A Project Here, A Project There...

This weekend I worked on a few odds and ends...like hunting for snow boots which I did NOT buy because I was shocked by the price AND the fact that Fleet Farm was jam-packed with people... who apparently were also buying boots. Oy.

I also worked on my new personalized pushpins for my new bulletin board. Aren't they pretty? They were super-easy to do and basically free, since I had all  most of the supplies (can you believe I didn't have any Elmer's glue?). A good friend of mine made some magnets like this for me years ago and I still use them (thanks Erin!), so I thought these would work just as well.

First, I gathered a few flat pushpins/thumbtacks I had in my office stuff, as well as a couple of buttons and those glass flattened marble thingamajigs. I also grabbed the Elmer's, some magazines and scrapbook paper, sandpaper, and my heavy-duty E-6000 adhesive.

The buttons were first. I just scuffed up the backs of the buttons and the surface of the thumbtack. Then I put a little E-6000 on the tack and added the buttons. For the marbles, I found some images or patterns I liked and cut them down to fit. I added a little Elmer's glue to the image and stuck it to the marble. It's been a while since I've used Elmer's so I put waaaay too much on the first marble and it squished out everywhere. Luckily, Elmer's is forgiving and it dries clear, so it was no big deal.

Once those were dry, I scuffed the tacks, put some E-6000 on and smooshed those on the backs of the marbles. The important thing is to make sure you have enough adhesive and that the tack is centered. It takes a while for the E-6000 to dry, so they're not on my bulletin board just yet, but still "curing" on the table. So what do you think? Fun and easy, huh?

I also wanted to share another little something with you...I found her at the Salvation Army Thrift store last weekend! I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to put her yet...maybe in the guest bedroom on my revamped tray...or the bathroom?

As luck would have it, collectibles were 50% off, so I got her for about 5 bucks! Isn't she pretty? A lovely hand mirror, a little tarnished but in awesome shape. Check out some of the detail...

I wanted to give her some TLC and tried to polish her up with a silver polishing cloth I have from my flute-playing days. But the cloth was really no match for all the built up tarnish on the mirror. I read that making a paste of baking soda and water could do wonders for tarnished silver, so last night I made a paste and rubbed it in all over the back of the mirror. I let that sit for a while, rubbed it some more and rinsed. I ended up repeating the whole process, since I had a LOT of the paste and a LOT of tarnish. I even pulled out some Q-tips to really get in the crevices.

After rinsing and drying the mirror, I used the polishing cloth...there is still a lot of tarnish, but I think the mirror looks much, much better now, don't you?