Colorful Kitchen Utensils

When I saw these festive spoons on the crafty blog, Little Bit Funky, I knew I had to paint some of my own.

Spoons with a touch of sunshine from Little Bit Funky.

What a fun way to add some spunk to our kitchen counters, huh?

Knowing that I wanted to do this craft when I got home from vacation, I bought a package of 5 bamboo spoons at a quaint winery on the road to Haleakala in Maui, thinking the exotic location of my purchase would add to the originality of my craft. When I got home, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to see if could find some dark wood spoons to add into the mix, and guess what I found? The same exact package of bamboo spoons! Thanks a lot, globalization. 

Yea, but mine were only subject to a 4.16% sales tax, so take THAT, California.

Anywho, I digress. The hardest part of this craft was picking colors. I had only 5 wooden utensils to paint, but I spent a good 20 minutes on the acrylic paint aisle in Michael's picking and pairing colors from Martha Stewart's multi-surface paint collection.

Ultimately, I chose bright, candy colors for my spoons. Here's how I did them:

What You Need

• Collection of wooden spoons
• Non-toxic acrylic paint (Don't add chemicals to your kitchen!)
• Masking tape
• Fine sandpaper 
• Paint brushes
• Pencil
• Tape measure/ruler

Painting Your Spoons, Step-by-Step

Step 1. Use tape measure and pencil to mark off a uniform length on the spoon handles. I marked mine at 3.5 inches. Then wrap masking/painter's tape around the handle at the pencil mark to separate the painted area from the rest of the spoon. 

Step 2. Use the sandpaper to buff the area to be painted. This will help the paint stick.

Step 3.  Apply your first coat of paint to your spoons.

Step 4. Place the painted spoons in jars to dry. Wait an hour. 

Step 5. After the first coat of paint has dried. apply another. Let that coat dry.

Step 6. When the second coat of paint is dry, slowly peel off the masking tape.

Step 7.  Place your spoons in a glass jar for festive storing and then get cooking!

I now only refer to my kitchen utensils by their color. You cook pasta in the silver, stir with the pink, drain into the white and eat off of the green.

Stirring my favorite broccolini and tortellini salad.

If the rainbow colors are too much for you, check out Anthropologie's take on these festive wood utensils. For the ferociously festive out there, these spoons could be done up with multiple colors on each handle, a few polka dots or any other pattern of your liking. The world of wooden spoons is your oyster! Now go on and get painting!

Sock Buns

If your hair hangs past your shoulders, and you're like me - incapable of mustering the effort to blow dry your hair before 9 a.m. -- man do I have a trendy treat for you! It's called the sock bun, and not only does it take under 2 minutes to complete, but it's also a versatile hairstyle, capable of being dressed up or down. 

The Sock Bun on my sister, Brooke for Taylor's college graduation party. 

I can't take credit for this hair craft; my jewelry-making sister showed me this style a few weekends ago at my vintage-shopping sister's college graduation. On the day of Taylor's graduation, we overslept the alarm and woke up at the time we were supposed to leave the house; four of us needed to shower and primp before we left, so the sock bun was our saving grace. Brooke was nice enough to share the style with me in a pinch.

Me and Brooke sporting our sock buns.

Okay, so down to the meat of the post. How do you make your own sock bun? 

To start you need:

• A tube sock that you don't mind cutting. The tube should be about as long as your ponytail. You'll also, preferably, want to use a sock that is similar to your hair color (e.g. not a yellow argyle sock like mine).

• A pair of scissors

• Bobby pins

My sock already has the heel and toe cut off. 

Step 1. Cut the tube of the sock to separate it from the heel and toe. You'll use the tube; discard the heel (or use it as a soggy ankle sock or bathtub plug). 

Step 2. Pull your hair into a pony tail. I prefer a high pony tail for my sock bun, but the sock bun will work anywhere. The Stephanie Tanners out there might opt for a side pony sock bun. 

Step 2

Step 3. Pull the sock tube over your pony tail.

