Reflections...

No , not words of wisdom or nuggets of truth. Reflections, as in mirrors. Along with all things personalized, chairs, finials and anything turquoise, I love mirrors.  Could there be an unconscious egotist lurking inside, seeing my name on everything possible and then actually seeing me , might need to check that out.  LOL .Oh well, in the meantime, mirrors.  As an accessory there's not a room in your home that couldn't be enhanced by adding a mirror, or in my case two.

While these two mirrors are probably my favorites, they certainly weren't the first ones I made. The first mirror that I made was inspired by the famous ( yes, if it's featured on the  Better After blog, it counts as famous in my book) zebra chair.  Okay, in case you missed it, the chair that is, just click on the link on this page for zebra mania.This led to quite a few touches of zebra in my home. The mirror was the most exciting to make since it led to me learning to etch glass using Amour Etch. Run out and grab a bottle and start personalizing vases, wine glasses, etc.  Oops, there I go again with the personalizing thing... Anyway, here's the Zebra mirror:

It was made with moulding, plywood, mirror squares, the etching creme, and you can figure out the rest. What do you think?

In a previous post I showed a picture of my dresser which has a number of mirrors over it.  Here are some of them...

A few great looking mirrors:

I can't wait to make one of these!!

via Pinterest

Clean, simple, yet elegant lines.

via HGTV.com

Grouping mirrors is always a hit.

Hope you like my choices, cruise the internet and find one you like and go for it?

Initials Galore!!

I revisited a favorite of mine this weekend... all things personalized.
Maybe it's the fact that growing up with an unusual first name I never found my name on anything. Remember the small  license plates for the back of your bike, nope, never. Or the pencils, personalized christmas ornaments or keyychains, nope, none of those either. Just never saw anything that said, MONTINA. Go figure. Oh sure, I'd sometimes find TINA but that's just not the same.

 Well, in 1995 I bought a Tajima( that's a commerical  embroidery machine) and Motor City Embroidery Works, Inc. was born.  I had to practice so... of course I put MONTINA on as much as I could!!

Still working a full time job and as a mom  of 3 kids and a wife, I kept it small and manageable. But I still did a decent amount of embroidery all over Metro Detroit.  Moving to Georgia put this business on the back burner for a while.  But I now have my machine up and running and am glad to see that folks are still in love with seeing their monogam and name on just about everything!!   Here are a few personalized items that caught my eye this past weekend.

Classic chair, classic design!

via   http://bellesbowsandaniphone.tumblr.com/post/14809458355/colors-are-gorgeous

via Montina Burt on Pinterest

 

Isn't this a cool gift for a teacher!!

 

http://acreativemomma.blogspot.com/2011/05/crayon-monograms.html

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

 

via http://www.etsy.com/listing/83753776/monogrammed-ornament?ref=sc_1

via Pinterest

Who doesn't love to see their monogram !!

 

Believing in 2012 and ME!

My first project for 2012 was a new chair for my new office space. Ok, if you come to visit, you'll call it the guest room, but any other time, it's my office.  Using the basic color and design elements from my former office space.  I got started by putting up window treatments and pics.




Embroidered pics

 

I've read that you could/could not mix animal prints. Well, I'm not sure which is true, so I'm just doing what I like. Staying true to my decision to post at least 3 times a week, I knew I needed a comfortable chair.  Found this at the GW while "just shopping, not buying anything."




Chair Before

 

 NOTE TO SELF: Always try out all of the levers that raise and lower every part of the chair. After sitting in the chair and being comfortable that I could change all of the positions on the chair. After sitting in the chair

and checking it out, off to the register I went.

The chair sat in the garage for a week awaiting it's encore.During this time I  began taking it apart, as much as I could.  I also sparyed the foam parts of the chair with a disinfectant several times.  I decided that I wanted to add a vibrant color to the room and settled on a red/orange color for the chair.  I had in mind that I didn't want to spend more than $10.00 for fabric, a challenge, you bet. On a trip somewhere else, I passed a local fabric store, Frugal Fabrics (Buford, GA). A quick look inside yielded at least 4 good choices of fabric, all on sale ranging from $4.50 - $5.00 per yard. I was geeked!! But alas, I hadn't  measured the chair yet so I didn't know how much to buy. I left, planning to return the next day.  But the next day I set out with a good friend following a tip that Old Time Pottery often had great deals on fabric. We heard right, I found this great faux suede in a great color for $3.49 a yard!!

 I added a monogram to the inside back and some leopard print ribbon, and here she is:






Chair After

















She photgraphs darker than she really is and has more orange color to her .



Total cost of this encore: $20.00!!

