DIY Hanging Sunflower Pendants (Sunflower Kissing Balls)

These colorful hanging flower balls (also known as "kissing balls") are a simple and fun decoration to hang over a buffet at a party, during a Fall-themed wedding, or to just hang on a doorway or front porch as seasonal decor.

I shared a sunflower version of this idea on the TODAY Show this morning, since we were celebrating the (unofficial) start of Fall, but feel free to swap different flowers depending on the time of year.

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DIY Message in a Coke Bottle Advent Calendar

A few years ago, my husband surprised me with my first advent calendar. Growing up in a Puerto Rican household, advent calendars weren't a part of our holiday traditions, but I'd read about them in books and seen them in movies, and was completely obsessed with the idea of counting down the days to Christmas, one tiny surprise at a time.

I told Eugene this when we were dating, and would repeat it every so often when I'd see a calendar on display in a store or someone's home.

And then one December morning (after a few days of buzzing around on some kind of mystery mission) he woke me up with a homemade advent calendar he'd ordered from an artist he found online!

Each morning that month, I'd open up the little drawer of the day to find a tiny handwritten note listing an item like "1 bottle sassy red nail polish" or "1 tube luxurious French hand cream."

(Yup...these were his actual notes!)

He'd then reach into this bag of goodies he kept hidden in his closet, and present me with the gift of the day.

It was, as you might imagine, basically the best thing ever.

Advent calendars--which mark each day of the Advent season with a small hidden gift or image--are such a fun way to bring the family (or even a group of friends!) together during the holidays. They serve double-duty as both decoration and gift, and are a sweet way to have a quick moment together each day during the bustle of the holiday season.

Eugene's little notes gave me the idea to create a "message in a bottle" style advent calendar this year, using classic glass Coca-Cola bottles.

You've probably seen the "Share a Coke" bottles with names on them basically everywhere, but did you know that you can actually order and personalize the bottles with any names or words on them that you'd like?

The minute I found out about this, my brain went into total overdrive at the possibilities (Place settings! Stocking stuffers! Party favors! An entire mini fridge filled with "Alejandra" bottles!)

With this in mind, I ordered up 24 bottles, each personalized with a number 1-24. I tucked little rolled-up notes inside each one, tied with string so they come out easily and closed them with a cork from the crafts store.

Arranged on a mantle or shelf, they're a fun and festive decoration that's really simple to put together. (No major craft skills required here!)

The bright red of the Coca-Cola label is festive enough, but you can also add glitter or fake snow to the bottom of each bottle to dress it up even more, and add a few twinkly lights around the display for a little extra holiday sparkle.

From December 1st through the 24th, your family members can take turns opening up a new bottle each day to reveal the surprise.

And what to put inside?

Well that's totally up to you!

You can follow Eugene's lead, and have each note reference another small gift that you keep elsewhere. Keep it simple with cute small gifts like travel sized bottles of lotion, nail polish, candy or chocolate bars, tiny toys, or costume jewelry.

Or the message itself could be a gift--perhaps promising a day out, a pair of movie tickets, a coupon for a song download, or a digital gift card

Or how about a treasure hunt? With each note revealing a riddle or clue to a bigger gift or surprise that is then revealed on Christmas Day.

And remember that not every note has to be something material!

Feel free to alternate gift days with simple cute notes, motivating quotes for the day, a picture, or even a tiny short story (look up "micro short stories" online for ideas).

A few other tips:

• Planning an advent calendar can take some time, so start as soon as possible.

• If you don't have the time to order the personalized bottles, you can just use the regular glass Coca-Cola bottles you find in your grocery store, and create your own number labels to either tape around or dangle from the neck.

• To clean the bottles before using, I suggest rinsing with hot soapy water, and drying upside down on a rack. Skip the dishwasher as it can damage the label.

• Don't skip the string around the message or you won't be able to get the note out easily. If you want to make it even easier, leave a bit of the string dangling out of the bottle when you put the cork in.

• And remember that once the season is over, you can pack away the bottles to use again next year.

I hope this inspires you to get creative with your own homemade message in a Coke bottle advent calendar.

