Thursday, May 5, 2011

Kitchen Memo Board

As a shape, I think the oval kind of gets a raw deal. Triangles and squares and rectangles - now those shapes have power and strength. And circles - they've got movement on their side. But an oval! So sad. You put it upright and it will roll over on its side and stay there. Helpless. Which might be why, when my husband brought home an oval-shaped medicine cabinet from the sale table at Lowe's, I was all, "meh." 

But anything is better than keeping your toothbrushes in a cup in the cabinet underneath the sink in a poorly designed master bathroom in Iowa. Right? But seriously! Who does that? Who designs a bathroom without a proper toothbrush storage area? Probably someone with an oval-shaped brain.

Anyway! When we were packing up to move, the mirror dropped out of the oval medicine cabinet and shattered. So we tossed the medicine cabinet part of it and kept the frame:


The frame itself is kind of pretty. Which makes up for some its general ovalness.


And it still had the mirror backing, so I came up with a plan. 


Look at me, trying to be the boss of my project. This is when I was feeling all cocky:


I glued on some cork board which isn't even thick enough to properly hold pushpins. Is that not the sole purpose of cork board? Why can't I find cork board that wants to fulfill its destiny? It's ridiculous.


And my sweet husband, James, spray painted the frame white for me. 


I could have left it like that, but where's the challenge? 

So I hot glued on some pretty blue fabric:


The blue is pretty, right?


I could have left it like this. But as I said before, I bought the cork board just to waste my money since the cork is too darn skinny to properly hold up its end of the pushpin deal. 


So I came up with a better plan! My Oval would have a meal planning section and a crisscross-ribbon-to-stick-stuff-in section. I would hang it in my kitchen and it would be AWESOME. 

Remember before, how I was all cocky with the tacky glue? That whole three or four minutes of "Take that! I'm totally the boss of this Oval!"?

Well. My Better Plan is when my downfall began. The fabric has a pattern which may or may not be diagonal or horizontal or vertical. I can no longer tell. When I was hot gluing it on, I thought I was laying it out straight, but maybe I wasn't paying attention, or didn't care, or maybe I was drinking wine. It's all a confusing crafting blur. But now that it's attached, the pattern is kind of diagonal. 

Combine that with the fact that if I try to stand The Oval upright, it will roll over on its sad little side. How can I possibly make the yellow ribbon that is the divider for my meal planning section look level in this situation? One second it looks level, and the next second it looks completely slanted. And, yes! I even used an actual level! In the end, I crossed my fingers, hoped for the best, and glued with abandon. And it worked (I think)! Suck it Oval!

I got these cute little wooden alphabet letters to represent the days of the week and I tied them onto some twine. It was going along nicely.


But then I did the crisscross ribbon section. I laid out the ribbons and then adjusted them to make the diamond shapes bigger. And then adjusted them again to make them smaller. And then again to make them who knows what. 

And then I had to walk away because The Oval was winning. There must be an easier way! Finally I came up with an acceptable grid. I measured out the individual ribbon areas with a piece of paper to make sure they were consistent. I imagine, if you were using a REAL shape (that's right - I said it) like a rectangle or square, you could just measure and mark and glue and then skip on down your flower and butterfly path of life. Stupid Oval.


Here's what the back looked like before I trimmed all the ribbon:


Back to the meal planning section!

This next step took some time to figure out. But only because I wasn't sure how I wanted to attach my meal planning papers. Wooden clothespins? Mini clothespins? Clothespins mod podged with fancy paper? Bull clips? I was driving myself crazy. I was worried the clip on / clip off process might cause some wear and tear on the fabric. And I knew the weekly meal planning display needed to be a simple task or this whole Oval battle would just be a waste of my time.


In the end I cut the tops off the 2" x 3" zip top bags that you can get at your local craft store. I glue-gunned them onto the blue and tan paper. Then I slid a coordinating piece of scrapbook paper into each one. That way you can't see the glue on the back of the bag. And it's pretty! 

I pre-cut a bunch of white cardstock. Each week, when I do my planning, I can write our meals on the papers and slide them in. Easy peasy mac n cheesy! I also made two bottom slots for extras like desserts or snacks I want to make. 


I tied little pieces of twine onto our initials and glue-gunned them on. This is my kids' favorite part of the board. It's so sweet - anything that helps bond us as a family, even little wooden alphabet tiles on a kitchen memo board, means so much them!


