Editor’s Note: I’m so very excited to introduce a dear friend and kick-ass designer as our guest for today’s Crafty Girl. Arrs is the mad scientist behind GemKitty, a fantastic website that basically allows you to staff out your DIY jewelry fantasies. Pick one of their dozens of beautiful designs, come up with a color combo you love, and presto – they’ll ship it to your door in no time flat.

Oh, and the best news? Order today (it’s the last day for Valentine’s Day orders), and get 30% off with code ROMEO -  forward it to a significant other or take matters into your own hands!

In the meantime, Arrs has cooked up an exclusive DIY design for your Valentine’s Day delight. I can hardly wait to get started on this pretty – if only I could decide on a color combo. Lapis beads with bright yellow jasper accents? Pale green aventurine and orange carnelian? Where would you start? (Yep, I totally used her amazing website as a gem cheat sheet for that, by the way.)

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DIY fashion is all the rage (again) and while I heart marathon crafting sessions, I presume most of you aren’t reading this with hot glue gun, plumbing parts, and yards of fancy ribbon in hand.

So, for you crafty novices, I’ve cooked up a DIY necklace project that is the perfect way to wish yourself a happy Valentine’s Day. It’s simple (no special tools required), can easily be made while imbibing your favorite cocktail or gossiping with your girlfriends, and absolutely everyone can pull it off with style.

Necklace made with tiger’s eye and carnelian beans and suede cord.

To make your very own, just click below for all the gory details:

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember those slouchy suede boots I had shortened last month?

Imagine my giddy surprise to see the following in Isabel Marant’s Spring 2012 collection:

It’s an utter fluke when style coincidences like these come along, so I couldn’t resist sharing. I like to think it gives hope to the rest of us when someone who isn’t Alexa Chung (ahem…) gets a big ol’ high five from the fashion world, entirely by accident. And thank goodness, as I know I’d have been coveting these $580 babies something fierce. Now, if the craving strikes, you’ll know just how to get the look for a fraction of the cost.

This is really crafting by delegation (which, one might argue, is the best kind of crafting), but I had to share my most recent “Well, aren’t you clever?” moment.

A couple of years ago (wow, make that three years ago!), I bought a pair of cheap tall suede boots. They were my first foray into the world of tall boots, actually – I’d never been a fan, being from California, where shoe-related warmth is utterly unnecessary. You can see the process unfold right over here if you’d like a stroll down memory lane.

As you’d expect from cheap boots with absolutely no internal structure, these turned from slouchy chic to saggy swashbuckler over the course of a couple of years. They showed all sorts of unpleasant watermarks and wear on the shaft, the color was fading, and – best of all – the stitching was coming out at the top. Clearly, something had to be done.

Meanwhile, I was wishing for a great pair of knock-around cognac ankle boots to give my beloved Rachel Comeys a break. It finally dawned on me, in a fit of genius, that I have an amazing cobbler and a fashion gambler’s heart (Ha! As if.). So, I took them to my beloved cobbler Dorian, who turned these:

…into these:

And I’ve been wearing them almost nonstop since. Brand new shoes for $35 – not bad!

My crafty hack would work best with a cheapie pair of boots (lining and zippers will definitely complicate things. But if you have a far-too-slouchy pair of boots in your closet that you just can’t salvage, this is a pretty fantastic solution. Just remember, a good cobbler is key to this crafty mission. If you don’t have one, you’re missing one of the great joys in life. If you don’t have one in your town, ask the most well-heeled girl you know who she trusts.

Today’s guest is Melissa Tomeoni, whom you all know as the highly-talented photographer behind my portraits. Besides those traditional gigs, Melissa is a crazy-good fine art photographer (check out her latest series on Etsy!). And she’s also one of the most fun DIY girls I’ve ever known. When she told me about her latest project – turning her miniscule closets into a bedroom-sized boutique, I had to see it for myself. It’s genius!

