Custom Corkboard

I finally decided that I needed to hang some type of art display in the dining room to display the kids' artwork. Until we rearranged their bedroom, I had a wire line with mini clothespins to hang their current projects but the youngest kept walking off with the clothespins and the eyehooks I used to hang the wire line were not so sturdy. I knew I wanted some type of cork board and since I was hanging it in the dining room I wanted to dress it up a bit.




I measured the spot I needed to use and settled on 3'x3' for the board dimensions which also meant I could not buy a ready made corkboard to cover. No big deal, I thought, I'll just glue some cork tiles to a piece of plywood and then cover it in fabric. While it was no big deal I did have to get creative to find a sturdy solution for hanging the board. I chose to screw bolts through the front of the board under the cork layer and used d ring hangers hung onto screws placed in the studs.

Here's the hardware. Half inch long bolts with matching nuts, D ring hangers and plastic hinged screw covers (more on those later). My plywood is 1/4" thick and I test fitted the bolts at the hardware store to be sure they cleared the wood and then had sufficient length for the d ring hanger, screw cover and finally the nut without portruding too much. Did I mention I had a good bit of help at Lowe's from a wonderful employee?




My 3'x3' piece of plywood which I had cut at the hardware store from a stock piece. They do this for free so it saves me the hassle of having Mr. Maricucu pull out the table saw.




First, I found the studs on my wall and marked the placement of the board on the wall. Then I measured from each side of the board to where the studs were located then placed those markings on my board for the bolt placement. I also placed the markings two inches below the top edge of the board to account for the length of the d hangers and the space I'd need to staple the fabric. I used a level to be sure that the board would hang straight and yes the edges on the board's cut side were a bit ragged but I sanded them smooth later on.




Once I'd marked the bolt placement I drilled a hole the width of the bolt and slipped the bolt from the front of the plywood to the back. Since I was glueing the cork to the top of the plywood I sunk the bolt as much as I could but without cracking the wood.




On the back of the board I slipped a d ring hanger onto the bolt as well as the screw cover, then the nut. Mr. Maricucu held the nut with needle nose pliers since nothing else would fit around the nut with the screw cover in place, then I gently tightened the bolt with the drill.




Finally we pressed the screw cover closed. It's just a little plastic hinged cover I used as extra insurance so that the exposed end of the bolt/nut combo wouldn't scratch the back of the wall. I hate painting so anything I can do to save the walls is wonderul.




Fastener done, secure and it's not coming out of the plywood. On to the cork. I bought packs of 12"x12"x1/4" plywood squares in packs of four. I ended up buying three packs (total of 12 tiles) to have the nine I needed for the board so I'll likely use the three leftover tiles in my sewing room.




I did a dry run on the plywood to see how tiles would fit and I'm glad I did. I realized the best way to glue them on would be starting with the middle tile and work my way out. There was only about a 1/8" of exposed plywood on the outside edge around the cork which would be covered with the fabric.




I'm definitely not a handy person but I've been watching enough home improvement projects to know that Liquid Nails would be the best adhesive for the cork. This low VOC formula is even less stinky than the E6000 I used for the magnetic spice tins.




I squirted some long thin beads of liquid nails on the back of the cork tile. About three tiles in I realized this was wayyyyy too much adhesive since I'd gone through about half of the tube. So the next cork tiles had a bead only around the four edges of the tile.




I began with the middle tile and worked my way around the to outer edge cork tiles. The liquid nails has a bit of give at this point so you can slightly smush tiles around to be sure and keep the edges butted up tight.




Once all the tiles were glued I noticed some of the corner edges were not laying flat in the middle so I added a bit more adhesive and taped the intersections down with some masking tape. You'll see that in a picture further below.




Finally the cork was glued and ready to cure overnight so I found the heaviest flat thing in our living room to weight it down - the baby/dog gate. I just love products that are multi-taskers.




This is the only photograph I took during the daytime. It's the true color of the short napped chenille upholstery fabric I used to cover the corkboard. Why take most of my pictures at night? Let's just say that projects involving screws, construction adhesive and staple guns are best started when the helpers are asleep.




Now it was time to cut the fabric. I smoothed the fabric on my floor and placed the board right on top. Then I cut the fabric around the board leaving about 6-8" extra for wrapping.




I flipped the board over, double checked that my fabric was right side down (yes I almost had a mishap) and began stapling in the middle of each edge. I just pulled the fabric taught, stapled a few inches of fabric then moved on to the opposite edge of the board and did the same until all four edges had been stapled in the center sections. Next, I continued stapling the edges all around avoiding the corners.




