Jen Bowles Design

Trash to...Organizer: Washi Tape holder

Today I want to share a quick, cute and eco-friendly project from the studio:  a washi tape holder.

Ta-da:

Isn't it adorable?  Really, I'm quite smitten.

I started with an empty one of these:

First I removed the serated edge and the top/lid of the box.  I wanted to be able to see my tape. 

Next, using Mod Podge as my adhesive, I glued on the biggest piece of paper first.  I chose the teal dotted paper as my focal paper.  Though I suppose it doesn't matter, I started on the inside bottom of the box and basically wrapped the paper around. Initially I did a "dry run" and marked where I'd be folding the paper.  Tip: I used my scoring board to make the folding a bit easier.  Then I just put glue on the box, slapped the paper on top and glued and rotated until the whole sheet of paper was glued down.  I used the text paper on either end 1) because the dotted paper didn't cover the whole box and 2) for contrast.

After I glued the papers on, it still needed some embellishment.  I went to my ribbon stash and selected a piece of robin's egg blue grosgrain.  Mmmm, pretty.  I used my sewing machine to make a casual ruffle.  Very casual. 

I attached the ruffle with hot glue.

I purposely didn't make it long enough to go around the whole box.  Though maybe I should have...

I could've stopped there, but I've noticed that I do much better when things are labelled.  I rubber stamped 'WASHI TAPE' onto one of the Martha Stewart labels I got during my Staples shopping spree.  Perfect finishing touch.

And then I had to wait for the Mod Podge to dry.  Zzzzzzz.

The next day I was able to load up my new tape holder with all my paper tape rolls. 

Pattern, color, pretty!

With the extra layer of paper and Mod Podge it's really quite sturdy and looks right at home on my studio table.  Of course I can't believe that's all the washi tape I have--shameful!  We're almost out of Press n' Seal so I'm going to have another empty wrap box...

Hmmmm...

Thanks for stopping by,

My {Thrift Store} Desk: Before and After

I bought my current desk at the Salvation Army either two or three years ago. 

What I liked about it:  lots of surface area, great drawer space and fairly dirt cheap at $30.

What I didn't like about it:  the dark color and the faux/laminate wood grain.

It took me until this summer to finally tackle the task of painting my desk.  Apparently I'm easily intimidated by certain projects (see: painting kitchen cabinets...).

With a little help from Bobby Law, my desk was hauled into the garage, finally marked for renovation.

After months of searching, I'd found my Mouse sander and put 'er to work sanding down the desk and {removed} drawers.

Next step: a coat of stinky, stain blocking primer.  I think it was Kilz.  It was definitely latex and I definitely need more of it.  Perhaps the less stinky kind though.

After priming I let the primer cure for a few days.  Sometimes laziness can be to your benefit.  In the meantime I had to decide what color to paint the topcoat.  Rather, which shade of blue to paint the topcoat.  I think I currently have about 7 different shades of blue/turquoise paint in inventory.  I decided on a rather bold and bright choice:  Rapids by Valspar, aka the color of Ebby's walls.

I did two coats and a couple of coats of Minwax water based poly.

Ah, so much better.

My next conundrum was the drawer hardware.  I considered replacing it, spray painting it another color or filling in the holes and using Hobby Lobby grade crystal knobs.  In the end my mom helped me decide that the original pulls with their vintage-y patina would look best.

I totally agree.

With the addition of a few updated desk accessories, I was back in business.

You know, if I had a business.  Or could figure out what kind of business I could be in.    

I'm loving my "new" desk.  My new red leather desk chair {from Office Max, here} and unobstructed view of the Bloom garden give me even more reason to spend time here.

 

Because, you know, it's important to have a colorful, comfortable place to sit while you browse on Pinterest.

Junk Garden in BLOOM

For more than a year, I've envisioned spelling the word 'bloom' on the Junk Garden fence.  

