Dear Diary

Pinterest. It is a beautiful thing. I remember the first time I learned what it was. Tara, from my previous job at Thrive Learning showed the website to me. I learned that you could create "boards" for different interests, and that you could "pin" pictures, and links to websites or blogs into these boards. I seriously thought it was the coolest thing. And so did every other girl in our office. A few weeks later Katie Berry Tall and I were talking and we both found that there was an app for it as well. Needless to say, we were stoked.

4 years has come and gone since that time, and I have "pinned" 5.8k pins. It's an obsession. Over this time I have seen many adorable and creative ideas for Do It Yourself (DIY) Projects. As I mentioned in my New Years Resolution post, I wanted to start making some of these pins a reality. You will notice that I made a goal of doing one project a month - and that has not happened. However, that will not prevent me from making up for missed months.

My first project is called a Dinner Menu Board. When I first saw these ideas on Pinterest I thought they were darling. It was a cute way to plan out the meals for a week, and a way to remind me what food I have in the pantry. I saw many different versions of this kind of board, so I decided to take some of my favorite parts of a few of them.

Pinterest Inspirations

1. The first one I saw was this one found on Baby Gators Den. I am obsessed with Gold first of all, and I love the whole chalk thing that is going on right now. These cards with the menu items were pretty cute, and I liked her little holders for the menu items. Needless to say, it had just about everything I wanted!

2. Here is another example from All Things Beautiful. These colors weren't really my thing, and I didn't love the paper clips that she used to hang each menu item. However, I loved that she added a pocket for the actual recipe cards! Most of the other examples I had found on Pinterest did not have this extra pocket. I thought it was perfect because there are nights when I can't start the dinner on time, or when Bryan wants to cook for me. If he can see what the meal plan is for that night along with the recipe card, he can do it all himself without even needing to get ahold of me!

3. This Dry Erase Menu Board done by Kaminaski Creations was also pretty adorable. I was kind of in love with the idea of putting a fork and knife on each side of the frame. I also like that you could easily erase and rewrite if and changes needed to be made. The problem here is that I can't stand my handwriting, and I wanted my board to look as cute as possible, so I knew I wouldn't end up loving it if I was the one writing in the menu items each week. And let's be honest, Bryans writing is 10x worse than mine :)

After searching all over Pinterest for different ideas, I finally decided that I really wanted my board to look similar to the very first one. I loved how she used clothes line pins, and I loved the idea of using cute menu cards to put up for each meal. I decided to also add something to hold my Recipe cards, because I'd like for the recipe cards being used that week to be up on the board as well. I thought about finding a fork and knife to add to my board like the third option, but in the end it didn't fit well with my frame. My frame was a lot thinner, so it would have just been overwhelming to have those glued on.

For this project I used the following:

Chalk Paint
Whole Punch
Pre Cut Labels
Clothes line pins (already had mini ones from my wedding)
Paint (already had Spa Blue color)
Paint Brushes
Hot Glue Gun
Pictures Frame (I used 16X20 that I found at the DI for $2.50)
Thickers Alphabet letters (I found these at Hobby Lobby in Gold)
Some kind of container or box (Fry box holders found at Hobby Lobby)
Beaded Lace
Gold Spray Pain
Paper

I found this frame back in January when I first decided I wanted to make this Menu Board. I knew I wanted a bigger frame. All of the examples I found on Pinterest were about 11X12 which is great, but I wanted to have more room on my board. DI is my friend, so I adventured over there one day with my friend Merrill. Luckily we found my cute frame for $2.50. I already had gold spray paint (leftover from my wedding). This was perfect because I am obsessed with all things gold.

My next step was creating my menu cards. I looked all over the internet, and hobby lobby until I found the right whole punch for me. It happened to be the same shape that is used on Baby Gator Dens Menu board. I couldn't find one as big as I had wanted, but I thought it would due, especially since I was going to have 6 days on my board and not 5 like hers. I also grabbed some pre-cut labels that hide a slightly different shape. I wanted to compare these at home to see which ones I preferred. The ones I cut from my own whole punch were smaller just like I had anticipated. Luckily, I realized I could put the ones I had cut over the pre cut ones to add more color and dimension. I proceeded to print out all my menu items, punch them out and glue onto the pre-cut cards. They turned out so cute!

The them in my apartment is kind of a spa blue, navy blue, yellow and tan feel. Since I already had the spa blue, I figured that would be perfect. I then re-painted my coral clothes-line pins spa blue.

Next, I needed to paint my board. I have been loving chalk boards, so I figured that would be perfect. I picked up some chalk-paint and painted the backboard of my frame. Two coats, and it looked great! I had also picked up some chalk board markers, but what I found was that I didn't like my handwriting and it wasn't looking as elegant as I had wanted. SO I scratched the idea of using those markers. I headed back to Hobby Lobby and picked up these adorable Thickers Alphabet letters. They were the perfect size and color! I measured everything out and put them on the board. As I was getting read to glue my clothes line pins to the glass, I began playing around with them a bit and decided it would be fun kind of "zig-zag" my pins instead of laying them out in straight vertical line.

Next, I cut my cardboard fry box containers down to the right height. Painted them, and realized it might be cute to add just a bit more to them. I found some old beaded lace from my wedding and glued it on. It could not have worked out more perfectly! I glued these containers onto the glass as well. And lastly I added one more clothes line pin. This pin is to hold the recipe cards for the week!

And there you have it! The Frandsen Family Menu!