From Sad Stool to Beautiful Ottoman

I mentioned a few days ago that we were starting a new adventure, renovating old furniture. I showed a bigger piece, but before we start a marathon we wanted to warm up first and start with a smaller project.

An old abandoned stool, looking very sad and not very promising. But I love its legs, I sound like a man, but yes the legs were what made me love it. I did not mind her not wearing make-up or having a bad hair day, her body is great :)

So I started by cleaning off all those useless threads, I was not planning to use it in such a way anyway, and giving those pretty legs some good attention. Sanded them, varnished 3 times, more sanding and 3 layers of a beautiful vibrant blue and this baby already had a different attitude.
The joints needed some firm glue and readjustments.

And then came the fun part, deciding on the fabrics. I knew I wanted vibrant stripes on the side, mum wanted embroidery, eventually we got both what we wanted. I started to get really excited even before dressing her up!

First step was to add new webbing.

Then foam on top and cardboard on the sides to fill up the thickness differences of the wood.

Then everything was wrapped with batting to make the edges soft.

After cutting and sewing the vintage embroidery in shape we sewed it in the shape of the top, this was stapled to the stool and tadaaaa!

I am thrilled with the result, it is adorable, cheerful and very satisfying that it all came from a sad looking stool, ready to be thrown away.

The top is a beautiful hand embroidered piece of linen, vintage from the 1950's.
It has a cute pompom trim between the embroidery and the striped fabric. The striped fabric I bought a few years ago in Amsterdam and was waiting for a special something.

The Ottoman stool is now available in our home decor shop, StarHomeStudio and already more furniture pieces are in the planning.

Newly Listed: Cascade Skirt

Cascade Skirt Cascading High and Low skirt Preloved fabric Clothing size small by StarsWear
Flower Portrait, Surreal Portrait, Fine Art Photo, Pastel Flowers, Home Decor, Dreamy, Ethereal by ellemoss
Carnations photograph, flowers, floral, vase, spring, romantic, still life, fine art photograph by dullbluelight
New Orleans Door Art Preservation Hall Door french quarter photograph photography fine art print by Briole

Newly Listed: White Seashore Jewelry Organizer Rack

White Seashore Jewelry Organizer, Beach Cottage, Driftwood, Shell, Coral, Starfish by StarHomeStudio
Dandelion Art Macro Photography Seeds Wall Art Picture of Dandelions by AmyTylerPhotography
Beach Photography, Decor, Fine Art Print, Photos, Ocean, Cottage Style, Sea Art by JLMPHOTOGRAPHS
Leaves, Tree Branches, Earth Tones Nature, Fine Art Photography Giclee Print  Home Decor, Wall Art by stilldez

New Life, New Projects

A few years ago I showed how a pine tree comes to life, you can see it here :)
Usually every year we get a few babies among our plants, of course in pots they won't be able to grow. I found two new trees among my succulent plants and replanted them in a plastic box.

I will keep watering them and keep them near the spot where they appeared as they clearly liked the amount of sun, and will bring them to the mountains once the weather is cooler and the rain has start.
I will bring them to the mountain which burned a few years ago, as there is still a lack of trees there.

In the mean time we are widening our horizons of creativity and started a large project. We are planning to completely restore and re-upholster vintage furniture pieces. One finished we will sell them in our home decor shop. We are excited but it is scary too as they take a while to finish and it is a very different thing than we usually do but hopefully the results will be satisfying and rewarding :)

Newly Listed: Seafoam Green Mint T-shirt

Seafoam Green Mint T-shirt with Vintage Handmade Lace, Bohemian Top by StarsWear
ferns photograph, light mint green, woodland, nature, garden art, country chic by dorataya
Bird photography - Vintage Inspired and Dreamy - Fine Art Photograph by DreamyPhoto
Ocean Photograph, Mint Green Photography, Seafoam Coastal Wall Art by PureNaturePhotos

Newly Listed: Caged Seashell Necklace

Caged Seashell Necklace Sterling Silver Kazaziye Handwoven Fine Silver Jewelry by StaroftheEast
wonderment, snow, winter, dreamy, fine art photography by BeverlyLeFevre
Ocean photography, coastal seascape photograph, sunbeams clouds photograph by LupenGrainne
SPIRO, Andalusian Horse , Dapple Grey, Edition Art Print, Wall Decor by SpiritedImage

9 Great Ways to Recycle Plastic Bottles

(source: blomsterverkstad)

For my second post on how to recycle daily garbage (first was how to recycle eggshells) I choose plastic bottles, no matter what we do we use lots of them and I found some small and big projects to re-use them. It takes hunderds of years for plastic bottles to decay so your projects will be usefull for many years.

