Have you ever wondered if the stuff people post on Pinterest is true? Well I have, and I test them all so that you don’t have to, ’cause ain’t nobody got time for that.  Click here to check out all of the pins I haven taken on. You might be surprised by some of the results!

We needed to test this pin for practical reasons, because we wanted to cut the huge mirror in the bathroom that we took down. I had originally intended to reuse the mirror by making a pretty frame for it. However, I mentioned that the buffet I bought on Craigslist that will become the vanity in the master-ish bathroom came with a very large hutch, which I love but don’t know what to do with. Since it has been sitting in our living room, staring at me and taunting me, I have spent too much time staring back and contemplating. Then one day it hit me: remove the glass in the door, replace it with mirror, and just use it as the mirror with hidden storage (ok, not very hidden, pretty obvious, but not open shelf obvious). Boom! Who has two thumbs and a giant mirror she can do anything she wants with?? You guessed it.

After spending a large portion of today in the driveway stripping the buffet down to bare wood (stripping is exhausting!), we got busy cutting mirrors (because strippers need mirrors, obviously). I purchased this necessary instrument at Home Depot:

I know my Home Depot pretty well, and I could tell you generally what is on each aisle. I figured such an obscure tool would be hard to find, though, and I was right. It was located in the tool department, with a bunch of other small miscellaneous tools, and anyone under 4 feet tall would have to be crawling down the aisle to find it. Thank goodness Doug was there to guide me.

We moved Jim (the coffee table) out of the way, and laid towels down on the big rug.

Then we brought the mirror in and laid it down.

We used the piece of glass we had removed from door to trace out our size with a permanent marker, and then we got to scoring.

We did make sure to lube the glass cutting tool with some lubricant I bought a few months ago, with delusions of improving the sliding capabilities of our impossible to move “sliding” glass doors (and which I had been procrastinating on ever since, but finally tackled! Yay me!).

That is the tiny little wheel I greased. A long piece of wood worked double duty as a scoring guide, and then we slid it underneath to snap the mirror.

The mirror did not quite break along the line as intended. It broke off at a curve on one end.

Instead of using the side of the mirror with the curved cut, we put the glass template on the other side, where the line was pretty straight, and used that side. On the second cut, we scored it a little better, and the cut was much cleaner.

It worked surprisingly well! What was more surprising was the fact that once cut, we discovered that this mirror is too thick to be used in place of the glass. We are searching around for prices on having a glass shop cut us a thinner mirror to size, so hopefully we can still follow through with our plan. As far as this glass cutting pin, though, it is totally legit (unlike the cutting wine bottles with fire one!). Happy glass and/or mirror cutting!

Have you ever wondered if the stuff people post on Pinterest is true? Well I have, and I test them all so that you don’t have to, ’cause ain’t nobody got time for that.  Click here to check out all of the pins I haven taken on. You might be surprised by some of the results!

This pin claims that you can use a permanent marker on ceramic dishes to write, draw, etc., and then bake the item to make the marker permanent(er). In the spirit of DIY Christmas, I definitely wanted to try this one out, because it would make unique personalized gifts. For a test, I bought a mug at the Dollar Store, and wanted to make something cute for The Boy. I have mentioned that we kind of have our own language. [WARNING: mushiness ahead!] It isn’t a secret language I spoke with my imaginary friend or anything weird like that, but certain phrases and words that would make strangers think we are “special” (and our friends, probably), but that only we get the meaning to.  Some we have actually forgotten the origin of, which makes me realize how long we have been loving each other. I chose “MDT” because it is our own way of saying “I love you” to each other, and we text it often. [End of mushiness]

Since I am no calligrapher, I pulled up a font that I liked, then made it ginormous on my screen, and tried to freehand replicate it, with some minor adjustments.

My version on the mug:

The Boy got home, I showed it to him, and he said, “Oh cool. Who is MDJ?” [Death of mushiness]

I baked it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  The marker looked the same as when it went in, and I gave the mug to The Boy with instructions to use it, which he has several times. We very rarely use our dishwasher, so we have only been hand washing the mug, and although I do not scrub it vigorously on the outside, I haven’t treated with any extra care or anything.

After about five washes, you can see a few spots where the marker is coming off.

It isn’t terrible, but this is with only a few hand washings. I can’t imagine it would fare well in a dishwasher. We will keep using and washing it, and I will throw it in the dishwasher next time we use it (Thanksgiving? ha), but it is pretty apparent to me that this pin is busted.

Sidenote: the author says this is “safe” but if tiny pieces of permanent marker are flaking off with hand washing, I cannot imagine putting hot food on a platter or plate with this marker on it. In fact, I don’t even want to try it.

Happy Friday!

UPDATE!  Two months later, and the mug is looking like this:

Sorry kids, this Pin is busted(er)!