One day in late summer I was reading an email from my towns’ listserv. I had to read it a couple time to make sure I had it right. It said something along the lines that a family was moving and had some things on the curb. One of these items included a mirror from Ballard Designs. I checked the website to make sure I wasn’t daydreaming when I read which mirror was sitting outside, still in the box it had come in. They were giving away the Audrey mirror for FREE. Brand new, still in its original packaging.

I pulled my jaw off the floor and told everyone to get in the car. I might not have said it that nicely. I have been drooling over that mirror for about five years. I have been looking for lookalikes at Home Goods and everywhere else with no luck. Eighty nine dollars is too much for me to spend on a mirror, not matter how gorgeous it is. So I drooled on my own every time that catalog came in. And then I got the email.