Make Your Own Apothecary Jars

I have always loved apothecary jars, but they always cost more than I'm willing to pay. I found a tall, skinny jar at the thrift store a few weeks ago that had a lid and thought it was pretty so I brought it home. I didn't know what to do with it, so I left it on my countertop until I could think of a use for it. I just so happened to have a collection of glass candlesticks that I was going to use with plates to make cake stands, but then it hit me that I could epoxy the candlestick to the bottom of the jar! Eureka!

***For those of you who are wondering (Naomi), epoxy is a really strong glue you can find at any home improvement store. Mine was called "Two-Ton Epoxy" so I guess it would take 2 tons of pressure to pull the candlestick and jar apart. It works great on glass and ceramics, or pretty much anything you want to stick together. And one other thing--to see the photos better, click on them to make them bigger.

So, take a cute jar with a lid (this one is from JoAnn's for $3):

Then pick out a candlestick holder, like this one from a thrift store for fifty cents:

Think of something you want to put in the jar:

Then add it all together to get something like this:

Or this:

Or make a whole collection to display together. I want to put little terrariums in them and watch them thrive.

Pretty. Easy. Quick. And really inexpensive. My kind of project!

Art for Ashlee's Room

Here's some art I made for Ashlee's room last year. I had these two frames for displaying birth announcement samples that I used to do and thought they would go perfectly in her room.

All I did was print off bird silhouettes that were part of a free font download to the right size for the frames. Then I meticulously cut them out with scissors (the skinny little legs and feet were the hard part), found some cool paper in the scrapbook section of Michael's, and mounted the birds on top. Sooooo easy!

I found these shadowboxes on clearance at Target a good 6 or 7 years ago. I think they were only $3 a piece. The sand dollar and star fish came with the frames and the letter "A" used to be a seashell. Originally, I pulled them all out, added the wooden "A" monogram, reused the sand dollar, and added a cute little plaster mold of Ashlee's baby hand in the last one. I covered the back insert of the frames with leftover fabric that I had used to make her some bedding. But as she got older, they were in need of an update for her "big girl" room. I hunted down the star fish again, painted it white and replaced all the fabric with more cool paper from Michael's. This is the same girl who insisted I paint the zebra rug, so you can clearly see where her inspiration came from.

**Disclaimer** No, I don't have a zebra theme going on in my house, I promise.

I'm such a procrastinator that these 3 are still sitting in a stack on one of her bookshelves and I only put the bird prints up on her wall about a month ago. When I finally get around to painting her walls, fixing the crumbling plaster ceiling, pulling off the chair rail, and refinishing her floor, THEN I will put up these last finishing touches. Sigh!

No Need to Adjust Your Television Set

Yep, that's right! You're not seeing things and you're not hallucinating. I am actually updating my blog! Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are! I have a million things I could blog about right now, but many of you have let me know that you are ready to see pix of the overhauled kitchen I began tackling last August. Well, today is not exactly your lucky day as this is not the reveal post for that. Sorry, I know that must have been anticlimatic. But, there is a decent picture of part of the "after" kitchen that should satisfy you for now. Really, I just wanted to show you this quick and easy makeover I did on an old sisal rug that has found its new home in aforementioned new kitchen. Here's the "before" rug, an old rug I already owned that had seen better (and cleaner) days:

I pulled off the old fabric border and cut it down to a 2' by 3' size, perfect for in front of the kitchen sink. Then I primed it with a thick coat of my trusty Kilz white primer, let it dry, and sketched a zebra print I had seen in my West Elm catalog. (It was a tough decision between Chevron and zebra, but my horse-loving daughter insisted zebra was the way to go.) Then I added the cool black contrasting stripes with some black paint I had lying around. To seal it and stop stains from soaking in, I sprayed on 3 coats of Minwax Polycrylic. By the next day, it was ready for its debut:

Ahhh! Don't you just love the contrast of black and white? It's really fun to see as you walk into the kitchen. A little pick-me-up especially after this long, dark winter. And here's what it looks like on my floor in the kitchen you have been waiting so patiently to see:

It's just a little piece of all the hard work I was doing last semester. It still needs crown molding and I have to put in all the filler pieces between the walls and cabinets, but this should give you a general idea of my little Ikea kitchen. I will try to post the before and more afters of the entire kitchen remodel in the very near future, but until then, this is all I've got. Don't you just love that cool zebra rug?