Krys – Page 9 – Melodrama

DIY: Sugar String Easter Egg Baskets

Published on April 10, 2014November 29, 2025 by Krys15 Comments

So Easter is pretty cute, right? There’s adorable spring colors, cute little eggs to hunt for, and candy everywhere. My nana used to make these amazing sugared string Easter egg baskets for me every year. I was obsessed with them and thought she was a magician or something because they were always perfect and sparkly and made with SUGAR. As I got older, she stopped making them, but there is not a year that goes by where I don’t talk about about her awesome Easter creations.

This year I decided I would make them and show you guys how it’s done. I texted her to make sure I remembered the steps correctly and she texted back with blurry pictures from the pages of her decades-old crafting notes. They read:

SUGAR EGGS

3 cups sugar
1 cup water
Approx. 9 drops of food color for pastel sugar (optional)
3-9 inch balloon
1 spool crochet thread (350 yards)
Lace or ribbon
Acrylic Spray (optional)

“Blow up balloon to approximately 1 foot in length and tie. While holding balloon close to your body, wrap thread firmly, vertically, horizontally, and criss-crossing until you have used the whole spool. Just leave the end of the string tucked or loose, the sugar coating will keep it in place.”

“Mix sugar and hot water. Pour large spoonfuls of the mixture on to the balloon letting mixture run down sides. Mixture is thick and won’t run too fast. Periodically and toward the end, use your hands to spread the mixture over the egg so all the thread gets moistened.”

“Place balloon on the empty cardboard-like spool to dry. Place a plate under the spool to catch drippings.”

“Let dry for about 24 hours. When bottom is still a little soft, pop the balloon with a needle or pin, and sit on counter, the bottom will flatten out. With a pen, mark an opening about 5″ wide and 7″ long. With sharp scissors, carefully cut opening.”

“Spray inside and out with two light coats of clear acrylic spray (to preserve). Decorate with ribbons, bows, flowers, etc. Two rows of lace looks best to cover raw edges of opening.”

That’s it! The sugar mixture dries to becomes a hard, sparkly, crystalized shell.

Decorate your little bunny houses how ever you’d like. I used pastel colored crochet thread and white sugar. I like the look of the raw edge so I kept mine simple and decorated with colorful Easter grass, flowers, a bow, and of course a chocolate bunny and candy inside.

Click here to learn how to make these Sugar String Nests, too.

Day Tripping: A Visit to Shields Date Garden in Indio, CA

Published on March 24, 2014April 25, 2025 by Krys3 Comments

In my world weekends are reserved for day trips and adventures. We wake up, grab coffee, pick a place to go, and road trip it there. California is perfect for day trippers and weekenders. We have mountains, desert, beaches, and big cities to visit, all within driving distance. One of my favorite things to do is stop at kitschy, classic American roadside attractions. One of my other favorite things to do is buy local food from the cities we visit. We got in the car and drove out to Indio, a desert city about 23 miles east of Palm Springs, and home of the date.

Even though I’d driven past this place tons of times, I’d never been in. Shields Date Gardens is the place to be! You’ll know you’ve arrived by the amazing knight in shining armor sign that stands virtually the same as it did in the 50s.

When you first walk in you’ll see ALL OF THE DATES. Boxes and boxes of dates. Date candy, date shakes, medjool dates, blonde dates, brunette dates, date mix, date sugar….I’m starting to sound like Bubba from Forrest Gump BUT IT’S TRUE.

Grab a date shake and head in to the theater to watch “The Romance and Sex Life of a Date”, an interesting 15 minute lecture about the cultivation of a date. It features vintage slides, footage, and a soundtrack recorded by Mr. Shields himself.

After that you can tour the gardens by walking along the guided path. It’s beautiful and there are lovely flowers and fruit trees along the way. It’s really Jesus-y, which was unexpected, as the entire path walks you through the life of Jesus. But it’s a great walk that everyone can enjoy with nice views and you get a close glimpse of where the delicious dates come from.

On your way out you can hit the cafe or hit up the gift shop. I took home a 5lb box of fancy medjool dates. Look how excited I am.

