DIY Bulletin Board

So you all know I have three dogs, Charlie, Gracie and LuLu and our cat kitten (her name will be explained another day).

For a few hours each day I bring over Shelby, my neighbor’s dog, so that she can have a little play time while her family is at work.

We also have our stray outdoor cat Walter. Now Walter would live in our house if I had my way, but Topher is a fun sucker and drew the line at 4 animals.

Anyway back to the story, the other day our little girl from next door came over, and when she opened the door Charlie dashed out. Not good. Charlie is ridiculously fast — for only having legs 3 inches long. So out he flies, I ran after him, the neighbor girl runs after me and didn’t shut the door, so out runs Shelby, and behind Shelby is the stray cat Walter running, as fast as his fat little body will go.

I can’t imagine how this would have looked to a neighbor glancing out their front window.  A tiny little white dog screaming by, next an 8 year old little girl, then a thrity-something year old woman, next a 25 pound grey schnoodle, followed by a 23 pound yellow tomcat. I knew, as it was happening, it was Youtube-worthy.

The only reason Charlie stopped at all was because he needed to water a mailbox. Thank God! I grabbed him mid-stream. Disgusting.

So if a neighbor had stopped rolling on the floor, they would now see a wet, unhappy woman, walking by with a disappointed looking 6-poound Maltese in her hands, an out of breath 8 year old girl, a confused but excited schnoodle, and a very fat-for-a-stray yellow cat trying to keep up.

Our neighbors must think we are lunatics.

On to what I worked on this weekend. We are currently working on a makeover for the unnamed child’s bedroom.

We got all of the walls painted (including the chalkboard wall) and are now working on the decor. She wanted somewhere she could put some photos of her friends, so I made her a bulletin board. I started with on old vintage frame I bought at a yard sale this summer.

The outer part of the frame was broken so I removed that (when I say I, I mean Topher) and I spray painted the remaining part a high gloss black.  Not sure what to do with the ancient photo of the baby, so I just set it aside — it was too cool to throw away.  Also, inside the back cover was part of a poster from a YWCA Bake Sale, but it didn’t have dates or locations — just a fun little snapshot of history.

I then took an old bulletin board we had, and recovered it with some leftover fabric I had from the cane back chair project.

I then criss-crossed black ribbon and stapled it in the back, stabled the spots where the ribbon overlapped, and then hot-glued black buttons over the staples. I then secured the bulletin board to the frame and that was it.

It upcylcled both the old bulletin board and the broken frame.  I think it looks really cute against the turquoise background.