May Project Round-Up

I feel like I say this every month, but man, May flew by in a flash. Welcome, June! I'm excited summer is here - are you?

Before May is a distant memory, let's take a few minutes to look back at the projects I posted about on the ole blog this past month, starting with this fun way to display printed Instagrams using pants hangers. (I print my Instagrams to Walgreen's One Hour Photo using an app called Printicular. It's so easy and inexpensive.)

My favorite project of the month (and the most popular one with y'all as well) was the wood shim pendant light. Though it ended up being a little more challenging than I anticipated, I love how it came together in the end, and seeing it hanging over our dining room table really makes me happy. If you missed any of the posts about it, you can catch up here: one, two, three.

I revamped the every-other-Friday Creative Bits Series a bit, and shared a really pretty office space and a beautiful living room this month. This has been a fun way to connect with other bloggers, so if you have a space you think has a few Creative Bits of its own, send a photo of it my way and I might use it in a future post!

Operation {Re}Organization continued this month. This time I tamed the chaos of the front hall closet in a series of three posts (inspiration, before/strategy and after). What was a disaster area is now sooo much more functional and even has secret storage for sporting equipment. Did any of y'all tackle an organizational project this month?

And of course you can't have "function" without "fun" (bad pun, sorry), so I added these blue watercolor-y/painterly labels to make sure things are easy to find and are returned to their proper homes. There's a link to download a free set of blank labels too if you need some!

I also took on a new cleaning plan in Operation {Re}Organization this month. The first week has gone pretty well so far. Since I technically implemented this plan last Tuesday, I technically have one more day to do my last weekly task...clean the bathroom...ugh. At least once it's done I'll have the satisfaction of checking that box once I'm done though - thanks to my handy list here :).

Are you a Kate Spade fan? If so, you'll want to check out the Kate Spade Style Soiree hosted by Jenna and others last month. I joined their party and created a Kate Spade-inspired gold zig zag pitcher. Who doesn't need a little gold in their lives?

To celebrate my mom this month on Mother's Day, I took some photos with my brother, Instagrammed them, and created a photo strip style card for her. It was a fun project for me, and she loved it! Win win.

Another one of my favorite projects this month was this DIY iPhone speaker made out of...a toilet paper roll. Talk about doing a project "on the cheap" :). I use it all the time!

Last but not least, I shared a recipe for banana avocado bread. Head on over to the post to see why I used avocados, of all things, in this delicious quick bread.

That about wraps it up for May! Thanks, as always, for reading. I'm so grateful to each of you for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

And thanks to these wonderful blogs for featuring my posts this month:

Tatertots and Jello

IHeart Organizing

Rain on a Tin Roof

Simply Dream and Create

Sarah Lynn's Sweets

DIY Showoff

Suburbs Mama

If It's Not Baroque
First Home...Love Life

Come on back tomorrow for a fun project I did over the weekend. Want to know what it is? Go back to this post from last week for a hint!

Kate Spade-Inspired Gold Zig Zag Pitcher

A couple of weeks ago, I was catching up on some blog posts from Rain on A Tin Roof, and she mentioned that she and four other bloggers were hosting a summer Style Soiree series where you could take on a project inspired by a style icon. This month's is one of my absolute favorites: Kate Spade. I couldn't wait to do a little project inspired by her classic, preppy style. So I brainstormed, searched her website (dangerous, y'all), and was inspired by the signature zig zag pattern from her new Saturday collection. I especially loved this journal:

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So I decided take the pattern and sketch it onto a glass beaker pitcher I picked up at at thrift store a month or so ago. Here's how it came out:

I love the gold, but wish the zig zags came out a little more opaque and defined. I used a metallic sharpie for this project, but in the future, I think I'd try some metallic paint for a more crisp look. Oh well! You live and you learn. Not all projects come out exactly like you picture :).

In case this idea strikes your fancy, and you'd like to make something similar yourself, here's how I did it...

Grab a glass beaker vase (like this one from CB2 like I mentioned last week in my window shopping post).

Decide where you want to start your zig zag pattern. Place a strip of painter's tape around the pitcher to mark off your starting point.

Take short strips of painter's tape and form random zig zag patterns all over the bottom third of the glass (below the original strip of tape). This will be your guide for drawing the lines.

Start drawing your zig zags between the painter's tape. Use the Kate Spade journal as your guide.

Once you're done with those zig zags, peel off the tape and fill in the remaining areas with more zig zags until the area is full. You're done!

The great part about this is that there's no wrong way to draw a zig zag - am I right? You really can't mess it up. Just try and make sure your lines are straight (that's why I used all that painter's tape), and you're good to go!

I'm pretty excited about this series. Next up is Lily Pulitzer - another fave! I hope you'll check out a few of the Kate Spade-inspired projects made by the hosts and participants in this series:

Sheaffer @ Pinterest Told Me To

Carmel @ Our Fifth House

Camila @ Effortless Style

Heather @ Southern State of Mind

Jenna @ Rain on a Tin Roof

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

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linking up to: Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, House of Hepworths, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, The 

Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, Simply Dream and Create

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