Be sure to share pictures or let me know what you include in your own version!

Stay tuned for more holiday ideas from me, and hop on over to the Coca-Cola Pinterest Page for some more fun recipe and holiday inspiration.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Over the next few months, I will be sharing a series of recipes and entertaining ideas featuring Coca-Cola. All recipes and opinions are strictly my own. You can also visit the Coca-Cola Pinterest Page for more entertaining tips, inspiration, and ideas. Thank you for supporting great brands that make it possible for me to create fresh new content for you!

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Inspired Living: How to Organize Necklaces With Cup Hooks

Before this month, my necklace storage solution was a bit of a disaster. Basically, I just hung them up all over the place.

On bookshelves. My mirror. Door handles. I'd leave them in the soap dish in the bathroom. In cups near the sink. 

I'd essentially come home, take off my necklace, and then hang it in the first place I saw.

This meant that, come time to get dressed, I'd end up wandering around the apartment trying to find the necklace I wanted to wear.

But not anymore!

A couple weeks ago, I decided to create an easy (and pretty!) solution to my necklace problem.

First, I bought two packages of inexpensive cup hooks at Home Depot (they were about $2 for a pack of 25). Then I pulled out a quart of the paint I used in my bedroom (if possible, you should always get an extra quart for touch-ups and little projects like this one), and painted the hooks to match.

(The best way to do this is to stick them in a piece of foam and paint away.)

You don't have to paint the hooks, but I like the way they disappear into the wall and just leave the necklaces as the focal point.

I let these dry for 24 hours, and then took a ruler and marked dots about 1 1/2" apart on a portion of my wall next to my dresser. How many you make depends on the size of your space and how many necklaces you want to hang.

I made another similar row with holes 2" apart about 14" above the first row. The plan was to put shorter, wider necklaces on top, and thinner longer necklaces on the bottom. Again...your distribution will depend on what kind of jewelry you have.

I used a hammer and small nail to make "starter" holes in each dot, then screwed the cup hooks in.

Then I hung my necklaces up, leaving a few empty hooks for future necklace purchases. (I also added a few hooks along the side to hang some bangles and small headbands.)

I love the way this looks--it's organized, but it's also like a work of art in itself. It makes getting ready a lot more fun, and makes it easy to keep track of my jewelry.

P.S. You could also do this for belts!

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Inspired Living: DIY Yellow Bedroom Lamp

I've spent the past couple weeks working on a few fun projects around our apartment. I love my home, but I've lived here for more than 6 years, so lately things have started to feel a little stale, cluttered, and just generally uninspiring.

Since I work from home and often have to entertain here for work, the problem is further compounded. This year, I decided to work on making my home a place that I'm really proud of. I want a space that feels inspiring and conducive to the kind of creative work that I do. I also thought it would be fun to share a few of these here with you!

Hudson, testing out the new bedding & pillows.

I started out with my bedroom, creating some new storage, bringing in a few new pieces, and adding some brighter colors with the help of a new duvet and curtains. When I first moved in here years ago, I painted the walls in my bedroom a gorgeous shade of marine blue (the shade is called "Deep Blue Sea" by Behr, but I had it matched in Benjamin Moore Aura paint, which is one of my favorites).

I kept that as my base, but switched around the accents (previously chocolate brown + lime green) with bright yellow and charcoal. I'm loving the new colors, which feel joyful and elegant against the blue paint.

I had an old lamp that my mom bought me for my bedroom back when I was in college. I've had it on my dresser for years, but it was never very useful as the dark old-fashioned shade blocked most of the light. Whenever I did my make-up, I would take the shade off, and then put it back on when I was done--not the best solution in the world.

So I decided to do something about it! I bought a can of Krylon Sun Yellow spray paint and a new lampshade from Target, and got to work. To prep, I wiped the lamp down very well, and then put the cable inside a plastic bag. I should probably have taped the fixture part a bit better, but eh...whatever. It's hidden by the shade.

