Convex Mirror DIY

Happy Wednesday Everyone!!! Today I have a quick and easy DIY for you. 


I had a pair of small convex mirrors forever. I found them at a thrift shop back in college for $1 each- thinking one day I'd make some sort of frame for them I bought them. But inspiration never came. They sat in my craft box for years.


Then I saw this from Worthing Court Blog. 

So Simple! So Stylish! So Easy! Why didn't I think of this?


I went to Lowe's and found the ceiling medallions I needed. I bought 2 small ones for $7 each instead of the large.

Once I opened my ceiling medallion I realized my mirror was to small for the hole, so I decided to cut a piece of fiber board (Lying around from another project I have yet to start.) using my jig saw and use it as a backing to glue my mirror to. I traced the size of the circle then cut it out a little bit larger than my pen mark so I'd be able to glue it to the back of the medallion.

I didn't mind that it wasn't cut perfectly since I was glueing it to the back of the medallion.

Once it was cut out I glued it on to the back using Gorilla Glue for wood, stone, and metal and let it dry. 

Once that had dried I use a semi gloss white spray paint to paint the whole thing. Though I did learn not to leave my projects lying around or else some one (The Con-Man...) will come by and step right on top of it. Oops... had to do this one all over again!

The final step was gluing my mirrors onto the medallion using the same super glue and done! My mirrors were not the same truck mirrors as in my inspiration project; they had flat backs so there was no prep work to be done. Lucky me!

I hung them in our bedroom. 

I'm glad I finally was able to use these mirrors I've been carting around with me. Do you buy materials for projects and don't always get started on them right away?

What I've been Up To & Giveaway Winners!

Hello All! I hope everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day Weekend. I wanted to say a special "Thank You!" to all our Military Members past and present; especially my military man!


We've been out of town for over a week- hence my blog silence over the last few days.


We went down to our old stomping grounds in San Antonio. The Hubs had training and The Con Man and I tagged along for the ride. Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Dinner on the Riverwalk

San Antonio Zoo

Sea World

And for Memorial Day Weekend my MIL came in town. We went over to Medicine Park, OK to hang out at the natural bathing hole and drove through the Wildlife Refuge.

The buffalo were roaming across the field...

And across the street!

And what you really came here for- the winners of the contest that were held last week!


CameraBag2 Giveaway Winners! There were 5 liscences to giveaway so here are the 5 winners as chosen by Random.org:

Drawing #10,330 PRIVATE

CameraBag2 Giveaway 8th drawing held by Rachelle Falcon Completed on Tuesday, 29 May 2012 at 03:38:30 UTC 11 entrants, 5 winners

Winners (5)

 1st: 6
 2nd: 3
 3rd: 9
 4th: 11
 5th: 7

✿ⒹⒺⒺ✿@ A Lapin Life said... 6

How exciting! I would love to be enter in the contest. The pictures look fantastic!!!

Dee

May 20, 2012 7:01 PM 

Kari M. said... 3

I follow CameraBag2 on twitter.

May 18, 2012 6:20 PM 

sophiepeanut said... 9

I would love to win this. Thanks for the chance!

May 21, 2012 9:20 AM 

Anonymous said... 11

I would love to win this as I am not super swift on PhotoShop!

Gail said... 7

I would really like this. Thanks.

May 20, 2012 7:43 PM 

Congrats to the winners! Gail and Sophie; you did not leave an email address or other way for me to get in touch with you- please email me in the next few days or I'll have to go on to the next winner.

And the winner of other giveaway from PrintRunner for 250 business cards is:

Drawing #10,331 PRIVATE

PrintRunner Giveaway 9th drawing held by Rachelle Falcon Completed on Tuesday, 29 May 2012 at 03:51:31 UTC 5 entrants, 1 winner

Winners (1)

1st: 4

Nicole Buckingham said... 4

Oh, I would promote, promote, promote.

Aloha,
Stopping by to say "hi" from the Aloha Friday Hop. Thanks so much for joining the fun.

xoxo,
Nicole
localsugarhawaii.com

May 22, 2012 4:07 AM 

Congratulations Nicole!!

Thank you to everyone who entered. I really appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and enter the fun giveaways!!

Till next time!!

An Apple For Teacher

Hey! Have you entered my giveaway for Photo Editing Software? How about the one for Business Cards? Get to it Girl (or Guy)!


Gettin' Crafty with it over here! School's out for Con-Man so that means long hot summer in a town with nothing to do end of the school year teacher gifts! I wanted to give Con-Man's teachers something useful and of course teacher related. While perusing the internet I came across this:

Source

This was a fun project, it brought back memories of stamping potatoes and celery as a child. This was a quick easy craft as well and I had all the supplies on hand except for the canvas tote bags. I found them at Walmart for $6 for a pack of 3. 

All I did was cut the apple in half, brush on some paint and stamp away. 

I tried to apply even pressure all around but my stamped apples kept turning out like this:

Which I choose to fill in but you could leave it as is; depends on the look your going for. Con-Man was able to help me out with this project. (Until he got bored 4 stamps in and ran off to play with cars.) He did proudly tell his teachers he helped out and that he "Made that."

About half way through I had this:

Which I thought about leaving but decided to stamp the rest of the bag.

And what teacher gift would be complete without some goodies inside? I made these awesome Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars I saw on Pinterest. Here's my awful IPhone pic that I apparently took in way to much of a hurry:

And here's what they really look like in all their sugary goodness:

It's a good thing I was giving these away because I easily could have eaten the whole batch on my own. 

What are your summer plans for keeping kiddos busy now that school's out?

Business Card GIveaway from Printrunner!!

Wow another giveaway?! I feel like Bob Barker over here!