For a long time, I just had the white wooden "O" hanging there.  In it's former life, it was a wheel on a kitcschy decorative wheelbarrow.   The type that would be at home beside a gnome and a lawn jockey.  Not that I'd know...

Next, I spray painted the metal cranberry sifter I bought at a yard sale, um, 3 years ago.  I tacked it up and had "OO".

When I saw metal letters at The Christmas Tree Shop for $2.99, I broke my own rule about having only recycled items in the Junk Garden.  I bought an "M", spray painted it hot pink and hung it up.  For weeks, Ebby was calling it the "Ooooom" garden.

Finally last week I found the motivation to finish up. 

The "B" was easy, I had it down in my studio stash.  It was black so I spray painted it apple green and brushed on a coat of outdoor poly. 

My final challenge was the "L".  I wanted to have an upper case "L" though a lower case one would've been much easier (hello, fence picket or tree branch).  Then, a breakthrough.  Salvaged staircase spindle (bought last year for $5 at an antiques store) plus wire found on a beach walk =  "L"!  I gave it a fresh coat of white spray paint and hung it up on the fence.

Ta-da!  The Junk Garden in BLOOM!

Independence Day

Happy Birthday America!

 

This morning I whipped up this quick little flower arrangement to bring to a cookout that we are {hopefully} going to this afternoon.  I re-used a clean, empty salsa jar & tied some patriotic ribbon around the neck.  Making the flag was my favorite part.  Here's how:

• Using blue paint, brush a wash of paint over a bamboo skewer
• Make the flag by cutting your preferred shape out of canvas paper
• With a gluestick, affix scrapbook paper first to one side of the canvas paper flag, trim, then cover back side and trim again
• I used my favorite Making Memories type letter stickers to spell out 'happy birthday'
• Use hot glue to glue the flag to the skewer
• Find a few patriotic beads and use hot glue to glue them to the top of the skewer
• Put a tiny amount of hot glue on one point of a plastic gemstone star and glue onto your bead tower
• Insert your festive flag into your vase & fill with garden flowers!

Junk Garden spotlight: Planter Chairs

We've lived in our current house for almost 3 years now which means this will be our 4th summer here.  As I've mentioned before, we have a decent amount of acreage here (3.5).  Too much sometimes--like when it's time for Bobby Law to mow the lawn...  In addition to grass, woods, woodsy-like areas and the chicken coop, there were three different garden areas on the property when we moved in.  I've been working ever so slowly to make each of the gardens my own with small bits of success.

The Junk Garden, or Trash Garden (TG) as the rest of my family likes to call it, is a small shade border garden.  This garden is home to many of my roadside finds, some rehabbed, some still awaiting some love.  I recently moved my desk and now I look out onto the Junk Garden as I sit at my computer.  More motivation to get a few projects done in there!

These planter chairs had been sitting (on the ground) in the garden since last May when I picked them up for free at a yard sale.  The grass green paint was chipping and peeling and the legs had long ago been cut off.  Last week I finally pulled out some of my painting supplies and got to work.

First I cleaned off the dirt and peeling paint.  I wasn't too picky.  Next, I used interior paint to paint two coats on each chair.  I freehanded the words 'grow' and 'love' using white acrylic craft paint.  It took me a while to figure out how to hang them from the fence and still be able to put flowers on the seats.  I ended up using screw eyes and picture wire and hung the chairs from nails set into the horizontal fence rail.  I'm sure my neighbors don't mind...

My next task was to figure out the planters.  Fortunately I have plenty of junk in our garage as well.  My first find was a colander that was missing one of its three feet.  I spray painted it apple green.  While the spray paint was drying I pulled some moss out of the backyard to line the colander.  A few minutes later I added potting soil and impatiens.  I placed the colander on the hanging 'grow' chair and it was love at first sight.

I repeated the same steps for the 'love' chair planter except I used a clementine crate lined with a plastic bag poked with drainage holes.

So there they are, my hanging planter chairs, tucked among the wisteria foliage making me smile everytime I catch a glimpse of them.

