The frame up

Airports are all the same.

Pretty much everyone is hanging around. It's a "hurry up and wait" environment. Get there two hours early to check in and clear security. Fifteen minutes later you're stuck at the gate.

About 30 minutes before departure, there's a mad rush to the gate so that five minutes later you can sit on the plane and wait for everyone else to put their entirely too large bags in the overhead compartments.

And then you sit around for hours, hanging in the air, killing time and burning miles.

When I get back home, I don't want to work on anyone else's time clock or burn any minutes. I go straight to my wall and let my pictures do the hanging around.

So, for this week's project, I have two ways of "hanging around," without waiting on anyone else.

It's so easy to find frames at junk shops. Usually they need some TLC and maybe even a repair or two, but they're frames nonetheless. A few weeks ago, I ran across the mirror piece from an old vanity (minus the mirror) and a well-used 8-by-10 shadow frame.

For less than $10 I was able to bring them home, clean them up, and spray paint them a nice lacquer white.

Stringing along

My intention for the mirror frame was to hang photos. The photo frame, logically, would be used as a jewelry organizer in my bathroom.

For the mirror frame, I placed small eye screws about two inches apart, alternating sides as I went. Then, I took a piece of picture hanging wire and weaved it through the eyes, filling the frame in a zigzag pattern.

The photo frame/jewelry organizer was put into action by placing eye screws one and a half inches apart down both sides of the frame. Then I pulled a single strand of wire taught between each pair of eyes.

Hanging around

The mirror frame now proudly covers one of my bare walls, black and white photos on the line like t-shirts drying in the air. They're clipped into place by various sizes of binder clip.

And the jewelry organizer now keeps my earrings, necklaces and bracelets in order and easy to find during my early morning daze.

Which quite often happens when I've

been hanging around airports.

Vanessa Cook is a former copy editor for the Southeast Missourian who dabbles in decorating.