DIY: Pistachio Shells Wall Art

So one day, I was happily munching on my pistachios.  They are one of my many simple pleasures.  I started looking at the pistachio shells and thought it's such a same that they end up on garbage pit.  I thought they look pretty, sturdy, uniform so there must be something that can be done to re-use them. I thought of consulting the internet - perhaps other people have such great idea about how to recycle pistachio shells and surely, the internet didn't disappoint me.  It's just amazing how much info one can find from the internet.

I browsed on different ideas until one clicked for me.  This girl makes flower brooches out of pistachio shells and they are just lovely.  I was so sure I can do it... but I have a bigger idea. Literally.  Instead of making flower brooch, I made a big flower wall art.  Our entrance hall has been bare from the beginning we moved in our house up until now for reasons like 1 - not having an idea how I'd want it to look like 2 - no desire on spending significant ka-chings and 3 - lack of time.

Lately though, I've been obsessing on doing small projects in our house for organization and decoration and this is one of them!  So let's move on to the presentation because if I don't stop talking er, writing now, I will never stop, ever. I am a very, very wordy person.

Pistachio shells painted in red, red wine.

Pistachio shells painted yellow mustard

One on top of the other

Full view of the pistachio wall art together

Our entrance hall is still a work-in-progress.  This mama loves anything handmade, thrifty, unique and pretty so I've been trying to incorporate some DIYs to really personalize our entrace hall.  These pistachio flower wall arts are perfect for this wall that yours truly painted :)

Showing some more details on our entrance hall.

A different angle.  Some details from right to left:

yellow and green vases - from a thrift store. They were like less than a euro each

book type picture frame in natural wood and green color - a souvenir we got from Dos Palmas back in 2004

White picture frame - gift from MIL

Lantern made of candle (leftmost) - craft from Kultura store in the Philippines

This is probably too girly for a house but I got an approval from hubby before I have installed them and I also got a wow so I guess, there's really nothing to worry :)

So there.  I am really liking how the entrance hall is turning into something we really like.  Paging Dianne:  I still have a space in our entrance hall for your DIY Chicago skyline framed art :-D

Now, let me bore you a little bit with my thought process while I do this craft: {I tried to sort out the not-so-pretty and not-so-perfect pistachio shells because what else, I'd like the end-result to look perfect. After all, it'll be hanged on the wall of our entrance hall. Then as I continued working...}

I told myself:

 "Poor unpretty pistachio shells. They have even failed this 'second chance' of being useful. Now, they have no use at all. Off to the garbage can!"

Then I answered myself:

 "That's not really fair isn't it?

To which, I answered back:

 "That's right. That is not fair. Just because something doesn't look perfect, doesn't mean they should be deprived of opportunities." Then the reflection continued. I Imagined children getting outcast by other children because they are not 'pretty'. I imagined my daughter not wanting to play with another child because the child is 'different'. How will I teach my child against prejudice? About equality? About giving the same chance to everybody? If I myself don't even know how to give the same chance to these not-so-pretty pistachio shells in front of me?

Then I heard myself telling me: "Ok. Enough gluing. You need some rest."

So I had to stop the gluing of these pistachio shells as they were starting to come alive in my mind.

I sat on the couch and ate some more pistachios.

Can you tell I am nutty?