COASTAL DISPLAY SHELF

Finding a shelf for my bathroom proved to be a bigger problem then I thought it would be.  I wanted a shelf that was narrow and long and had plenty of room to hold pretty stuff.  I finally found one when my friend Judy was visiting and we were poking around in stores in Bentonville, Arkansas.   It was an ugly little thing and needed some TLC, but now it looks much happier.

This little shelf holds some items that I dearly love, including a few items that were made and sent to me from another blogger.  More on that in a few minutes, but first, let me show you what this shelf looked like when I bought it.  

I couldn't decide if someone had tried to distress it or if they had dropped it several times or maybe both.  It was extremely wobbly and very chipped up.  When I decided to take it apart, I discovered that it had been assembled wrong in the first place which was why it was so wobbly.  Easy enough to fix.  
This shelf was going up on a white wall in my bathroom so I decided to give it a little paint.  When I disassembled it, I realized that there were a lot of little parts to this shelf.

I decided to use some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on this project.  (I have no idea how to make the trademark symbol in blogger, if you do, please let me know.)

I used Annie Sloan Pure White and Provence.  I found that little bathroom cups work quite nicely to hold small spindles and spindle caps for painting.  

Better already don't you think?  I gave it all a coat of Miss Mustard Seed's Clear Wax and put it all back together.

Now remember I said I had received a few gifts from a blogger?  Perhaps you already know Amy from Stow and Tell U.  She's a gem and lives near my hometown in Illinois.  She made some of these very cool Mason jars covered with fishnet.

Decorative Fisherman Netting Wrapped Jars

You can see how she made them by clicking on the link below the picture.  I fell in love with these when she posted them and they were on my "to do" project list.  I couldn't believe that she sent me three of them.  Two of them you'll see here in this post and the other lives in my beach themed bedroom which I'm saving for another post.  She also sent me this really pretty soap that was made to look like beach glass.  It smells divine!  She picked it up on her trip to the East Coast.  A trip that I too hope to make some day. 

Here is the info on the box, just in case you want to check out their website.

Thank you Amy for thinking of me while you were on your trip and for sending me those cool mason jars made by you!  I knew when I opened that box, that I would want to use these things in my new bathroom, but at that time, I still hadn't found my shelf.  However, they have a new home now!

I love this little display shelf and it looks especially cool at night, casting lovely shadow on my new bathroom wall.....

I'm such a candle freak!  I have an entire candle cabinet.  Maybe I should give that a makeover next.

Thank you again Amy for the lovely jars and the wonderful looking beach glass soap!  You are such a dear friend.  
If you would like to see a quick overview of Amy's great projects, just check out her Project Gallery.  She is one creative and talented blogger for sure!  

Fairy Gardens {Curated Hometalk Board}

With spring just around the corner, flowers, herbs and container gardens are on my mind!  
One of my favorite kinds of container gardening is a Fairy Garden.  In fact, one of my most popular posts is my Fairy Garden in a Container. 
Liz at Hometalk contacted me and ask me to curate a board on Fairy Gardens and I was more than happy to comply.  If you are not on Hometalk, what are you waiting for?  It's a great place to get a lot and I do mean a LOT of information all in one place.  Hometalk also offer advice from professionals and has places to ask questions and get answers.  Hometalk is also a great place to grow your blog.  I get great traffic from Hometalk's website and from their Facebook page.  If you don't have an account there, it is super easy to set one up, so get on it! 
There are some great posts on Fairy Gardens at Hometalk that will give you tons of tips and tricks.   One of the most important ones I've learned is to be sure to allow enough room for your Fairy Garden to grow and I'll show you a before and after pic of mine at the end of this post.
The graphics people at Hometalk made this great pinnable graphic for this post.  You can just click anywhere on the board below and see more about these gorgeous Fairy Gardens at Hometalk.

Aren't these Fairy Gardens wonderful and creative?  I think what amazes me the most is the different types of containers people use and the clever things that they make to put in them.  That little blue miniature chandelier is just fabulous!  The suitcase as a container is so fun! 
Just be sure to leave plenty of room for your garden to grow because they are happy little things and can really expand in their containers.  Here is a picture of mine at the beginning of the season and towards the end.

Now head on over to my Hometalk Fairy Garden Board and check out all the tips and tricks for making your own fabulous Fairy Garden!
Thank you Hometalk for this wonderful opportunity!

MOSSY INDOOR FOUNTAIN

Today, I'm moving away from some of my beachy projects (somewhat reluctantly) and sharing another project that my friend Judy and I did together.  Since I decided to go with kind of a woodsy theme in my living room, we gave my fountain candle a little mossy makeover.

This project really started in my head when my friend Donna at Distressed Donna Down Home sent me that box that had the sand dollars in it.  Tucked in that box was also a roll of moss ribbon which I had never even heard of before until she mentioned it in an email.  I was delighted she sent me some!  It's really fun stuff.

So I had this really cool candle fountain that I picked up before Christmas at one of my favorite floral shops.  It's made by Bethlehem Lights and you find out more about how to get them by clicking the link.  I should mention that this candle/fountain is flameless, 10" tall and also has a 5 hour timer that you can switch on if you so desire.

I've enjoyed this candle just as it is, but now it's time to cute it up a little and make it fit into my decor.  I had this wooden planter box and decided it would make a great container for my new woodsy fountain.

