This shop, Make Your Furniture A Reflection Of You, has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PledgeReflectionOfYou #CollectiveBias

Make Your Furniture A Reflection Of You

Memories, Sentiment, and a Hutch

I am sure you all have something that reminds you of a special time, a special place, or a special someone. Whether it is a trinket, something handed down through the generations, or maybe even a piece of furniture, these items are a reflection of you.

When I was a kid, I loved our trips to my grandparents’ farm in Mississippi. It was so different from Southern California. Everything enthralled me, from the airplane ride to the long drive from Jackson to Carthage. We traveled through the beautiful Natchez Trace, an Indian reservation, and dirt roads to get to the farm. I would always think of that old song, “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go…” (You sang those words in your head, didn’t you?) These sights and sounds were just the beginnings of a wonderful time of family, joy, and memory making.

My grandmother was a hard-working woman, and I liked following her around the farm helping with the chores. I’m not sure I helped all that much, but we had fun together just the same. When dinner time came around, grandma always asked us kids to set the table. Now, grandma was a woman of the Depression Era; she did not have a lot of fancy stuff, but what she had, she kept in a narrow hutch in her kitchen dining area. That was the one piece of furniture I wish I could have been blessed with, but my cousin was the lucky recipient.

Loving Reflection

One day, I found a hutch that was very similar and I fell in love. I had to have that piece of furniture, and I have cherished it ever since. Even though it is not my grandmother’s hutch, it reminds me of her and all the wonderful things we did and shared. Like my grandmother, I entrust the care of my prized hutch and the things I display on and in it to Pledge® Lemon Clean Furniture Spray. It keeps my hutch clean, while it conditions and protects the wood. The Allergens Trappers® remove dust and up to 90% of allergens found in dust. My hutch has a rustic rough-wood finish. This means that from time to time it needs a little extra care. The wood can dry out from sun and dry air easier than fully finished furniture.

How-to Clean Rustic Rough-Wood Furniture:

Use a soft paintbrush (dedicated to dusting) to brush away dust that gets trapped in the rough texture.
Do not spray furniture polish directly on the wood.
Use a liberal amount of Pledge® Lemon Clean Furniture Spray on a soft cloth.
Wipe the prepared cloth against the wood, massaging the spray into the wood.

This will leave a beautiful glow and a lemony fresh scent.
If your furniture is getting dry and needs a little extra T.L.C., use the Pledge® Extra Moisturizing Furniture Spray.
Remember to care for your furniture and your home on a regular basis.

The lemon fresh scent takes me right back to grandma’s kitchen, when I’d pull open the silverware drawer in her hutch. Grandma would even polish her laminate kitchen table to a brilliant shine after dinner with the Pledge® Lemon Clean Furniture Spray. Like Grandma, I keep silverware in the drawer of my hutch. I have confidence in serving my family and friends at gatherings and holiday celebrations from my hutch, and I love the sentimentality and treasured memories it brings.

Here’s a couple helpful hints:

In need of a quick clean? Grab the Pledge® Lemon Wipes. They are fantastic for touch-ups! And the Pledge® Multi Surface Everyday Cleaner with Glade® Rainshower® is a winner for stainless steel and chrome, and many other surfaces.

It is easy to pick up Pledge® products at your local Kroger family of stores. Rory and I snag our furniture polish, cleaner, and wipes from the cleaning aisle at Ralphs. Follow Pledge® on Facebook for more helpful hints and tips.

What pieces of furniture do you have that bring back special memories and reflections of you? Are you giving them the care they deserve with Pledge®? Celebrate the beauty of your home! #PledgeReflectionOfYou

Celebrate your home as a reflection of you with Pledge®. #PledgeReflectionOfYou #home #clean AD

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~Lorelai

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Haunted Mirror

A Hauntingly Spooktacular Halloween DIY

Today, I have something really fun for you. If you have hung around here for any time at all, you know that I love Halloween. So, when Jason at Dealspotr.com asked me to collaborate with him on a Halloween post for their website, I was thrilled.

Dealspotr.com is the best community for finding and sharing deals. I used the resources on the Dealspotr website, and armed myself with great coupons for purchasing the supplies I would need. You can read more about that here–they helped me get a lot of Fright for very little Bite!

Big Fright for little Bite! The Haunted Mirror – an easy #Halloween #DIY project. #HauntedMirror

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This DIY Halloween project is really very easy to create.

Here’s what you need:

1 Can – Krylon Looking Glass Silver Spray Paint
1 – 8″ x 10″ Picture Frame
1 – Image to fit an 8″ x 10″ Frame
Scotch Tape

How to Make the Haunted Mirror:

Choose your Image
Scan Image and create an Inverse Image
Print out two copies – 1 Original Image, and 1 Inverse Image
Take Glass out of picture frame. Clean Glass very well.
Tape the Inverse Image to the front or outside of the glass (image side facing the glass). This allows you to see exactly where your image will be once it is in the frame, and will help you during the spray painting.
Place glass image side down on your spraying surface. You can see the image through the glass.
Shake Krylon spray paint vigorously
Spray the entire glass with a fine mist of paint
Then add more paint in small spurts, especially to the areas around your image. You want there to be enough paint to create a mirror, but lighter paint on top of the image so that it shows through.
Let the paint dry for at least one hour
Remove the Inverse image from the front of the glass and clean glass carefully.
Place glass back into the frame–Glass side out, Painted side to the inside.
Load the Original Image into the frame

Time for some Tips:

Clean the glass, then wipe it down with alcohol. Any fingerprints or oils will interfere with the paint sticking properly.
Blushing: If you get blushing with your spray paint, don’t worry. The Krylon Looking Glass washes right off easily with a little soap and water. (What is Blushing? Blushing occurs when there is high humidity in the air. The moisture settles on the not cured paint and causes a milky whiteness or flat white look in the paint. This happened to me on my first attempt, because I did the spraying after the marine layer came in from the ocean–silly me.)
Tips for your Image:
- Areas not showing up well – I had a large white area on my image over about half the face. So, I used colored pencil to draw it in better.
- White is showing up to bright – Again, this was the case for me, so I sprayed a light coating of the Looking Glass spray paint directly onto my image to tone it down. This worked great, and also gave the image another dimension.
- Be sure that you have enough paint around your image to make the glass really look like a mirror. That way your image will appear to be coming through the mirror–a very spooky effect. (You can clearly see the apple in the reflection.)
So, just play around with it, until you reach your desired effect.

Being that this project is making a mirror, it is difficult to photograph (at least for me any way). But I think I managed to get some pretty cool shots of the Haunted Mirror–take a look…

Notice the reflections in the mirror…

The reflection here is a hutch. It almost looks like the lady is pushing her way through the wood.

Look at her reaching for that apple–Who is the fairest of them all…

Imagine catching that face out of the corner of your eye…spine chilling.

I hope you have enjoyed our little Haunted Mirror Halloween DIY project. There was a lot of fun had while making it for you. Have a Hauntingly Spooktacular Halloween!

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Coming Up:

Jason from Dealspotr.com is writing a post that will publish here on Tuesday:
5 Up-cycling Ideas For Kids Room Decorations
Be sure to come by and check them out!

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How do you like to decorate for Halloween?

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Do you have any Halloween DIY projects planned?

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