HOMEMADE VANILLA SUGAR SCRUB:

A confectionery shower treat.

Not only is it:

Super easy.
Super cheap.
It's super delicious smelling, and is sure to scrub away that scary, winter-dry skin til it's buttery smooth.
Or, perhaps sugary smooth. Either way...it's ahhh-mazing.

MAKE IT:

3/4 C white sugar

3/4 C brown sugar

1/3 C olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract
a few drops of honey

THEN:

Throw it in a mason jar...hop in the shower...and TREAT YO SELF. (Parks & Rec, anyone?? Only my fav...)

Or, wrap some pretty ribbon around it, stick a jingle bell on there, print out a nifty, thrifty cute label, and stuff it in a stocking. You'll be sure to delight whoever's so lucky to receive it.

Speaking of homemade gifts, did you see Cupcakes and Cashmere's holiday bottled spirits? So incredibly cute. I want to make me some!

HAPPY SCRUBBING.

DIY: CASUAL ROMAN SHADE.

How adorable is my good friend Amy?

She's the mastermind and incredible talent behind Sweet Tea Imagery, my very favorite Charleston wedding / family / lifestyle photographers. Truly--she's brilliant! See?

 Not only is she incredibly fun, sweet, and unbelievably skilled with that camera of hers, but she's entirely professional and knows the very best beach and historic district spots for the most amazing background settings. If you're ever headed to Charleston, look her up and getch-you some family photos! (Yep, I make up words.) And tell her I sent you :)

Anyway, I've been helping miss Amy plan a little design update to her adorable kitchen nook, and was blown away by a DIY project I spotted on her dining room window. If you know me at all you know that I lust over roman shades and their elegant simplicity, but they're pretty pricey to have made so I haven't bit the bullet on outfitting my own windows with them. Well, problem now solved, thanks to Amy and her DIY  skills!

Check it out:

[ disclaimer: the terribly terrible photos are by me, not Amy. She is probably cringing at the sight! ]

Doesn't this casual roman shade look amazing? I love the soft, restful lines of the curved bottom, and the interest that the ribbon-tie creates. And that ikat fabric Amy chose is amazing! It really makes her dining room fresh, cozy, and totally put-together.

The best part? Amy says the entire project is super simple (only 7 easy steps), and requires minimal sewing skills (you could even use stitch witchery to hem the edges and create the rod pocket if you don't sew!).

Here are her directions:

1. Find a fabric you like that's wider than the width of your window by at least 5 inches to allow for hemming. Purchase enough yardage (in length) to go 10 inches past the bottom of the window (from where you've installed your curtain rod), to allow for rolling and hemming.

2.  Hem each side of the fabric so the shade will span 1.5 inches past the outside window edge or moulding. (Say your window is 36 inches wide. You'd want the finished width of the shade to be 39 inches, so each side rests 1.5 inches from the window edge.)

3. Turn under the top and bottom edges, and hem. 

4.  To create the pole pocket, fold over the top hem (leaving enough room for the circumference of the pole to slide through), and sew in place.

5.  Now you just have to attach the ribbon! Amy tacked each ribbon length (4 total, 2 for each side) to the top, backside of the curtain, about 4-5 inches from the outside edge. She then ran 2 pieces of ribbon (1 on each side) down the front of the curtain to meet the 2 pieces hanging in the back. (You can run a hand stitch to help keep the ribbon in place, or use fabric glue!) 

6. Turn your nearly-finished shade wrong-side-up and begin rolling the bottom hem til your happy with your shade's length, and tie those ribbons you just tacked on! A helpful hint: Amy used an extra piece of shoe mold to help her roll the fabric and keep it straight, and then just slid it out when she was happy with her roll!

7. Now hang that pretty!!!

So how easy is that?! If you decide to embark on making your very own casual roman shade, feel free to email me with any questions you come up with along the way! hannah@hannahmaple.com

And please...I'd love to see photos of your end result!

And a huge thank-you to Amy for being so DIY-savvy...and amazing!

Design idea: Vintage National Geographic

Hello, hello, my loyal blog readers! I must first send a big thank-you your way for being ever-so-patient with my lack of posting. I hate to say it, but it's tough to make blogging a priority when life gets busy and there's the potential for an income to be generated doing actual work. I love posting inspiration, and showing you what I'm up to, and I so very appreciate your reading support!

Anyhow, pinterest is glorious--is it not?! I find myself perpetually pinning design ideas and inspiration...and products and resources I intend to use for ongoing projects. And somehow, someway...in the midst of all of that...I stumbled across these: scans of vintage National Geographic material.

Totally awesome.

{okay, I couldn't resist. But just look how teenie they seem! in the words of Liz Lemon, 'I want to go to there.'}

Amazing, are they not? Yes, it's so cool that photography has advanced to capturing stunningly clear pictures with crazy megapixel technology, but don't you sort of wish photographs still came out looking like incredible paintings, without the aid of photoshop? I'm truly smitten by the vintage aesthetic.

