Mirrored vanity desk

Jule inherited an old piece of furniture which she deftly upgraded into a mirrored vanity. Guess mirrors and vanity do go well together.

Jule says, "I was given an old student desk which my parents bought at a garage sale before I was born. I never liked it, but it was really functional as a vanity in my bedroom. So, one day it occurred to me that it had the right shape to convert into a piece of mirrored furniture.

So, I went to Ikea for mirrors (Lots mirrors: 4 pack for $5) and new knobs (Antik: 2 pack for $5). A few cans of spray paint and some black grout from Home Depot (I was afraid to drill through the mirror, so I left a space for the knobs and filled it with grout.) All totaled it was about a $50 investment. Not including the chair, which I got the Borje chair from the “As Is” department at Ikea for $30 (the white upholstery was dirty, but nothing that a little cleaning didn't resolve.)

I am pleased with the results and even my husband who hates mirrored furniture likes it.

Instructions:
· Remove knobs
· Lightly sand surface (especially the top which was damaged)
· Spray paint with glossy black paint
· Measure and cut mirrors using a mirror cutter (it take a lot of practice – my price includes the 3 tiles I destroyed trying to figure out how to cut it. Then my husband figured it out on the 1st try, so I made him cut the rest.)
· Adhere the mirror with liquid nails made for mirrors
· Fill the seams with black grout
· Put on new hardware

Magic.

First off, you need to know I can't get enough of certain things. All year round, you know by now, it's molding of any kind. In the spring and summer, it's landscaping bricks outside. At Christmas-time, it's greenery. My house looks like a pine tree threw up all over it (but in a pretty way) by the time I'm done every season. And every year, I add more. My style is very traditional, and there's nothing that screams traditional more this time of year, then greenery wrapped around EVERYTHING.

So this year, I was quite obsessed with adding white magnolias to our mantel greenery. I don't know why -- I saw it somewhere months ago and fell. in. love. I looked at Joann's, nothing. Hobby Lobby, nada. The Web, zilch. Starting to hyper ventilate that my dream would not come true...I realized I hadn't stopped by Micheal's. The clouds opened up and I found EXACTLY what I wanted there last week, half off. Whooty WHO!

So this is what I created. First of all, you need a few strands of basic greenery. (The more the better!) I usually get mine from Joann's for less than $3 each. For this project, I found greenery at Micheal's for $2 each. Got three, wrapped them together. Then piled on the goodies...

I wrapped the whole thing with two strands of lights, then stuck a lot of this in (also half off):

A little of this (I already had):

And a TON of these...glorious!!:

It turned out exactly the way I wanted. You know when you see something in your mind and it turns out JUST how you imagined? Yep, this was one of those.

Now I need your help -- I usually use my basic candlesticks on the mantel, but found a couple glass candle holders in the basement I thought might work too. What do you think? This? (I'll add green or white sparkly candles):

Or this?:

What do you think? I need advice!

In my humble opinion, there is nothing quite so magical and beautiful then Christmas lights in the dark. The glow transforms the room and my state of mind. I just have to sit back, smile, and relax.

P.S. I don't where to put the stockings now...but we'll deal. Santa will find them anywhere, right? :) Nah, I'll put them up in a couple weeks...for now I enjoy.

P.P.S. I've been teaching my almost two-year-old son for weeks now to say "Ho Ho Ho" when we ask about Santa. Well, it took. All weekend...every time he sees a Santa, he says it. So basically, because I bought him the cauuutest stuffed Santa to tote around...it's all we've heard. For days. The best part is, this boy, the cutest boy in the WORLD, doesn't just say it...he purses his lips and says a very deep and meaningful "Ho Ho Ho!" out of the corner of his mouth. I. could. just. die.

Out of Australia

The Thanksgiving holiday brings not only turkey and football but blockbuster movies. The one I am most excited to see is Australia staring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and directed by Baz Luhrmann. It looks a bit like Out of Africa but who cares. If you ask me, there aren't enough movies about aristocratic European ladies who travel with too many fancy suitcases to dusty foreign countries where they ride horses and drive cattle and fall in love with hunky men. Australia arrives in theatres November 26th. Happy Holidays!

Ikea recalls Iris and Alvine Roman Blinds

Sad news. Please do be careful if you own the Iris or Alvine roman blinds, especially if you have a child.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission release, on April 4, 2008, a 1-year-old girl in Greenwich, Conn. became entangled in the inner cord of an IKEA Roman Blind and strangled. The child was in a portable playpen that was located underneath a fully lowered roman blind.

