Before we moved into our home, we had to go to Montreal to pack his house up. On one of our rare breaks, we went to Walmart and found some beautiful cloth. I knew I would end up doing something with it, even though we hadn't moved into our home, yet. Once moved in, (with staple gun in hand), Gilbert & I decided to tackle our loveseat.

I had also picked up a few animal "hooks" from Avon, that were clearance items. We decided to glue them together (see picture below).

Gilbert owned a few tiger puzzles (glued together) and a couple framed posters. These were hung up on our walls. We then went and purchased a "photo-mosaic" puzzle. For those of you that like a challenge (with puzzles), I would highly recommend photo-mosaics! Oh yes! We had a pink ceramic light switch and Gilbert painted it with a giraffe pattern.

We managed to pick these 2 lovely ladies at our local "Value Village" store. They sell used items, 2nd hand clothes and other "treasures" - although some people might call it junk. LOL

Not long after we started with our bedroom (the 1st room that we tackled in our house), one Saturday afternoon, I was chatting with my sister on the phone and explaining what we were trying to achieve. I mentioned that at some point, we wanted to purchase some bamboo blinds to go OVER the regular white vinyl blinds that came with the sale of the house. I felt the blinds would add a jungle look to our room. Anyhow, the next afternoon, she called me up and told me to go over our parents' house. Was I ever surprised!!! They had driven by a garage sale and coincidentally the people were selling a bunch of bamboo curtains for practically nothing! She had picked them up for us! Gilbert managed to put together 2 pairs of (working) bamboo blinds.

Then, I wanted another kind of mask. I surfed and surfed the web, until I came across this one (left picture). After several discussions on the basic material, Gilbert & I decided to construct it with a home made play dough recipe I had. We put scrumpled-up foil paper underneath it, and then baked it for several hours. Once cooked, cooled and dried for several days, we painted it (right picture). Ours has lots of bumps and lumps, but I call it "textured". *s* And it fits right in with our decor!

Several brick-a-bracs were added at the top of our bed unit... Inexpensive items that we would find at garage sales, or friends would give us.

left of bed

right of bed

The most time-consuming job of all, was the side of our bed. Once again, after several discussions, (and convincing Gilbert on his artistic abilities), he painted the side of our bed, and even HE had to admit that it turned out pretty good!

The final and most expensive item in our bedroom was our "blanket". That cost $60.00, but we both felt it was worth it. And unfortunately, our German Shepherd, Novac, and Maurice the Cat seem to both agree! I've stopped arguing with them, as you can tell by this picture. (PLEASE NOTE: Novac was unavailable at this picture shoot, but TRUST ME... he's usually on this bed cover! LOL)