For The Fairy Princess In All Of Us.

DIY floral crowns using pipe cleaners.  Genius.  

This is the kind of DIY activity for anyone young at heart.  It's beautiful, fun, easy to do in groups while gathered around a table.  And YES anyone can wear a crown.  

Think about your next event...baby showers, bridal showers for sure, book club, cocktail club (if anyone wants to start one of these I'm totally in.), just because, summer solstice...ooh what about a holiday brunch - I mean why should warm weather have all the fun??

Recently Jenn and I hosted an afternoon at Pacific Place, the theme was a Spring Pop-Up and the plan was to make floral crowns. (if you live in the Seattle area, you can follow Pacific Place to see their upcoming events)  Having made them in the past, I was a little hesitant at how this was going to go down with 50 people in attendance, thankfully Holly Yee Floral had a plan.  And it was brilliant.

The brilliant piece was the headband that your start with, Holly had woven two pipe cleaners together to create the long headband base.  Because it was pipe cleaners it was soft and comfortable against the head but sturdy enough to hold up to the weight of flowers, and flexible.  You guys isn't that so smart??

The second brilliant piece was making small bouquets of flowers and greenery, about 7 total BEFORE you start attaching, this way you have all your flowers ready to go before you start wiring.   So the middle bouquets will be the front of your crown.  Holly chose a wonderful assortment of flowers...carnations and roses, billy balls, freesia, wax flowers, mums, eucalyptus, asparagus ferns...really any flowers that you can gather into small bouquets will work, and in my opinion the more greenery the better.  Do your research and choose flowers that can hold up to being outside of water for a long time.

Once you have your 7 bouquets ready, start at one end of the woven pipe cleaner headband, leaving at least an inch to tie the ribbon to, and begin wiring the flower bunches at the stems using floral wire.  Make sure that the blooms are nearest the end of the pipe cleaners, so when you add the next bouquet you are slightly layering it over the stems of the previous bouquet.  Do them all in the same direction.  Make sense?  Hold your mini bouquet all together against the pipe cleaner and wrap round and round - you don't need to worry about weaving the wire through the holes of the pipe cleaner, simply wrap the wire tight around the flower stems/pipe cleaners a few times till it feels securely attached and then grab the next bouquet and continue the wrapping process.

When you have reached near the other end of the pipe cleaner you are done.  You can always add a few extra pieces to hide the end of the stem, or just role with it - stems are pretty too.  Attach ribbon to both ends, place the crown on your head and tie it.  Done!

Bonus, this thoughtfully planned DIY makes any gathering more beautiful with flowers everywhere, and the best part is how different everyone's crowns will be, yet all equally lovely, and the instant the crown is placed on an individuals head, their eyes will sparkle.  You can't help it. 

if you make these crowns I would LOVE to know!  email me (kirsty@luciakjewelry.com) or tag me (@thekirstyfiles) in your post, it will make my day!!

photos by Saskia

best,
Kirsty

Tapestry Weaving, Bourbon Cocktails & Bacon Flights.

Sounds like a fabulous way to spend a winter afternoon am I right?

It's still January, barely, well ok when I started writing this post is was, so Happy February Y'all...and I'm still talking about what I want to make sure I do LOTS of in the next 11 months, or really just always.

Setting intentions, and one of my favorite things over the last year was gathering with girlfriends to create.  I want to do this more, I need to do this more.  It fills my soul and I love being creative in different ways.

This is why I love the Crafters Box subscription, they find the coolest crafts and gather everything needed to make it happen, including an inspirational instruction video, all you have to do is get a date on the calendar with your friends, gather the ingredients for your favorite cocktail, and in this case, add bacon...

We kept our Cocktailing Crafternoon very simple this time...

Sally mixed up a brilliant winter cocktail, Rosemary Maple Bourbon Sours.  These are the right balance of sweet and sour with a solid foundation of good bourbon.  Best trick for any cocktail, add a sprig of any herb, immediately ups your drinking game style.  Most likely you have something growing in your yard that will do just the trick.  Stay tuned tomorrow, yes tomorrow for the recipe.

Erin had the brilliant idea of Bacon Flights.  Have you ever heard of this?  Basically pick your favorite, may I suggest Rosemary Candied, Praline and Bourbon Brown Sugar Maple, the fourth was a thick cut peppered bacon, simply serve them in mason jars with little menu tags.  The easiest and most popular dish at any gathering.

Of course no gathering is complete without a cheese plate, and an heirloom pumpkin bread rounded out our brunch.  It was divine.  I'm salivating now, and it's bedtime.  darnit.

Our craft was tapestry weaving, using the Pibione technique, an ancient practice kept alive by a group of artists on the island of Sardinia in Italy.  How cool is that?  This may be my favorite one yet.  The loom was handcrafted in studio in San Diego, and the incredible fibers we used were hand-dyed indigo, Merino Wool and even recycled water bottles.  This is why I'm so crazy about the Crafters Box.  Even if I happened upon the idea of Pibione tapestry weaving, finding all these amazing materials and the talented artists to instruct, it's really an incredible product. 

