But if you’re curious as to what I’ve been doing the last two months, let me show you with a picture:

32 tardis teapots

Teapots have been my life for the last 2.5 months (and no break in sight!). I did take a few days off at Christmas, but my timetable suffered for it, and I am behind in my ETA’s. Not only because of a few days rest, but I just didn’t have a clue as to how long each one would take to make, realistically, when they all piled up at once. I am trying desperately to catch up, and I am busting my butt! I am just so grateful that I have awesome customers who understand that handmade items take time.

But the above image is kinda fun, huh? (click on the picture for a larger version) You can really see that no two are identical. There is also a kind of evolution going on. Mainly due to the shape of the spout – I make each one by hand – forming the solid shape, letting it harden slightly, slicing it down the middle, hollowing it out, re-attaching both halves, and then attaching to the body.
*There is a great video tutorial on how to make a curvy spout here.

And yes, I had a request for a green Tardis teapot!

Alright, well that’s enough from me for now! I gotta get back to work, hah!
Until next time!

However, in between building Tardis Teapots, glazing Tardis Teapots, firing Tardis Teapots and shipping Tardis Teapots (ahem, no joke), I am trying to find at least a little bit of balance. It’s especially important, yet ever so difficult, during the Christmas season!
M and I have done a bit of Christmas decorating around the house, but haven’t finished. I’ve attempted to start a few DIY gifts, but really find that if I even think about using my time for other activities, I get a bit anxious.

However, one thing I definitely will take time for this Christmas is a tradition I’ve observed ever since I was very small. I’m sure there aren’t that many people who share this yearly act, but for me, it’s not Christmas without it! I am speaking of watching my very favorite-est Christmas special ever – Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.

This is old-school goodness! First aired in 1978, and it has awesome music, and of course, the best Sesame Street Muppets, including Big Bird, Grover, a snarky Oscar the Grouch, and Kermit the Frog (yay Jim Henson!). My folks had a taped-off TV copy of the special for as long as I can remember. A few years back I found a VHS copy of it of my very own. And yes, I pop that baby in to my VCR (I do still have a VCR!) and watch it every year

After attempting to have Matt’s little second-cousins watch the special last year while we were having Christmas with his family, I realized that this movie is “edgier” than the stuff kids watch these days (what the heck??) but you can be sure that my (future) children will learn early the magic that is Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

M and I decided to dress up as Scott Pilgrim and Ramona Flowers from one of our favorite movies from the last  year or so! M had it so easy, but my get-up was a little more involved.

ramona flowers costume

But of course, I never make anything easy for myself!
Here’s what I decided I needed to make a sweet Ramona Flowers costume…
My reference pictures of the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead

And…

And…

So let’s start from the ground up!
*Fuzzy brown knee high boots (yay, I already owned a great pair!)
*Opaque pink tights (I found mine on Ebay)
*Navy blue nylon shorts (scoured the local thrift stores and found a cheap pair)
*Blue hoodie sweatshirt jacket, preferably with a white zipper (I totally lucked out at Value Village)
*Military style green coat (yay, already owned this too!)
*She wears a purple-pink fuzzy sweater under all this, but I figured this would be way too hot, so I just wore a light pink t-shirt
*A black double string necklace (I literally just tied a black string around my neck)
*Of course, some kind of colored hair! Pink, blue, green! (This wig is reeeeeeally bright pink, but I couldn’t find a good cheap wig in the right color and style. This one was $10 from Goodwill…and it was new, btw)
*And lastly, steampunk goggles (I found mine on Amazon for a great price, under ‘welding goggles’)

*Her make-up is easy, a little eye liner, mascara, and bright peachy red lipstick

ramona flowers costume, head shot!

Oh, and of course, the big accessories! I had a heck of a time at the thrift stores finding a round purse I could transform into Ramona’s signature star purse. So I looked up some tutorials and attempted to make my own. I am super happy with the result, and I will totally use this as a normal purse! Here are some good resources if you want to make your own: Dulce Et Utile and this Instructables post.
And then there’s the giant hammer. I used a big cardboard tube and a make-shift cardboard top part, held together with hot glue and tape, haha, and spray painted silver. Awesome, right? Hey, it’ll do!

