Thanks!  I am going to try both of those techniques on Saturday. 

I love these, esp. the 1st and the 3rd paintings.  Did you do them w/ oil paints?  I have a hard time making lines that are that precise. 

I'm also planning to go as Sarah Palin.  I'm going to wear a suit w/ a huge flag pin on my lapel, a pro-life button, a large price tag hanging off of one sleeve that says $150,000, and a beauty pageant like sash that says "maverick."  I was also planning on carrying a toy rifle around with me, but I haven't been able to find one anywhere.  Does anyone have any ideas?   

I actually tried to use a foam form at first, and it didn't work well at all.  That's why I decided on the cardboard idea.  Since the foam forms are 3-D, I would have had to put flowers on the inside and outside edges of it (to hide all of the foam), and the wreath was way too bushy when I tried that!  It was hard to even tell that it was cut out in the center. 

My boyfriend and I have decorated our living room in red, black, and white also.  It looks great.  Unfortunately, we can't paint our walls b/c we live in an apartment and it's against our lease.  I think a light gray would look awesome though.  It would add another tone to the room w/out clashing w/ anything you've already got, and I think it would create a cozy feel.  I'm not really into the whole accent wall thing, so my suggestion would be to paint all of the walls light gray, as long as you have some windows and a reasonable amount of light. 

You could just hang a large contemporary painting over the mantle and not actually set anything on it.  Or you could put tall pillar candles on it, w/out actually using candle sticks.  That would look much more contemporary, I think, since large candlesticks are usually gaudy and traditional.  Or you could put books on it, interesting art books w/ bold colors on the bindings, for instance, rather than classic looking books. 

I am trying to strip and restain a wooden hope chest that I inherited b/c it is a yellowish color that I really don't like.  I bought stripper at Home Depot and applied it to the whole thing w/ a paint brush.  Then I used a scraper to scrape it off.  The old stain and stripper came off of the top of the chest beautifully, but I had a very  hard time getting it off of the sides - and I ended up with a mess.  I looked at a tutorial online and found out I needed an after wash, so I went to Home Depot and bought that, and applied it to the chest w/ steel wool.  Now the top looks horrible - it has a whitish film all over it - and the sides still aren't completely stripped. 

Does anyone have any advice?  This project has turned out to be much more of a headache than the staff at Home Depot gave me the impression it would be... 

I made this wreath out of black roses for Halloween:



I ordered the roses off of e-bay b/c they were much cheaper there than at my local craft store.  Then I cut a wreath form out of several pieces of cardboard.  I cut the stems off of the roses and hot glued them to the cardboard wreath form.  Then I attached an orange ribbon to the top of the wreath and used another piece of orange ribbon to hang it on the door.         

Wow, this is great!  I'm shocked that those little pieces in the detail of his face don't break. 

your kitchen looks great.  i love the white detail on the cabinets.