Easy DIY Body Scrub

Just in time for the holidays, I have an easy do-it-yourself gift idea for you! Last year's hot cocoa mix gifts (here) were so fun to make, I wanted to make something again this Christmas for our friends and family. 

I love a good body scrub and best of all, this all-natural recipe can be made with everyday items from your kitchen.

Other than the recipe ingredients (below), all you need is a small glass jar (here), gift tags (mine were from Marshall's, but these printable tags would be perfect), and ribbon - I paired green velvet with a shimmery gold from Michael's.

Below is the "recipe" for your body scrub - all you have to do is mix all ingredients in a large bowl and divide among the jars. To fill 10 small jars, I recommend making 2-3 batches.

James Roy Photography

DIY Body Scrub Recipe

Makes 1 batch

2 cups coarse salt (or sugar)

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. honey

Styling an entryway table

I am so excited to finally, finally share our completed DIY Parsons table! I previously posted the tutorial for this inexpensive and relatively easy DIY (here) and I finally get to show you the finished product, upholstered in faux crocodile vinyl fabric.

All of the credit for making and upholstering the table goes to my husband who built the table in no time, and then painstakingly wrapped every inch of this table in not-so-easy to work with vinyl. He did such a great job and I'm thrilled with how it turned out!

James Roy Photography

Once it was done, I styled our entryway table with: 

• Gold and white pieces from Erie Drive (here)
• Target lamp and shade (here and here)
• Decorative box from Homegoods
• Restoration Hardware mirrored coasters (old - similar here)
• Vintage candlesticks found at antiques store in Wisconsin
• Fresh flowers

Introducing Erie Drive

This post was supposed to be entitled "Part Two: Parsons Table DIY."

Remember the Parsons table DIY (here) I shared a while back? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, since it was oh, about two months ago. 

What was supposed to be a quick upholstering project, turned into a headache since we underestimated the difficulty of upholstering a multi-piece table with vinyl fabric.

Long story short: I won't be posting step-by-step instructions for upholstering this table because I wouldn't recommend doing it the way we did. Check out the tutorial we initially referenced (here) and keep in mind that a thinner, soft fabric is easier to work with than vinyl.

What I have for you instead is early styling shots with beautiful new pieces care of Erie Drive.

Erie Drive is the online destination for unique and charming gifts, home goods, accessories and more. When they kindly offered to send me a couple of items for review, I scanned their hand-picked collection of goods and was immediately drawn to the Dauville collection (here). You can find a few of my other favorites here, here, and here!

I already had our Parsons Table in mind when I picked the Gold Glazed Pebble Dish (here) and Gold Glazed Porcelain Nesting Bowl (here), and knew the white + gold would look beautiful against the black crocodile tabletop.

Stay tuned for a full reveal of our upholstered Parsons table and in the meantime, hop on over to Erie Drive (here) to see more of their unique wares. 

James Roy Photography

scenes from the weekend and your opinion on a DIY needed!

if you follow me on instagram, you probably know how flipping excited i was to be part of the blogher '13 conference fashion show on saturday!

thanks to giftbar, we were outfitted with amazing looks from local designers and boutiques, and thanks to the Ulta beauty team, our hair and makeup looked fabulous!

i can't wait to see the professional photos, but here are a few behind-the-scenes shots i snapped:

Ulta beauty exert, Sam, and i!

and now, i need your help!

we are trying to decide between two fabrics to upholster our new parsons table (for diy tutorial click here). both are faux animal skin vinyl from JoAnn on sale for $20/yd: one is a black crocodile (here) and the other is a black and yellow/beige python (here). vinyl is a great choice for recovering furniture on a budget because it mimics the look of and durability of leather, for a fraction of the price.

