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CALLIGRAPHY STARTER KIT FROM UNCOMMON GOODS

Modern calligraphy is such a common thing in Blogland. Everywhere you look, everywhere you go… there’s calligraphy. I’ve gone into shops looking for calligraphy kits before, but most of them taught the old school western style. Over the weekend, however, I had the chance to try out an amazing Calligraphy Starter Kit by Diva Pyari from Uncommon Goods.

calligraphy-kit_01

Uncommon Goods is a privately owned company based in Brooklyn, New York that specializes in providing creative and handcrafted gifts for all types of people. What I love most about them is that they are very socially and environmentally aware. Most products are made in the United States and about half are made by hand. Uncommon Goods partners with four non-profits and even reaches out to the community, hosting product design and art challenges. And I could go on… I’m loving everything I’ve learned about them so far! Finding out about retailers that care for the earth and humanity gives me so much hope.

Calligraphy Starter Kit

So, about this Calligraphy Starter Kit. I was really nervous that I would try it out and fail and not be able to blog about it. But it wasn’t so bad! I mean, it was really bad at first but I slowly started to get the hang of it. It turned out to be really addicting! I am already planning to go out and buy some different supplies (colorful ink perhaps!).

In the spirit of keeping it real, here is my first attempt at writing some letters. Yikes.

Calligraphy Starter Kit

I experimented with different ways of holding the pen before I was comfortable with it. The instructions advised to hold the nib over a flame for a few seconds and that made a huge difference in the inkflow. This next picture is still a little rough but better right? Pretty sure modern calligraphy is allowed to be messy. 🙂

calligraphy-kit_05

Calligraphy Starter Kit

If you’re looking for gifts for friends, family, or yourself (treat yo’self!), Uncommon Goods has a plethora of unique choices. Here is the calligraphy kit if you’re interested. You can also check out the gifts for women here and gifts for men here. Oh and there are tons of cute gifts for little ones here! I’m a true fan. I’ll be back next week with another review of their products because I couldn’t stop with just one.

Have you done any calligraphy? Any suggestions on fancy ink or nib brands?

DIY MINIMAL BRASS JEWELRY HANGER

My favorite DIY projects are those that are functional, and I most definitely needed something to hang up my necklaces. As a self-proclaimed non-accessorizer, I don’t think about wearing jewelry often. This handy brass jewelry hanger will hopefully remind me of the necklaces I do have.

DIY MINIMAL BRASS JEWELRY HANGER

This is really the simplest project if you start with the right supplies. I ended up doing quite a bit of experimenting.

Supplies needed: a brass tube, rope, s-hooks (I recommend buying more than 5 to balance things out), scissors

May be needed: Pliers, wrench, crochet thread

I found most of my supplies at Ace Hardware.

First things first – open up those s-hooks! To make things easier, you might want to choose open s-hooks to begin with. I was really set on this brass color (rather than steel), so I used pliers and a wrench to turns these 8′s into S’s.

The next step is to feed the rope through the brass tube. Unless you have really tiny rope, it might be hard to feed it all the way through. I decided to pull crochet thread through the tube first, tightly tying my thread to the end of the rope.

Cut and tie your rope together at whichever length you’d like. Loop your s-hooks onto the pole and hang up your beautiful jewelry for the whole wide world (or just you) to see!

Hope you enjoyed this project! Do you have any fancy ways of displaying your jewelry?

PS – don’t pass up the chance to win some cozy fall accessories! Enter my “Happy Fall” giveaway here.

HANDWOVEN WALL HANGINGS

My grandma weaves breathtaking wall hangings (and blankets and sweaters) on a giant loom that just looks so crazy and complicated to me. It’s a beast. I always used to say, “someday I’ll learn to weave…” in a wistful way like it would take me years and years. It wasn’t until I started seeing small-scale weaving tutorials (see list at the bottom) that I realized I could actually do this at any time, with a random old cardboard box. I am much less intimidated by weaving now, but even more in awe of it.

Handwoven Wall Hangings | Earl Grey Blog

 

1. Wild Columbine Textile
2. Ran Ran Design
3. Oh Albatross
4. Hiedra
5. Toni Penrose for Moorea Seal
6. Straw & Gold
7. Liz Toohey-Wiese
8. Combed Thunder
9. Heddle & Needle

Here is one of my very favorite weavings made by my grandma. For a long time she lived in Gualala, a tiny town along the Northern California coast. Gualala is all redwood trees, oceans, and artists. It’s my favorite place in the entire world and my heart aches a little every time I visit because it is so full of wonderful memories. Anyway, this weaving is inspired by Gualala. Amazing, huh? I’ll share more of her work in the future.

Handwoven Wall Hangings | Earl Grey Blog

Handwoven Wall Hangings | Earl Grey Blog

Is weaving something you have tried or would like to get into? Also, does anybody else have a favorite place like Gualala, that is filled to the brim with sweet childhood memories?

ps. Here are a few weaving tutorials that I think are quite excellent:

Weaving 101 | Playful Learning
DIY Woven Wall Hanging | Honestly WTF
Weaving Class: The Basics | A Beautiful Mess
Learn to Weave | Clare McGibbon on The Etsy Blog

TINY FLOWERS CROCHET PATTERN

This is the first of what I hope will be many shared crochet patterns. Whether you are a beginner or an expert in the crochet language, this tiny flower pattern should be pretty simple. If you’re not into the fiber arts, I’ll be back tomorrow with something totally unrelated to old lady crafts. 😉

I love using this pattern because it only requires one round. You can either begin with a magic circle or chain 4 and slip stitch to the first chain, to create a regular circle. I prefer using a magic circle because it gives you more control over how big or small you’d like the beginning circle to be. It will allow you to close the circle and get rid of the remaining hole in the center of the flower. A great tutorial can be found here.

tiny-flower-crochet-pattern

Tiny Flowers Crochet Pattern

Skill Level: Easy
Materials: Yarn, Hook (any size), and Yarn Needle
Special Stitch: dc2tog – (yarn over, insert hook into designated space and pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through two loops) x 2, yarn over, pull through last three loops.

