Hello Nesters My Old Friends...

I've come to talk with you again....

Hiya guys!!  How are you all!? It's been a while!  Happy New Year!  I'm sure, much like you guys, life has been madness and I am thrilled to have enough time to jot some words down for ya!  Because let's be real... I miss you.  So here I am! ... Hooray!

Well I guess I should just cut to the chase and tell you the biggest news around the house!!



I will be starting a new job in about 3 weeks!  I'll be working at an event supply company called Peterson Party Center based just outside of Boston, and I'll be able to help people choose their gorgeous tablescapes for their events {weddings!} and also work in the linens department!  ... Um ... I get to make tablescapes and play with fabric for a living now? I think I can handle that!  Certainly beats staring at spreadsheets for 12 hours a day.  Though I will miss my TJX crew- I may have cried when I told them I resigned... twice-  I am very excited to start my new position!

With the big news out of the way, lets get to the fun stuff that's happening here at home :) We are far from being done, though, I think anywhere I live will never be "done".  But you know my thoughts on that. I'll bring it back just with a little project I did one night while Matt was watching football.  {Come on ladies, please tell me I'm not the only one that avoids my living room like the plague during football season...}  

We attended the Brimfield Antique Show this past summer.  We got some amazing little finds!

A vintage camera...

some vintage boxing gear for Matt's office, a set of gorgeous white opalescent Fenton goblets...

Oh hello Mr. Owl cookie jar! 

...and last but not least, a slightly tattered ornate gilt frame.  I had my sights set on getting a big empty frame for me to make into an inspiration board.  After we brought our haul home, the frame kind of hung around my office for a while, not inspiring anybody.  And then that fateful football- avoiding day rolled around and I saw a shimmering beacon of light coming from the corner of my office... whispering "project.... 20 minute project.... you know you want to..." And I collapsed under the peer pressure.  I had actually bought all the supplies for this project ages ago, so when I decided to get down to it, I had everything at my fingertips.

My apologies again for the terrible photos... So, in case you're wondering how I did it...

Tools:
Empty frame
MDF cut to fit frame
Staple gun + staples {one set longer, one set shorter}
Cork {either from the roll or the large tiles, I used the large tiles to avoid the rolling}
1 yd of fabric

Optional:
Spray adhesive {optional if your cork comes with double-stick tape}
Finishing nails.


How to:

1) I measured the back of the frame, where the inlay is, and bought a piece of MDF cut to size from Home Depot.  This will be the body of your frame.  You can use any kind of wood you'd like, I just like MDF for something like this because its cleaner to work with and easier to glue the cork to.

2) I dry-fit the MDF in the frame, and turned out to be cut incorrectly.  It still fit in,  but snugly. So I dealt.  But its best to double check your fit before you move on to the next step.

3) I then dry-fit the cork tiles and made the required cuts.  The tiles I had bought came with small tiles of double stick tape, otherwise I would have used spray adhesive to adhere all the tiles.

4) Once strongly adhered, I laid the fabric on top of the board, to decide where I want the pattern to lay once framed and I marked the corners with pencil.  I liked the pink emblem off center and toward the bottom, almost like a letter.

5) I flipped both the fabric and the board face down, ensuring the markings still met the corners and started stapling!!

6) When stapling, fold one side of excess fabric down tightly and secure with one staple. Then go to the opposite side and pull fabric more tightly and secure in the center of that side.  Then repeat this for the remaining 2 sides.  Once you have one staple in each side, go back to one of your sides and pull tightly and staple closer together the entire way along the side, leaving the corner.  Once you have all side secured and corners loose, fold your corner fabric into a triangle pointing toward the corner and secure with three staples {center, right, left}.

7) Trim your excess fabric.

8) Now I just popped my board into the frame and I was lucky- because it fit so tightly, I didn't need to secure it further.  Now, if yours is not as snug as mine, use small nails or using your staple gun with longer staples.

9) Decorate to your hearts content!

And just as a little side note, my Mom found this picture I drew when I was around 3 years old, of a bride and a groom.   She framed it for me and gave it to me for Christmas.  She said she knew I was not your ordinary bridal fan even as a wee one.  I love it.  I look forward to hanging it in my new office!

Phew! That was quite the wordy post!  I hope you stuck around to the end! And I hope you guys make your own inspiration boards too! Did you have any other ways you've made inspiration boards?  Dish, Nesters! We all want to hear about it!

xoxo
Gina