{a very etsy birthday wish list}

I already shared a little jewelry wish list for my upcoming birthday, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the great Etsy items that I've bookmarked lately, that I would looove to have come home with me.

First are these two awesome vintage pieces from joyridevintage...

Hello awesome {$10!} chevron bag...

And sweet {$6!} yellow beads...

I already have a headband from love stitched, and I would love to add these pretties to my accessory wardrobe...

And speaking of chevron...

SO cute, right? Check these pretties out here.

And did I mention I kinda love chevron?

LOVE this bag.

Do you have a big Etsy wish list? I'd love to see what items you are daydreaming about.

{"I did what with paper towels?" chevron art}

So I FINALLY jumped on the chevron bandwagon...I know...I'm a bit slow on the trends.

My mom gifted me with a large canvas awhile back so I decided it was finally time to try my hand at painting some chevron stripes. I started out by painting the entire canvas light blue, and then went to work with my ruler and painter's tape...

And let me tell you...measuring and taping off those chevron stripes was NO picnic for me. I would have probably done a better job if I just eye-balled it. Because my first attempt was a total FAIL. I mean, it looked good when I was  painting the stripes...

But not so much when I removed the tape...

It looks more like a crazy version of Charlie Brown's shirt, right? And the olive green I picked out looked nothing like an olive when it dried.

So I painted over those crazy skinny chevrons and started over.

This time I used what any sensible person would for my template...

That's right, friends. Those are paper towels.

{They're not just for cleaning up salsa}

I don't know whether I'm genius or just weird. But it worked.

They were the perfect size for the stripe width I wanted.

I also switched out the olive green paint, that wasn't quite olive, for a calming gray.

When the paint was dry I added some ribbon around the edges with my hot glue gun to hide the staples and give it a finished look...

And this time it turned out MUCH better.

And just in case you are wondering, it is not decor for our back yard, we just have horrible lighting in our dining room where it is currently living, so I took it outside for a little photo-shoot. :)

It did already make a blog appearance at my Mom's surprise party though...

So have you used a household item like paper towels to help you with an art project? For me, they were much better than doing math. ;)

Linking up with...