And then I added some bright yellow flowers from the Dollar Tree that I embellished with pearl centers. I mostly just stuck the alphabet tiles and flowers wherever I messed up with the glue gunning and ribbon crossing. I'm pretty sure that is why embellishments were invented.


TA DA! 


I love how happy and bright it is!

Good game, Oval. Good game.

29 comments:

andiejaye said...

this is the cutest memo board i've EVER seen! your skinny cork problem was quite serendipitous wasn't it??

Teresa said...

The noticeboard looks really good. : )If you ever use that cork board again, try putting a layer or two of corrugated cardboard behind it. I once ordered a cheap big corkboard, and when I took the frame off, it was about 3mm of cork and 1cm of cardboard! Still holds pins pretty well though.

I really enjoy reading your blog! : )

Anonymous said...

You are my hero ! I love you sooo much... Jimmy

Ali Richardson said...

It is super duper "out of this Earth," "swamp-grass" COOL! That's Noah-speak for realy great job!

Unknown said...

Well, you kicked some skinny cork, oval frame memo baord butt!!! This memo board/meal planner is absolutely beautiful!!! It was totally worth all the pain and suffering and I am very proud of you!!! I look at a lot of blogs but I READ yours faithfully and I have to tell you that you are one fabulous crafter and story teller...THANK YOU!!!
Lorraine Castellon-Rowe

4kidsgrandma said...

Happy Mother's Day to the awesome mother of our grandchildren! Oh, and I love ovals...you can find them all over my house, ha, ha!

Sassy Sites! said...

I featured you today over at Sassy Sites!! Come by and check it out... don't forget to grab a featured button! Happy Saturday! xoxo!

Marni

Lisa @ Turning Tables said...

I LOVE it!!! Super awesomeness at it's best!! Go Darcy!

Becky @ Rub Some Dirt On It said...

That was so awesome :) Way to stick it to the oval. You remind me of myself, kind of crafting on the fly. I love how you aren't "perfect." makes it much easier to relate!

Thanks for coming to my blog today :)

Jennifer @ Delightfully Noted said...

The bright, fun colors are what attracted me to this! Love it.

Tasha said...

I just love this!! love your bright happy colors. Love how you did it!

Ann Marie said...

I really like how you put the fabric on... very clever. I might do this for my daughter's room. Thanks for sharing!

Doreen @ Redesign by Grace said...

I love those french memo boards for hanging photos. Thanks for sharing how to make one.

Unknown said...

I wandered over here from All Thingz Related - love this board - and the fact that it's oval!

April@MySacredSojourn said...

This had me cracking up...I thought I was the only one to look at craft supplies as adversaries to be dominated. :) The memo board is gorgeous and I love this idea for menu planning. I've tried a few different plans and nothing has worked for us...I'm going to try this.

Handy Man, Crafty Woman said...

that looks so cute! Great job.

Unknown said...

Hello! I'm Kassandra from Coffee and their Kisses. This is just gorgeous! :o) Have a good day!

Unknown said...

You are hilarious!! And your project is pretty dang cool too! I'd love for you to link up!

http://polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/2011/05/wow-me-wednesday-9.html

Anonymous said...

I am loving the idea of a kitchen memo board. I also get invitations and like to make notes, but they always just sit there on my counter or get pinned up to the refrigerator. This is a great idea that I may have to try out myself sometime!

Vanessa @ {nifty thrifty things} said...

This turned out so cute! Love it!
Thank you so much for sharing this @ {nifty thrifty sunday} last week as well!
Hugs,
Vanessa @ {nifty thrifty things}

Rachel said...

That turned out stunning!

Laura @ live.laugh.photograph said...

haha you are hilarious girl! thanks for sharing this it turned out amazing!!

Unknown said...

Not only do I love this idea, specially the meal planning part, but I also enjoyed more than a few chuckles reading the post.

Kaitlyn said...

I absolutely love this!

I am hoping to do something like this for my kitchen!

thank you for posting!

Serendipity Chic Design said...

Could this be any cuter!! You are so talented!

Thanks for linking to "Meet Me On Monday"....

Take care,
Lisa

CatCat said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amanda W. said...

This project is great and I LOVE your writing style...Girl, you are hilarious!! You make me want to get back to my blog and stop neglecting it like the bad craft blogger I have been. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Amazing post! This kitchen memo board is very nice. Anything is better than keeping your toothbrushes in a cup in the cabinet underneath the sink in a poorly designed. Moreover garage door repair Kennesaw is offering the highest garage door repairing services.

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