A friend of mine, who had a booth in Heidi’s shop, died last year. Reyna was a lovely person, with a gravelly voice and a big heart. She was always very kind to me. She had a great eye, especially for vintage books. I miss you, Reyna.

Heidi gave me a few things from Reyna’s space. One of them was this little display shelf.

I am drawn to charming shelves and cubbies and all things that display tiny treasures. This one is a smallish box with a mirror backing. I know there is an actual name for this kind of thing but can’t for the life of me remember it. Anyone?

Back to my story: it has been sitting in the bedroom gathering dust for a few months. My desk project inspired me to bring this little gem downstairs and re-imagine it.

Here it is. I painted it with my favorite Benjamin Moore paint; the name of the color escapes me at the moment. It’s everywhere here in the cottage: on the island, on the kitchen table and now on this little shelf. The mirror was nice but not what I wanted, so I used some scrapbook paper I had on hand to cover it. (In fact, I spent no money at all on this. 2012: the year of being especially frugal.)