I love a good Christmas wreath, and each year I try to craft a different one from the year before (with a tight budget in mind!). This year, I've been saving my wine corks to tackle this cork wreath from Good Housekeeping. Adorable, festive and textured, this would look lovely in a modern kitchen or outdoor space. Better yet? It's super easy to make!:

1. Take about 22 corks of the same size and 22 small (3/8 of an inch) red bells bought from a crafts store.
2. Drill a small hole (just big enough to fit your wire through) 1/4 of an inch from the top of each cork and another 1/4 of an inch from the bottom.
Note: It is very important to make sure all the drilled holes at the top line up with the holes at the bottom.
3. Using long, green floral wire, push the wire though all the bottom holes of the corks. Leave enough wire at both ends when finished for tying closed later.
4. Cut another long piece of floral wire to string the tops of the corks together, alternating with the bells.
5. Tie ends of wire at the top and bottom, twisting to close and make a wreath shape. Hang with length of ribbon.

Happy crafting!

I went to the store the other day and perused the selection of lamps. Talk about cheap crap, er, I mean expensive junk. I couldn't find a lamp under $20 that wasn't ugly or in need of some serious style. I came home totally bummed that I didn't find the perfect lamp.

Design*Sponge's Kate has made some really cool cork lamps. Her perfect lamps are made out of cork, Ikea cutlery caddies, and an Ikea plant pot. She got her lamp wiring kit at the hardware store and purchased her lampshade from Anthropologie.

Kate's instructions are precise and very easy to follow. She explains exactly how to put the lamps together, where to put the lamp wiring through the cork base, and finishes off with some awesome pictures of her completed cork lamps.

Cork is so versatile. You can tack some pictures on the cork, or decorate your new lamp however you wish. You can even paint the cork, if plain brown bores you. Either way, this is the perfect weekend project. I will definitely add this to my project list.

Sometimes finding the right flooring, not to mention which material will most suit your lifestyle, is very difficult -- especially these days, when there are hundreds of designs to choose from. Then there's the hassle of installing your new flooring: if you've never done it before, you may want to have an expert walk you through your first installation, to save yourself some hard feelings (and/or damaged tiles).

Laurie Crogan has designed floors for the rich, the famous, the poor, and just about anyone else who doesn't like "ordinary." Her beautiful artsy inlay floors are absolutely magnificent, jaw dropping to look at, and are well known around the world.

I am totally amazed by Laurie's work. I know there are a few (ok, more than a few) of you out there who are more than willing to create your own designs. Why settle for boring? If you aren't interested in installing your own cork, linoleum, or vinyl composition tile flooring, though, Laurie will do it for you. You will have a new floor that all your neighbors will be in awe of, and once again, you will be the talk of the town.

[via: Craft]

My husband has bins of random old computer parts, and I've begged him repeatedly to get rid of them. He has always said that you can never be sure when you might need one of those parts. I'm sure he's got useless stuff in there, though, like maybe a broken CD drive. Who needs that kind of junk? Well, apparently a broken CD drive isn't necessarily junk after all.

This instructables tutorial teaches us how to make a USB cooling fan for a notebook with a old CD drive. If you've got a bin like ours, you probably already have everything you need for this project.

Design*Sponge is usually a great source for eye candy and DIY inspiration. Recently, they've been adding a weekly DIY feature with tutorials and the like. This week, we got a twofer as they've posted a fabulous project submitted by one of their readers.

Inspired by a corkboard (scroll to the very bottom to see it) created by a featured designer on the blog, the reader created her own tutorial for a baroque-style corkboard. The tutorial provides both directions and a template for creating this on your own. All you need is cork and a cutting tool.

This is a clever alternative to typical rectangular corkboards and is a great way to add visual interest by using different silhouettes in your space.