Once the edges were stapled I finished off with the corners. It's hard to explain but I just miter tucked the corner fabric in and stapled that secure then flattened the extra fold of fabric on top, pulled it as tight as I could, then stapled it down. You can see I got a little happy with the staple gun but I didn't want to spend all this time on the board and have it come apart on me, or you can just blame it on my OCD. Take your pick.




Here's the back all secured - that sucker's not coming off. You can see where I stapled a bit higher around the ring hangers and just notched the fabric out for that section. After all the stapling action I cut the excess fabric off leaving about 1" extra beyond the staples.




That's it! It's done and ready for action. I threw a few papers on there with the only pins I had around this house, my fabric pins. Eventually I'd like to make some fabric covered button thumbtacks like these in some fun prints, but for now this works.




Also, I'm contemplating the next step. You can see the sort of plain dining room curtains right next to the board. I purposely chose a textured but solid fabric for the board because I hope to eventually spice up the curtain situation and I'm thinking of making a modernish patchwork table runner. If I decide to gussy up the cork board I might iron on some solid black fabric "W"s in various fonts for our last name initial or maybe just one strip of a printed quilting cotton. Not sure yet and I'm not going to rush it for now. We're just happy to have a place for some photos and artwork for now.

Around here legos rule

It all started with a gift. A good friend of mine gifted my then 1 year old first born with a bucket of quattros. Until then it hadn't really dawned on me that a little boy could love building blocks so much. So we kept them and at first he loved swatting down structures that Mr. Maricucu built for him (much to Mr. Maricucu's dismay). Then he turned two and suddenly was obsessed with putting together extremely high, spindly towers. Eventually, he progressed on to duplos. Unfortunately for him, a few months later his younger brother was the one interested in swatting down high, spindly towers. Oh the drama!




But then, younger brother grew into the lego obsession as well. Quite quickly Mr. Maricucu and I figured out that one bin would not be nearly enough. One base? Laughable, when that was the most sought after piece. Thank goodness for grandparents and Christmas. I scored a huge lot of second hand duplos, bases and little people figures on ebay with some grandparent funds. On Christmas Eve Mr. Maricucu set them up on the table for the boys to find when they woke up. There were tunnels, cacti (loved around here!), pods, people, cars and more bases! Woohoo no more fighting over bases!




Instead they build fire stations for their trucks with holes in the middle for a fireman's pole of course.




Or high, spindly garages for their matchbox cars.




I see no indication that the lego love is wavering at all. In fact, they're now eyeing the teeny, tiny original lego pieces with much longing. The same pieces that bring to mind a new extreme sport just for parents - walking across a bed of legos in the dark while trying to find the light switch. Winner gets orthopedic shoes and a possibly needed hip replacement.

The garden, currently known as the jungle.

Last year I read Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. He mentions his experience in tending a community garden where residents rented plots for the growing season. Mel wrote that everyone would spend the first two months of the gardening season working the freshly tilled earth, planting and watering but that come midsummer, vacations and other things took priorities so that the neat gardens would be a mess of plants, produce and weeds. I remember thinking in horror, "If I ever had a successful vegetable garden there's no way mine would go untended!"

May I present my jungle, um garden. Now granted it's not been vacations or pools that have gotten in the way of tending the garden. Just a perfect storm of a week's worth of rain and busyness that has allowed me to put off wandering in it for a few days. Today I took a walk around to reaquaint myself. Care to join me?




In the first photo are the tomato plants in the veggie beds which stand taller than I do at about 5 1/2 feet. Below is the herb garden.




I'm pretty pleased with the strawberry patch. Only the one plant I put in live survived, the crowns that I planted never sprouted after the slugs chewed off the little bit of green they sent off. However, strawberries are thrivers and send off runners. My one plant has spawned two new plants and has sent off runners for two more. Now I understand why Mel mentioned planting strawberries in their own bed.




The crazy basil bush. Pretty obvious that in my neglect this week the flowers have sprouted and I just realized that I overplanted basil. To my local peeps, if you need some just let me know and I'll give you a bag.




The swiss chard. It's beautiful and I only planted the white variety. Next year I'd love to plant some of the rainbow varieties as well.




The tomatoes, ah the tomatoes. I kind of went overboard there too and I still hope to freeze some but I overplanted not knowing nearly how much tomato plants grow and produce. Especially for a home where only one person (me) eats fresh tomatoes at the moment. There is our first ripe tomato of the season and as I type it's hanging out on my counter waiting to join in a yummy pepperjack grilled cheese.




