DIY rope bracelets

All of the rope bracelets pictured here from Miansai and Roarke (and appearing in the latest issue of Elle) will run you $55 to $100 a piece.

You can so totally do these.

The one above is a square knot. Get a tutorial from Elizabeth Abernathy. (She was way in front of this trend.)

The next two are braids. I know you've got this covered already.

If you like, though, you can get a similar look by handweaving strips of jersey (you can cut up a t-shirt) with a tutorial by Vanessa Christenson.

And for this last one, don't even go out and buy the latches. You can get them off thrift store purses.

Which one would you make? Have you seen some you like even better?

Still inspired

One of the fun things about tidying up is finding old magazines in your stash, opening the pages and discovering that your taste has not changed a bit in six years.

This is the East Hampton's home of Donna Karan, designed by Bonetti Kozerski, who also did a bunch of the furniture.

Karan's "spa house" was featured in the February 2005 issue of (the now defunct) House & Garden.

I would still take this place in a hot sauna second.

Lest you think it's not possible to duplicate such a look in your own spa-home-to-be, note the white back cushions paired with the black and white striped seat cushions in the next photo.

I apologize in advance for showing you yet another photo of my sofa, but check out the striped seat with the white cushions.

OK, that was a stretch.

Not so much of a stretch is the artwork in the dining room, featured only in House & Garden (I could not find an image online.) It's by Karan's late husband Stephan Weiss.

It looked so familiar because I had knocked it off years ago.

A mini version is part of my permanent floor gallery.

This home also explains my six-year yearning for some tree stumps for DIY side tables.

I'm going upstate in two weeks. They have trees up there.

Vera Bradley giveaway

Time for a little reader appreciation. I'm giving away a Vera Bradley wallet clutch in nice autumn shades. To enter, just be a follower and leave a comment below. Your chances are very good.

If you are Irish, give yourself a second entry.

If you are Irish AND have a whimsical blog about home design and Welsh cakes, by all means enter again.

If you are having a challenging day in any way (regardless of nationality), enter again.

You know you've lost your mind when

Your spouse is working late and instead of reading enlightening material or learning to play the violin, you try out various potential throw pillow arrangements over and over and over . . .

. . . and over and over . . .

. . . and over and over . . .

Please tell me I'm not the only one.

How to wear a pleated skirt

The last time I wore pleats, they only came in plaid and were paired with knee socks and deck shoes.

Now I have no less than four pleated skirts, a big adjustment for an over 40 pencil skirt girl.

After a considerable amount of trial marked heavily by error, this seems to be the way to go - at the knee, shirt tucked, skinny belt/waist of some sort and a sharp eye for subway vents with big gusts of air.

For the more daring/young/skinny, there is the longer pleated skirt (but still moderated with the tucked top and skinny belt.)

The long bulky top over long pleated skirt can be pulled off by only one woman in the world, and she's in this picture. So don't bother trying it.

Are you wearing pleats? What's working for you?

Images: Via Love Maegan; Elle via Say Yes to Hoboken; Lookbook.nu; We Heart It; What I Wore; Asos; Style It Lovely; Like Whatever Online; They All Hate Us.

DIY mat, pillow and roller shade

Get inspired by these beautiful reclaimed marine rope mats by Serpent Sea (It's like Orly Genger for your feet). And make your own with this tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Design your own geometric pillows with masking tape and screen printing paints at Tatertots and Jello.

Add ribbon trim to roman shades - without sewing - at What the Vita.

Screen print or ribbon glue your own Jonathan Adler Positano pillow. No tutorial for that. Just an idea.

Be strange, rearrange

My quick lamp purchase decision making is now followed by extended lamp ambivalence, related to location and style.

There are an amazing number of ways to set up one small room. Unhappy with my floor lamps, I moved them across the room and installed two diminutive table lamps on either side of the sofa as a test.

I'm liking the table lamp option, even though my test lamps and tables are too wimpy for the job.

Fortunately, the world of tall economical table lamps is a large one. Below are two from Walmart in the under $50 range.

The other side of the room looks like this and casts a warm bright glow.

I'm still toying with swapping out the benign nickel-base-with-white-shade combo for IKEA's hot new Januari brass floor lamp base, which is only $20 and which seems to only be available in Paramus, New Jersey.

My friend Summer used to say "brass is not class" but times have changed.

And I'm still considering the brass base/black shade combo.

None of this really fits my current style (minimalist global beach).

Have you tried brass?

And help me to explain to Mr. Bromeliad why four lamps is not an excessive number for a living room.