As you might remember, I’m heading to Mexico next week! After we booked the trip, I started browsing the web for swimsuits and beach wear and came across this adorable beach bag at Anthropologie, but when I saw the price tag, I cringed a bit. I don’t mind investing in a good bag, but spending over $100 for something that’s just going to sit in the sand and likely get dirty? No thanks.

So instead, I made my own! This DIY pom pom beach bag was incredibly easy and doesn’t require any real skills other than using a pair of scissors and pom pom maker and the total cost was far less expensive than what I found online. I also love that I now have the tools to make pom poms whenever (more projects coming soon!). I ended up going a bit nuts and made way too many pom poms and tassels so now I have a number of different attachments for my beach bag and can change up the look depending on how I’m feeling that day.

My favorite is probably the pom poms with the black and white tassel, but I love the blue tassels too! Which would you carry?

HOW TO MAKE POM POMS

To make pom poms, I bought two sizes of pom pom maker — you can find them here (small) and here (large). For the majority of my pom poms, I used the bigger of the small set and the smaller of the big set. Directions come with the pom pom maker, but you can follow my images above for an easy visual lesson on pom pom making!

Before putting anything together, I made all my pom poms and tassels first.

HOW TO MAKE TASSELS

To make tassels, wrap yarn around a book. Change the size of the book if you want smaller or larger tassels. Tie a piece of yarn tightly around one side. Slide the yarn off onto a pen to tie the middle section. Once the middle section is tightly tied, but the bottom edge.

After you make your pom poms and tassels, I strung them together with braided yarn using a yarn needle and tied them around the handle of the bag. The best part about this is that it looks beachy and bohemian, so don’t worry about making it perfect. One last tip — I used a touch of glue on the knots at the end of the pom poms so they didn’t come undone.

What You Need…
– yarn (you can use any yarn, but I got this multi-color pack)
– pom pom maker, small and large
– sharp scissors
– Elmer’s glue
– wide-eye yarn needle
– small book
– straw bag, also love this one (just cut the flower off), this blue and white one, and this one

Are you heading anywhere warm soon? What do you always pack in your beach bag?

P.S. If you try out the project and snap a pic, tag it with #foxandshemakes on Instagram so I can check it out!

Girls, you might want to send this one to your guys because this post is a PSA for them buying you flowers. Like I mentioned last week, Rob and I don’t exchange gifts, just cards and flowers. I know flowers can get crazy expensive and Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse for florists to take advantage and charge you even more than normal. A lot of those big online florists are a rip off too. They’re overpriced and the flowers are always the cheap, not-so-pretty ones.

So guys, here’s my suggestion. Ditch the florist and head to Whole Foods, Central Market or a local flower market and do some quick shopping. Depending on which flowers you get the price of your bouquet will go up or down, but here I bought roses that were $25 and greenery for $12, used an old shopping bag as the wrap and tied with ribbon I had on hand!

FLOWER SHOPPING TIPS

1. Pick A Color Scheme
   White, blush pink, bright pink, red — you know your girl better than I do, so pick accordingly. When in doubt, white or pink never fails! Pick a bunch (or two) depending on the price and size of the blooms. If you’re unsure of which flowers to get, just ask the florist for their opinion.

   A few of my favorites: peonies, hydrangeas, English garden roses, roses and tulips.

2. Add Greenery & Fillers
   There are always several pails filled with gorgeous green leaves that add a nice, foraged element to a bouquet. As for fillers, billy balls, baby’s breath, simple leaves or green berries always add a nice delicate and unique touch! Grab the flower food too, it always makes them last longer.
3. Wrap Them
   The hardest part is over! Now it’s time to assemble your bouquet. Trim the ends of your flowers on the diagonal. Lay down a square piece of butcher paper or use an old shopping bag like me. Wrap one side in and then the other with the bottom end tighter than the top. Tie with a ribbon or raffia and you’re all set!

I’d recommend doing this shortly before gifting the flowers as you don’t want them to be out of water for too long. You can always wrap the bottom with a damp paper towel and Ziploc bag. If you do this, just make sure to tuck the bottom edge of paper up to hide that!

After flowers are gifted, I recommend putting them in warm water. I’ve found that it helps them start drinking water and last longer — my last bunch of hydrangeas lasted nearly three weeks with this trick!

So, there you go! A gorgeous bouquet that doesn’t break the bank, but still makes a big statement!

P.S. Wondering about this dress? It also comes in blue and red and you can see the full post here.

February is a funny month. It always seems so much shorter than any other month, even though it’s just a few days shorter. But with Rob’s birthday, Valentine’s Day and our engagement party at the end of this month, I know this one will fly by even faster than normal.

In the past, my dreams of writing Valentine’s cards for friends and family has fallen to the wayside and been forgotten, so this year, I decided to get a jump start and actually make it happen! I set aside some time this past weekend to sit down, write them all and stuff them. And today, they’re going out in the mail!

The cards will probably hit my friends’ mailboxes a little early, but if you haven’t started, the good news is that you still have a lot of time. I rounded up a collection of some of my favorite cards below. Not surprising, but a fair share are from Rifle Paper Co.

Do you send Valentine’s cards to your friends and family? Or just save it for that special someone?

one / two / three / four / five / six / seven / eight / nine

Is it just me, or is calligraphy suddenly trendy? I’ve been seeing calligraphy workshops, books and starter kits popping up everywhere! Maybe I notice this more since I decided to do my own calligraphy for my wedding and have been trying to teach myself the basic skills, figure out how to properly hold my pen holder, deciding which nib(s) I like the look of best, and which ones work best for me. And then there’s the practice. Lots and lots and lots of practice.

When I started off down this path, I did some research on what to get and it turns out, there’s a lot of great things out there to help you get started. I bought Molly Suber Thorpe’s book titled Modern Calligraphy and it’s been a great reference. There’s plenty of great starter kits too! These two, one from LH Calligraphy and the other from Everly Calligraphy, are beautiful! They also come complete with a manual, nibs, a pen holder and ink!

If you’re looking to get started, here’s a few things I ordered and love…

• pen holder, oblique is recommended for right handers and straight for lefties! (I’m right-handed and have been practicing with a straight pen holder, but just ordered the oblique pen holder)
• assorted pointed nibs
• super black india ink, this probably isn’t the fanciest, but it’s good for practice

And at the end of the day, you decide you just want to buy a pretty font for invites or just for fun, Snippet & Ink has a list of 50 gorgeous fonts!

It’s been a while since I’ve done any DIY projects around the house, but I’ve been so busy, that finding the time to do anything more than what’s necessary hasn’t happened.

I’d been pondering a project every since seeing this really awesome coffee table at Salvage One, and I finally decided to make it a reality, or at least do some research on it. The construction of the table was relatively simple, so really all I needed was a gorgeous slab of wood and some stain. No biggie, right?

Actually, that was right. I thought finding a good slab wood would be expensive and a little bit difficult, but I came across Keim Lumber during my first Google search. They had a HUGE selection of wood slabs in all different types of woods, sizes and price points. I wanted something on the less expensive side and went with the hard maple — they have some really awesome round pieces right now!

The hairpin legs were repurposed from the first time I updated the coffee table. I stained the slab with the dark walnut Minwax wood stain from Home Depot and then polished it with a few coats of Briwax.

One of the things I love about this table is the size. It’s smaller than my first one, but I think it’ll be perfect in whatever apartment Rob and I move into next summer. So, what do you think of the new table? Is it something you’d make?