I found some amazing planting / gardening uses for them, actually there are so many of them that I am only showing a few examples:

• Cut a bottle in half to cover pots, this will protect newly sprouting plants against cold and snails, the damp inside the bottle will let the plant grow quicker.
• Hang a whole bunch of bottles in front of a window, filled with soil and plants it will create a green curtain in your room, and the plants will get plenty of sunlight.

(sources: angelofernandes and elinepellinkhof)

• Make a bunch of holes in a plastic bottle, dig it in soil near vegetable or normal plants and create a slow watering system. Your roots will not rot and your plants won't dry out.
• Create a self watering seed starter pot simply by cutting a bottle in half, again perfect to avoid that your seeds and roots won't rot while they won't dry out when you do not water them every day.

(source: thegardeningcook and seattlesundries)

Now that we had a few garden related projects, I thought it was fun to show some creative projects, you will be amazed by what people have done with plastic bottles:

• Make amazing flowers simply by cutting the plastic in flower shapes and heating them a little near a candle to make the petals curly. I also saw some amazing Christmas decorations during my search, even a Christmas tree entirely decorated with plastic and it looks fantastic! You can make smaller flowers, leaves and shapes to create jewelry.
• Michelle Brand makes Chandeliers all with plastic bottles, and they do not look like 'trash' at all, they are amazing, and you could make them yourself, double win. I've also seen cool room screens and curtains made out of plastic bottles.

(sources: sabiiwabii and Michelle Brand)

• Make a cool jewelry organizer, I really like this one where you can storage any kind of jewelry, and there is a great tutorial for it.
• There are also plenty ideas to use them as storage containers, like this cute and easy to make peg basket, these hanging baskets would be great for craft and hobby rooms and even book and magazine storage.

(sources: Epbot and makeit-loveit)

I have only scratched the surface but this will get your inspiration flowing I hope :)

As the last idea I'm showing a big one, which you might never do but it is too cool not to show.

• You can make a greenhouse of bottles, it will have the same effect as glass only won't cost you a thing and hail and such are not such a threat as with a glass greenhouse. Here you can read what you would need (mostly handy hands and a huge amount of bottles), maybe a nice family project.

Have you ever done such a project, maybe something different you would like to share? I hope this will inspire you to not throw these away but making use of them :)

I have also read about several house projects built in Nigeria, and now also in some other countries. Some mentioned filled with sand but it can also be dry dirt. These filled bottles are 20 times stronger than bricks and are even said to be bullet proof! They become great isolated houses for not much money and for each one bedroom, living room and kitchen house 7800 bottles are used, so less trash and more roofs for people, such a great project!

Newly Listed: Woodland Deer Jacket

Woodland Deer Jacket Fairy tale Plus Size Clothing Gobelin Tapestry Fabric Clothing by StarsWear
The Nature Collection, macro photography, rose, water drop, rainbow, delicate by EmulsionProjekt
spring rain photography, water, droplet, blue, purple, green, waiting to fall by shannonpix
Irish Landscape Photography Secret Garden Path Green Bray County by CandyMountainPhotos

A-One-Day-Vacation

It has been years since we had a real vacation, the first reason is that we simply can not afford a good one :) Another big problem are the doggies, it is hard to find someone trust worthy to look after them while we are gone. And someone needs to stay at our home day and night so that they stay calm, fed and watered, so that makes it very hard for us to go somewhere, a few days is managable once or twice a year but a few weeks is for now impossible.

 Anyway we are still lucky as we live in a place where people actually come to have a vacation, so whenever we have the opportunity we have a one day vacation, and we are happy with that :) Who wants to chill on a beach for 2 weeks anyway when you have so much creative projects to do anyway :)
Starting yesterday and ending Sunday it is National vacation here, as it is a religious one (Sugar feast) it has nothing to with us but we still saw it as an excuse to have a 1 day break yesterday and started with a lovely brunch at our favorite place.

