Inspiration From....You?

Before I get into the real reason I'm posting today, I thought I'd show one of my very favorite things in my house.  It possibly IS my favorite piece.

Years ago my sister in-law and I ventured into an antique shop south of town.  It was huge.  I like antiques, although my house isn't full of them by any means.  But this beauty caught my eye. An old narrow window shutter.

Here is a close up look.

I wasn't sure what I would do with it, but I liked it enough to shell out a whole $4 for it.  Actually, there were *2* of them. What was I thinking by not getting that 2nd one?!  I am totally kicking myself for not having a matching set.

Just look at the beautiful old metal!

I didn't even care that part of it was painted and the other not.  Still adorable to me.

Anyway, I thought I could use it to store mail or something in the slots, but then thought better. 

<<<< After receiving inspiration by looking at this in the Lillian Vernon catalog, I decided to put my own spin on the idea.

I had the smaller frames leftover from an ugly wire wall hanging thingie, so I thought I'd put them to good use. They already had the eyehooks on them to boot. So all I had to do was buy some ribbon to hang the frames from the shutter. Works for me! 

I don't know about you, but I'm a sentimental person. So I thought that placing photos of my grandparents homes in the frames would be just the thing to make me smile whenever I looked at them. I had visited my grandparents on both sides of my family up in Michigan's Upper Penninsula many many years. These old homes are important to me in my memories.

  The photos weren't of when my grandparents actually lived there because they have been gone for many years, but the houses were still special to me, so I sneakily  snapped photos when we visited the area one summer.  I even have a photo of my grandparents old cabin in Canada, plus a photo of some waterfalls that are nearby that cabin.

Anyway, the purpose of showing all this is because I like to decorate with things that have meaning. I like that I had some inspiration for this project. And I like that I found the adorable shutter really cheap!

So, now I have a new project. It's not an antique, but like the shutter, it was cheap ($6) at JoAnn Fabrics.  And I know I want to do something special with it, but I have no inspiration! It's been sitting here for a few months and I have only a vague idea of what I should do with it!  What is it you ask?  Well, it's this......

It's a big 'ol "W"!!

It's made of papier mache' and is begging me to do something with it.  I can hang it with a hook or it's also free-standing. So what do I do with it?!!

It's big- like 2 ft.x 2 ft. tall kind of big. 

My only thought is to print out photos of my family and make a collage on it. A sepia-toned collage. I'm all about senitment, so wouldn't photos of my family be just what it needs? Or not? 

HELP! I could really use some inspiration here.  Please! I want to hear your ideas. If I don't get them, I might possibly go mad. You don't want me to end up in the loony bin do you? ;)