Zebra Rug DIY

I picked up quite a few souvenirs on our trip to South Africa, which is not the norm for me.  I was excited about having a place to decorate (my boyfriend and I signed the lease on our house the week before we left) and I genuinely loved the style of the items we bought.  You can see some of them in this post (wooden masks, original artwork).  One thing I was lusting for but wasn't able to purchase was a zebra hide rug.  I saw quite a few for sale but there was no extra room in my luggage and I didn't want to spend extra money to ship it home.  (I was also unsure how to declare it and didn't want to deal with any trouble from customs.)  When we got back I started shopping on eBay and Craigslist for zebra rugs.  I found some reasonably priced options but decided to save some money and try a DIY version.

South Africa

A few months ago my boyfriend's employer sent him to South Africa for an assignment.  Obvi, that's a pretty big deal so of course I invited myself he invited me to join.  We love tagging on a vacation to the heels of a work trip, and it makes financial sense when you get to expense your flight and/or hotel.  We were thrilled to go to Africa, as neither of us had been before.  My first reaction to Johannesburg was, "Awesome!  Isn't it really dangerous?"  We did some Googling and discovered it used to have a high crime rate but it's decreased as their economy has strengthened in the past decade.