DIY - Funk the Junk

We don’t have to be art connoisseurs or spend a bomb to decorate our homes. All we need is an eye for aesthetics and even the oddest of things like a rock or an old bottle can be prettified innovatively. From driftwood photo frames to disposable plastic spoons lamp, the internet is filled with DIYs galore. Just take a cue from them and let your creative juices flow J

                I found these wooded petal like things fallen from a tree around December 2012 when I was waiting at a bus stop. I collected a few thinking I can arrange them in the shape of a flower and paint them or just fill up a cute basket with these to display somewhere. I never got the time to do any of that and they lied in a plastic bag forgotten till I found them again while I was cleaning up my wardrobe. That’s when it struck me that their shape is similar to that of a boat and thought of creating a small one with a mast. The cloth for the mast came from a cotton cloth which my Mom had used to pack a pickle jar when I came back from Vizag last. She keeps old cotton sarees, towels, curtain linings etc for such things and now I too have a small collection from the umpteen homemade pickle and ghee bottles I have carried back to Bangalore from home. They are soft and worn out and remind me of home. So whenever I see this little boat I am reminded of this and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling J (too seeped in nostalgia na…*sigh*). Anyway getting back on track (I digress a lot), the stick is from a broom, break it with your hand keeping a little part of the roughage in the end so that you can stick it with feviquick to the wooden petal. You can make a variety of them with double masts, little flags on the masts, masts with stitching detailing etc. 

                I saw this rock on the road side and my mind immediately went to an image I had seen in one of the décor blogs here. I painted the little fishies with acrylic paint and tada, cute paperweight is ready in a matter of few minutes. And psst…the plate is called a “donne”. A nearby temple serves prasadam in it and I brought it home :P (after devouring the prasadam of course).

               This Vat 69 bottle is courtesy Puneeth’s chuddy buddy gang. The moment I saw that matte finish bottle, I immediately thought of colorful chalks  J. I wasted no time and called dibs on the bottle as well as the case it came in (the case now holds my first aid kit, do I see someone cringing?? haha, at least I did not use it to keep bangles according to my original plan). The pinwheel is from the Avarekalu mela. Planning to put a money plant in the bottle. Or maybe convert it into a lamp, there are so many options J. So pick up that junk you were about to throw away and junk it up I say :D