Fantabulous Friday

Back in October, I saw this board at John C. Lincoln Hospital and had this idea for my wall.

We all know how those ideas go.

In the brain, swirl around a bit, sometimes get filed never to be seen again.

Not this time!

Jenny had some frames sitting in the garage that she was willing to let go.

Much as I adore this little gem posing for us .... she sat out in the garage and was a constant reminder of the plan.

It worked.

I had everything I needed at home which meant that I could craft something without leaving the house ... at all.

Especially my kind of crafting day.

First the paint.

A day or two before I had gone through all the junk mail fliers and thrown them away.

They were not retrievable ... trust me on this one.

Grocery ads are available online. So, while sparing my kitchen counter (which I'm sure the landlord greatly appreciates!) I set to painting the frame black ... after removing precious picture and glass.

I strolled through photos on my computer and picked some that I liked, printed them in color

and inked the edges up a bit.

I started with brown inking and decided I didn't like it so added black on top of brown.

Using the glass from the frame, I cut a white poster board to size.

My new thing is splashes of red.

I don't have much of it. In fact, I just glanced around my living area (the size that I can glance around) and really don't have nearly any red!

Red felt I do have.

It actually came down from Alaska with me in a Sterlite dresser that was just plumb full of fabric stuffs.

I cut out some circles and then added some black stitching to the edges of them.

After attaching the photos and flowers where I wanted them, next came the lines. My goal was to make a blank calendar grid on the poster board. Thanks to cutting boards with loooong lines and a sharpie ... it worked. I didn't want to have my lines go through the photos entirely and completely destroy the images, so I made lines to hopefully make  hints of date spaces in some places.

Voila! The finished project!

Complete with my pops of red.

I just noticed that the bottom right corner of this photo shows that the glass has a break in it.

Now that I've pointed it out ... you'll notice!

Now to hang it on the wall.
I am not a good job list maker. At all. I have lamented this maaaannnnnyyyy times and I really don't need to make much of a list.
I'm pretty good at winging things ... I've had plenty of practice.
This does what I need it to and I really like the way it turned out.
You write on the glass with a dry erase maker and start filling in things.
Wipe it clean with a damp cloth and go for it again!

If I were to schedule my entire life on this thing, it would need to be much larger.
As the outside frame size measures about 21"x27", the squares don't allow for including everyone's work schedules so we can nagivate through the week.
That would be handy.
I wouldn't need to be asking a hundred times, "what day do you work?" "where do you work today" "now how are we all getting to where we need to be tomorrow!??".
If I was to use the entire board and fill every day, I would also lighten up the photos so they are nearly hints of photos rather than full live living color. Then you could write over them and actually see what you are writing.
And .... you could color code your writing. Different colors for different children, types of activities, or whatever your little heart desires.

For now ... it works.
Should I happen to find a larger frame at a yard sale someday ... it just might change!