book party prep

Tinkered Treasures Book Party

Hello! I am busy getting everything ready to celebrate my first book Tinkered Treasures on Thursday! This is the first time I've coordinated something like this for myself in years (no superheroes or laser tag here) and I hope it all comes together as envisioned!

Using my own book as my resource, I've been making favors like these pretty and easy-peasy bookmarks

and tinkering cans aka desk tidies to serve as vases (to be filled with flowers by party sponsor Blooming Blossoms!) ...

 preparing items like pretty clothespins, gathering supplies for the Craft Buffet spread ...

Ballerinas courtesy of Speckled Egg

and making cupcake flags to festoon sweet treats that include macaroons, cookies and more!

Wish me luck! And if you're in the Providence, Rhode Island area, please attend! Warmest appreciation to all party sponsors (see below) and to Anisa, Pernilla and Line for their enthusiasm, support and energy!

xo
elyse

TREASURED PARTY SPONSORS

Kreatelier

Kidoinfo

Blooming Blossoms

Campus Fine Wines

Ellie's Bakery

Seven Stars Bakery
Speckled Egg 

Whole Foods University Heights

tinkered treasures giveaway and book review at the graphics fairy

My long-time blogging friend Karen also known as The Graphics Fairy has posted a lovely review of my book Tinkered Treasures at her blog. Her site is such a go-to source for thousands of images, inspiration and projects. Hurry over because the post includes a giveaway of my book!

Visit this link to enter! And if you don't win, I hope you'll consider buying a copy for yourself. I think it's a real ... treasure! {tee hee}

xo
elyse

ps
I am currently proofreading BOOK 2!

Hello! Are you new to The Graphics Fairy?
Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here! Browse around to find thousands of Stock Images that you can use in your projects or designs! I post new Vintage images every day, as well as projects and DIY’s too!  You can subscribe via email so that you don’t miss a single post, just click HERE to sign up! Need more info about my site? Try my FAQ page. - See more at: http://thegraphicsfairy.com/craft-book-giveaway-review-tinkered-treasures/#sthash.y4Hp0r5x.dpuf

Hello! Are you new to The Graphics Fairy?
Welcome, I’m so glad you’re here! Browse around to find thousands of Stock Images that you can use in your projects or designs! I post new Vintage images every day, as well as projects and DIY’s too!  You can subscribe via email so that you don’t miss a single post, just click HERE to sign up! Need more info about my site? Try my FAQ page. - See more at: http://thegraphicsfairy.com/craft-book-giveaway-review-tinkered-treasures/#sthash.y4Hp0r5x.dpuf

field trip: sea rose cottage

Today I took myself on a little field trip to beautiful Bristol, Rhode Island to visit a shop called Sea Rose Cottage. My best friend Cindy discovered it while researching chalk paint and once I visited the website, I knew I HAD to go ... today's schedule allowed and I was off and running!

Located in a historic home on a street that leads right to the water, Sea Rose Cottage is part-studio space and part-retail shop, filled not only with paint and supplies but furniture hardware, vintage finds and Dash & Albert rugs.

In the short time that I was there, the shop was never empty. Women ready to embark on rehabbing furniture and more were there to buy paint and ask questions, and owner Nancy was ever-ready with helpful tips, information and encouragement!

Brand-new to chalk paint myself, I had lots of questions and left with a bag of Annie Sloan paint and soft wax and even that small Dash & Albert rug you see on the counter (I've wanted one for years).

Sea Rose Cottage is furnished smartly, equipped with bookcases and cabinets, some even brand-new from Ikea, all painted in a muted palette using varying finishes from "simple vintage" to "smooth modern" to illustrate variations of decorative paint results. Nancy's spacious desk is topped with toile fabric under glass and taffy-pink roman shades add fresh pops of striped whimsy to tall, stately windows.

I entered the shop thinking I wanted to paint a few old wooden chairs but now all kinds of ideas are brewing. Nancy and I are also brainstorming about a possible tinkering event. How fun would that be?!

For more information on Sea Rose Cottage, please visit the website where you can also find the shop's various social media links, workshops, and more.

Avoid perfectionism! The distressed look isn't difficult to achieve, 

and by nature it's not supposed to be perfect."

~ Annie Sloan

Fun fact: Annie Sloan and I share the same publisher, CICO Books!

xo
elyse

tinkered treasures book party

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Join-us--Meet-Elyse-Major-at-Tinkered-Treasures-Book-Party-at-Kreatelier-on-Sept-19--.html?soid=1101563126436&aid=Nlt_3KDPXrg

blogcountability

One of the things I have always liked about keeping a blog is that unlike a secret diary, the very fact that this is public tends to lend a layer of accountability. So, if I announce that it's time for me to complete the project of transitioning my boys' playroom to study, I will. Or so, that's the intention anyway.