1. Begin with a magic circle (alternatively, chain 4 and slipstitch to the first chain, forming a loop).
2. *ch 2, dc2tog, ch 2, slip stitch into center of circle; repeat from * 5 times to create five petals.
3. Slip stitch to the first chain you made in Step 2. Fasten off, pull beginning tail of the magic circle to tighten the center and weave in the edges.

Go on and make a garden. Tiny flowers on everything!

tiny-flowers-crochet-pattern

ps. While I will be sharing many free patterns here on the blog, I’m also dipping my feet in the world of selling patterns. Before I list any patterns to sell, I would love to have each one tested by one or two crocheters. You would receive the pattern for free, crochet the item, and give me your honest feedback about the pattern structure. Email me if you’re interested! 🙂

PAINTED MAGAZINE FILES

As someone who has difficulty making color choices, I really love being able to buy plain but customizable things. Ikea has these great magazine files made of untreated wood and they’re only $10 for a set of two. I decided I would paint these white and add a minimal black pattern inspired by the following:

black-white-files-inspiration
found here and here

If you want to spruce up your workspace, find those magazine files at your local Ikea (their product name is KNUFF, just thought you should know), grab some paint, and go to town. I used large foam paint brushes for the outer and inner surfaces of the files and then painted the rectangles using a smaller flat brush. A little simple and a little messy.

black-white-files-inspiration

black-white-files-inspiration

black-white-files-inspiration

I’m excited to use these in my new place! Crossing my fingers that I will actually fully unpack, decorate, and nest this time around.

ps. Emma Watson has the best eyebrows, huh?

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

Since I moved into this new house a few months ago, I’ve been pretty careful not to add too many crazy color accents to my bedroom. I can never decide on color schemes and I always want to change things around. So I figured neutrals were the way to go, with added pops of color here and there. I have also had this instagram wall calendar idea on my mind since I moved in! As much as I love colorful photos, it made sense to go with a grayscale theme for this project. Black and white photographs are also really sweet. The last time I hung out with my friend Charity, she mentioned that black and white photos take out the colorful details but make the memories even more vivid. I love that. 🙂

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

Supplies Needed:
31 4×4 printed instagrams
white paint pen (or any color)
chipboard letters and/or cardstock and glitter paper
sticky tac

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

First I chose 31+ Instagrams of nice memories from the past year. If they weren’t b/w already, I edited them with Afterlight. Then I ordered all of them through PostalPix, which has amazing rates and beautiful quality. I’m a huge fan.

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

When I received the photos, I spent a long time deciding on the placement of each photo, because…I forgot that the days of the week change every month. Duh. Anyway, this was still helpful in deciding which photos should go side by side! I went with “light, dark, light, dark” pattern. Next, I numbered each photo with a white paint pen. If you want your numbers to show up better on the lighter photographs, you might consider switching to a black or gold paint pen or sharpie.

DIY INSTAGRAM WALL CALENDAR

I attached the photos to my wall using sticky tac so that they would be easy to move around each month. Because of my dorm days, I think this will always be my favorite adhesive.

For the days of the week, I used chipboard letters that I found in the Target dollar section. To spell out January, I printed large bold letters in Helvetica onto cardstock paper. I mirrored the image with my printing settings so each letter would print backwards. Then I cut out the letters and glued them to the back of a super glittery cardstock (from Michaels). I cut out the letters again and stickytac’d them to the wall. I’m planning to customize each month to look a little different and special. Can’t wait for February. 🙂

DIY DREAMCATCHER

Happy Tuesday! Here’s a little dreamcatcher DIY for those of you feeling crafty. I have been making dreamcatchers and not finishing them for way too long, but I finally finished one yesterday! Hooray! Here is what my process looked like:

DIY DREAMCATCHER

DIY DREAMCATCHER

First, gather the necessary supplies. You can choose many things to embellish your dreamcatchers with. I decided to stick with the basic beads and feathers.

DIY DREAMCATCHER

Tie your yarn onto the hoop, leaving a little extra on the end (to hang it up with). Tightly wrap the yarn around the hoop. When you get to the end, tie a knot onto the extra yarn you left in the beginning.

DIY DREAMCATCHER

This is the fun part! To create the netted part of the dream catcher, I used the crochet thread and looked at this tutorial. It’s easy and super relaxing. Feel free to add beads here and there. Or feathers. Or…anything, really.

DIY DREAMCATCHER

Next, tie some pieces of crochet thread onto the bottom half of the hoop and embellish away! I strung the beads onto the string, tied a bunch of knots so they wouldn’t fall off, and then stuck feathers through the beads.

DIY DREAMCATCHER

DIY DREAMCATCHER

And ta-da! I’m seriously about to make a wall of dreamcatchers. I think they are so pretty. 🙂