One day, I decided to teach myself a little bit of embroidery. I found this skirt in the clearance section for $13 at Target. I liked the color, but it was a little plain:
Then, I visited a few online embroidery websites, and taught myself three basic stitches: the lazy daisy, the running stitch, and the french knot. What I ended up with, was this...
Not bad for the price, plus the $1 in embroidery floss and two or so hours I spent in front of the TV keeping my hands busy, eh?
But I had a more complicated project that I just finished recently: refurbishing vintage suitcases I found at the thrift store to function as portfolio cases for all my album and product samples. I wish I had taken a "before" shot, but if you can just use your imagination and picture these suitcases as a dark grey-blue with a plastic interior, I think you'll agree they're much improved:
I chose the paint color and fabric based on my photography website design so that I could be fully integrated in my presentation of materials. Suitcases: $5. Paint, primer, & brushes: $13. Fabric & glue: $30. Total spent: $48.
The best part is that I got this idea off of Etsy after being frustrated with looking at traditional portfolio cases. Someone was selling a refurbished suitcase for $75. "That looks great!" I thought, and showed it to a few friends, who said, "I bet you could do that yourself." Now I have two portfolio cases for less than that, although it did take me quite a bit of time and planning.
And lastly, a photo of delicious coffee cake I made recently. Yum.
