The Interior DIYer

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DIY bell jar

As of recently, my new obsession curiosity with bell jars and cloches may be quite apparent. If not, it will become blatantly obvious after this post. 
I was shmoozing the internet machine the other night when I saw a tip on how to clean out old candle jars. This got me thinking about cloches, and how my leftover Yankee Candle jar may be a not too distant relative of a cloche – it just didn’t know it yet.

Below is how I turned a doomed candle jar into a cloche {or ‘bell jar’} …  

Step 1 : burn out your generic / Yankee Candle until rendered otherwise useless. Mine got super sooty which only increased the amount of winning this DIY got, since it makes the after picture look 8,000 times better. 
NOTE: this will work best with tumbler shaped jars. Meaning, straight up and down. Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with trying different shaped jars. You won’t find jar racism here. 

Step 2 : add a metal object to said jar – I used a large heavy spoon. This is so when you pour in boiling water, the glass doesn’t shatter. This bit always terrifies me – slowly pour in hot water almost to the top. I had to get hubby to pour the water in. That’s how much this freaks me out. But it turned out fine, so you shouldn’t worry.

You’ll notice the wax begin to float to the top of the water. This is good. Leave your jar to sit for about 45 minutes. Allow the water and wax to cool.

Step 3 : once the wax has reformed and is cool enough to handle, pull the wax off the top. It will still leave a rim of wax, but this can be taken care of easily. 

Step 4 : clean and scrub and clean your jar. The leftover wax can be cleaned off quite easily with a bit of elbow grease and soap.
LABEL REMOVAL TIP: most labels should peel off easily enough. Some may need some scrubbing action, but the really tough labels need the nail polish remover treatment. Use some toilet paper or tissues and use on jar as if you’re getting rid of nail polish. This worked a treat for me.
Step 5 : fill jar with whatever lovelies you prefer, put on the lid, and gently turn over. You can also go sans lid by tuning over the jar onto your hand, and then gently placing it onto shelf or surface of your choice.
And there you have it! Quite a simple and effective DIY if I may say so myself. Happy crafting, homies! xx A

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Ring my bell

I’ve been scouring the internet high and low for inspiration regarding what to cram into our gorgeous {and flamingly massive} cloche. There are some amazing ideas out there, so I’m feeling quite excited about what can be done with ours. Behold, the fruits of my labour …

Above – as creepy as this will sound, I’m really intrigued at the more clinical and/or ‘creepy’ bell jar arrangements out there. Skulls are an obvious yes for me, but there’s just a certain something about what’s going on with the above. 
Every ounce of me is already screaming for team Teacup Bell Jar. This is fighting strong and definitely appealing to my obsession with dainty things, so a load of dainty things in a massive display? Hell yes. But my fear for shattered porcelain might be trumping that.

I’m always conscious of our home being too me or too feminine, so I try to impress hubby by incorporating man things. We unfortunately don’t have a robot collection, but this may be substituted with something, dare I say, Star Wars related …

I’m also into simply placing a load of stuff in a pretty glass or cup under the cloche. For me this would immediately scream knitting needles since I have some that are in quite lovely colours as well as some inherited from my nanny.

Once I saw this  mini skeleton action going on, I couldn’t not include it.  That’s all I have to say about that. 
And finally, I’m including the below picture because of the parallel-living-room-universe that is going on here. This is the exact layout of everything I have in my living room – rectangular tray, stack of books, mini cloche, amethyst, skull, second stack of books, and even the ratio of couch-to-coffee-table-to-wall layout. Except our living room is a much darker version. Mind = blown. 
What do you guys think? Do you have cloches or bell jars at home, and what do you have in them? I’m still open for influence.
TFIF homies. Bring on the weekend. xx A
Image cred 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
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At home – I can’t be without …

Over the last little while, I’ve noticed a couple of things around our home that I’m always giving special attention. They’re silly things, but it’s stuff like this I like spending a little time on. In no particular order … 

Fruit that matches the living room. I know. I can understand how one would perceive this as ridiculous, but there’s something about a big bowl of yummy plums that makes my living room feel happier. Oranges, apples, limes and bananas get their own bowl on the microwave. Where I can’t see them. We’re not so fancy however to always have cherries. But they were there, so I was all like, that looks well played. 

Properly chopped pillows. Just a little je ne sais quoi to add some fancy to the couch region. You first floof out your pillow so it’s not squashed, and then you karate chop it down the middle. This takes your pillows to a whole ‘nother level.

Ooooh, candles. Of all shapes and sizes. It’s really silly, but candles make me feel fancy. 

Last and in no way least, our two babies – Toshi and Juniper. I  fully realize our cats are not home accessories, but they’re a huge part of what makes our apartment a home. They are the epitome of lap cats. The moment you sit down, they’re up for a snuggle. No matter how crap of a day you’ve had, or what you did or didn’t do, these little bundles of fur always make us feel a little bit better.

xx A