waxed leaves
This whole redoing the kids room thing is taking forever to finish. It might have something to do with the three kids living in it. It doesn't help when you paint the dresser, hate it and have to paint it again. The After pictures are coming I promise (here is the before) it's just taking a leeetle longer than I thought.
So what are all these leaves doing on the wall? I couldn't figure out what to put on the big wall between the two windows. I wanted to get this awesome ice cream print, but the big map was on the neighboring wall and it would have been too many big things in such a small room.

I decided to leave it blank and use it like a classroom bullitin board-- putting up little crafts my kids make or things to celebrate the season. First we had a pompom garland up (which you can see in this post) then some bats (behind me here) and now leaves. I had my kids run around the block collecting leaves, then I dipped them in wax, and we stuck them up with washi tape. I had envisioned the leaves laid out in straight rows like a scientific collection, but the kids had other ideas.
I first saw the wax dipping thing on Martha Stewart (of course) but she uses beeswax and ooof that stuff is pricey. Then I stumbled on this post where the leaves are dipped into plain old paraffin wax (2.99 at the grocery store and apparently you can wax your snow shovels with it?).
After about a week up on the wall, the leaves are starting to curl a bit, which is a bummer. If you have the patience, you should probably press them over night or even after you dip them. Maybe dipping them twice would make curling less likely? They are pretty nonetheless and I think they would make a beautiful thanksgiving garland.




