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There is something you should know about me: I have a few pet peeves. Everyone has them, but mine are special in that they all have to do with problems I create for myself.

1.  Being disorganized. Can’t stand it. Can’t sleep because of it. Furthermore, it leads to other fun things like a claustrophobic nature. (I’m sure you are all just dying to be my friend now, right?)

2. Buying crap to store my clothes/dishes/accessories/etc. Honestly, I would rather spend my money on fun items then containers to put my fun items in. Alas, I refer to #1 and find myself in an internal struggle.

3.  People who contradict themselves. So essentially, I’m my own pet peeve.

About four weeks ago my husband, puppy and I moved into a new place. While the square footage is about the same, it seems as though we’ve lost 15 closets in the move – including our separate bedroom closets. So, my husband and I are once again sharing a closet. Agony! Since I know many couples deal with this tragedy, I hope to help a few of you by sharing my solutions. The goal was to make my closet look acceptable, function well and, of course, store the wardrobe that I love so dearly.

The solution, sadly, was to put aside pet peeve #2 and buy some crap to store my crap. And so, I dragged myself to the two best places in the home improvement world: Ikea and Bed Bath and Beyond.

Solution #1. Buy slim line hangers (including these fancy pant hangers) from Real Simple. These little puppies are fuzzy so they grip even the slimmest spaghetti strap or widest scoopneck blouse. The bigger bonus is the stackability factor – each hanger has a little hook that allows you to hang a second hanger from it, so you can hang pieces up to to 4x deep. Perfecto! I was kind and bought enough for both me and my husband.

Solution #2. Install more spaces to store coats and shoes. In a small space, the worst thing you could do would be to buy more bulky furniture to eat up your square footage. I knew I wanted my shoes (and coats) off the floor and something had to be done. While at Ikea I found simple unfinished shelves, and brackets to hang them. Rather then purchasing an official wardrobe, I decided my things looked good enough to be displayed. So, I essentially “merchandised” my clothes right into my bedroom’s decor!

I used leftover wall paint and painted the shelves to match our existing wall color, creating a neutral backdrop that lets the colors and shapes of the clothes take the stage. I chose brackets that resemble the circular pattern on my dresser and spray painted them gold to match. I bought 2 silver hanging racks (found in the kitchen section of Ikea) to mount upside down to hang my coats on. The final step is installation. Ta-da! My very own sleep-in closet.

It’s been about 2 weeks since my closet had it’s makeover, and I can honestly say my life is so much happier now, with all of my pet peeves at bay. It feels a little like living in a boutique I can borrow from any time I want. I can see all of my fall/winter coats, my shoes, and my sweaters, so I actually get to wear everything I’ve worked so hard to own. As it turns out, maybe my pet peeves are more motivation than annoyance. –Melissa Tomeoni

Every so often, I get a wild hair about a DIY project. I see something ( it’s usually jewelry), and I say to myself, “Self, you have to have that! But it’s $200/$400/$1,000,000!” Then comes the scary part. You know what’s coming…say it along with me. “You know, I could totally make that!”

We’ve all said it at some point, no? And then it goes into our mental DIY file, the place we put all those projects we plan to do, never to be seen or heard from again.

But, for once in my life, I actually finished one of these little DIY dreams. Can you imagine? And so, blatantly plagarized for your enjoyment, the Etten Eller necklace I couldn’t live without:

And my version:

What do you think, friends? Not quite as wonderful as the original, but it’s not bad for $50 in beads, I think. I do have some residual guilt about knocking off a designer piece, but the I-did-it-myself pride is doing a good job of mitigating that for me. Of course, if you factor in the 15 hours I spent hemming and hawing, finding suppliers, actually deciding to order the goods, and the relatively minor 45 minutes it took me to make the necklace once I had everything, I’m not sure I actually saved any money. But if you’re more decisive than I am, it’s definitely worth the effort!

On the off chance you get a wild hair about doing the same thing, I’ll give you a list of materials and tips after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »