The Clock that nearly killed me

Ever had a bright idea that you were so certain would look fabulous that you spend way too long on it?

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the clock that almost killed me.

The Before

The After

This clock was not a bad clock.  Sure, she was no show stopper.  Men wouldn't turn their heads in the street to watch her strut along, but she sufficed, she possessed somewhat of a personality, ok at the very least she had a pulse.  

But after Mr. Chuckles (the other half) decided to paint her plain blue with Roman numerals I decided it was time to take charge and jazz her up good and proper.  I decided to cover her in broken bits of mirror.  Yep, you read correctly. Sparkle sparkle.

Materials needed:  hot glue gun, six dollar-store mirrors, hammer, dedication, more dedication, bandaids.

Ok, so what I did was take one dollar store mirror at a time, put it in a box and cover it with newspaper to prevent shards of glass from flying around the garage, and then repeatedly smashed it with a hammer to break it into smaller shards .   Yes, it sounds easy enough doesn't it?   WRONG.  While the drab blue clock was slowly marking time, and broken bits of mirror persistently took flight, I knelt with my hammer and marvelled at just how long it could take to smash a mirror into pieces. 

Perhaps I should have just hurled the thing against the wall, vacuumed up the pieces, broke the bag open, and voila! At one point Mr. Chuckles Senior dropped in to visit and looked at me like I was insane.  I sheepishly hid my bandaided fingers behind my back and assured him it was a perfectly safe project.

I painted the entire clock black prior to beginning to add the sparkly bits of broken glass.  I thought it would look better to have black poking through the mirror bits instead of light blue.

Sadly, downhill was the direction of the project.  I severley underestimated how long it takes a pair of hands and a glue-gun to fasten tiny morsels of glass to a round clock.  I had to space this project out over several nights due to achy shoulders from hunching over my work bench.  

All up it took bout 12 hours to complete this mirror.  And the saddest part?  No, not the abuse my hands took from cuts, or even the third degree burns, its that I don't even like the finished product that much.  Not only did it take the better part of my life to complete, but I can't help but give it dirty looks when I pass it by.  Because oh yes, I hung the dang thing! I spent 12 hours on it, afterall!

And here is the final picture of the transformation.  Warning, you may need sunglasses - she's glittery.