Basement Rejects

Well to wrap up basement week around here, I thought I would share with you 2 design elements who's lives were cut tragically short. You all remember me swooning over the beautiful oyster shells I was using on a project. Well here is what I was working on:

My little slice of iridescent heaven. Until it came time to hang it. This beauty weighed a few 100 pearlescent pounds (ok perhaps not that much, but that puppy bent the mounting bracket). Defeated, I pealed the shells from the mirror & toyed with the idea of finding a sturdier replacement. But the fear of having something so heavy hanging over delicate, little heads made me decide to scrap this project. Design wise, it would have looked marvelous in the space, but it wasn't the prudent choice (anyone else thinking Dana Carvey? Wouldn't be prudent.). As of now, I'm mulling over a few other uses for the shells....they are too stunning not to use.

On to reject #2. Remember this swatch I had planned to use for couch pillows? It was described as a blue, cream & brown striped fabric. Well upon arrival I discovered a gigantic, rust-colored stripe running through the fabric! Didn't see that coming.

The unsightly stripe is wide & repeats twice in the fabric. A work around required too much effort at the time as all the sewing was done late at night while the little ones slept & Hubby was on a business trip. As a result, this guy received the boot and is now at home in the remnant pile. Luckily, I over bought on the other fabrics & could make up for this shortcoming. I still can't believe the company didn't bother to note that the fabric also contained the color rust and not just a smudge of it, 2 gigantic sections.

So there you have it, full access to the basement decorating dilemmas and drama. If you have any ideas for ways to use the oyster shells (I've got over 150 of them) I would love to hear. And has anyone else ever received fabric that didn't match the sample? Were you able to use it or was it banished to your fabric stash?