DIY Hanging Photo Display using Square prints from Sticky9 & a GIVEAWAY!!!

Welcome to the next instalment in my #DIYDaysInKorea series. These posts are about making beautiful things for your home, whether that home is in South Korea, South Africa, or any where else in the world. This post follows on from the Gold Animal Fridge Magnets and these jars are what I used to store the Fig jam I blogged about last year.

If you are based here in Korea and would like to join one of my DIY days (click here to see what went on at the previous get togethers we've had) you can pop on over to the Facebook group for more information.  It's a wonderful place to meet new friends and spend an afternoon.

I hope you enjoy this series and that you leave feeling inspired.

x

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DIY Hanging Photo Display Using Square Prints from Sticky9

I recently ordered a pack of square prints from Stick9 made up from my Instagram photographs (Stick9 offers a whole bunch of products that are made up from your Instagram photographs...if you use my code FRIEND2JNT you'll get 15% off your first order!) and had been brainstorming uses for them for weeks. When the world map we had stuck up above our TV fell down one day, I decided that their square prints would fill the space perfectly. 

Farmboy and I live in South Korea in an apartment rented out to us by the Education Office, so we are unable to go about knocking new holes or nails into the walls. I made use of the existing nails (hence the very non-conforming shape that ensued this DIY) when I strung up my photographs.

This DIY is super easy, quick and completely customizeable! You can hang your photographs in any shape or form you wish! The options are endless and only limited by the number of nails you have available!

You Will Need

• plain wooden pegs (I bought these at my local CNA stationery store here in Korea for W500 for a pack of 5)
• newspaper/kitchen towel
• gold spray paint (I bought this at my local DC mart, you can also find spray paint at Daiso but their colour options are limited)
• string/wool (I had planned to use wool, but soon realised it wouldn't show up very well against my white wall)

Step 1

Order your Sticky9 prints by clicking here. Free delivery worldwide! My prints arrived in South Korea about 10 days after I placed my order.

Step 2

Cover your workspace with kitchen towel or newspaper to protect your floor. You can see clearly that I missed this step in my last DIY by the evidence in the below photograph...oops!

Step 3

Fold over the paper towel before you place your pegs to allow for even coating. Spray your wooden pegs with the gold spray paint, ensuring you keep an even distance with your spray paint to make sure the paint dries evenly. 

Step 4

Get hanging! There really is no exact science behind this, and as you can see, it doesn't really matter if you ignore all the rules of shapes and symmetry and go wild. 

Step 5

Snap a pic of your hanging photo's & and share them with me on the CityGirlSearching Facebook page so I can see them!

And now for the fun part! I have teamed up with Sticky9 and have 2 sets of square prints to giveaway to two lucky winners! All you have to do to enter follow the steps in the widget below.

The two winners will be chosen on Friday 27th November and will be notified via my Facebook page (click here).

Good Luck!

CityGirlSearching & Sticky9 Giveaway!

#DIYDaysInKorea {third meet-up}

Last weekend I organised the third #DIYDaysInKorea get together for crafty ladies here in South Korea. 

It was such a nice opportunity to spend time together, without spending a whole lot of money but while still having fun.  There was good food, homemade Gluwein, laughs and a whole lot of DIYing (not too much from my end, I like to think my DIY part comes in taking the photographs!).

We even have a Pinterest board for us to share ideas and inspire one another, we're cool like that. If you're here in Korea and you'd like to join in the next time we get together (sometime in February next year) join our Facebook group (click here), we'd love to have you!

DIY Painted Vase and How to Arrange your own Flowers #DIYDaysInKorea

Welcome to the next instalment in my #DIYDaysInKorea series. These #DIYDaysInKorea posts are about making beautiful things for your home (whether that home is in South Korea or South Africa, or any where else in the world).

If you are based here in Korea and would like to join one of my DIY days (we had our first official meet up a few weeks ago and it was such fun...click here to see what went on) you can pop on over to the Facebook group for more information. 

