Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 82 of 661 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

DIY Give Spend Save Jars

July 20, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

Sienna is always asking for ways to earn money with extra chores so Brett recently made her these rustic Give Save Spend jars to help her plan out where the money is going to go.

He used some reclaimed wood and recycled it into this little carrier:

The container has three bays, each large enough to hold an ordinary mason jar:

The only thing I had to purchase was mason jars and the little metal label holders for the front of the container:

(you can purchase file drawer label holders here)

For the lids of the bank jars, instead of trying to neatly punch through metal, I used old cereal boxes. I used the lid as a template to cut out the circles.

I cut out the slots carefully with a knife:

I spray painted the lids metallic silver to match the mason jar rings:

If that’s too much work you can also buy pre-cut coin slot lids especially made for mason jars here:

I used tiny alphabet stamps for the Give, Spend, Save labels:

The label holders are easily screwed on and the little paper labels slip right in:

The finished jars!

She can split up her earnings easily here:

We are huge fans of mason jars around here. A few other cool products I’ve come across recently for converting mason jars to many uses:

A”Piggy” Bank (found here)

Pour Caps (found here)

Sip and Straw Lids (found here)

So many possibilities for the jar that’s been around for over 150 years!

There have been some amazing recent sunsets recently. I can’t help but take a photo of every single one. When I walk the dog at night there is this little window behind the hospital where you can see the small town of Bryson City through the trees. When the mountains are dark and there is just the last bit of sunlight streaming down into the bowl that the town is nestled in….that’s my favorite:

There have been so many recent storms that some of the sunsets have been eerily beautiful. I tried to take a photo of this one but our trees were in the way so I texted my friend Debi who lives up at a higher elevation. She missed it so she texted her neighbor Tammy who happened to get a photo. It takes a village! This one had a rainbow:

Boo and I visited Charlotte last week and the sunsets were just as beautiful there:

This is what I think my dad’s room in heaven looks like:

We had dinner last night at a friend’s house, way up high in the Smokies where we could see from Fontana all the way to Clingman’s Dome in the distance. I couldn’t stop staring at it because it looked like a painting. As the sun went down behind the western mountains, the sunset glowed brighter and more golden than I’ve seen in a long time:

One more sunset taken by our friend Jonathan (Instagram @jd_dunc). It’s my favorite because it shows the same view of a sunset on one of the new BCO t-shirts:

So many cool designs this year at the store to choose from…like the Smoky Mountains map hat? So cool. You can view it all here…or click the image below:

I found this website SunsetWX recently that will predict how intense the sunset is going to be in your area. The warmer the color the more vivid the colors will be as the sun sets. I guess this means we are going to have some amazing sunsets tonight:

Creating an Art Studio

July 13, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

Creating an art studio, a place to work, is just as much as part of my process as painting and writing. I am constantly rearranging and collecting and purging. Stuff comes in, stuff goes out. I recently moved the large vintage metal mattress panels to create “rooms” in the studio. They hang from the floor joists using small hooks:

For me a creative space works best if art supplies are easily accessible and easy to move around. Most of them are stored in crates and clear tupperware bins. I also like the ability to be able to work on multiple projects at once so I use lots of tables, easels and even drop cloths on the floor. I have an old recliner in the space where I can write and sometimes I just sit there and brainstorm…or nap.

I used to stress over the fact that I didn’t have one medium that I spent a lot of time on, that I didn’t have one type of art that had a “look” that people could say: oh, that’s an Ashley Hackshaw painting. I like to wander too much. I like to make something and then move on. I think that’s why blogging has been such a good outlet for me…it allows me to make something, and then release it to the world with instructions, encouraging people to make it their own. And it’s a infinite process because nothing I do is ever purely my own, I draw inspiration from everywhere. It’s the process of making that I love.