Window Mirror

At our previous house, I didn't have a fireplace.  Sad, but true.  Now that I have one again, I needed something to put above the mantle.  I had been thinking about getting a distressed window for a project and decided this would be a good use.

A couple of years ago, I had made a picture frame into a mirror for my daughter's room.  I used Krylon's Looking Glass Mirror paint for that project and loved it so much I wanted to use it for this window project as well.

I found a window at a local store.  Since I am new to the area, I haven't found all the good places to shop for my resources so I paid a little more for this window than I wanted.  Still, it was only $20, so nothing to break the budget.

It needed a lot of elbow work.  One of the panes had been broken out, but there were still some broken pieces of glass in there.  All around the edge of one side there was some glue that had apparently been used at one time to glue the window closed.  I scraped all of that off and scraped the paint splatters and such off the windows to give a clean surface.  I then cleaned the whole window, especially the parts with the spider webs and their spiders--yuck.

I had originally hoped there would be some great colors underneath the purple-blue paint on the window, so I grabbed my sander.  Unfortunately, nothing good.  I then used a wire brush to scrape off any loose paint.  Once everything was cleaned up, the process was pretty quick from there.

Since this window would be for indoor decorative purposes, I bought some graphite colored craft paint.  I already had the gold paint from some previous projects--I love this paint from Martha Stewart!

First, I took off the hardware on the window and cleaned that up.  The hardware will be perfect to hang a wreath on the window, which is what I will eventually do once I have my Fall wreath made.

Next, I took my mirror spray and painted the back side of the windows following the directions on the can.  I decided not to replace the glass in the empty pane.  I think it gives the window a little older look.  After that dried, I painted three coats of the graphite paint on the front.  The first coat was a little hard because I did not check to see if the paint was an oil-based paint, which it was.  I really should have primed the frame first, but since this window is for decorative purposes I shouldn't have a problem with the paint staying put.

After the graphite paint was dry, I took my gold paint and rubbed it on the window using a paper towel.  I love how the older paint underneath created texture for the gold paint to grab.

After all the paint paint had dried, I flipped the mirror over and screwed two eyelet hooks into the back, one on each side.  I then threaded and attached the picture wire onto the hooks.  I made sure to measure where I needed the wire so the picture hanger would not be visible once the mirror was up. 

I wanted the mirror to look as if it were just sitting on the mantle and leaning against the wall, but I needed it to be secured to the wall so that little kiddos couldn't knock it down and get hurt.  I measured from the bottom of the window to the top of the wire that I pulled up tightly (as if it were hanging).  I then placed the picture hanger approximately a half inch below that measurement on the wall.  The picture still leans against the wall, but will not fall forward, especially once I put a wreath up there.

I love how the window mirror turned out!  It adds so much height to my fireplace wall and will be such a great backdrop for whatever I place on the mantle, which I'm still trying to decide...

Crispy Onion Chicken

My husband is so very kind when I try new recipes out on him.  He always eats what I make, even when it tastes not so great.  Part of me realizes that he is just being practical by not wanting to waste food, but I prefer to go with the other side of him--his not wanting to be critical of my recipe choice.  

Thankfully for him, I'm not a bad cook and the recipes usually taste pretty good.  My husband just has to be really impressed to ask for seconds...which is exactly what he did with this recipe.  Even my kiddos were asking for seconds, and they are my toughest critics. 

I love how easy it is to make and how few ingredients you actually need.  The only changes I made are that I use chicken cutlets instead of chicken breasts and reduce the time about 5 minutes as well.  

My hubby asked me to make this for a family that we were bringing a meal to one night.  The recipe received rave reviews!

Crispy Onion Chicken

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 cup honey mustard
2 cups French's French Fried Onions, crushed

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Dip each chicken breast in honey mustard then coat in crushed french fried onions.  Place in a baking dish lined with foil and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Cook for 30-35 minutes, or until cooked through.

Recipe Credit: Six Sisters' Stuff
If you like this recipe, be sure to check out their new cookbook: A Year With Six Sisters' Stuff. So many yummy recipes!

Through the Valley

It has been awhile since I last posted.  There has been so much going on, mostly stressful, so finding time to update has been difficult.  We moved to a new home in June (yay!).  However, we should have moved end of May.  I can't even use the words my realtor chose to describe the situation, but suffice it to say he said it was the worst closing he's seen in twenty years and, unfortunately, completely out of our control.  Not exactly an achievement I wanted.  But that's another (long) story for another day.

Right before that, we found out some other news.  My dad celebrated his 64th birthday in March.  His birthday was also the day he was told his cancer had returned.  Even now, I cannot begin to describe the burst of emotions when my mom told me the news.  He officially has stage 4 pancreatic cancer; this time the cancer had spread to his liver.  It wasn't so much that the cancer had returned.  The hardest part was the doctors essentially telling him to enjoy his remaining time here on earth.

I'm not going to lie.  After the initial shock had warn off and the heartache had set in, my next reaction was one of anger.  Not so much outright anger at God, but anger at the situation.  I mean, aren't there worse people in the world who deserve this cancer?  Why should they be able to live when their actions cause others so much misery?  Why MY dad?  Then it hit me.  Why NOT my dad?  Why not my family?  If maybe by my dad having cancer someone else was being spared so that they too could come to know the Lord that I love.  That also hit home.  Even though I was angry at the situation, wasn't the "situation" placed there by God?  Ouch.  How easily I forget the goodness of God.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

If the last few years of my life have taught me anything about trials, it is that God is good.  Over the last few months in church, my pastor has been preaching a series of messages that seem as if they were written for me.  One of them, a series on Psalm 23, spoke especially to my heart.  There are so many aspects of this psalm that I would love to share, but you can listen to the series here.  I have read this psalm many times and heard many messaged preached on it over the years.  After this series by my pastor, I will never be able to read Psalm 23 the same way again.

Photo credit: Pinterest

Verse four is the one that really grabbed my attention.  "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me."  

I never paid much attention to the word "through" before.  When we walk in the valleys of life, the verse states that we walk through them, we don't dwell in them.  The valley is not a cave or dead-end with no exit.  Wow, what an encouragement!  

I cannot say that I have complete peace about my dad's prognosis, but that peace is growing the more I learn to trust in God.  It saddens me that without a miracle my dad will not be here much longer, but the part that hurts the most is my kids growing up not knowing their grandpa.  Owen may have a few memories, but I don't feel Addyson is old enough to have created those memories with her grandpa.

There are a lot of thoughts that run through my head and I still occasionally find myself crying at random times.  One of the hardest things I have had to do since finding out my dad's prognosis was trying to pick out what might be the last Father's Day card I ever give to my dad.  How do you sum up everything you think and feel for someone over the span of your life and put it into a card?  I found myself crying in the middle of the card aisle in the grocery store while my two kids looked at me like I was nuts.

I sometimes feel so selfish thinking at times more about how it affects me than how this cancer affects my dad.  My dad has been amazing through it all and praises God still.  The Lord has been gracious enough to allow my dad to feel fairly well through the process this time.  He had another round of chemo, which unfortunately did nothing.  He just recently had a procedure done to hopefully slow the growth of the tumor.

We were able to go to the beach with my family in June.  My dad says it was one of the best vacations he's ever had.  If you see the picture below, you can see probably why.  Every single one of those grandkids has their grandpa wrapped around their little fingers--and he wouldn't have it any other way.  And each one of those grandkids is a reminder of how good God is and how God has us in the palm of His loving hand.

Grandpa, Oma, and the grandkids
Photo credit: Kelley Collins