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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DREAM SIGN

This post is all about making a dream out of a disaster.

Lovely isn't it?  It wasn't always so.  It was born from a disaster.  
I had this fun little cabinet.  I got it at an antique store on sale for $20.00 and it really wasn't that great, but I fell in love with the door on it and used it for years.

I decided to use it in my new coastal themed bedroom, but it was going to have to be prettied up a little first.  I painted it with Annie Sloan Old Ochre Chalk Paint.  Two coats.  It was beautiful.  I gave it two coats of Miss Mustard Seed Clear Wax.  It was gorgeous.  I was buffing out the last coat when my table broke and the whole cabinet came crashing down onto my concrete garage floor.  That beautiful door broke.

I said a lot of swears.  Sam felt bad enough for me that he tried to fix it with some Gorilla Glue and clamps.

I was fearful that it wouldn't hold up to the pulling that a cabinet door would get.  I decided to touch up the damaged paint on the rest of the cabinet and use it without the door.  I couldn't toss the door though because I loved it so.  I decided to make a little sign out of it and maybe something to hang my robe and jammies on.
I had this metal sign that said "Dream" and I wired it onto the front.
I also had this awesome metal seahorse pull that I was going to use on the door anyway, but it was "chippy" and I wanted it bright and clean.  I gave it a coat of spray paint.

So began the bones of this new project.

I taped the edges and gave the border a quick coat of Annie Sloan "Provence".

 Then, I just left it out and stared at it for about 2 weeks.  I tried several things and settled on some beach glass, shells, starfish and glass stones - all attached with my trusty finger-burnin' hot glue gun.

I added a few hooks....in the wrong place, which led to adding a few more shells.  Finally, I was pretty happy with it and mounted it to my walk-in closet door.

I did salvage the rest of that cabinet, but that's a different post coming soon to a computer screen near you.
In the mean time, I'm enjoying my new robe hook/sign.  

Kind of goes with my beachy wreath don't ya think?

I have had a lot of fun making decor for my master bedroom...maybe too much fun.  As soon as I get the mate to my nightstand and paint it, I'll show you the rest.  In the mean time...I'm packing up my craft room and moving everything out of it because I'm getting all of my flooring replaced, except the kitchen.  That's right...all of that beautiful coastal cypress that was installed less than 5 months ago has to be replaced.  Installation failure.  Glad we had professionals do it because I would not want to have to fight that fight with the company myself.  So....replacement won't cost me anything, but can I just tell you what a pain in the butt packing everything up and moving it out is?  It seems like I just did that!  (Oh yeah....it's because I did.)  I know...first world problem, but still.  I can tell you that some swears were said over that issue as well. (My swear jar overfloweth.) Hope it ends as well as my cabinet door disaster.

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BEACH WREATH

Although the renovation of our new house is finished, I'm still putting on some final decor touches, most of which I will be making myself because buying and renovating a house sucks up all of your money.  I will say that I love my new home and every room inspires me to create. (Duh...kind of the goal, after all of that hard work,right?  I mean if I'm not inspired by my surroundings, I feel dead in the water, creatively.)  Speaking of water, since my master bedroom has a beachy theme, I made this wreath to hang on the wall over my about-to-be-painted dresser.  

My friend Natalie at NorthShore Days, in New Zealand, has always made me just a leetle bit jealous with all of her beach inspired decor and fabulous jewelry.  (I probably have more of her jewelry, than I do store-bought.)   Also my friend Del at Del's Shells, who is fortunate enough to live and play on the shores in Florida, blows me away with her cool beachiness.  And of course Tuula, at The Thrifty Rebel, who is always making wonderful wreaths. Thank you for the inspiration ladies!
I found this weird, wispy wreath on the clearance shelf at the tea room in Robins Vintage Suitcase sometime after Valentine's Day.  (Such a fun place to go!) It had a horrible red and white over-sized ribbon on it and looked like it needed a makeover. I almost passed it by, but then I realized it had great bones with all of that textural, wispy, driftwood-ness, so I rescued it from it's sad, clearance shelf life and threw it in a box for 5 months.

I cruised pinterest for some cool beach themed wreaths and liked this one.

I would love to give credit to whoever made this, but sadly, the pin didn't take me to any link.  (Always a good idea to watermark your pictures, eh?) Anyway....thank you, whoever you are for your inspiration.
I gathered up some found, purchased and gifted sea treasures.

I decided that the wreath was a little bit too wispy, so I gave it a trim.

Then I just attached them to my weird, less-wispy wreath with my trusty but lethal hot glue gun.

I cannot lie, it was incredibly fun and relaxing to just dream about the ocean and puzzle all of these beautiful sea treasures, gems and baubles on that wreath.  Here's an extreme close-up.....

I toyed with the idea of a ribbon, but the wreath seemed so busy that I dropped that idea rather quickly.
The colors in the wreath went perfectly with my blue bedroom walls.  This is my first time painting blue walls and I love waking up to these colors every morning!

I have oh-so-many more projects to share with you from this room, many of them inspired by some of your wonderful blogs.  When my friend Judy was here from Arizona twice during this renovation, we had great fun making many projects that can be adapted to any decor, and I'll be posting them soon. 
(By the way, Judy, I know that "less is more", but I just couldn't help putting more and then more shells on this wreath! LOL!)

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