Where to put all these hair decorations...

I just want to show this thing real quick.

I've mentioned before how much I like making things to stick in my hair. Not too long ago, it got to the point that I needed to devise some method of storing them all — in other words, how to get them all off the window sill in my bathroom.

They tend to be a little oddly-shaped to play well with most of my initial ideas, which included those cables on which you hang photos/notes, magnetic knife bars... okay, those were all of my initial ideas. So I headed to Ikea to either find a photo cable, or a better idea.

I did find the photo display, but it was pretty short and over-priced for what I was going to do with it. So I continued my trek to what is usually my ultimate Ikea destination anyway, the As-Is department.

That's where I found this big metal screen. It's about 24" x 31", and I'm not positive what it was intended for, but I suspect some sort of industrial shelving. It was <$5, so even though I couldn't see in my mind where on earth I had enough wall space for it, I grabbed it anyway, figuring I'd sort it once I got home.

The one wall that was both big enough and out of the way enough turned out to be in the hallway outside of my bedroom. So up it went.

The beauty of this solution is that it's steel, so the things which I mount with magnets stick right to it, and then the grid itself is big enough that anything with a clip on the back can just snap right on.

It's not, at this moment, the prettiest thing in the house, but it does the job perfectly. At some point, if/when I paint that back hallway (which means after the bathroom gets torn out, most likely), I'll probably paint the whole screen. But for now, it's a perfect utility solution.

Oh, and here's a quick look at a couple of things I've made recently. The thing up there that looks like a rabbit? That's a rabbit. It was my New Year's Eve hat this year, featuring some red foil streamers (since removed) and a rabbit wearing a top hat.

Last weekend, I made a little leather bat (on the wing) for a party at the Detroit Film Theatre, celebrating their 40th anniversary with a showing of the 1931 Spanish-language "Dracula." A bat with some red beaded droplets seemed like just the thing.