Found Driftwood Turned Into Jewelry Organizer

While working on Cami's room makeover I came up with a fun way to organize her jewelry.

A couple times a week I meet up with a foursome of my girlfriends for our weekly beach volleyball workout.  I found this cool piece of driftwood at the beach near our court.  Actually my friend Cheri found it and didn't want it, so I took it home.  One of the benefits of high tide is you never know what the surf will bring in?  The bad news is we have to clean the seaweed off our court before we can play.  It's all part of the workout. 

I cleaned this really well and left it out in the sun to dry.  I didn't want any possibility of bringing a smelly(dead) minuscule sea creature into the house.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the time, but I was in the middle of Cami's room makeover so I had horses on my brain.  So far for the room I have found a bamboo chair, a dresser, I painted, refinished the concrete floors, made a light fixture, and added some horse wall art.

I thought the driftwood might look cool as a wall hanging? 

 Maybe with hooks on it for Cami's purses, or scarves, or jewelry? 

I can't tell you how many times I have had to untie knots out of jewelry chains for my girls.  Hooks seemed to predictable so I came up with another idea.

Plastic horses for my horse loving girl. 

 I found the horses in a package at a toy store.

I started by spray painting them white.

I wasn't sure at the time if this would hang horizontally or vertically?  It works both ways.  I drilled screws into the back of the driftwood so they extended through the front about a half inch.  Stagger the screws so the jewelry won't over lap the one hanging below it.

Here is the back of the driftwood. 

Then I drilled a small hole into the back of the plastic horses about half way in and twisted them onto the screw poking through the front. 
Shish Kabob Horse.

(sorry horsies)

At this point I thought it was done? 

I loved how it turned out, but it was a little too rustic for Cami's room. 

The little white horses were hard to see on the driftwood.

Trial and error is a big part of my DIY projects.  I took it apart and spray painted the wood white and the horses bright orange.  I added a picture hanger to the back.

I like the texture and the functionality it brings into the room, plus it was almost free. 

Now Cami has a unique jewelry organizer.

No more knotted chains for me to untangle and she loves the horses.

If I had boys I would use trucks or dinosaurs.

Thanks for checking it out.

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Guest Posting on Remodelaholic

Hi friends, I can't believe this opportunity has been bestowed on my little blog. 



I have been asked to guest post on one of my favorite blogs
Remodelaholic

Welcome

Cassity liked my post about my Louis Chandelier and asked if I would consider guest posting about my outdoor room?

No one has ever asked me to guest post before.

I am very appreciative for the opportunity!

Please visit Remodelaholic and check out how my husband and I created our favorite room.

.

Thanks for the support!

Do You Look Like Your Pet?

We have all heard the theory that we look like our pets?

Source

I don't think I look like my little white dog Roscoe?  I've got a few gray hairs but not white yet.  I keep my eyebrows plucked and my whiskers shaved.  Ha Ha! 

She is a cute little thing, I'm tall.  "Little" is never used to describe me.

I have been known to wear animal prints, so maybe we dress a like?

This is my daughter Cami with her bunny Rosie.  Cami has blue/green eyes and a sprinkling of freckles.  Cami can be quite loud and funny!

Rosie has pink eyes, white fur and no freckles that we can see?
She never makes a peep.

This is our pet bull frog, Froggy.  He lives in our pond.  He's about the size of a dinner plate, huge!

We got him and a few more tadpoles at the Del Mar Fair a couple of years ago and he grew into this big daddy.

Frogs freeze when you shine a bright light at them at night. 

He held still long enough to get these pics.

He lives in our backyard in our pond.  I built it when we first moved in ten years ago.  Froggy lives with his fish friends.  Also mostly Del Mar Fair "rescues" that have multiplied over the years.

The kids love to sit on the wall and feed the fish.

Here they are with my dad in their p.j.'s.  They are much bigger now but still enjoy doing this.

Feeding frenzy!

The waterfall creates a soothing sound.

 I've started my swim work outs again now that the weather is warmer.
 

Hmm, maybe I do look like one of my pets?

Froggy and I look like twins when I swim.

(A bright light was shined in my eyes to get this picture)

We have the same fins.

Maybe there's something to this looking like your pet theory?

Do you look like one of your pets?

I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for checking it out!

Metal Hanging Planter Light #2

I know, more lighting projects. 

I'm crazy for lights and almost bought a great one at Ikea for Cami's room makeover, but what's the fun in having one everyone else has?

Here's Cami's new light fixture for her room that I made with metal hanging planter baskets and a dated light I found at H4H.

Cami's room had an ugly broken ceiling fan that needed replacing.  While I love the practicality of a ceiling fan with lights, I don't like the aesthetics of it. 

The fan is out.

Janell from Isabella and Max Rooms got my creative juices flowing when she blogged about her hunt for a dining room chandelier.  She showed these gorgeous chandeliers in wire cages by John Jacobs. 

Hmm, chandeliers in cages?

I also like this amazing vintage industrial chandelier made by Hudson Goods. 

It's priced at $4,500. That's double my monthly mortgage so it's not in the budget. 

I  made this light a couple of months ago for free using metal hanging planters and some stuff laying around my house.  To see how I did it go here.

I thought I could use the same idea to create a unique and fun light fixture for Cami's room. 

I started with this light fixture that I picked up from Habitat for Humanity Restore for $20.

Ugly and dated right?

Check out the shape of the chandelier under the glass umbrella.  It has 12 arms and nice curves.
This is what I'm interested in and what will become the center of the new light.

I also picked a light that had two pieces that were the same size that I could sandwich the metal basket between.  Also the metal needed to have a bigger diameter than the hole in the bottom of the basket.

I started by unscrewing the top to remove the glass umbrella.  See the brass fixture that I'm left with? 

This will become the interior of my light. 

After removing the glass I placed a metal hanging planter upside down on the light fixture.  I purchased two of these planters at Lowe's.  I like the circle design on the side of the basket.  It repeats the circle on Cami's new bamboo ottoman.

You might need to add a longer or shorter center screw to your fixture.  These can be purchased in any lighting department at any hardware store.

It's like building a puzzle.  I ended up not needing all the decorative metal pieces in the finished light.

Make a metal basket sandwich.

Make sure the hole in the bottom of the basket is centered before you tighten everything down.

Tighten it securely.

Now we are ready for paint.  I painted it gold first which I loved, but it wasn't right for Cami's room.  Then I repainted it silver.  I was going to use the clips from the hanging chain to attach the bottom of the basket together, but I found a better way to connect the two for this project.

I used left over chandelier crystals to connect the top and bottom basket together.

I added  some of my magnet crystals to the outside of the basket for some bling. 
I just borrowed them off another chandelier in the house. 

I used round globe light bulbs to match the circles of the baskets.

I found a ceiling medallion at Lowe's on clearance and painted it the same color as the walls.

The 12 arms of the original chandelier give off great light and the crystal's reflection give the walls an almost pool like, wavy water appearance.

For around $45 Cami has an unique chandelier that she loves. 

Do you have any fun lighting projects that gave you a unique accessory for you home?

I would love to hear about them.

Thanks for checking it out!

Update: To see how Mandi over at Vintage Rivivals used my metal hanging basket idea in her Epic Room Makeover go here.

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