Framed Mirror

I know it's been done a million times before but oh well! I'm proud of my new bathroom mirror and you have to hear about it! Or at least see it anyway. As you can see I also spray painted the light fixture to match the faucet and towel ring. This frame only cost me about 8 bucks. Only problem is that I bought enough to do both my bathrooms and then lost my motivation to do the other one.

Here's the how-to:

1) Measure mirror

2) Buy molding at Home Depot

3) Cut corners with miter box and sand rough edges

4) If you have hooks holding the mirror up, cut out a piece from the molding so it fits over it

5) Paint front and back since the back will show in the mirror

6) Carefully glue to the mirror on the outermost edge (use mirror adhesive)

7) Wood putty corners and paint over them once dry

I did not paint the back at all, did not paint the front until after the molding was up, did not cut out where my metal hooks would be AND I used a crappy glue, therefore had to use multiple shower rods to hold my frame in place until it dried. Moral of the story: Do as I say in my instructions, not as I did :)

Tutorial: How To Make Curtain Rod

I'm not sure if this is really worthy of a post or even if this can be called a tutorial but here's an easy project for someone looking for a wood curtain rod like I was.

All the furniture in my kids' room is natural wood and so I wanted their curtain rod to match but the only one I found locally was really expensive so I made my own. I found the rod at Home Depot for $8 after cutting it to the size I needed (price will vary depending on how much you cut) and the two balls were a buck each at Michaels with my coupon. I gave in and bought the set of brackets from Home Depot for $9 (and they do match although in the picture you wouldn't know it) so all in all it cost a total of $19 which isn't amazingly cheap but still decent.

All you have to do is drill holes in the ends of the rod and in each ball then wood glue a little dowel to attach them. Done :)

Hooded Towel

I found a super simple tutorial for a hooded bath towel from Make And Takes here. She adds appliques and bias tape to make it even cuter (perfect for a gift) but mine is plain and simple with no frills... lucky for me my kid loves it anyway because he thinks it's a superhero cape :) The only thing I did differently was rounded the back of the hood (by tracing a dinner plate) to get rid of the point.

I presented this tutorial to a group of women in my church tonight and got some great feedback with even more ideas to try out. One woman used to make these using 2 washcloths instead of half a hand towel (if you decide to use a hand towel, I suggest cutting it even smaller than just in half as the hood is pretty long otherwise). Another woman said to use the leftover half of the hand towel to add triangle pockets to the top corners of the inside so little ones can put their hands in there and hold it on. I'm so doing that!!! Lastly, someone else mentioned adding ears to the hood. CUTE.

I'll definately be making more of these.

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

Here is the tutorial for turning a mason jar into a soap dispenser by Intimate Weddings. It's so much cuter than the little $1 one's I get from Smiths. I always use my .35 soft soap coupons when they have their deal where all coupons under a dollar are worth $1. And since this was free to do too I was excited to try it. Free plus free equals awesome. I spray painted the lid with brushed nickle (it was originally gold and said Kerr) since I already had some for other house projects. Give it a shot!