JoAnn is quickly becoming a favorite for affordable, stylish fabric for our DIY projects. the faux croc suede fabric that we used to reupholster chair seats (here) was also from JoAnn. 

both were unavailable in store, so we bought 3 yards of each so we could make a final decision in person.

what do you think? i love the python, but i was hoping for more black + white and i'm not sure i'm digging the buttery yellow.

regardless, we're going to have lots of extra fabric that i'll have find something fun to do with.

make your own parsons table diy

i am really excited about today's DIY and even more excited about part two coming next week!

james and i have been looking for a compact, sleek console for our entryway on and off for months. we live in a small apartment (900 sq ft) and needed something that would add interest, not bulk, but we couldn't find anything that would fit our space and price point.

and then it hit me: we can make one! what i love most about this DIY is that you can customize it to your space. our tabletop is long and narrow, but you can adjust the dimensions to suit your style. to get an idea of standard console dimensions, we checked out the options at places like West Elm, CB2 and IKEA. one rule of thumb, most consoles are 30-31" in height.

now, here is the real stunner: assuming you own or can borrow the tools listed below, the total cost of materials is $34.

this doesn't include the cost of materials to finish the wood, but there are inexpensive finishing options, so stay tuned for part two of this DIY for ideas!

a quick note: we decided to add "braces" for structural support and i actually like the look a bit better. for a more traditional parsons table, you can leave the braces off, but any bowing or arching in the lumber will cause the legs to taper and you might find that a brace evens things out.

DIMENSIONS
48x12x31.5"

MATERIALS 

- 8'x12" (cut into 48x12" for tabletop)

- 2 lengths of 2x2"x6' (cut into 4 pieces for legs, each 30" in length)

- 8 flathead #8 gauge 3" wood screws

TOOLS

- electric drill

- 1/8" drill bit

- level

- pencil

- sandpaper
- hand saw (if adding braces)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. write "TOP" in pencil on one side of tabletop.

2. with the "TOP" side up, place one of the legs on one of the corners. use level to ensure edges of leg are flush with edge of tabletop.

3. trace edges of the leg with pencil, to make a square.

4. next, remove leg and mark where to drill the screws. with a ruler, draw a diagonal line down the middle of the square and mark two evenly-spaced, centered dots (see photo for exact measurements).

5. repeat steps 2-4 with for remaining corners.

6. starting with one corner, drill through each of the dots marking where the screws will go.

 james used a makeshift drill guide to ensure screws drilled in straight. for instructions on creating your own drill guide, click here.

7. place tabletop perpendicular to floor and align a leg against one "BOTTOM" corner of tabletop, so that all sides are flush.

9. while holding leg firmly against tabletop, drill through screw holes from "TOP" side of tabletop, into leg.

10. drive wood screws through drill holes completely into leg, until screw is flush with with top of tabletop.

11. repeat steps 6-11 for remaining corners.

optional - adding braces
12. stand table upright and measure interior distance between legs. using leftover lumber, use hand saw to cut two pieces to match interior distance on each side of table.

13. set table on its side, with legs facing you. on the outer ends of each leg, use freshly cut brace to trace square and drill holes, as in steps 2-4.

14. drill through each of the dots marking where the screws will go.

15. align brace against interior of one leg, so that all sides are flush.

16. while holding leg firmly against leg, drill through screw holes from leg exterior, into brace. repeat with opposite leg, so that brace serves as a connector piece.

17. repeat for legs at opposite end of table.

et voila!

we're planning to upholster our table with faux animal skin fabric (details coming soon!), but i took a crack at styling it to get an idea of what it will look like all finished! what do you think?

TIPS

- we purchased and cut our lumber at home depot. we chose Select Pine because it has a more polished appearance. it is a little more expensive than stock lumber, but the pieces are less likely to have imperfections.

- if you choose to add braces, save extra 2x2 lumber during home depot trip.

- you can pick up an inexpensive bubble level and the wood screws while you're at home depot.

