Here in Seattle, we'll take any sun we can get. These little jars will allow me to capture the sun and save it up for the night time!

To make them, I just followed Not Martha's tutorial.

I got my jars from various Goodwills and Value Villages, and used spray glass frost to turn them translucent.

I found solar yard stakes at Walgreen's for $3.50. The ones I found had a detachable head, so all I had to do was pop the head off the stake and glue it to the underside of the jar lid!

I kind of wish my lights were more of a golden yellow like Not Martha's, but the white has it's own eerie beauty too. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for more jars, and keep making these all summer.

Pattern Holder

I just wanted to show you the cute new pattern holder I just finished for my sewing room. It's a vintage mail sorter that was in pretty rough shape- the paint was unsalvageable, so I got it for relatively cheap.



I gave it a new coat of spray paint, then hot-glued pom-pom trim onto it to add a little pizzazz.

Aaahh... is there anything better than a project that turns out just right on a sunny spring day??

A Lovely Little Fruit Bowl

Sometimes I am just amazed at what you can find in thrift stores. Several months back I came across Vanessa Christenson's blog, V and Co. One of my favorite posts on her site was one where she made this adorable fruit bowl out of a couple of items she had around her house.

From then on, I kept my eyes peeled for pieces I could glue together to make something similar. Imagine my surprise Sunday when I found both exact items she used - the silver basket and the glass candle holder - at the same thrift store!! Seriously, go look at her version, then look at mine. They're the exact same! How weird is that?

So all I can guess is that either she lives near me and made a donation, or the thrift store fairies were on my side. Should you wish to make your own, it couldn't be easier. Here's how:

All you need is something that can work as a stand, something that can work as a bowl, and crazy glue. It's really fun going to Value Village and stacking various bowls and wine glasses, looking for that perfect combination.


I like this crazy glue that goes on like nail polish - so easy to use!


Press together to bond.

Voila!

A Pretty Little Bulletin Board

My first project for my sewing room is done! I wanted a bulletin board where I could tack up the patterns I'm working on, color swatches, inspiration photos, etc. Naturally, I couldn't use any old bulletin board, so I whipped this up using some of Amy Butler's Love collection I got at the Sewing Expo.

I started with a bulletin board I found at Goodwill. I think it's this one from Storables, although I paid much less for mine!

I sanded up the black frame, since it was pretty shiny and I wasn't sure the paint would stick to it. Then I put on several coats of ivory-colored acrylic paint. I didn't have to worry about keeping this neat, since I knew I'd be covering the cork part.



Next, I carefully measured the cork part. I cut a piece of my fabric to the exact size (or so I thought... more on that in a minute). I made sure to iron my fabric really really well before going any further!

Then, I masked off the wooden frame with blue tape and sprayed all of the cork with a good coat of spray adhesive. I laid my fabric down and smoothed out all the bubbles.

At this point, my plan needed some readjustment. I thought I'd be done after this step, but I should have known better. Despite my careful measurement, there were still weird gaps along the border of the fabric where the cork showed through. So I went to my handy-dandy ribbon jar (I don't have any photos of these last steps because I was kind of improvising).

I found a pink grosgrain that matched pretty well, and used fabric glue to glue the ribbon all along the inside of the frame. This covered the gaps up nicely.

Last, I glued 4 little green buttons in the corners, to cover up the places where I joined pieces of ribbon.

This board looks so great against my freshly-painted white walls. It's the focal point of the room at the moment, because it's so colorful. I'm planning to give it some little wall friends soon though!

Sewing Table Reclamation (part two)

When we last saw our brave-but-clueless heroine, she had just purchased a ganky old desk from Goodwill on a whim. She decided not to let her lack of experience or general know-how stop her from transforming the desk into the perfect sewing table. In our last installment, she had just finished priming the table.

Next went on two coats of a beautiful, creamy gray paint.

I wanted the inside of the drawer to be a little pop of color, so I gave it a couple of coats of the same orange-sherbet that I painted my bedroom.

My last step was to toss the ugly old wooden drawer pulls it came with and replace them with these gorgeous glass ones from Anthropologie:

And... voila! My perfect new sewing table. Now we can have our dining room table back!

What's my next step you ask? Repainting and repurposing our office to become a sewing room befitting this sewing table. Here's my inspiration, the gorgeous sewing room of Laura Gunn of Paint in My Hair:

...drool...

...Aaaaand here's what I'm starting with (sorry for the blur... maybe you're better off not being able to see this room clearly):

Don't judge me.

Sewing Table Reclamation! (part one)

Oh man... the dangers of being impulsive and having no concept of my own limits...

Sunday morning I got a wild hair and headed out to Value Village early. I was kind of tickled that because of daylight savings they were opening (what felt to me like) a hour early. Turns out that opening time is also when all the oddballs show up... like the creepy old man buying three music boxes and a volleyball, "for his girlfriend."

Anyway, I almost overlooked this desk, hiding as it was behind two metal filing cabinets and a cd tower:



Now, this photo actually camouflages the damage done to the desk, but wow - look at that potential! I just loved the shape and size. The finish was shot, and there were some beautifully tragic painted flowers that someone had apparently tried to gouge out with a butter knife, but there were no major knicks and the whole thing was sturdy.

It was $20 (pretty steep for a Value Village!), but I had a 20% off coupon from donating items that I used, and the cashier let me layer that on top of the 40% off yellow tag sale they were doing.



The weird thing was, I knew right away what I would do with it. After a quick stop at the hardware store, I got busy. First, two coats of primer. Can I just say that I love primer with stainblockers? It meant that I didn't need to sand or strip or do a darn thing before priming! Woot!



To be continued...