Smoothie art

Well, this is day 7, the last day of my chip and beer free challenge.  I am happy to report that I succeeded in not consuming any chips or beer this last week.

 In fact I'm feeling so good, that I don't even have a desire to eat chips or drink beer .  I don't feel  like I lost much of my "beer belly", but I'm on the right path.  I will post the after picture tomorrow.

 This coaster is hand woven by my boyfriends mom.  Want one? The smoothie is in a wine bottle that has been made into a glass.

This is my coffee table that I painted this winter.

Reduce,Reuse,Recycle

This is somewhat my theme in life.  I am always looking for ways to re-duce, re-use,  and  re-cycle .
  Here are a couple of projects this week that reflect re-using.

I wanted and needed a coffee table, instead of buying a brand

spankin' new one, I found a used one on craigs list.  It is real wood, and very light, which made it super easy to carry up a flight of stairs into my apt.  My dad sanded it down to the natural wood with his electric sander, saving me hours. 

I live in the mountains and experience winter about 6-7 months out of the year.  So I wanted the coffee table to make me feel like I am visiting a beach cottage when I shut the blinds to the snowy mountain view.   So I went for the turquoise ceramcoat that I had on hand.  Not having a large paintbrush I used an old sponge and wiped it on, with some floating medium to help the wood show through.

I then used the same sponge to wipe on some brown glaze to give it a rustic look, and then touched up some of the lighter areas with a dark stain.

I decided to paint fish on it for a couple reasons, 1. I'm a pisces and 2.  Fish can have a flowy mystical  effect.  Well, I think so anyway.

I found a picture of some koi fish and thought it would go perfect. 

 I drew a stencil of the outline of the fish and traced around it onto the table and then drew in the detail last. You have to look close to see.

Then I began painting.  

Almost finished!

                                               Last step is a polyurethane coating

Next project...Seashell topiary.

  SO I'm making my mountain apt a beach cottage on the inside.  I'm always on the look out for cool beachy things.  I found a topiary online made with seashells on a wood base of what looks to be a candlestick holder.  It cost $179.  Um, cough, choke, gasp.  I  can not justify spending that much money on a "knick-nack" that only stands 8 1/2" to boot!  I mean, I could buy a pair of used skis for that much money.

  Off to to thrift store, where I lucked out.  I found a pair of cobalt blue glass candlesticks for $3. ea.,  they were 50% off.  I stopped at the only two random stores in the vicinity of my home that just may have  styrofoam in a cone shape.  But no luck. 

  This is when RE-USING comes in handy.  I had a piece of cardboard in the recycle bin that I cut and rolled into a cone shape.  I hot glued it together, painted it turquoise, painted glue on it, sprinkled sand( from the last beach trip) onto it, then hot glued shells (collected from the same trip to the beach) onto it.  Then simply placed it onto the candlestick and here is the finished product.  $1.50 for the candlestick, and whatever gas it cost me to drive to the store, I would guess roughly 2 bucks.  Paint and glue had on hand.



Now this is NOTHING like the one I saw on RSH

but it works for me and it has sentimental value as the seashells and sand came from one of my favorite beaches, Seal Beach in So.Ca.