How-To: Repurpose New Year's Eve Decorations

Hello! Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday full of food, family, and resolutions just waiting to be broken! Just kidding. I have complete faith in you all. One of my resolutions this year is to read more books and watch less TV. So guess what I did last night? I read a book while watching a movie! Baby steps, right? (I started "Hotel Rwanda" but then I was like WAIT WHAT AM I DOING so before I lost all hope in humanity I switched to the "First Wive's Club" and paged through "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" by Maria Semple. Blissful ignorance prevails!! How great is this scene from the movie, though? It had me dancing around my apartment and wishing I was a middle aged divorcée.)

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I wanted to revisit New Year's Eve because that is one of my highest rated holidays. Why? GOLD. Gold everywhere. And sequins. Gold sequins are practically the uniform of New Year's Eve and people will give you the stink eye if you choose not to participate. Therefore my roommate and I decided to throw a party. However, throwing a New Year's Eve party is tricky. There's a lot of pressure for NYE. Everyone has this vision of being at the perfect party in the perfect party dress and receiving the perfect midnight kiss. So everyone kind of waits around for an invitation to said party, but no one is throwing one because they assume everyone else already has plans. So until one brave friend steps up to the plate and bites the bullet (thanks Julia!) there aren't many house parties on NYE (but if you're looking for club parties, New York City is a goldmine).

In light of that, we decided to do the logical thing and host a New Year's Eve Eve party on the 30th. And it was a hit! It was titled "Penultimate: A Beer In Review". We ran out of food and alcohol so that's a sure sign it was well attended, right? Either that or we are terrible party planners. My sister Selina was visiting from Singapore so she, Ariella and I made the trip over to Party City and stared in awe at the millions of options for decorations. Literally some of the most inane things can be sold if you slap "Happy New Years!" on it. We decided to stick with a more modest selection of gold tinsel and gold solo cups  (see below) which should replace the red ones at all college parties in my humble opinion.

After a wonderful night with close friends and even closer strangers, we awoke to an apartment that looked like King Midas had projectile vomited on. (For clarification, that is not a negative description). But, alas, one cannot live in such a state. So what were we to do? Throw out all the gold decorations? What a waste! I decided to find a way to recycle them. My bedroom door was in need of a little sprucing up, so I took the gold tinsel and did a little Sweet Nothing number to it. See below for my DIY on re-loving your New Year's decorations. 

How To: Glitter Cards

I've had quite a few birthdays and house warming parties to attend recently (I'm so popular) and my go-to has been doing a little watercolor and ink illustration of the receiver (everyone loves a portrait of themselves). But if you want something a little more simple but with some sparkle factor, here's a great way to pull together a card when you remember last minute or just don't want to spend $10 on stationary.

How To: Glitter Antlers

The perks (and downfalls) of living in Williamsburg: I am two blocks away from Saturdays' Smorgasburg  and Sunday's Brooklyn Flea. This means ramen burgers (yes, that's a thing) at my fingertips, and overpriced mason jars that I never knew I needed but, in fact, were the only things missing from my life. 

While I had been exemplifying excellent self-restraint last Sunday, I happened upon a collection of antlers that made me weak in the knees. Now, everything looks good with gold glitter on it. But dead animal body parts? Those take the cake. 

So I purchased my friend, here, for $20 (read: almost a month's worth of Green Peace "donations"). The older man who collected these pieces kindly informed me that the antlers' name was Buck. I said thank you and slowly backed away. What does that even mean?? Are these the remains of a childhood pet deer whose time had come? Or did he shoot the wild animal and then name it? The jury is still out. And will probably never come back.

Seeing as some of the few belongings I brought with me when I first came to NYC included two industrial-sized jars of gold glitter, I had plenty to experiment with. I'm also at a point in my life where, if glitter gets all over every surface in my room (and it will), I embrace it. That's an important part of DIY-ing, by the way: having a good space to DIY in. It was a delightful Sunday evening in my own special DIY space; candles were lit, Sam Cooke was on the turntable, and Buck was in my arms. 

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This is a pretty complicated one, so please read the instructions carefully.

(P.S. How much more legit do DIY photos look when you Google "hipster fonts" and write things on them?? Score!)