Archive for the ‘guest post’ Category
i am so happy to have the privilege to post here on pilgrim’s gorgeous blog while she’s away. i love her style so much i wanted to come up with the perfect thing to share…
so i made this set of painted glass luminaries from some old recycled jars.
i love the way they turned out and they are SO easy to make! wait’ll you see em all lit up!
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED
scissors, glass jars, painters tape, paint brushes, acrylic paint and sealer, candles
* first you have to GET THE LABELS OFF your jars.
i like to soak them in warm soapy water before i try to scrape them off. for stubborn labels or impossible glue globs try using some nail polish remover.
* RINSE AND DRY your jars thoroughly. if they’re not completely cooled and dry the tape won’t stick
* CUT strips and stars or hearts or polka dots from painters tape and ARRANGE design
you can also use stickers or decorative edge scissors. the painters tape is pretty stretchy so i bet you could even do a pair of initials. i decided to do some simple stripes, a criss cross pattern and some twinkle stars
* ROLL THE JARS between your hands (to make sure everything is sealed down really well) you don’t want any paint to sneak underneath your tape!
* PAINT… i used about 4 coats. (use fewer coats for more transparency) i painted the background on the star jar first and then peeled the stars.
then i painted the stars on the inside of the jar in order to maintain the perfect outline (that way it doesn’t matter if you go over the lines) leave a couple of stars unpainted so your luminary will shine silhouettes on the wall
*PEEL YOU TAPE BEFORE IT DRIES all the way (or it will peel your paint off).
…i made the mistake of sealing before peeling…
* APPLY SEALER after your tape is peeled and your paint is dry. (use a toothpick to scrape off any paint that sneaked under the tape.)
they probably won’t be perfect, but that part of the charm! drop in a couple of small candles and you have a pretty new set of twinkling jars
you can also use them to hold a little bunch of wildflowers or maybe your magic wand 
✽ ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽ ✽
thanks lori marie for sharing this pretty craft idea. i urge all of you to check out lori marie’s beautiful shop. her work is so pretty and fresh. i have a felt flower pin by her and its one of my favorite accessories for perking up a simple cardigan.
I’m a guitar geek. I’m a big ‘ol guitar geek and there’s nothing anyone can to do help me. Ever since I saw guys like George Harrison and Mark Knopfler on telly when I was a kid, I was addicted to that combination of wire and wood. I didn’t realise it at the time but most of the designs I really liked happened to be vintage models from the 50s and 60s. Sure, my tastes later developed into pointy, neon-coloured 1980s heavy metal guitars from Japan, but even now I have a soft spot for cool retro and vintage designs. Well there’s a Chinese company named Eastwood which has revived a lot of these great designs – sometimes exactly, and sometimes with a few bits changed for practical reasons. Here are a few of my favourites.
Airline 59 Custom 2P
Probably best known these days as ‘That guitar Jack White plays,’ the coolest thing about the Airline 59 Custom 2P is its rubber body binding. Why? Nobody really knows…
Airline MAP
Another cool Eastwood reissue of an Airline guitar. I dig the MAP for that cool striped pickguard and let’s not forget the colour. Sure, the colour doesn’t have an actual impact on the sound (the paint and clearcoat do, but that’s a far geekier matter for another time), but I swear you could play two structurally identical guitars of different colours, and come out with a completely different musical attitude for each.
Gemini
I like this because it looks like a cartoonist’s idea of what a guitar might look like. I don’t know who designed it but they should be decorated with the highest awards in the land. It comes in two colours: Lollypop Red and Taffy White. If I was born a woman I’d change my name to Taffy White.
RS-II
Unlike most of my vintage guitar fetishes, the RS-II would look like a quite sedate, respectable instrument for guys in tuxedos to play at weddings, if not for the big ‘ol Ziggy Stardust-style lightning bolt awesoming it up. Also note the solitary ‘chicken head’ knob all alone while its four circular colleagues pal it up.
Saturn 63
Dig all that chrome. The Saturn 63 continues Eastwood’s tradition of reissuing guitars that feature completely unnecessary yet absolutely indispensable accoutrement. Why is there chrome binding on the body and around those holes? Nobody knows. Nobody needs to know. It’s just awesome, and that should be enough.
Wandre DLX
Here’s another guitar that falls into the ‘probably not designed by a guitarist’ category. It’s so out-there, from the asymmetrical shape to the cool apostrophe graphics around each of those three switches. I love how voluminous the headstock is, and the stars on the neck… how could you possibly not want to invite a guitar with stars on the neck into your life?
EEB-1
Finally there’s the EEB-1 bass. Not content with merely having violin-style f-holes cut into the top of the body, the EEB-1 has them going all the way through the freaking body. And not only that: the majority of the body is covered in a plastic scratchplate. I love how bold this design is, and how it messes with traditional design schemes.
For more on Eastwood guitars, visit their website at http://www.eastwoodguitars.com. Oh and feel free to visit my blog, iheartguitarblog.com if you want to read about more of this kinda stuff. It’s okay if you don’t.
