Summer Style

We may live far from the ocean here in the middle of Kansas, but I still need some beachy-ness in my surroundings.

This carnival glass bowl was picked up for $3 on an antiquing jaunt with pals. It felt very oceany to me, so I filled it with shells and a matching candle.  Everything sat a bit too wonky, so I removed it all and added moss inside before arranging the shells again.

That helped.

Of course, I didn’t do a before photo of this junky, old tray I had.  It had been used to hold kid’s supplies in the studio and was splattered a lot of different colors.  So, I painted it white, then drizzled on some beach tones and swirled them about.  While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled in some sand and a little hint of glitter.  

Typically, I can’t keep anything displayed on this coffee table because Sugarwings takes over that area in the living room and she fills the space up with her own assortment of doodads and accessories.  But she is visiting her dad for a few weeks, so I went for it and sat out my tray of pretties. 

There are multiple layers of varnish over my swirly paint, so later on when the teen returns and I lose my window of decorating time, the tray can actually be functional to use in the kitchen.