The painting process took about four days, since I had to do multiple thin coats. Patience is key when spraypainting. And admittedly, it's not ideal in the freezing winter since you have to open the windows to ventilate, but fortunately the lamp is small enough that it would only take a few bursts at a time and I could close the windows in between coats.

(I definitely wouldn't try to spraypaint a piece of furniture indoors!)

I wanted a bit of the dark to shine through in order to highlight the details, so I stopped once I reached a point where I was happy.  I let it dry a full 48 hours before putting it back on my dresser and topping it with the small shade I bought at Target.

The new lamp looks gorgeous on my dresser, and the light bucket shade lets a lot of light shine through. I'm super happy with it!


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DIY Decorating: Our Christmas Tree

Eugene surprised me with an adorable little live Christmas tree this year!

In past years, I've always put up one of the two artificial trees I own (I have a full-sized green one, and a small silver one that I got for my retro Christmas party back in 2009). I'd been planning on just pulling out the silver one again this year, though in my heart, I really wanted a real one.

I LOVE real Christmas trees. It's what we grew up with, and it was actually a little bit of a scandal in our home when my parents decided to switch to fake trees (the pine needle mess was driving my mom crazy). My brother and I were horrified, and I swore that when I had the chance, I would get myself a real tree. Unfortunately, when one lives alone in the city, a real tree is kind of a major hassle (this was pre-Eugene, obviously) so when I first moved to New York, I ended up just ordering the faux version.

Once Eugene came along, we continued to put up the fake tree (he's Jewish and therefore had no opinion on the matter either way), but each time we passed one of those Christmas tree sales around the city or in my hometown, I would kind of involuntarily sigh or stop to breathe in that incredible pine aroma. Which is why it was pretty amazing when I heard the knock on the door around the time he usually comes home from work, and found him standing there holding a tree in his arms.

I wanted to do something a little special for the decorations, and ended up loving the results so I figured I would share with you what I did!

The tree is a live, potted tree, which means we'll be able to replant it after the holidays. It comes in a big ugly base, so I got this galvanized beverage tub (from Target) and nestled the base in there. I used some checkerboard napkins I had on hand to cover the top and give it a finished look (a diy "tree skirt" of sorts).

I added a string of white lights, and then some mini sparkly silver, gunmetal, and lilac balls I had from trees past. I got these at Kmart years ago--I believe they were from one of the Martha Stewart collections.

The pièce de résistance on my tree, however, is the homemade garland I made using kitchen twine and little triangle pennants cut out of book pages (there are a few little hidden shapes in there, too--a cross (the reason for the season!) and a little girl shape.

Eugene actually cut these out for me, and I then folded them over and glued them onto the twine using adhesive spray.

(If it horrifies you to know I cut up a book, be assured that it was a truly awful novel that sent me into a fit of irritation each time I spotted it on my shelf. No innocent books were harmed.)

These pennant garlands are so fun to make, and you could actually use them for other kinds of holiday or party decorating--they'd be fabulous strung along an entry way, on mirrors, or even just along the wall. Use different colored construction paper or newspaper paper to personalized your look.

I then cut and folded a star out of the same book paper to top the tree. 

I think tiny little bits of interest are key on a tree--it's always fun to have little cute thing hidden in it for guests to find. I tucked in a few silk flowers into my tree and one tiny vintage Santa Claus figurine that I've had for years.

To finish off the look of the tree table, I added some sparkly pillar candles around the base, just for decoration; I would never light them because one does not light candles next to real wood trees decorated with paper.

With all the lights off!

I love our tree. I think it's adorable, and Eugene has noted that it's my "best one yet!"

Want more Christmas ideas? Try this DIY Coke Bottle Advent Calendar. 

P. S. Did you know? I wrote an eCookbook! The Puerto Rican Christmas Table features over 40+ recipes and full-color photos. Click here to learn more!

Merry Christmas!

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Inspired Entertaining: DIY Mercury Glass Votives

A few months into my wedding planning process, I fell in love with mercury glass. Also known as silvered glass, mercury glass is a type of decorative glass that's been blown with a double wall, and then filled with a silvering solution and sealed, creating the effect of a layer of reflective silver trapped within the walls of the glass. As the pieces age, the silver within breaks up in bits creating a kind of marbled effect that, with the addition of candlelight, is absolutely dreamy and perfect for entertaining.

