#624...zebrawood floating shelves

We had a leftover scrap piece of zebrawood from when we made our bench last year.

I decided to have Tyler cut it in half and install it as open shelves in an under-utilized corner of our kitchen.

I used to hang reusable shopping bags on the silver antlers, but decided some zebrawood shelves in the corner would look better and offer storage. I finished the shelves with tung oil and citrus wax. I got some L-brackets at Home Depot and sprayed them black. Tyler hung the shelves last weekend.

#623...capital letter quilts

I made another capital letter quilt last weekend for baby Luke, who will be born in September. Thus far I have made an H, G and now L. See here and here.

#622..jute wrapped hanging planter

I've been looking for a pretty hanging plant pot for the curly cereus plant I have that is currently living in the plastic green pot it came in. 

For a quick fix, I thought I'd try wrapping the exterior of the plastic pot with some green jute I picked up at Home Depot. Because the pot is curved, I knew I'd need to use my glue gun to secure the jute every wrap around or so.

It was a pain, (literally...I burned myself a thousand times) and took nearly an hour to complete. It looks ok, but very crafty (like an elementary school kid got their hands on glue and yarn.) So, I'm tending my burned fingers and still on the hunt for a nicer hanging planter.

#621...tessa's nursery

A few weeks ago I shared about how I made this leaf collage art piece for baby Tessa's nursery. I also made a patchwork quilt for her.

Tessa's Mom Laura had two fabrics that she wanted to incorporate into the quilt. The pink fabric on the above changing pad cover, and the top fabric on the below stack of fabrics. I rummaged through my stash, and purchased a couple fat quarters to complete the fabric selection for the quilt.

I recently had opportunity to visit Tessa, and take some pictures of her new room. Tessa's Dad did all of the carpentry involved adding the wainscoting to her walls. Originally, Laura planned to paint the wainscoting white and the wall space above in aqua, but decided to flip the color scheme and ended up using the white ceiling color to wrap onto the wall space above the wainscoting. The room is the perfect amount of girly, yet quirky and also minimal. I really like how it turned out.

Laura and I explored various ideas for putting Tessa's monogram above her crib. She had some vintage wooden frames that got spray-painted white. We came up with the idea of having her initials monogrammed on linen. Laura cut foam core board to the shape of the frames and wrapped the monogrammed linen over the foam core, and inserted into the frame, sans glass.

#620...limoncello

I just got back from sailing the Amalfi coast in Italy, and I was reminded how much I like homemade Limoncello. I picked up this dishtowel in Capri, which has a recipe for Limoncello on it, that I think I'll try. (note the size of the lemons!!)

It would be really awesome if I could make it from my own lemons as my cousin Marie does, but I'll have to settle for grocery store lemons. I have lots of photos to sort through from our trip. Here's one I snapped on my phone in Capri.

#618...travel pouch and packing

I've been getting ready for an extended trip to Italy, and decided to use some of my scrap leather to make a new catch-all clutch for my trip. I decided on a half-moon shape for my travel pouch and added a gold zipper. I made this blue one from a thrifted leather skirt...

...and this green one from a pair of thrifted leather pants.

We will be doing some city touring and some sailing while in Italy, which calls for different clothing needs. To avoid bring too much stuff, I tried laying out my outfits and snapping a pic of them and then editing down to what I really needed. Here's a few of my wardrobe planning pics where I was trying to make a few pieces work in multiple ways. This pictorial packing method helped me in keeping my suitcase light-weight.