Reflecting.

I've been taking a break from blogging this week to get some stuff in order. (thanks for the emails checking in on me!) I do this every so often because I love change, love re-evaluating, and love tweaking.  I also love not being sick, and I spiked a wicked high fever hours after everyone left my daughter's party last week.  Spent much of the rest of this week recovering.

I'm sure you'll see some fresh changes around here soon.  I've just finished a course on identifying my energy type, and want to begin reflecting some of that on the blog.

Speaking of reflecting, though, I wanted to finally show you the mirror collage and some other projects I did to prepare for all the company last week.  None of these were hard projects, but they did take time and planning.  Hubby helped me move quite a bit of furniture around too, but that will be a different post.  And today I even cleaned up my cra(p)ft room!  Be amazed....

Ok, remember this fella?

He's now flown the coop, and the piece looks like this:

I'm not totally happy with it yet....need to add some kind of flourish under the 'Est. 1986'.  Then I want to glaze the whole ding dang thing to match the frames on all the other mirrors and pictures I did.

Here's a horrid tutorial.  I picked fonts I liked, and sized it on the 'puter.  Then I used tracing paper and a pencil to trace around all the letters.  If I'd been a smart person, I'd have done it in mirror image, but I'm not so smart sometimes, so I had to do an extra tracing on the back.....so there'd be pencil lead to 'lay down' on the wood from the backside.

Then I laid it on the painted wood where Mr. Eagle had been and traced over the letters/numbers again.

Next I outlined it with a black sharpie pen, then filled it in with a paint marker...which I noticed later was a fabric paint marker.  Ooops.  After it was dry, I sanded it all down and distressed the edges.

Again, not perfect yet, but getting close.
Here's another frame I painted.  It used to be a dark espresso brown.  I have a couple other florals like this that also got the treatment, but my pictures were stinky, so you'll have to wait to see those.

And now here's way more pictures than necessary to show you my stairway mirror and frame collage.  And the lighting is way obnoxious because I've been fiddling with one of those halogen light things, trying to bring more light to my pictures without using flash. 

This is the one where I removed the cheesy picture in the top and replaced with with a piece of burlap and stenciled our last name's initial on top.

This is a big, cheap frame from some picture I had in the attic.  I did the paint/glaze treatment on it then decided to stick in another 'H'.  I mod podged some left over textured wallpaper on the letter, then painted and glazed it like the frame.

These are just two frames I had that I put up there as an afterthought....that space needed something.

I wanted an old-fashioned chain for this bevelled oval mirror, so I went to JoAnn's and found some silver chain in the trims department, then spraypainted it oil-rubbed bronze.  Hubs cut it to the right length.

Some of the mirrors are truly vintage, others are new, and most have cheesy plastic frames.  The paint and glaze treatment harmonized them all.  This trio came from Hobby Lobby's Christmas clearance.  I added some matching neutral ribbon.

This was a solid wood frame with a cool mat, but a ridiculous picture.  Both got the paint/glaze, removed the picture, then I picked up the mirror at the Dollar Store in the candle section.  I hotglued the same ribbon as above trio to the back and between the frame and mat.

This is an old mirror my mom always had hanging in our house.  I had painted it and used it for my dining room, but redid it for this collage.

The tall mirror at the bottom is a vintage mirror....there's silvering and hazing on it, which I love.  I wanted it closest to the bottom so others would see these details.

It really did help to use the patterns.  I ended up switching it around a little, but it mostly stayed very similar.  It was a challenge to get it to look 'random', but not messy.  I wanted some symmetry, with a predictable 'flow'...but still have lots of different shapes and textures.  I also used some of that yellow sticky tac to hold corners down...my boys race up and down these stairs, and I don't want them to come crashing down!

So how'd I do?  Have you ever done a picture collage or other type of arrangement that needed to strike a balance between 'random' and order?

I'm gonna party this week.  You'll find me here:
Best DIY Projects of the Month (Beneath My Heart)
Make it for Monday (::cottage instincts::)
Thrifty Treasures (Southern Hospitality)
Met Monday (Between Naps on the Porch)
DIY Day (A Soft Place to Land)
Timeless Tuesday (Paula Grace Designs)
Trash to Treasure (Reinvented)
Get Your Craft On (Today's Creative Blog)
The Power of Paint (domestically speaking)
Show and Tell Wednesday (Blue Cricket Designs)
White Wednesday (Faded Charm)
Transformation Thursday (The Shabby Chic Cottage)
Frugalicious Friday (Finding Fabulous)
Show and Tell (My Romantic Home)
Saturday Nite Special (Funky Junk Interiors)