Beaux blog categories

The logos for the titles of the categories are yet to follow.
My gorgeous niece in new Zealand is a photoshop guru and is helping me put them together.
But at this stage this is how the Beaux blog works:

Each project will be a COST -EFFECTIVE way of either decorating a room, doing a craft or art project for both kids and adults , coming up with a themed party or a fool proof/ tried and tested recipe.

Catagory names are as follows:

Rainbeaux ( rainbow): arty projects to paint, draw etc.

Beaux tie (bow tie) : entertaining and cooking/ recipes etc.

Beauxquet ( beauquet of flowers) : craft ideas for around the home
And gifts to make etc.

Beaux peep ( bo peep. Peeping thru a door looking into a room):
Decorating ideas, interior design ,etc

Beaux & arrow ( boys bow and arrow ) : ideas for boys themed parties and decorating boys rooms etc.

Beaux princess (beautiful princess): ideas for girls themed parties and decorating little girls
Rooms etc.

Beaux-on-the-go : ( Bo on the go) is suggestions on where to go to look for what you want and need for the project. Op shops , markets etc etc.

Beauxmont ( Bo mont / meaning beautiful mountain ): this is a grade scale of how easy to hard the project is to replicate , cook , paint etc.
This will be illustrated by a little quirky goat going up a mountain.
Easy – goat is at the bottom of the slope.
Medium- project is slightly harder and goat is half way up the slope
Hard- the project is harder and goat is on the top of the snow capped mnt.
Beauxconstrictor – ( as in the snake) the goat is on the top of mnt with snake around it’s neck. Lol. This is a very tricky project and you may find it harder to do.
There will only be a few of these and they will not be recipes!! They will be art projects for those who have a little more experience and have painted before.

Beaux bargain : how much things cost. $$$.

I have 124 projects waiting to be uploaded on my blog. So as I slowly get them uploaded- things will be under catagories and in time a little symbol will appear next to each blog title. This logo will indicate which beaux section the project falls under.
And the beauxmont scale ( letting you know how hard / easy a project is. )

Wish I had photos of the logos to upload now – but it’s a work in progress. So watch this space. In the mean while- here is the first project idea.
Wine as a gift…..

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Storing kids art work

Beaux-quet:

If you have the same problem as I have with hundreds of lovely art works coming home from kindy and Pre school and only want to keep the best to remember – but not have a giant folder ( or three)
Why not make a photo book – a coffee table book printed with their art work inside.
This is also a great keepsake , lovely gift for grandparents and makes the kids feel very important as their work is ” published”.
You can get the kids to answer some great questions like : what is my favourite pet, super hero , holiday etc etc and get them to draw/ paint it and add text , dates and ages etc.
I’ve found Snap fish to be a good online site and kmart too. Books cost around $30 for 20 pages.
I run regular art classes and last year a friend and I ran a 7 week course getting kids (age 5-12)to illustrate their own books.
The work was amazing and the parents were stoked.
But I have also been saving my daughters best art works too.
These are going into their own photo books.
Collage of paper and fabrics is great , cos this all provides great texture to the work and is ideal for little ones who need help.
Eg: using fruit fabric bellow- kids cut out pieces of their fav friut and drew a fruit bowl. Stuck fruit fabric on with glue.
Musical instruments and other things were drawn on photocopied sheet music- another
Great and effective idea that looks stunning white washed and printed. But more about that in another blog.
It’s after midnight. I’m off to bed.
Capture your kids art before they grow up – after teaching art classes to kids for over ten years now -from my experience – they do their best work while they are under ten yrs old.
Enjoy.
X jo

Christmas table with paper plates

Beaux- tie:

I was asked to set the table for Christmas. The budget was $25 and it had to be paper plates and plastic cups. No washing up!!
So I went to spotlight and bought black plastic plates , black serviettes and a few rolls of gold paper. The Christmas crackers were made from toilet rolls with small chocolate etc inside. I used the gold paper to be a table runner. Wrapped the candles ( from the $2 shop) in the co- ordinating paper. Plastic wine glasses from woolworths. Silver and gold balls from the $2 shop too. I used a labeler to print out each persons name and made a name card for each setting. Wrapped a bow around the serviettes and set each place. Very easy , and cheap.
I know it’s April/May not Christmas- but this may come in handy for those of you doing mid- winter Christmas parties- ( very popular in new Zealand).
A clear glass vase is a great idea to display the Christmas balls. Try to keep to a colour theme. In this case- black and gold.