I can’t let all of these dates go to waste so this week I’ll be posting my favorite date recipes.

Stay tuned.

DIY: IKEA VITTSJÖ Table Turned Chic Cocktail Ottoman

Published on March 17, 2014April 25, 2025 by Krys103 Comments

I have this problem where I envision something that I want and either it doesn’t exist or the closest thing I can find costs, like, a million dollars and still isn’t exactly what I had my heart set on. I have another little problem where I see something generic in a store and immediately start planning how I could change it to fit my personal style and make it, well, less generic. This happens way more often than you’d think. I’m all “Blahblahblah we can paint it and then cut this off and then maybe screw these together…” My husband stares at me for awhile before voicing his concerns, which I usually just brush off, and reply with a casual “It’ll be fiiiiine.”

And that’s what happened this time. I wanted a cocktail ottoman to use as a table and footrest, in some great color, probably tufted, with a little gold to tie in with the rest of the room. Couldn’t find it. When I saw the surprisingly sturdy VITTSÖ nesting tables at IKEA I instantly knew how I was going to make it happen. I would just need to upholster…and paint…and drill a little. NO BIGGIE. No, seriously, it’s a lot easier than it sounds.

vittsjo-nesting-tables-set-of-__0135349_PE292040_S4 — I’m saving the smaller one for later.

Finding the perfect fabric was actually the most annoying part. I went to 4 different fabric stores before I found the perfect green velvet at Deco Home for $80/yard. Totally worth it. It’s durable and lovely and perfect for a project like this. Exactly what I wanted.

ANYWAY, I’ll get down to it.

I put together the frame of the table and sprayed the entire thing with metallic gold spray paint. You can use whichever gold you like.

I sprayed all the hardware and those little glass cushion sticker things gold, too.

I picked up one yard of 2″ thick foam from the craft store and cut it to the size of the table. Using a sharp knife or blade makes it super simple. Just run the blade through a couple of times. You should maybe put cardboard or something down so you don’t slice up your floor.

The larger table in VITTSJÖ nesting tables set has a glass shelf on the top and a wood (MDF) shelf on the bottom, but since this is a hack, I switched them. Why? Because I needed to use the MDF for upholstering and tufting purposes. The glass shelf would be for holding books and cute decorative items while keeping a clean, floaty look.

After that I did some really annoying measuring and marked where I wanted my buttons to go. Ugh. Math is hard.

Then I used the multi-purpose drill bit on my Dremel to make the holes where I’d be pulling my tufting cord through.

I covered the foam and board in batting and my velvet. I pulled the fabric tight enough to round out all of the edges. The corners were tricky because of the metal nub where the top connects to the rest of the table. I just sliced the corner piece of fabric, pulled the fabric back around the piece of leg, and then stabled it securely into place. When I connected the pieces back together I just tucked any raw edges that were showing.

At this point you can leave it how it is or you can get fancy with tufting. I did a shallow tuft since this will be used as a table sometimes and I don’t want my serving trays to lay all wonky and wobbly on top. I also don’t want to be digging crumbs out of deep tufting craters after every shindig.

Tufting supplies will include polyester cord, a large upholstery needle, and some button covers
in the size of your choice.

These regular button covers are fine but if you’re using a thick fabric you might need to put in a little extra effort.

Instead of securing the fabric with the back of the button like you normally would, you might need to sew the fabric closed on the back using a heavy duty thread. I use “outdoor coat” thread. It works perfectly.

Thread a large upholstery needle with the polyester cord.

Find your holes on the bottom side of the board and push your needle through as straight as possible. Pull one end of the cord through to the top.

Use the needle to go through the back of the button and pull the end of the cord through.

Then put the needle back through the hole to bring the cord end back through to the bottom side.

Pull the cord tight and secure with staples. Stapling in multiple directions makes sure it doesn’t slip over time.

See? Shallow tufting.

Now it’s the best ottoman ever.

