Images of Home

Living in a small, coastal community isn't for everyone since it offers a slower pace of life, but there's a bonus in that it offers the time to soak up what's around you. The simple, little things that often get overlooked in a fast paced life and seldom, if ever photographed! The picture above is a little fishing shed that I have driven by hundreds of times, but I never thought to photograph it for a keepsake! It has now become one of my favorite photos, why? Because everything about it looks like "home", all of the items here in the picture tell you that hardworking, humble and honest people live here in this place.

Again, a simple fishing shed doesn't make for a great photograph, but to me it is a flashback of where my relatives once worked very hard to earn a living as fishermen. This holds a special meaning to me now, as some of them have since passed away and I am left with a few, fond memories of them repairing nets or putting away their things after a long day catching and clearing away codfish. That was a way of life that is now no longer exists, it's only a part of our memories and as seen in photographs.

There's no glamour in getting old, but being a hundred years old is a milestone to achieve in human terms, so how about a building? Well the age of this fishing shed I cannot say but it's old enough to get it's picture taken to be preserved before it too succumbs to old age. 

Another image that I saw to photograph  is this old root cellar still standing after it's owners left it behind when they resettled many years ago and the large, old, chippy shed beside it but it makes for an awesome  photograph for me to keep as a reminder of  what "home" looked like.

The next picture has been preserved from a photo session I did 20 years ago, it was an old building then but now sadly, it's gone and the lobster traps as well. But, by retaking the photograph I now have it digitally stored and saved for a later time to share stories of "remember when". 

Living in this slow paced, little, coastal town has allowed me to soak up and photograph all of the beautiful spaces that I'd like to remember later when maybe they'll be long gone. 

Making My Own Mirrors- Sunbursts

My fourth post in the series of Making My Own Mirrors is going to focus on a new, trendy type of mirror that are referred to as sunburst mirrors. They are, as the title suggests a shape of mirror frame that mimics the rays bursting out from the sun with the center being the circular mirror. You may have seen them made with paint sticks, wood shims, chopsticks and other items but I went a different route and used driftwood for two of these first ones. I have a circular piece of particle board cut out an extra 6" larger than my 6" mirror to give me sufficient room to glue the driftwood along the outer ring.

The mirror was attached with a construction adhesive called PL Premium. Next it was time to do a general layout of how I would attach the driftwood sticks to the board before actually gluing anything. 

You'll notice the small gaps because of the curves in the wood so I had to play with the pieces I had a little to get the underlying wood completely covered  in. When you are happy with the lineup begin gluing and I just used a glue gun because the sticks are all lightweight anyhow.

You'd just continue to work along alternating every so often with some longer sticks added into the project to imitate the sun's rays of course until you end up with this. The reflection you see is the glass in my antique door, I'll share that with you later!

By now you should be learning I always like to change it up a little with each new project so out from the assembly line popped this second one using all flat pieces that were originally wood strips from lobster traps!

Both are now hanging in my craft room and I don't think I'll part with them... so I have a spare one made for when my daughter visits again this year and wants what she sees...I'm learning to be prepared!

Again it's made a little differently this time I used items from the dollar store, you'll never guess what!

Bamboo fencing for a garden border, it was perfect with the pointed edges and all!! Note: I didn't use the gorilla glue I used the PL Premium that I used to glue the mirror to the wood base with as well. This project was a little more tedious as I had to add a wood spacer in between each set of sticks so that the top layer had a base to rest on when I glued them in place. Sorry I didn't get a picture of this but if you try this project feel free to ask me any questions on what I did. Here's the finished product resting on my table waiting for my daughter to lay claim to it!

Okay so this concludes my series on making mirrors and to be honest if you saw me now you'd say "Well she doesn't own a mirror for sure"! I hear ya!!! But in the meantime, the main thing is to get creative and use what you have old, new, recycled, painted, etched it can all be tried when you make your own mirror!! 

