happy spring! hope you are all enjoying the changing of the seasons as much as i am.  i adore this time where the cycles of the earth, animals, air, sky, and our daily life routines change before our very eyes.  fertility is in the air and thought i'd show you a baby shower i did recently. i kinda loved how it turned out.

had a bit of fun with the salal leaves that grow all over my property.  laurel leaves work perfectly too and you can get those at ANY flower shop.  first, i made a "BABY' garland for this lovely gold frame i have by using a black sharpie to write the letters and a gold paint pen to trace them.  i hung this over the mantle.  then i used a heart shaped hole punch and made these super sweet leaves that i tied with jute twine on the drink glasses.  easy peasy.  i sprinkled the little hearts all over the table.

i used these beautiful ti leaves, also found at the flower shop, to wrap around mason jars for the flower arrangements i made.  i love ti leaves.  just tie twine around them to secure them.

below is the picture i was sent to use as the inspiration for the decor . sooooooo adorable!  right? it is from www.fancylifecorner.com 

i made a batch of tissue tassels and strung them up everywhere.  love these.   they are so easy to make.  i'll do a DIY on them later. i also used tissue paper to make the poufs for the big hanging centerpiece that i hung from her chandelier. added a few store bought paper lanterns, some vintage crocheted lace strands and it was good to go.  

just thought i'd give you guys some ideas for little ways to make your own gatherings a bit sweeter. just add mimosas and you are on your way to fun times. 

alright, i have a confession, i am a bit obsessed with chalk paint right now.  it is awesome.  you can paint any surface and do not have to sand, prime or do any prep really, aside from cleaning whatever you are painting.  hello. thazz my style right there.  it is so easy to use.  it is a bit more expensive than other paint mediums, but i find it goes a long way and evens out, price wise, because you do not have to buy a primer.  also, you are spending less time, in general, on your project.  yes, your time, even craft time, is worth bucks ladies and gents!  there's my justification for the extra cash money you are shelling out. 

i went thrifting for a couple projects one day and found this big framed painting.  it reminded me of one my grandparents had on their wall above a similarly upholstered fuzzy couch they would force me to take naps on.  "i'm too big for naps grama!!", i would protest right before i would snooze my way through fuzzy couch surfing dreams.  i think i nabbed this baby for $15 dollars.  

took it home, gave it a good wipe down and went to town with my coveted chalk paint.  it was so fun painting over this landscape with white.  therapeutic even.  i had a whole plan going into it.  i was going to do this really cool colourful geometric painting on it.  however, once i was through and hung it on the wall, as is, i was completely in love with how it looked up there.  still looking for a big framed canvas to do that on, but this one will stay white.  

here's some photos i took of the process.  sorry about the quality, i was just snapping shots as i went along. happy painting!!!

okay, so i lied...i couldn't just shelf every little fun thing i did this month and save it for next year.  but, this one kinda doesn't count because you can make this anytime of  year and use it for so many things!  plus, it gets extra points because you can make it with almost anything you have lying around the house. 

what you'll need:

• some sort of twine, string, strip of fabric, or ribbon.
• some sort of paper. such as: paint swatches, book pages, your kids drawings, photos, phone books, chinese take out menus...you get my drift? i double dawg dare you to make one out of a menu all stained up by kung pow!!!
• paper punch....this is one thing you do kinda need. i am obsessed with them. good ol' martha stewart has an epic line of them...but there are sooo many to choose from at michaels and other craft stores. get some. you will use them for nine thousand projects.
• glue gun, glue stick or just about any glue you have. i've tried many. i like the glue gun cause it dries so fast. second runner up, a glue stick.

so, here's a picture tutorial...a lil snap shot DIY. but, basically, punch out stars (or what ever shape you have) and start gluing them to your ribbon (or twine or whatever fabulousness you have decided to go with).  make sure you put the shapes sandwiched together, whithe your twine in the middle, somewhat in line for a clean look.  you can make them as long as you'd like.  i used them on our xmas tree and also wound them up on cute cards and gave them as winter solstice presents to my ladies.  oh, they also look great wound around a beautifully wrapped gift as a super bonus.

do it up my homies! lemme know how it goes!

we live in a forest by the sea.  i'm so far way from where i grew up, in sunny southern california where the holidays are much, much different.  up here, you'd think that it was christmas all year round, because deer, holly and pines are everywhere.  but it isn't. i mean, duh, obvz....but wow. when winter comes and the days get short with starry skies hanging low....every time you walk outside it literally smells like christmas trees and cocoa.  it is magic.

