Jen Bowles Design

New website: 33 Cliff Street Studio

Visit me at my new website and blog at 33 Cliff Street Studio !

Driftwood Sailboats

In addition to creating Altoid tin Nature Boxes, I recently made two driftwood sailboats as a long delayed baby/first birthday Happy Spring gift for a little cutie with a nautical themed nursery.

A great excuse to bust into both my beach collected driftwood stash and my fabric stash.  I may have also broken into Ebby's bead stash...

Of course I had to find a way to use cut out book text.  It's an addiction.

Ahoy!

Thanks for stopping by,

Altoid Tin Nature Box

I have approximately 372 empty Altoid tins in my studio, thanks mainly to my Dad.  372 may be an exaggeration, but I certainly have plenty.  I've pinned several Altoid tin crafts on my Inspiration for Creating board, including this Nature Box.

Source: The Crafti Yogi on Flickr

Sometime before Christmas, I decided that I wanted to make a couple of these Nature Boxes as a gift for some preschool friends.  I did the first part of the project, creating and inserting the cardboard dividers inside the tin, along with the interior decorative paper, back in December.

I finished them this morning.  

It's not really a complicated project, it only takes 3 months if you do a lot of procrastinating...

I do love how they turned out.  They may be a bit fancy for toting along on a nature walk, but is that even possible, really ;-).

Hand cutting each individual letter from book pages for the interior wording may have been a bit much.  What can I say, it soothes me.

Hopefully the recipients will have some fun with these!

Vintage Typewriter Love at Cambridge Typewriter in Arlington, MA

A few years ago my mom bought me a vintage typewriter at a yard sale.  $5 for a 1960s era Smith-Corona Galaxie 12...not a bad score.  The ribbon was clearly on it's last legs, though it seemed to be in fairly good working order otherwise.  After a quick Google search, I saw that I could get a ribbon locally, at Cambridge Typewriter in Arlington.  I am a visual learner so I figured I could take my typewriter to Cambridge Typewriter and not only buy a new ribbon, but learn how to replace it as well.

Why it took me almost two years to actually drive the 35 miles to Cambridge Typewriter, I'm not sure.  I mean, people literally come from all over the country to visit this place, one of the few remaining typewriter repair shops anywhere.

It was definitely worth the ride!  This place is first and foremost a repair shop, they also do sales and typewriter rentals as well (how cool!).  The variety of typewriters they have on display and awaiting repair makes it more like a small museum.  Prepare to feast your eyes on some vintage typewriter goodness...

 

The front corner of the shop:

 

How about a closer look at a few of the machines...

 

Antique Oliver "bat wing" typewriter:

 

I couldn't get enough of this typewriter and its semi-circular keyboard...

 

The keys were the coolest ~ they have both letters and fractions!

 

Another antique beauty by Hammond:

 

And a Remington...

 

The typewriters were like pieces of art.  The vintage typography was the icing on the visual overload cake!

 

I can't say enough good things about this gem of a shop.  The gentleman who was working, the brother-in-law of the owner, not only showed me how to replace the ribbon in my Galaxie Twelve, but for a very reasonable price, while I waited, oiled and cleaned my typewriter, unstuck keys and generally buffed it up so it's ready to type! If you live in or near the Boston area and you love vintage typewriters, put a visit to Cambridge Typewriter on your list.  Definitely worth the trip...and there's free on-street parking right out front on Mass. Ave.!  If you aren't in the area, they do sell supplies and typewriters online :-).  

Such a fun and nostalgic trip ~ took me right back to Jr. High typing class!  

Thanks for stopping by,

 

 

You Are Amazing

Yes, you.

 

{Mussel shell from Nantasket Beach, hand cut text from vintage book}

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

{mixed media Valentine canvas:  collaged book pages & layers of paint}

Enjoy!

Peace on Earth

Like, literally.

 

If only actual Peace On Earth was as easy as adding  fun-tak to the bottom of some Scrabble letters and  sticking them on top of a vintage globe...

