Okio B Designs

Popped by a local estate sale this morning. The pricing was a bit, well, pricey. I did find a few steals though:

The camera was $5. It comes with the complete case. The gloves were $1. I can't resist vintage gloves!

The ceramic cow head, I'm still trying to figure out. Clearly it can be wall-mounted but I'm not sure if it's to hold ties, jewelery or ???? Still, for 50 cents, it's a cute piece my husband will get a kick out of.

Not bad for $6.50!

Jeanine

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More snow falling as I type but I'm keeping the faith.

Jeanine

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We're hosting the grandparents this year for Easter. I'm already playing around with the table settings to get an idea of what will look the prettiest. I bought a pretty Chevron table runner from Etsy that will match the plates perfectly. Here's what I have so far:

I will have to mix and match plates because the ones you see I got from the Pottery Barn outlet a few years ago - but are only for four. The egg cups are also from the outlet.

I made these silverware sacks last night. I printed out the image (from the Graphics Fairy) onto clear label paper and placed them on some glassine sacks. I'll be using our numbered napkins too. They need some serious ironing though first.

Each setting will get its own peat pot with a personalized name. I used Dafont.com to print out names on plain white paper. Then I made them into little banners and used Glue Dots to fix them onto my appetizer sticks.

Luckily I have another week to play around with everything!

Jeanine

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I always have a ton of Dollar Store candles in the house. Given last year's hurricane, I think it's wise to stock up. Unfortunately, they aren't the prettiest candles in the world. That is until you dress them up...

I printed off the images onto clear transfer paper. The women are from Pinterest. The bee with the crown is from The Graphics Fairy.

I simply cut around the images. Then just peel and stick.

Super quick and easy way to dress up boring candles.

Jeanine

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I picked up two of these little metal buckets from Target (in their $1 section) last week. They were $2 each. I broke out some Annie Sloan chalk paint to give them a shabby/Frenchy makeover.

First I gave each bucket 2 coats of ASCP. I wasn't worried about being sloppy because I wanted them to have a shabby/chippy paint look.

Next I printed off my graphics onto waterslide decal paper. (I told you I'm obsessed with this paper! I use it every chance I get!). I give the images a couple of coats of clear spray paint so the image won't run. Once that's dry, simply dip into a pan of water and the sticker part will separate from the paper.

Of course you have to play with the sticker a bit to get it perfect (or close to perfect as in my case). Push out the air bubbles and voila!

As you can see, my new buckets are sitting in my new Ikea kitchen cart. The hubby and 7 year old put it together for me last night. I love it!

Jeanine

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I have been waiting literally months for my local Ikea to get the pretty aqua blue kitchen cart that you've probably seen all over Pinterest. Guess what?

I grabbed mine this morning! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! I'm so very excited! As soon as my hubby steps foot in the door, he's putting this baby together. I'd do it myself but I don't have a great track record with assembling Ikea products. Better to be safe than sorry!

Jeanine

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I'm looking forward to a fruitful garden this year. My dad has offered to help me pick the perfect spots in our yard. You see, we do well with tomatoes and cucumbers, and some random herbs, but my eggplant and green peppers never seem to take off. Anywho, I decided to start early this year with some of our seeds. Of course, I had to dress up my peat pots just a little.

These mini peat pots were something like 10 for $1. I painted each white to start. While the paint was drying, I hand-stamped basil, oregano and mint onto tissue paper. I ripped the tissue paper as close to the lettering as possible and glued it on with Mod Podge.

I gave each piece of tissue paper a coating on top after the first coat dried. Now I know which seed goes in which pot, and which herb is in which pot (and the pots look a little cuter!).

I also did this seeds one but I think the stamps were a little big for the pots. Doh!

Jeanine

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It's been a really beautiful weekend here. I almost feel like Spring is nipping at my heels. The mild weather inspired me to put out some of our Easter decorations.

A Spring nest propped onto a vintage typewriter.

Nests and eggs are everywhere! See the little bunnies tucked into the egg cups?! I keep them out all year.

More nests. I have mason jars in a milk bottle carrier as our centerpiece on the dining room table. Some have candy and some have eggs. Not sure if you can see the two bunnies behind the nests. They are salt and pepper shakers from the Pottery Barn outlet. So are the little nests with eggs.

