poinsettia wreath kit

Oh, Martha... I stumbled on a Martha Stewart poinsettia wreath kit at ACMoore last week, and debated buying it before talking myself out of it and leaving the store. I kept thinking about it, so went back to get three of them (the whole triangle needed one, obviously!) today and I'm pretty excited about it! I can't tell from the package how annoying it's going to be to make, but I'll keep you posted.

**update**
After a Greek feast of falafel, stuffed grape leaves, olives, and eggplant salad, the Knitting Triangle started working on the poinsettia wreaths. I'll be honest--there was some initial disappointment and concern when we opened the packages to find that lazy old Martha hadn't pre-cut the crepe paper for us. But baklava kept us going and we went ahead and wrapped the wreath shape with green crepe paper (while complaining that Martha could have given us a few extra inches of the paper so it wouldn't take three attempts to cover the white foam), cut out stacks of red and pink crepe paper into the poinsettia flower petals, and green leaves. For me, everything was going along fine and I was happy with the way the wreath was coming out until I got to what Martha refers to as "pips" (otherwise known as the little centers of the poinsettia flowers). These are tiny white pom poms that MS wants you to cover in crepe paper and then twist into little balls. Um. No thanks. I just went with the white pom poms and forgot about the colored centers.

Here it is hanging on the inside of my front door, looking very fun and Christmasy:

Curtains can make the room

About 4 years ago my boyfriend bought a cottage in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. Besides being close to some great ski areas, one of the bonuses of the house for him was the fact that it was fully furnished. The woman who owned the house was leaving everything... beds, furniture, linens, and housewares. It was "move-in" ready basically.

But when I set foot in the cottage for the first time I saw it as a blank slate. In the past few years I have gotten rid of almost all of her tacky floral 70's style bedspreads and curtains and replaced them with various cottage themed linens. They were tough to find but I searched every store until I found things I liked.

But there was one room I hadn't touched and that was the upstairs bathroom. There were red gingham curtains (picture a tablecloth) and a tomato bath mat. That bath mat haunted me. I needed some inspiration and found it in some fabric scraps given to me. I decided to use the scraps and make curtains. It's a great way to use some pieces of fabric that aren't quite big enough to use for anything but you can't give them up. I just bought some cheap fabric for lining... and here's the results.

And here's another room I made curtains for. I think the curtains bring it all together.

Adventures of Apartment Decorating

Now that I'm unpacked (mostly) in my new apartment it's time to start decorating. There's much to do... hang pictures, make curtains, buy chairs for my kitchen table...

While packing I came across my wall calendar from 2008. Each month was a new vintage wine poster and I bought it with the intention of someday framing and displaying them somewhere. And that day was today.

I went to Michaels during my lunch break today and found packages of (2) 11 x 14 frames for $7. A steal. I purchased what I needed and picked out my favorite prints from the calendar.

The prints were 10 x 14 so I just cut strips from some scrapbooking paper and used my trusty glue stick to remedy the problem. I think they look pretty cool. It's a great cheap way to recycle and decorate.