when something goes wrong, create something else.

hey all! i feel like i've been gone for a little bit and didn't really explain myself. not that y'all are demanding i have an excuse every time i don't blog, but i want to be a nice blogger and tell you about it! this past weekend we were in indy for a wedding. we left thursday evening and came back sunday night. the wedding was lovely. they are both in the military so they incorporated a lot of really cool and fun things into it. they even got to do that cool thing where they walk through swords! then they cut the cake with one. it was totally adorable and beautiful. i loved it! also, they did this awesome thing called LETTING PEOPLE SIT WITH THEIR DATES. i know, totally new concept, right? we did it at our wedding and terri (the bride) told me she did it that way because she hates going to weddings where, if one of them was standing up in it, they would have to be apart the entire time and sit with strangers. EXACTLY! i feel the same way, if a person is kind enough to stand up in your wedding (which means buying endless things and spending tons of money) i think you, as the bride or groom, should be aware that they have done a lot for you and probably want to be able to sit with their date. just sayin. it doesn't upset me or make me mad if a bride doesn't do that. she can have whatever she wants! it's her day! but personally, i did it that way because you want to make your guests and party be as comfortable as possible! anywaayyyy, all that to say i got to sit with awesome people (my husband and our friends) because terri and steve were so thoughtful and had so. much. fun.!

the last couple days i just didn't feel like doing projects or typing for long periods of time, so the blog got pushed back. sorry! but the good news is that i am back today with a project, yay!!

i love. love. love. it!!!

so when i was in indy the last time (for christmas), phil's mom offered to give me a mirror. she had a few to choose from but i needed a bigger size than what she had... so dumb me said, "oh i don't really have any place else for a smaller mirror right now..." and after i got home i was kicking myself for that. she had one that i thought was pretty and when i mentioned it she said it was mine and whenever i had the space, i could take it home with me. here she is:

very old and maybe not the most beautiful thing ever, but i love the details

pretty, right? yah, that's what i thought too.

otis wasn't too sure, but i was.

so i cleaned it off and realized something.. there were black specks all inside the mirror. i thought it was some sort of spray paint or something so i tried to scrape it off, but it was underneath the mirror.. like, inside it somehow. i don't know, i figured it was from being old. i was just going to roll with it and let it have specks (i thought it might have a cool vintage feel to it like that) but then something worse happened..

as i was pulling the nails out so i could paint the frame without the mirror inside, it started scraping the backing off so some spots weren't refleting anymore... oops. my bad.

so i figured i would just hang an empty frame and fill it eventually... with what i do not know. i figured i would get an idea. so in the mean time i realized this little guy comes off

which made me very glad. i kinda liked that thing on there, but i like it much better without it! we may or may not have found this out by pulling it off the mirror while trying to get it out of the box....

so then i started painting the frame martha stewart's persimmon red. while it was drying i was thinking and searching and wondering what i was going to frame. i looked up "wall art crafts" on google and decided i wanted a "b" up on the wall for buben. i thought about just straight painting it on the wall and framing it.. then i thought, well i could get some scrapbook paper or something and put the letter on that, then frame it. but that involved buying paper and i wanted to do this for free. then i realized i already had a perfectly good canvas! the mirror itself, duh! so i decided to use my favorite cover-upper, none other than dun dun dun! peel and stick laminate!!! yup. i used it once again to wrap the mirror. and immediately loved. it.

i love the white with the persimmon. i knew i was sooo going to love this. (ignore the terrible comforter i paint everything on haha. this comforter is like a scrapbook of every past paint job i've done.. ahh memories.)

so this is where i just started making stuff up. at first i wanted to make the letter out of flowers or something.. but as i started to lay it out i didn't like it. it was too busy and took away from the lovely frame. plus i knew it was for the wall in the bedroom and i already have stuff on the wall in there, so i didn't want it to be like extreme decorating with crap everywhere and you aren't sure where to look first.. or you can't stop moving your eyes around because there's just so much junk pulling your eyeballs everywhere. no thanks. i like calming environments, thank you. so i decided one little pinched flower was enough in the corner. i also decided to paint around the edges of the mirror. this was risky, but i figured if it looked bad i would just peel the laminate off and start over with a new sheet. so i slapped paint on it, then wiped it off with paper towel and was left with this

cool, right? i never did anything like that before so i was kinda nervous, but then it looked awesome and is one of my favorite parts of this project. love!

while all that dried, i decided to print out my letter. i used microsoft word and looked for the font i liked. i wanted it to be curvy, but not too frilly. you know what i mean. i settled on "french script" for my "b" and printed it out. then i got the little exact-o-knife thing-a-majig to make a stencil

after cutting out, i taped it down where i wanted it

it moved around a bit, i probably needed a little more tape.. i didn't care though. it looks kinda cool that way. i think if it was too perfect it would look a little weird with the rest of the "imperfect".

then i was left with this : ) the brownish color is the color of my bedroom walls. it's martha stewart's natural twine.

we decided to tape the mirror back onto the frame. ghetto? yes. necessary? probably. the wood is so old and kinda fragile and i didn't think it would stand up to pounding nails in to keep the mirror in the frame.

then i nailed a picture hanger into the frame and hung it up in my bedroom. all. by. myself. : )

yes... those are still my knobs... still sitting on the dresser..... : )

so that's how my mirror mishap turned into an awesome project that i just so happen to love. yah, i love it a lot. : )