This sweet bunny is from Home Goods.

I can't wait to break out our Pottery Barn egg plates and egg cups. We're having Easter at our house this year so I'll be able to put them to good use.

Jeanine

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It's cold and stormy here yet again, but I'm definitely thinking of summer. Wouldn't these be great for sipping some lemonade on a beautiful, warm summer day?

Someone added the No. 7 clipart to Pinterest. I downloaded it onto sticker paper. Before cutting and adding to my recycled Starbucks bottles, I gave them a coat of clear spray paint.

Cut, stick and done! The only real messy part is getting the Starbucks label completely off. I actually made 4 but I only had the three ready when I snapped the photos. The straws are from Target. A clearance find for 99 cents!

Jeanine

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I just love dress forms, don't you?! I have about 20 in the house of varying sizes. Some are fabric; some are metal. I think I have one in just about every room in the house. Here is my newest one:

Someone posted a lovely dress form template on Pinterest. I used it to make this cardstock tag that measures a little under 8.5" x 11". First, I printed it out onto regular white paper. Then I cut it out to use as my template. I printed out the French script onto #80 cardstock and then traced the dress form cut-out onto the cardstock.

After I cut it out, I had the perfect dress form "canvas" to work with. I used some ruffle fabric to make her dress. At the top of the ruffles, I added some vintage lace for the "belt" and topped it off with a hand-stamped button which also has French script on it.

I added some rhinestones for a faux necklace of sorts. Use a hole puncher to pop a hole in the top and add some twine to hang.

Isn't she sweet?

Jeanine

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I am the world's worst wreath maker. Yup, I admit it. And while I could probably easily plunk down $20 or so to buy one, I'm just too frugal to do it. I wanted to add something, anything to my front door for Spring...

This fleurs basket is from Marshall's. It's normally hanging in my tearoom. I bought it a couple of years ago and as luck would have it, it fits into the skinny place between our wood door and the glass door.

It's holding a bundle of lavender. Note the plastic wrap still on the lavender. Completely on purpose because I don't want to be picking up lavender buds every time we open and close the door. What's nice, though, is we get a sniff of lavender every time we come home. And, of course, wreath problem solved!

Jeanine

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I popped into a local thrift store earlier this week. I wasn't in much of a buying mood but I figured I'd take a quick look. I walked out 99 cents lighter thanks to this petite muffin tin.

It's not vintage but for 99 cents, I knew I could give it a vintage farmhouse feel simply by adding some candles to the muffin slots. It's a look I've seen on Etsy and I just love it!

I picked up a bunch of these small candles from the Dollar store. And boy do they smell yummy!

I can't wait for a warm spring night to light these and just relax.

Total cost for everything: $2.99!

Jeanine

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I have no shame in posting projects that I'm feeling iffy about. Sometimes things don't go quite as you envisioned, and you need some other opinions to justify your own. Case in point, these votive candle holders I made last night.

I used some leftover French images I had printed onto tissue paper. I used these for some peat pots I did a couple of weeks ago. I figured how could I go wrong using them on these candle holders?!

I used the same Mod Podge technique I used for the peat pots. This time I added some German glass glitter on the images while the Mod Podge was still wet.

I'm just not feeling the love though. Not sure if it's because the glass glitter is over the images or if it's because the tissue paper is so obvious. I'm trying to decide whether or not to just start all over again and use transfer stickers instead?!

Decisions, decisions...

Jeanine

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There is this marvelous photo floating around Pinterest of an Easter nest in an urn. Perhaps, you've seen it? I was so excited because I had all of the components I needed for a quick copycat.

I got this little urn a few weeks ago at Goodwill. It's the perfect size to add a little nest. It could probably use a few coats of paint but I do like the chippy look.

I added some faux green moss from the Dollar Store and perched my little nest on top. Then I added my little bunny - which I can't for the life of me remember where I got it.

Super simple and a sweet Easter copycat!

Jeanine

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I really do love embellishing bottles. These are some I had used for other projects but kind of fell out of love with. So I peel off the old labels and embellishments, and start over from scratch.

