Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Vintage Mirror DIY

Hello friends!

Today I'm sharing one of my recent DIY projects! If you'll remember last month I was looking for an antique mirror to hang above my new dresser, and I found one I instantly fell in love with. I loved the Baroque feel to it and the imperfections on the glass. I have always wanted to try gold leaf, and I thought that it would be perfect for bringing out the details in my old mirror. I found a gold leaf kit on Amazon, and it came with everything I would need for my project.

That's me in the stripes!!


First, I sanded and cleaned off the mirror. Next, since the frame was made out of a porous material (wood), I put a coat of a clear acrylic paint medium I had on hand. This can be purchased at an art supply store. You need to make sure that your material that you are putting the gold leaf on is sealed up if it's porous. After, that dried I put a coat of the gilding sizing that came in my kit on the spots I wanted to be gold. I applied a thin layer and let it sit for about an hour. You want the sizing to feel tacky to your touch. When it reaches this state you're ready to apply your gold leaf. The gold leaf comes in sheets, and I found it was best to do this quickly. I then took the little brush that came with the kit and brushed down the gold leaf and brushed away the excess gold leaf bits. Save your gold leaf bits! They might come in handy later to fill in a spot or two that you've missed! After I covered my surface that I wanted to gold leaf, I took the cotton cloth from my kit and rubbed it over the gold leaf until it was smooth and shiny. I left it to sit over night and the next day I put another coat of my clear acrylic on to protect the gold leaf. The rest of the mirror I painted with some leftover white house paint and also covered with a coat of the clear acrylic for a glossy finish.

Before

This delightful video is great for demonstrating the process. They also give great ideas of things to gold leaf!

You can even buy edible gold leaf for food!

What to gold leaf next???

xoxo,

Julia




Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Link Love & Travel Adventures in Nashville

Hello friends,

It's been awhile since I posted last! My apologies! I'm making up for it by combining two posts in one! I thought I'd share with you my weekend travel adventures! This past weekend I headed to Nashville, Tennessee for a girl's weekend with two of my friends. I've only been to Nashville a couple of times for day shopping trips, but I've never spent time exploring the city. This trip to Nashville was definitely about the food. We collectively decided to eat our way through the city. We arrived to Nashville late Friday evening and ended up in the 5 Points neighborhood for some deliciously doughy garlic knots and a fresh mozzarella pizza at Five Points Pizza. 

Saturday morning we headed to Fido  in the Hillsboro Village for breakfast and right away I realized this was a popular spot for breakfast. The long line that wrapped around the counter moved surprisingly fast, and it was well worth the wait! I had an iced Local Latte and the Village Scramble, which consisted of scrambled eggs, spinach, tomatoes, portobello, onions, feta, salsa, sour cream, and served up with some tiny tortillas and hash browns! (Nom! Getting hungry??) After our breakfast we walked around the neighborhood and found ourselves in a little shop called Pangaea. The store is filled with jewelry, clothing, quirky gifts, and I really felt like I could have easily spent hours in there looking at everything!

In the afternoon we headed to Centennial Park to see Nashville's Parthenon which is a full-scale replica of the original in Athens, Greece. Although, I have visited the original in Athens, this was still pretty impressive. I was really impressed by the 42-foot statue of the goddess Athena that is housed in the Parthenon. The Parthenon also features some casts of the sculptures from the original Parthenon that are housed in the British Museum in London.



After our tour of the Parthenon we decided to check out the food trucks that were parked in Centennial Park. I love a good food truck and as luck would have it this was the last Saturday this summer for the food trucks. I was really excited to find a lovely mint green truck parked there selling Jenis Splendid Ice Cream. I've always wanted to try Jenis  because of their unexpected flavor combinations. I paired a scoop of Salty Carmel with possibly the best dark chocolate ice cream I've ever had. It was rich, creamy, and delicious. I even stole a bite of my friend's Wildberry Lavender, not your typical ice cream flavor which I loved! We also had to try Retro Sno for some shaved ice. I had the Vanilla with Toasted Coconut! So refreshing!



To get a feel of the country boot wearing side of Nashville we headed downtown Saturday to visit some honky tonk bars. Downtown was bustling and full of bars with live country bands and a sea of plaid shirts and cowboy boots. We were told by a local to spend some time in Roberts Western World, where you can get a cold PBR, a fried bologna sandwich, and a Moon Pie. The bar defiantly had a lot of character!

Well, that was my little taste of Nashville. I'm sure there are lots more great places to discover! I would love to hear your feed back! Where is your favorite spot in Nashville?

Now for some Link Love!

The July issue of Matchbook Mag is live!

Need an idea of something to bake for 4th of July? This Blueberry Slab Pie sounds heavenly!

I'd love to splurge on an ONA bag for my camera.

Beautiful beach paintings by Teil Duncan.

Hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July tomorrow!!

xoxo,

Julia