As Fall Arrives, Make The Mercury Rise!

I've been walking into a few stores lately, where I have seen mercury glass amongst their displays.  It's very pretty-- yet very expensive.  (Ironic for something formerly referred to as Poor Man's Silver.)  I found out that mercury glass was introduced back in the 1840's, where its popularity started to fizzle out in the 1930's.  (And the glass wasn't really made out of mercury.  The glass would be double-walled, where a silvering solution would be applied in between (usually made of silver nitrate or sterling), and then closed up at the bottom of the piece.  It was only named mercury because the element was used to make the reflective surface of mirrors with at the time.)

Anyways...

Pottery Barn offers a few of these items, however, they are mostly sold out~

And not bashing Pottery Barn-- because they INSPIRE me...  but you can come across unfinished hurricanes at a craft store for $20 or less.

And again, it's not something I can really afford.  And never mind my five year old, it's my husband whom I always have to worry about destroying my objects de art with.

Because of that, I've been left to only walk by those displays, putting them on the shelf of my dreams-- along with the house that I would put them in.

But last week, I came across a website, offering a tutorial on how to make the glass.  They seem to be very detailed in the tutorial, and because the holiday season is approaching, I wanted to share it with you asap!  The site is http://lovelylittledetails.com/2011/04/07/guest-post-diy-mercury-glass-tutorial-kelley-maria/.  (I would love to post her photos of how her work turned out, but I notice that there is a "©" on a photo, so I wasn't sure of the legalities (if any) there were of copying and pasting.)  But with the one (or rather dozens) of vases all of you must have, laying around in the back of a cupboard, it might be interesting to give this project a shot.

Isn't that such a great idea though?  And this process can be used for just about anything, and not just seasonally! 

Not George Michael's 'Different Corner', But Good Enough!

So today, I went venturing all over, looking for something to fill the corner of my apartment's kitchen.  I was tired of seeing my husband's coffee stuff all over the place, and was on the hunt for a more organized look, than what I had going on here~

You can't see the right corner very well, but it consisted of my mother's 50 year old spice rack, and all of his coffee stuff that he piles in the corner.  And P.S.-- I got rid of those ugly lamps! 

I went to IKEA, where I saw some shelving online for a cheap $6.  However, when I got there, I realized that the length was much too long for what I was looking for, and that they didn't have anything else there that was shorter.

Then, I went to Home Depot.  I found some crystal knobs that were about two weeks too late for another project, but that was it.  (When I had asked an employee about where to find wall shelves and brackets, he pointed me to an area of the store where I could hear someone sawing something.  NOPE!-- not wanting to make a big project over something I didn't want to spend the entire day on.)

So, as a last resort, I hit my local Craft Warehouse.  (The more I look online, it seems that the closest thing that comes to it, is some place called Hobby Lobby, for those of you who don't have a Craft Warehouse.)

No shelves.  Nothing that could clean up that corner, making it look a teeny tiny bit like Central Perk from Friends.  But I found a couple little plaques, that were just the right size for the shelves that I wanted.  And then I picked up some wrought iron hooks, that I mistook for brackets~

I still need to stain them, but they work, yeah?



Just the right size for the small wall space!


Overall, it cleans up the clutter.  Eventually, I'd like to get some kind of coffee and tea canisters (like something below), to put on the counter (as I only used the cake stand-- and the muffins I just finished-- at 11:30pm), for this photo's sake.

I saw this at Target, but opted for the "Oh Snap!  I forgot!" Missoni sale that hit the same day instead, getting my 5-year old a dress that sucked up my-money-for-the-rest-of-the-week fund.

                            

But with that said, I have an alarm that goes off at 7am, so bon nuit!



What To Do When You Get A Printer!


First of all-- COUPONING!  However, when your dreams of saving millions of dollars are quickly dashed (as you realize that sites require you to download their 'printers' where a box then comes up, saying that your settings are blocking your 50-cents off International Delight Creamer coupon from printing (and you don't know how to reconfigure something called Java), you look for other things to do with it instead.

The other day, I went out and purchased an HP Series 2050 printer for $39.99.  (There was another one that was $29.99, but I thought I'd get a more deluxe model.)  After nine years sans printer, these things have changed!  As in scanning!  I didn't know these things could do that now.  So I was scanning old pictures and printing them out, and all of these other things.  And then...

I ran out of ink.

But that was alright.  Yesterday was my birthday, and my husband (who didn't do anything for me this year-- just like last year, when he went out shopping with his mother that day...  oops.  Sorry.  That would be under the 'ranting' tab I have on here.  But really.  I've been wanting a Coach purse for the past five years.  And here he was last night, eating a hot pocket in front of the tv, which signaled no birthday dinner...), could buy me a $13.99 replacement cartridge).  So all's well at the moment.  (That is, until the color cartridge starts giving me issues.)

Anyways...

I'm trying really hard not to make my place go down 'Scrapbook Alley'.  But it's hard, when I've got all this extra paper and whatnots on hand, and then come across a loose board in a box (when my husband got bored, and tried a 20-minute stint at woodburning a couple of years ago, and it didn't turn out like the masterpiece he thought it would).

(It was similar to that depicted below, but a rectangular one.  I just didn't take a pic of it, because my camera was dead, and like I mentioned it was part of my husband's project, where there was a goofy looking picture of a rabbit and a duck that he attempted, before tossing the $40 purchase in his toolbox and never touching it again.)

