I always love window shopping on websites or stores with high end pieces of furniture or home decor items, but I could never afford the price tags. I decided I could make my own high end looking mirror and so can you.

I had bought some dressers that came with mirrors and I never sold the mirrors with the dressers I painted, but I did keep them aside for the future. Some of the mirrors had vintage tops to them like the one above and some were straight edges, perfect for moulds.

Other mirrors I had I actually had to give to Value Village due to them being outdated to the point of no updating lol they had so many outdated details it wouldn't work.

Now the one in the picture turned out amazing and was the perfect mirror to use for moulds and to create my high end mirror look alike. This mirror sold immediately for a wedding, how amazing is that?

Let's get started....
​What you need
​A mirror
Redesign With Prima Moulds
​Amazing Casting Resin found on Amazon or Michaels
Paint
Primer
Sanding paper
Cleaner
Super glue, I used the Gorilla glue
Paint brushes
Clear Coat to Seal
Gloves, very important to wear

First thing I did was to take off the spoke things at the top either side of the mirror. As seen below...

I then scuff sanded the mirror trim and top and cleaned the entire piece. I placed paper over the glass mirror and taped. I then primed 2 coats of primer, sanded with 220 grit sandpaper and then painted with Country Chic Paint in Crinoline. While that dried and set I made the moulds. These moulds are from Redesign With Prima
​
​I used quite a lot of moulds for this mirror but you can use any mould you want from the link

WEAR GLOVES DURING THE WHOLE PROCESS OF MAKING MOULDS.
It is important to wear gloves because this resin is very difficult to get off your skin.
​To make the resin you will need the Amazing Casting Resin. In the box comes two bottles, A and B . One is yellow liquid and one is clear liquid. It also comes with two little cups, if you are making alot of moulds you might want a larger container that you won't use again like i did.

You are going to pour equal parts of liquid A and B into the larger container. It is a MUST that you pour equal quantities of each liquid or it won't set properly. Pour as much as you think you'll need for at least 3 moulds You may need to pour out more to make more moulds

Once you have poured it into the container work fast to mix it really well until it is no longer cloudy. You can also follow the instructions on how to mix the resin on the box. Once mixed and it looks clear pour the resin into the moulds, if you need to make more then make more.
You will notice the liquid turning white, wait until the moulds turn completely white and hard. The moulds do get a little warm and thats normal. Once they are hard you can pop them out of the mould case and make more.

After the moulds are made you can start placing them on the mirror frame or where ever you would like them. Once you have them in place make sure you are wearing gloves to apply the super glue and glue eachnone down. Make sure the moulds don't over hang on the frame because when you lean it on the floor the moulds snap off. I learnt the hard way. You can then brush your paint over the moulds so they blend with the mirror frame that is already painted and then brush your clear coat on once the paint is dry. Make sure also to clear cost the entire mirror frame. Once everything is dry and ready you can take off the paper and tape and clean the glasd mirror with windex gently . Place your mirror on your wall and display your new high end mirror.

I hope you enjoyed this post and project and tag me on Instagram or Facebook to let me know you made the moulds.

How to make bead garlands.....
I was making bead garlands about a year or two ago and it was so much fun, I was selling them at one point and they were very popular. You can make so many colours, I used yellow, orange, green, grey, pink and Jute string.

I had stopped making them for a while and thought maybe I'll share them on my blog so you can enjoy making them yourself. It's actually a therapeutic project to do, fun and relaxing and time to create.

When I thought of making the garlands, I realized I needed something to add to my furniture staging items and the garlands were perfect for that. They are great for home staging, furniture staging and just have to on shelves and home decor items that look pretty. You can create one for every season and mood and to match your home decor theme.

Where to get these items to make a garland you ask.... well the string/yarn I got at dollarama and same with the jute. Make sure you have good string/yarn that won't shred on you. The beads i got 200 in a bag on Amazon. You can even get any size you want or mix and match.

lets get started

yarn or Jute
tape
scissors
beads

​

First you need to cut the yarn as long as you want your garland to be and take into account you need at least and inch or 2 at the ends to go through the tassles, add on a little length at the ends.

Then you need a card like a postcard, i used a panel off a tylenol box as thats what I had at the time but a postcard width way is better. It all depends on how long you want your tassles at the end to be.