This is a good one guys: The awesome folks from Printrunner have are offering one lucky reader a chance to win 250  business cards.  How cool is that?!

If you haven't heard Printrunner is a  full service high quality printing company located right here in the USA. They are committed to providing the best value and high quality full color printing at affordable price. 


Not only do they offer business card services they also print greeting cards, invitations, stickers, flyers and more.


Want to get in on this?


To enter:
1.  Just leave a comment below on how you would use your new business cards. Easy!


Extra Entries:
2. Follow Printrunner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/printrunner


3. "Like" Printrunner on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/printrunner


*The giveaway starts today and ends Monday May 28th at 9PM central time. Winner will be chosen with Random.org announced May 29th. Make sure you leave a valid email address so I can get in touch with you if you do not have a Blogger profile. 
*Winner will receive Business Card Size and Style Business Cards - 2x3.5 (Standard)

Quantity   250

Colors    4/4 Color Both Sides

Paper    14 pt. UV Coating on Front, 14 pt. UV Coating on both sides,

Proof    NONE

Rounded Corners   NO

*Giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above.

*I am not compensated for this giveaway, just want to share the love with you!

And don't forget to enter the other giveaway I have going on right now for online photo editing from CameraBag2!

Good Luck!!

Camerabag2 Review and Giveaway

Happy Friday Everyone! I have a fun giveaway for you today! 


We all know that pictures are a big part of our blogs. Good looking pictures help get our point across and engage our readers. There is a lot of photo editing software available out there today and I want to share a really exciting one with you today.


If you haven't heard of CameraBag2 it is a full suite of photographic tools, from simple exposure and cropping to advanced vignetting, color correction, and curves. It works with both Macs and PCs.


I'm always on the lookout for new ways to edit my photos. CameraBag2 was easy and fun to use. The interface was easy to use, I was able to jump right in and get started. There are lots of filters to play with and they have a mobile app as well so I can edit photos on the go. 


Check out some pictures I edited using the software:

Here's a screen shot of all the adjustments you can make to your photo. CameraBag2 gives you an idea of what your photo will look like with each adjustment so you can decide which to work with. Then you can play around with them- Exposure, Contrast, Light Curves, Color Saturation, the list goes on!

Screen Shot

Original Photo from our recent Quartz Mt family hike

 Saturation

Brightness/ Lightness

After playing around with the photo you can then add borders:

Or give photos a different feel with filters. Again there are lots to choose from and you can preview any of them before you decide which one you want.

I currently use Photoshop to edit photos but I only know the basics. CameraBag2 seems easier to use right off and theres lots of options to play around with.

So the exciting news: The awesome folks at CameraBag2 are generously giving away 5 licences for the software to 5 lucky readers!! Woo Hoo! 


To Enter:


1. Comment on this post (Easy!)


Extra Entries:


2. Enter a photo in their Camera Giveaway Contest (see below you don't want to miss this!!)


3. Follow CameraBag2 on Facebook


4. Follow CameraBag2 on Twitter.


*You need check out the giveaway they are having on their website as well. You can enter to win a Canon 5D MKIII camera. Say what!?!?! The camera is worth $3499! All you have to do is enter a photo you edited using CameraBag2 software (you can download a temporary licence if need be) to their Pinterest Page. (Hurry- this contest ends May 22nd!)*


My giveaway for the CameraBag2 licences starts today and ends Friday May 25th. 5 winners will be chosen using Random.org and will be announced shortly after. CameraBag2 gave me 1 complimentary license to try the software to review. All comments in this review are my own.


Good Luck!!

Small Town Living- Almost 1 Year!

Grow where your planted


When life hands you lemons throw them right back make lemonade and all that good advice stuff.


Our move to Altus, OK was a big change for our family. We moved from one of the largest cities in the country (San Antonio, TX) to one of the smallest. I went from being a full time working mom to a stay at home mom in a town where the main thing to do with your kiddo is go to the same park everyday. Basically it was a culture shock.


We've been living here almost a year now and I've been reflecting on how things have been going.

A few shocking facts about Altus:

1. We don't have a Starbucks (Gasp!!!)


2. We only have 1 McDonalds (Double Gasp!)


3. Cows and Cotton are main sources of income (oh and the hot dog manufacturing plant)


4. The closest "Mall" is an hour away and you cant barely call it a mall


5. Even people in Oklahoma give us sad faces when we tell them where we live.


But what I've learned so far is that there are opportunities to be found even in a small town like ours if your willing to look. 


1. Hanging out with the Con-Man- we do lots of fun stuff together. It takes some creativity to keep him away from the TV all day but we figure it out and have fun.

Lake Altus at Quartz Mountain

2. Upholstery Class! I searched high and low while living in San Antonio to find somewhere that offered upholstery classes with no luck. Who would have thought I would find a place that offered here in the middle of no where!? Awesome!

3. Time to build a bed (and lots of other cool stuff)! If I were still working full time I don't think I would have been able to devote the time and energy to build Con-Man's big boy bed. If I had it would have taken me twice as long.

4. We've had some amazing travel opportunities through the Air Force. This being a small base we have better chances at Space-A travel than at a larger base. We've been to Seattle and California so far!

Seattle Mt Rainer

California Wine Tasting

5. We've made some really great friends both at our church and through the base. Everyone is super friendly and a lot of the military families are coming from similar situations as we are so we feel like we're in this together.


Even though I thought my life was over when we got our orders for Altus I think I've actually grown a lot- both in learning new skills, becoming closer to my family, and having some great opportunities. 


So I've learned that if it seems like life is throwing you a curve ball the best thing to do is to be positive and take it in stide. You never know what great things are lying a head!