Mirror Mirror

It is almost time to officially kick off spring!  I am so excited for the beautiful weather and the coming shades of green.  We already have some pleasant fore bearers.  I awoke today and walked in to my kitchen and was overwhelmed by the color yellow streaming onto the counter, cabinets and floor.  Our forsythia had burst forth with all of it's glorious golden branches.

What a wonderful gift to brighten my morning!  I cut some of the branches, because I wanted to share them with you!

OK, let's pretend that I get to come to your door with a real gift.  I show up at your door, looking so stylish and cute, holding the prettiest present you have ever seen.  You think, surely this can not be for you... but it is.  Do you know what I would like to give you, if I could give you absolutely anything????   Well open it!  You gently and carefully unwrap your goodie.  You almost want to squeal with delight as you open it to find a beautiful mirror.  But not just any mirror, this is a magic mirror.  In this mirror you have the chance to see yourself, not the reflection you see in any ol' mirror but the image of how others see you.  

We are too often our own worst critic.  We hate our hair, we can not stand our teeth, we think we are too thin, too fat, too ...imperfect.   With my offering you can forget about your opinion and view your likeness through the eyes of those who love you.   For me, my hubs often tells me, "You are so beautiful!" and I just do not see it.  What would the mirror show me?  What my husband sees!  I am constantly telling me daughter how smart she is and in kind, she doesn't see it.  This mirror would show her all the gifts that she has been given.  You just can not argue with a mirror like this.  Your opinion does not count, it is fully the opinion of those in love with you. What a gift!  Wouldn't you love my little present?  I know I would. 

We need to learn to listen to those around us we trust and loves.  We need to learn to reclaim the love of our self.  We need to practice those positive affirmations just like they used to do on Saturday Night Live.  Well, almost like that.  TeeHee!  

My daughter shared with me a song that has really helped her at times.  (Warning there is an expletive version.)  I wish every girl out there would "pretty pretty please don't you ever ever feel like you are nothing less than perfect"! 

Now while we are making everyone else feel good, let's give those turning the big 50 a hard time! 

Our preacher had his 50th birthday the other day and well, we just could not let him sneak by without some fun.  So for the table decorations, I made tombstones that as you can see say, "RIP Here Lies Don's Youth".

I had a block of styrofoam from some of my Blessings Unlimited orders that I cut into 4x6 blocks. 

Next I cut the top corners at an angle like this,



Use some of the scrap styrofoam that you have cut off to use as a sander for the cut blocks.  It makes them really smooth, the mess is well... a mess!

Continue to sand it down until you get the rounded edges on the amount of tombstones you require.  I needed twelve for our tables.

Then use your gray acrylic paint to apply a thick coat on them.  It does take a lot of paint and attention, since the gaps in the styrofoam requires more pushing of the paint down into them. 

The remainder is super fast and easy! 

I wrote my phrase on the tombstones with a Sharpie.  I tried both a paint pen and a Sharpie, they were about the same.  The Sharpie did allow me to press a little firmer on the block without getting extra paint though.  

I cut cardboard, also from my Blessings Unlimited orders in to 10x10 squares and covered them with green scrapbook paper. 

With the same paper, I cut my 'grass' strips and glued it around the tombstones with hot glue then glued the whole thing onto the green cardboard. 

I wanted to add a 50 on them.  So I used my Cricut, cut out a small marquee and 5 and 0 from the Storybook cartridge, glued them together, with a piece of wire in the middle and simply put it in the top of the tombstone. 

Done!

I hope showers of blessings rain down on you today!





I am partying at....