i was so inspired, creatively, this season. i was crafting and cooking and shnuggling with my fam non stop. kept myself so busy that i hardly blogged anything i did. the shnugz were that good! 

so, i will save all of it to post and help inspire you next year but will leave you with this. this old board, paint chipped and cast off. the thing somehow made it into my living room and stayed there for about 2 months before i finally threw the thing outside. my man wasn't doing it. so i did. 

the next day, however, i had the idea to do this whole scene on the wall by our tree, "oh, what fun!".  so, i went and grabbed the old sad board and gave him a wash. if he had a tail, it'd be wagging. went at it with a thick tipped sharpie and viola! such an easy wall piece. 

happy holidays er'buddy and here's to loving you all right up in the new year!!

i am obsessed with these gift bags right now!  they are so fun to make and the possiblities are endless.  you know me, i am a sucker for upcyling, so taking books that we are done with and turning them into these treasure scores is making my toes curl. (yes, sometimes it's that easy.)

i recently hosted a gift wrapping workshop and have been diving deep into the world of unique and clever wrapping tech and tiny treasure embellishments.  in preparation for the class, i googled "how to fold a gift bag" and got a DIY blog in what seemed to be taiwanese.  my taiwanese is a bit rusty, but it didn't matter that i couldn't read it; the pics pointed me in the right direction.  i figured i'd invite you to the gift bag party.  these pics are much more enlightening and leave less to the imagination then the ones i found that that showed me how.  enjoy. post pics of the ones you make on Martha Starfish fb page! i would LOVE to see what you come up with!!

when you fold it like this, be sure to have one side be a bit longer to overlap the other, creating a lip to glue down.

it is a bit tricky to figure out the folds up the sides the first one you do...but you'll get it.  it's easy once you do.  i think you'll be obsessed with these babies too.  anything you put in there is going to be super amped in greatness.  guaranteed.  i mean, if you are hopping on the "gift card" boat...seriously...you need to put some friggin back into it and make a cute homemade bag to put it in.  spare a couple m&ms or homemade yums while you're at it.  they'll weigh it down.  happy holly daze my compadres!

now, fold over the top. fill with something wonderful (no pressure) and seal with washi tape, yarn, ribbon, a sticker....whatever.  if you wanna get trixy with it, use and exacto knife to cut 2 slits and then string a ribbon or twine through it and tie cute bits and bobs to it. boom. mega cuteness.

hey you!  hows it?  you knee deep in winter wonderlanding yet?  i am.  last week, meh, not so much. this week, game friggin on.   the countdown is on mang!  but for me, it's less about days till xmas and more about crafts, gift projects and fun festive things to do with friends and fam.  literally doing the heimlich on our calendar this month to get up and make me some more days already! seeming impossible to fit it all in.  but!!!! those halls......i'm deckin' them.  who's with me? (the crowd goes wild....no...jolly with carols and nog cheers!)

k, so, mason jar snow globes.  love them.  have wanted to make these forevz and i gotta say, the only thing holding me back was not having the perf little bits and bobs right in the moment of whimsy.  you know the moment i'm speaking of.  when you get inspired to make something in particular, your eyes get bigger, cuter, crazier as you rummage around looking for all those bits.  for me, it was not having the perfect little scene to put in the jars.  all the holiday stuff i'd find  wasn't the right size or was too cheesy.  defeated, my crafty halfie would go down and i'd just make something else.  

well, a couple thrifting expeditions this past year have been fruitful in the finding of the cutest vintage creatures for this project. i paid 25 cents for the little angel i've used here and for all three of the deer, 50 cents!!! 

tip: i used to always get annoyed seeing holiday items at thrift stores post xmas, but since i've been wanting to make these for so long,  i'd check out the sad abandoned ghosts of xmas' past.   once in a while i'd find a tiny treasure but realized that it was the winter theme that was what was inspiring me, not xmas, hence the deer in the snow.  so, get clever with what you put inside.  i have a few vintage ornaments that wont fit in any jars i have, so, in a vase, or on a cake stand they go.  get creative. "make a scene!"

don't buy snow!!! make it!!! make your own fake snow for holiday crafts and decor!!

