Simply Neutrals #15 Sea Urchins and a Bed Make-over

 It's time for Simply Neutrals Tuesday - except it's Friday here. I'm on school holiday time!

I thought I'd share with you my bed makeover. It was a pine country style, and we couldn't afford a new bed, so I decided to paint it...




Here's the bed as it was before...

The first coat was flat white, then I distressed it by rubbing it in parts with sandpaper. Then I wiped it over with Porters Black Antique Wax, which was later polished off, leaving a satiny creamy finish. The roses were plaster casts bought on eBay.

It really changed the whole feel of the room to light and airy, and the bed doesn't seem so solid and heavy-looking in the lighter colour.

This week has been hot here on the South Coast of NSW. Today was 33 degrees Celcius, and I took my children (11 and 13) for a swim and snorkel at one of our favourite local beaches. The tide was out and the waves and rip was gentle, so we ventured out to our favourite wonderland which we call "The Valley of a Thousand Sea Urchins". The children have not seen it often as the conditions need to be safe. They were amazed and didn't want to return to shore after an hour in the colder water. My back was sunburnt! 

I wish we had an underwater camera! I have borrowed a couple of images to show you.

The left photo comes from a local blog:

https://morselsandscraps.wordpress.com/tag/seaweed/

It is like one we held, but ours had a fuzzy layer that waved under the water. It felt strange, and attached to my thumbnail gently. We put it back safely. 

The right photo comes from:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/8224831/Sea-urchin-could-lead-to-knives-that-never-need-sharpening.html

This is what the scene looked like, but our sea urchins were black. 

Interestingly, they have self-honing teeth that can cut through rock! They are considered a delicacy and are expensive to buy. I've not tasted them.

These are some dried sea urchin shells I have found on beaches locally:

To finish, an inspirational quote in a lovely simple frame...

Thanks Wen for hosting the Simply Neutrals Tuesday. You can join in the fun at Wen's blog AppleApricot

By the way, I have just managed to add Google Friend Connect to my blog if you would like to follow me that way.

Have a creative week!

Jesse

Bears and Roses for Simply Neutrals # 14

Happy New Year! I wish you loads of creativity and time to enjoy arty expression and just 'be' in the present moment... that's my New Year's resolution - to be where I am in each present moment and enjoy it.

Here's a little hat I made recently for one of my bears using scraps of doylies, lace, flowers and beading. The band was cut from an op shop top, and the embellishments were hand-stitched in place.

Here's Edwina in her new hat. The frame is from Angela Wolf of JoesSistah.

Now for some of my glorious Spring roses. They are mauve, but I've 'neutralised' them with a textured background I purchased from 2 LilOwls.

I then added a frame from The Coffeeshop Blog. 

I added another texture as a frame, too.

I'll showcase more of my rose photos from this year soon, but for Simply Neutrals, I've played in Photoshop to 'neutralise' the vibrance of their colours, which is subtly beautiful, too. I've used the same Coffee Shop frame with a texture from Jerry Jones. The rose is called 'Climbing Cinderella', one of my favourites.

This next rose is 'Champagner', textured with a texture from Jerry Jones.

Now for a little mobile phone fun using an app called Kaleidoscope. Watch out, it's addictive! It's a great activity when you are waiting around somewhere or on public transport with kids in tow... It uses a photo on your phone or you can take a shot to play around with.

An inspiring quote for the New Year...
The background texture is from http://farfarhill.blogspot.com.au/

Happy creating!
hugs,

Jesse

Thanks Wen for hosting the Simply Neutrals party. You can see more neutral beauty at AppleApricot .

P.S. A little hint for those new to blogging (like me!), I've noticed that when I return to past Simply Neutrals posts, some of my links didn't link back to the actual #post on Wen's blog, or to my own #post, so make sure you click on the post title to get the specific link address to use, rather than the main address of the blog. Otherwise you have to search manually for it and others who may be browsing our blogs can't easily find the posts.