Today’s post would normally be Treasure Hunting Tuesday, but that will be bumped to tomorrow because this post needed to go up today.  Thank you!

Oh my goodness, folks.  It’s live!  The BHG Stylemaker Challenge is up and running!  A while ago I told you about my wild adventure in NYC with Better Homes and Gardens and the Project Runway style challenge involving myself and two other very talented bloggers.  Well, the videos are live on BHG’s website and voting is open.

First, a little about the project and my gallery wall.  We knew ahead of time we would be putting together a gallery wall on a budget, under a time crunch, but we knew little else.  We were asked to bring three personal items from home to incorporate into the wall.  Because I was flying across the country, my items had to be pretty small and portable.  I was also coming straight from PEI, so they couldn’t take up a lot of space.  I decided on a swatch of designer fabric (thanks to my sweet friend, Kirsten, for coming to my rescue right before I left out of town and letting me raid her fabric collection!), three loose agate gem stones, and the third was a photograph I took of Ruby and Jon on the beach in PEI.  It was a really soft focus and looked more like a piece of art than a family photo.  I had to search all over the island to find a photo shop who could print it out for me, only to have it get damaged on the plane rides over.  Arg.

That was my starting point.  They took us to Michael’s, gave us a $200 budget to get the rest of the supplies we needed, and the clock started ticking.  Oh and there was a twist– we couldn’t use any hammer or nails.

For my wall, I started out by framing the fabric with a frame I got at Michael’s.  I found three shadow boxes and mounted the gem stones.  I found a holiday decoration– a paper mache’ deer head– and gave it several coats of white paint.  I made the rest of the artwork on the wall, and used charcoal to write the “love” piece.  I painted the inside of one of the mats pink to give it a little pop.  A few of the things I had planned (a wall treatment, a couple of different art pieces) I had to scrap because the Michael’s we went to didn’t have the products I needed in stock.  A couple of my art pieces were plan “C” :).

I wasn’t sure what to do with the damaged photo– such a bummer.  But, I ended up cutting it down and putting it in a small frame on the desk.  It added a sweet personal touch to finish off the space.

(action shot during my video interview)

In the end, I love how the finished space came together and really feel like it could go straight into my own home.  I think it’s a good representation of my personal style.

Also, note my strategic though unsuccessful attempts at hiding the baby bump.  I wasn’t quite ready to share the news when we shot this (though I had to tell the crew and the other bloggers because thankfully, what you don’t see is me puking.  They were so sweet to supply me with snacks to help with the nausea!)

You can watch the whole adventure and also my specific project and vote for your favorite on BHG’s website.

I’m so grateful for this opportunity.  Thank you so much to BHG and the amazing video production crew we worked with for two days!  They are so talented!  I also loved working with the two other bloggers– Sarah Dorsey and Stacy Risenmay.

Well there you have it!  Hope you’ll watch my video and vote for me!

**If the voting page hasn’t popped up yet, keep trying!  I’m not sure exactly when it goes live today!