This downstairs bedroom ear-marked from the moment I laid eyes on this house to be a playroom, had been my very favorite space. To me, it embodied all of my dreams come true: married with children and finally, in my first-ever house. A room designated for play and creativity. Bliss!

But alas, the boys rarely played in the room, preferring to spread their Legos throughout the living room and draw at the dining room table. The playroom became more of a giant toy closet, always seeming messy (okay, trashed) and the least-used room of the house. With my boys getting older, I decided it was time to transition the room into a useful study/hangout.

Ha! I had posted this image to my Tinkered Treasures Facebook page during a painting break. Okay, so first I gave the room a coat of white primer and then white paint.

Next, we picked out desks, chairs and small furnishings from Ikea. {Ah yes, rolling chairs ... so perfect for racing through the house ...}

Things were coming together nicely and the study is now where the boys do their homework.

But, I got very busy with Book 2 and never completed the room.

My oldest taped a map to the wall but I want to really infuse the place with some flair. I would like to do a map theme but the boys prefer a more vivid comic book theme, which is fine.

I'm putting it out there that I want to make this room the cool study/hangout it was intended to be and not the homework/dumping ground you see here.

Some ideas:
a chalkboard wall
framed artwork of the boys and of comics covers
paint or decoupage the wood bookcase
more lighting
hooks! shelves!
add a window treatment to the existing white blinds
did I say hooks?
a sleep-sofa
TV or computer?

Stay tuned and feel free to comment with any ideas you have for the room.

Are you working on any projects this summer?

xo
elyse

souvenirs on a dime

I remember being small and at the sea shore with my family. There would always be that part of the day left-over for wandering in and out of souvenir shops. I vividly recall having very little money to spend on trinkets. My family still teases me that I once entered a gift shop with only ten cents and still exited with a bag! (it was a scrap of fabric!) I just returned from a day trip to Cape Cod where I still love to search for the junkiest of souvenir shacks, and I offer to you some easy-to-make souvenirs on a dime.

One empty taffy box from Cape Cod Salt Water Taffy gets snipped into book marks

and post cards.

Collected sand fills a honey bottle and is labeled with an office tag

Fill a jam jar with beach glass or paint and hang a small shell from a bottle. Not near the sea? Fill a canning jar with Epsom salt and enjoy its prismatic effect in a window.

Use colorful containers to corral supplies ...

If you like these ideas, you're really going to swoon over my second book, coming Spring 2014. Speaking of which, I have been writing so much that when my family and I went to a lobster-themed gift shop (The Lobster Claw), I actually said out-loud, "What a lovely curated collection of crustacean." {Yikes!}

happy summer wishes

xo
elyse

book 2 news and a project!

Hello little neglected blog! It's me, your author. I feel like I'm walking into a closed room full of dusty furnishings and wilted plants but I'm here to draw the curtains, open the windows and let some light shine in! Like many, blogging lead to the reawakening of many interests of which in pursuit has kept me too busy to blog. {Did that make sense? I need lunch ...}

Book 1 -- Buy it today!

Long-story short, in February my first book, Tinkered Treasures was released by CICO Books. Just weeks after submitting all of the text and projects, I began working out ideas for a second book. All through the year I experimented with ideas, developed a proposal and got the green-light. The span between this contact signing and deadline was relatively brief so I've been tinkering and writing like crazy and just moments ago, sent the final piece off to my editor. Exhale. Sure, there will still be lots of proofing ahead but the big bulk of the work is done.

I've got lots of summer fun to catch-up on but first I want to share a project for Book 2 that just couldn't make the trip in one piece. You see, I'm in Rhode Island and my publisher is in London. The way our process works is that I make all of the projects and ship them in batches to their offices across the sea to be styled and photographed. I also email step-by-step photographs to be illustrated and all of the text. Despite careful packaging, both times this project split into four pieces. It just wasn't meant to be included, I suppose. So here it is, the Pasta Shell Wreath.

Using craft or school glue, affix small shell pasta to a Styrofoam wreath form. Work in sections that you allow to dry or noodles are likely to go rogue!

Spray-paint the entire wreath white (may need a few coats). Note the partially snow-covered ground.

Allow to dry and hang from a strip of fabric to welcome summer! Looks like actual sea shells, don't you think?

happy july!
xo
elyse

novica giveaway winner announced

Another pretty example!

Hello and thank you to everyone who took a moment to enter the NOVICA giveaway. Using random.org the lucky winner of a $50 electronic gift certificate is BethElderton!

Thanks again and happy July wishes!

xo
elyse

Suggested links from NOVICA:

Women's Clothing from Central America

Blue Dresses

Short Skirts

Balinese Dangle Earrings

Peruvian Silver 950 Jewelry

Cotton Dress