I hope you enjoy this series and that you leave feeling inspired.

x

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DIY Painted Vase & Flower Arrangement

Myself and my very talented friend Storm, who moonlights as a stylist & florist, had some time on our hands and found this pretty cheap glass vase at our local Daiso here in Korea. Storm straight away had an idea to repurpose it with a lick of paint, and off we went on a scavenger hunt for flowers around our neighbourhood. 

Today Storm is going to show you how to arrange your own flowers in such a way that they look beautiful, artsy and, expensive.

What You Need

glass vase or something you can turn into a vase such as a glass, bowl etc (does not need to be expensive or fancy) 

spray paint

flowers, bought or foraged from the garden or sidewalk

Directions

Easy peasy lay some newspaper down and spray the outside of the vase (I would omit spraying the inside as it was in fact unnecessary) wait to dry and get creative. 

Place sticky tape in a grid formation to help give the flowers shape and volume. It also gives the foliage more structure and keeps the flowers in place. 

Get creative with your flowers and make an arrangement from the heart. You can't go wrong with flowers, start with your foliage (the green leaves and other bits of non blooming elements) then your focal flowers (the big ones) at the base and go from there.

And there you have it, your own beautiful floral creation, without the price tag of a fancy florist.

If you create your own arrangement, please tag me in your photograph (twitter: @roxyhutton Instagram: @roxyhutton Facebook @CityGirlSearching) I'd love to see what you create.

Happy DIYing and flower arranging!

Photography Styling Challenge {Living Room}

This months theme for Redesigned by M's Photography Styling Challenge is 'Living Room'. In this challenge the photographs cannot be edited, and only a maximum of five images may be posted. This is always difficult for me as I tend to take so many photographs and I always struggle to choose JUST five. Each one appeals to me in a different way. But, in essence this is exactly the point of the challenge...to better yourself as a photographer and stylist. 

My first submission was for Morning {click here} followed by Bedroom {click here}, Order {click here}, Patterns {click here}, Fashion {click here} and Light {click here}. Each theme or concept is open to interpretation by the photographer, and it has been really interesting seeing how each of us have handled the themes in our different ways. 

As with all the challenges so far, I had high hopes of being able to style my living room in an interesting and unique way, but we are in the middle of moving apartments (and apartments here in Korea are very different from Western ones) the living room becomes the TV room, the kitchen, the dining room, study, craft room and at times, the bedroom. It was really hard to think of a way to style it in a way that aligns with my photography style.

So instead of putting too much pressure on myself, I am using photographs from a styled shoot I did a few weeks ago. My friend and I did a flower crown photo shoot with our beautiful Korean friend {click here to see the photographs} and these photographs are from the actual making of the flower crown which took place in my living room. I will be doing a full DIY post showing you how to make a flower crown, but here are a few highlights from the shoot. 

The photographs came out a little darker than I had anticipated (and this challenge is all about not editing!) but I quite like the effect they have paired with the rich colours of the flowers and the floor.

I used the following settings on my NIkon d300s & 35mm 1.8 lens:

-ISO 320

-Aperture of 1.8

-Shutter-speed 1/60

-I had my white balance on indoor

I deliberately didn't want to use a flash, but looking back now, if I had a diffuser a flash would have really helped me as it was a cloudy & cold day and there was very little natural light coming in through the windows. But I am happy with how they came out. As always I would love to know your thoughts, please leave me a comment below, I promise to respond! 

Enjoy

x

Make sure to pop on over to the other participants and see how they interpreted this theme:

Redesigned By M, At The Corner Of Happy And Harried, My Food Tapestry, Inge Kathleen Photography, The Delicious World Of Chefette Spicy, A Tree Grows in the Bayou, I Live Under A Rock, Hooked On Homes, Samta Photography, Miss Wang Photography, SimplyVegetarian 777

And a warm welcome  to our newest participant: Coconut Craze

Easy DIY Christmas Tree

With just over a week to go till Christmas, you might still be in search of the perfect tree. Or perhaps, like us, you live in South Korea with little to no room, in which case this DIY in perfect for you. It's quick and easy, uses only a few items and will add a little more festive cheer to your home.

