I love beans ...

I've been seeing a lot of wreaths done with lima beans lately, so I thought it might be cool to do something with them as well.  However, I'm not very "wreathy" ... in fact, I don't know how to decorate a good wreath that is worthy of my front door, so I have this skinny, almost-falling-apart "thing" on my door now.  I think it used to be a nice circular grapevine wreath, but over the years somehow got stretched into the shape of an oval.  There's a lot to be desired there ... but anyway, moving back on to the lima beans ...

Since I've been changing the decor of the house, slowly transitioning into things that are more contemporary / primitive ... sort of like Pottery Barn meets an actual barn ... anyone know what I'm talking about?  No?

Well, I used to have this huge collage of photos hanging behind the couch.  Not lots of photos in individual frames mind you, just a bunch of photos in one frame.  You've seen them ... it's the lazy girl's way out of doing photos the right way.  I say lazy because we still have the collage hanging up (on a different wall), but the photos haven't been changed since the day I hung it the first time ... there are no pictures of Little M in there at all.  Yeah ... it might be time to do something about that.

So, now I have this big blank wall behind my couch.  I was thinking that it might be cool to do something with lima beans and showcase it on the wall.  And maybe later on down the road I'll hang some plates or something around it.  The jury is still out on that thought ...

Here is what I came up with:

And this is how I did it (in exactly this order):

Step 1: Get thee to a JoAnns and buy the biggest initial you can find in their cardboard section (you know, where they sell the boxes for decoupage and all that jazz).  They run about $8, but I used my coupon, so it was a score for me.

Step 2:  Go to the grocery store and buy yourself some lima beans.  I used the big fat ones and the baby lima beans.  The baby lima beans were good "gap fillers".

Step 3:  Take your supplies home, start gluing beans to the letter and realize after about 10 minutes that you're not cut out to use a glue gun.  The blisters on your fingers prove it.

Step 4:  Soak your blisters with some aloe gel.  You may or may not say bad words when you do this part (at least I did ... oops).

Step 5:  Call a friend who knows what they're doing with a glue gun and beg and bribe them to glue those suckers onto your God-forsaken letter for you.  (Thanks Glenna!!)  When they agree, get the supplies over to them before they have a chance to reconsider.

Step 6:  Wait patiently until your friend finishes the gluing for you.  This may take a while.  Your friend will probably get blisters of her own - be sympathetic, offer her some aloe.   ;o)

Step 7:  When you finally get that hot little letter in your hands, paint it, glaze it, or do whatever you like to it to make it your own.  Hang it up!

I thought long and hard about what I was going to do with my "S".  I was going to paint it initially because that's what I'd been seeing everyone else doing online.  But when I saw the work in person, the texture and the detail ... I just couldn't "cover" all of that, so I decided to let the beans shine in all their glory.  All I did was run an antiquing glaze over it, wiped it down, and let it dry.  Now, instead of looking like lima beans, it almost looks like it's covered in little rocks and pebbles.  I adore it - and I am so thankful to Glenna for doing all of that gluing for me - you are the bomb girl!

So, what do you think?  Do you like my "S"?  What else should I put on the wall?  Plates?  Photos?  Nothing??