The tall bottle originally had a Halloween touch. Now it's a shabby button holder. I used some leftover red ticking that I bought from Somerset a couple of years ago. I hand-stamped PARIS on a random piece of white fabric and adhered it to the ticking using fabric glue. Not sure if you can tell, but at the top of the tall bottle is a French address label from the Graphics Fairy.

The little salt (or pepper!) shaker is a Goodwill find. They only had one the one at the time and I loved the shape, so I snatched it up. I hot glued the photo holder to the back of it and then added some burlap, and another piece of random fabric which I hand-stamped SPRING onto. It's holding a miniature Tarot card from a deck I've had since my 20s.

I love the shape of the one with the lace. For that one, I used a pretty Paris image that I printed onto label paper. I distressed the edges a bit and stuck it on. Then I hot glued the lace on top and added a faux dried flower.

The best part is that I used remnants and random pieces from my stash so it cost me $0 to make these!

Jeanine

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According to my calculations, there are 24 more days until the official start of spring. Good enough for me to start breaking out the spring and Easter decorations.

I have two cloches that I switch out depending upon the season/holidays. For Valentine's Day, I used my pink one but spring calls for this pretty robin's egg blue one.

I actually keep this nest out all year. It sits on a vintage typewriter in our corner cabinet. It fits perfectly in this cloche so I did the ol' switcheroo. I can't not have a little French touch, note the little Paris postmark fabric tag in the nest.

I'll be sharing more of my spring and Easter touches in the coming days.

In the meantime, hope you're having a great weekend!

Jeanine

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Country has come finally come home! Yup, me and the hubby are ecstatic that New York has a new country music station. The only other one we could get was from Connecticut and we could only hear it on the way to my parent's house. Of course I had John Rich's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy blaring in my minivan yesterday morning (I'm just too cool for words - lol!). That inspired this quick tank top:

The cowboy image is from the Graphics Fairy. I created the text using DaFont. First I printed off the image. Then I taped it to the sheet with the text and scanned both.

Then I was able to print everything out onto one page. I did it this way because if the text is not in a jpeg format, I can't mirror it and print it for the transfer.

Of course this was just a test one. I still have to play with it to get the line out from above the ride a cowboy part. Plus, I used the cheapie transfer paper which tends to yellow a bit. Not sure if you can see, but there is also a red rhinestone on there that I'm not sure if I love or hate.

Either way, I'm sure my hubby will get a kick out of it. If I can perfect the transfer, I'll be adding these to my Etsy shop.

Jeanine

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Is it me or is Blogger having issues again? I keep getting error messages and holy moly, is anyone else receiving a lot of spam messages? Thankfully, I have my comment settings set to approval because you cannot believe all of the spam I'm getting!

Anywho, I had this little wood plaque sitting around for a few months. I had painted it robin's egg blue and planned to use it for another project that never materialized. So instead of continuing to allow it to collect dust, I made this quick Salle de Bain sign for our bathroom door.

I printed out the text onto clear label paper. I wasn't in the mood for a lot of cutting so I just left a border. Peel and stick, and done!

Next, I added the little number plaque to the bottom - giving it a kind of French hotel look (in my mind anyway!). You can't tell from the photos but the door is white (it looks pink in the photos for some reason) and the blue gives it a nice pop of color.

Of course the hubby will either walk right pass it or I'll hear, "Hon, what does Sally d Bain mean?" Lol!

Jeanine

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Remember that petite colander I picked up at TJ Maxx last week? I turned it into a pretty spring nest:

Just added some faux "grass," a petite Dollar Store nest and some scented robin's egg soaps.

Yup, I'm ready for spring! And how cute are these Easter cupcake toppers from Target?!

Only $1 per pack. Too adorable (and cheap!) to pass up!

Happy President's Day everyone!

Jeanine

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This little cloche cost me a couple of dollars at a garage sale over the summer. I've dressed it up for Xmas and Valentine's Day and over the weekend, I gave it a simple spring touch.

Yup, I just added a roll of twine.

Then I made the butterfly tag with some French script and cardstock, and added it to a metal picture holder. It fits perfectly in the middle of the twine.

Super duper quick and I love the rustic look of the twine. I'll probably be adding a bunny to the cloche for Easter, but for now this works for me.

Jeanine