Can I start decorating yet?

Remember these bottles?  I got them from a lab across the hall that was being decommissioned.  They had a "come grab anything you can" day, and this was my only score.  Really it was because I was afraid of the crazies that came.  Boy you say the word FREE and everyone is there scratching and biting to get anything they can (they ripped things off the wall).  It reminded me of one of those bridal sales where women go crazy and grab any dress they can.  Only this was with lab supplies.  But I guess when money's tight (and it is for almost all of us), free lab supplies are heaven sent.

But that's enough about the back story of these bottles.  The point is I thought they were interesting and since they aren't too useful in the lab (hence the reason they were left over after everyone had left).  Of course we can use them, but we have media bottles already that we like better.  I grabbed these bottles because I thought they were interesting, not necessarily useful in our lab.  I wanted to use them at home somewhere, but didn't know what to do with them.  So last night I tried idea number one; I filled one with little black rocks.  Just to see what it would look like.  What do you think?  I have a few other ideas I'm going to try.  I'll get some pictures up soon, maybe I'll have a vote or something.  

I also made my coffee filter wreath last night.  I stained the filters the other day with tea (just plain black tea) and have been waiting for them to dry.  I picked up the foam wreath in the floral section at Joann's, using my 50% off coupon as well as my 10% on my total purchase coupon.  So that cost me less then $2.00.  The coffee filters cost me $1.00 (picked those up at the last 10 for 10 sale at the grocery store) and the tea I already had.  So this project cost me a total of $3.00.  Pretty good if I do say so myself.  I am going to get different ribbon, but that can wait for my next trip to the craft store, which will be soon (I have so many coupons right now).  So in all, this project is going to cost me well under $10, awesome.  Now I just have to find a place to hang it.

As you can see I have it hanging on the ugly ass door for now, but that's just because I haven't decided where I'm going to put it.  I might put it up above the bay window.  Maybe I'll try that tonight and see what it looks like.  I'll get some pictures of it in different places and post some later, then I'll see what you guys think for this too! :-)

I'm really happy with how it looks.  I wasn't sure, I've seen a bunch of them, and liked them, but wasn't sure if it would go with our stuff.  But it does.  The color is great.  It goes really well with the wall color and I think it will go great with the red paint (which will be going up this weekend).  And it was so easy to make.  The hardest part was waiting for all the coffee filters to dry (because I'm impatient).  I think it literally took me 20 min to make.  I made it in between priming and painting picture frames (with my free paint sample from Valspar.  Free is awesome).    

I was thinking of making another one and dying the coffee filters a color; like green for St. Patty's day or lavender for spring.  Hmmm, so many possibilities.