I visited one of my favorite places last week, Screendoor. You never ever know what kind of fun stuff you will find as it is constantly updated. Thought I would share a look at some stand-outs.

Simple, and yet such a fun way to reinvent a vintage piece. This vendor covered a typewriter and cameras with a thick coat of strong color.

 Let's put that typewriter on some stacked books on the *pretend* bookshelf on the other side of this room: 

{myhomeideas}

Speaking of strong color.. check out this beautiful traditional piece that was painted a lovely soft gray, but open that baby up and *BAM* a punch of lacquered aqua goodness. It's hard to tell, but the inside was papered in a coordinating blue wallpaper. Business in the front, party on the inside!

Let's let it live here, shall we...

{flickr}

or how about opposite the bed in this gorgeous room...

{isabella and max rooms via amie corley}

Another take on using traditional pieces--we have all seen the vintage tole painted trays. They are usually reasonably priced. Using a huge collection of these on a wall is a great idea. {Just the merchandizing here sparks so many ideas!}

How about this tray collection on a wall in this room:

And lastly...

'things that make you go hmmmmm...' An enormous lighted dog profile made out of plastic lids. Your guess is as good as mine.

Our family got to spend Memorial Day weekend in beautiful Sea Pines at Hilton Head. My sister-in-law's family has a home here and we were lucky enough to spend time with this fabulous foursome. 

Melissa {sister-in-law}, Rick {brother-in-law}, Mathew {nephew} and Natalie {niece}  

We enjoyed dinner at The Salty Dog, boat cruising, shopping, fishing, sea shell finding, wave riding, sand castle making, ice cream slurping and gazing at the beautiful beach homes {and just a small dumping from Subtropical Storm, Beryl}.

Guess who saw the sand and the ocean for the very first time? And guess who absolutely loved it?

On the boat, we got pulled over by the water police {not sure that is their official title} and Natalie and Mathew were wearing their vests, so all the kids got free t-shirts!! woot-woot!  

It was a much needed, wonderfully relaxing vacation.

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And guess who celebrates the big 1-4 today...

This freckled face sweet boy! Because of a baseball game tonight, we will have his party tomorrow night.

I love you, Jack!!

Greetings from Hilton Head!! I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful weekend!  

(image via Coastal Living)

I love creating and giving personal graduation gifts. If your kids are like mine, they have drawers full of t-shirts--school, sports, camps, you name it. Many are now too small or too soiled. But, even so, I can never get myself to throw them away. I've always known that one day I will use them for something and now I have come up with a project that can finally upcycle some of those shirts--t-shirt bowls. 

     This is Jack's {stained} shirt that I started with. The logo size was perfect for a 8-9" bowl. There was also a smaller logo on the back that I used to make a smaller bowl. 

You need to find a bowl to use as your mold. I thought I would use a bowl I already had. But, when I started searching my cabinets, I decided everything I had was a little too deep. The more shallow and flat the bowl, the less folds in the fabric and the clearer your logo looks. So, I went to Wal-Mart and found this 8 1/2" bowl. 

Here is the info in case you want to buy one.

I cut a big circle and then placed it inside the bowl to see how it would look.

I wrapped the bottom of the bowl in tin foil.  

And just in case you want to see the other side...

I used fabric Mod-Podge and coated the front side of the fabric with a layer.

I laid the coated side down to cover the bottom of the bowl, over the tin foil. Then I coated the backside with the Mod-Podge, smoothing it down as flat as possible.

FYI...it takes days for this to dry.

It's hard to see from this angle, but this cakeplate turned upside down, makes a great place to prop the bowl on to dry because it keeps the bowl suspended about an inch off the plate. 

Now, here's where we detoured a bit. When this was dry {days later} I pried it off of the bowl and found it to be super flimsy. Too flimsy. So, I decided to bulk it up by adding a layer of paper mache on the bottom.  

{I didn't do this, but I should have: After the t-shirt dries, paint it with primer before applying the newspaper. It will avoid the gray color of the newsprint from coming through on the 'right' side)   

I used 2 layers of newspaper with the Mod-Podge. When it was dry, I used scissors to cut a clean edge. Before I added the newspaper, the inside of the bowl was really smooth. When I added the paper mache, I think that it caused the fabric to become a little wrinkly. I wonder if you were to add the newspaper at the same time you mod podged the bottom of the t-shirt, if it wouldn't be smoother...} 

See how yellow the small bowl looks? This is the newsprint color coming through. Learn from my mistakes, peeps.

To give the bottom a finished look, I used gold paint applied with a foam brush. 

It takes a couple of layers of gold paint to fully cover the newsprint.

I decided to paint a thin line of gold with a small brush on the inside of the rim for a finished look. {a gold paint pen would also work}

It's still a little flimsy, but it doesn't bother me. The Fabric Mod Podge has a shiny protective finish but obviously, this is a 'catch-all' bowl, not an 'eat out of' bowl. This would also be a fun Father's Day or a great Teacher's gift {not to mention that is costs almost nothing to make!}