My New Music Adventure

This year my husband and I made it a new year’s resolution to do something fun and crazy. Both him and I play musical instruments but had never played for a public. We don’t have kids or pets to take care of and so we find ourselves having lots of free time. One of the fun parts of this adventure is turning my mom’s old room into a music room. We call it that because we want it there to be mirrors, a crystal lamp and glass shelves to hold the equipment and other glass stuff. We want to do something to enhance the lighting in the room and have the mirrors so that we can see ourselves when we play the music. A happy and well-lit room gives us more inspiration.

We have been rehearsing for two months now but our real adventure will really begin next week. I will be
playing the guitar and my husband will be playing the bass at a nearby café on Wednesdays. Luckily we both have decent voices to sing in public. The café we are playing at is very cool because every Wednesday is open mic night and anybody can come up on stage and do a little show. You can recite a poem, sing acapella, play some acoustic music, or throw a short comedy jam.  Open mic nights are fun; you all need to come to one some time or another. 

I’m very happy with what our room has turned into. In addition to the glass, we painted the room all white to make it even brighter. I had some custom glass shelves done and bought some cool stuff to give it a musical theme. I particularly like the red glass I bought that make up the word “music”.

The Mystic Cottage

My mother has a ranch outside of the city which I often go to when I want to get away from my daily routine. The ranch is quite big with a small 4-wall cottage about 100 meters from the main house. This cottage is my favorite, and it’s the one I stay in whenever I come home to visit. I wanted to fix it up a bit to make the atmosphere feel more happy and peaceful. I thought putting in more color would do it but I didn’t just want to paint the wall. The roof actually had a glass window which was water-stained and looked more white than crystal clear. I thought “what if I replaced it for some colorful stained glass?”

It was a genius idea. I didn’t want any design that was already too common. I began thinking, “what kind of

art has affinity with the types of activity I like to do in the room?” I always do relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation in the room, and it is also where I like to practice being in silence but content within. That’s it! Something mystic looking would really give the place a more peaceful looking feel. Yogis and other spirituality practitioners tend to think that geometric shapes and the colors of the rainbow have an energetic effect on an individual. So I drew a sketch of spiral-like shapes with my favorite colors; blue, purple, green, orange and yellow. Once I gave it to experts, they created a masterpiece of stained glass (see picture below).

In addition to the stained glass, I also removed most of the furniture to provide more space to do the relaxation exercise. I bought a futon instead so that when no one is staying in the cottage it can be used as a space where guests can hang out and have a cup of tea. But most of time, I am the only one who uses the cottage. I feel like a kid again when I have a space where that is big and I can run around without shoes in it.

Beveled Glass Mirror

Are you bored with the interior design of your house, but don’t have much money for redecorating? Just adding a fresh coat of paint and new wall hangings can go a long way in reviving a room. For example, consider putting in a few mirrors as decoration. Beveled mirrors, in particular, are unique and striking additions to your hallway, bedroom, living room or bathroom.

You may not recognize the technical term, but I’m sure you’ve seen this type of mirror before. A beveled mirror is one whose edges are cut at a slant, creating a framed look between a quarter of an inch and two inches thick. This detail causes the light to refract differently off the mirror, forming a prism effect. All types of mirrors make your rooms seem more open and airy, but only a beveled mirror brings all the colors of the rainbow into your home and appears differently depending on the angle from which you are viewing it.

Beveled mirrors come in square, rectangular, oval or any other custom shape. Before deciding on the form or size of the mirror you are going to buy, evaluate your space, style and the image you are trying to project. A large piece or several small ones artfully arranged (such as in this image) can work beautifully. The mirrors can be framed or not, and hung directly on the wall or mounted. Shop around online or stop by a glass store to see which standard or custom-made option fits your needs.

The clean and elegant style of beveled mirrors really revitalizes an otherwise dull room, whether it is in a residential or commercial space. These mirrors can open up a small, cramped doctor’s waiting room, provide a touch of class to an office conference room, and make customers look their best when trying on clothes in a fitting room.