Super essential is a handsome man to do your measuring when you get distracted by needing to document the whole process to blog about later...

Happy Friday & Happy Thanksgiving!

Farmboy and I aren't American, and as such we don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day. But, we know it's a very special day for America, and it's always a good thing to give thanks for what you have and to be thankful of just how much you do have in life.

So, here is a little list of what I'm thankful for. I'd love to know what you are thankful for today, pop me a comment below <3

And I also had to share these beautiful photographs of a Thanksgiving table, found via The Glitter Guide.

I'm thankful for the following big (and small) things:

*our feather duvet for the very cold nights we have been having lately

*my hot water body (aka my hubby, Farmboy)

*that we are able to keep warm while the temperatures plummet, and many people around the world, especially at home in South Africa, barely have a pile of sticks to make a fire with during the winter times

*for each and every comment here on my blog

*for my family, ALL of them, from my step parents and step sisters, to my baby brother (who actually isn't a baby at all!) and to having all 8 sets of grandparents alive and well

*my sweet students who surprise with me little handwritten notes and chocolates when I least expect

*Whatsapp and Skype (and Facebook!) for being able to keep in touch with family and friends while we are here in Kimchi land

*for our jobs here in Korea. It's far to easy to get used to the stability, comfort and the disposable income that comes from ESL teaching in Korea. I am so grateful to have a job like this right now, when so many of our friends are back home in South Africa are either hating their jobs, or desperately trying to find one

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

x

DIY Christmas Advent Calendars

Today my lovely friend and fellow blogger Caitlyn (who is also a qualified Life Coach here in Korea, in case your looking for someone to help you find some direction in your life CLICK HERE!) organized a wonderful morning of Christmas DIYing. It just so happened to be four of us South African ladies who were able to make it, and over some delicious milk tart, we cut and stuck, and giggled and laughed the hours away.

It was a wonderful way to start sharing the Christmas spirit. We each brought enough little prezzies to fill 24 bags, and after we had decorated and filled each bag, we chose one bag for each day leading up to Christmas, knowing that some of the bags would contain surprises from each of us. 

Such a fun morning.

This was such an easy DIY, and there are still 6 days left till December for you to get your advent calendars ready...click here for some more inspiration.

Thank you for organizing everything Kit! It was a wonderful morning.

x

DIY Advent Calendars {Christmas Inspiration}

Christmas is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate the end of another year and the lead up to Christmas than with a home made Advent Calendar. Christmas isn't as big here in South Korea as it is back home in South Africa, we even work right up until Christmas eve and only have Christmas day off. So, to get into the spirit, my lovely friend and fellow South African blogger Caitlyn has organized a ladies craft morning next weekend where we are all going to me making advent calendars for each other. I am very much looking forward to it, and of course I am armed with gorgeous pieces of stationery (and washi tape...don't forget about the washi tape!). 

Here are a few ideas for you, so that you too can get crafty. Don't forget to enter my Stationery Giveaway {CLICK HERE} where you can win your own pretty package of special stationery all the way from here in Korea!

{A Bubbly Life}

{A Merry Mishap}

{A few Things from My Life}

{Stylizio}

{AntiLight Craft}

This week marks the start of our {Creative Business} series! Today Caitlyn is sharing 'What's the most important question to ask yourself before starting your own business?' on Caitlyn de Beer Life Coaching. Make sure to pop on over there today.

You can connect with Caitlyn on Twitter @caitlyndebeer and onFacebook.

{DIY} Washi Tape your computer cord

I'm feeling rather inspired with my latest washi tape collection, and after reading this lovely post by Design Love Fest I thought I'd try something similar with the power supply part of my computer cable. 

View fullsize

The white parts of the MAC cables look really spiffy, but being white in colour they aren't very practical. The washi tape should keep the power house clean now.

It was really easy, and took literally 3 minutes to do. Let me know if you try something similar, or better yet, upload a picture to the blog Facebook page  to share with all my readers. 

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

x