DIY: Metallic Pom Pom Gloves

I love the holidays and I love all the gifting associated with them (picking out and wrapping gifts is my favorite thing to do!), but I'm not going to lie...it's definitely a bit overwhelming!  I make sure I include everyone on the list from the BFFs, the family membz, and the UPS dudes, to the Secret Santa/white elephant partygoers, and it is a lot. To alleviate some of the gifting stresses this season, I've been getting my DIY on, crafting gifts like a madwoman!!  I'm going to show all the projects here on a fun "12 Days of Easy DIY's" and the best part is that they're $5 and less.  Woo hoo, they're totally budget friendly and easy which puts a big smile on my face!  Let's begin!

On the 1st day of DIY my true love gave to me. A partridge in a (pair of gloves) tree!

DAY 1: Metallic Pom Pom Gloves

I LOVE this project because it not only picks up on the pom pom trend...

...but it adds a little bit of holiday glamour to the wardrobe!  Keep reading to find out how to make these easy gloves!

This project needs only three basic supplies:

1. Sparkle pom poms (These were a 99 Cent store score in the seasonal aisle.)

2. Thread & needle

3. Gloves (Magic stretchy gloves! These were a pair for $2 at Target)

With supplies in hand (totaling less than $3), all that needed to be done was a little bit of hand stitching.  I threaded my needle, knotted the end of the thread, and pushed it through the underside of the glove (1).  Once the needle was through the glove, I put a pom pom through the needle and stitched the needle back through the cuff (2). I repeated steps 1 and 2 again with my second pom pom (3), as well as my third (4), and continued this process until my glove's cuff was covered in pom poms.

I repeated the steps again to finish my second glove and ended up with a fabulous new pair of glitzy finger warmers!

I love this as a gift for your girlfriends - you can get all different colored gloves in jewel tones or create the same ones to match!

I see lots of jazz hands in our future!

One DIY down, 11 to go!!

Copycat: DIY Marc Cross Personalized Black Satchel

I created another post for HelloGiggles that I wanted to share here because it's so super easy to do and makes you feel like an artist.  No joke - I totally felt like a Pollock-in-the-making!

After catching a few episodes of the "Sex and the City" prequel, "The Carrie Diaries", mostly to check out the 80s wardrobe, I saw the perfect DIY - the personalized purse that young Carrie wears to her coveted Interview mag internship.  Yep, I knew I just had to make my own!

The show version is a personalized Marc Cross purse, but my copycat piece was a garage sale score for just a few bucks! I found one that had a gold buckle to recreate a similar clasp found on Carrie’s.

Here’s a rundown of the supplies you’ll need:

1. Purse (This one from Forever 21 is virtually identical!)

2. Assorted shades of nail polish

3. Straws/toothpicks/coffee stirrers – any tool to move/adjust/arrange the polish

The first step is to put your purse on top of a layer of cardboard, newspaper, poster board; anything to protect the floor that you’re working on. and begin to flick the nail polish wands onto your bag. There’s no right or wrong way to do this - get into the groove and wave away! (Jackson Pollock would be very proud of this piece!)

I repeated the previous step with each new color of polish until I felt my design was complete. I used a whipping motion with my hand to get longer lines and let the wand drip directly onto the purse to create dots.

I opted to leave my name off of it, but go ahead and personalize if you feel like some monogramming!

Lil’ Carrie and I have matching bags!

This is something super easy to do to any of your older purses that might need a little TLC. And honestly, this is a little bit of 80s flair that won’t have you totally looking like Flock of Seagulls, unless pompadours are your jam.

More fun TV show remakes to come (and if there are any wardrobe items that you swoon over), be sure to let me know!  I'm always adding ideas to the list!!

Remake: Polka Dot Peplum Dress

I received this lovely polka-dotted number from reader Cathy in NC.

The polka dot dress is one that I've kept for a while, although it is very dated with the padded shoulders, peplum skirt, print, etc.  I really loved wearing it to church, weddings, etc.  It was always fun so I know you'll do something very fun with it.  A hat was always a great accompaniment for this dress.  Take care and keep posting!

She sent it my way to allow me to work out some upcycling magic on it!

There were three tiered layers as the skirt.  The top one that felt super peplum-y to me...

...and the bottom two that went down below my knees.

I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do with the bottom, but I knew right away what I was going to do up top!!

I started off by trimming the shoulders from the neckline all the way to the end of the sleeve.

I did this to both sides and ended up with a fully open top portion.

Next, I folded under the fabric in the front and the back to create a strapless piece.  I measured and pinned this area to prep for sewing it in place.

The machine came out and the top of the dress was sewed.

I needed to take in the bust of the dress a bit because it was too large to stay up on me.  I put the piece on and pinned the areas that needed to be adjusted on each side.

I wanted the skirt portion to be more of a pencil style, coming in a little tighter at the knees, so I decided to take this area in.  I added pins on the third layer (at the bottom of the dress), cutting in closer and closer towards the hem to make narrower.

Post-pin, I stitched my skirt and took in the bodice area...

...before completing the look with a little cinching and pinching at the bust with a safety pin.  The final look...

This style dress has to be my favorite.  I love an exposed neckline!!

I had a cocktail attire party to attend, so I grabbed my vintage red coat with velvet trim...

...and headed out for the night with a bunch of pals.  The cocktail/meat party (it was literally just that - platters of meat and veggies that had to be eaten sans utensils) was held at the stunning Vibiana in downtown LA.

We grabbed a block of seats at the table to accomodate everyone and CS (aka Katniss Everdeen's braid sister) and I took a pre-gorging photo...

...before we got down with the meat when the platters hit the table.

I couldn't help taking tons of pics at the photobooth.  It was sponsored by Ultimat Vodka, so the props made me feel like I was a legit bartender.

I couldn't stop faux muddling drinks even after the photog stopped flashing!

There were snakecharmers, magicians, and AWESOME LADIES ON STILTS.  No joke, this woman was fierce.

Her costume was pretty insane too.  (I was totally coveting those striped pantalons!)

The gorgeous CS's DIY heels were TDF (to die for)!!  (She made them using a fab tutorial from the Honestly WTF gals).  She went with the tassels...

and I rocked the bows...

After a night of eating and dancing to this lovely band...

...it was couch time.

And then it was hot dog time.

Perfect way to end the evening in my new favorite dress.  Thank you so much for sending this my way, Cathy!  It's my new go-to cocktail dress!!