Taxidermy… Silver Glitter Deer

For the last couple of months I’ve had a thing for (faux) taxidermy.  Growing up my dad was a hunter and we always had (multiple) heads up on the walls, in our living room alone there were four (one for every wall!). While I grew use to the large animals staring at me everywhere I went I never quite liked them… they were just there. As an adult I am lucky enough to be taxidermy free (although my hubby is a hunter so I may have to give that up at some point), but in the past few months I’ve felt myself drawn to faux animal heads.  Nothing that looked realistic or lifelike but animals with a bit of… glam to them.

The famous Miss Mustard Seed has a large, cow head over the range in her kitchen and while I don’t quite care for cows, I loved it. Likewise when watching an episode on HGTV one of the designers used several fake heads to decorate a small office.  I believe they were all white, rather large and exotic. A hippo, a rhino and a small deer? I saw them as abstract and I LOVED them, I knew I wanted something similar but I wasn’t sure what. Then I saw a set of stuffed, plush animal heads above a babies crib on Pinterest.  They were absolutely adorable for a babies nursery but nothing I would want in my living room. A large brown cow wouldn’t do it, a white exotic animal wouldn’t do it, definitely nothing realistic, I needed something glamorous. I wasn’t on the hunt but I knew that when I saw it… I’d just know.

Well, last week I was walking through Wal-Mart with a friend when she asked if I’d like to look through the Christmas section.  I had time to kill and I love Christmas so I thought “why not?” We headed over to the garden section where rows of shinny ornaments were newly hung, when we came to the third or fourth aisle there was a section of collections. You know the type: matching tree skirt, matching stockings, matching ornaments, matching pillows, matching mercury glass owls… there were three collections on this aisle but I was drawn to a shinny teal and silver section. There was an adorable pillow with a silver owl and lots of mercury glass, I was pursuing when I saw an almost empty rack, and at the back was one last shinny silver glitter deer. The perfect solution.

She’s about a foot wide (from antler to antler) and at only $7 she’s the perfect solution to my taxidermy shortage! Just enough to satisfy the hunger without screaming “Look at me I have dead animals on my walls!” I think I might of screamed a little and my friend jumped back about a foot. She thought I was absolutely crazy for wanting such an obnoxious glam fake deer head… but since she’s the last one on the shelf I feel confident in saying I’m not the only one crazy enough to bring this bad boy home! I proudly carried my precious find around the store, beaming from ear to ear, until we were ready to head home. All the important people in my life  received a text message saying looky what I found! My best friend thought it was amazing, my mom thought I was crazy, my dad thought I was joking and my husband just said “that’s nice dear, I love it to”. He knows all the right things to say that one!

Needless to say less than 24 hours later that sparkly silver glitter deer was home and hanging on my wall.

Now here’s the kicker, remember when I said I recently hung a gallery in the hallway? Well it’s not quite finished yet, I’m still waiting on two wedding photo canvases to arrive and finishing up a couple projects… but I knew I needed something small and skinny to fill a slightly awkward space next to my thermostat. I had been looking for about a week with no luck when I headed back to Wal-Mart (that store has been good luck for me recently, spastic since it’s Wal-Mart). I was planning to see if they had restocked the shelves with glitter deer, at $7 I thought an extra one might not be bad to have on hand (why? I don’t know, just go with it). Unfortunately the spot where the glitter deer had been was now filled with mercury glass Christmas trees, so I’m not sure they’re getting anymore in stock. I was bumming hard but decided to take a look around, maybe I would find something else I needed.

I headed down the next aisle over and was browsing through an array of glittery ornaments when I spotted a tiny little glitter silver deer head ornament. It wasn’t the same as the larger version already at home on my wall, this deer was longer with only three points on each antler instead of eight, she also had little black eyes and a jingle bell collar. I thought she’s look cute on my Christmas tree so I grabbed one and headed back down the aisle to where my hubby was looking at weed-eaters. Then inspiration struck, why did she have to go on a Christmas tree? Wasn’t I just searching for something tall and skinny for the hallway mural?

Why can’t Christmas ornaments be wall decorations?

I saw no reason why they couldn’t… and now I have TWO silver glitter deer! I am such a lucky girl.

Now that I know what I’m looking for I’ve found several larger glitter animals… if that’s something that floats your boat take a peek. They’re a little large for my space but I can see amazing things happening here.

Hope you all loved these little deer as much as I did, they make my heart happy!

Linking up with: Miss Information & White Lights & The NY Melrose Family & Tattertots and Jello & Redo It Yourself Inspirations