Funky Find Friday: Bright and Modern

I'm normally a vintage, shabby chic kinda girl. But recently I've seen the beauty in bright post modern pieces. Today's Funky Find Friday features some bright pieces that could be seen in any modern room.

First up, pillows like this one from Mi Casa Bella on Etsy.

The store has this pattern in several colors and sizes. Check out the store for lots of modern designer pillows.

Check out this great bright, modern and inexpensive artwork that Little Things Brings Smiles created for her husband:

Love that idea!

Check out this bright modern living room makeover featured on HGTV.com:

Bright and Modern is growing on me more and more all the time!

For another bright modern space, check out this loft on Apartment Therapy.


Well I don't think I could personally do my entire house in bright modern style, I am now seriously considering turning my office/extra bedroom into this look.

Check back tomorrow for my bright modern project.

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Chairs

Today's Funky Find Friday is all about chairs! I thought I would show you some great chair redo's that would be easy for even the most beginner DIYer to do.
Found a chair that doesn't have a seat? That's no problem! Just weave a seat using webbing. Get the instructions here.

A fresh coat of bright paint and a rub on make this chair pop! Find it here.


Have several old chairs you're not sure what to do with? Put them together and make a bench. How-to here.


Plain modern chairs can be a bit boring. Add some scrapbooking paper to the back for a color punch. Found here.

Hope you find these chairs inspiring!

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Summer

Summer for me has begun! I thought I would share some funky finds that say summer to me.

A great picnic basket from Target:*Source

Doesn't this necklace from Gaialai on Etsy just scream ocean?*Source

Wouldn't this wind-chime from World Market be great on a breezy porch?

*Source

This double chaise lounge from Pottery Barn makes me want to relax in the sun:
*Source

Check out the birdhouses The Peculiar Palette posted on Craftster.org:
*Source

What makes you think of summer?

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Steampunk

Okay, so I've been a bad blogger lately. I'm hoping to make up for some of that this month before I have the baby ('cause I'm not guaranteeing a lot of activity in April!). I thought I would do some redeeming with a Funky Find Friday.

This Friday, I thought I would talk about steampunk. What is steampunk you ask? Wikepedia says: "Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England" *Source I cut this definition down more to say that as far as art, jewelery, and clothing goes its a combination of Victorian era things with mechanical things. An example of this would be lace and watch gears. Steampunk is gaining wild popularity in clothing and jewelry design and can be found all over Etsy. I first came across steampunk on Craftster.org in the form of jewelry.

Enough rambling, time to show examples:

First is this fab clock sculpture made by Tim Wetherell for an Australian museum.

*Source

Or how about this steampunk skin for your ipod?

*Source

Very popular are steampunk cuff links made from watch movements like these from London Particulars on Etsy:

*Source

How about some steampunk inspired art pieces:

This digital art print by Galeriedeilluminata on Etsy is great:

*Source

Or this print from Chet Phillips's Steampunk Monkey series on Etsy:

*Source

I too have been caught up in the craze. Here's a necklace I made recently out of watch movements, gears and vintage silverware:

*Source

Steampunk takes on different meanings to different folks. But in general, the style is fairly defined. I wear a brooch on my coat of a seahorse with a watch movement for a body (I'll try and get a pic later). I constantly get compliments on it and explain to people what "steampunk" is. I love the style as far as jewelry goes. I hope you enjoy it too!

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Halloween

For this installment of Funky Find Friday, I thought I would feature some great Halloween themed items.

First up is piece more geared toward fall in general. It's a beautiful pumpkin silk scarf from Ocean Avenue Silks.

Gorgeous!

How about some simple but cute cake decorating ideas from Country Living Magazine?

These ideas actually come from Chef Mary Maher of Chicago's Cakegirls bakery. I love her on the Food Network!

Check out this awesome coaster set w/ storage tin that littlepooky made over at Craftster.org.

Then there's this cute fabric banner from Addiebugs.

I love it!

All this Halloween goodness makes me want to throw a party even more. That's probably not going to happen this year. *sigh* I'll have to settle for decorating my house anyway! ;)

Happy Crafting!

Junk Bonanza in Review

Junk Bonanza was awesome! There were three huge buildings of booths. Mom and I got there around 10:00 am and left at 5:00 pm. We were really rushing to see everything in the last building at the end of the show too! I do have some pics. They are not great ones because I forgot to bring my actual camera, so these are all from my cell phone. Today I'm going to highlight some of the cool booths and neat items I saw. I'll show you what I actually bought tomorrow.

Great display of camp items:

Awesome giant sign letters:

A pretty display of primitive white and silver items:

I love this vintage tin trunk that's been printed with names of streets and other landmarks from around the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Hall tree made out of an old door:

A random crowd shot also showing some cute pumpkins made out of chenille:

There was so much cute stuff that I'm kicking myself for not getting pics of. There were peace signs made out of vintage ceiling tin, vintage roller skates used as wine bottle displays, and lots of fabulous junky furniture. I'm already dreaming of next year!

Don't forget, tomorrow for Inspiration Tuesday I'm going to post the stuff I got and unveil all my fabulous plans for it!

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Slightly Postponed

Becaue of all the excitement I plan on bringing you by going to Junk Bonanza tomorrow, I'm not going to post a Funky Find Friday today. But I will be taking loads of pics and posting them both here and on Twitter. I can't wait to see the junk (and go to Ikea)! Woot!

