DIY // Pineapple Cork Board

Little by little I'm trying to get my apartment to feel more like summer. Having this geometric pineapple cork board in my living room is really helping with this mission, and it's super easy to make! 

DIY // Watermelon Summer Jewelry Dish

Yesterday I spent the day running through the dollar store trying to figure out what I could turn into a watermelon. Literally anything that's round has potential. But then I was thinking, 'what do I really need?' Well, my biggest pet peeve right now is how disorganized my room is, and need to figure out a system for my jewelry. And this is what my one girlfriend and I came up with! 

DIY // Winking Pillow

For some reason every time I come home to stay at my mums house, every one is always gone! My family knows I'm coming home and they haven't seen me in weeks but always find a million excuses to leave. That leaves me to go through my mothers fabric bin and attempt to sew. So I sewed up this white on one side, black on the other side pillow. Then took a stab at stitching eyes onto the white side. The original plan was to cover the entire white side with open eyes. But once I realized that one eye was taking me forever, I gave up and settled with the winking! Which I like way better anyways. I made this from scratch, but it would be a lot simpler to go out and buy a pillow case and then to stitch the winking eyes onto that way. I found it a nice pass times as I was catching up on "The Fosters" and "Switched at Birth". You can have a look at a stitching tutorial here to try it yourself!

xoxo. Maria

DIY // Sharpie Pumpkin Gourds

A while ago I was grocery shopping with my boyfriend and sometimes I think I'm really funny (even though I'm usually not) and decided to go around and see how many different things I could stick in the cart without him noticing. The only time I got caught was when I was trying to stick a big jug of Sunny D in. But other then that I came out of that store with many things we didn't need. I was scolded for a bit considering my boyfriend and I are on a college budget, but I really couldn't stop laughing. The cashier even asked me for the drugs I was on! I was not on drugs, I'm just going to blame it on being over tired. We were grocery shopping at 1am, so that's going to be my excuse! 

Anyways, I snuck in a bag of gourds! Since the feeling of Fall is upon us, I decided I would do a DIY with them. The instructions are pretty straight forward: grab a sharpie and some little pumpkin gourds and start doodling! 

xoxo. Maria 

DIY // Flower Crown

Materials:

• Fake flowers 
• Thread
• Needle
• Ribbon

To figure out how many flowers you will need, put the ribbon around your head and mark where you would like the flowers to begin and end. Then lay the ribbon down and place the flowers on top and spread them the way you would like. 

With your needle and thread, sew the flower to the ribbon. I have a type of circular ribbon, almost like a rope. This was great because there was a texture to it where the needle went through the individual openings. 

It's actually that simple and straight forward! 

Since I only had this one shot with me and the crown on, I decided to include an image from a photo shoot I had and used it as a prop. Just so you have a better idea of what the flower crown actually looked like. 

Xoxo. Maria 

DIY // Kimono

All of a sudden, I started having this obsession with kimonos. They're just so simple, light and looks cute with every outfit. But sometimes they can be costly. The first kimono I bought was thrifted and therefore was super cheap. Then I saw on forever 21 that they were $30. That's $30 I don't really want to spend. So I found an alternative that only cost me $2! 

What you will need: 

• Large Scarf (I bought mine from Ardenes, it was 5 for $10)
• Scissors
• Pins
• Ruler
• Sewing Machine
• Iron

The scarf I have here is 72x40 Inches. First, fold your scarf in half by putting the long sides together. 

If your scarf has a right and a wrong side to it - for example, one side is more vibrant then the other - take the vibrant side (right side) and fold it into each other, so the dull side (wrong side) is showing on the outside. 

Here is a diagram to help you throughout the steps to get a better idea of what you're working with. As you can see, the top is where the fold is when you folded the scarf in half. Therefore at the bottom, you can see the opening. 

Starting at the fold at the top of the scarf, measure a good amount of length for an arm hole. For mine, I left the hole 10 inches wide.

Pin this spot for reference for the next step. Do the exact same thing to the other side.

Now, starting from the end of the scarf where the opening is, start sewing at the corner (about 2 cm away from the edge), all of the way up until you get to the pin. Look at the guide in the beginning of this post for reference. Be sure to back stitch at each end.
I recommend you use a sewing machine for this just to be sure to have a secure seam. But you can also hand stitch this whole kimono if you would like to. It will take a bit longer, but if you don't own a sewing machine or don't know how to use it, hand stitching is always an alternative. Since kimono's are usually loose and flow, if you make a mistake on a seam it'll be hard to notice when you are wearing it.

Once each side is sewn up to the pin, lay your scarf back down so you can see it better. Now at the bottom of the scarf where the opening is, find the centre and cut up all of the way to the the fold at the top of the scarf. This will be the front opening of your kimono. Be sure to only cut the top layer of the scarf.

Take both of the cut sides from the front of the kimono and fold them half an inch in. These next few steps are to help hide the choppy cutting areas and just make everything look neater. Make sure when you are folding it, that you are putting the fold to the outside.

Grab your iron and use it to press the folds so there will be a crease in the fabric. This will help with the next step. You can also pin the fold over if the iron isn't keeping the fold down from the heat.

Now starting at the open side of the scarf again, sew each fold down (separately) all of the way to the top of the scarf where the fold is.

Once done with sewing the folds, cut off all of the unnecessary strings hanging from your scarf. Then flip it right side out and your kimono is completed!