Why didn't I think of that??

On the same trip to Goodwill that I've been  posting about recently, I found another object that I normally would have passed by without a second glance. Before being introduced to the wonderful world of DIY blogs, I would not have been able to see the potential in pieces that had been tossed aside by their owners.

So let me try to describe the piece. It's a square thick piece of black wood, with 9 evenly placed holes in the top. Got a mental picture of it? Let's see how well you did.

As you can see, it doesn't look like much. It's exactly how I described. A piece of wood with holes in it. But I snatched that thing up as if i had found a $20 bill on the shelf...lol. In my mind I saw it being a candle holder. And possibly even spray painted with my favorite green spray paint. (Yes that would be the 2nd thing I picked up that day with the intentions of painting green. Do you have a problem with that?...lol)

On my way home, I stopped at my local Dollar Tree store to find a picture frame that I needed for this project. Of course, I can never walk out of that store without picking up more than what I went there for. But in this case, the extra item would soon be united with my piece of wood. By accident of course.

I don't have a picture of the first time I tried them together. The package only contained 6. So there were 3 holes left open. I pictured filling the 3 leftover holes with candles. I just hadn't gotten around to finding the perfect ones just yet.

That's when we had some friends over.  They are an artistic family that seem to enjoy seeing all my recent projects. At least that's what I've told myself...it's my excuse to show off my stuff and have people tell me they like it. :) So while explaining all the above to them, my friend Nick came up with an ingenious idea.

Go buy 3 more.

Check!
Spray paint 5 of them green.
Check!
Now play Tic tac toe!! OMG....really? Did he really just say that? How freakin' cool!

And this is how it will look while not being played with. LOVE it! Pretty and functional as a game. How could it be any better? Oh I know....it would've been better if I could have thought of it. But I guess I'll just have to live with giving him the credit.

While I'm at it...

After covering the canvases for my daughter's room, I went ahead and started on some slightly bigger ones for our hallway. These canvases were bought at the Dollar Tree.

They definitely needed help in order to belong in our house. But for $1? Oh yea, that's do-able. Doing the same process as when I made these, and voila.....cheap but chic wall art.

But once hanging them on the wall, there was just something missing. Like the wall just wasn't complete.

See?

While looking for something in the abyss we call the hall closet, I found  the perfect companions for this grouping. Two small iron sconces I bought from Family Dollar for $2 each. And yet it still seemed to need something else. But sorry, no picture of that step.

But in order to show you the finished wall, I need to share another of my adventures. (Ok so maybe it wasn't really an adventure per say, but I needed a cool word. :)

On my last trip to Goodwill, I found this mirror....

Although a little overpriced for Goodwill at $9.99, I couldn't pass it up. But it needed to be "Amberized". Not a lot of people would know what that would entail. But my closest of friends would probably guess that it involves my favorite color. And what came to mind at the time was the paint that I used in this previous project.
So I headed outside to spray paint the mirror and a few other smaller things that will be revealed at a later date.

And I got this......

I'm in LOVE! And I totally love that it's visible from the living room as well. Now if only I could camouflage the thermostat and light switch. But at least it's not a blank wall anymore.