Where ducks, fish and water turtles wait for breakfast too. There is always a lovely breeze and it is a few degrees cooler that our extremely hot town.

Across the water were some goats too, we were really surrounded by all kind of critters.

We then decided to take a road we never checked out before and discovered a beautiful place.

It started with a cool shadowed forest path.

It felt enchanted and so beautiful, quiet and cool.

And at the end of the path, a little piece of beach, totally for ourselves!

The trees showed signs of love stories, but further no signs of people.

And as you might have noticed I have a new toy, a very cool smart phone which was a Birthday gift, and I discovered that it can take Panorama's so I had fun with that :)
As I finally have a descent phone I joined Instagram, where you can take peeks of scenes you might never have seen before, behind StaroftheEast :)

Newly Listed: Peacock Dress

Peacock Dress Vintage Embroidery Linen Birds and Flowers Plus size by StarsWear
Vintage New York City photograph - Balloons over Midtown skyline by maybesparrowphoto
Carnival Photography, Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. decor. happy art by ShannonClarkPhotoArt
Old Books Photography, Shabby Cottage Decor, Rustic Library Photography by StudioSwede13

Newly Listed: Oxidized Sterling Silver Necklace

Oxidized Sterling Silver Necklace - Handwoven Infinity knot with Vintage Findings by StaroftheEast
Seed pod photograph - poppy pods nature art natural photography print by LupenGrainne
Tree photography, Fall photography, Woodland Art Print, Golden Forest by MOONGARDENART
Bench on Brooklyn Bridge, New York Print, Fine Art Photography by EyePoetryPhotography

9 Great Ways to Recycle Egg Shells

(image source: fox in the pine)

• They are also a good deterrent for slugs and snails.  Scatter a generous barrier around any young seedlings that you want to protect, this is apparently the equivalent of us walking barefoot on broken glass.

• Use egg shells as free seed starters. You can start your seeds in egg shells, which will provide them a nutrient rich place to grow and thrive. Simple take half of an egg shells, poke a small hole at the bottom, and fill it with soil. Add your seed or seedling and water as usual. You can then place the entire egg shell into the ground when the plant is stable for transplanting.

• Make your own nutrient rich fertilizer. Plants, especially roses, love the nutrients that egg shells provide. Save your egg shells and when you have a handful of them, crush them into a fine powder. You can place them in a plastic baggie to do this easily and with little mess. Add the leftover coffee grounds from your morning brew and mix the two ingredients together well. Then, simply sprinkle the powder at the base of your plants and water as usual.

• Abrasive Cleaner: Crush the shell and add to some soapy water to use on things like stainless steel sinks, pots, etc

• Drain Clearer: Finely crushed shells will help keep your drain clear

• Nourishing Face Mask. Pulverize dried egg shells with a mortar and pestle, then whisk the powder in with an egg white and use for a healthful, skin-tightening facial. Allow the face mask to dry before rinsing it off.

• Make Your Own Powdered Calcium Supplement. Skip the pills and simply bake your shells at 180 Celsius (350 F degrees) for 8 minutes. Let them cool and grind them to a fine powder. Add your supplement (a teaspoon or less) to your favorite smoothie or juice once a day.

• Use it as craft material. Egg shells are great to make beautiful mosaics , you can find a fun egg shell mosaic frame tutorial here.

• Make eco friendly chalk for your kids, or yourself :) Here is a great tutorial for that.

(image source: the hunted interior)

I hope this post will inspire you to re use eggshells, and I am planning to write more posts on how to recycle daily used trash, in a mission to make it a habit for myself and others :)

If you know another way to recycle eggshells please let me know in the comments, I'd love to learn it!

Newly Listed: Nautical Clutch

Nautical Clutch with Leather, Digital Print Sailboats, Anchor Sailor Pouch by StarBags
Dock. Summer, photography, holidays and travel. in Sicily, fine art Photo Print by Icassettidibididi
coral by f2images
The Seagull is flying, Bird photography, Nautical Decor, Wall Art, Ocean by PhotoCoupdOeil

Reverie Fair Magazine

A lovely magazine feature to share today at Reverie Fair, a small magazine created to share women with their art.

You can see the issue online here. All jewelry featured is from our StaroftheEast shop, and you see also some pictures of our work space.