True mercury glass pieces are expensive, but faux versions are just as beautiful and widely available. I quickly grew obsessed with the idea of having a couple hundred mercury glass votives sparkling around the room and on the dinner tables at our reception. Unfortunately, I found that at 2 to 5 dollars a piece, even the faux versions were out of my decorating budget.

So I decided to make my own!

I scoured websites looking for tutorials on how to make my own mercury glass, but I was mostly disappointed with the results. The most popular method around the web is one from Martha Stewart, but all the posts I read about it reported less than stellar results. Her method, which calls for spritzing glass pieces with water before spraying with silver mirror paint, results in a streaky mess. Finally, I just devised my own method.

Once you get the hang of it, the process is simple and goes by quickly--necessary when you're making these in bulk. I was able to complete approximately 200 DIY mercury glass votives in just a few afternoons. My total cost for the project? About $125. Here's what I did:

Materials
1. Krylon Looking Glass mirror-like spray paint (I found this at Lee's Art Shop in NYC, stores like Pearl and some hardware shops will usually carry it. It's also available online. I used 3 cans for my 200 votives.)

2. Acrylic craft paint in shades of glossy black and metallic brown. You can use any brands, but I specifically used Apple Barrel Gloss Acrylic paint in Black and DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Elegant Finish paint in Rich Espresso. One small tube of each is fine and will go a long way. (I bought these at Michael's for less than 2 dollars each. They're also available online.)

3. Sea sponges. I bought two of these. Available at craft stores and in the bath section of drug and beauty supply stores. In a pinch, you can use a small piece of loofah. Don't use a regular kitchen sponge; you want the irregular natural pattern.

4. Clear glass votives, hurricanes, clean jam jars, or other objects of any size or shape. I used about 140 plain clear glass votives, and another 60 decorative ones with ridges. Both work equally well. (I got mine at Michael's, but also check online shops for bulk discounts if you're buying a lot.)

You'll also need:
a dropcloth (I cut a trash bag open), a small dish of water, and a well-ventilated area. (I live in an apartment and it was the middle of winter so I just opened the windows wide, turned on a fan, and took copious breaks. Not recommended unless you want a fierce headache.)

Method
Step 1. Prepare your materials: Use scissors to cut a small piece of the sea sponge. Make sure that it is small enough to hold in your fingers and dab inside the votive. Squeeze about a tablespoon each of the black and brown paints onto a plastic plate. This will be your palate.

Step 2. Dab the sponge lightly into the black and brown paint, and then blot gently inside and around the votive. Use a light hand, and only make a few spots in each. You don't want to coat the votive with paint, you just want to make a few smudges on the inside. Repeat with each of the votives and let dry for about 15 minutes.

Step 3. Shake the Looking Glass paint well and then, holding one of the votives in one hand, spray quickly and lightly INSIDE the votive. You will be doing a second coat so don't worry if it looks thin. Set the votive aside right side up (the same way you would place it on a table if you were using it), and let it dry. Some paint will pool on the inside bottom, but that's OK. Don't move it around too much to avoid streaks. Repeat with the rest of the votives, then let them all dry about 15 minutes. Repeat with a second coat of paint, then let them all dry overnight.

Step 4. If you'd like, you can add a 3rd coat of paint for a more silvered look.

Once the votives are completely dry, they're ready to use! I used these with real candles at my wedding, scattered along the dinner tables and on many other surfaces around the room. When the candle is lit, the flame gives the glass a warm antique glow. The same antiqued mercury glass effect for a mere fraction of the price!

NOTE: This technique also works well on clear glass vases to make gorgeous and inexpensive wedding centerpieces, but if you plan to fill with water, use another vessel or liner on the inside to hold the water as the paint is not waterproof. Note that this is also not food-safe, so you'll also need a liner if you want to use for a fruit bowl or other similar purpose. Once completely dry, it IS safe to use with real candles.

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