What you're going to do is wrap the yarn around you card about 40 times making sure that the end is sticking out ready to be tied. You can wrap it around less times or more, all depends on how thick you want them. You are going to make two tassels.

​See pictures below

Once you have made two tassels tie the two ends in a small knot, take them off the card holding them in place so you don't lose the loop. Take some yarn about short ruler size, 15cm and tie it in a knot and start to wrap it around the top of the tassel creating a loop at the top. Again make sure the start of the yarn is sticking out the bottom ready to tie together.

Make sure you have the loop at the top like the picture above. You are then going to take your yarn you cut to desired size earlier. Take your tape and cut two small strips. Wrap the tape around both ends od the yarn. This is to make the ends more durable and secure to thread easily through the beads.

Once you have got tape on both ends you are then going to thread one end through one tassle loop and tie in a small knot at the top twice. You don't thread the whole string through just a small amount to knot. See picture below

Once this is done you can start threading the other end through the wooden beads. When you add the first 4 or 5 beads make sure when thry get to the tassel that you thread thr taped end through those beads so that its hidden.

When all the beads are on, make sure to leave some room at the open end to thread through your second tassle. Do the same with thr open end, thread through the other tassle and knot. Tie the string at the that tassle as close to the last bead as possible and thread the taped end through those beads.

You can see in the picture above that I threaded the taped end through the beads. I also made sure the extra yarn was tied close to the end bead so that it wasn't loose.

You are probably wondering why I am sharing a food recipe on a furniture refinishing page, well last night, which was Sunday evening I made roast chicken dinner. I make a roast every Sunday and the reason why is because I grew up England and every Sunday my Mum would make a roast dinner.

We would go to church in the morning then have an awesome brunch filled with sausages, bacon, eggs, toast, the works. It was always a lazy relax day and come dinner time we had a roast. Sometimes it was roast chicken and sometimes roast beef.

Now scalloped potatoes was not a British side dish to add with a roast chicken dinner and in fact I didn't have scalloped potatoes until I came to Canada at 17yrs old. We had a family gathering and my Aunt made scalloped potatoes, oh my goodness I loved them so much. I asked her how she made them and she told me the ingredients.

My Aunt had said cream so I assumed she meant whipping cream, next family gathering I made the scalloped potatoes and when I went to go get some food the entire dish was gone. Everyone loved them. My Aunt asked what I put in it because it wasn't the same as hers and I told her I used whipping cream, she laughed and said thats why they are so good. Since then I like to make scalloped potatoes sometimes with my roast chicken dinner with gravy, believe when I say wow they are amazing and my family loves them too.

lets get started on this recipe which is really quite easy and quick to make
​

Oven temperature: 400F
Cooking time: 1 hour, until potatoes are soft

Ingredients:
6 large potatoes, peeled
1 onion
1/4 cup of parmasean cheese grated
3/4 cup of whipping cream, picture below 473ml
1 cup maybe 1 and half cups of grated cheddar cheese
1 large long dish, 9x13
1 mandolin

​Preheat oven to 400f degrees. I have a mandolin slicer which is amazing and I really recommend getting. It has so many different blades for fries, or crinkle potatoes. I have a setting that is a blue dot and thats the thin one for thin potatoes that I use for scallop. If you don't have one thats okay you can slice the potaotes once peeled into thin slices.

Layer the dish with the first layer of sliced potatoes, then do a second layer. Peel and slice the onion into string slicesand sprinkle over the potatoes. Then do two more layers of sliced potatoes.

Pour the cream over the potatoes, making sure that its completely covered in cream. If you feel there isnt enough cream you can add some more. Sometimes I use the whole carton.

Grate the cheeses and sprinkle over the potatoes until the whole top layer is covered in cheese.

Place in the heated oven and cook for about an hour or less depending on whether the potatoes are soft. I always like to check once they start browning on top, i stick a knife in to see if they are soft enough. You don't want hard potatoes. If the top is cooking faster than the potatoes then put a layer of foil over them, that way they will cook and not burn. The best part are the crispy edges. Let sit for 5 min and serve. Make sure to let your guests or family know its hot when serving.

Serve as a side dish or eat as is because they are that good!
Enjoy

This is a mandolin slicer, I got this at Costco years ago but Im sure Walmart has them too. In the picture below you can see I have it locked but the blue dot is the setting I use for scalloped potatoes.