- use sand paper to smooth out any edges and even out connection point between legs and tabletop.

ikea hack: billy bookcase and besta storage unit

i am so excited to finally share the ikea pieces that james and i have been working on. i posted a sneak peek a few weeks ago, but we finally finished all of the details this past weekend. 

we have been slowly working on zhushing up our little home (it's an apartment, really, but it feels like home) and the time came to buy some new furniture. the main priority was hidden storage; in such a small space, even a little bit of clutter can make the entire place look messy and unkempt. 

we looked online, in local shops, and resale stores for nice furniture for months, but we realized the hardwood furniture we liked was out of our budget. complicating matters, i wanted a bookcase with doors to keep things tidy and dust-free.

we settled on the billy bookcase with paneled glass doors. i liked the idea of showing some of our books and decorative pieces, but still having plenty of room to hide, so the half-glass paneling was perfect.

taking a cue from kate's amazing ikea hack i painted the back panel a dark charcoal - behr's stealth jet - and filled in the peg holes with white nail hole filler. unless you're up close, you can't see the holes, which is usually a tell-tale sign of an ikea piece. 

we also wanted a streamlined media center with storage and the besta storage unit fit the bill. we paired it with glossy white doors and topped it with white glass.

we chose the standard square legs, but spray painted them with rustoleum's metallic spray paint in gold.

speaking of hardware, i've had jen's home tour posts bookmarked for ages because i love the brushed brass pulls and knobs that she has used.

we did consider other legs for the besta unit, but couldn't find anything that we loved for a decent price. although the spray paint is gold and the rest of the hardware is brass, it matches really well. after seeing how great the legs looked, we disassembled the bookcase doors to spray paint the hinges and screws. it was a bit of a hassle to do so after the fact, but it's one of my favorite details.

so, friends, what do you think? have you hacked any ikea pieces? if so, i'd love to see them!

all images: james roy photography

diy: how to reupholster a chair seat

i 'm so excited to share my most recent DIY with you today!

well, i really shouldn't say my DIY because i couldn't have done this without james' help - it's really a two-person job. we referenced two online tutorials for the project - here and here - and made some adjustments along the way.

we recovered two chair seats that measured about 15x14 in. and used 3/4 yd. fabric. the fabric is a faux crocodile leather we found at joann's for less than $8. true story.

oh, and we have chair sliders on the base of each chair leg to save the wood floors, but to jazz them up after reupholstering the seats, i painted them a metallic brass color.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- fabric

- batting

- foam

- scissors

- pliers

- screwdriver

- heavy-duty staple gun

- 5/16 in. staples

- spray adhesive

STEP ONE:

flip chair over and unscrew seat from chair frame.

STEP TWO:

remove staples, backing, fabric, batting, foam, and fabric from seat. if your chair is more than 5 years old, consider tossing everything. putting new foam on your seat will breath new life into the chair, not to mention, make it more comfortable.

STEP THREE:

cut foam, batting, and fabric. i'm a nerdbird and measured it out, but you can probably eyeball the measurements - just make sure to err on the side of too much material vs. too little.

cut foam 1/2 inch larger than seat.

cut batting 3 inches larger than seat. 

cut fabric 4 inches larger than seat. 

*love note on seat is optional

STEP FOUR: 

spray wooden seat with spray adhesive and carefully center foam on top. it will bind immediately, so there's no drying time.

set cut fabric down on a workspace, place batting on top, and stack seat with adhered foam on top of the batting.

STEP FIVE:

gently stretch batting and fabric over the back of the seat and staple the fabric in the center of all four sides.

if your fabric has a pattern, now is a good time to flip the seat over to see if it is centered.

continue stapling one side by gently tugging fabric until is is taut, then move to the opposite side and again stretch fabric before stapling. repeat for remaining sides. 

