Category: Style

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Peace, Goodwill and a Linus Blanket for Everyone

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” aired on TV last night and I got pulled in once again. Linus is my favorite of the “Peanuts” gang characters for being sweet, wise, and a good friend to Charlie Brown. In the special, he is the scene-stealer, literally taking the stage and standing in the spotlight to explain to Charlie Brown and their friends what Christmas is all about. He does this — as he does everything — with his beloved blue blanket. Couldn’t we all use a little blue blanket? For my grown-up self, I think a soft blue-as-the-sky scarf might just do the trick.

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Key Charms: New Etsy Necklaces

New to my Etsy shop [editor’s note: the shop has closed]: Keys covered in words from a recycled old book (a paperback copy of “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin with yellowed pages and a missing cover). Here are two out of a dozen recently added to Miss Stefanie’s House of Crafts & Collectibles.

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DIY: Wine Cork Necklace Holder

I’ve collected quite a lot of wine corks, with vague notions of getting crafty with them one day. My need for a better necklace holder was just the incentive I needed to upcycle a bunch. This was very simple: all you need are wine corks, a piece of cardboard, a glue gun, small nails, and a sawtooth hanger.

Cut a piece of cardboard from a cereal box, about 1-inch wide. Use glue gun to evenly apply glue to the back of a wine cork and place it on the cardboard to stick. Then glue a small amount to the side of the wine cork before applying the next, so the wine corks are glued to the cardboard and to each other. Continue until the cardboard strip is filled. When glue has solidified, gently push in a small nail into each wine cork. On the back of the cardboard strip, attach the wall hanger in the center. I applied my corks a bit unevenly so each side curves down a bit, but you could also make it straight. Voila.

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Double the Pleasure: Cameos and Mermaids

In the style section for Sunday’s NY Times, the shopping snapshots feature showed cameo brooches and rings worn by stylish fashion editors and other taste-makers. I’ve long loved cameos and always like to see a vintage accessory appreciated. For me, it’s like is a tiny piece of art. I like that cameos are carved out of seashells and generally reveal one side of the subject in only one color but with much detail, providing a bit of mystery (find more about the beautiful art of carving them in this much older NYT story).

I also love mermaids and my mini-collection of cameos includes a mermaid cameo ring (pictured). It was an eBay find and I remember being thrilled to see it during a general search for cameo rings. Many others share my love of mermaids, but the mermaid cameo was an unexpected, double-the-pleasure discovery. (Like accidentally dropping a piece of chocolate in peanut butter and realizing they tasted better together?) This cameo one is set in a sterling silver ring and the siren is sitting with her arms wrapped around her tail, resting peacefully (and, I imagine, soaking up the sun’s rays before diving back into the sea).

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Fashion Flashback: High School Rings

During a recent family visit, I found the high school ring of my cousin’s husband and suggested that my cousin wear it on a chain as a necklace. That’s when I wished I had my own high school ring. I wore rings in high school and had already developed a fondness for jewelry, but I had no interest back then in a high school ring. Then Mr. MVP told me he didn’t get one, either. So this sent me to Ebay and Etsy to search for castaway high school rings. I found this one on Etsy and chose it for its color (iridescent blue, so dreamy) and high school name (Pleasant Grove High, which sounds like the name of a school in a book that would be made into a dark indie movie with a really great soundtrack). The Etsy seller wrote that she purchased the ring with a lot of others from an estate sale; it was dirt-cheap and now I have it hanging on a black cotton string made from a recycled T-shirt, with two other childhood rings.

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Style Souvenir: Cowboy Boots from Nashville

During a trip to Nashville several years ago, I found these Justin roper boots in teal at a thrift store full of stylish treasures. They were on back wall with shelves filled with pre-owned boots in various colors, styles, and sizes and I walked right up to this pair, drawn to the spectacular color. Talk about luck: They were my size. (They were my size!) I bring them out for special occasions and wore them out this weekend for a birthday party at a western bar. They’re good for dancing, too.

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I Love NY Street Shots: Photos of NY Windows After September 11

I remember walking around New York in the days following September 11, 2001. Those who were there can attest to the sense of comaraderie. Storefronts in my neighborhood showed their love of NY and America with displays. A few of these are above; this was before we all had digital cameras and smartphone cameras and I took shots with my pocket camera using film, not sure what I would get.

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Style Crush: Florence in My Dreams

Today I’m dreaming of being Florence from Florence and the Machine, after finding myself mesmerized by “What the Water Gave Me,” the new single (and video; stills from it above). It begins with wanting to rock like she does. Then I would also like to get lost in her closet and her jewelry boxes full of fabulous trinkets….

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I Love Lucy: Funny, Stylish, Timeless

I love so much about Lucy and have been recently obsessed with catching re-runs of “I Love Lucy” on TV. I love the show for the overall hilarity of the writing and performances; the chemistry between Lucy and Ricky; the friendship between Lucy and Ethel (and Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred); the shenanigans that usually involve Lucy’s shameless desire to be on stage and screen with Ricky; Lucy’s facial expressions and her unmatched gift for physical comedy; and the fabulous fashion. Oh, all those sweet bows, polka dots, scarves, coats, hats, purses (above, bows and polka dots together!)…. Check out Google’s homepage for a tribute to Lucille Ball today, the late star’s 100th birthday.

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DIY: Key to NY

I found an old key to a NY apartment and was inspired to make it a necklace. Simple DIY decoupage job: I tore words from the yellowed pages of a thrift store paperback copy of a favorite book (“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin) and glued them on one side of the key. The key is hanging from a chord made of a strip of black jersey from an old T-shirt.

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DIY Before & After: Denim Chair Cushions

Another upcycling project for old pairs of jeans: covering seat cushions on antique chairs. I was given two of these from a friend with a love of chairs who was cleaning house (after finding another couple of antique chairs…). I simply sanded and oiled the wood and recovered the cushions with strips of denim from a recycled pairs of jeans.

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Baseball Shirt DIY

Upcycled baseball shirts sell well on my Etsy shop—to girls like me who don’t like to wear boring and boxy tees to show support for the home team. So when I was given last-minute Dodgers tickets yesterday, I remembered I had set aside a thrift store Dodgers shirt for myself. I sewed on the denim braided neckline detail (denim from a discarded, recycled pair of jeans) in the passenger seat of the car, on the way to the game.