Getting rid of UFOs

My house is besieged by UFOs. Not the shiny flying kind that divulge skinny little men with bulbous heads, but the Unfinished Object variety. It seems that everywhere I look I see half-finished craft, decorating, cleaning or organizing projects. I get excited and start projects, but inevitably something happens and midway through I lose my motivation or run into some other sort of technical snag that causes my momentum to grind to a screeching halt.

Take my curtains, for example. I've been dealing with (or rather, ignoring) that disaster since last year at about this time, when the original wood blinds gave up the ghost. Currently, I have curtains and a curtain rod but the rod is hung incorrectly and has been that way for months. I purchased the curtain rod for another window but it's still leaning up against the wall in the corner of the room, where it has been for quite some time. I'm finally to the point that I'm willing to pay a handyman to come take care of that mess for me.

Another such abandoned project was a gorgeous old mirror I bought last year at a thrift store for $10. The backing (a piece of old cardboard) that held everything in was falling off and needed to be replaced--an easy fix. I had planned to use mat board so I checked at the framing department of both JoAnn's and Michael's, but each time I asked the cost of a sheet of mat board I was quoted a completely ridiculous price--upwards of $25! I couldn't stand paying that much money for glorified cardboard, so I just waited and figured I'd find a cheaper option.

That was about a year ago, and the 'cheaper option' has remained elusive, so my beautiful mirror has stood collecting dust in the corner. On Sunday night I finally got fed up with these stupid UFOs and decided that no matter the cost, the next day I was finishing that mirror! Monday I went again to the framing department at Michael's, and when I explained my dilemma the very nice employee sold me the perfect piece of mat board for a whopping $3.50! At home, it took me 45 minutes to remove the old tacks, cut the new board and secure it using the old tacks. Here's my new OLD mirror (and it is old; the back was dated 1938!):


I am in love with it, and I can't believe that it was so easy to fix! All this time I could have been enjoying it, if I had just been a little more motivated to find a solution. That gave me the impetus to get working on a few other UFOs, and there are still plenty more where those came from! Hopefully I'll have more UFOs turned FOs to share with you soon!