Coastal Mirror

I picked up this little gem the other day at the thrift store. It was in the half price room which is the reason I decided to take a chance with it. I've always liked Trumeau mirrors and I was thinking I could try to make my own version of one.

The first thing was to get rid of the ducks. I removed the paper on the back to find that the ducks were painted on the back of the glass. Both the glass and mirror were hot glued in. I tried to get the glue off but it was on pretty good. So, I decided to leave it and just scrape off the paint.

With my trusty little razor blade and some nail polish remover I was able to get it all off. Someone went a little nuts with the hot glue. I cleaned the frame and gave it a coat of Martha Stewart's Sharky Gray. All seemed to go well until I tried to age it and then the paint started to peel. There was no fixing it. It all had to come off. I had just bought some stripper for the $3 chair, so I used that. Got it clean, sanded a bit and then used PRIMER. I should have known better because the old paint was shiny and slick.

Back to square one with more Sharky Gray and then some white glaze to give it a weathered look. It's hard to see, but if you look at it next to the white shell ball you can see that it's gray.

I printed out the picture of the sailboat from The Graphics Fairy. You can find it here. You could spend a lot of time on her wonderful site looking through all that she has. Trust me. I loved that it was already old looking. I had son #3 do a little photoshop magic for me. The picture was a little too small and resizing it was making it looked stretched out too much. So he made it wider by duplicating the end of it. Then he turned down the saturation levels to give it softer gray tones. Kids come in handy now and then. Especially when they are so smart.

Here is the original picture. Already really pretty.

And then after he tweaked it. With a bit of glare that I just noticed.

I liked the way it turned out. It may find a home in the new bathroom. Speaking of the bathroom, we have walls people. Sort of. We have to wait for the inspector, yet again, to inspect the insulation and then they can drywall the inside too. It's a waiting game. 

Next time you're at the thrift store, take a chance. See what you can do with something not so attractive. Let me know, have you rescued anything lately?

Linking up to:

Domestically Speaking Power of Paint Party
Debbiedoos Garage Salen Party 
My Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday

Funky Junk Saturday Nite Special
The Graphics Fairy Brag Monday

Pottery Barn Finial Knock Offs

I found this finial at a thrift shop awhile back. It was painted gold I believe and it had this wood texture to it though it's not wood. It reminded me of one I saw in a Pottery Barn catalog. Only a bit smaller. So I went after it with some paints and glaze to give it the worn look like the one in the catalog. I didn't distress it quite as much but I like how it turned out.

Pottery Barn Finials

My version

So, when I wanted another finial I decided to see what I could put together. I came up with this version via the Home Depot. It's just 3 pieces. The top part was found over by the legs. The middle part is a fence finial and then I mounted it on a rosette from the trim department to make it taller and give it a base. 

The rosette already had a nice edge on it and it was just glued on. The little top piece actually had a screw in it already so I had my hubby just drill a hole for me and it got screwed in. Or you can take the screw out and glue it on too. Paint, sand, glaze, repeat to your liking. They go nicely with my other white weathered pieces I already had.

The Beast, Henry, after his day at the salon. All squeaky clean. Unlike my floors, which are just going to be dirty until this bathroom is done. Dust and sand everywhere.

Oh yes, my new lamp shade came in today! I have to get some wider trim and then I will show it off. It has an uncanny resemblance to a floor lamp from a certain catalog.

Beauties and The Beast

Someone is going to the salon tomorrow. A little shampoo, a little trim, we won't mention any names. He'll be like a new man. Hopefully I'll find less of those little fur balls in my corners. That would be nice. I should have made myself an appointment. I could use a little pampering. I'm shedding myself quite a bit.

The Beast

The Beauties
I'd like to thank some ladies for thinking of me and sending some awards my way. Karen from Restyled Vintage and Brandy from Life of Perks for the One Lovely Blog award and also T Bird from Nestled in Rosenberg for the A Blog With Substance award. I hope you will drop by and visit their blogs. They are all very talented ladies with some great ideas.

Here are 7 random things about me for One Lovely Blog award:

1. I flip through magazines from the back to the front.

2. I have a slight addiction to them too.
3. I microwave my ice cream before serving it.
4. I love eating breakfast for dinner.

5. I laugh when I'm nervous.  

6. I love a good action flick  

7. I color my hair every 4 weeks.

Five words to describe my blogging or motivation for A Blog with Substance award:
Take a look at my header :)

I want to pass these on to some fairly new bloggers to me and I hope soon to you too. So, go check them out.

Debbie @ Love of the Sea
Emily @ The Wicker House
Laura @ My Summerhouse
Sarah @ Cozy Cute Cottage
Yanet @ 3 Sunkissed Boys
Debbie @ Lakehouse

Covering Coasters

Hello everyone. Remember when I asked about your shopping mojo and if it was lost? Well, it seems my crafting mojo was misplaced somewhere and the simplest little project gave me such fits. I saw Rene over at Cottage and Vine do a little coaster makeover. They turned out so great. I had these cork backed coasters that needed a little updating so I thought, lets give his a try.

I traced the coaster onto some scrapbook paper and cut it out. My first attempt I used modge podge and a small brush and brushed the MP on the coaster and then laid my cut paper on top. Smoothed it out, tried to smooth it out some more. Ack, bubbles. I used my fingers. Nope bubbles still there. I let it dry. Bubbles still there. Needless to say, there are no pictures of the process since my hand were covered in MP.

I tried letting it dry before the top coat, I tried top coating right away and this is what they looked like. Crapola.

My next attempt. Weeks later. I decided to try spray adhesive on three more coasters. I sprayed the paper and laid it down on top of the coaster. The one up front, perfect. Not a bubble in site. Joy! The other two? Trouble makers. It seems I did not spray them enough so when I tried to top coat with the MP, bubbles appeared like magic. Black magic. So I ripped off the paper. See my mess?  I wonder if my mojo will ever come back. This really shouldn't be this hard.

After I cleaned off the two problem ones I tried again and sprayed them well. This time I sprayed the coaster and not the paper. Beautiful. Smooth as glass. I gave them a couple or three top coats of the evil MP with a foam brush this time and let them dry.

Here they all are. They all got a few coats of some spray on clear coat. The ones on the left, smooth and bubble free. The ones on the right, not so much. It might be hard to see in the picture but trust me. There is a difference. The one in the middle? Well, that was an experiment to see if I could do this without the evil MP. I just used the spray glue and then the sprayed on the top coat. It did work but it doesn't have as much of a coating so it might not last as long. 

Can you believe this is my first time using this stuff? I know, hard to believe. So, here are my tips if any of you have had problems with modge podge. Being that I'm an expert now.

1. Make sure surface is clean

2. Use a foam brush, leaves less brush strokes

3. Use thin coats, thin, don't squirt the MP onto the paper.

4. Try the adhesive glue if you have it. It worked for me.

5. You can get it off if you mess up. Though, I didn't wait too long.
6. Find someone who's good with this stuff for more advice.

Cheers!

I'm linking up with Debbiedoos Before and After Party.