Of course there are many more tomatoes waiting in the wings.




Including these beautiful and delicious brandywines. Brandywines are my favorite variety, they have such character too.




Little bitty eggplants. This one is only about three inches long at the moment but I see many more blooms on the plants.




Remember the lettuce head I was afraid to pick? About two feet tall at the moment.




And definitely gone to seed but it's just gorgeous. Look at the deep crimson leaves!




This next part is called God creates a way. This pepper plant fell over a couple of weeks ago. I mean keeled over, laying down completely horizontally. I didn't have the heart to rip it up and my attempts at standing it back up were no good. Yet these cubanelles are growing as if the nothing was wrong with the plant!




I'm not sure if this vine is cucumber or canteloupe. Why? Because I didn't plant it, it's growing out of my compost bin. A few months ago I also had potato plants growing out of the compost bin from a few that had been tossed in.




Emerging bell peppers, my hand for scale.




Finally I'm growing rosemary! The seeds I planted and replanted last year wouldn't sprout so this year I bought one plant and divided it in two. I'm hoping to transplant some to the front entrance and replace some horrid pampas grass that the builders put in.




Fragrant, silvery sage. Have to be careful with this as a nursing mom since it does affect my supply but I'm itching to make some saltimboca.




Public service announcement to neat and tidy gardeners. When you're neat and rip up plants on schedule you miss out on letting the plants work for you. Here, my cilantro has gone to seed, the litte balls are coriander. Once the plant dries the seeds will drop and sprout next spring.




I'll admit I'm going to miss the garden in the winter, especially for the photos. I'm eager to see what will overwinter in our in between North Carolina climate. Oh and last night, the staple gun and I got to business.

Many projects on my plate

Including, quite literally, quiche. Had another craving today and it seems my fridge wanted to oblige. I had a cup full of sauteed onions and red/yellow bell peppers leftover from another meal and a hunk of pepperjack cheese plus all the fixings for the custard base. I'm normally not a fan of adding cheese to a quiche unless it adds huge amounts of flavor. I mean the custard is really quite rich enough, but pepperjack? I cannot get enough of the heat and sweet combo of pepperjack cheese and caramelized peppers. The crust was another white wheat version pulled from the freezer and I'm just loving it.




Golden top, courtesy of the pepperjack cheese.




This beautifully short napped chenille is destined for a wall in my dining room quite soon. Yup, as if hording it wasn't enough, now swaths of fabric are going up on the walls and no, they are not curtains. It's a beautiful deep sage, much closer to the dark bottom portion of the picture. All I can say is the project involved powertools and keeping a kind employee at Lowes occupied for 45 minutes while I asked him for parts according to my imaginary specs. You know the drill, "Umm I want it to do this, and it can only stick out so far. Yes, and no that won't work because it looks kind of blegh." I'm sure he had a blast.




Lastly, a fiddly but utilitarian little project. If it pans out I'll share a little tutorial right here. If not, well this message will self-destruct about thirty seconds after I mess up. See isn't that convenient?

Summer Shearing

I'm not a hairstylist by any stretch of the imagination but about three years ago I bought a Wahl clipper kit and figured I'd better learn before the boys were too particular about their hairstyles. I mean, three men going to cut their hair at a salon every two weeks adds up. Not to mention the hassle of setting aside time to go to an appointment and let's not even get into the freak out a certain young toddler had in the stylist's chair before the scissors even came out.

So I cut Mr. Maricucu's hair as well as the boys here at home. I cut my own hair too but that's a story for another day. Today I trimmed Mr. Maricucu and then realized that my oldest - blessed with an amazingly thick head of hair - needed a trim as well. We're talking out of control. My mom shudders when she hears me mention haircuts. She loves the thick, shaggy look which is kind of ironic for someone who kept my brother's hair about 1/4" long. I'm sorry mom, when even a wet combing won't bring down the crown, it's time to trim.




Ahhh, I feel refreshed just looking at him. He actually finds it much cooler with a closer cut.




Fortunately for me, my younger son has finer and lighter hair that means I can just use one comb all over. He's extremely ticklish and asks me if I'm done about two minutes into the haircut. I buzz him all over then do the sideburns and nape as quickly as I can. Forgive the scrapes on his face, he had an unfortunate encounter with the ground in the backyard. The ground won.




The baby and I didn't get haircuts today but she's sporting two new teeth and wanted to say hello to the family.