*we had to run out to get a heavy-duty upholstery staple gun and i stretched the fabric while james stapled. if you manage to get a wooden seat with new foam stapled by yourself, i tip my cap to you.

that's it! once the fabric and batting is safely stapled, screw the seat back into the chair and you're done. 

james roy photography

diy golf cake

you might have seen the late-night teaser on instagram, but this weekend, one of our surprises for our best man's 30th birthday was making a golf-themed cake. brent is a pretty great golfer and we wanted to do something cool/special and had the genius totally-not-thought-out-plan of recreating pebble beach's hole 7.

i don't know much about golf, but james tells me it's supposed to be one of the most scenic holes on a course worldwide. as you can see, after pain-stakingly tracing the two sand traps with a toothpick, scraping out the icing, and trying to get sticky coconut to spread out and stay in the right place, i opted to forgo the four other traps.

i started by color-coding a printed map of the course to plan out where the hole, green, taller grass, sand traps and water hazard would be. BUT this project would have been so much easier if we hadn't tried to make it look like a recognizable hole on a famous course. 

what you'll need:

- cake mix 

- buttercream frosting

- green decorating icing (i used wilson's kelly green)

- blue piping gel (i used wilson's sparkle gel)

- piping bag (or ziplock bag with a corner cut off)

- decorating tip and coupler (i used wilson #273, but any leaf tip will work)

- coconut, toasted and chopped in food processor

- cake pop stick

- card stock

- toothpicks!!!

- patience 

directions:

- bake 9x13 cake. we used a store-bought box and substituted apple sauce for the vegetable oil. just make sure to add the water slowly, until you get the right consistency, because you'll use less than the box calls for.

- let cake cool completely. cover with buttercream frosting (again we used store-bought). chill in fridge for 20 minutes. 

- trace greens, hole, sand traps, etc with toothpick and fill in with icing. use piping bag and tip for tall grass.

- for flag: color cake pop stick with marker. fold card stock in half and cut a triangle along fold. place stick along inside fold and seal sides with glue.

tips:

- chill cake as needed when decorating to firm up buttercream. 

- scrape out icing inside sand traps with toothpick before filling with coconut. it will help create a barrier, so the coconut stays put.

and now some party pics...

happy birthday, b!

 james roy photography

operation: friendship for newtown

thanks to sarah, i learned about Operation: Friendship for Newtown and loved the idea. lynzy of sparkling footsteps created a program to collect green and white friendship bracelets and notes for the kids in newtown.

what happened has been on my mind a lot and i was really excited about being able to help in some small way. making bracelets seemed like the perfect project for Christmas vacation and my little sister even helped out by writing a note for the kids.

if you're like me and totally forgot or never knew how to make a friendship bracelet, the Operation: Friendship facebook page has video tutorials! i used a 4-string tutorial and it was easy-peasy. all you need is embroidery floss from a craft store and a piece of tape and lynzy will take care of collecting all the bracelets and notes to send in one big package.  

images by james roy photography

DIY: hot cocoa mix gifts

as promised, i made one of the DIY sweet treat gifts i posted last week and i'm so excited to share it with you. i made rhiannon's hot cocoa mix, with a few changes to the decorations. if you don't know rhi or her beautiful blog, hey gorgeous, click over right away! rhi is an insanely talented wedding designer/planner with impeccable taste and just today relaunched her company.

she handcrafts so many special elements for her clients' weddings and does all the floral design herself, and what i love most is how much she genuinely cares about her clients and creating a memorable, unique day for them. 

oh, and her DIYs and crafts are so very lovely, which is why i bookmarked this cocoa mix tutorial months ago!

this DIY makes for great favors or gifts for the holidays - it's easy to make and fun to share!

hop over to hey gorgeous for step-by-step directions, but really, all you need is cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, peppermint bark squares, mini bailey's (or kahlua) bottles, ribbon, and a fabric of your choice. 

fill each jar with an equal amount of cocoa, place two squares of peppermint bark in each, and top with 'mallows. for the fabric, cut a circle about 1 inch larger in diameter than the opening of your jar. place fabric circle over the opening and seal the lid. 

and as you can see, there are lots of ways to pretty up you jars. i opted for classic red and white striped fabric and red, silver, and gold bows as toppers. and for our family members of age, a mini bottle of baileys tied with glitter ribbon. 

images by james roy photography