Quick and Easy Method to Spice up the Builder Mirror in the Bathrooms

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Like most cookie-cutter plaster-of-paris houses in America, our bathroom mirrors had no frills. Just a reflective piece of glass on the wall to provide basic functionality and that’s it.  To make your bathroom look a bit fancier on the cheap and really easily, you’ll need the following:

  1. Low temp hot glue gun and glue
  2. Bathroom caulk
  3. Primed polystyrene (foam) Window/Door Casing (Enough to cover the perimeter of each mirror )
  4. Four Primed Rosettes
  5. Fine toothed saw of some kind (I highly recommend a miter box and a pull saw) The material is really easy to cut, but you want a nice clean straight edge that might be tough to achieve with a razor.

We’re getting primed moulding and rosettes because white works well with our bathroom colors and I’m lazy and don’t want to have to paint anything.

The first step is to measure out your cuts for the casing or moulding. This is actually kind of hard to do because we are going to have a rosette in each corner of the mirror. I tried an elaborate method of calculating this at first but ended up just having to go with the flow as things didn’t turn out how I expected at first.  Start with the rosettes. These will be in the corners of the mirror and what we want is to maximize mirror space. We don’t want to cover the mirror any more than we need to, so let’s say 1/2 of the casing thickness will cover the mirror. The casing and rosettes are the same thickness, so if we do 1/2 the thickness from the side, and 1/2 the thickness from the bottom, only 1/4 of the area of the rosette will actually be covering the mirror.  Pretty complicated to read but easy to see.

Now to attach these pieces we will have to use a two-step solution. We’ll apply both silicone caulk and low temp hot glue. The reason for this is that the hot glue by itself falls off after about a day or two (ask me how I know). The caulk will hold it great, however it doesn’t have enough tack force to hold the pieces in place long enough to dry when you apply it. So we’ll use the silicone caulk for long term stickitude, and the low-temp hot glue just to hold it on the glass until the caulk can set. Voila’.

Warning:  I used hot glue with no problem, and I used low temp hot glue. I don’t know what kind of hot glue gun you are using, or how your glass will react. If you shatter your bathroom mirror due to thermal stress it can be dangerous and will be totally your own fault. Do this at your own (slight) risk. If you are worried about how hot the glue is, then just apply it to the rosette and let it cool for a bit before applying it to the glass.

Put the rosette in the corner, and make sure to align it straight. You really only get one shot to stick it to the glass with the hot glue. If you get it wrong you’ll just have to pull it off, clean the glass and back of the rosette and try again. Once the hot glue touches the cools glass it nearly instantly sticks. After doing this a couple of times we got the hang of it. Again, use caution pulling this off the mirror if you need to because doing it wrong could break the corner of the mirror. It isn’t a huge worry, but just be careful.

Once you have the rosettes in the corners you can cut your moulding pieces to length. In our case I measured roughly and cut the casing, then wedged it in place and tweaked the cuts if I needed to. This was also a time when I realized that some of the rosettes were misaligned and I redid them yet again.

 

When applying the casing, you have to make one long line of hot glue and make it as straight as possible. This is on the back side of the moulding, however due to the thickness of the glass it can be seen. Also, once this foam material is on the mirror, you won’t easily get it off immediately without snapping it in half.

Once you get all the pieces on the mirror, caulk the connections between the casing the rosettes to complete the look.

I’m really overcomplicating the project. It was super easy and looks great with no painting required.

Midway and After shots of Mirror 1. You can see the transformation even in the first pic.

A simpler method is to find an old frame and paint it white and hang it. Check out what Jess did here:

Kid Consignment Sale Haul (aka fun toys and games for your toddler)

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Kid consignment sales are a favorite of mine. Being a first time mom, I didn’t even know these existed until a friend, also a mom, keyed me into their awesomeness. Now I go to at least one for spring/summer and another for fall/winter.

So, why are they so great? Let me give you an example. Here are all the items I purchased recently at one consignment sale:

*FTC disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through my links. All opinions remain my own.

Raccoon Rumpus Game by Educational Insights

There was instant love for this game by my little. It has been played with several times each day since we bought it.

Where’s That Chipmunk Game by Haywire Group

We haven’t played this yet because the instructions were missing. It proved to be a bit more challenging to find the rules since the company has changed ownership, but I was able to enter a broken link that seemed to have the rules (which it did) into the Way Back Machine and open an old version of the page (Hooray!).

Goodnight Moon Matching Game by Briarpatch

This game has lots of different ways to play and is appropriate for my toddler but will also grow with her as well!

Micro Mini Original Kick Scooter by Micro Kickboard

I almost bought one of these during Christmas and I’m glad I waited!

Lauri Deluxe Tall-Stackers – Pegs & Pegboard Set by PlayMonster

I actually did buy a pegboard set at Christmas but gave it to a nephew as a gift. This has also been played with a couple of times every day since purchased.