Home Decor: New and Improved Dining Banquette Ikea Hack

Published on August 1, 2013April 25, 2025 by Krys8 Comments

You guys, I have slacked on updates for you. I am the worst. Remember that banquette I made awhile back (last year)? Remember how I wanted a different fabric and planned on changing it? Yeah I changed it…like…forever ago. The new canvas goes so much better with my original vision inspired by my favorite cafés in Paris and my own personal style. I’m hoping to score some new furniture and accessories for the new look too.

TADA!

I got this fabric at Ikea for $8/yard. It was fantastic to work with and is exactly what I originally intended for this piece.

Head over to the original tutorial for instructions on how I hacked this Ikea Expedit bookcase.

DIY: Banquette Seat EXPEDIT/KALLAX IKEA Hack

Published on October 10, 2012April 25, 2025 by Krys266 Comments

And the dining room saga continues…

Because we have a small awkward space, I thought it would be a good idea to use a banquette style seat to complete our dining set. I’m that person who always requests a booth at restaurants, so I was set on it. We shopped around for one but none were right for us. The size, color, style, and price were always off. I started thinking about how I could pull off a DIY version. I thought about using kitchen cabinets or building a frame like the kind I’ve seen in custom kitchens, but Jvee said NO. We don’t have the tools or the space to pull that off. During a trip to IKEA, I noticed one of the EXPEDIT shelving units was turned on its side (I’d seen it used before as window and bench seating) and seemed durable enough to sit on. It measured at the right size! And it had cubbies! We bought it. [Note: The EXPEDIT has since been replaced with the KALLAX.]

I immediately thought of how I was going make the back for it. I wanted it to be comfortable to lean against and high enough to make a statement. A few years ago we made a DIY headboard for my cousin’s room using plywood, foam, and fabric. That’s how I was going to do it. So simple!

I started with a 4’x6′ piece of plywood. I padded it with 1″ thick foam and covered it with batting. My indoor/outdoor canvas fabric measured 55in wide, which would have been fine if I wanted to run the pattern horizontally. Since I wanted to run the pattern vertically, I needed to cut 2 pieces of fabric to 4 1/2 feet long and sew them together at the selvages, being sure to match up the pattern. I made sure the seam ran down the center of the board.

I started by placing a staple in the middle of each end of the plywood, pulling the fabric taut, and then working my way around with staples to secure it. You can use flushmount brackets to secure the piece to the wall if you want. We felt the EXPEDIT was heavy enough to hold the backboard up, so we decided to forget that step. If you have kids or want the peace of mind, by all means mount it to the wall.

Now it needed a comfy seat! My first plan was to sew an entire seat cover for the foam, but I decided against it. Mostly out of laziness. I considered upholstering the top (side) of the unit like you would a chair, but ultimately I didn’t like the idea of messing it up with staples. That’s when I stumbled across similar types of projects on Pinterest that used a piece of MDF board. Genius! I didn’t screw the MDF into the EXPEDIT because, again, I wanted to preserve the bookcase. But, if you have kids I recommend securing it. I also decided against legs so it’s sturdier by being directly on the floor. We don’t use this piece every single day, but we’ve had game nights and dinner parties and it has successfully held 3 full sized adults with an estimated combined weight of at LEAST 400lbs, several times. Obviously the risk is all yours.

I had the piece of MDF cut to the right measurements at Home Depot and covered it with 2 inch thick pieces of foam and covered it with batting. The 2 inch foam added to the height of the EXPEDIT brings the seat height up to 19 inches, which happens to be the exact height of our dining chairs.

Then upholstered like you would a chair seat. Upholstering pieces like this is super easy. It’s like wrapping a present but with fabric and staples inside of paper and tape. It’s really that simple. Promise!

I added the pillows that I made with the left over fabric pieces for extra lumbar comfort. Look how perfect the cubbies are for storage boxes! [Edit: The fabric has since been changed to the striped black and white fabric I’d been looking for.]

Ahhh yes, restaurant style banquette seating. Yay!

Edit:

I wasn’t planning on sticking with that fabric and I’ve since changed it. I found the perfect black and white striped fabric that I’d had in mind, at IKEA, for $8/yard. Find the updated look that was inspired by my favorite cafes in Paris, below:

See! It’s totally versatile and easy to change when you get the whim.

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