Trash Garden.  Ha.

Have a great weekend!

Vintage Key Ribbon Bookmark

Last year at the local flea market I bought a whole bunch of vintage skeleton keys.  The keys have great shapes and details with a nice amount of rusted patina.  What really sealed the deal for me however were the unique circular stamped metal "labels" on each key.  The vendor told me the keys were from M.I.T. and indeed one of the keys is labeled MIT Small Cottage.  Among the others I purchased:  No. 1 Lv. R. and Wind Tun.  Pretty cool.

So far (over a year later...) I've only completed one project using my M.I.T. keys, a ribbon bookmark.

  Here's what I did:

1. Separate the key from the key ring.  For my bookmark I used No. 1 Lib., as in library.  Clever, I know.
2. Cut a piece of ribbon apprx. 15 inches long.  I used wire edge ribbon.
3. Here's the {not} tricky part:  tie the key onto one end of the ribbon then tie the key ring with the label onto the other end of the ribbon.  Phew.
4. Trim the ribbon ends and put your new bookmark to work holding your place in your current reading book.

Now if you don't happen to find keys that already have metal stamped labels you could certainly make your own using a metal disk and your metal alphabet stamps (I have some from Harbor Freight).  You could also use some other cool vintage metal item at the top of the bookmark--basically anything you can tie a ribbon through would work.

Now maybe someday I'll do something with No. 1 D.R.  or 1st. H KIT.  Until then I'll keep using my No. 1 Lib. bookmark and enjoying the rest of the keys just sitting in a bowl on my desk.

Happy Reading!

 

Rescued Treasures

Over the last 5 days or so my car has been filling up with treasures I've 'rescued' from various places.

No problem, just unload them from the car and put them into the garage ;-)

First up, vintage Fisher Price!

I was driving to work last Friday and someone had these in their RECYCLING BIN.  I literally said 'No!' out loud as I was driving and turned around to scoop them up.

Yes, they're been left out in the rain and need some sprucing up but I ♥ them.  The house is just like the one I had as a kid (it's from 1969...).  I'd never seen the town set but the 1973 charm of it won me over.  I mean, who wouldn't want to go see the 'Great Fire' at the Little People theater?? Oh, and I love that the staircase has a secret lair--just like the boys have under our stairs!

Apparently I am collecting vintage Fisher Price/Little People toys.  Along with these 2 new finds I have a barn & silo and a school bus.  I guess I'll be making room to display them in my new studio space ;-)...

Next, just a couple of my latest swap pile treasures.

I need one more side table for the basement family room.  We have one but it's decent and I've been hesitating painting it for fear Bobby Law's head will explode.  When I saw this one at the dump today I knew there would be no problem with painting it.  Now I just have to decide which color.

Oh, and the baseball trophy?  I'm going to spray paint it and be on the lookout for more.  Not sure why.

And one more thing, yesterday's was a historic trip to the swap pile.

Cuyler 'picked' his first item!  He read the posted swap area rules and insisted that I supervise him at all times.  He even held my hand for a minute.  As soon as he saw the frog picture, he knew that he wanted it.  I told him that as long as Will agreed, we could take it.

It's now hanging proudly on their bedroom wall :-)

The three of us (me, Cuyler & Will) had a great time there today. 

I told them we could go back everyday this summer if we wanted {big grin}.

After all, where else can you get treasures like this ...for free!

Treasure Hunting

Last Friday I beat the crowd and took myself to an advertised "Vintage Yard Sale".  I've just started to notice more yard sales around here starting on Fridays and I must say, I like the trend.  It's much easier to make a trip when the kids are in school than on a Saturday morning (when anything can happen to derail/change your plans).

The sale itself was in a lovely part of Hull (a small, seaside town) that I don't think I've ever been to called Sunset Point.  I've been going to Hull for 35 years and even lived there for a bit after college, but had never been down into this area.  It was a beautiful, sunny fall day and I managed to snap a few pictures as I drove along the residential streets.  Great water views and some charming houses.   Loved the pergola on the front of that one house...