Going to the Doctor (Usborne First Experiences) Book by Anne Civardi

Creepy Crawlies Hardcover Book by Igloo

The magnifying glass in this book occupied my little during most of the time I was shopping at the sale and that alone made it worth its price!

Okay, self admittedly I usually buy a LOT more at consignment stores, but I was on mission and had a short time frame at this one. It was closing in less than an hour AND I was specifically looking to add to our game collection.

Okay, now for why there is such hype for consignment stores. If I bought these six items new I would have spent well over $185. INSTEAD I only spent $34! On average, I paid about 20% of the regular price for items I purchased. This is pretty on par with most things I buy at sales like this, but on some occasions I have paid for up to 50% of the regular price for items I really wanted.

Now, another good (yet time consuming) part of consignment sales is YOU can sell your stuff in them too. It’s pretty easy to make us much as you spend in a consignment sale, so it is kind of like swapping out your old unneeded kid stuff for new to you needed/wanted kid stuff.

If you don’t know where consignment sales might be in your area, check out Consignment Mommies!

For anyone that sells/shops consignment sales, any tips?

Brighten Up Old Grout

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In our house, the kitchen had tile in it for some time. I’m not sure if the previous owner sealed the grout, but we thought it was supposed to be dark. Honestly, it just looked bad but I wasn’t about to regrout the whole thing. Instead, Jess brought home some grout paint.  I’ll say it still wasn’t easy to do, but with about 15ish hours of painting we finally got the floor looking good. It’s pretty uncomfortable sitting on tile floor for that long, so sitting on a pillow or using a kneeling cushion is helpful.

After this grout project, we installed hardwood floors everywhere else downstairs and in the master bedroom and both bathrooms upstairs.

DIY Toy Storage

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Okay, full disclaimer, this is completely JUST an idea. I haven’t actually made this myself, but I spotted all these items and thought, this could work. It’s in my “I don’t have time right but later when I do..” mental file. It is just too good of an idea to not share!

*FTC disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through my links. All opinions remain my own.

It all started when I spotted this gorgeous Crate & Barrel wood bookcase and toy storage and was completely inspired.

I’m forever looking at toy storage ideas, and this toy organizer looks like a fun do-it-yourself project.

The materials to recreate this look are:

I think the trickiest part would be attaching the legs. Depending on the thickness of the particle board on the bottom of the 2-compartment bins, extra reinforcement is likely needed.

Like the inspiration, I would add the wood vinyl only to the backs of the compartment bins. I also like the idea of using other patterns to add color to the back of the bins.

Of course any of the supplies for this DIY can be replaced by look-alikes or materials you have on hand. I think the fun of do-it-yourself projects is being creative with materials you have on hand or find at local stores.

So, would you make this or just buy the original? Oh, and please please please, post your results in the comments if you tackle this DIY!

Baby Must Haves that Made the First Year Easier

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I recently shared some baby items that we still use with our toddler, but there were also some items during that first year that I am so glad we had.

This baby stuff would be great to add to your baby registry or to buy for someone who is expecting.

*FTC disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through my links. All opinions remain my own.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Baby Items to Help You Survive the First Year:

1 – We tried a lot of tubs. We had one of those PUJ tubs (which lasted only the first two months) and even one of those blow up duck tubs (cute for pics, not so practical for baths). This sponge was the best. I’d simply fill our tub with a couple inches of water, give our little one a bath, and then roll the water out of this sponge and wedge it behind our towel bar until the next bath.

2 – Okay, if you plan on pumping at all, this is truly the end all be all. It has great suction, is battery powered (so you can WALK around while pumping), and is a closed loop system (much more sanitary and you can even resell it if you want too). I’ve literally made dinner while using this pump.

3 – I was wary of glass bottles at first, but I ended up loving these. I admit I did drop these a couple of times and they did NOT break! They cleaned really easily in the dishwasher and heated up quickly in the bottle warmer.

4 – I clipped this sound machine on the rock n play (7), crib, and even my little ones stroller while out and about. I used it A LOT and although the charger port broke, I reached out to the company and they sent me a new one for free!

5 – Initially I scoffed at bottle warmers – who needs those? Well, because I mainly pumped, I had a lot of milk in the fridge (and freezer) that was COLD. I ended up buying this during the wee hours one night and never looked back.

6 – There are lots of swaddles and I recommend swaddles in general. This one in particular is super easy and has a two way zipper for easy middle of the night diaper changes.

7 – The benefit of a rock n play is it can easily go anywhere. Ours came with to dinners at friends, holiday family parties, and even on vacation. When our little one napped, it was often in here.

8 – THIS IS THE NUMBER ONE ITEM ON THIS LIST! Seriously, I saved the best for last. Hands down, if you are anxious at all about sleeping while your child sleeps, buy this. We got a refurbished model to save money and it worked flawlessly.

Of course baby items like this are going to be a matter of personal preference – both yours and your babies – so remember a lot of this is trial and error.

Got any other tips for the parents of newborns? What made your life with a newborn easier?