In fact, so smitten, that I can totally see these images lining a bare wall in a gallery-style fashion. Of course this sent my mind reeling, and one little ebay search unveiled a lot of 1960's National Geographics for ten measly bucks. TEN dollars.  From there you could frame them as-is, in simple/modern frames from Ikea (to create a bold contrast with the vintage subject matter), or...you could scour thrift stores and ebay for neglected vintage frames. Hang them in two rows with at least four photos in each row, and there you have it: an inexpensive, statement-making fix for a lonely, neglected wall! Hmm...thinking this might be the perfect addition to our wood panelling-clad TV room, where I'm wanting to create a dark, inviting, cozy library environment.

Anyway, there you have it: a simple, cheap, and totally awesome design idea!

Porch, magazine, weekend...oh my.

It's Friday! You know what that means: yes, I HAVE been drinking coffee all day. How'd you know? It's because it's raining. One cup just didn't suit. Anyway, I'm also gearing up for the weekend. You'd think living in the sunny south we'd have quiet, restful weekends full of drinking peachy iced tea and mojitos on the porch. But we don't. Nope. In fact, we pretty much have friends/family in town or we're out of town just about every weekend of the summer. Anyway, next week is our vaca on the beach with Maple's family, so I've been preparing to ditch work for five days, and I can. not. wait.

(For the record, this might be the longest M + S post ever...and yet-to-come. Let's just say there's lots to catch up on and I'm not entirely good at showing you all that I've been up to. Oops.)

Anyway, fixing up the house has been happening at ice-age speeds. Has it even happened? Yes...yes...I have to keep looking at those "befores," but my gosh it takes forever. Especially, when as mentioned above, we're perpetually entertaining or being entertained, meaning painting/yard work/hanging curtains/attaching hardware/etc etc etc has to wait. And wait. And wait...

But...I've made a teenie bit of front porch progress. Remember what she looked like before?

Baghh! Scarring, I know. 

Carpet. Carpet?! Yes...carpet. Guess what? It's still there. Because...of course...there is ASTROTURF underneath, clinging every-so-tightly to that concrete with construction adhesive, meaning we will have to rip and scrape our lives away when we decide to tackle that mess.

So, after scouting craigslist for some furniture finds, revamping the ultra-cool chairs with new fabric and pillows, and giving some life to the downtrodden space with plants, here is what she's looking like now:

Ohh...carpet...I can't wait to rip you up, roll you out, and hand you over to the city dump. 

See the wrought-iron column? It haunts my dreams. But, thanks to this variegated confederate jasmine, those hideous, winding spindles will soon be boasting a full, flowering vine.

We still have some plans for it, like: constructing a prettier step and redoing the akward walk; surrounding the exposed side with grasses and other privacy-bearing plants and shrubs, and placing some more substantial planters at the front. But, guess what--those were cheap and definitely fit the bill until we're ready to splurge.

Now for the rug. 

It's not looking so hot these days, being that the sweltering sun has sucked the color from it, but...I did make it. It was a magazine project of mine. 

The rug was featured in the latest issue:

See! It used to be pretty...

And here's some shots of me (painstakingly) making it.

The Before:

The during: 

  

(Soo I must've misplaced my hairbrush that day)

And the photoshoot:

(I told you this post would be excruciatingly long).

Anyway, there she is, in her finest form. 

And now she greets me on my front porch each day, reminding me that life is pretty great and doing work for the magazine pretty much rocks.

HAPPY WEEKEND!

le hair.

okay.
so here it is.
my testament to drugstore hair highlighting.
i was reluctant...i hate posting pics of me...alone (so akward)...but i simply had to prove my DIY success.

so there you have it. my golden strands. (and a blurry Poppy dog).
proof that complete hair-styling-embasols can, in fact, highlight their own.

refer to this post if you haven't yet read about my experience.

i did it.

{mode de vie}

yes, it's done.
after years and years and years and YEARS (ok, i'm not that old...but still...) of having my hair professionally colored and hilited...
i did it.
well, we did it.
yes, the Mr. and i hilited my very own hair.

i was terrified...but also sequestered by a determination to save money. not to mention time. so there we sat, on the floor of Rite Aid, for what seemed like forever, searching and comparing and wondering and questioning and reading all about hair color. it was intimidating--there were SO. MANY. OPTIONS. but we finally decided upon Revlon Frost & Glow's Honey Highlighting Kit (horrible name...i know. i mean frost? did they really have to throw that in there?). honey being the operative word, as i wanted golden, sun-kissed strands incorporated into my natural color (dark blonde/ light brown).

so, we bought her. we took her home. i took one look at the cap and threw it in the trash. it was way too complicated and seemed a bit...errr...inaccurate? so i decided to do it myself...with a gloved hand. corey helped. it was hilarity...i definitely owe him one. we stood in front of the mirror and isolated strands that looked like they'd be good to highlight and did just that. i only did a few, and i only kept it on for 15 minutes (as opposed to an hour). i wanted the effect to be natural--and it worked. i LOVE the results. love love LOVE the results.

and it cost me $9 and 30 minutes of my time.
as opposed to $120 and 3 hours of my time.

so, i never thought i'd say this, but i am a huge advocate of DIY highlights. not color. highlights. yes--there's a huge difference. but, nonetheless, i am proud to say i'm an at-home hair-highligher, and 100% satisfied with the process and the results. so much that i can't wait for six more weeks to roll around...when i get to do it again.