Iris Roman Blind

Alvine Roman Blind

Ikea issued a voluntary recall of these 2 products (all sizes) with the product number 19799 or 21369. You may return them to any Ikea store to obtain a full refund.

To read more, please click here.

Lack light table for silkscreen painting

Kayobi hacked the perfect light table from the Lack coffee table.

She says, "I needed a light table to work on finding the tiny holes when hand painting silkscreens. I had precious little space in my game room/craft room. I had been using an Ikea Lack table as a workspace anyway so I decided it shouldn't be too difficult to pull out the middle and put in some lights. Interestingly, there is a weird honeycomb cardboard support in between the top and bottom but it was no match for the power tools. A friend donated an old white plexiglass shop sign. Acetone make short work of the old paint (and my head - whew!). I took the plexiglass to another friend's woodworking shop where he cut it to size. After buffing the corners and drilling the places where it would be screwed into the table it was ready to assemble. Three florescent desk lights fit perfectly into the bottom of the table. The whole process start to finish only took about 4 hours. I think it turned out well. I use it all the time.

Shortly after that I moved into an even smaller space and my workspace shrunk again. I bought a twin Dalselv and the light table fit perfectly behind the bed. I added a pegboard with zip ties for a dual-sided sleep/workspace. Fancy!

See more of the light table.

Living in Flanders

I've been a bit obsessed with foreign design and interiors lately and my internet research led me to a beautiful book entitled Living in Flanders by Piet Swimberghe with photos by Jan Verlinde. It seems to be out of print so it would be worth keeping an eye out for a used copy. The architecture and interiors are stunning.

Countdowns for the kiddies!

Woooeeee, I am modge-podged OUT! I started one project tonight I just couldn't wait to show you and finished one I couldn't wait to show you. :) First, the finished...

I got this vinyl design at Uppercase Living (you saw it here) -- and I got it FREE! I hosted a party, sold quite a bit and got three items for only $14. I was eyeing this one for weeks beforehand, so I had plenty of time to figure out what I was going to do. In the catalog, they put it on a pizza pan. Umm, OK. Cute, but not for me. Instead I got a table top from Lowe's, painted it with my leftover magnetic paint, then spray painted it white.

The magnet is a little itty bitty tree from Hob Lob that I got for about 30 cents. Painted it, put a magnet on the back, there you go.

Added fun ribbon from Micheals and it finished it off perfectly! I even spray painted an easel I already had to make it work better. So really, this whole project cost me less than $13 -- for the table top, ribbon and the tree.

I really, really LOVE this thing. I think it is just plain PRECIOUS. I swear, I should get commission from Uppercase Living for this stuff.

So the modge podge overload (now I have modge podge hand instead of spray paint finger - argh!) came from this project. I cannot remember where I saw it -- tell me if it was YOU or if you've seen it somewhere. Where ever I saw it, she did it for Halloween. I thought I would have to start on Halloween to get this started by December 1, but it is going much faster than I thought it would. **Edited to add that I saw this at Just a Girl -- thanks for reminding me ladies!

I started with a trillion 24 cardboard boxes, painted the sides of the lids, then glued the tops to my scrapbook paper. I was trying to be all thrifty and used wrapping paper at first, which did NOT go well. It is way too thin.

I cut around the lids with an x-acto knife, then on some, added more paper around the container, some I painted. (I heart the painted ones. EASY.) I modge-podged like mad, then added some cute foam stickers and numbers to the top. (You should be able to enlarge this one.)

The other 12 of these will be in green. I'll show you the finished product soon! By the way, your craft kitchen table will look like this:

Pepsi? Check. Remote? Check. Phone? Check. Happy Chick.

Sorry, gotta say it...caauuuuuute!!! But the numbers are a thorn in my side. Has anyone ever tried to find nine chipboard 1's? Impossible. (Well, without buying nine packages...not happening.) So I'm just cutting the letters out with the x-acto knife and that is about to put. me. over. the. edge. Help.

Anyway, I think they are both adorable. When I saw the little containers in blogland, she put magnets on them, but I'm not sure if I will do that yet. I thought it might be fun just to hide them somewhere for every morning for the Bub to find. Ideas? Maybe the elves leave them? Is that a recipe for him freaking out about elves sneaking into the house at night?? Tell me these things, I'm only two years into the Christmas tradition thing. :)

I'm whooped. Off to dream about modge podge scrapbook paper Christmas traditions!