well hello there...again...

i am the first to admit that i'm not the best with follow-through, and i believe that is what makes me a good event planner. i love to envision things, create ideas, make them, and then pass them off to someone else. this does, however, make me very afraid that i'm going to be an awful mom! that being said, my new years resolution is to follow through with something i started in 2009, and that, my friends, is going to be this here little bloggity-blog. that means blogging once a week. (say a prayer now!)

so, although i said "check back next week" for an update on my craft project, what i should have said was "check back next year" because i knew i'd get it done at some point, but i had no idea it would take me three months!

in addition to following through, i am not good at estimating times for projects! this one took me a good five hours, and that's not including the hour spent roaming around joann's deciding on a color scheme, then changing my mind entirely. i started with pink and black but realized that my furniture is all black and my bedding is green, so why not compliment that? (this also leads me to maybe possibly re-finishing my desk which is currently a natural wood color. we shall see about that).

before

 

um. holy hot mess, batman. 

the two focus areas for this project were the message board on the right, and the top shelf.

the only project that got completed was the message board. like i said, time management? i'm no good at that.

 

sidebar: how did santa know how much i love penguins?!?

supplies:

hot glue gun and about six glue sticks (depending on how much glue you use. i use a lot!)

individual cork pieces (for this built-in type cork board, if you're doing a regular board, get the pre-framed one)

2 yards of fabric (WAY too much, so i might make a pillow...)

batting (again, bought way too much, but i knew i wanted it super cushion-y and doubled it up, still have enough to make a dog bed...)

grossgrain ribbon (my favorite!)

super cute flair for the criss-cross part (the ones i used were actually in the jewelery making section)

(i love parenthesis apparently tonight)

 

other supplies:

sustenance (in the form of pad thai)

 

well thanks sura, you took me quite literally when i said "lime on the side"

i used a cardboard box (leftover from christmas gifting) to make the back of the board a bit stronger, and have a base to build upon. after that i hot glued the now cut pieces to the backing

 

for all you multi-tasking people, i labeled the pieces so as to not get confused while still keeping up with the kardashians.

i then flipped it over,and proceeded to cover with batting

 

no lily this is not the bed i'm making you. patience! 

(see prior post about difficulty crafting with 3 pounds of lovable puppy)

then covered in fabric

  

the space waiting for its new cover

about this time my blackberry started ringing, and an old friend needed dating advice, so unfortunately i forgot to snap pictures while i tried to figure out how to stretch the one spool of ribbon i had (the thought of going back to joann's was exhausting, so like tim gunn, i decided to make it work).

after the ribbons were on it was time to install. mental note: hot glue is not like duct tape, and does not fix everything. onto plan b. i knew i wanted a tufted look, but was having a hard time making that work before...i thought well, i'll just hammer every criss-cross into the back! perfect, and solves two problems at once (the inability to tuft because i don't have a thick needle and the whole connection problem) so i got out my trusty toolbox (thanks dad!) and got to hammering.

 

(in case you've never seen a hammer or nails)

 things to note:

all those little silver dots are nails that i handily hammered in myself, only hitting myself once

yes they are a little crooked. as i said, i was on the phone, and i knew that perfect lines were not a requirement of this project, so i did not sweat it. 

then for the fun! adding the gems, and putting on my stuff!

  

pretty gems!

 

everything put back together.

so you might be thinking-what's the big deal? the big deal is that this board is fluffy. this board will not fall down from my desk. this board is sturdy and will hold my massive amount of cards, receipts, photo booth pictures, and other assorted fun things. so yes, it was five hours very, very well spent.

check back and maybe i will have taken five more hours to organize every other cubby and space in my desk, and hopefully i'll remember to take pictures to prove it!