Little Hands

It's taken me forever to share this with you, but this has been a crazy week!  And right now I only have about 15 minutes before I have to run out the door again....but I wanted to share something new for the nursery.  You'll remember that I said that there was an empty space on the little white shelves on top of Baby A's dresser that was going to get filled - well, it's finally done:

 See that little handprint up there?  I wish I could say that this is an original idea, but it's not....I saw it on the fabulous Becky Higgins blog long before Baby A came along and wished I had thought to do it for K.  But at least I can do it for Baby A, right?!?

This is not rocket science folks, I just went to Michael's with a trusty coupon and got the acrylic paint and canvases.  These are 6"x6" canvases in a pack of 4, and what I especially love about them is that they are 1 inch thick so they look nice and chunky. 

I painted two in a lighter pink, and two in a darker pink - the light pink needed 2 coats of paint and the darker pink needed three coats.  I let each coat dry for day in between to make sure it was well cured. 

Then I corralled the baby and painted her hand with the white paint and pressed, hoping for the best, because she was not a big fan of my crafty project!  I figured if the handprint didn't look great, I could just paint over with the pink and try again, but luckily I was pleased with the first try.  Then I had ordered the Sharpie Poster Paint Pen in white (fine point) from Amazon, and I had been waiting for that to arrive to write the year in the lower right corner.  I debated about writing the year or her age, but decided on the year in the end.  I am very happy with how it turned out! 

The other 3 canvases are ready to go in her closet for the next 3 years!  I'm planning on alternating between the darker and lighter pink each year.  And I'll probably hang them on the wall eventually as she gets older. I still have a couple more projects for the nursery in the works, but at least I can check this off my list!

Making My Mantle Mirror (try saying that 10 times fast....)

Ok, so I promised more deets on the mirror I made that's on my mantle.  I don't have any pictures of the work in progress, because I am not great at before and after pictures...I'll try to do better....

So you've seen it now....

But the mirror itself started as a builder basic mirror attached to the wall in my powder room.  I wish I could find a picture of it in there, but it was so ugly, I'm sure I never took one!  No frame, just a piece of mirror slapped up on the wall.  PLUS it was not centered under the light fixture and gave me hives because I CAN'T STAND when that happens.  It was attached to the wall with those awful plastic clips like these (yes, these still live on in my master bath, but that's a l-o-n-g post for another day - it's the bane of my existence that master bath....)

So, I took down the clips and PRAYED that it wasn't adhered to the walls....Naturally, another corner was cut by the builder (we didn't build this home) and taking down the clips was all that had to be done.  I had been wanting a new mirror in the powder room and found a FAB one at the Round Top Antiques Fair that is hanging in there now (will share this later as I am about to work on the powder room redo).  But I had always wanted a mirror above the mantle, and I'm a cheapskate, so this was going to work out well.

Now the frame....this is a good story....I work in real estate, and one of the clients on the team I worked for had just bought their first home.  The sweet couple got a great deal, but there were some cosmetic, ummm, challenges, that the previous owners were actually quite proud of!  They had made the kitchen in to what resembled the inside of a barn or old saloon (very Texas!).  It was dark and not at all the style of the lovely new owners.  I have grabbed a picture of it from the MLS when it was on the market, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I shared it since it looks NOTHING like this now!

Pretty sweet huh?  That's actually the breakfast area, and there is a cute window seat buried under all that WOOD.  Anywhoo, the sweet couple tore all that wood out of there and invited us over to take a look at the transformed kitchen (it's lovely now!!)  The wood was in great shape, so they said we could take some if we wanted.  Umm, YES!!  I knew I could use it for something better than the above!

Back to my mirror.... I got a piece of pressed board and some Liquid Nails and went to work.  I had the pressed board cut to about 3 inches larger than the mirror on all sides.  I slapped down some Liquid Nails and glued the mirror to the board.  Then I created mitered corners with the wood from the old Texas Saloon, set it next to the mirror and glued it down to the pressed board w/ the Liquid Nails as well.  A little spackle, sanding and black spray paint later, and it's done!  I had planned on doing a distressed finish or putting some polyurethane on it, but I liked it just the way it was (read - I was impatient and wanted it UP ON THE MANTLE!).

Here are some up close looks at it - it's very heavy, and I can't take it down without hubby here, so this is as good as it's gonna get folks!

  That brown is the pressed board.  Here's another view where you can see it just a TAD better:

 And here are the mitered corners - don't look too closely, this is definitely not the finest work out there, but I am satisfied!

I love it and, just my luck, it's just the right width for the mantle.  I believe the whole thing cost me about $15, and I had plenty of Liquid Nails to spare for another project.  Happiness is a huge, heavy mantle mirror for $15!