Embellished Bottle Wall Vase

I just came across these two photos of a past product that I made and sold,

and since they are Patriotically themed, I thought I'd share them!

It's a 'Fast, Cheap & Easy'TM project for summer,
using a scrap of wood, a sheet of vintage music, and an old bottle.

A 1" pine board scrap is painted, then covered with a piece of vintage sheet music
[the one above is 'America the Beautiful'-perfect for July decor!]

A piece of baling wire holds the bottle securely on the board.
Put a screw into the front of the board and wrap a wire around it, then tightly around the bottle.
[make it possible to untwist the wire and remove the bottle, so you can fill with water]
Then put two screws into the top outer corners of the board, 

and attach another wire to hang the whole thing on the wall.

I also added a few patriotic words snipped from old books to the front of the bottles.
[I only use damaged books for that!]

Place a single flower in the vase, or perhaps a vintage flag!

I displayed them for sale this way - 

hanging on an old crib spring that was hung on the barn wall.

Yes, you CAN do this!

Don't have scrap wood?

Grab some from the scrap bins at the local hardware store.
Don't have vintage sheet music?
Look online for images you can download and print, or use a magazine or book page instead.

 And even a new bottle will work for this project!

See more of my embellished bottle creations here

 for more decorating ideas for every season,

  visit the HOMEWARDfound blog 

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Summer Color Palette: At the Beach

 In my mind, all seasonal inspiration begins with nature.
The combinations of color that appear in every natural setting on Earth are flawless...

consisting of perfectly coordinated shades and hues, contrasts and compliments.

So when people ask me 'How do you know what colors go together?'

or 'How do you pick a color scheme?',
I tell them to go outside.
Literally! Because it's outside, in nature, every season, that you'll find the 'perfect' color...

Case in Point: the photo shown above.

I snapped that image at Newport Beach, California in April.
It contains a perfect summer color scheme:

The palette of varied blues, grays, tans, browns, and whites

is crisp, fresh, and perfectly balanced between cool and warm tones, lights and darks.

This palette can be translated as a sleek modern look or a cozy country style.

Here's one way to create rooms around that palette:

 Can you see it?
The palette of varied blues, grays, tans, browns, and whites?
It's there in all of the details, materials, and surfaces.

We've changed the proportion of color use from the beach photos -
instead of blue being the primary color, neutral tans secondary, and white accents,
We have white as the overwhelming primary color here, with neutral tans secondary,
then touches of blue as an accent. 

In my small Cottage, the color scheme remains the same in each room - 

white backdrops, neutral surfaces, and blue accents.
That helps the small spaces flow into one another and feel larger.
In a home with larger rooms and more space, blue could be used on some walls and furnishings.

The decor is simple, fresh, and brings the feeling of summer days at the beach indoors.

A photo of a place you love to spend time is a PERFECT starting point for your decor!
If you love to go there on vacation, why not decorate your home to reflect that place, 

and enjoy it every day?!

[I've actually just completed a decor project with EXACTLY that premise, 

and will be sharing it in upcoming posts.]

So what says 'Summer' to you?
 The beach? The mountains? The lake? Mexico? Hawaii?
Find your inspiration and color schemes in the locales you love,
and bring that summer feeling HOME!

 for more decorating ideas for every season,

  visit the HOMEWARDfound blog 

and these social networking sites:

She Sells Seashells by the Seashore!

I don't know about you, but I just love seashells... 

I consider them tiny, detailed works of art created by Mother Nature herself!

I've used them in my own decor for every season of the year,

simply because I love them and I was lucky enough to have lived at the beach for a few years.
Up in Washington state, there are a lot of shells on the beaches of the islands.

The most abundant ones are simple white butter clamshells. I collected lots of them!

...and I found a 'Fast, Cheap & Easy'TM way to make those shells a special summer decor element!

* Grab yourself a bunch of clamshell halves (butter, littleneck, whatever) and clean them. Let dry.
*Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
*Sit them on a cookie sheet with their 'open' side facing up. 

Nestle them into a damp dishcloth/kitchen towel so that they all sit level.

*Get some plain white tealights (the kind that come from IKEA in silver metal cups are perfect).
*Remove the silver cup from the tealights, and sit one candle inside each shell half. 

Make sure the wicks are standing straight up.

