How to Keep an Art Journal

I have several journals. I have prayer journals, planner journals, idea journals, and paste books, but my favorite journals are art journals.

You will usually see me talking about altered book journals, which I make from discarded books -- these are great for mixed media projects.

Black Friday Shopping for FREE stuff!

Skip the crowds this Black Friday, and shop from the comfort of your home -- without spending a dime!  I have scoured our local Free listings on Craigslist to find all sorts of great stuff.

If you find something as amazing as this mirrored armoire, grab the truck and go get it! It's stunning, just as it is.

This white painted armoire, from Restoration Hardware, costs $1800!

I am in love with this french provincial dresser!

It is missing veneer in a couple of places, so it's a perfect candidate for a little wood putty and paint, like this dresser, from This and That Life.

This leather sofa is in good condition, structurally, and just needs to have the leather reconditioned to be beautiful, once again.

These channel back chairs look like they've spent the last sixty years in an unused living room. I might pull the skirts off, to update them, but the off white upholstery is in great shape, and off-white is always classic.

People are often giving away faded or dated framed art. These make great "canvases" to create new art pieces for your walls.

Here's an easy example of how to create your own wall decor. If you are doing this over an old piece of art, give it a good base coat of paint, first, and let that dry completely before taping a pattern off with painter's tape or masking tape.

Two things, in the picture below, caught my attention. First, the vintage metal doll crib is just darling. I might use it like a basket, and store extra lap blankets in it, keeping it under an end table.

Second, that ornate frame is gorgeous! I would clean it up and put a thin piece of plywood in it, painted with chalkboard paint, like this one.

If you have someone strong in your life, you might grab this vintage safe. It has a working combination!

So much great patina! I would clean it and seal it and put it in my living room.

I've seen these converted to occasional table and dry bars. Here is one I found on Apartment Therapy.

While a stack of old magazines might seem like a strange thing to get on Craigslist, collage artists, and papier mache artists and crafters can find all sorts of things to do with them.

This starburst mirror was made from magazine pages!

And then there are the ubiquitous paint listings. You can paint your house, paint your armoire, paint your mirror, and still have paint left over!

I love wheeled carts. They are great for craft supplies, sewing supplies, party drink stations, etc.

I love this pretty rolling cart that's been converted to a coffee station.

These beige sofas are clean and in good repair, with classic lines.

Add some pretty pillows, like these, from Pottery Barn, and your living room will be a show stopper!

You might also enjoy this post on how to weave a rush seat.



Or you might like this post on mixing paneling styles.



If you enjoyed this tutorial, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have scheduled. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on daily on Instagram. Feel free to link today's post to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda

This Abbot Kinney Welding Shop is a Piece of Authentic Venice

We've been spending a lot of time in Los Angeles, lately. For a couple of years, we need to travel between Venice and Seattle for my husband's job. We have fallen in love with Venice.

Venice is amazing. Venice is crazy. Venice has heart. Venice has crime. Venice has very high end homes, and Venice has homeless encampments. Lots of movies and TV shows are filmed in Venice. In fact, I can see The Today Show filming down by the graffiti wall as I type. When we first came here, I made my husband spend an afternoon with Linda Blair and me, watching Roller Boogie. The two star film was shot in Venice, and it's fun to locate the old Venice landmarks and to see how things have changed. You can see the exterior of our apartment in some of the scenes. You can still find roller skaters on the Venice Boardwalk, though roller skating has been eclipsed by skate boarding, with the addition of a new skate park.

How to Make a Paper Mache Starfish

I adore paper mache. When it comes to crafting, I would go so far as to say it's my first love. Since we've moved to more humid climes, however, I've found that my projects don't dry quickly (or at all) on their own.

I've learned to compensate by using the oven and putting drying racks over heat vents. Another way I compensate is by finding ways to keep my armature from getting too wet.

Steel and Glass Home in a Mesquite Bosque {Tour}

We waited too long. Over the last few years, we've been trying to figure out where we want to live when we retire. We love Arizona -- it's where we met and fell in love and married. Now, thirty plus years later, our kids are raised and are starting families of their own. Retirement is on the horizon.

Last year, we traveled to Arizona to see some properties near Tucson.

Valentine Pocket Hangers and Garlands {Upcycled Mixed-Media}

A couple of years ago, I found a great deal on old LP's in a local Goodwill. They were ten cents a piece, so I grabbed a stack of albums that met one of two criteria: good album, or good cover graphics.

We keep an old stereo at the beach house, so LP's get plenty of use, but since not all the vinyl was in good shape, I was looking for album covers that could easily be re-purposed. I found a melted LP, with beach themed graphics and decided to make some Valentine pockets with it.

