Apparently he pulled up All Mimsy at work Monday to show a coworker his design and was disappointed to see my burlap bulletin board post instead. On a scale of 1 to 10, two firefighters' interest in a burlap bulletin board would definitely fall way below zero.
And the next day, which was yesterday, our beloved dog Cruise was hit by a car and killed. Certainly not a day for writing about home decor. And Greg certainly understood that.
Sorry, honey. The good news is that today you are my feature guy. ( I like the sound of that, don't you? "Feature Guy.")
So without further ado...
I bought this starburst mirror at Burlington Coat Factory while on a girls-only trip to Anchorage in March of 2011.
I didn't buy the mirror when I first saw it, although I loved it. As we shopped around the rest of the day, I kept thinking about it (which is usually a good indicator to me that it wasn't just impulse but rather something I shouldn't pass up, especially since our local shopping is extremely limited.) By that evening my mom had convinced me to call Burlington and ask them to hold it for me.
Which I did. And promptly learned someone else had already claimed the only one in the store.
Ugh.
But there was one catch: The "claimer" asked Burlington to hold the mirror until noon the next day. The sales person told me over the phone that if the mirror was still there just after noon the next day, I could have it.
Well, you already know the rest of the story because there is now a picture of this mirror on All Mimsy. The edges and circle in the middle were originally a dull silver color which I quickly painted gold because I like it better that way.
But anyway, on with our story. So I quickly discovered the best place in our home to hang this mirror was above the armoire between our dining/living area, as you see here:
However, there was a small, rectangular, three dimensional black problem: a very unfortunately placed speaker. How on earth were we going to hang the heavy mirror (which has a sticker on the back which reads, "To be hung by professional installer only") above the armoire with the speaker in the way?
After measuring and asking me a few key questions late Sunday night, Mr. Wonderful disappeared into his shop while I finished lesson & meal planning for the week. Under an hour later, I heard his steps on our stairs, came out to the living area, and lo & behold, here was this:
What on earth? And then all of a sudden I understood: He had designed and welded a metal stand to hang the mirror!
It even had a cute little welded "button" up top that perfectly fit the hole on the back of the mirror.
Genius, really.
I was so impressed I kept dancing around, greatly hindering his ability to actually get the mirror on the stand and check his work. I did maintain enough sense to snap a few pictures of him testing out his new design just prior to the final placement:
What I really love about this guy is his ability to think in ways my mind does not think. At times when I'm traditional, he's experimental. When I tend to move forward in a linear manner, he's all over the map.
And over the years, it has often driven me crazy. BUT, ~ and here's the catch ~
He's exactly the type of person God knew beforehand (Eph. 2:10) that I needed to complete me.
And of course, the stand was the perfect height:
Greg did end up placing some sticky tape under a couple corners of the legs to make the stand more stable, and he also used adhesive velcro to secure the mirror to the stand. Both of these steps helped make the stand more stable.
You can still catch a glimpse of the little black speaker if you stand just so ~
But I'm okay with that. What I love is that the mirror looks like it's hovering above the armoire, and from the front, it looks amazingly artistic. Which is pretty cool.
Almost as cool as having an inhouse welder.
On a side note, one thing I noticed when I was taking these pictures is that I need to work on cozying up this area of our home. A runner on the table, pillows on the chairs flanking the armoire.....something. That's one thing about photos; it's a great way to step back from a space and see with a more objective perspective.
Blessings on your day,
Jaimee
Can I inherit that mirror from you some day?
ReplyDeletePS - great work, Greg!
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