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!
Frame Jobs
 |
| (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!
Workin' The Fields
Nonetheless, I could not rob my little one, the fun to be had, in picking berries at a u-pick farm, so of course, that's where we've been going for the past two summers. As a child, I can remember my mother dragging my younger brother and I to one of those places, and how I would stand around and pout in the hot sun about it. (Apparently, you could still make money back in those times, and maybe my mother needed some extra gas money or something.)
But times are different now. I love raspberries. But I hate the prices at the grocery stores. I mean, $4 for a teeny plastic container? That's INSANE! So last summer, I came across the novel idea of taking my youngest to a berry farm to see how much we could save. I ended up bringing 3lbs of them home, for just $2.50.
And it's not that big of a deal really though. (Unless you end up taking a giant container of berries home, and can't really figure out what to do with them all, since your little one complains that there's "too many seeds" in her smoothie.) But it's a good break from all the screaming and yelling that goes on at the park. Like a kind of meditation for you and your child. And it also gives them the opportunity to see where some foods come from before they are processed in a factory, and spread on ice cream later on!
Ps-- I found out how to freeze berries. A friend said that you spread them out on a cookie sheet, and freeze them for a few hours, before you toss them in a ziploc. This way, the berries don't get smushed together. Genius!
One White Tee Saved!
When I thought of having daughters, I envisioned little girls, running freely through a sunny field, giggling and happy, as they played amongst the Downy-fresh clothes, hanging on the clothesline.
Instead, I got the ones who would march through the front door with red popsicle stains running down their arms and dripping on the brand new white tees that hadn't even been on them longer than a half hour! (By the way, you think that by having a 16-year old, I would have learned my lesson with the younger one. But those happy, giggly, little visions...)
That's when I came across this little discovery the other day, that made me give a little gasp of hope in the aisle of the freezer section:
I was absolutely floored when I saw this. Mini-- and more than 3 flavors? Of course, I had to take these home and check them out. Albeit, when I opened the package, they were a little smaller than I had expected. But that's okay. The full-sized ones got wasted anyways. And on top of this, they take forever to melt. So by the time it even starts to drip-- it's already gone, where your kiddo is asking for another!
I haven't heard an "oops-- I'm sorry" yet, and haven't had to wash anything ten times, having to use four different stain removers. So I think these are a really good bet!
And Not Bring Our Daughter????
The last time my husband and I had a "date" together, was in the summer of 2007. My husband suggested that we drop the kids over at his mother's house and go out to watch a movie. The concept seemed foreign. Not take the kids with us?
Nonetheless, we went out for a couple hours, taking in the movie "23". And while I sat there, mulling over an apology to my husband, as this was one of the worst movies I had ever seen-- yet this was what I suggested, I started to feel guilty. I realized that I had just wasted over $20 on something that I could have spent on the kids instead.
But lately, I've been getting burnout. Burnout from just making the bills, and not being able to do something fun with my husband-- ever. It seems that whenever time does come up, where my mother-in-law offers to watch the kiddo (currently, it is now "kiddo", as my teen is finishing school at her father's), that we have nothing to show for it. It always comes down to laundry, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, getting the oil changed, etc. with the little luxury of being able to accomplish those them without tiny feet underfoot. In the end, we were more exhausted than we were when she had left!
That's when I decided to check out this site called Get My Perks (http://www.getmyperks.com/) I've heard about it before, but was kind of reluctant in seeing what it was all about. (I mean, after all, I am a martyr for my family!)
Get My Perks offers gift certificates for businesses in your area at half price-- or rather half the guilt. After seeing what kind of deals they had to offer, I decided to get a pair of $30 Mt. Hood Railroad scenic tour tickets that regularly sells for $64. And what's great about these certificates, is that they don't expire until a year later. So when the sitter bails, or something of that nature comes up, it's not like you've lost your chance.
So I think we'll redeem these passes in the fall, when the autumn foilage lines the tracks. It seems like something nice that my husband and I can enjoy together to reconnect. (Don't mention to him though, that they also had 1/2 priced restaurant deals which meant 1/2 priced drinks! That compared to a 5 hour train ride and apple picking in the crisp fall air? Like I said, don't mention that part to him!) And with this website, it is totally family friendly, so perhaps we can start enjoying our family as a family-- without all the expense involved!