And here’s all M had to do…pose with his guitar

M as scott pilgrim

But really, he’s kinda spot on…

Anyways! Fun time over the weekend. Now looking onward. The long march to Christmas! busy busy busy

Mainly because of some awesome internet exposure for my Tardis Teapot. I don’t know who kicked it off, but my friend let me know that it was here(the bird and the bat), and clearly, this lovely lady has some awesome followers. I can’t tell ya how blown away I am at the response to this funny li’l teapot, and how exciting it is!

So now I have an order list for Tardis Teapots a mile long (!) and still growing, and I guess I know exactly what I’ll be doing every day for the next couple of months, lol! (ahem, building teapots…)

BUT, in other events, things I finished up before the madness began… I want to share a few project I’ve finished. If I wait any longer the moment will have passed!

Back in August, my mom and I started a project to re-upholster an armchair that I bought at Goodwill for $15. It was such a comfy, well-built chair that I couldn’t pass it up at that price. The only downside was its awful color. It basically clashed with everything M and I own.

This is the only before picture I managed to get before Mom and I started ripping it apart:

the pink armchair, BEFORE

It wasn’t in bad shape…it’s just that it was, well, pink velour. Yeah, not so much.
So after 3 months of working piece by piece, just learning and adjusting as we went, HERE is what we finally finished with (drumroll, please!)

my stylish reading-nook armchair, AFTER!

The fabric is this fun light canvas print that M and I picked out together from Joann‘s

Fabric: waverly floating petals in black

We thought it was a great modern print, and there’s a bit of bling, in the silver colored branches (yes, sparkly!), in addition to the clean black and gray of the other branches.
After several days of hard work, Mom and I succeeded in finishing my awesome chair.

NEXT, another sewing project that I just finished was this awesome round purse:

ramona flowers subspace purse!

This is a sneak-peak at my Halloween costume…yeah, I’ll be Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And yes, M will be Scott Pilgrim. I’ll post pics after Halloween, for sure.
The purse was definitely a hard project, and I just figured out how to sew it from looking at pictures and trying to make sense of a round shape. Oh, and sewing with piping is a bitch! That’s all I have to say about that.
But I think it turned out better than expected! Now I just have to pair it up with my pink wig and giant cardboard hammer, hee hee.

OK! Too much time spent bloggin’ already! Gotta get working on those teapots!
Oh, and one last update – here’s the current NEW & IMPROVED shape of the teapot spout, for anyone who is interested:

Jadeflower Tardis Teapot,with updated spout

That must be why my tomatoes are finally turning red! After waiting all summer long, it looks like M and I will finally have some home-grown tomatoes for our salads. Ah well, it’s worth waiting for, I guess!

1st home garden tomato

We’ll have about 8 more before they’re all gone. It just gets me brainstorming for how to do better next year!

You can feel the change in the air here, although the days are still pretty nice.
We had the chance to go to the Puyallup Fair for the whole day on Wednesday, thanks to my very favorite radio station, KEXP. Not that they were simply giving away Fair tickets – I actually won two tickets to see The Flaming Lips play!! I got the tix way back in June, and eagerly awaited Sept. 21st ever since! I can’t tell you how excited I was. And surprised, since good bands very rarely play the Fair (sorry P-town, I’m allowed to say it, since I used to live there).

The Flaming Lips @ the Puyallup Fair

Wayne came out in his space bubble and walked the crowd. They had giant balloons and huge confetti canons.

Giant Balloons and Confetti

The big screen behind the band was awesome. And there were lasers.  They didn’t tone down the show for the Fair, which I was very happy about! I really wonder if the Grandstand people knew who these guys were when they booked them, hehe.

M  & I had an awesome time and yelled our heads off. What a great way to kick off the season. ^_^

tardis teapot by jadeflower

I couldn’t be more excited about the result! It takes the same design as my Tardis coin bank, but clearly with alterations

The Tardis Teapot will be available in my Etsy shop shortly, as a Made-To-Order item. But for now I will leave you with a little demonstration of the pouring power of this teapot (i.e. a 14 second video). Allons-y!

