Shabby Wall Mirror Re-do

I am sure that you all have seen those large mirrors that look time worn, and they cost like $30 or so.  Not mine, but you already new that!!!  lol.  I pulled out this old mirror that I had painted from brown to gold ages ago and was no longer using.

Here you will see me putting on the white paint, just your bottled craft paints work fine.  Instead of using painters tape, this time I just stuck an old sheet of paper up next to the frame and went for it.

It could well take more than one coat of paint!  

Now, you can wait for it to dry, OR get impatient like me and take a damp paper towel to it.  Amazing, didn't know if it would work until I did it.  That is all part of crafting, just getting in there and trying things out!!!

Trust me, it looks much nicer in person.  And then I went to the hardware store and bought some chain and some little decorative wood pieces.  

The wood pieces had to be painted and distressed so that they would match, and then I glued them on.  After adding chain to the back, it was ready to hang!  I did not hang it by the chain!  I was so sure of the strength, but just made it look like it was hung that way.  

I did measure it out, so even though it might look crooked here, it was fine.  After the chain is up, the mirror went on a separate nail.  I thought that it turned out nice.

Well, that is it for the mirror redo.  I hope that this will encourage you to go out there and re-purpose some stuff you have laying around.  A bit of paint goes a  long way, and it is easily changed again later...it is only paint.

We are leaving on August 8 to head to So.Korea to see our daughter for a few days. (Our adult son will be holding the fort down here.  Should I be frightened???)  She is teaching English there for a year or two, in one of their elementary schools.  So...the blog is gonna be a bit sporadic til we get back and then a lot of it might be pictures from the trip.  Stick with me, we will get back to crafting!!!

Garage / Estate Sale Prep and Shopping

This is gonna be a different kind of blog.  No pictures.  Well, at least I am not planning for any right now.  I want to talk to you about garage sale and Estate sale shopping.  How many times have you come home with nothing, spent way too much gas, and were exhausted!  There are steps that can be taken to keep some of that from happening.  Be prepared, this will not be in any particular order, and I am known to ramble.  You have been warned!

First of all, get on the computer and google or bing “estate sales”, be sure to add in your town.  Now, I like to go to more than just one, so if enough don’t come up…do another search and put in “garage sales”.  That should bring you more hits.  Oh, and it might be helpful if you put in the date that you are gonna be out and about. 

I have an inexpensive MIO GPS that is hand held that I keep in my purse.  Take it and click that you wanna plan a trip.  Start putting in the addresses by which are closer to each other and work from there.  Yes, you might have to go to mapquest to find out how to group them, but it is sure to save on the gas.  You might also wanna start on the furthest ones out and work your way towards home.  I like to get to all of them on my list and if I tire, I won’t get to all them if I didn’t start the furthest out first.  I do all this planning the night before!  There is also a listing of sales on craigslist that you can scour.  When you go to an estate sale that is run by an organized group, ask them to put you on their mailing list. 

Other things to do the night before…shave your legs.  Let’s face it, Summers in Texas are hot and if we wear our shorts and are more comfy we shop much better.  IF you are planning an all day shopathon with friends, take an ice chest with cold water.  If you are going by yourself, throw in some quarters for drinks sold by kids at some of the yard sales.  When I go by myself, I plan to be out shopping by 9am and home for my lunch.  Going with friends is a LOT more fun and sometimes we will stay out for lunch.   For an all day trip, eat a salad or sandwich for lunch.  The worst thing you can do to your body during the hot weather is to put hot food into it and get overheated and miss the rest of your shopping experience!  When a friend is driving be sure to offer to get drinks or a snack at Sonic during the ½ price happy hour. 

Another thing that needs to be done ahead of time is to lay out your shopping bags or crates.  Whether shopping alone or with a friend, it is much easier to gather up everything at the end of the trip if it is in bags or crates.  When you get home, you will be tired and not want to have to sort through everything that has been just junked into the car.

Make sure that you have sizes, color swatches, wall colors on paper and labeled, and a list of anything else you might be looking for tucked into your wallet.  There is another good thing to remember…your wallet.  Why carry the big purse if you can get by with just a wallet.  When I go out on my own, I take a tote bag to hold a drink, GPS, notes, receipts, baggies for small stuff I get, my wallet, bandaids, hand sanitizer,… but then I MAKE SURE that my shorts have deep pockets for my phone and my wallet!