good to know: how to tie an adjustable knot

1.31.12

When it come to parties, UPPERCASE knows how to do it.  At their recent Alt Summit mini party they had tubs of beads, skeins of twine, and other fun goodies set around so folks could make jewelry while they chatted.  I obviously had to make a necklace for my most perfect niece, because she’s starting to love jewelry.

But!  I didn’t knot it right up because I wanted it to be adjustable but didn’t know how to tie those fancy-schmancy adjustable knots.  So I came right home and learned how to make one, and come to find out — they are neither fancy nor schmancy.  They are crazy easy.

Step by step:  Tie one end of your string into a loose knot.  Insert the other end into the loose knot and pull through until there is a tail a few inches long.  Tighten the first knot firmly.  Tie the remaining loose end around the first string.  Tighten knot.  Adjust the knots by slipping them back and forth.

See?  Oh my gosh!  Now we can all be brilliant together.  And my niece is going to love this.  xoxo

serious business {cards}

1.30.12

It’s Monday!  And I’m kicking off the week with a special peek at Lovely Indeed’s fancy new business cards.  Let’s start with the what, and then we’ll get to the how.

Ta-da!  I thought the rounded-corner, double-sided action was nice, so I definitely wanted to get them professionally printed.  That said, though, they obviously needed a DIY touch, so here’s what we did.

I enlisted my {brilliant, awesome, patient} sister for some help and we got down to work.  She started punching out polka dots from a roll of pretty gold washi tape that I had in stock.

She would hand me stacks and stacks of little sticky polka dots, and I would place them {painstakingly, one by one} on each business card.  There was a little trial and error involved, but eventually we got it down to a science.

It was a bit of work, but I’m so pleased with how they turned out it was definitely worth it.  And now, because I love them so much, I want to give them to you!

I’d love to send you some snail mail with my business card and another special little surprise that I had printed up especially for Lovely Indeed readers!  If you’d like to get some pretty mail, send your mailing address to hello{at}lovelyindeed{dot}com and it’ll happen!  (Promise, no junk mail, and your address won’t be distributed whatsoever.  This is just for funsies.)

Thanks lovelies, and I hope I get to send you something cool!  xoxo

**UPDATE 2/4/12:  Business card mailers are no longer available, but keep an eye out for future Lovely Indeed reader appreciation offers!

the fire escape

1.26.12

So here’s a fun story (and by fun, I mean awful).  When I take photos in my apartment for all of those DIY projects I do, I usually have to take them on the fire escape because it is literally the only place where there’s any decent natural light (the joys of an airshaft-facing apartment).  So no problem.  Here’s where I do all my DIY-ing:

A little crazy, I know, but we have to do what we have to do.  And most of the time, it works.  But you know when it doesn’t work?  When you go out onto the fire escape in the winter with no coat and no keys to your apartment and you let the door close behind you.  That’s when it gets a little tricky.

Okay, here’s what happened.  I went out with my camera to take some photos.  I thought I left the door ajar.  I didn’t.  It was cold and kind of drizzly, but I had shoes on, so I started walking down the stairs (I’m sure my mom is wishing she never saw this post).

I made it to the bottom, and then realized that not only did I not have my keys, but I also had no phone and no money.  So I tried collect-calling Mr. Lovely.  It didn’t work enough for me to get through, but it worked enough for him to know something was up.  So I walked into the diner next door and begged them to let me use the phone, which they did.  I called Mr. Lovely and missed him, but thanks to the wonders of Caller I.D. he called the diner right back and I asked (cried) him for some assistance (please please please do something to help me).

I went back outside to wait by the pay phone in case he needed to call back, because I had figured that the folks at the diner were kind of over the homeless-looking girl running up their phone bill.  So somehow Mr. Lovely got a hold of our Super, who happened to magically be around the corner, who showed up right at the moment when it really started to rain.

So Super Nick walked me back into our building and gave me keys to get into the apartment, and I have never, ever, ever gone out on the fire escape without keys, money, or phone ever again.  xoxo