Step 3

Step 4. Begin to tuck the ends of your pony tail up into the sock as you begin to roll the sock down over your pony tail.

Step 5. Keep rolling. 

Step 6. When you roll the tube all the way down, you'll end up with a perfect bun. I usally pin down the bun with bobby pins and spray a bit of flexible hold hairspray to keep my hair from revealing the sock.

The sock bun from the front. 

Finished product from the back.

To finish off this easy-peasy hair style, I like to pair it will long earrings to dress it up, and jeans and tee for a more casual, yet sophisticated look. 

H&M sells this texturized bun maker for $3.99, but I've had better luck with a sock.

The sock bun is a long-haired, blow dryer-evading girl's dream. I haven't tried or seen this style on curly hair yet, but I imagine it would look just as cute. No matter your hair type, test it out for yourself and prepare for the compliments to show themselves in. Happy hair days to all of you!

Photo credit: Mister Jordan S. 

My Summer Polish Pick

A note for those of my friends and readers who don't like feet: there is a small but close-up photo of my (post-pedicure) feet in this post. A note for all people, everywhere: My feet are clean, but not pretty. 

We actually had a relatively chilly winter here in Santa Barbara, which means I too get to experience the excitement of pulling out my sandals for summer just like you East Coasters. So much for not having my cake and eating it too, huh?

In celebration of this joyful annual event, I treated my tootsies to a pedicure yesterday, and, considering that my feet had been holed up inside my shoes for months without any attention, I went to the nice place in town. You know, where they use that exfoliating salt scrub and wrap hot, wet towels around your feet? There really is nothing like a great pedicure, and a bonus benefit of going to the nice place is that they usually offer in a fine color selection. Aqua Nail Bar in Santa Barbara is our nice place, and they delivered on color.

Ladies and gentlemen-who-continued-reading-about-nail-polish, say hello to Camera from Essie's Poppy Razzi collection! This is my official summer polish pick.

It's sold out on Nordstrom.com, so, yeah...that.

It's coral! It's pink! It's red! It's NEON, and it's my color of choice for the summer. I can't wait to try out the rest of the cheery collection.

Camera - it looks orange here, but in person the neon and pink come through. 

I'm not much in to matching my toenails to my fingernails, so while Camera sits pretty on my toes this summer, I'll don my other favorite Essie color of the season, Splash of Grenadine, on my fingernails.

"Morning, Sarah. That's a very nice purple dress. It's very purpley." - Elf

Happy summer nail polish shopping!

Green (with Envy) Thumb

So here’s the thing: I’m bad at plants.

And this just isn’t fair, because my mom is Miss Green Thumb. I’ve watched her transform many a yard from overgrown or bare into flourishing Edens. That shit should be passed on genetically, so you don’t end up with desk plants that look like this.

Oops.  

So this spring I planted a garden in an attempt to ameliorate my reputation as a gardener. With the help of my darling younger sister, we weeded and churned mulch into a plot of dirt. We saw worms and spiders and bugs, oh my! And at day's end, we had planted rows of carrots, radishes and green onions and sprinkled in a few basil plants and pinwheel daisies too.

In our gardening hats, channeling the energy of all the gardeners who came before us. 

From there I couldn’t stop. I pruned the dead jasmine plant. I watered like a madwoman. I even got a new succulent for my desk. (It’s still alive too!)

My vegetable garden has sprouted up, and I can’t wait to harvest the goods into a delicious salad at summer’s end. Pictures and salad recipe to come!

Before.

The garden bed, post-weeding. 

Carrots sprouting up. 

Baby radishes!

If you’re considering planting a garden and you have more patience than I do (you probably do), I’d recommend starting your seeds in little cups and then transferring them to your plot; I lost some seeds due to unforeseen spring rains. And for you city-dwellers who may not have a patch to churn, potted plants are festive and just as rewarding! These ones from The Proper Pinwheel are next on my DIY list. Check ‘em out, my fellow agriculturists! 

If you need me, I'll be reading BH&G in the gazebo.