Geographically Relevant Outlet Covers

Yesterday my sister and I worked on a project for her new condo: decoupaging outlet covers. We decided to use an old (and I do mean old-- we're talking Soviet Union era) atlas to cover her many electrical (light switch, plug and cable) outlet covers. We decided to do each one based on a place she's lived or visited. So now she's got covers featuring maps of Mongolia and France (above), Kenya, Spain, The Philippines, California, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Virginia (some of which are below). We wound up re-doing the black and silver cover because we didn't like it.

What Would You Do?

If you had this really cool empty can, what would you make out of it? I'm thinking of a pencil holder, but that seems so very predictable. Isn't it great? I don't even like canned peaches, but the "Dainty-Pak" label totally won me over.

And, just for the complete cuteness of it, a photo of my two cats sleeping on my office chair. FYI, I sat perched on the edge of the chair working at the computer for about 30 minutes so as not to disturb the cuteness. Finally my husband came in and moved the cats, muttering something about my carpel tunnel syndrome as he did so.

Lone Wolf and Cub Table

A few years ago, I drafted my then-boyfriend/now-husband into a whole weekend of crafting! Drawing on his love of comics, I enticed him into a decoupage project. We first found old issues of a comic he loves, Lone Wolf and Cub (Japanese manga first published in the 1970s) and cut out zillions of pictures. We used a table we got from Goodwill, and spent two days with mod podge, adhering cool the cut-out comics all over it. After it dried, we put on a couple of coats of varnish for protection. It's gotten a little yellowed over time, but I plan to varnish it again this summer and hopefully that will even out the discoloration.

Our cats like it too (as well they should, since the one on the left has the middle name of Kogi Kaishakunin):



We made another table with my sisters-in-law, featuring Ranma 1/2 comics, but I don't have any pictures of it.