Wonderful Turquoise Beachy Blue in my Etsy Shop

As you can tell from my blog header, I've always been a cobalt blue kind of a gal. But the beachy blue shades of turquoise, teal and sea blue are growing on me. I'm even redoing my craft studio in turquoise with cream and red for accents. My big ol' desk will soon sport the same finish as this glass pedestal, complete with the umber glaze.

I love the color and texture on this piece! Originally I was going for a perfectly smooth gloss finish, but I LOVE how this came out at the end. I've even set up a category in my shop for these beachy blue projects.

The leathery texture of the dried magnolia leaves really set this little vignette off. The driftwood is from the Oregon coast.

I remade this old wooden drawer into a small shelf. I love to recycle and restyle old pieces and this is one of my favorite projects. So far I've redone three drawers and I'm looking for more. The color and glaze and especially the script paper really make this one special.

Ah, see the turquoise glass pedestal on the shelf there? These pieces really do compliment each other so well, I can see them together in someone's vacation cabin or coastal home.

The script liner tells a tale of sorts and is fascinating to read. It says, "The Siren holds the key for She has the gift. A shimmer of something. Mysterious. Elusive. Hidden. Tissue and wrappings. Secrets and surprises. The unveiling of the unexpected."

The frame on the top holds a piece that says "She has a gift." See how the glaze picks out all the time worn goodness on this piece? Love it!

This vintage wooden bowl had seen better days. I had planned to refinish it and seal it with clear polyurethane but then tried the beachy turquoise color and I was hooked. It really came out great!

I used several shades of blue including turquoise, ocean blue, sky blue and teal. It is sealed with clear acrylic and looks like a well loved family heirloom.

It even looks time worn and gorgeous from beneath! Love the little ball feet and the center mark where it was hooked to a wood lathe for shaping. This bowl just makes me smile!

I have several projects in the works for more turquoise blue goodness. When I get a few more I'll post them right here. Please take a moment to check out my Etsy shop, you never know what you will find!

Beachy Solar Apothecary Jar

I see mason jars repurposed into solar lanterns all the time, so when I looked at this cute apothecary jar in my stash, I knew it would be a cool project.

I put this beachy themed solar light together for my daughter in law's birthday this week. Love you lots, Tracy! I love the way it turned out and I'll be making more, that's for sure. I've been seeing different solar light projects in blogland and knew I had to do this.

Walmart has these CHEAP, 2 for $3 CHEAP, solar lights on sale. The post is cardboard and plastic and striped, as you can see, with stars around the solar unit at the top. Yeah, you know me, I could NOT leave well enough alone.

The solar unit fit into the lid of this apothecary jar with some judicious toothpick spacers. Classy, eh? Still, far from what I envisioned. But the solar unit gets plenty of charge through the glass lid, so that's what I was looking for.

Twine wrapped jar neck, baby! Hot glue ahoy! Already I like the way it looks. Dollar Store twine and hot glue sticks plus a $2 thrift store apothecary jar. Simple simple simple.


Using some of my go-to textured wallpaper, I tacky glued it around the solar unit. It looks soooo much better and fills in the space formerly taken by my toothpick spacers. Much better.


I painted the top of the unit and the wallpaper to closely match the twine color. I shopped the house for beachy filler and added shells, sea glass and half marbles in green and white. Also, for texture and interest I added sliced pieces of cork. I love the smooth texture of the shells and glass with the cork's roughness. I added some trim using string, beads, buttons and a cork slice embellished with a tiny metal skeleton key . This was so much fun as I tried different combos of items to fix this light up!



And this is a real bear to photograph but here's what it looks like in the semi dark. The welding man used his dremel tool to cut off the little protusion at the bottom of the light, so it looks much cleaner. This light out on the deck after dark is just GORGEOUS! Love the soft glow on the glass and shells !!


I love the way this came out! And so did Tracy! Score! I will be watching for more of these jars to make her a set and also some for me.

I will be posting this pretty little light on the fun parties on my sidebar. Come visit me there and check out all the wonderful projects. So much cleverness and creativity out there, don't miss out!