The Late Afternoon

No joke, my sister and I planned to go to the San Francisco Renegade Craft Fair sometime late fall last year or early winter of this year. Whatever it is, we have long waited for this day and its finally here! The Renegade Craft Fair is the largest (and free!) DIY event featuring hundreds of independent artists, workshops, food, and music. Its held all over the US and, luckily, includes San Francisco. I can’t wait to be surrounded by tons of creative products and inspiration,  including Paper Pasteries, which I had posted about wayyy in the early days of The Late Afternoon.

This amazingly designed poster (above) and Renegade Craft Fair website basically illustrates how crafty and fun the fair is going to be. I’ll be reporting back on Monday of all my lovely new findings!

Happy weekend!

Check out more information about the Renegade Craft Fair here.

Ceramic painting studios are always fun, but also a bit stressful… I always want so badly for my pieces to come out perfectly. This is far from perfect, but I thought I’d share any way! I went to Petroglyph Ceramic Lounge in Los Gatos, CA, a few weekends ago with my friend, Janine, and this lemonade pitcher is the result. Typically, I pick out the largest mug available and splatter it with the prettiest turquoise I can find. Since my kitchen is filled with too many mugs and too much turquoise, I decided to go for something a little less blue and simpler.

The inside of the pitcher may be my favorite part. Its a light blush pink, almost to the point of being considered white or peach. The outside is not just plain white, but a creamy, slightly yellowed vanilla color. The flowers are a dusty pink and buttery yellow. It came out a little better than I had expected (you never know how its going to turn out…). Currently, my piece is displayed on the coffee table until I can find a better spot for it, but hopefully I can put it to good use soon.

My sister is really good at finding stuff, whether it at a big crazy sale or on the side of the road, she can find things and somehow make them really cool. Take this chair, for example, found on the side of a random San Francisco street one morning. With a little paint, pretty fabric, and time studying reupholstering Youtube videos, she turned something old and yellowing into a brand new, modern-looking chair.

Unfortunately, the only help I provided was standing in line at Home Depot waiting to buy the light charcoal gray paint used to cover the wooden parts of the chair. I am loving the fabric choice she picked for the seat part. The fabric and the paint go so perfectly together. If only I could find an old, ugly chair to reupholster and make pretty….

Thanks for the photos Nicole!

If I could, I’d have real flowers scattered all over my apartment. They add a splash of color and freshness that decorative pieces and artwork can’t provide. Unfortunately, flowers don’t last very long and I’d  have to purchase a new batch of flowers every week. I made these tissue paper flowers as my alternative to real flowers – they last longer and I don’t have to constantly throw away sad, wilted flowers.

These flowers are obviously not meant to look real and they are a lot less cheesy than plastic artificial flowers. I also like that the tissue paper is delicate enough for light to shine through, but thick enough for the colors to be bright and saturated. I made up the construction of the tissue paper flowers on my own this past weekend. I purchased floral cloth wire from Michaels and used leftover tissue paper from old gift packaging. I originally planned on using regular wire, but was happy when I found this floral wire, which is metal wire wrapped in pretty sage green thread.

The flowers are created by folding three rectangular sheets of tissue paper into “accordions” and cutting scalloped edges.  Once the sheets are scalloped and folded, I opened them up, scrunched them together (the bottom sheet of tissue paper in the above picture), and wrapped the floral wire around the middle. To create the “flower” look, you will need to fluff and maneuver the tissue paper to your liking.

(Also, how amazing is this turquoise vase?) 

  I think garlands of paper flags (aka bunting) may be the most crafty, summer/outdoor party decoration ever. They’re simple, colorful, are often made of the cutest patterned paper, and add a touch of festivity. I’ve seen them a lot around the internet world lately and love the look of them as party decorations or as a graphic whimsical pattern (like in the duvet cover below).

(Ditsy Pennants Duvet Cover – Urban Outfitters) 

(Bunting Birthday card from How About Orange)

There are tons of how-to tutorials online about making these strings of pennants. It seems pretty simple to string a few cut out triangles together, but these tutorials offer cute patterns or switches it up a little bit.

Bunting made from vintage book pages. These are more neutral than the brightly colored garlands, but the yellowed text filled pages made the flags more interesting. Find the tutorial at Two and Six.

Ruffled is offering free printable lettered flags in all different patterns and colors that can be used to spell any message. The heart spacer flags are also really cute!

I like how homemade the flags look, especially like this fabric numbered bunting from SFGirlbyBay.

More fabric pennants from Two and Six. 

Photo Credits: 100 Layer Cake, Two and Six, How About Orange, SFGirlbyBay

These pocket sized notebooks from Oh Joy! are notebook perfection. The cover patterns, designed by Joy Deangdeelart Cho, are vibrant and refined, while the scalloped pages add a playful edge to your traditional notebook or Moleskine. There are a variety of patterns to chose from, most being different floral designs. My favorite is the “I Love Platinum” notebook because of the way the natural color and texture of the cardstock contracts with the shiny metallic flower outlines.

No one can have too many tiny notebooks right? I have one for grocery lists, one for to-do lists, one for blog ideas…adding one of these Oh Joy! notebooks to my collection would be perfect!

All images from Oh Joy! Shop