These ideas are cheap and easy – just take a bit of preparation and it’s fun to make the crackers and name tags with a friend/ family or kids. We told all our guests ( who were all family and were into sharing the whole project and cost of the lunch) to byo cracker filler. Max $5 and had to fit in a toilet roll size.
This made it fun too and we left the crackers open and only tied and filled them just before lunch.

It just goes to show- you don’t have to spend alot of money to make a table look stylish and swish.
Xjo

Wine as a gift

At the end of last year I needed to buy about 20 ladies a gift to say thanks for attending my evening art classes I run. As you know – buying 20 gifts can be a rather pricey excersise.
I decided to go and buy clean skins (wine with no fancy labels)
And make swing tags and labels myself.
This blog is dedicated to doing things on a shoe string budget.
So I found a wine shop that had decent wine for $33 per dozen. ( under $3 per bottle)
I got scraps of old wall papers and a piece of gold cardboard and a roll of curling ribbon.
I traced around a glass to get circle shape and punched hole in the top to attatch with ribbon to the bottle. I wrote a little personal thank you note on the back of each circle swing tag.
I stuck a rectangle ” label” on each wine bottle.
I have found 3m spray glue to be the best glue to use for all crafts in genral. But of course any craft glue will work.
Glue stick may not be strong enough to attach to glass, depending on how think your paperlabel is.
I presented each bottle in a nice paper bag with handles. These I got in bulk for 87c each.
So all in all, each gift cost approx$3.50
I suggest you “try before you buy” the wine.
White is often better than a cheap red. Served chilled can taste better and ” cover a multitude of sins” as the old addadge goes. You can’t cover up a bad red !!
For those living in Sydney- the wine shop is – “Time and Tide” in cromer on the northern beaches. The clean skin brand is called Vintage collection and I bought the Chardonnay.
We’ve found it to be a really nice full bodied, dry white wine.
It’s a BEAUXtiful thing finding a bragain.

X jo

The idea behind Beaux design

Beaux, is the French word for beautiful. I have started this blog (finally) as a record of all the quick, easy and beautiful ideas mums (and others) can use to inspire their creative side and primarily doing it ON A SHOE STRING OF A BUDGET….

I’m so tired of flicking through these designer magazines and seeing parties, cooking & entertaining, home decorating, art etc etc and it’s soooo expensive to reproduce. The ingredients in some recipes cost ‘an arm and a leg!’ Or doing a stylish kids party can be up in the $1000s ……

So after being a full time designer in the textile indusrtry for 11 years and a stay at home mum (on a very limited budget) for 7 years, I’m finally recording the mix of ‘having the look, without the price tag!’

This blog is dedicated to arts, crafts, entertaining, recipes, interior decorating ideas and tips, kids party ideas and clever ideas to make where you live and what you do look swish.

Almost every piece of my furniture is from an op shop or council clean up/road side throw outs. My kids and my clothing are nearly all ‘hand me downs’, from clothes swap parties or op shops and my grocery bill is very small (compared to most people I know).

But just because there is a small bit of pocket money does not mean – no swish kids parties, no entertaining and no original art on the walls or designer labels. It’s knowing what to do with what you have! It’s knowing where to look for what you want in your home and innovative ways to accessorise it all together.

That’s what this blog is all about – making it look good on the cheap (and taste good without spending a fortune).

It can be done. You too can do it. Enjoy the journey.

My motto in life is – “bloom where you are planted!” So at least get inspired to paint the pot you’re in!

X Jo Stanes

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Sydney, Australia