Thanksgiving Turkey Cake Tutorial

While pie may be the traditional dessert for Thanksgiving, there are certain folks among us that do not care for pie (ahem, all of my children & Uncle).  Typically Nana volunteers to bring a yellow (or Funfetti if she's feeling cray) layer cake simply adorned with Better Crocker vanilla frosting and a few sprinkles.  And all the cake eaters are perfectly happy.

This year however I asked Nana if she could please bring a selection of cheeses and crackers so that I could make the cake.  It's hard to be creative with cheese and crackers (although I did try with last year's Turkey Cheese Ball...).  A cake, on the other hand, presents endless opportunities.  

My first stop for Thanksgiving cake inspiration was...Pinterest!  Duh.

There I found these turkey cakes and settled on the direction I wanted to take...

source: Pinterest

Here's how my turkey cake was born:

1. Bake an entire box of yellow cake mix in a 2 quart Pampered Chef glass bowl

2. Mix up a chocolate cake mix and make cupcakes

3. Arrange said shapes into the shape of a turkey.  Use whatever large platter you have, make it festive with paper doilies.

4. Frost the turkey body with tinted buttercream.  Make it fancy with frosting dots.

5. Using powerful food coloring (or use regular food coloring and skip the complaints about the aftertaste of the frosting from the peanut gallery), tint your homemade buttercream into 3 separate colors for feathers.

6. Frost the yellow "feathers" (and by feathers I mean cupcakes)

7. Frost the orange feathers

8. Frost the red feathers

9. Retreat to craft room and cut out turkey head from cardstock.  Cut out and glue on eyes, 3-D beak, gobble, and Pilgrim-like hat.  

10.  Glitter the buckle of the Pilgrim hat.

11.  Use frosting to adhere paper turkey head to cake turkey body 

12.  Take pictures!  With evidence on Instagram, it's like it never happened ;-)

13.  Before allowing any part of the turkey cake to be eaten, insist that all guests view the turkey cake and are duly impressed.

14.  Call it a masterpiece and allow it to be destroyed enjoyed!

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving dessert!

 P.S.  We also had pie.  And ice cream sundaes.

Mrs. Blossom's Dahlias

There's a reason why my mom is known as Mrs. Blossom.  She is a master gardener, a seasoned speaker on all matters horticultural, and a flower lover.

I'm pretty sure she's never met a dahlia she didn't like.  For Autumn in New Enlgand, their color, beauty and drama in the garden can't be beat.  That must be why she faithfully digs up her tubers each year ~ and keeps acquiring more.

She even visited a dahlia farm--in the pouring rain-- when she was in Oregon last month.  That peeps, is dedication.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy,

they are the charming gardeners who make

our souls blossom

~Marcel Proust

Thanks for stopping by,

DIY Rustic Arbor

I had a lovely metal arbor at the entrance to my fenced garden.  My mom got it on clearance years ago for $3.90 (90% off, yo!).  I put it together myself and then Bobby Law helped me stake it in the ground.  Things were going well, it was covered with Sweet Autumn Clematis on one side and Wisteria on the other. 

Then last October, Sandy happened.  Between the winds and the weight of the plants on the arbor, it was just too much.  My beloved metal arbor bent over backwards.  Not a good look.

At the end of the summer, Bobby Law was looking for a project to do outside.  Being the helpful wife that I am, I challenged him to build a new arbor--only using materials we had on hand.

Challenge accepted.

He got totally into it, searching 'rustic arbors' on Google, pinning away like a fool (ok, maybe not that last part, but he does have his own Pinterest).

Here's how it went down...

Step 1:  Procure materials

In this case, that meant cutting down a bunch of sassafras trees.  Fortunately we have plenty of them.  And they're easy to manuver:

Step 2:  Recruit helpers to assist in digging 2 ft deep holes for main arbor supports

Step 3:  Cut, screw, refer to inspiration photographs and sketches, evaluate.  Repeat.

Step 4:  Add character

Step 5:  Step back & admire

Thanks Bobby Law for building a lovely piece of garden art...and staying on budget!

Thanks for stopping by,