Making My Own Mirrors-Etching

If you have a small home you'll need to learn that a mirror can be your best friend, it can make a room appear larger then it actually is! You'll also learn that they can be costly, so I've come up with a few ideas to keep the costs small, but still make my rooms look bigger! I find that with a homemade version there's always a little personality thrown in there as well. I like to have one-of-a-kind items without the designer costs so I always look and wonder  if I can make my own version of that item.
Pottery Barn had one that I noticed a lot of people were drawn to that consisted of many small squares that made up one large mirror that was nice to place above a mantel.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/282952789061149860/  Hmmm, how can I make that?? Easy, the dollar store has packages of square mirrors that I could add to a wooden base, a little glue and black paint and I'd be done! Well kinda, I had an old painting the type where it's like a wallpaper print over a manufactured board with black painted edges.(Sorry I don't have a pic of the picture) I soaked and removed the papered print and then I laid out the mirrors and 12 fit exactly, with no room to spare. They were glued on the board with an adhesive caulking product similar to liquid nails and left to overnight to set. I had pressure applied by laying another flat board over the top and a weight added.

So now I had a large mirror but there was no room for the black borders in between the tiles as the Pottery Barn one had, I had to come up with a plan B as you often do with crafting.What do I have here??? I had stencils and etching cream so this is what I came up with.

First, I cleaned the mirror tiles with alcohol,  then I sprayed the back of the stencil with the tacky spray so the etching cream wouldn't leak out underneath. Next, I placed it in the center of the mirror and applied the etching cream where the wording and pattern was. You'll need to be careful not to spill outside the project area since the cream works fast to etch. Note: You are advised to wear protection when using this product as it is very corrosive, glasses and gloves at least.

Now you let the product sit for about 15-20 minutes then you rinse the cream off with cold water and examine it. If the etching hasn't reached every little detail of your stencil you may reapply and repeat. But I don't usually have a problem if you've applied a thick enough layer of the etching cream. In the photo below I had most of the cream rinsed off but now it had to be cleaned thoroughly and shined.

I was pleased with how it turned out and for only a few dollars I had a one-of-a-kind mirror, wallah! 

The cost was 4 packages of mirrors at $2.00 each and the other supplies I already had. The etching cream is an expensive product to buy but it lasts and lasts, the bottle I have is 4 years old and it cost about $35.00 at the time.

I hope I inspired you to try a mirror project of your own, with or without the etching cream you can easily create something that you saw somewhere else  for less money! Try it and let me know how it went, I'd love to see it because then I might want one like yours! 

DIY Drifttwood Starfish

When I prepare to decorate a room I always begin with a search through magazines, Google  and now the all inclusive source for ideas, Pinterest. When my new craft room was finished I wanted it to have a coastal, crafty feel so that's what I sought out to find. Oh, I almost forgot it had to be easy and economical too! Luckily for me I'm a little bit crafty and if I see it I can usually take it from there and copy it. My  first source of inspiration was a cute, little driftwood heart seen here http://www.simplicityinthesouth.com/2013/01/how-to-make-driftwood-heart-art.html.  However I didn't think the heart was what I was aiming for so I thought of a starfish shape and that's what I settled on. I used a piece of  MDF board to draw out the shape and asked my hubby to cut it out for me as that's not my department, he's the tool guy!

Next came the fun part of fitting all the little pieces of wood together, puzzle style. It was relaxing for me but for some I would say they'd view it the opposite and think that I was so full of patience, but it's all about what you enjoy doing!

What I found after trial and error was to double glue the piece with tiny amount of hot glue and a small amount of carpenters glue as well since I was going to glue wood to a wood product. Whereas if I just used the carpenters glue I could only do a  fit together a few pieces at a time until the glue set, therefore adding the hot glue sped up the process up a whole lot.

