer of Mod Podge made a little skin underneath the yarn.

So what did I learn from this blonde moment?

If something seems wrong, it probably is.

Take a step back from whatever you’re doing and try to think about it from a different angle. If that doesn’t work, look for help from others. I hopped back on Pinterest and quickly saw that other people soaked their yarn in a mixture of water and glue (and sometimes corn starch). That makes much more sense, since you want the yarn to get good and stiff so that it keeps the shape of the balloon once you pop it.

Next time I go with my gut.