But I painted the edges of it, and used some of that Martha Stewart decoupaging glue to fasten a sheet of scrapbook paper onto it.  Having done so, I wanted to add a printed picture of something I got off of an art site.  However, it just didn't look right, and I peeled it off-- taking pieces of the $1.99 scrapbook paper off with it!  I didn't fret though-- if you look at it, it's starting to give off a shabby appeal-- like peeling vintage wallpaper:

After finding and printing off a piece that I thought wouldn't look too bad, I proceded in decoupaging tissue paper (to match the blue in my home), onto the white areas of the paper.  Then, I went on, decoupaging the print onto the board:

You can go the next level up, and apply that lacquer glaze (that they sell for about $10 and up).  But since I haven't attempted anything like that yet, I am not really ready to try on this project.  (I might later on.)

But just an idea of what to do with some leftover whatnots...





 

My Husband Probably Isn't Going to Like This Very Well...

But that's okay-- because the only time he's in the kitchen, is when he's heating up a hot pocket, or going to the refrigerator for something to drink.

As my other posts state, I live in an apartment, where (unless you are living in a condo), you can't really do any serious demolition and remodeling to keep up with your friends on facebook with.  Because of this, I've had to endure a few years of apartment depression.  For those of you who have caught it, you know the symptoms.  Trying really hard to emulate something out of the latest Pottery Barn catalog.  And then on a drag-along trip to the Salvation Army (I'm just using that store as an example, to illustrate my point), you've realized that their store has a vignette with beauty and creativity that surpasses your spent-all-my-tax-refund-money-at-Walmart (because you thought by cutting corners you'd be getting ahead with a few bucks leftover), and-it-still-looks-like-crap college try! 

So, for the past few years (-- actually, since 2005), I've had this setup above my stove~

And I wanted something different.  I was thinking of a silver tray (like in a previous post on my 'Ideas' tab), or a mirror.  But as I was looking at trays, I was also looking at the pricetag.  For something that might get an occasional splatter, I didn't want to go anything above $10.  And the mirrors that I was looking at, were too heavy and running about $20.  (I would have liked the reflection of light coming from it, but then again (and talking myself out of how great of an idea it would have been), who wants to be finding flaws with themselves, while cooking chicken alfredo?)

So, I opted for this idea.  And actually, it did come under $10.  There is this store called Craft Warehouse, which I absolutely LOVE!  Unlike Michaels (which can get a little spendy),  Craft Warehouse has a lot of the extras (as in-- let's be honest-- NEAT and CHEAP CRAP!)  You can find frames with orange clearance tags on the back.  Vignettes with bell jars and floral accessories all over the place.  Lit cherry branches strung over arbors, etc.  So, I found a $7.99 frame, and a .59 sheet of scrapbook paper (since I have that robin egg blue color going on in my home).  And obviously, you don't have to do this project to hide an area above your stovetop.  (A wall in the bathroom, bedroom, etc.  But like I said, my husband isn't going to go for this all too well in the kitchen when he comes home, but oh well...)

Here are the supplies needed~

• Frame with glass insert
• Stencil (if preferred-- or you can use whatever you want to embellish it with.  I was in a hurry-- so I just did what I did)
• Sponge brush and acrylic paint.  (You can probably use any other media, such as pens made from glass, glass paint, or even those vinyl stickers (which are expensive!  Something like $6!), etc.  Being that I had black acrylic around (and it's ERASEABLE like a dry erase board-- perfect for people like me who can't make up their minds), I decided to use that.)
• Adhesive (I chose to use rubber cement, in the event that I ever decided to change my mind on the background and needed to take it off gently.)
• Any kind of embellishment or border for the frame (if you are not going for the minimalist approach.  I happened to have some border stickers in a scrapbook, so I decided to use those).



If anyone is wondering about the scrapbook paper, I took a closeup shot of the label.

Okay.  First what you need to do, is cut your paper to fit the area of the frame.  DO NOT glue anything down at this time.  Flip your frame over to the backside, and place over the paper, to find your center point for your stencil.

Tape your stencil onto the back of the glass, and with a LIGHT dab of paint on your sponge, tap at the stencil, being careful not to cake it onto the glass.  (If you do, it will smear all over the place, and you will have to wipe it off and start over again!)

Lift the frame now and then to see your progress and if you missed any areas.

When you are finished stenciling, you may want to go over with a cotton swab (with the bulk of the tip pulled off-- for precision), and take off smears here and there.  Personally, I was thinking that it was had a vintage 'stamped' look going on.

 Afterward, apply your adhesive to the back of the frame, and attach your scrapbook paper backing to it~

Flip over to the front, and apply your border, or whatever embellishments you would prefer.  (Sparkles, etc.  But as I said, my husband probably isn't going to swoon over this, and I don't think adding hot pink rhinestones would make him change his mind any more!) 

                   

                   

This project took me less than ten minutes to complete, and for the look, it's not too bad!

Border's Sells More Than Books!

(Sorry about the pic on the right.  I had posted this on my Facebook with the message intended toward a friend who I'm sure was going to make a remark about all this shabby chic stuff! :)

I had to come back home really fast and post this, before they all disappear!

Border's bookstore is sadly going out of business.  (If you haven't gone in by now, then there's not the greatest chance you'll be able to find a deal on something you've always were curious about getting, but never didn't.)

Anyways, I went straight to the frames last week, and then got a few today.  THEY ARE A STEAL!!!  Shabby chic all the way.  And for the price, you can flip them into dry erase boards that would look better than the cold industrial ones that you find in the office supply aisle. 

How great would these look on the wall in the kitchen?  Or (if your kiddos are careful), putting them into a bedroom to doodle on?  Even if you're not into the dry erase boards, they are still a steal to just hang on the walls with something inserted in them, or (taking the backing off), to add into groups as just the frame!