Mirror Mirror On The Wall...

...or leaning against the wall rather....

For my next tutorial I was looking for something fun, inexpensive, and kinda kitschy...
So I went over to my friend, Brooke's, new place (soooo much closer to me!) and her roommate (who has also become a good friend of mine) was putting these really neat buttons on the HUGE mirror they have over the fire place in their living room.. well I thought...What a super cute idea!! But of course, buttons are always so expensive and hers were all vintage-y looking and pretty so I just assumed they were going to be an arm and a leg... but I asked her where she got them anyway and she said Michaels, and that they weren't that expensive... ummm...I almost had a stroke...
So of COURSE I go to Michaels and sure enough..in the sewing section on the bottom shelf are these bags of buttons:

 

In case you can't read it, it says "Vintage Buttons" and then gives a full explanation of where the buttons come from!

Just GUESS how much they were!!! $4.99 a bag!!! I was super stoked! I was expecting them to be $8-10 a bag, considering there's about 150+ buttons per bag and they're vintage.   PLUS, I used my handy dandy smart phone and looked up a 15% off coupon online and got BOTH bags for $9.20 including tax!!
So I take my lovely buttons home, very pleased with my purchase and I take a final look at my full length mirror in my room.... stickers all around it...looking pretty high-school-ish....

And since we don't need to see my room, just the mirror, here it is on the floor.. see all the stickers?

Yeah...some of those are the plastic-y ones which are a BREEZE to get off....the others, as you might be able to see, are the more paper-y ones, which are a pain in the you-know-what to get off...

Before I go any further...here is what you will need for this project...

Mirror (duh), Buttons (double duh), 409 (or some type of cleaner), paper towels, nail polish remover if the sticker is particularly difficult, hot glue gun, hot glue sticks, and of course the handy dandy phone with Pandora on it!!

SO...I sat there in frustration trying to peel off these paper stickers and pretty much getting no where (if you've ever done this, you know what I'm talking about, the sticky part of the sticker just stays there and you curse to yourself repeatedly and wonder why on gods green earth you thought it was a good idea in the first place to put the stickers on this mirror)....alright...I needed a plan...I decided that a soggy sticker was easier to get off than a dry one, so I would use my AMAZING 409 (seriously, best cleaning product ever) to soggy up the stickers and presto they would come off....well...all that did was get my hands wet, sticky, and 409-y....ok...new plan....
I thought and thought of a way to scrape off the nasty sticker-y goop... AHA!! A razor blade!!! Just the other day I bought a variety pack of razor blades for my x-acto knife because I couldn't find a pack of just the regular replacements...which included the circled blade below..

Now, when I bought this variety pack, I thought Who would use THAT blade for anything?!?!
Oh my, how naive of me...

It worked PERFECTLY, I didn't even have any residue left over!!!  So I got all of the stickers off and squeaky-cleaned it!

Ready to go!

Oh! I forgot! You're also going to need some kind of wire snipers or something like these to cut off the back of most of the buttons since you want them to lie flat on your mirror.

So I heated up my lovely new zebra striped hot glue gun and started going to town.  Make sure if you decide to do this project and want the buttons to all fit together snugly that you lay out your buttons at least a few at a time before you glue them down.

 And keep going until you get an area covered that you like.

Now the other side.

Alright, Time to do the bottom, make sure everything is reasonably proportionate (but you want it to be a little off-kilter...)

Here's the finished product!!!

What do you think!?! A complete mirror makeover for only $9.20!!!
You could also do picture frames, cork boards, whatever you want like this! I think they would all be extremely cute!!

I hope you enjoyed this and happy buttoning!!!
loves

A Bag of Rocks

When something traumatic happens in your life, whatever that may be, you always wonder when it will feel better, when that hole-in-your-stomach-aching-craptastic feeling will go away.  Gradually it does, of course, for whatever reason; you get a new job, a new hobby, immerse yourself in friends/family/school, whatever works for you.  And  you may do pretty well for a while, you may even stop thinking about whatever happened altogether.

Then it happens.

A big whammy.

Something; a smell, a phrase someone says, an event; something reminds you of what happened, what was lost, and it feels like a bag of rocks has dropped on your head.  Or a very large man has punched you in the gut.  Or you thought there was one more step at the top of the stairs when there wasn't. 

Your breath catches for a moment and you kind of freeze.

It's probably one of the Top 10 Worst Feelings in the World.

And it makes you think, it makes you doubt yourself, it makes you wonder. 

What's my point here?  My point is that it's alright, you're not the only one and it happens.  It doesn't mean you're not healing,  it just means that whatever happened has had an impact on your life that is impermeable.  But that, my friends, is what builds us.  Having a loved one lost, a love gone, an accident of some kind, these things show us to appreciate the good, appreciate what we have right now, and to be something different than we were yesterday. 
And each time one of these whammies hits you, you get just a tiny fraction of a bit stronger.  So next time that gorilla-sumo-wrestling-dude pounds your stomach, it doesn't knock the wind out of you quite so bad.

Here's hoping.
loves

To Purchase..or Not to Purchase...

...THAT is the question, my friends.
 I've had my eye on several Fossil bags since forever (I know I know "girly" to the max) and I finally have some money to splurge on new clothes for school and just for life...and of course I once again have the thought of this bag running around in my head...well...I just can't bring myself to spend $70 on a purse...call me paranoid, but I can't help thinking about if I'll need that money in the near future. AND $70 is equal to 2-ish pairs of jeans or 3-4 shirts....so I'm going to spend it on ONE purse?
I'm just not sure...my thoughts are that if I'm not sure about it I'll just pass for now and if I still feel strongly I'll ask for it for Christmas or something..
If you folks haven't gathered this by now, here's a fact about me...I'm extremely frugal.  If there is any way at all I can save some money, I do it.  That doesn't mean I don't have fun, I do, and often, but when it comes to spending money recklessly, I worry too much about it, which means I don't do it a lot.
So yes, I've basically talked myself out of this buy...
Stay tuned for my clothes shopping update...

Oh and p.s. it's raining tonight!! That always ALWAYS means a good night's sleep for this girl!!  Trust me it's much needed...it's been a rough few days!

I hope everything in your neck of the woods is fine-n-dandy!
loves.