Which is why it is nice to be able to find the time to just do something silly, fun, and unimportant every once in a while.
Over the holiday weekend, M suggested we make cocktails, and then pulled out the Star Wars edition Trivial Pursuit game that he bought ages ago off Ebay.

chipotle pineapple martinis

Yes we are big nerds. And I practically won the whole first round before M even had a chance to answer one question! But I love that I can share my real self with the person I chose to spend the rest of my life with. We understand each other so well – there is hardly a more comforting and happy feeling than that.

star wars trival pursuit

But so as not to leave you with only the revelation that M and I are huge geeks, here’s the recipe for the drinks we made!

Chipotle Pineapple “Martini“

1/2 oz Chipotle Simple Syrup (Simmer 2-3 Chipotle peppers -ours were canned in adobo sauce – with 1 cup sugar & 1 cup water for 20 minutes, then strain & cool – store in fridge)

1 oz pineapple juice

1 oz good tequila or rum

Combine all ingredients in a Shaker with ice. Shake vigorously! Pour into martini glasses & enjoy.

brass-colored mirror frame

Yes, it also had a mirror, it’s just not pictured here….because – wait for it – I decided to paint the frame! I’m sure you saw that coming.
The moment I saw it, I knew this frame would look so great in a solid color, to update the look, give it a more modern vibe. It is plastic (not metal), and the brass finish was a bit too grandma’s-house for my current decor tastes. So I settled on a glossy white (mainly due to the fact that M had purchased a can of spray paint in this color recently and there was nearly a whole can of it left over, score!).

So after many many thin coats of paint later:

mirror frame refinished in white

I love how it almost looks like a plaster, with just a hint of gloss.
You may notice in the reflection…yep, those are garage doors. I’m hanging this guy in the garage, in my studio to be exact.

the jadeflower ceramics studio

My studio space is still ever-evolving in the decor arena; for the most part it is strictly functional. But here and there, I am trying to add little touches to make it a pleasant place to spend my hours. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may recognize some past projects like this and this.

Our garage is a quirky place. Did you notice it looks like outdoor siding on that wall above? Well, M and I have a (strong) hunch that the garage was added much later to the house. Exhibit A: outdoor siding. Exhibit B: that rectangle the mirror is hanging in front of is actually a window that the landlord covered up with a big sheet of foam insulation (and which I then covered up with some striped vintage wallpaper because it was ugly!). Oh funny old houses

In unrelated news, we had a busy July. One highlight was a housewarming party M & I hosted, now that we are pretty much settled into our new abode. We celebrated with tacos, fun drinks, and lawn games (with thankfully cooperative weather!). At the end of the evening we lit sparklers saved from the 4th of July! ^_^ Everybody loves sparklers, right?

sparklers!

The party was also to celebrate M and my first anniversary. Awwww It’s hard to believe it’s been a whole year since this fantastic day. My mom and dad brought us a vase of hydrangeas cut from all the plants that were bought the year before; she says that they’ll always have a reminder of our wedding with all the pretty blues/greens/whites of the hydrangeas that now decorate their property.

hydrangeas

A very fun and event-filled month! And August should be just as busy! Until next time

DIY Planter Pot Umbrella Stand

I’ve owned this super cute, small canvas patio umbrella for years now, but it’s been in storage for a good 3 years or so because our last apartment didn’t have a space for it. Now that we have a big outdoor area to play with, I really wanted to bust it out!
The problem was, after scouting around to find a nice umbrella stand, I discovered that there are basically two camps: super ugly and cheap OR classy and way too expensive. The other idea was to find a thrifted patio table – the kind with the hole in the middle – but it turned out to be a much more difficult search than expected.

Finally I decided to make my own solution! An umbrella stand that would be unique, changeable, and inexpensive! Here’s what I did:

DIY Umbrella Stand Materials

Materials:
*Large Planter Pot – proportional to the size of umbrella
*Small Cinder Block (8x8x6)
*Length of PVC tubing – wide enough for umbrella handle
*Gravel
*Dirt
*Plants

Ceramic planter with drainage hole

Be sure your pot is a good size. Since it will be outside (and have plants that need water), be sure there is a drainage hole in the bottom!

Planter with cinder block

Place your cinder block in the center of your pot. Be sure it’s in a good position to put your PVC tube right over the drainage hole.

