Sonya Nimri

Everyone loves the voyeuristic effect of a diorama.  It makes it more precious somehow- more cinematic.  Well, this is sort of a cross between a snow globe and a diorama with one peep hole into the tiny world where you can create the lovely scene.  It's a simple and inexpensive project to turn everyday household jars into magical objet d'art.  Awoooooo!  He's was $1 at Puzzlezoo on Main Street.  A baby wolf, waiting for mommy to return from the hunt. Add an oval sticker to the inside of  the pickle jar. And to the same place on the outside making sure that they are in the exact same place on either side of the glass. Make trees into mini-trees. Spray paint the inside of the jar gold (or whatever color you choose), spray paint the outside black chalk-board paint.  When painting the outside make sure to close the lid or the black will get inside the jar. Raise the bottom up by hot gluing a riser to the under...

This week I had one of the most elf-y jobs I've had in a long time.  I had the unique pleasure of decorating the Guess? Jeans campus for the Holidays.  I have lived in L.A. for over 10 years now and never knew they have a huge city block-sized, 4 building area downtown.  There are over 700 employees and the owners even work there.  Now, this job really brought me back to the 8th grade.  I remember seeing the Claudia Schiffer campaign in Vogue circa 1990 and knowing that I HAD to have that pair of acid-washed Guess overalls at Macy's, and the red Guess sweatshirt too.  I was really caught up in the whole craze along with every tweener in Monterey.  The walls of the campus are plastered of 20-30 foot images of their adds so there was no escaping their alluring marketing.  I even bought myself three more pairs of jeans from the employee store- this time colored jeans in mint, plum, and royal blue.  Here is a little tour... Me and one of...

Every once in a while, James digs his fat little fingers in our old furniture and wreaks havock.  In this case, our poor old plaid armchair- passed down from generations bore the brunt of his destructive little fingers and got picked down to the bare wooden frame (during one sitting of Curious George I might add).  In order to repair this, I looked in the garage for some basic supplies- a patch (which is really half of a beaded coin purse), some hollowfill, and a needle and thread, and just like that, within a few minutes, that eyesore of a crater disappeared and something much nicer to look at and touch appeared. He has no idea what he's even doing... in his defense, there was already a tiny hole there. However, this chubby hand is no saintly paw. Hollowfill stuffed. Heart patch sewn on whip-stitch style.  Voila!

As the years progress, the birthday parties keep on a'comin'.  We average about 4-5 per month and boy are they starting to get expensive at $20-$25 per gift.  So for our friend Ruby's (2 years old) birthday, I decided to try my hand at making her a homemade tu-tu.  What girl, big or small, doesn't want a tu-tu in her life?  Pink, fluffy, and totally handmade, I thought this would be a lovely (and less expensive) alternative to our usual gift of a plastique tea set. Fold a 3 yard piece of tulle into thirds.   Ruffle and sew to a ribbon long enough to tie in the back. This is the back. Inject with pom poms, feathers, and sequins.  Sew up back sides so they don't fall out. It's a party in there. Staggering the length folds will insure that the whole scope of the stuffing is visible.  Adding stitching to the ribbon is an easy way to add an extra bit of detail. Party on!

My friend Catherine is having a rainbow bird party for her son's 4th birthday this weekend and had a little craft party to make feather headdresses for it today.  She bought tons of gorgeous feathers from Lincoln Fabrics (sadly going out of business which is why she got so many feathers at a discount).  Too much fun...  I went crazy and made about 5, not sure which one to wear yet. Inspiration from Free People More inspiration from Free People. Having a feather frenzy with Catherine, Heather, and Anna. Cut a band of cotton about 4"x24" Fold into thirds, and hot glue a strip of feathers right at the mid-point on the top folded part.  Turn lower part of fabric up to cover the base of feathers.  Hot glue in place. Turn front ways.  Hot glue a decorative strip of beaded ribbon right below the feathers.  Sew a running stitch to finish the rest of the back of the headdress.  Gluing would make it too stiff to tie nice...