Our New Beach House Cats

We adopted two cats this summer. I was scrolling through our local Nextdoor forum, and noticed that someone was looking for a home for their cats, as they were soon to be moving. I was a little shocked, at first, after all, who leaves their cats when they move? When I clicked on the posting, I understood.

Syd and Leo each weigh over five hundred pounds. They are not easy to move. The owners had moved them several times, but they were getting older, and it was time to find the cats a new family. I called them and made an appointment to meet the cats in their Seattle courtyard.

Working on the Beach House Path

It's been quite a while since I posted any beach house updates. We continue to plug along with projects, but we try to balance work weekends with resting weekends and entertaining weekends.

Each year we improve the beach path a little bit more. When we first bought the house, the path was only inches wide, and full of holes and random hidden driftwood logs to trip us up. I think I spent as much time face down in the dune grass, as I did walking down the path!

Creating Art With Beach Treasures

If you drag home lots of shells and sand dollars from your beach vacations, here is a project that is fun for both kids or grownups.

We spend a lot of time at the beach on the Pacific Northwest coast, and have collected baskets and baskets of shells and sand dollars. I adore them in their natural state, but also love the idea of using them to create art.

Best Ever Smoked Salmon Fillets!

I don't do a lot of recipes on House Revivals, but every now and then, something turns out so amazingly well, I just have to share!

My husband and I love to fire up the smoker on the weekends we spend at the beach house. We often hit the grocery store when we pull into our little beach town and grab something that we think will taste great smoked, but won't require watching the smoker all day long. Salmon fillets are perfect for this, because they don't need to sit in a brine or dry pack for very long, and they usually cook pretty fast.

While my husband usually mans the smoker, I usually choose the preparation method. I've experimented with dry packed salt and brown sugar, for a sweeter product, but this time I wanted something a bit more savory and less sweet.

To start, you will want one large salmon fillet, cut into about four pieces.  Next, pour about a half cup of hot water into a measuring cup. Now, add salt to the measuring cup until the level reaches three-quarters of a cup. Put this mixture into a glass dish (a baking dish works best), and add a couple quarts of cold water (enough to cover your fillets).  Add a generous amount of garlic powder or minced garlic (I added about a tablespoon of powdered and a tablespoon of minced), and add two or three tablespoons of sugar (or less). Experiment with seasonings you may like, such as onion, cumin, cilantro, or paprika. Add a generous amount of pepper, if desired. Mix everything together and add the salmon to the dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or two.

Heat your smoker to 225 degrees before adding the salmon.  If you'd like a "candied" crust, sprinkle the tops of the fillets with brown sugar right before putting in the smoker.

When the salmon reaches 140 degrees, it is done. Smokers vary, but in our electric smoker, a one inch fillet usually reaches 140 degrees within an hour.

While you're waiting for your salmon to brine, you might want to try this recipe for the Best Bloody Mary Ever!

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to House Revivals in the sidebar, so you won't miss the fun projects we have planned. Find us on Facebook, too, so you can catch all the "in between" stuff, and see what I'm working on throughout week on Instagram. Feel free to link today's project to your favorite social media sites.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

The Houseboat Studio That Wasn't

This is a story of heartbreak and disappointment. A story of what might have been. A story of a unique floating studio right down the elevator from our city crash pad.

I'm sure many of you know we live in two places. We have our beach house, which was supposed to be our "most of the time" house, and we have a tiny city crash pad. We make all these big plans, and then life gets in the way, it would seem.

The Beach House Studio Reveal

Are you ready for the 2015 House Revivals craft room reveal? Okay, maybe not "the big reveal", but the "this is where we are now, and where we'll probably stay until my schedule frees up in, ohhhhhh, I don't know, January 2016 maybe?"

At the beginning of the year, this attic was a big overwhelming mess.

A Beautiful Mess

As we head into summer, we are gearing up for lots of guests at our beach house. Entertaining can be pretty stressful, and I think we all pressure ourselves to "be the hostess with the mostest".

We plan elaborate parties, with fancy decorations, and worry about whether all our guests will be impressed. During our parties, we're constantly tidying up, checking on toilet paper, putting out dry towels, and making sure there is plenty of ice.

This Beach House is Getting Curb Appeal

Our beach house renovation is starting to move forward again!

Last year we renovated the last of a half-dozen decks.

Because this deck is ocean facing and subject to harsh elements, we bit the bullet and had custom stainless steel hangers and stainless screws installed.

DIY Rope Lampshades

New lampshades can cost a fortune, so whenever we can update the ones we already own, I'm all for it. Here is a DIY rope lampshade project I actually did last year, but in the craziness of life, it never quite made it onto the blog.