The only difficulty I had was trying to figure out how to have a top on the fountain that would support some embellishments and at the same time, NOT be permanent because I change my decor too often.  Judy to the rescue on this one!  She suggested some kind of screen and I happen to have (and I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but it was given to me) a TON of that weird plastic woven stuff that people use to do yarn embroidery on...I have no idea what it's called, so I chose a piece of black to use.  ( I have every color in the rainbow and couldn't throw it out.)  Anyway, we used a chalk marker to trace the candle opening on and cut it out.  Chalk marker is a wonderful tool to use to trace anything onto a dark surface because it shows up great and washes off.

We put the candle in the planter and set the plastic screen on top and made sure it fit.

Then we used some Aleene's Tacky Glue and glued that moss on top of it, flipping it over and tracing the little corners for an exact fit.

Pretty easy right?  All that was left was to embellish the top a little.  I left that up to my friend Judy.  I gave her a pile of rocks, sticks, and a bag of reindeer moss.  I think she did a great job!

The little faux fern leaf was pretty much my only contribution to the embellishing effort.
It looks ever-so-awesome at night and the sound of the little water tinkling almost puts me to sleep.  Okay, it does put me to sleep.

Thank you Donna for the lovely gift of the moss ribbon!   Thank you Judy for your help on yet another one of my crazy ideas.  Thank you to my readers for suffering through yet another one of my tutorials.  Now I'm going back to work on another beachy project using another gift (or two) sent to me by another blogger.  I swear, I am so lucky and have the best friends out here in the blog world!


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SPARKLING SAND DOLLAR

Last week I posted my Floating Gallery Wall that was inspired by the sand dollars sent to me by Donna at Distressed Donna Down Home.  I saved just one of those sand dollars for another project.  I wish I had more because I love them.  I need to live near the beach.  In fact, I'm sure it is my destiny to eventually give coastal living a try.

Maybe I could kill two birds with one stone and have a cottage by the sea.  I always thought it would be awesome to live in a seaside cottage.  When I was a kid, one of my dreams was to live in a log cabin in the mountains by a stream.  Did it.  Loved it. Then I thought it would be fun to live in a little farmhouse in the country by a creek.  Did it.  Loved it.  Obviously, I'm a girl who feels like making dreams a reality is perfectly within my grasp.  Why not?
In the meantime, I'll continue dreaming about the coastal life in my beach themed master bedroom where I like to surround myself with sparkly, beachy, dreamy decor...like this bejeweled sand dollar.

When the sun catches it, it twinkles just enough.  Anything that sparkles or twinkles and does NOT involve glitter makes me smile.  Glitter makes me twitch.  

Now I do realize that this project is nothing more than sticking on a few gems to a painted sand dollar and stringing it up with some beads and a meaningful charm.  I also realize that this is not an original idea.  You can find a ton of these used as wedding favors and Christmas ornaments on pinterest.  You can even buy yourself one on several etsy shops for around $30.00 plus shipping.  But I decided to just make one for myself....for free, because someone was nice enough to send me some sand dollars and I already had gems and beads.    Besides, I need to save my money for that little seaside cottage that I'm dreaming of.

Dream Sign

Enjoy your day and thank you for stopping by.

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FLOATING GALLERY WALL

I could title this post so many things and of course, no sooner did I label all of my pictures "Beach Gallery Wall", did I decide "Floating Gallery Wall" would have been better.  Anyway....

This idea started when my friend Donna at Distressed Donna Down Home sent me a package that amongst other things, contained some sand dollars.  She knows I love beachy stuff for my beachy master bedroom.  (Thank you Donna!!)  She told me they were kind of dirty.  She told me I should bleach them and put them out in the sun.

Hmmmm...it's the dead of winter, not much sun and with temps in the 20's, not really excited about opening windows for ventilation.  I will confess to you right now that I laid these sand dollars out on my craft table and looked at them for a couple of days while the song, "Dirty White Boy" by Foreigner kept running through my head.  (Oh how that tune plays on my libido memories.) 
I decided to give them a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Pure White and see what happened.  You can see what a difference it made with just one coat on half.....

No bleachy smell, no long wait for them to dry and still Foreigner banging around in my brain.  Then the issue of how to get them on my wall became the dilemma.  I kind of wanted a gallery wall, but I really didn't want lots of frames and big nail holes in my new master bedroom wall. Soooooooo.....

I got the brilliant idea of hot glueing thumbtacks onto the back side of them.  
Now, when Foreigner is playing in your head, you might possibly have some kind of flashback and get the crazy idea that "more is better".  I started putting thumbtacks on the backs of all kinds of shells, glass pebbles and starfish as well.

Before the mood left me, I headed into the bedroom and started pinning them on the wall.

Then, just like in the late 70's, it became difficult to know when to stop.  Just like in the late 70's, I kept going.

I didn't worry too much about all the little thumbtack holes in the wall because I knew they'd be easier to patch and repaint later, if I get tired of this look.  I do kind of wonder what Sam will say when he gets home tonight, but then.....

"I've been in trouble since I don't know when

  I'm in trouble now and I know somehow I'll find trouble again

  I'm a loner but I'm never alone

             Every night I get one step closer to the danger zone"

*sigh*

Maybe he'll be impressed with the way my reading light throws shell-ish shadows across the wall at night.  Maybe he'll find that romantic.  Maybe.
Maybe he'll notice how well it goes with my beach wreath.  Maybe.

Beach Wreath

I know I keep hinting at my bedroom makeover with projects like this.  I'll get around to doing a post on that whole big project one of these days.  In the meantime, please let me move "Dirty White Boy" from my head to yours.  Feel free to rock it on out accordingly, but maybe "know when to say when".  LOL!

Disclaimer:  I have no regrets about my fun in the 70's.  (I do have some hair regrets about the 80's though and we should all have some music regrets about the 90's!)

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