In Helsinki, we spent about five nights in one of the coolest hotels I've ever seen and as such, I decided it needed its own post. It was the Hotel Glo, and the building itself is the former Student Union building for the Technology University of Helsinki from 1903. The interior has been completely redone, however, and it is as modern and clean as you can imagine.

For 2012, Helsinki was selected as one of the World Design Capitals and aptly so. These are highlights of good design in this city and I loved every one of them.

This was one of those "Dear Lord, why am I still working on this???" projects but damn, it's good looking. In fact, it's near impossible to look away. After it was finished I found myself simply staring at it for many a long length of time. The final product used 1,116 corks, many sticks of hot glue, measures about 5ft. wide by 3ft. tall and weighs almost 36lbs. Total cost was about $65, but that included a brand-new hot glue gun for about $25. The rest was for extra glue, paint, wood stain, and an extra piece of plywood. I didn't buy a single cork. (Note: These pictures don't do the board justice. Weebly seems to alter photos, so I apologize for them looking yellowish and dull.)

The inspiration for this project actually came from my Aunt. You see, she has been collecting wine corks for, well, a long time and this past summer, she turned an old wall-mounted map into the base and frame for a cork board made out of the corks she had collected. I thought this was really neat, so I decided to do the same!

The first order of business was a little online research about wine cork boards. Of the hundreds of photos I saw on Google, I didn't find many that were particularly attractive. Most were very small and impractical looking and the workmanship wasn't there. Some people had cut their corks in half long-ways to double the surface area their corks would cover. Good idea in theory, but I thought this might cause problems when trying to pin things to the board because you might put a pin in a spot that had a limited amount of cork depth. A lot of boards had rows of corks that weren't straight or were cut to fit in a particular space. I knew I didn't want that either. I wanted a BIG, dramatic board that had plenty of space for photos, notes, etc. and doubled as a center piece or work of art. With these thoughts in mind, I got to work!

Over new year's, I was in Savannah with my friend Melissa and we stopped in to Urban Outfitters for a bit. The coolest thing in the store (to me), besides all the gag gifts, were the stairs.

From what I can tell, they took some of those grates you find as part of the sidewalk and filled them with concrete. How cool is that? You could add some pigment to the concrete to match any particular decor you might want to have. Red concrete stairs would be pretty impressive...

This is something that may or may not be in my future apartment or house. Heaviest stairs ever?

A worthwhile project? Yes. Time consuming? Kinda. Will I do it again? Probably. 

This Christmas I chose to recover some used books I picked up at McKay's Bookstore in Nashville for a dear friend of mine. Certainly a personal gift as each book was specifically chosen for her.

We are both big fans of Restoration Hardware and their canvas-covered books they have on display. I took a hint and chose to do the same, but actually glue the canvas to the books instead of simply wrapping the books for looks... Read on to see how I did it.