Tuesday, July 30, 2013

NMT: 7.23.13 & 7.30.13

Unfortunately was out of town last Tuesday, so got to listening to things a little later in the week. Luckily, found a lot of great things and this week's releases were pretty light, so combining both weeks into one seemed pretty perfect.

7.30.13

  • Sparks the Rescue's Ceara Belle (Truth Inside the Fiction)
  • Backstreet Boys' Soldier (In A World Like This)
  • The Family Crest's The River (The Headwinds EP)
  • Jayme Dee's Love Whiplash (Broken Record EP)


7.23.13
  • Hands Like Houses' Introduced Species (Unimagined)
  • Secrets' Sleep Well; Darling (Fragile Figures)
  • Sombear's Never Say Baby (Love You in the Dark)

  • Wallpaper.'s Drunk Hearts (Ricky Reed is Real)
  • Selena Gomez' Save the Day (Stars Dance)
  • Hot Chip's Look At Where We Are [Major Lazer Remix] (Dark and Stormy)
  • Classified's Inner Ninja ft. David Myles (Inner Ninja EP)
  • Half Moon Run's Call Me In the Afternoon (Dark Eyes)
  • Jace Everett's No Place to Hide (Terra Rose)
  • James Bay's When We Were On Fire (The Dark of the Morning EP)

xoxo e



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

NMT: 7.16.13

  • Them Swoops' Work Around It [Ben Browning Remix] (Glimmers)
  • St. Lucia's Elevate (Elevate - Single)
  • Tony Lucca's Reckless Love (With the Whole World Watching)
  • Tallhart's Our Bodies (We Are The Same) Really, just listen to the whole album, it's quite beautiful.

  • Matt Nathanson's Heart Starts (Last of the Great Pretenders)
  • The Joy Formidable's Silent Treatment [William Orbit Remix] (Silent Treatment EP)
  • Cody Simpson's Sinkin' In (Surfer's Paradise)
  • Mayer Hawthorne's Robot Love (Where Does This Door Go)
  • Smallpool's Dreaming; Mason jar (Smallpools EP)

Enjoy! 
xoxo e

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

DIY Quote Jar

This week I was looking to make a gift for a friend who recently moved & started a new job. I thought something simple & cute would do the trick as either an accessory for her office or her home! Thus, this quote jar. 

All in all, I thought the gift turned out super cute & for only $3.99, I'm now aching to make my own! (Note: $3.99 is the cost of the jar; all other materials, I already had in my craft supplies.)

I started by picking out scrapbook paper I wanted to use to write the quotes on for the inside of the jar, and also scrapbook paper to lay on the inside of the jar. I used this TrendSetter paper I had recently gotten from Overstock (but you can also get it from scrapbook.com at a cheaper price.) 


The TrendSetter paper was for the quotes inside, and luckily the stripes sheet you see above was from another packet I had recently picked up, the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm set (bought at Overstock.) You can also visit American Crafts to checkout the rest of the Dear Lizzy collection! Love love love the designs.


I measured out a piece that would fit inside the jar and cut it out. Unfortunately, 12 inches just barely misses the mark in length to fully wrap around the inside, so I had to cut off an extra sliver and tape it to the wraparound for the back of the jar. You could probably leave it open entirely, as who really looks at the back of the jar anyway? Or, you could print a design on legal paper so there'd be no gap. 



The paper I used was just striped, as above, but I wanted to add something to fancy it up in the front. In my scrapbook set, there was this little tag and I used scalloped scissors to cut around it. You could use this space to personalize the item, maybe use a monogram, paper cut outs, or stickers - the options are endless!


Next came time to start the quote part of the craft. For this project, I went to my friend's Quote Pinboard and picked quotes from there to use. Since I was unsure of where she may put the jar, I picked quotes that seemed mostly applicable and inspirational to a wide variety of people if they were to read a quote in the jar. I think using quotes you specifically know your friend enjoys is the best way to go, but you could also pick whatever quotes you really wish. 

Too lazy to handwrite all of the quotes... I planned on typing. Since the paper I was using was only 6 x 6, I decided I would cut them into post-it shaped squares and use the template for printing on post-its (the one I used can be found on One Good Thing.) I made 6 documents of the quotes, then sheet by sheet would tape the squares of scrapbook paper to my printed template and feed them through the printer. If this sounds like a lot, it really wasn't! It was pretty painless, and I only had to use one sheet of printer paper this way and the tape was good for all 6 prints. I printed on the white side of the scrapbook paper so that, when folded, the design side would be what you'd see.



With the printing, the template print on some of the squares that I had cut too large (as I started to do it more by eye than my ruler), but I just trimmed the edges at the end - again, pretty painless!



I folded up all my quote squares into quarters. With 6 pages (36 quotes on post-it note sized paper), the fit is pretty snug, just FYI. But I simply had to tuck them within each other, and I think it is better to have more quotes than less.