Funky Find Friday: Art

I have always wished I had the talent to paint and draw. My father has that talent, as does my brother, but somehow it skipped over me. As such, I admire those who can do those things and I thought I would show you some art I've come across both on Etsy and Craftster.org that I especially thought was great.

First is this painting of mailboxes in Peacock Garden's shop.

I love the rual setting and the colors in this one.

I love, love, love the watercolor sailors by Kat Martin. This is one of my favorites.

Her Etsy shop Weigh Anchor is closed right now while she's moving, but you can check out more of her artwork on Craftster.org.

Does any one else have an unnatural obsession with Bob Ross and his happy trees? No, um..okay. Wait a minute...bonesaw over at Craftster.org just painted a Bob Ross inspired delight

Look at all those happy trees for the happy little squirels and birds to live in. *sigh* Check out bonesaw's original post (link above) for some great in progresss shots!

For a medium that's a bit different, milesapart714 painted Alice in Wonderland inspired clothing right on pages from the book!

Check out the post to see all the other great clothing she painted! Plus check out more artwork in her etsy shop, Limette.

Got some great art you'd like to share? Contact me through my profile on the right

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: This used to be what?

For this week's Funky Find Friday, I thought I would showcase some reduce, recycle and reuse principles I reflected on in a post earlier this week. All of today's finds are from Etsy and are things that take something already in existence and use it for a new and/or totally different purpose.

First up is a beautiful bracelet made from recycled plastic bottles found in Artwork by KD's shop.
Or how about a bird feeder made from old streetlights by Red Yellow and Blue Ink.

I love the colors the two lenses make together! Simply beautiful.

I've always love glasses like these from YAVA Glass.

I located a vintage glass bottle cutter from the seventies, and I'm practicing with it, but man does it take patience. Plus I love these because they are Fresca! (I have an unnatural obsession with Fresca at the moment.)

There is nothing better by recycling using vintage objects! How about using this great wooden crate from Bird In Hand for organizing all your stuff!

It never ceases to amaze me the things people can make out of something completely different. I love the entire principles of recycle, reduce, and reuse simply because of the beautiful transformations that can happen. (Oh yeah, and it's good for the environment too!) ;)

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday: Personal Finds

For this week's Funky Find Friday, I want to show you funky stuff I've found and what I did with it in my own house. Some things I refinished, others I just used in different ways and some things I use exactly as they are meant to be. On with the show and tell:

I found this neat vintage blue shelf at an auction. I knew it would work great in my blue and yellow bedroom, but it needed a little something. So, I painted the outside of the frame a grayish white and distressed it a little. Now it holds my cobalt glass collection and a few yellow accents above our bed. (Please ignore the awful wallpaper behind it. We rent this house and the paper in the bedroom is very dated.)

This has to be my favorite find ever. The town I went to college in has "spring cleaning week" every year. You can throw whatever you want on the curb and it will be picked up for free. I used to relish that week! I would spend hours driving around with my friends scouring for "upgrades" to our collage furniture. (My Mom and I actually still like to go curb shopping here if we can make it!) This is the front off an old piano that was smashed to bits. It made me sad to see the piano in that state, but on the other hand, I took this front and ran with it. I screwed in four ordinary coat hooks and TaDa! Instant alternative to a full hall tree. Other notable finds from spring cleaning week include(don't have pics right now, will get soon): a stained glass window (that's right!) with only one tiny broken piece of glass, antique dressers, blue mason jars...the list goes on! Incidentally, my Mom and I went to spring cleaning this year and found no less that three piano's thrown out!

I guess I find my entire setting above the kitchen cupboards fun and funky, but the best find has to be the tea kettles. One is copper and the other aluminum. I got a whole box of these babies at an auction for $1 and split them with my Mom.

I made this funky find (formerly a vintage pillowcase) into a great over the shoulder bag. This bag works great for a green shopping bag or library books. It's hard to tell in the pic, but there is a tabbed pocket on the front. The straps are simply the sides tied in knot and it's lined with yellow and white gingham.

These cute owl bookends I found in a thrift store. They are plaster and were formerly painted 70's gaudy gold (you know the one I'm talking about, they put that color on everything from mirror frames to wall sconces. Blech!) I spray painted them black and now they hang out on the bookshelf in my office.

That's all my funky finds for this week. Have you had any funky finds lately? What did you do with them?

Happy Crafting!

Funky Find Friday

Okay, so I decided the more weekly post options the better. In that light, I present to you Funky Find Friday. I scoured the internet for some fun, funky stuff that I thought everyone would enjoy.

First up: This art photo print set from Artsy on Etsy.

I love this robot! He's super cute and the print would look awesome in a retro inspired kitchen or craft room.

Second: Recycled magnets, jewelry and other stuff made from pop cans from Funky Recycling on Etsy.

This squirrel magnet is one of my favorites!

Third: Silk and Shell Facinator from Hatastic .

I don't think I could pull off this hat, but it's gorgeous!

Fourth: This super cute bag made by RaraAvis over on Craftster.org

Love it! I think she actually hand-sewed all those scales on! Amazing.

Finally: A Dr. Seuss inspired nursery painted by Chronicdoodler on Craftster.org for her brother and his fiance.

There are a bunch more pics of the wall paintings over on the Craftser post. What a great auntie! I wish I had such talent.

Happy Crafting!

*All pics are property of their owners. I do not own the rights to them and only reproduce them here for the purpose of exposing them to a wider audience.