 

Fabric Wall Art- Have It Your Way!!

Looking for wall art in an unusual color combination. Just can't find it, make it yourself. A great cheap ( come on, if I'm suggesting it, it has to be CHEAP) way to put some color, YOUR color on your walls is to use fabric.  I know it's not a new idea but just in case you'd forgotten, here it is.  My new kitchen has white walls with silver hardware on a gazillion cabinets and black appliances. The go to color for black and white is usually red. No way, that's too Hobby Lobbyish! No offense, I like HL but, I just wanted a different look. So I reverted back to my favorite color, pink. Not a soft pink but a vibrant, full bodied pink. I then decided to look for fabric that had 4 basic colors, pink, green, white and black. The unifying element in this wall art would be black square frames.  It took a couple of trips to a variety of Goodwill stores but I finally had enough square frames in different sizes.  Here is the finished collection, please pardon the glare, still working on my photo skills.



Pink & Black



Pink, black and green on white.





Drk pink  & green on pink



Pink, white and green pokadots on black





Pinks, green and black on white

             

Pink on white fabric with pink on white scrapbook paper overlaid
 with black adhesive letters





Pink, green, black on white



Wood letter painted pink & black stripes and glued on outside of
glass. Inside black border is good old black electrical tape. Pink on
pink fabric.





HAVING IT MY WAY !





There's always some leftovers, gotta use 'em!!
It's almost an unspoken challenge. LOL



I'm Back, 2012 Look Out!!

It's been a while but... I'm back. Back to finding great things and giving them a second chance, an encore. Some of the things I've found were used to complete my new house and some were to launch a new career. I've chosen one word as my word for the year, Believe. I believe this will be a breakout year for me. 2012 Look Out , here I come.

These are the words that are sending me forward into 2012. Now before I start showing and sharing my latest projects I must show you what I did in 2011 afer the Great Move.  One of my projects was to give my daughter a new look for her new room. We kept the platform bed that I made her a couple of years ago and added a new dresser and chest. Here is a before and after look at the dresser. This dresser was my last find at a Salvation Army store in Metro Detroit. It was $35.

After a summer under a tarp ( supposedly protected from the rain) I discovered the top had warped and had to be replaced. Off to the Home Depot for a sheet of cabinet grade plywood,  and molding. Adding about $45 to the cost ! I know I can't claim this one was a deal but it looks so good I don't care. What do you think?

The mirror was a $4 find that I painted the same color as the dresser. The dresser and chest look white but 

are actually a very light gray. Just enough gray to not look white. LOL.  Drawer insets are a darker gray. Hardware was spray painted black and the whole thing got a couple of coats of polyacrylic. Here's the chest of drawers. I forgot to take a before picture, but you've seen this chest a million times in a million places.

This little baby was found at the Goodwill and I already had the paint. Notice the silver cylinder on this chest, that is a lamp base that I painted silver. It was cream but you might have noticed I have a thing for silver and shiny. Still looking for a lamp shade for it.

NEXT... My Bedroom

In addition to my love of silver and shiny is my love of chandaliers...

I was able to put up my chandalier that I had spray painted and strung beads to decorate.  $7.00 for fixture, can of spray paint, ( you guessed it, already had the paint), and about $6.00 for beads.

Next..

This vanity was purchsed at a yard sale in Southfield, Mi . It too traveled the highway unfinished to GA.  This late fall I got around to giving it an encore. Yes, I know it looks great as is but I wanted it to have a totally new look on life. 

This beauty was painted with the much talked about ASP Chalk paint. It has a matte gray finish highlighted in a shiny silver . It is finished off with a couple of coats of furniture wax. Great contrast to the shiny silver dresser with the inlaid mirror and the silver bedside tables ( both shown in earlier posts).

AND IN THIS CORNER...

The last project before Christmas decorating got under way was an upholstered headboard. Of course as I so often do, I forgot to take a before picture.  This headboard was the right shape and the right size and

goodness gracious, it was definitely the right price, $8.95!

 I wanted to bring more texture into the room so I went with a gray/silver no-wale corduroy. I created a design then had it enlarged at Kinkos for under $3.00. The design was approx. 32" x 28".

 Using dressmaking tracing paper I traced the design onto the fabric and  hand stitched cording to outline the design. I also added additional padding behind the design elements.

Havn't really come up with a cost but the fabric was $18.00. the copy was $3.00 the cording was $1.99 per spool ( needed 2) but used 40% off coupon at HL. I already had a roll of batting, so adding the $8.95 for the headboard itself I think as custom upholstered headboards go this was a good deal! How about you?

Here are the elements of the bedroom ...

Until the next time...