*Slide the cookie sheet into your oven. 

It should take @ five minutes for the candles to melt,  filling the whole inside of the clamshell half with wax. Keep a close eye on the process.

DO NOT MICROWAVE! The moisture in the shells makes them EXPLODE!

*Pull the cookie sheet out of the oven very slowly and keeping it level 

so that you don't spill the liquid wax. 

*Sit the sheet on a flat surface to allow the wax to re-harden in the shells. 

If any of the wicks are bent or covered in wax, 

use a wood skewer to lift them out of the wax and stand them straight up.

*When the wax has hardened and the shells have cooled (about an hour), 

remove them from the cookie sheet and store them in a cool, dry place. 

If you'd like, you can place them in the fridge to REALLY harden the wax at this point.

*When burning these candles, place the shell inside a saucer or small bowl, 

to keep the melting wax from pouring out of the shell and making a mess. 

Always be cautious when burning any kind of candle.

I'll be sharing more ideas for decorating with seashells in upcoming posts...
 

This week I am headed back up to Seattle, to clear out an old storage unit.
Not a fun job, but it has to be done.

Who knows, I may even find my boxes of shells in there!

 for more decorating ideas for every season,

  visit the HOMEWARDfound blog 

and these social networking sites:

Glamping with Style!

The vintage trailer craze is a great way to take your home on the road for vacation -
I'd love to get my hands on a 1955 Shasta like my grandparents had!
Since I don't have that, I came up with another way to create a 'Glamping' experience...

I decked out a 20' X 20' party tent!

Inspired by bedouin tents and high-end resort cabanas, I pulled simple elements together

and designed a temporary living space that ended up being a true show-stopper.
My late husband and I actually LIVED in this tent for four days, at the BarnHouse vintage event in 2009!
[The other vendors at the show were the ones who dubbed it 'the Taj Ma Tent']

 The floorplan:

The bedchamber is on the top right.
The kitchen area is on the lower right.
The rest is lounge space!

The elements:

Canvas drop cloths, white netting curtains, and white vinyl tarps became walls and floors.

Lightweight / collapsible furnishings are plastic chairs, blow-up beds, and old door and some sawhorses.
Candle lanterns, tap lights, and one killer chandelier provided light in the evenings.
A small metal Oriental coal heater held sections of a firelog to warm up our toes each morning.
A collapsible gas barbecue allowed us to cook our hosts a pretty nice meal, too!

The design:

[btw, those netting curtains looked really stunning when they were hanging loose... as shown below.

But it was so windy, they had to stay tied or they ended up a tangled mess.]

The BEST and most unexpected detail was the giant chandelier hanging from the apex of the tent!

And yes, it DID light up - thanks to a car battery temporary power supply.

During the two days that the BarnHouse Marketplace vintage event was open to the public, 

the meadows were filled with cars and other campers, and thousands of attendees & shoppers.
Many of them thought that the Taj Ma Tent had been created as a resting area for them!
Since we were off in our booth selling our wares, we didn't mind sharing.

Professional photographer Robin Laws took the preceding three photos of the Taj Ma Tent.
The last one appeared on the title page of her article about the BarnHouse event

in the Winter, 2010 issue of Somerset Life Magazine.

Now, it WAS a lot of work setting that baby up. And tearing her down.
But it was fun!

I'm sharing it with you because I think this idea is something anyone can do.
OK, maybe not as overboard as a 20X20... but what about using a 10X10 popup as your base?
Set up your own cabana in your backyard for summer entertaining and relaxing,

or get brave and actually take it to a campground or beach!

I used a 10X10 popup as the base for our tent for two years, and decorated it in a similar fashion...

The walls were canvas drop cloths, and a few shutter panels to let fresh air in. 

The door was mesh curtains. The floor was vinyl and canvas tarps.

Furnishings were a blow up bed, a few crates to hold stuff, and plastic lounge chairs.
No chandelier.
Much simpler. Much faster. But people still took a lot of photos!

Just goes to show that you can scale an idea up or down and make it work for your needs.
Now go be creative and get Glamping!!!

Find Robin Laws Photography here

Sadly, the BarnHouse Marketplace event is no longer in business.

 for more decorating ideas for every season,

  visit the HOMEWARDfound blog 

and these social networking sites: