My Chalkboard Print

This sounds weird, because it's not my usual start of the week attitude, but thank goodness it's Monday!  This weekend was horrible.  My hubby came home on Friday with a temp of 102 and feeling miserable.  On top of that, I was starting to fight a nasty cold.  Yep, the goomba my kids got last week passed onto us...at.the.same.time.  This means that my kids ran wild all weekend long.

Luckily, we are both doing better.  At least we're good enough to get back to daily life tasks without dying.  Now my day today will be spent cleaning my house.  It's amazing what h**ll breaks lose when I am down and out.  Seriously, I'm sticking to my kitchen floor here and I don't want to even talk about the bathrooms.

For all of these reasons, I am going to focus on a project I did around Christmas time and it is now in a conspicuous spot right as you walk in my front door.  I love it THAT much.

It's my framed chalkboard wall hanging thinga majig.  Do you recognize it?

You may have seen something just like it on the Dear Lillie Blog.

I followed a tutorial from Dear Lillie that is super easy.  Honestly, I put the whole thing together...no help from the hubs.  This is a digital download that I got from Dear Lillie as well.  You can go here to look at what she has now.

Why did I do a digital download?  Because I am LOUSY at hand lettering.  Yep, cannot do it.  I am jealous/dislike very much those who have this talent.  I will work on it though.  Under this digital print is a painted chalkboard surface that I can do my own lettering on if and when I develop this talent.  Until then, I'll keep purchasing digital downloads.  I like to get them on sale.  I've bought two so far, and both cost me about $5.00 to purchase.  The printing cost was maybe $3.00 at Staples.  Not bad.  To make the frame to hold the prints, I probably spent $30.00.  I'm not too upset about it because it's a one time cost.  

Here's the print I have in the frame right now.

I like this one because it reminds me that life is good.  Plus, it's pretty generic so I don't have to change it out again any time soon.  Maybe when I do need to I'll be able to do my own lettering.  Meh...probably not.  One more shot that doesn't show my disgusting house.  Isn't it great how you can do that with pictures?

What do you think?  Is this a quick project you want to tackle?  I'm super happy I did!

Happy Monday,

Heather

Linking to:

DIY Showoff

Amaze Me Monday

Between Naps On The Porch

How to Frame a Bathroom Mirror

Hi there!  I promised that I'd share how my hubs and I framed out the bathroom mirror.  I love, love, love it!  It just gives a pop to the space and helps tone down the builder grade look.

I first got this idea from Shelley over at the House of Smiths.  She comes up with some of the best ideas!  I wish her house was mine!  I have a feeling my 3 boys would have that beautiful furniture of hers stained and dis.gust.ing pretty fast though.

Anyway,  we had to alter what she did because our mirror was hung a bit differently, but it still turned out beautifully.

Can you see that silver strip at the bottom of the mirror right above the tile?  We had to figure out how to put a frame over the top.

 

My husband ended up using his Dremmel tool to carve out/sand down a groove along the edge of the molding so it would lay flat.  I did have pictures of this but had to replace my camera mid project.  Sorry.

I just used your standard trim pieces for doors and windows.  I did get something fairly thick since I love me some chunky molding!  I just picked a composite material and all of the pieces cost me about $10.  Each piece was cut on a 45 degree angle.  We made sure everything fit well before the painting began.

  I had the black paint left over from painting the bathroom cabinets.

We used liquid nails to adhere the molding to the mirror.  We didn't use much because we didn't want it mushing out and possibly being seen in the mirror underneath the frame.  I know I'm using really technical language here.;)

We used a really thick masking tape to hold the frame in place and tight to the mirror until things dried completely which took about 24 hours.

I filled in the cracks at the corners with some caulk.  Finally, I just did a little touch up painting.

This is the finished project.  Bye bye plain old mirror!

 It wasn't a hard project but it did take awhile to complete because of the multiple steps involved.  

As you can tell from the reflection in the mirror, I've GOT to do something with the pretty gold around my mirrored closet doors.  Plus, keeping these things clean is impossible with all the dogs and kids running around here.  However, I really don't want to spend the money on replacing them.  Uugh!  Suggestions are welcome.

Linking to:

The DIY Showoff
The DIY Home Sweet Home Project 
Between Naps on the Porch 
Dittle Dattle 
Today's Creative Blog 
Tip Junkie 
Home Stories A2Z 
Coastal Charm
Boogieboard Cottage 
Pinkapotamus 
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating 
Keeping it Simple 
Home Savvy A to Z 
Not Just a Housewife 
Sassy Sites 
A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Savvy Southern Style 
Blue Cricket Design 
The Thrifty Home 
Someday Crafts 
The 36th Avenue 
House of Hepworths 
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Delightful Order
Tatertots and Jello 
The Shabby Nest 
Just a Girl 
Homemaker on a Dime 
Pretty Handy Girl