PVC tubing - Painted & Holes Drilled

I spray painted the top portion of my tubing a dark gray color, so the white PVC isn’t so noticeable. I also used a drill bit and my hand-held drill to put a few drainage holes in the bottom of the tube.

PVC & Gravel

With the PVC tube centered over the drainage hole, fill in the cinder block space with gravel until the tube is securely lodged in place.

Adding dirt to the planter

At this point, make sure your planter umbrella stand is located where you want it – it’s about to get really heavy! Next step is adding your potting soil.

pack it in there

Pack the soil in really well around the cinder block – you don’t want it to move!

Planter filled with dirt!

Once you’ve got the block hidden and the planter all filled, it’s time for adding pretty things! I had a few marigolds and snap dragons, but it turned out my planter wasn’t that big, so I just did the marigolds. If I were to do this again, I’d probably choose a trailing flower, like petunias or something, but I do think the happy yellow marigolds are cute.

umbrella stand planter with flowers

So there you have it! Simple yet effective!
Those flowers will fill in a bit, but even sparse as they are, I really like how this project turned out! And what’s great about it is, since I didn’t use cement or something permanent to affix the PVC tubing, if I get tired of this arrangement, I can disassemble the whole thing and I still have a great ceramic pot to use!

And the break down for price is pretty great:
*Ceramic Pot: $16
*Potting Soil (way more than needed for this project, btw): $5
*PVC tube: $1.25
*Spray paint: free (already had it)
*Gravel: free (gathered from the back alley)
*Cinder block: $.95
*Marigolds: $.95
TOTAL: $24.15

So yeah, good luck finding a nice free-standing umbrella stand at the store for under $25!

Outdoor living, here we come!

And now with the summer weather finally arriving in Seattle (we hope!), we’re one step closer to some awesome outdoor living!

M and I aren’t huge drinkers, but for me coming from an Irish/German heritage, I like a good cocktail hour as much as the rest of ‘em! Our new kitchen doesn’t have as much storage as our previous one did, so we’re having to get creative with all of our extra stuff that used to have a home. Our dining room is the biggest room in the house, so we’re making it do lots of double duty.

The wall adjoining the kitchen is already home to our coffee station, and now it is also home to our “bar”!

dining room storage: coffee and liquor!

This nice little furniture piece got a bit of a make over (but just barely).
It was a Goodwill find (aw yeah!) for just $12.99! I had been scouting all month for something that was about counter-height, had shelving/storage and was cheap. This baby had a really really beat-up top, lots of stripped finish, and didn’t look too attractive to the average passerby, hence the low price tag.

I knew just from looking at it, however, that it is solid wood (no particle board here!) and I could easily sand the top and re-stain it.

bar top sanded

Look at that – solid oak, I think. And no trace of the previously marred surface. Just a few minutes of sanding and it was ready for staining.

Goodwill find, sanded

I had some wood stain, left over from this project from last year, so I got to staining.

dark walnut stain

staining in process

There is something immensely satisfying about staining wood! After brushing it on and then wiping off the excess with a cloth, the color is so different immediately, I love it.
So after one application it looked like this:

one coat of stain

It really is a pretty wood. The dark walnut wasn’t an exact match for color, but it sure is pretty. I love that it has a bit of a rustic vibe. I did a second coat later in the day to darken it further. Then this morning I brought it back in the house.

After a thorough wipe down/cleaning, we have this!

new bar

I am not totally finished with it yet. I think that the top may need a hint of red – the base and the top don’t necessarily need to be the exact color, but I think since the walnut stain is so close, it will bug me that it’s only slightly off color. I may pick up a small pot of cherry stain for one last coat. Then a final coat of poly, for durability.

new bar top

The last thing I’m toying with is adding some glass doors to the bottom (or something). I really want to store our extra glassware down there, but I wouldn’t want them open to dust and such (yuck, right?). So we’ll explore our options for that.

simple, yet effective

Anyway, totally stoked that we found such a great furniture piece for such a great price! And refinished the top for free, since we already had the sander and the stain, is the icing on the cake. Can’t complain about that. Slowly (slowly), this house is coming together.