Corkboard Repurpose

Let me start this post by saying we had one great weekend, completely full of blessings, as all of them are. I have seen countless friends posting for the "30 Days of Thankfulness" on FB, but I'm not participating in that. One reason, because I want to be thankful every day- not just for 30 days. Second, I don't want to have to log on to FB every day for 30 days...the main reason being that I want to enjoy the intangible things I'm thankful for instead! Things that money can't buy, like spending time with my husband & family. So, instead, I'm just going to tell you a few things that I am incredibly thankful for right now, and continue to thank God for every day of my life.

Focusing on just the blessings from this past weekend, besides the obvious, of course:

- My Mom & I went to visit a couple of assisted living facilities with my grandmother on Saturday. This situation has been an on-going struggle within my family, especially for my mom, for a while now. My grandmother has recently realized that this is the best option for her right now, and that we are helping her with this with only her best interest in mind. She is now genuinely looking forward to it. Now comes the process of moving furniture, getting clothes ready, etc. But, we are excited about having her in a place where she has friends, round-the-clock care, and somewhere where she will be truly happy & safe.

- Alabama lost, and I'm ok with it. This is not a blessing in itself by any means, but it was good to know that we can lose & deal with it. I had always thought that our first loss after Dad passed away would be really emotional for me, but it was fine. Hopefully, the loss will only make our team stronger...and pumped up for a rematch that will hopefully come later. Roll Tide! :)

- I realize all the friends I have, and they are such a blessing to me. I had mentioned in an earlier post that my friend Sheena is getting married, and she has asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. I'm so honored & excited!!

- Christmas is coming soon! I enjoyed rehearsing with our sweet kids at church this Sunday for our upcoming Christmas play. I also got my craftiness on over the weekend & started some fun Christmas projects...I just couldn't wait any longer!! I'll post a sneak-peek for ya' at the end of this post.

So, here's my project post for this week, as I promised, um, two weeks ago. Anyway, here it is now! I have been missing these! I am never more happy than when I'm getting something accomplished, and lately, I haven't felt like I've done much at all. That was until this weekend, when I just got in the mood.

I actually had a couple of hours to myself at home over one weekend, and was able to start & finish this project! It's very unusual these days that I can both begin & complete a project all in one day, no matter what it is, it seems. This one was rather simple, though, and I already had the materials I needed.

We'll start with the Before. This was a corkboard that I had in my bedroom at Mom & Dad's. I can even remember the day I got this. I was giving my bedroom a facelift at the time. I used to love getting to redecorate my room- new comforter set, new things on the walls, etc. We were walking around Sam's Wholesale (gotta' love it), and I found this in the office supply section. I thought it would go well with my chalkboard in my little "classroom" set up I had in my room. My go-to activity was always
pretending to be a teacher.



This thing has been put through the ringer. I thought this was neat though... It had a place where ink had bled through. You can read the name, Anna, my best friend, and it says

 "Sophomore Secretary". Wow, that was a while back.

Hope you're reading this, Anna. :)

I took everything off of it. I knew what I wanted to transform it into- a jewelry organizer! My husband laughs at me-

I have a nice, standing jewelry armoire & the little jewelry tray

I repurposed here...

 ...that I love so much. But, I still seem to keep piling up my jewelry & accessories on our dresser. I always want to have my favorite stuff on display, so that I'll pick it out to wear in the mornings. I obviously have too many favorites, right? :)

Anyway, I knew what I wanted to do with the thumb tacks. I couldn't believe I had so many still attached to this thing

after all these years.

I grabbed up my Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB) spray paint, and took them outside. I have only used this paint color one time before this, and it didn't turn out pretty. (I may post on that later on). I really like the color, but it's a little dark to use on some things. I simply stuck them in a piece of paper so they would be

right-side-up, and sprayed away.

While keeping the thumb tacks outside to dry, I got started on the corkboard. Now, I already had an old fitted sheet that I knew I wanted to use to cover the board. You could use any pretty fabric you want. I really would rather have had a fabric with more color and/or a design, but this was on-hand, and not being used, so I went for that. (Long story on why the fitted sheet was not being used, so to sum it all up- it is labeled as "King," but when we were fitting it to our mattress, it was way too small, and it ripped.

So much for that.)

I laid the sheet out, and knew right off the bat that I would need 2 layers to fully hide the ugly corkboard underneath. The poor little thing still had sticker caked on & everything. Ah, sweet memories.

I cut uneven, jagged lines (who would see it?), and then realized I would have to do something I loathe...IRON! Eww! But, it was worth it. It made the process easier too, so I shouldn't complain.

After lining it all up, I grabbed my trusty hot glue gun (I love this thing!), and got to work. It wasn't difficult at all, I just made sure to pull it taut on all sides before gluing down. I neatly folded each corner down, and they turned out beautifully (suprisingly).

I then went outside & got my dry thumb tacks. I got all the jewelry that I knew I would want displayed on this thing, and prearranged it as neatly as I could.

I wanted to add a little more to it, something cute & functional, before I added my jewels. I knew that I would want this a place to put my pins (they are difficult to display in my jewelry armoire), so I thought this up. I had this cute leopard print ribbon that I had used in a project once before. It was not being used, so I cut 4 strips all the same size, matched them up on each corner of the board, and hot glued them down in the back. Ta-da!

After placing all my jewelry & pins on the board, it was done. (Then comes the few days in the middle where Zach had to find the charger for his drill, let it charge, then wait a few more days- he has been incredibly busy this week, praise the Lord- and then we were ready to install the screws. The drill didn't work the second time, so we gave up). I am planning on hanging this up (when we score a new drill) on the back of our closet door, but until then, here it is ready to be hung up...

The back of our closet door was the perfect place for this! We always have it closed, so no one will ever see it. I'm so excited to put this to use, and (hopefully) de-clutter our dresser in the process. Yay for organizing in style!

So, long wait for this post to be completed, but I love it now that it's done.

And now for my sneak peek...

(This is our Disney Christmas tree in our master bedroom, but it's not done yet. I just couldn't wait to post a quick picture. And yes, I realize it's just early November!) :)