Et voila! You could use this same idea for more than quotes: you could store wishes you have, tasks to finish, memories, and I'm sure many other things that I can't think of right now! Any other suggestions or have you made something similar for yourself? Let me know!

xoxo e

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

NMT: 7.9.13

  • *Jay-Z's Holy Grail ft. Justin Timberlake; Tom Ford (Magna Carta... Holy Grail) 
  • **Like Moths to Flames' The Blackout; In Dreams (An Eye for an Eye)
  • IamSu's Return of the Mac ft. P-Lo & Sage the Gemini (Kilt II)
  • Skylar Grey's Back from the Dead ft. Big Sean & Travis Barker (Don't Look Down)
  • Gregory Alan Isakov's Second Chances (The Weatherman)
  • Stickup Kid's Good People In A Place I Hate (Future Fire)
  • ***Josh Pyke's All the Very Best of Us; Bug Eyed Beauty (The Beginning and the End of Everything)



*I just now listened to this album which dropped last week, but it is seriously super good. Worth the hype.
**If you're into screamo, heavier than the usual.
***JUST BUY THIS ALBUM ALREADY. It's unbelievably beautiful. Perfect.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

NMT: 7.2.13

This week's highlight is a brief list as I think artists avoided a release date the same week of July 4th. Alas, here are this week's picks (with what I believe is the first country song to make the lineup!)


  • A Great Big Pile of Leaves' Snack Attack (You're Always On My Mind)
  • The Spacepimps' All Signs Point Home (Eternal Boy)
  • Natalia Kills' Saturday Night (Single)
  • Lorde's Tennis Court (Tennis Court)

  • Mud Digger's Headed South ft. Daniel Lee (Mud Digger 4)
  • Relient K's Don't Blink (Collapsible Lung)
  • Waylayers' Show Me (Fault Lines)
Anything else you picked up on this week?

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

DIY Personalized Pic & Post Frame


As you may know, I recently moved back to Texas after graduating this May. Upon arrival, I started to gather stationery to write notes to my friends who remained in Oklahoma and those who had moved to other states as well. Two friends in particular, I wanted to make something special for, and after hunting around Hobby Lobby, I came up with the idea of little personalized desk frames. 


Thought I'd share the directions in case you're interested in making one for a loved one or yourself! 

First, I bought cork letters for the corner of the frames, using their first initial.

Next, I found things I'd like to use to personalize their thumbtack/pushpins. For my friend Rachel, she is a sweet British-loving soul, so I thought I'd make hers a kind of a old english tea party theme! I found these tiles in the scrapbooking section. For my other friend Kiera, she LOVES elephants, so I thought I'd do a brightly-colored India-inspired frame. I found the stickers (below, right) in the scrapbooking section as well.)


I also thought it would be really cute to make Kiera an elephant pushpin, so I bought this charm to make that happen. I tried to find a teacup charm, but couldn't find one I liked - though I must take a moment to talk about how absolutely lovely Bead Treasures' Fairy Tale charm line is! Some really beautiful & whimsical artistry. The foxhead charm below is from the line, and I just love it so much.



I tend to be a scrapbook paper junkie (though I don't scrapbook per se.) I chose some paper from MAMBI's specialty mixed media pack I had picked up recently, which you can view and purchase here. (I NEVER KNEW OVERSTOCK HAD SCRAPBOOK PAPER? CRAFTING. SECRETS.) MAMBI really does have some fantastic things though. The paper I used for Rachel's I am unfortunately unsure of the brand, as it is leftover I've had for awhile.

Both from MAMBI's pack.
I bought plain silver thumbtacks and hot glued the tiles & gems to these. If you have or can find flat topped pins, I would suggest that route as these were more inclined to pop off (or perhaps use super glue instead of hot glue, and truthfully, I am not the best hot gluer anyways!) I then painted each of the letters and allowed those to dry.



I spray painted my frames an ivory color. Note: Be attentive when buying frames! I saw these wooden ones at Hobby Lobby and didn't realize the beveled corners (I thought they were a part of the packaging.) I had to chip them off and then sand them down to make the frame one thickness, which was slightly frustrating. 



Now this elephant thumbtack. Trickery. I must admit, I solicited help from my family on this one. Cut and sanded the charm circle loop on the elephant's back, cut a skinny nail, and used a dremel to put a hole in the elephant. Then spray painted! Thank goodness for family, the elephant turned out exactly as I had hoped.




The last step was finding quotes that fit their personalities and printing and inserting that into the frame. Et voila! For future adaptions, I'd like to make a version that maybe is just used as a dry erase desk frame and playing with other charm-pins and frame styles, also may include collaged pictures behind the glass. Looking forward to hopefully finding a new job soon so I can make one for my new desk area!




Any tips you would offer or tweaks you'd make? Would love to know!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

NMT: 6.25.13

Week two is upon us!

This week's highlight is a mix of folk, groove-hop, & alternative. Hope you find something you like (&let me know if you do!)


  • Treetop Flyers' Haunted House (The Mountain Moves)
  • Bronze Radio Return's Gilded Lily (Up, On & Over)
  • Real Friends' I've Given Up On You (Put Yourself Back Together)
  • Booker T's Sound the Alarm ft. Mayer Hawthorne (Sound the Alarm)
  • The Cataracs' Big Dipper ft. Luciana (Big Dipper - Single)
  • Jillette Johnson's True North (Water In A Whale)
  • Hawthorne Heights' Spark (Zero)
  • Javier Dunn's Here's the Thing; 79 (Trails)
  • Rose Windows' Season of Serpents (The Sun Dogs)
  • R-Swift's Raindrops ft. Social Club (Apply Pressure)
  • Wrekonize's Rise ft. Liz Suwandi (The War Within)
What are you listening to this week?

xoxo e