♥ 30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself on Create Your Great Life
♥ Can we talk about how Robyn is the baddest lady on the planet? Still replaying her performance from SNL. Tell Your Girlfriend is my jam.
♥ Bad habits that crush your creativity and stifle success (via @copyblogger)
♥ Amen! Stop Telling Women to do Start-ups on TechCrunch
♥ Tattly: Temporary tattoos just got SO much cooler.
♥ Chris Guillebeau shares his advice on How to Write, Sell and Publish your Book. Look for me in his next book, The $100 Startup, coming out May 8th!

xo
meg

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When Emma contacted me last year to create the flowers for her wedding celebration with her husband, Mark (nicknamed “Pie”), I was really eager to get started on the project because I recognized her name as a regular commenter on Princess Lasertron. It’s an amazing feeling to be trusted with the honor of making something so treasured and special for one of the biggest milestones in a person’s life, and because Emma and I already had a little familiarity just through the blog, it just felt that much more personal to me.

Emma and Mark’s small fall wedding at dusk (with their sweet children in the wedding party as well!) was held in a tree house set in a castle garden in England–an absolutely picturesque location straight out of a storybook if you ask me! She wore a tea-length dress and made flower girl bouquets with one of our kits as well a billion tiny acorns and pom poms for her decorations! As I said, creating keepsake flowers for Emma was a joy. She recently sent me some photos from her photographer, Lillian and Leonard, and I would love to share a few of my favorites, plus the photos I took myself showing her bouquet.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Photos from Lillian and Leonard Photography

Thanks again to Emma and Mark, and especially to Lillian and Leonard for capturing this beautiful celebration! Lillian and Leonard is based in Scotland and I know I already have a handful of Scottish brides already in 2012, so I urge you to check them out! You can see more photos of the flowers I made for Mark and Emma in their Flickr set.

xo
meg

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It was another gorgeous 55-degree day in Omaha yesterday. Alice and I celebrated the weather by sharing a milkshake on the loading dock outside my office, and I took these photos of her wearing the Valentine’s Day headband I stepped out for an easy tutorial. (Click here to see the DIY!)

xo
meg

Alice: Harajuku Lovers coat, Carters leggings, Pediped shoes

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This Valentine’s Day headband was inspired by a bowl of fabric scraps I have on my desk–pieces too pretty to throw away, but too small to do a lot with. (That’s a great way to get project ideas–”What can I do with this?”) This is also an easy project to put your own spin on, depending on what supplies you have on hand, and I really enjoyed the fabric braiding technique and plan to use it more often!

Alice, who hates wearing anything in on her head (or having anything touching her body), played with this headband for a while before crowning herself with it proudly. So I feel like it was a success! I meant to make it in my size, but I didn’t have enough fabric and it was a bit small. Another accessory for the Alice Drawer. The following tutorial is for an adult-sized headband. It’s easy to make adjustments as you go along, but I erred on the “large” side.

Materials needed:

♥ Six 12” strips of cotton fabric (about an inch wide, whatever)
♥ 20 circles of chiffon fabric (about an inch in diameter, whatever)
♥ Some millinery stems–I used little yellow berries.
♥ 4 inches of elastic (about 1/2 inch width is good)
♥ Needle and thread
♥ Scissors

Step 1: Layer three fabric strips on top of each other. Fold the edges together and stitch to secure. Repeat with the remaining three strips of fabric.

Step 2: Braid the strips of fabric together. You end up with two lengths of braided fabric rope.

Step 3: Sew a running stitch along the bottom of each circle, gathering them on your thread as you go.

Step 4: When you’re finished gathering each circle onto your thread, tie the ends of the thread together.

Step 5: Fluff out the petals so you have a nice, full flower shape.

Step 6: Insert the wires of three millinery stems into the center of the flower. Twist and fold underneath to secure.

Step 7: Stitch each fabric braid to the underside of the flower. Should be lookin’ like a headband at this point.

Step 8: Stitch the elastic to the ends of the fabric braids to close the headband up and make it stretchy to go around your head! During this step, it helps to hold it up to your head and measure so you have the right amount of elastic.

Step 9: Look cool and festive, and be proud that you found a use for those scraps you have laying around!

Tips and other suggestions:

♥ I always have millinery stems on hand because I buy them compulsively at vintage stores. If you don’t have any in your craft stash, try using a button or even a smaller version of the same flower.
♥ The “look” of this headband can vary a lot depending on the materials you use. Try braiding leather, lace, felt strips, etc…there are zillions of possibilities.
♥ Pre-assemble the materials and package them in tiny take-out boxes for a February birthday party craft.
♥ Try making the headband out of braided elastic cord and make a smaller flower (or not!) to replace your boring gym headband.
♥ I finished Alice’s headband with some yellow yarn wrapped around the joints where the elastic and fabric attach. I just thought it looked a little cleaner–something for you to try if you want.
♥ Take a picture of yourself in your handmade headband and post it in my Make it Pretty group on Flickr!

xo
meg

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Posing in a cat calendar was never on my bucket list, but maybe it should have been! Omahype, a local website that promotes all the cool stuff going on in the arts scene here in Omaha (their office is in my building!), recently put out their first annual cat calendar with photographer Daniel Muller. The calendar features photos of Omaha artists, business owners and musicians as well as, of course, their cats.

I love the picture that ended up in the calendar–it’s in our bedroom shot through my vintage mirror, and shows my racks of dresses behind me. But here are a few outtakes from the shoot Dave and I did with Daniel Muller along with our cat, Turbo. He’s a four-year-old tabby cat.

The calendar also features tons of other cool people with their cats, like Rachel Jacobson, founder of Film Streams, vegan chef and author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Nate Welker from Saddle Creek Records, and more. If you want to purchase a calendar, they are available online for $20!

Me: Nanette Lapore dress, Odille blouse, FCUK sweater, Target socks
Dave: Kitty jammies

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