STYLE: Minna Parikka Shoes

Minna Parikka loves bunnies. Or at least that's the impression I get, based on many of her shoe designs. Recently, I came across this photo on instagram and got so excited that I would've spit out my drink, had I been drinking one:

Um, what? Mint green heels with bunny ears and a poofy cotton tail?! Yes, this pleases me in all facets. I did some investigating (okay, I read the poster's caption) and found the designer's website where I saw that there is a veritable treasure trove of rabbit-inspired goodies in her collection, from the more cartoonish to the somewhat subtle, perhaps for the more subdued bunny shoe lover. Then I realized this was not the first time I'd seen her shoes, and had even featured them here before!

Some are very literal - did you see the curled ears above? - while others feature just a fluffy cotton tail on the toe, or the winky use of the finger peace sign (aka BUNNY EARS). Cheeky, Minna, very cheeky. Here are some of my favorites:

Sources: 1   /   2   /   3

 4   /   5

 6   /   7   /   8

9   /   10

Would you ever wear bunny shoes? What animal would you like to see in shoe form? Don't you kind of feel like you could sneak bunny ears, like #4 or #5, into an office ensemble if you tried?

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DIY: Paper Bunting Banner

I'll leave you with the mystery of what my banner said...an ode to shag carpets or Sharknado, perhaps?

Sometimes you just have to celebrate! What better way to do so than with your very own DIY bunting banner? JK, I can think of, like, eight better ways to celebrate just off the top of my head. I won't bore you with that stream-of-consciousness list, but I will say that one of them involves petting a rabbit while eating a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone that magically never melts. Anyway, bunting banners are pretty cool, too. I made this one for a Lumberjack-themed wedding shower (a Lumberjack & Jill), so it's red and black in honor of plaid flannel shirts. You can pick whatever stuff you like instead, but here's how to get down to business:

WHAT YOU NEED

Thick paper or cardstock (I used scrapbook paper)

Printed letters

Scissors

Glue Stick

Ruler

Pencil

Hole Punch

String to hang the banner

Cutting Mat (optional)

X-acto Knife (optional)

HOW TO DO IT

First things first - you need those perfect little bunting triangles. I wanted to get as many as I could on each sheet of paper (I'll pretend this is for eco-friendly reasons, but mostly it's because I'm paying by the sheet). To do so, I drew the triangles in the below pattern, which allows for maximum space usage, as well as minimum cutting, for those of us that are both too lazy to cut straight lines and too cheap to shell out an additional 25 cents per sheet. It's a special club - welcome aboard!

My triangles are about 6" across the base edge and the paper is a 12" square.

You probably thought I was just lazy before, trying to minimize my triangle edge cutting, but really I just knew the kind of tedious slicing and dicing that was on the horizon - the letter cutting! I had almost 30 letters and symbols to cut out, so I chose a simple font to keep the work to a minimum.

Find the size and font you like, type your words into a word processing document and print.

SOME TIPS:

* I used a 250 point font

* To get white letters, set the font to white with a thin black outline - only the outline will print

* Choose a simple bold font with mostly straight edges

* Please, For the Love of Ray J, don't use a serif font unless you have 6 hours to kill and happen to be interested in developing carpal tunnel syndrome

* Some good basic choices are Arial Black and Impact. As much as it pains me to say, this is not the time to show off your font fetish (probably the only time though).

Okay, now we're on Easy Street (please tell me if you actually live on Easy Street, as well as when the next available home is opening up on your block). Use the glue stick to glue the letters in the center of the triangles. Smooth them down to avoid bumps.

Now, we're rounding third and I'm mixing metaphors! You just need to punch a hole in the top corners of every triangle. I was originally going to use a heart shaped hole punch, but it just didn't work out. One day at a time.

To finish, just string your string (hmmm, both a verb and a noun!) through the holes you just punched. I used an over/under technique, but do the opposite if you want to hide the string.

Now all you gotta do is mount that baby at your prestigious event, over your bed, in front of someone else's cubicle or wherever you're trying to bring a little extra joy and panache, as if cubicles could have any more panache, but whatever.

Have you ever made your own banner? What funny banner would you like to see? Do you have a rabbit I could pet?

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