Making My Own Mirrors-Monogrammed

Have you ever wanted to save something from the trash not because it was pretty, but because of how long it's been in your life?? I did, it was a mirror like the one above it has been in my life since I was a small child and has survived three house moves, numerous paint finishes and all the glass cleaners you could name!  I personally think that anything that was  from the seventies generation although could use a makeover by now, don't you agree?? Since my own makeover will cost a lot of pain to my body and my wallet, I'll just focus on the 70's mirror for now!!! That I can handle!! 

At  first I tried to strip off all the old layers of paint with a mild stripper, the first layer of paint was white from it's life hanging in my hallway. Next, I would find the black speckled spray paint that replicated the counter finish in my bathroom and last was a gold spray paint (daughter's bedroom) over the original gold finish! Whew, the mess I made only to find the layers of paint were covering a crack in the frame so as I said in an earlier post on to plan B! The old frame couldn't be saved so I glued the mirror onto a piece of plywood that was cut out for me by my handsome assistant! 

The mirror was octagon shape so that's the pattern he used to cut the 1/4" thick plywood allowing for an extra 3 " border to be decorated later. The roll you see is self adhesive shelf liner which is what I used to make the monogram stencil. Using Microsoft Word on my computer I picked out a font that I liked and gradually enlarged it to a size that would comparably suit the mirror size. With that print out I then used carbon copy paper to trace over the shelf liner so the letters would be visible to me when  I  began to cut them out with my xacto knife and scissors.

Now that I have my stencil I can peel the backing off and reassemble it onto the mirror. As with the other mirror project you should clean your glass with rubbing alcohol and a lint free cloth first before you paint. I chose Martha Stewart's frosted glass paints for this project and I applied it with sponge brushes, one coat each of the two ocean shades.

It needed a few days of drying time in between since I learned that if you apply the second coat any sooner, it will only make the first layer soften and rub off, you need to remember beauty takes time!

Next came the driftwood pieces being glued onto the plywood with a glue gun in a puzzle piecing  format, there is no wrong way to do it. Then it' ready to display, which my lovely assistant did he hung it in the front entrance for me as per instructions, hehe!

Making My Own Mirrors-Window Trick

I love big windows because they give you lots of natural light, but what if all that you have is a small window such as in a basement apartment? Would you like to learn how to make it look like a large window? Better yet, would you like to make your window bigger and better in very little time with very little money? Have a look at the dreadful before pic of my tiny window that I wanted to be a focal point in my craft room.

Do any of you remember the song by the group, Abba entitled "I Have a Dream"? Well that was the theme song for the renovation of this basement space, I waited 18 years for my craft room! I wanted it to be different, creative and most of all beautiful but on a small budget so I couldn't ask for a large window for my room...yet! So what I discovered that could solve my dilemma and maybe yours too was called a faux transom. Faux meaning false or fake and transom describes a smaller window above a larger one being separated by a wooden or stone bar. Therefore a faux transom could become a decorative feature used to enhance a small window such as in a basement apartment or if you have small windows with very tall ceilings. So what do you need to make such a thing? Most everyone already owns one and if they need to buy one it is a cheap, easy to find item, you guessed right if you said the mirror.

This is another before shot of my craft room and you'll notice the common behind the door mirror hanging there, it was the length of my window width. So when it was turned on it's side it could fit  perfectly between the window and the ceiling, well with the carpentry skills that hubby has he made it fit. Seriously, with a few pieces of 1" X 3" pine strips the mirror was elevated to new heights!

The mirror wasn't glued to the wall or anything it was just framed around as if it were a full window but there was a dividing strip that became the resting base for the mirror. Then to spice up the plain look of the mirror two smaller strips were secured to mimic the bars you'd see in a regular window.  I chose a driftwood green wood stain for the walls and pickling white for the window trim and I loved the finished result, do you?

So at the end of the transformation I could tick off all the boxes in my wish list,  it now looks like a large window, it's different and  it's creative but most of all beautiful and budget friendly!