Hot chocolate in the wintertime has always been a unique cultural combination for me. My parents are from Haiti, but they lived in Mexico for several years before I was born. I remember growing up sipping Mexican Hot Chocolate more than any other type. Recently, since I married a European, I began to indulge (perhaps too much) in the wonders of that thick, creamy, and concentrated european hot chocolate style. Now, I've created my own type inspired by the culture of color: pastel hot chocolate! It's super quick to make and a great idea for Valentine's Day, ladies night, or simply amusing your tastebuds. Keep reading for all the deets! 

DIY || #32 || Laughing My Ears Off

First DIY of the new year and it involves two of my favorite things: staying warm and emoticons! This super simple project was inspired by Studio DIY's Emoji Ornaments she  made over the holidays. Given how much I love to use emoticons with my friends every day, I figured, why not share them with the rest of the world? Scroll below for the deets on how to make these interchangeable DIY Emoticon Earmuffs!

Here is what you will need: solid color earmuffs (yellow or white works best!), large clear plastic buttons (with pin backing - like these), colored paper, markers, scissors and glue. All these supplies I got at Michael's!

To start, open up a plastic button. Remove the sample paper inside and use that circle as a template. Trace 4 circles on the sheet of yellow paper; these will be the bases of your emoticons. Depending on which smiley you wish to re-create, you can cut and glue more shapes using different colored pieces of paper. for example, to make the 'tongue sticking out' emoticon, I cut a small circle out of white paper for the open eye and then I made the tongue by cutting out the shape on pink paper. Glue everything in place if you add pieces like these. Next, finish the emoticon with black marker to do the eyes, eyebrows and mouth. Once the emoticon is complete, simply place it back into the plastic button case with the emoticon facing outwards. Gently, pin the button to the outside of the earmuff so that it is firmly attached. Make sure you don't do this while the earmuffs are on your head (which would be both quite dangerous and quite difficult)!

Continue making as many other faces or emoticons as you wish! The joy of using plastic pin buttons is that you can switch them up anytime! Feeling happy one day - pin on some laughing emoticons. Feeling sad it's so cold you need to wear earmuffs in the first place? Pin on some grumpy ones! When it warms up outside, you can easily pin these to anything else - clothes, backpacks, purses, or notebooks. Have fun and feel free to share what you think or made!

DIY || #30 || Stocking Stuffers - Leather Coffee Cup Sleeves

Welcome to part one of a three-part series on affordable holiday stocking stuffers made with leather! It's been hard getting back to the blog after trying to sift through the mayhem that is applying to medical school. Yet, with the holidays in full blast I couldn't help but craft all the project ideas buzzing in my head!

This first project, DIY leather coffee cup sleeves, is a chic (and fairly hipster) project that looks and feels quite luxurious but only cost me around $6-7 to make. That's a steal! As a California gal living on the east coast, I don't do well in the cold. I also don't do well with wasting things. Although many paper coffee sleeves in cafes are recycled, why not just have a reusable one you can easily carry in your bag or wallet? Better yet - snag a reusable coffee mug and you'll essentially save the world (and look good while doing it).

Alright, here are the deets!

What you'll need: paper coffee cup, coffee cup sleeve (as template), leather (I got mine for $3.99; here is a similar one online at Michael's), permanent glue, scissors, and a pencil.

How to make it: trim the paper coffee cup sleeve on each end so it will fit nicely on your leather sheet. Flip the leather over and trace the outline of the paper sleeve lightly. Cut! You'll notice that the leather sleeve at this point won't wrap all the way around. Obviously, if you have a longer piece of leather this won't be a problem, but mine wasn't. So I saw it as an opportunity to keep being artistic with it. To fill this gap, use a piece of scrap leather, flip it over for an 'opposing' color/texture look, and glue to both ends of the sleeves. Trim excess as necessary. I then wrapped a bit of the excess around the top and bottom of the sleeve to complete the look. Wait at least 10 - 15 minutes for the glue to dry and harden before using. That's it! Happy sippin' folks! And come back next week for second DIY in this leather stocking stuffer series!   

FRIDAY FAVES || #9 || LIKE SNOW

After the Blizzard storm (Nemo) blew through Boston and Cambridge, it has literally been the whitest I have seen winter. With snow piled up sometimes taller than myself (okay, I'm not that tall...but still...), I was inspired by the magnificent forces of nature for this friday's faves, which all remind me of that wonderfully annoying while pleasantly sloshy thing called snow.

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