We spent most of our time together assembling our looms.  The best part is that there is a part two to this project, so stay tuned for our finished projects.

Happy Friday.  Thank you for reading.

Photos by Kristen (that cute baby belly pictured above.)  Thank you to Sally for letting us use her wonderful space.

best,
Kirsty

DIY and Dash. Tassel Shoes

find my shoes here.

Tassel Shoe DIY.  Well consider this less of an actual DIY and more of an inspiration to get those creative juices flowing...


Most of the time motivation comes to me at the last minute.  I will have actually be thinking about said action well before, but I don't seem to take action until game time.

Which is why a hot glue gun always comes in handy.

20 mins till we need to leave and my entire look was centered on tasseled shoes that hadn't happened yet.  Which is why there was no time for DIY documentation you see?

Couple things about embellishing shoes

1.  Do it!  Right now there is so much fun to be had with fur, tassels, ribbons, leather, flowers...  I like to keep a fun glass container on my desk filled with all of my favorite notions I have gathered.  Sometimes it's a piece of an old purse (Goodwill is a treasure trove!) or a strip of lace, obviously lots of ribbon and tassels.  That way inspiration can strike at any time.  Finding the right trim is often the hardest part.

2.  This is the best way to jazz up old shoes, or new shoes.  Find inspiration in of the moment designer shoe trends.  But start with a price tag from Target, or Nordstrom Rack or Sole Society.

3.  Hot glue on leather (not suede) is the best way to go bc it sticks but it's also reversible.  Otherwise sewing is necessary, and get your toughness on because your fingers are going to have to push hard.

4.  Make sure that when you are adding embellishments it's not load bearing (or is it baring?)  In this case with my strappy shoes, I simply added an extra strap a bit higher than the toe strap.  And I kept it a tad loose because you don't want blisters.  This way the original straps are doing their job, the one I added is just for show.

5.  If you really want the DIY details, send me an email.  And to get your creative juices flowing...

Here is a tassel DIY to get you inspired.

Here are loads of good Pompom DIYs

Some great basic shoes to start with (click on image for shopping details)...

more inspo, I LOVE the rainbow grosgrain heels on those espadrilles, and in case you want to just want to buy a party for your feet, here you go...

Happy Tuesday Shoes.

That Time We Taught Macrame & Drank Bubbly Together.

Last week Jenn, Erin and I had the opportunity to host a crafting workshop in the fabulous Pop Up event space at Pacific Place.  Everything came together, albeit a bit by the skin of our teeth, beautifully and I was so excited to see the evening unfold.  It was lovely.

A chic palette of pink and copper, flickering candles and darling florals, all by Erin, framed an evening of macrame crafting.  We noshed on the yummiest nibbles (still thinking about the marinated grilled artichokes and extra fancy breadsticks) and sweet macarons, while the bubbly flowed.  French tunes played in the background as conversation flowed and knots were tied.  Our vision of gathering together and being creative in an inspiring space actually happened, and although I ended the evening in need of a foot massage and a nap, I was over the moon.

Our event was sold out, which I can't even believe, I am so grateful to all the women who attended.  The energy in the room was so good, such a great group of people.  This is our hope.  And I TOTALLY breathed a sigh of relief when macrame plant holders began to unfold, the project we had envisioned was actually happening.  Which really means we did the directions right!  and cut the rope long enough...and don't even get me started on finding wooden beads with big enough center holes. 

So many good learning experiences for the next time.

Get ready for photo overload, there's just too many good moments, I had to share them all...

One of my favorite details...guests were greeted with a hand-lettered champagne glass, best way to get a party started and to keep track of who's who, making everyone feel welcome.

One of the wonderful touches in the Pacific Place Pop Up Space, the Love Lock Tradition, once the lock is placed in honor of your loved one, the key is thrown away to symbolize an unbreakable love.

We wanted to the space to feel like a chic Parisian flat, Erin did a wonderful job bringing our vision to life with our lounge area.  Complete living room envy right here, all these items are available for your next event, just saying.

The crudite plate of my dreams, and those breadsticks, am I right?  They were as fun as they were delicious.  Food by Il Fornaio 

Macarons by Trophy Cupcake, my favorite are the salted dark chocolate.  Craving one now.  Darnit.

 

Cheers!

Shout out to Jenn who drove around the city tracking down last minute necessities and Erin for creating the tablescapes, florals and covering all the little details. 

A HUGE thank you to Pacific Place for partnering with us and helping our vision come to life.  You can see all of their upcoming events here.

Stay tuned for more....

Thank you for reading,

Kirsty

photos by Saskia