The Van Gelder Family: When Projects Go Awry

The best laid plans of mice and men...

For just about every successful project I have done, I have had about half as many fall flat on their faces!

Last week I worked on two projects...One a better success than I anticipated....One a HUGE flop!

The good news is, we often learn from our mistakes AND our successes.

Project: I wanted to make a strand of yarn balls for the baby's room. Seemed easy enough...until I had spent 2 hours in the garage sitting on the ground dipping yarn in a glue mix and having them slide off the balloon while the balloons deflated in the heat. What a waste of Emrie's nap!

Solution: Hobby Lobby had these lantern lights for $14. The time and headache saved was worth it and the bonus is that they serve as a nightlight too.

Lesson learned from this project: Every once in a while it is WAY better to just buy what you want. The headache and time wasted just isn't worth it!

Project: There was some water damage in our half bathroom on the mirror. The problem was that the mirror was so well glued to the wall that to take it off would require wrecking the wall which would require new dry wall {not worth it}. I went to see if I could get a custom frame made to glue to the mirror {the other issue was that the mirror went right to the sink so a frame would have to fit on the mirror, not around it}. WITH my 60% off coupon a 2x4 foot custom frame was going to cost $170!!! Not to mention, it wasn't going to fit because a true frame needs to go around the mirror, not on it.

Solution: I bought 2 pieces of baseboard from Lowe's, cut them on 45 degree angles {which was a HUGE task in itself since I haven't had a protractor since 5th grade and I only own a hand saw}, glued the pieces together with "Tough as Nails" to make a frame. Sanded and painted the frame white and sealed it with polyurethane. Then glued it to the mirror with "Tough as Nails". Not only did it fit PERFECTLY, but it looked WAY better, was way easier {especially if you have the right tools, but I didn't} and WAY cheaper at about $30. The best part of all...it was a surprise for Phil since he had been mentioning that he wanted it done, but didn't know I was doing it. He was SO pleased with it that I want to do it to all the bathroom mirrors just to get his reaction again:)

In case you were wondering, here is how I solved the no protractor 45 degree angle issue. I cut the lid off a kiwi container, used my sewing tool, I cut a perfect 90 degree angle and then used the tool again to measure 45 degrees. Now I could use my kiwi container as a template. {You could also just use the corner of a piece of paper that is folded in half diagonally}.