My Wall O' Mirrors

I recently found a blog that I LOOOOVE!  Mandi is a woman after my own heart.  She's a thrift store junky, just like me!!!  Her Wall O' Mirrors is what inspired MY Wall O' Mirrors, with a slight twist!!!  All of the frames, except for the little birdy one, which I found at Tai Pan on clearance for $4, were either given to me or bought at DI.  I primed and then painted all the frames in gloss white.  I love the planter box (which was the most expensive item @ $10) at the bottom of the wall with the white geraniums.  I even got those on clearance for a mere $2 per bunch!  SCORE!!  I'm toying with the idea of switching out the flowers for the seasons.  You know, white poinsettias, white tulips, white daisies.  What do you think?  Should I?  Of course they'd have to be purchased off season.  I can't bear to pay full price.  ;)   Anywho, this was a fun little project and I LOVE the end result!  I'm so excited for you all to see it.  So without further ado, MY WALL O' MIRRORS:

BEFORE:

I'm not getting rid of this painting.  I love it too much.  My grandpa painted it and gave it to me for my wedding.  It's just going to get a new home in the office.

AFTER:

I painted the wall the same color as my red accent wall.  Now I just have to finish painting the entryway and down the hall and stairs.  That's gonna have to wait until AFTER my bedroom makeover though.

I bought this vinyl from Hobby Lobby.  I loved the saying and I figured it was so convenient not to have to special order it - especially this time of year when that kind of business is crazy for the holidays.  Well, I got a little more than I bargained for!!  The black vinyl came off the transfer paper nicely.  The gold words....well, that's a different story.  I have NEVER seen vinyl stick like glue to the transfer paper like this gold stuff did.  It would NOT come off!!!  I was so frustrated when the idea came to me to put GOO GONE on the transfer paper to see if it would take the sticky off and help release it.  It worked, but it was still sticking way more than it should have.  I had to be so careful as I took it off the transfer paper.  I ended up with a few wrinkles and tears, but all in all, it was OK and I was elated to finally have it on the mirror.  That wasn't the end of my frustration, however.  Once the paper was off the vinyl, there was a sticky residue ALL OVER the words.  You know, like the ick that's left on a glass or a plate, or whatever, after you take a price tag off.  So, out came the goo gone again.  As I ever so gently rubbed the letters, the sticky was coming off, BUT SO WAS THE COLOR of the vinyl!!!  UUUUUUUGH!!!!!!  I was LIVID at this point!!!  I had to walk away and put myself in time out for 10 minutes so that I could calm down and not throw the mirror on the floor and shatter it into a million pieces.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who has those moments!!!!  After calming down, I went back to my mirror and looked at it.  I noticed that those gold letters had taken on a distressed look, and suddenly, I LOVED it again.  Needless to say, the gold vinyl isn't gold anymore, it looks taupe-ish and distressed.  (If you click on the picture above, you can see what I'm talking about).  It works!

This picture I took because my "baby bean", who is almost 7, and hates being called my baby, was sitting at the kitchen table coloring and intermittently watching a Halloween movie that was playing.  My heart stood still as I soaked in my surroundings of my family and our beautiful home and realized how blessed I truly am!! 

THANKS, again, Mandi for the inspiration to my newest home improvement project.  And to my sweet Meister (yes, that IS his middle name, which is a family name) for risking life and limb to stand on the top stair of the ladder to hang the mirrors I couldn't reach!  I LOVE YOU!!!!

P.S.  Don't judge the mess at the bottom of the stairs.  The ladder was in the way all day long, so I just threw stuff down there for the boys to take care of later!!

Happy October

I love the cool, crisp breeze that flows through my windows this time of year!  My house is filled with the smell of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and the soft glow of candles.  I am in HEAVEN!  I look forward to the leaves at the peak of  their color in a week or two and the pot of soup that will be simmering on my stove tomorrow!!

HAPPY OCTOBER!!! 

