Sara In Akko

I've recently rejoined the drudgery of the work-a-day, cubicle monkey world.

In actuality, I have a very nice private office and a predecessor who has graciously stayed on to train me as well as tidy the place before she throws me to the deep end. There's a full-sized fridge in my small department's kitchen and nobody has taken my food by mistake so far. Win, win, win on all fronts.

But I have never had an office so organized, so sterile and so in need of personalization. All
others had files and folders stacked to the ceiling, probably to hold up the walls up (non-profit charm). So while I still have clean office smell on my brain, I will be devoting the coming week to preparing myself and my office to co-habitate in style with a few simple office related projects.

Today's tutorial: ID Badge Holder that isn't gross! No, really! Not even a lanyard.

Materials:
Old "pearl" necklace or a few pearl beads- anything you have a dozen of
A bit of scrap ribbon, suede cord or necklace chain
A fabric flower-one you've prepared from chiffon scraps, purchased or re-purposed
Needle, thread, some basic jewelry findings.

Step 1). Grab your supplies


Step 2). String pearls, attach to ribbon, attach flower and pin your ID badge to the side.

I pulled this photo of a possible necklace remake a mere month ago from the Anthropologie online catalog but it has already been overpriced, marked down, clearanced and pushed aside. Time to make my own.

Our newly completed French Bakery hanging playset!

Complete with salivating poodle, ice cream soda, cupcakes, madelines, macaroons, croissants, Eifel Tower, and cherries galore.  And after nap-time there will be pictures galore of this set in action!

You may remember the doorway castle I made some time ago, it's the same principle. Take some heavy canvas and dive right in. This is a great project if you really want a fun interactive mural in your kid's room but rent or aren't sure you're that committed to French bakeries and poodles. Both is true in our case.

With a little impulse and crafty courage, you can take the plunge and finish the entire thing in a few short hours.

Not to worry, there's still a GIVEAWAY!
 
I seem to get more people looking over this remake of the Anthropologie Fresh Deliveries Clutch than any other post.




All you have to do is follow me, leave me a comment, let me know you're out there and you'll be entered to win today's giveaway.

Make sure to have a look at the rest of the French Bakery Playset and visit my other giveaways  this week for your chance to win other neat and crafty things.

I'm beginning to see the beauty of the many crafty blogers who scan the Anthropologie catalog for things to remake. First, the style is often simplistic and lovely. But then, there is the part that these simple snazzy accessories can cost a good chunk of your hard earned cash. Where's the fun in that?

So here is my latest inspiration, ripped from the (online) catalog. It's a purse, it's a garden, it's a work of wearable art. It's also $268... umm no, for many reasons not in this lifetime.



Let's see if I can't make this for under $5.



Start with my favorite (not quite) a dollar store clutch hardware (ripped from the infamous cigarette purse).

I happen to have a few spare yards of black chintz from an old project so I'll be making the basic clutch out of that.

While I would like to keep in the spirit of the garden that abounds, I actually don't love the pinked edges or these tones 100%. So I made an insane amount of fabric flowers from scrap chiffon.

The rest is in the art of assembly and color play.

Looks like I just saved my family $263. I'll be putting that in my birthday fund.

Actual time for this craft, 1 week of idle sick-time on the couch or possibly 1 hour for the bag and a few hours to cut and assemble all those flowers.

Bonus purse!



I was not in like with the colors of the first attempt, so I tried a few different combinations. You should too, it's fun.

I've come to notice that in the US, coins have been nearly eradicated. Here in Israel (Europe as well) our coins are worth actual money. I can easily pay for the bus, a cab, a carton of milk or even leave a tip at a restaurant all in coins.

On a recent visit to Chicago I made a purchase for $4.67. I handed the clerk a $5 bill as well as the $.67 in change to get back a single $1 bill. The man looked positively befuddled. I thought I was making his job easier. I've learned that nobody would throw and handful of coins at their barista's tip jar, I was told by people in the know that anything not a bill is rude. I doubt any cashier would have the patience to count  a handful of coins to pay for a latte.  I even saw a home clean-up show where the family found a small fortune in forgotten change behind furniture and in the couch cushions, enough money to open a checking account for their college bound teen.

So I just have to wonder, doesn't anybody know that these coins are still worth money? Maybe in these difficult economic times people have started holding on to their nickles and dimes.

One of my new favorite places to look for tutorials happens to have a love of remaking jewelry found in a fancy store called Anthropologie.

Despite my second college major*, I have had to admit that I have no idea what Anthropologie is. I've got a fancy shopping bag with the store's logo somewhere around my home, but I've certainly never been in the store. I know there was one in a neighborhood I used to pass through on my way to work in my young-er single-er life, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what they sell.

Curiosity has definitely killed this cat. I loved the tutorial found here  and am proud to report that not only have I now created my own lovely (albeit flawed) version, but I've also looked up this online retail mega-boutique.

I have to say it seems pricey, hence all the skillful remakes I keep seeing around the web. but as I've said before I'm just not that fancy... I probably won't be going on any online spending spree but will be on the lookout for jewelry which I will spend hours making only to never wear.

Learn from my Mistakes: Flamingotoes suggests using glass beads, large wood beads and four cuts of wide ribbon. Next time I will believe the expert as I used the tiny seed beads I had lying around with 2 cuts of ribbon I folded in half and the plastic beads I found in my daughter's craft bin. Needless to say, I had to use more strands of seed beads to obtain the fullness of the original, the plastic beads had jagged edges that put runs in the ribbon and the ribbon itself was just barely wide enough to finish this project. Why oh why is there not a Michael's where I live?

*I was part of a program that combined medical anthropology and the anthropology of genocide. It wasn't as cheerful as it sounds, I assure you.