Our old house was a Queen Anne bungalow, and not all of the furnishings and accessories work in our contemporary rustic beach house.

Cool Stuff You Find When You Clean Out the Attic

Cleaning out the attic, as it turns out, is kind of fun. You find all this awesome stuff you forgot you had! You get all the happy brain chemicals you might get from shopping, without any of the remorse you get from spending money and bringing home more stuff. It's a win win!

It's kind of hard to go wrong! When I left off last week, we'd just spent one weekend unboxing and getting rid of stuff, and two weekends building and placing shelves and caulking all the places where the wind came in.

Getting Shelves In the Studio Attic!

We've been hard at work on the Attic of Shame. My husband and I spent an entire weekend assembling shelves, then we did it again last weekend.

For each shelving unit, I had to go into the attic and clear the space for that unit, so all the heavy things were lifted and moved from the taller side of the room to the short side of the room, a bit at a time. Then, when it was time to put up shelves on the short side of the room, all the heavy things were moved back to the taller side of the room.

Adventures in Cleaning out the Attic and Creating a Studio

This post is about my attic of shame. Most people have a closet of shame, or a drawer of shame, but I have an entire attic of shame. Plus some closets and drawers.

When we finally moved our boxes out of storage and into our beach house THREE years ago, we were in a huge hurry and still doing major remodel work, so all of the things that we didn't know what to do with, and didn't want to deal with, got shoved into a tiny attic space adjacent to the sleeping loft. Along with all the random stuff, all my studio supplies got shoved into the attic as well.

And there it sat. For THREE years! Sometimes, in frenzied bursts of creative energy, I would tear into some boxes to find a certain supply I was sure I had. Sometimes I found what I was looking for, but mostly not. We had THE WORST movers, and nothing was properly labeled. The attic was a huge mess that made me want to cry. On top of that, since we must spend the work week in the city, and only get to go to our beach house on weekends, we found ourselves not wanting to spend precious beach time hanging out in an attic. Basically, when faced with a choice between a bonfire and an unboxing session, we tended to choose the bonfire. Which is great. Except when you choose the bonfire for THREE years.

Well, my Word of the Year is Intention, and one of the ways I want to be intentional is to spend more time at the beach creating. I had a long talk with my husband about "going down to the sea" intentionally to create for several days out of each month. Not too many days. My husband and I love each other, and like to be together, so I won't be deserting him; but I can often work from the beach house as easily as from the city condo.

So, I have been cleaning out the attic. Believe it or not, the pictures here were taken AFTER I spent a Saturday unboxing and getting rid of stuff!  The attic is going to become a "studio-attic". Of course, it also happens to be the only windowless room in the entire house, and contains only one light bulb and one outlet. But mostly, it contains NO VIEW. So, while this space will house studio storage, machines, and a large worktable for bigger projects, smaller projects will still be carried to the dining table, or my drafting table, where there is a view of crashing surf. Because, you just don't go down to the sea to hang out all day in an attic.

The first time we saw the beach house, I knew the loft above the living room would be a perfect studio. It was one of the reasons I chose this house (plus, there was the VIEW).  Sigh... Changing job commitments have changed the way we use the house. Now, we use the house for business entertaining about one weekend in four, and the loft has to function as a secondary seating area for games and socializing. I have a small drafting table against that far wall, next to the door, but my dreams for a huge loft studio have been dashed. Le sigh....

Okay, seriously, folks, don't feel sorry for me. I'm a pragmatist, and I understand the house has to earn it's keep. Plus, I still get an ENTIRE ATTIC! Which is more than I've ever had before. And did I mention that this attic is at the beach? After three years (four since we bought the house and started renovations), I'm still pinching myself.

As I was unboxing all that STUFF, that first Saturday, I realized my actions would be futile until I actually had a place to put everything, so I stopped working and curled up in front of the fireplace with my husband and put "buy lots of cheap pine shelving" on my mental to do list. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I went every Fred Meyer within thirty miles of our condo buying ALL THE SHELVES. The sixty inch high units are perfect for the "tall" side of the attic, and the thirty inch high units are perfect for the "short" side.

Do you have a dedicated studio? I could lose myself in Pinterest pictures of gorgeous studios. Mine won't be beautiful right away -- I will feel like I've won the lottery just to have it functional for now! Beauty will come in time.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to House Revivals, so you won't miss any of the fun projects we have planned. Please "like" and subscribe to us on Facebook, so you won't miss any of the stuff that happens between blog posts.., like this cow picture. Who doesn't love a great cow picture?

To find out how we met and  fell in love with our beach house, read this post.

As always, thanks for stopping by!