diy: home grown housewarming gift

A trip home for the weekend inspired me to create this little housewarming gift. My cousin purchased her home way too long ago and I finally found the time to swing by while visiting the family. Since we have a yard full of blooming hydrangeas, I wanted to bring a piece of my home to her home. First, I cleaned up an old pasta sauce glass bottle (repurposing at its finest).

Then I cut a strip of burlap and created a stencil by cutting a C on the Cricut. I used simple craft black paint for the letter on the burlap.  I then pulled 2 strings from each end for a frayed look.

Since I didn't want to make the burlap a permanent addition to the jar in the case she would want to wash it, I used spray adhesive and wrapped the burlap around.

A few stems from the front bushes and my cousin just loved her housewarming gift. And I just loved her home!!!

diy: another PB eagan mirror knockoff

Blast you Pottery Barn for luring me in with your shiny surfaces and sweet smelling diffusers. I mostly shake my fist at your just-a-little-too-high-for-me-right-now prices. That's the case with your Eagan Mirror - your amazing, multi-mirrored design marvel! Unfortunately for me, the $700 price tag makes it easy to hide my credit card. On the other hand, I have the most amazing brother in the world that is half sucker and accepted a project!

This isn't a breakthrough project - I had a lot of inspiration from my favorite bloggers. For starters, let's throw some confetti into the sky for The Lettered Cottage and their perfect tutorial on creating the PB Eagan Pottery Barn.

We pretty much copied the project from the "will you help me with a project" to "excuse me, do you have beveled mirrors". During a visit to my hometown and with easy access to a Lowe's, we picked up the needed wood and materials for us (read: brother) to make the foundation.

The decision to paint the mirror white took a little time, but I decided to use the bright color because this work of art is going against our green wall in the livingroom. The copper frame would have made the space too dark. And we couldn't find those stars!! These things can always change later.

The mirrors were the heaviest lift. Jo-Ann sells them for about $3.99 each but they are not beveled. Michaels sells them for $5.99 and I wasn't really looking forward to making 15 separate trips using a 40% off coupon. Then one magical morning while riding into the city for work, Hobby Lobby enticed me with a free shipping coupon! Behold my eyes when I found that the 8"x8" beveled mirrors were on sale for $2.99 each.

I made my first smartphone purchase. Four days later, those mirrors were glued on with Liquid Nails Mirror Adhesive. And we just love the final product!