More Steampunk bathroom details

I do love steampunk. Have I mentioned? Ideally, I'd do my bathroom like a Victorian woman's powder room within an airship-- old bottles and other antiques, sepia photos and vintage lace, but also special buttons and gizmos that would, upon command, fill the room with the scent of chocolate or drench my bathwater with camphor epsom salts.

Not likely to happen. So I've been piecing together bits of stuff I've found over the past two years. The paint color is what the bathroom came with-- sort of a dusty salmon/adobe color, with a "suede" finish.

This picture inspired it all. I bought the poster while in college and framed it in the most ornate thing I could find (at the Family Dollar). People have said it's "inspirational." Heh. Needs to be fixed-- you can see in the lower right corner the poster is pulled away from the frame. Oh well.

Random bobs on a shelf. Thingies include a steampunky squirtgun recon, two Kuchi bracelets I rarely wear, an hour glass, a pair of glass "specimen jars" (one with a fairy inside, the other with "teeth" from the tooth fairy), a box that says "Share" and holds a zombie finger puppet, a hair clip made from feathers, a wax stamp, a framed picture of Mike at age 5, a bejeweled pear, and a small clay turtle that was living in a plant that died. Below the shelf are two hanging brass bucket things, and a picture of Hercules and Leo.

The "What Women Love" postcard that a friend brought back from Germany, copper Q-tip holder, and my own "Gytha's Special Bath Soak," which is Burt's Bees bath salts in a bottle with a handmade label. I should get a close-up of that.

Seriously, I need ideas. I'm planning on stenciling the top of the room, but it can't be anything too bizarre, because oil paint is a bitch to go over later if you have to sell the place. Maybe a female cameo with wings on either side?

Hair Flower Holder

I finally made something that wasn't for dancing in, or selling, or for someone else. It IS mostly for holding dance stuff, but meh. It makes my bathroom look nicer!


It's for holding all my hair flowers. My bathroom has a loose Steampunky theme, so I used a wooden frame (thrift shop, $.25) and some bits of trim from a grab bag at Hancock Fabrics ($.99). I just removed the picture from the frame, clipped off the metal staples that were bent to hold it in there, and hot glued the trims across the back. I also used a bit of a copper/bronze stampbooking rub-on paste to shine up the wood, but it vanishes when photoed with a flash. I know the trims are not evenly spaced-- I did that on purpose, because some of my flowers are much larger than others.



My choices in hair flowers makes this look less Steampunk, obviously, but it works well and looks pretty whether or not it's full of petals. Would work nice for earrings, as well, if your ears aren't stretched like mine.

Let there be light

We're coming up on the Winter Solstice, which is my cold months celebration of choice. It makes extra sense to me, a pale girl of Scandinavian descent, to be happy about getting more sunlight. Seasonal Affective Disorder isn't fun for anyone. But the Solstice is fun even if you also celebrate Christmas. It's about light returning to our lives, however you want to define that. So in prep for Solstice, here are some creative ways to bring your own light.

















Soda can lanterns. Saw this link on Cut Out and Keep and thought it was rockin'! Except all my cans would be beer cans from my husband. This would be fun with some foreign cans-- the asian food store near my house often has papaya juice or similar. Or how about red, white and green cans for Christmas/Solstice? To state the obvious, don't put these on your tree, okay? Tutorial is at The Star online.





















This one requires that you already have a round paper lantern, and alas, the season for easily finding these has passed along with the patio furniture. (Check the clearance section- maybe you'll get lucky!) You can pick them up online, though. You can pick ANYTHING up online. I could see doing these with stars instead of circles, or using multiple colors of tissue paper. And glitter! Glittery glue! Or not, if you're not into the awesome that is glitter. Tutorial at The Swell Life.

















If you've got more time (and patience) than I do, check out this folded lantern at ah-yi. It requires long paper, because that's all one piece. Possibly this could be altered to be done on a smaller scale?















Table lanterns from Design*Sponge Online. Very modern-y. Maybe use heavyweight Christmas wrapping paper in place of the colored cardstock? They're lovely as-is.

This year our light of choice was simple christmas tree lights strung on our fancy new white artifical tree. Last year we used LEDs on a real tree-- the white lights were so cold feeling! We picked out the fake tree this year and I realized I really quite like the white trees. I think it's because they don't even pretend to be real. I'm half tempted to leave it up year-round, switching the decorations (eggs and birds in the spring, flowers and suns in the summer, wee ghosties and skellingtons in the fall) but I doubt I could pull it off as a decorating feature and not just laziness with bells on.

Happy Holidays, however you chose to celebrate them!