The sale itself was inside and very well organized.  I was the only person there so I browsed at leisure. I ended up spending $10 of my hard earned dollars (I'm working cleaning out my dad's basement and house...) on some fun treasures. 

I've been searching for an iron runner sled to use as a winter decoration on our farmer's porch ~ check!  I also scooped up a bunch of vintage sheet music, a delightful tea towel embroidered with birds and flowers and some handwritten (and amusing) postcards from the 1930s. 

After the sale, I headed to my dad's to work which happened to include a trip to the dump with his big, white work van.  I couldn't resist the little wooden stove.  I totally want to rehab it--though I'm not sure if I know anyone small enough to enjoy it anymore (*sniff, sniff*).  No matter, it was free and I'm sure I can figure out someone to give it to (or maybe donate to a school fundraiser or a preschool...).  I also picked up a random desk drawer at the swap pile.  The label holder caught my eye immediately and I need more studio storage for my spools of ribbon.  

I mean really, don't we all? ;-)

Roadside Treasures

On Saturday afternoon I was driving home from doing a few errands (*cough* getting a glue pad at Michaels*cough*), when I spotted a white piece of furniture on the side of the road.  I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I clearly saw the sign on it that said 'FREE'.  The wheels in my head were turning.  But so were the wheels on my car.  I decided to be strong so I didn't turn around, I just headed home.

I couldn't stop thinking about the roadside treasure though.  I'd caught a glimpse of some nice curved lines on the top of the piece...

Fast forward to the evening.  I convinced BGD to go out for dinner, leaving Ebby and a friend in charge of the boys.  We made it not even a mile from our house and BGD stopped the car, turned it around, and scooped up some roadside treasure of his own.

For him, a recumbent bike--with just one small problem.  The sign said 'Works perfectly, has broken axle'.  Which I guess means it works perfectly if you have one leg.  Undeterred and with the cargo hitch still attached to the car from beach trips, we loaded it up.

We made a quick trip home and dropped off the bike, leaving the cargo hitch empty...

As we headed out again, I told BGD about the treasure I had seen earlier.  It wasn't directly on our route, but it was just one turn away.  He agreed that we could check it out after dinner. 

With full bellies and under the cover of darkness, we headed home, on the lookout.  Our first stop was the site of what had been a huge yard sale during the day on Saturday.  We'd seen some stuff piled up on the curb on our way by and wondered if it was free yard sale leftovers.  Upon closer investigation we were met with 2 obstacles: no clear sign that said 'free' and the yard salers themselves still milling around in their driveway (at 9pm).  We figured they were going to do a 2nd day of their sale on Sunday, so we drove away.  With nothing.

Next stop: the white furniture piece.  As it was now dark, I couldn't remember exactly how far up the road I'd seen it.  And I worried that it would be, gasp, gone.  But it wasn't!  It was still there as we pulled over to investigate.  Much to my delight and BGD's dismay, we discovered that it was a baby changing table.

I loved the lines and the simplicity.  He hated that fact that it was used to clean up someone's else baby poop.  Understandable.  I still loaded it into the cargo tray. 

The next morning we had a chance to examine our treasures.

BGD discovered that the repair to the recumbent bike is going to be a bit more complex than he originally hoped.  He's weighing his options now and we'll see if the bike ends up at the swap pile at the dump or in our basement workout area.

I had much more luck with my changing table. 

I immediately chucked the stained plastic changing pad and cleaned the rest of the piece with soap and a bit of bleach.  Next I sanded off the *delightful* stenciling.  Buh-bye ugly flowers.  Then I painted in my favorite furniture color of late: Sea Sparkle from Lowe's.  It's bright but not too bright for the basement.   

Ta-da, my new fabric/crafty storage table!

I was waiting for the paint to cure a bit before loading it up with goodies, but I think it will be quite useful down in my studio.  

Useful, charming and best of all, free.