Ol' Money Bags

Since I'm on kind of a revamped vintage kick, I thought I would share another recent craft project. Estate sale season is upon us and at one particularly junk filled casa I scored these awesome vintage money bags. With just a little stuffing and some quick stitching the empty canvas bags became fabulous accent pillows.

Here are the flat money bags before their transformation:

All you need is some generic fiberfill and cream colored thread.

Turn the bag inside out and stitch about half way across the top. Just far enough that you have enough room to turn the bag right side out and fill it with fluff.



After stuffing the bags with fluffy stuff, hand stitch the remaining opening and you're done! Easy peasy!

The worn canvas is surprisingly soft and makes for a cool conversation piece. Now if only they were filled with more than fiberfill...

(Quick & Inexpensive) Modern Flower Arrangement

It was 30 minutes until our dinner party and I still hadn't bought or arranged flowers. So I ran into our local grocery store and picked up an (inexpensive) bunch of purple dahlias. I split them into two arrangements - one long skinny vase held four standing flowers and I placed the rest in a rose bowl. I arranged the stems from the cut flowers in the center of the rose bowl arrangement to add some height (and saved money on greenery.) To keep the stems standing tall I loosely wrapped a clear hair band around them before placing them in the bowl. Ta Da! Two arrangements for about $5.

Lonny Magazine - Winter 2009

Check out the new issue of Lonny! Now available at Lonnymag.com

{Lonny Magazine}

A great follow up to their debut fall issue. Way to go guys!

Another one bites the dust

Another home magazine has been demolished. Metropolitan Home will cease publication with its December issue, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. announced yesterday.

{Metropolitan Home, June 2009}

Almost every major publisher has discontinued one of their shelter magazines... leaving us only with an apologetic subscription to one of their fashion magazines. Hachette said it will focus it's efforts on Elle Decor, their ad page leader - who's ad sales have also fallen... almost 50%. Looks like online magazines will be taking over after all.

Read the NY Times article here or the HFMUS Press Release here

Sad times. :(

Printed Lampshades

I'm loving these Massey & Rogers screen printed lampshades with their vintage inspired design! What an easy way to makeover a blah lamp. And the birds are simply adorable!

{Massey & Rogers}

{Massey & Rogers}

Restoration Hardware Inspired Curtains

I've been drooling over these $400 Restoration Hardware curtains for months but just couldn't justify the purchase. Instead, I decided to repurpose some curtains I already owned and get the same look for about $20.

{Restoration Hardware}

I already had some "Restoration Hardware blue" curtains but they were about 12" too short for our new house. I went to the fabric store and found a brown that matched our duvet. Note: Sometimes browns can look too red against a green/blue so it's good to bring a swatch for reference.

I sewed a 17" long piece of brown fabric to the bottom of my existing curtains. (Add 3 inches on either side for the width so you have enough fabric for a finished edge.)

For a more modern look, I used clips instead of running the curtain rod through the pocket. I don't do frills. They actually sell them at Restoration but you can get them cheaper at Bed Bath and Beyond or Target.

Next project... matching euro pillow shams.

The $4 Halloween Wreath

Holiday decor can get gaudy fast, especially if it's DIY. I didn't want a Halloween wreath with cartoon pumpkin cutouts, friendly ghosts, or bright orange ribbon so I designed this easy (and cheap) alternative.


I bought a grapevine wreath from Michaels for $3.99 (with a 40% off coupon, of course) and a styrofoam crow from the dollar store. I clipped some of the existing vines and added some extra sticks for a more disheveled look, then spray painted the whole wreath black. After it was dry, I attached the crow with a few pieces of florists wire. Done! It was easy enough that the finished product was hung by October 1st.

{Basic grapevine wreath - usually found in the "cheap bins" outside the entrance to Michael's}

I added a crow, but you could use almost anything! Let your imagination run wild!

Happy October!

Moss Letters "How To"

As you can see, I decided on the moss letters for the bride & groom chairs.
I've gotten a lot of feedback asking how to make them, so here it is!

{Final Product - minus the hanging ribbon}

This project is actually pretty messy - I would recommend opening up a plastic trash bag, almost like you would for a Christmas tree, and doing all of your cutting and gluing on top of that. It makes cleanup MUCH faster! Put your cutting board or a piece of cardboard inside it and bring the bag up around it.


This is what you will need: paper and a printer to print out your letter, florist foam, moss cloth, sharpie, scissors, tape, utility knife, hot glue gun, florist pins, ribbon, free time, and a big glass of wine.


I used instant green moss cloth instead of the usual free form moss for a clean, modern look. It's also much more green than ordinary moss.


I used a simple helvetica font (which has a lot of straight lines) - it makes cutting much easier. I printed mine 10" tall on regular copy paper, but you could also use cardstock. I would avoid script fonts unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. :)


Cut out your letter and tape it to the foam. Then use your sharpie to trace the outline onto the foam.


If you put a straight side of your letter up against a side of the foam, you don't have to cut that side. Time saver! Ex: I put the left side and bottom of my B in the left, bottom corner of the foam.


Cut in straight lines. Don't try to make your blade curve - it won't happen. Cut off your negative space to get closer to the letter. Notice how the garbage bag catches all of the excess. :)


Then make small cuts away from your letter so that when you begin cutting along your letter's edge, these pieces will fall away. It keeps your edge much cleaner. Make sure to change your blade pretty often. You will notice that if your blade get's dull, you will get a jagged edge instead of a clean cut.


Then you have your beautiful foam letters. Don't worry if your lines aren't completely smooth, you'll be covering them up with moss anyway. This project is very forgiving. If you accidentally take out a large chunk of foam. Stick it back on with a toothpick and hot glue... no one will know.


Spread out your moss cloth and center your letter face down. This will make the front of your letter completely smooth. Each of my 10" letters used one package of moss. (Total of 2 packages.)


Cut slits in your moss out away from your letter so that it will wrap around without folding.


Start on the more straight sides and fold the moss up and over your letter. Hot glue it to the foam and secure the larger pieces with a florist pin. We will hide these later. Continue around the letter, piece by piece. Cut the strips to fit up against each other like a puzzle.




It's ok if you can see lines. When you are finished, take your utility knife and gently scrape away some of the overlap so that the pieces blend into each other.


Use some of the scrap pieces to fill in the inside of the letter where your folded pieces didn't reach. Blend them into each other like above.


When your letter is complete, push a florist's pin (about 3/4 of the way in) into the back of your letter. Loop your ribbon through, then push it the rest of the way in. For my letters, I used two pins each, about 2" from the top of the letter.


You then use the ribbon to hang your letters! (Back shown)

Overall, it's a pretty easy project - just more time consuming than I had thought.
It's a great personal touch to your wedding decor!

Want to see more Mod How-To's? Visit our new site: www.DesignalaMod.com

Everything looks better in candlelight

As of Sunday, my wedding is exactly 8 months away. As part of the centerpieces, I wanted an abundance of candlelight. My reception will take place outside on a terrace, where there is sure to be a lot of wind. Good for the September heat, bad for the candles. An inexpensive solution is to drop votives in glass holders into tall zombie glasses. (Which can then be reused.) I plan to use 2 or 3 different height glasses on each table for some added dimension. Since I wanted quite a few candles (over 100), I'm buying wholesale. The same can be done with the glasses from a restaurant supply company. Which, by the way, is also a great place to pick up wine glasses and bar ware for your own home.The same idea can be applied with floating candles and different levels of water.