THE BIG BOOK OF ALL THINGS INSPIRATIONAL

Have I mentioned lately how much I love thrifting? I often wonder how people can throw out treasure like the one above. The picture in the right is not a joke. Yoga 1970s style. I'm in love. Maybe because I stayed up until 1 am yesterday night and then slept on my couch. I just didn't feel like sleeping my bed - I'm such a rebel. 

Yesterday I wrote something in my journal like 'The inspirational Jesus is coming back to me' - like whaaaat? Haha I kinda felt like in trance when I wrote that. No I'm not on drugs, I'm too cheap for those.. 
But I seriously felt like there was a ton of inspiration out there, that I needed to take in and because having everything on your screen is fine and dandy, but having something in your hands is even better, I decided it was time for 'The Big Book Of All Inspirational Things'. I just came up with the title right now, haha! Has anyone ever watched that show with the kid and this huge book that he could jump into? No? Well it was great. I should go and find it. 

Albums are expensive and I'm a cheap gal, so this was why I headed to the thrift store. Obviously the walk over would even  have been worth it, if I would only have found the yoga book. Anyway, I found this old cook book from 1974. I feel like it has made a career in some old ladies bookshelves for decades and now it finally got its life back. Horray!  

Sometimes things just come together, and so it happened that I came across this book during a phase of being obsessed with plain white books and black and white pattern. I almost stopped breathing when I saw this inner binding. Whipped cream traces! I'm dying!! On the cover it says 'The cold kitchen's delicacies' which I think is a hilarious title for an inspiration-scrapbook. Oh I'm just sooo in love!

Since its a recipe book it is obviously filled with tons of recipes (and food porn as you can tell). The 1970s loved their easy foods though, I think. Think meat platters, fruit platters, 'The perfect Toast' (seriously, they got a recipe for that in there!) and loads of other cold goodness. Might  try a recipe at some point.

Because sometime too much text might be distracting, I painted over it with acrylic paint. Don't you ever use water on book pages! Aaaand theeen - I went to town glueing down all the fancy pictures I had at hand or that I found yesterday during my late-night blog-reading session. 

Did I mention I'm in love? 

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

SECOND LIFE: BOX MAKE-OVER

Hey Friends! Today I'm back with a quick make-over I gave to those really old wooden boxes that have been around pretty much since I got my first own room when I was like .. a toddler maybe? I'm not kidding you, I literally had these all my life. But since my room is pretty colorful anyway these days and so were those boxes, I decided it was time to make them look a bit more matchy-matchy. 

So this is what they looked like beforehand. I know the picture is pretty brilliant - I should become a professional item-photographer (Oh yeah great english language right there!). Let's just call it an action shot. This project was one of spontaneous ones, started at like 6 pm. Yes, I go to bed early so this is pretty late for me - don't judge! So ya, I was kinda fixed on the outcome and didn't bother much with taking before-pictures - Sorry for that.

Because I didn't want my solution to be permanent I used plain white wall paper. I cut up a piece that would be long enough to wrap around the box. Then I cut this piece horizontally in half again because my roll of wall paper was actually wide enough to make up for two boxes. It adhered it with good ol' shipping tape and folded the remaining wall paper to the inside and used more tape to make it stick. Since this is probably not the best description - look at the pictures guys! 

Yupp that is how I did it. I didn't worry about the fact that you can still see the actual color of the box on the inside. I pack them full with stuff and put them on my shelf so nothing of that will be seen later. I'm clearly a rebel. 

But since just plain white boxes would be even more boring than colored ones they needed some more decoration to them. I had just recently put together a journal page using baking paper, so I still had some lying around as well as my newly bought washi tape...

So I created big labels for all four boxes. Each of them using a synonym for 'things' because I constantely change up the things I keep in these bad boys. I couldn't find a black marker anywhere around the house, so I just used black paint to write the words on the baking paper. I give you one tip - make sure the paint is completely dry before you go anywhere near your new white boxes with the labels, otherwise yeah .. stains.. 

Once I made sure everything was dry and set, I started taping the labels to the boxes. With a heck lot of glue - washi tape is crappiest tape when it comes to actually holding something together, don't even try using it by itself. You'll definitely need a glue stick and some normal tape to make the whole thing stay in place for longer than 10 minutes.

I have been thinking about giving these oldies a make-over for quite some time and I have to say - I'm very pleased with the outcome of this little project. Now organising and reorganising will be even more fun! Yikes!

Until next time, 
Lots of Love, Tabea ♥

WELCOME! TEA TRAY MAKE-OVER

Hello World! Aaaay! I've been super thrilled for this moment for quite some time now. Today is the release of 'Days in Lifetime'. I'm Tabea and with this little fun project I just wanna dive right into that whole big blogger world and share what's on my mind. I love everything craft related and spend waaaay to much time on Pinterest pinning all kinds of DIYs - and pictures of cats... I do love cats. Anyway, I really just want this to be a fun little outback for me and also a motivator to keep me on track with writing and creating. Because yeah, there's a little procrastinator in all of us, isn't it? 

Okay, so for my first post I wanted to share one of my recent projects with you. When it come to beverages I'm definitely on the just-a-water-please-side, but whenever I'm crafting, reading or doing homework I do love me a good ol' cup of tea. Peppermint please! This girl loves everything peppermint.

Because balancing a can of hot tea (I tend to have more than one cup at a time) + a cup up the stairs almost ended in tragic accidents multiple times in the past, I decided it was time to come up with a solution. I found this tray at my local thrift shop for about 1 Euro and gave it a little make-over. So grab an old tray and follow along! 

What's needed:
   • a tray (that can be painted with acrylic paint) 
   • black & white acrylic paint
   • brush & paint roller
   • masking tape
   • ruler
   • a sealer of any kind

Sooo this is really rather simple, but I'm in love with the bold stripe pattern. (1) Gather your supplies. (2) Give your tray 1-2 coats of white paint, depending how much the old color/pattern shows through. (3) Use your ruler to mark sections of  3-5 cm (1-2 inches) with a pencil, carefully tape them. (4) Use your black paint to fill untaped areas. Let it sit until the paint is dry. (5 - not pictured) Take off the tape and use your brush to seal the whole thing. I don't know about you, but spill tea all the time, so for me this step was a must!

Woohoo! With this easy DIY there won't anymore burned hands & you have classy way to serve tea to guests ... or just yourself. Feeling fancy is always a good thing! For me this little project was kind of a life saver - kind of, you know ;)

Hope you enjoyed it and check back with me some time for more fun and games and DIYs! 

Lots of Love, Tabea ♥