Today's project inspired by Ikea

Today's project inspired by Ikea, a photo by elletrain on Flickr.

As we're getting settled into the house, we've made MANY trips to Ikea to get various small furniture items. I have become somewhat of a master at putting these things together. It's actually been pretty fun. Yesterday I bought a small comfy chair for the craft room that turns into a twin size futon bed. Amazing.

So, you get all of your instructions and hardware for each project and there's ALWAYS one of those little allen wrenches. I knew I had collected a few of these in the last few weeks and wanted to find a way to use them all (besides in the obvious manner, to screw in bolts). I got some lovely suggestions on Facebook from my friends for mobiles, Christmas ornaments, etc. I thought about making a cool necklace, but then I remembered our wind chime we had in Nashville broke and I knew exactly what I'd make with these lovely metal pieces. I held them on some wire and they sounded beautiful when they clinked together!

So, I gathered up some jewelry making supplies and part of a mason jar lid and got to work. I'm so happy with how it turned out! It took a bit of working to get everything right, but now I have a use for these allen wrenches that we will enjoy on the patio. Hooray for not throwing something away! :)