taaaa...daaaaah!!!  aren't they cute?  i hope the pics tell you all you need to know.  if you want there to be water in them, like traditional snow globes, be sure to glue everything down, including the lids. they'll have to be sealed with water proof glue of some sort.  i, however, am cool to make these fresh each year in exchange for the storage space and use of the mason jars throughout the year.  save the snow.  This is such a cute craft to do with my lil man!  we are going to make more tonight.

i couldn't fit all three deer in the jar, so up on top he went.  i loooove him there!!! 

k....now go make you some snow globes! 

guess what i made this snow out of.....a white plastic bags.  yup.  kind of excited about it.  i can't stand plastic bags!!!  i feel so guilty when i stop by the store and do not have my cloth bags with me. i seriously have nine hundred and fifty three thousand cloth bags.  now...what to do with them... hmm... but first... here's a cute repurpose for all those scrunchy plastic bags that make they're way into your home and wish to become something in life...for those plastic bags sick of carrying around other peoples sh*t! ...for those plastic bags that just might want a festive holiday season too... okay..seriously...i could go on for days...

to make:

• take a 3-5 white plastic bags and cut off any coloured logos, you don't want yellow snow. ha. had to.
• roll them all together and cut in thin strips into a big  bowl and keep cutting it up with your scissors or put it through the food processor at that point.  vrooom.  voila!  snow. 
• fluff it up and store it wisely.  little ones, humans and animal friends, can obviously choke on such things.  so, please store in a responsible fashion. also, reuse every year.  please take care in disposing of plastic materials! our fishy friends down the waterways can choke on little bits, as well. 
• please never buy fake snow again silly goose!

good morning....

wanted to show you guys a lil prezie i just made for my friend Gabby. going to have tea with her in a minute and thought i'd bring her a lil something.  i did this with a tin can, washi tape, some soil, a baby from my spider plant and a hammer and a nail.

first off, i sort of have a love hate relationship with spider plants. they're kinda meh but produce these cute baby plants that literally fall off when they are ready to become grown ups and venture out alone into the world. so, i put them in a tiny vase (a mason jar) until they grow some roots and then pop them into tin cans i gussy up for thank you gifts and plant sales at my sons school. here's a photo DIY that is pretty self explanatory. enjoy....

right here, is a quick lil post about what you can do when you've got some old hardcover books, a young adventurous artist, and just about anything they can paint, draw, or colour with.  i got this box of books from the recycling depot for another project and brought one out because loji wanted to watercolour but i couldn't find our watercolour paper.  so...hmmm...book pages...obviously.  when i suggested he pick a page, he looked at me with these sneaky unbelieving eyes....like, "you're seriously gunna let me paint in this book?"  "go big buddy. make that book super awesome. it's better filled with your beautiful art that blended up to make more blank paper. "  to this he went to work. he had a lot of fun. 

when he was done painting, we would just leave the book open to dry.  he'd walk by it later and notice it was dry and flip to another page and begin a new masterpiece. i am excited to see the book get filled right up with colourful pages.  at with point, maybe before, i'll make a cool book cover for it.  perhaps give it to his daddy for father's day next year.  or just keep it for the archives. love this already.

these are so sweet and will be the perfect touch on easter/ostara morning.  i think i will leave little nests all over the yard and in the house tucked here and there and not say anything about them until everyone catches on.  love the eggs and bunnies and symbology of this fertile time of year.  love the hunt...the excitement and thrill of tiny treasures.  and as you also may know, i LOVE crafting out of recycled materials.  love this project.

(i recently fell in love with the artbarblog.com and that is where i got the idea.  she's got some cute ones.)

materials:

• chopped paper – construction paper, newspaper, catalogs, magazines
  

• paper cutter or scissors (or a shredder would be best!)
• elmer’s glue + thick paint brush
• one bowl of the size that you want your bird’s nest to be
• plastic wrap
  
  

how to:

first, cut our paper into strips about 1/4″ in thickness and vary the strips in length from 6″ to 12″. next, put plastic wrap on the inside of the bowl you want to shape the nests with.  mix glue with water (half and half), and brush it all on the inside of the bowl on top of the plastic wrap.  then take individual strips and arrange them criss-crossing around the bowl.  after a while, paint on more glue which helps keep the layers down.  add more paper strips, until about four layers are formed.  put some of the strips around, like a real nest and others just across so the pieces stick out. when your fingers got too sticky, wipe them on a wet towel.

let the bowls dry overnight. then….get someone to drumroll with their hands on the table…another with their feet on the floor.  lift the nests out of the bowl and peal off the plastic. voila!  the most beautiful and delicate nests!