P.S. yes, it's true, there is still no hardware on my "new" buffet.  Why does husband have to be soooo busy??!????!!  I'm not even going to attempt it because they will end up lopsided, guaranteed!  But who can complain, right?  He just painted my fridge for me!!  Now it's black and matches everything else.  It's whiteness doesn't stick out like a sore thumb anymore!  THANKS, hon.  I LOOOVE YOU!!

My House Makeover

I just left a comment on this blog (you have GOT to check her awesomeness out.  She is AMAZING, and better yet, I've found someone as cheap as I am!!!!!) about my children's rooms and their unique, individualized paint jobs.  Thinking that I had pictures posted of each room, I told her she could check them out if she wanted to.  Just out of curiosity, I went back a year, only to find that the only room I blogged about was the boys'.  HOW DID THAT HAPPEN??  I guess I overlooked it after I posted the pictures on facebook.  UGH.  Anyway.....just for fun, I thought I'd post before and after pictures of the rooms I've done in the past year.  =)

CHELSEA'S ROOM

So this isn't the best before picture, but this once Americana themed room with taupe walls and navy blue trim turned into this:

She didn't want a typical headboard.  She wanted to paint a sun!  So we did!!

I just have to mention that we found these curtain panels/bed cover at Bed Bath and Beyond for a mere $5!!!

EMMY'S ROOM

Again, not the greatest before picture, but Emmy's room was a DARLING garden room, once upon a time.  She turned 10 and told me she was too old for that, so I PAINSTAKINGLY did this for her:

The stripes took FOREVER to do, but it was so worth the end result!!!  And the colors are ADORABLE!!  Orange has ALWAYS been her favorite color.

TODD, DYLAN and LANDON'S ROOM

Yes, their room was built from scratch in the basement!!  And since it's a HUGE room with a HUGE walk-in closet, all 3 of them are in one room!  But there's so much space that it's not a big deal.  We once called this the dungeon.  But now, it's a trip to the Milky Way!

The stars weren't quite finished when I took this picture, but you get the idea!  Did I mention that ALL of the boys, including the one I married, LOOOVE the Apollo Space Program that took men to the moon??  As if that weren't obvious!!!!

All these lights charge the glow-in-the-dark stars so that when they turn the lights off to go to bed (or to play), they're in space. =)

Their suiting up station.

And just because I think they looked AWESOME for Halloween last year, here they are in their costumes:

(the picture was taken at the Clark Planetarium on the moonscape)

THE BATHROOM

Rubber Duckies were cute.....10 years ago when the kids were toddlers!  I got tired of this plain and BORING bathroom, so I did this to it:

I just LOVE it soooo much!  I can hardly wait to get pictures of my kids on the beach to hang in here!!!

And there you have it, my room by room makeovers.

  My bedroom is currently in progress, but it will probably be after Halloween before it's done.  DEFINITELY before Thanksgiving though!  I can't wait for the reveal on it.  It's going to be SO CUTE!!!  I have already purchased all of the furniture for it, since we had NOTHING but old, hand-me-down, it-will-do-for-now furniture, for, get this, less than $150!!!!  Gotta love great deals at DI and on KSL!!!  I looooove doing things like this on the cheap!!  I'M SOOOO EXCITED!  You're not going to believe how great this furniture is going to look once it's redone.  =) 

Next in line?  Probably the master bath, but I don't have a vision for that yet.  One thing at a time!  My brain might explode if I do more than that.

OH!!  WAIT!!!  (screeeeeching halt!)  How could I forget the MOST UNIQUE room of the ENTIRE house??!?!??!!!!!

THE STAR DOME!!!!

Have you ever been to a dome theater??  If so, that's what this is!!!  PRETTY COOL, huh??!?!?!!

This was the very beginnings of the dome, with his posterboard prototype in the foreground.
(UGH....the math!  And geometry at that, YUCK!!!)

It's taking shape in the basement...

Drywall going on....

Mudding is in progress.  More pictures to come later!  Now how's THAT for a room that someone would look at and say, "WHAT THE HECK were they thinking????"  =) 

(Good thing we don't ever plan on moving)