A few projects

Alrighty! Back to work!

A few months ago, I talked Lala into helping me fix up my shiny gold ceiling fan. 

It was in great working order and I liked having it there in the dining room, it just looked a little dated and it was missing one of the glass light bulb cover things (I'm sure they have a name). 

Lala had fixed up her fans at her house, so she was the perfect mentor. 

Plus she knows her way around an electrical box. I tell you, this lady comes in handy.

I handed Jonah the camera and asked him to document.

"Smile, Lala!"

"Smile, Clairey!"

"Lala! Smile again! Hahahahah!"

There are many benefits to having junior photographers. They get photos that no one else would:)

Amelia and I set out to clean the thing, which was no menial task. There were a few years of grime on this baby. But we were relentless! We succeeded in the end!

And now we're going to imagine me hanging the fan from a ladder in the front yard and spending the next three days and four cans of spray paint to get the job done. This textured paint doesn't cover super well, plus there were so many angles it just took a lot of paint!

I know I took real photos, I just can't find them. My photo folder is a pit of despair. 

After scrubbing the thing, painting all the metal parts, and buying new glass lightbulb cover things (?) she was ready to be hung back on the ceiling. So Caleb and I hung her. It, I mean. 

The color reminds of of Rolo's. Chocolate and caramel, right? And who doesn't want to be reminded of that every time they enter their dining room?
Do you see my smudge? I stuck my thumb in it before it was completely dry. *sigh* Perfection is so elusive.

The blades are still a 90's color, but we deal.

Ahhh... no more gold. Although I have a sneaky suspicion that gold finish will be all the rage within the next five years. Go ahead and quote me on that.

So, that was one project. Another one I want to show you was SO fun to do, partly because it was crafty and artsy and something I had never done before. 

You know those sunburst mirrors that are all the rage in home decor and all over pinterest these days? 

Well. I wanted to make one using driftwood, because I love driftwood. Unfortunately, Utah has a low driftwood supply. Fortunately, we took a family vacay to California! 

I plopped myself down on this driftwood beach and began sifting through the piles and sticking my favorites into my bag. No worries, I made sure it was legal first. 

After we returned to the frozen mountain tops, I went in search of something flat and circular to glue my sticks to. 

A wooden needle point form thing (I'm sure it has a real name, too) turned out to be just the thing! It was only $1.09 at JoAnn's, so I went for it.  I probably spent more than that in hot glue sticks. This project took a lot of hot glue!

 This nasty carpet in my art room is awesome. It's just a remnant laid down on the plywood. I love it because I can get paint, glue, glitter, and all sorts of other crafty tidbits all over it with no fear of doing damage. That's my kind of floor covering. I arranged the sticks in a few different ways before settling on this, then started coating on the glue. Once that dried, I used liquid nails to attach the mirror. I put a few heavy books on top of it, then left it alone for 24 hours.

Then.... Tada!

The mirror is 18", so the whole thing is over 2 feet wide. I hung it in my bedroom, and I love it! It looks brown in this photo, but it's more of a gray color. Very chic and oh so coastal. Because coastal decor is all the rage in the land locked desert of Utah. 

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