Unlikely Sources of Inspiration

If you had asked me 3 years ago what my plans for a Sunday were, I would have responded with cooking, cleaning, making jewelry or reading. I never expected to be able to answer that question with "going to the junkyard." And never would I have expected to be excited about the opportunity, but now is a different story.


Shortly after I started making jewelry out of wire, I discovered (with the encouragement of my creative mother) that working with items from hardware/home improvement stores were cheaper and made awesome jewelry. So when I married a gearhead I had to start making the occasional trips to the junkyard. What a wealth of inspiration and materials! Now when we go, I make sure I have plenty of pockets and I spend my time there staring at the ground. Washers make great pendants and are very versatile. They can be decoupaged, painted, stacked, etc. The possibilities are endless. The rounded washers can even be spray painted with the hammered metal paint and designs can be drawn on them to make them look like the pendants you pay $3-$5 for at craft stores. Lug nuts aren't quite as versatile, but are just as nice as pendants. Occasionally you can also find keys, castle nuts, and other unexpected pieces that will work as pendants, however it can be difficult to find items light enough for earrings or bracelets, but you truly never know what you'll find.

Coasters and Earrings

I know the last time I wrote I mentioned tea flavored soap. I'm still working on that one, it's very much trial and error. Until I get it figured out I thought I'd share some other crafts I've become obsessed with: Coasters. They are quite possibly the quickest craft, but I've managed to turn it into something a little more time consuming.

All I use to make them are the lids and bands for Mason jars. You flip the lid so that it's facing the opposite direction and glue it to the top of the band and there you go. They look great and are easy to jazz up. I've been painting mine and I've pulled out some decoupage glue and dressed up the centers. Here are some of my creations with these:

The coaster on the right has paper doll clothes that I pulled from a Zappos ad in a magazine. The one on the left has a sunflower cut from paper napkins I found at Kroger this weekend. I'm still looking for things to go in the center of my next batch, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Things to remember about these coasters: they are made of metal, metal scratches tables (thanks Mom for reminding me) so make sure there's something protecting the table from the metal, i.e. felt or cork; also, when you're using craft paint it isn't water resistant so make sure you seal the coasters before you use them, I'm using a spray on sealer that I picked up from the craft store.

The rest of my weekend was spent making earrings. A few years ago I decided to try some "industrial jewelry" which basically means I was at a hardware store and thought about what I could do with hex nuts. So after buying a few, I realized that I could make fantastic flowers or other designs with them and a little wire. So this weekend I returned to that style and made a couple of pairs of earrings.

By the way both the coasters and earrings are for sale. The coasters are $5 for a set of 4 and the earrings are $8 a pair. If you are interesting purchasing either of them, check them out on my store website: Bijou Urbane.

Spa Day

Recently I've been considering the fact that I have 3 birthdays to prepare for in November (1 present has to be mailed to Hawaii) and then Christmas for my friends and family. So far, I've made it as far as road testing possible birthday presents. So without further ado: the perfect collection of materials for a fantastic spa day.

The first possible addition to the basket is a kitchen type hand scrub. It was super easy to make, adds great moisture to your hands, but isn't super greasy. It was simple to make and all the ingredients are already in your kitchen (well at least most of them are).

To make the hand scrub you'll need 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1/3 cup of salt (the recipe said kosher salt, but I used canning salt because it was what I had), 1 cup olive oil and as much lemon extract as you want to make it smell good. Mix the ingredients together and spoon into decorative jars and voila! This set of measurements makes 1 pint.

The jar on the left is the hand scrub. The jar on the right is the chocolate caramel bath salts.

The second addition is fabulous bath salts. For this recipe, mix a cup of Epsom Salts with a tablespoon of baking soda and whatever flavorings you want, I used chocolate and caramel (found in the baking aisle of my local Wal-Mart). They smelled fantastic, though I haven't had a chance to use them yet. A helpful hint with this one: less is more with extracts. I used a couple of drops of caramel and a drop of chocolate because it was stronger and the smell filled the house. Also, make sure you mix well. Where you drop the extracts in will clump, but just keep mixing and it will even out nicely. It makes about 1 half-pint, but you can get cool tins from Michael's, Hobby Lobby or even Wal-Mart. I used a decorative Ball jar that is a half-pint.

My third edition will be a bar of tea soap. I'm still working out all the kinks with this one, so I'll let you know how it goes later!

Other options aka on my list of things to try: lip balm, foot cream, hot/cold eye mask and maybe a bath bomb.

Bathroom Tile

When I moved in to my husband's home a year ago, our bathroom was straight out of the 1970s (and part of it still is). There was brown tile on the floor, most of which had come up or gotten broken. Since the tile had come loose, water had dripped into the floor and the sub-floor had to be completely replaced. While we were taking care of that my husband and I decided to completely redo the bathroom. We replaced the big, old, avocado/dark wood vanity with a smaller white vanity and replaced the toilet, luckily our shower was in good shape and didn't need to be replaced. I unfortunately don't have before/after pictures of the first bit of work, but I do of the latest work. After pulling down wall paper and painting the untiled portion of the bathroom, it was finally time to put down flooring to cover up the sub-floor. We decided to go with vinyl peel and stick tile, because it would be easiest for me since I was taking this on by myself. While peel and stick is probably one of the easiest types of flooring to put down, you quickly learn what works and what doesn't.

Here's my list in case you decide to take this on:

1. It's not always easy to cut in a straight line, even with a straight edge. 

2. Caulk and molding will cover a multitude of sins, especially if you have to cut around a toilet.

3. It may be worth it to pay for a new wax ring and take the toilet out before you tile, you don't have to, but it saves time. 

4. On your first project, avoid patterned tile. Matching the pattern up can be a little harder if you don't have a room full of straight edges. 

5. The paper backing that covers the adhesive makes the best template, recycle and reuse them!

6. Always scissors over razors. Better control = better cuts. 

Now you probably are curious as to what it looks like.

Before:

(the kitten is Vitamin C...she's my helper)

Midway (including my mess):

The finished product:

Over all, it took my roughly 3 1/2 hours to complete my 30 sq. ft. bathroom. It probably would have been quicker had I removed the toilet, or at least had more room to get behind the toilet (the vanity and toilet are really close together). 

My next project in this room: taking down the tile on the wall. Eventually you'll get to hear what I learn about hanging drywall!