d.i.y. pom-pom mobile

Last time I went to LA to visit my sister Jenna, we visited a store called Yolk. I want to go almost every time I visit her because it's just a fun store and they carry a lot of unique and sometimes quirky items that you wouldn't find in Utah. When we went, I fell in love with a baby mobile there but seeing as how $140 for some pom-poms on string wasn't really in my budget, I just snapped a photo and kind of forgot about it. That is, until we started brainstorming ideas for the baby's nursery (or more like, the baby's corner in our bedroom—oh the joys of a one bedroom apartment!). I found this photo and decided it couldn't be too hard to make... which I was kind of right and kind of wrong about. But I am really proud of how it turned out and, honestly, anyone with a little motivation and time could make this so why not post a little DIY?

Here we go.

Oh, and forgive my crappy iPhone pictures in advance. Thanks!

First off, here is my inspiration photo that I snapped way back at the beginning of this Summer at Yolk.

STEP ONE: Find a variety of colors that you want to use in yarn and cut out a bajillion pom-poms. These may seem daunting but once you get going, it goes by pretty quickly. I used a fork for the mini poms (watch a tutorial here), and then just used my hand for the larger poms (watch tutorial here). Also, I found that a good fullness for the larger poms was about 130 wraps around my hand.

Once you are done with the pom-poms, and you have arranged them just for fun (not a necessary step) move on to...

STEP TWO: For the hoop, I hot-glued two cross-stitch hoops together because the wider the cross-stitch hoop, the more expensive & noone was going to see the actual hoop anyways. 

Then comes the tricky part. Because I wanted a stripe, I pre-measured and cut pieces of yarn and then wrapped them around the hoop individually. If you are planning on saving time, I would not recommend doing this, haha! It probably took the longest time for me. Ribbon or a solid color would definitely be easier. The original was crocheted but, I don't have the skills for that... haha so I just stuck with this and although it's not perfect, I really like the outcome of the stripes.

STEP THREE: There are a lot of steps within this step so I'll try and be clear.

–Measure out 5 segments of rope that will be tied in a knot at the top. We used white cord (can be found in any ribbon section of a fabric store). The cord is thick enough and strong enough to act like robe but just not as stiff, therefore, making it way easier to tie and work with in general. Our segments were 3 ft. 9 inches each leaving 1 foot for above the hoop and approximately 2 feet below and then a little extra for the knot at the top.

Oh, and are you wondering why I keep saying "we"? Well, Cam, as usual, was sucked into helping me with this project and it was a good thing because I can get sloppy with measurements and the minute details but he is super good at being exact so, because of him, this mobile is actually level and looks clean and crisp. Plus, I could never have done some of this stuff with just my two hands.. thank goodness for nice husbands! 

Anyways...back to the point.

–Mark your hoop in equal intervals where you want the five strings to be attached. This part is super important in accuracy so that you can have a level mobile. Our hoop was 12 inches in diameter making the circumference 37.68", putting our strings about 7.7" apart on the hoop (...now do you see why I needed Cam so badly?).

– String the poms that you want on the top foot of the mobile and then hot-glue the cord to the marks you make on the outside of the hoop. (also, pre-mark a foot on your string so that they are all equal).

I was skeptical about hot glue doing the trick for this but it definitely did the job and because we had to adjust a cord or two to make it perfectly level, it was also nice and forgiving.

And FINALLY, String the rest of your pom-poms on the cords below the hoop how you want them, then trim the dangling cords to exactly 2 ft. so they're all even and secure the bottom of the string with a knot/hot-glue to keep the bottom pom from falling off.


So, in the end, I now see why the store version was $140 because this thing is definitely a labor of love. But it turned out so cute and our grand total was only $25 so it was definitely worth it budget-wise too!

Baby's angle...

 Now we just have the rest of the "baby corner" to do and only a month left to do it!

Wish us luck!

Home Improvements

We had a long, lazy, wonderful break in Idaho with my family so we didn't want to come back to Logan for school until we absolutely had to. When we got into town last Sunday we also had the depressing task of taking down our Christmas Decorations which always makes life feel so Blah! I think that the combination of taking down Christmas, starting school AND -9 degree temperatures kind of made us go into a crazed home improvement kick. We really did go crazy.

project no.1

The first thing we started on was something a saw on Pinterest that I've really been wanting to do for a while. These are the steps we went through.

(our boards were 16x16 inches)

Although Cam's real home state is Louisiana, he felt like Utah is more of his home so he chose that instead.

Cam felt like Utah was a pretty dull shape so he nailed in the Great Salt Lake.

and then he decided he didn't like the blue in the lake, so he took it out. haha. I think he redid his like 5 times.

This project was pretty simple, fun and quick!

project no. 2

The tree branch.

First, let me tell you that our house is about 105 years old...literally. So the walls are made of plaster and extremely difficult to hang anything from, so I'm grateful Cam is an extreme analyzer and handy-man. I would have never been able to do this on my own. In fact, I really didn't do anything except hold the tree up while he was tying the fishing line. And I didn't even last long at that. 

We used a stud-finder to make sure the hooks in the ceiling and hung the tree with fishing line. Conveniently, we have a little nook to hide the end of the branch so it really does look like it is just growing in our living room!

project no. 3

painting

I hate painting. It's one of those things that you get excited about because it seems easy and then 10 hours later you want to die. Haha! Do you see that ugly blue chest under the TV? That was once a painting endeavor and mid-way through, I just stopped because I hated the color so much. So we decided to give it one more try. We also got a dresser for our bedroom from an estate sale and it was pretty but just didn't fit our house. Due to the negative temps, we did all of this in our living room yesterday. I think we went through 5 movies and half of New Girl Season two before we were done.

But hallelujah. It's over!

we love the white! Maybe someday we'll add color in the designs on the front/legs...

and PLEEEASE ignore our poor, dead, houseplant. We just can't seem to let go of him.

Cam was in charge of the giant dresser...

Let me tell you, we are bad paint pickers, and we loved how this dresser looked in our naturally lit living room and on the paint-swatch but in the light of our bedroom, it realllly looks high-lighter yellow so we'll probably add a less intense coat of paint on top someday in the future. 

But for now, it'll do!

I think we'll lay off on the projects for a little bit.

let the festivities begin!

It's 

not really

 beginning to

 look a lot like

 Christmas outside... 

so Cam and I are trying all

 we can to make it Christmassy

 inside! Our teeny tiny apartment

 only has about 3 rooms {living room, 

kitchen, and bedroom...well, and a bathroom 

of course} so there is limited space to decorate

 but we have tried our best to fill every ledge, table,

 empty space, etc! With weekly Michaels discounts,  DIY 

projects, TJmaxx and Hobby lobby splurges, we have somewhat 

successfully decorated for our very first Christmas in our very own apartment.

—and yes, I am making this look like a christmas tree on purpose—haha!!

We are definitely

amateurs, but I

think we did 

alright! I'll let

you be the judge!

...

And since we'll really only be here for two weeks of 

December we decided not to get a Christmas tree 

this year... (excuse me while I dry a few tears)

 On the bright side though, Cam bought me this little 

tree that I've had my eye on for a while and that will most certainly do!

Since we put these up I can definitely say our days have been extra "Merry & Bright"!

I hope yours are too this special month!!

P.S. Sorry about my grainy iPhone photos!