The star above hung so proudly in my room until my daughter came to visit for a holiday and loved it as well! It now hangs in her new house which that brought a bit of her home back to her new surroundings. Oh well, back to where I started....collect the driftwood, wash it, dry it, sort it and so on! Starfish number 2 would be faster since my wall was now bare again. This time I chose corrugated cardboard as the base and just used hot glue alone for the adhesive. To my surprise it worked out fine since the wood pieces are lightweight and it won't ever be put outside to possibly get wet. I think I even like it better then the first one since the shape is more curvy like a starfish occurs naturally.

Beauty in the Sky

Who can deny that there is so much beauty in a sunrise or a sunset? I love color and therefore I'm drawn to those times in the day when you can expect to see a spectacle in the sky. Luckily for me, I'm an early morning riser thanks to my dad's genes and I share his love of nature. It's the quiet, peaceful times in the early morning that you can ponder and reflect and fully absorb your surroundings. 


When you are at home and barely awake it seems like forever for the sun to rise, do you agree? That's one thing that I've noticed, it's actually only a few minutes between the light first appearing and the sun being fully exposed above the horizon! It's faster, way faster then I would have guessed, as is the swiftness of a sunset especially when you are trying to capture a photo.

The photo above and across were taken in early March when our mornings were very cold and crisp. A few days prior to this we had experienced -34 degree wind chills! Needless to say these were taken very quickly in order to maintain the heat in the car, grab a snap and go!

Happily, my reward came later when I got to upload and review the images, I loved them all but some stood out more than others due to the deeper colors that were captured. Have you ever wondered why the sky is full of reds, pinks and oranges at dusk and dawn?

It all has to do with the different wavelengths of the spectrum colors and how they are refracted depending on the distance the sun is from the earth. Red, orange then yellow have the longest wavelengths and blue has the shortest. So when the sun is on the horizon light has to pass through more atmosphere so only the colors with long wavelengths get through!

These two photos were taken the same morning as the previous two,but from a different location. It was a little later and much closer to the actual sunrise time. The above one you'll notice that the sun is still below the horizon and the dominant colors you see are reds and pinks. The second photograph the sun has emerged and the dominant sky color is orange.

Wouldn't you love to get up and go to work in the beautiful setting  in the photograph below? How could it be anything but ' Morning Glory'? Seems to me that it's the perfect name for a fishing boat!

The same is true for the beauty in an evening sunset, the beauty is there in the sky for all to see and enjoy.The first was taken in Winter and the second one in the Spring and last was a Summer setting.

Give a Little- Take a Little

Give a little -take a little, that's how I view the experience I have to share from last year in my yard! You see I love all the little birds that come by and even better if they stop long enough to get their photograph taken! If you feel the same way I have a little tip to share with you that I think may have given me an edge last year. We always throw out things that we deem are useless or are just simply waste, but this will make you rethink how you view such things. These things include small paper scraps, dryer lint, pet hair, wool scraps, curly ribbon  that's all garbage right? NO, not anymore! What are they any good for? Check it out at this pinterest link: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/28295278906146515

 It's so easy and effortless to lend a hand, which is what I did last Spring and to my surprise the reward was tenfold! I put some small strands of brightly colored wool outside in a few of our spruce trees and waited and watched...it drew in this guy!

Not a bad catch if I do say so myself, this is a Cedar Waxwing! I was so excited that he took the wool that you can see in the bottom of the above picture. But imagine how much more excited I got when I discovered where they were setting up the nest.

This Maple is directly in front of my kitchen window, the nest was about midway up on the right. What views I was privileged to see and photograph

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Then came the added excitement with the arrival of the babies, she had three!

We watched them everyday being fed and guarded by their doting parents, it was wonderful to see. 

 That, as we knew, would come to an end when they decided to spread their little wings. They took short flights within the Maple tree at first as you see below, out of the nest but not the tree!

Then the next day they built up their nerve and flew across the garden and that's how we got to see them well, as they were quite well hidden in among the large Maple leaves. They didn't have the full color plumage that their parents had at this point, but they were still cute.

I am so thankful that I had the Waxwings choose our yard to set up a nursery and successfully raise three of their young. It's all because I 'gave' a little wool that I was able to 'take' all these pictures!

Green wool dangling from the nest.