Menu Board

Ever make something for someone else that you just love and could keep for yourself?  Yep, I made something for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law for Christmas this year that turned out so well.

When my sister-in-law told me that she thought some sort of menu planning "thing" would be good,  I started researching menu boards, and apparently, I totally missed the Pinterest fad last year when everyone was making them.  I guess that's what I get for growing up in a place where we always caught onto the trends a year later.  ;)

Anyway, I love this gift, and so I'm going to show you how I made mine.

Materials you'll need

plywood or painter's canvas
jigsaw (if using wood)
fabric
12x9 metal sheet from The Home Depot
nails
hammer
scrapbook paper
ribbon
flat glass marbles
magnets
stickers
staple gun
Modge Podge (or in my case the homemade version which is one part glue -Elmer's white glue works well- to half part water)
hot glue gun
picture hanger

First, you need some sort of base.  Many of the boards I saw either used a cookie sheet to make it magnetic, a piece of wood or particle board and used clothes pins to hold the recipes, or a covered painter's canvas.  I decided I liked the magnetic idea, but NOT the cookie sheet.  Not all cookie sheets are magnetic, and I think they look tacky.  However, to be perfectly honest, I really needed something that would fit in a flat-rate box since I was mailing it to New York.

I ended up choosing a piece of plywood that I found lying around and measured it to fit inside a medium flat-rate box (13x11).  My husband cut it with our jigsaw for me.

I called my sister-in-law to find out her kitchen's color scheme, and thankfully, she wasn't picky about colors.  I decided to go with red, black, and cream.  That inspiration hit me in the middle of the night.  It was then that I realized I had all of the materials that I needed. 

 I then got started on the magnets so they would have time to dry.  I decided to make the homemade glass magnets for the days of the week.  To make them, you can find a tutorial here:  Easy kids craft: Conversation Marble Magnets. 

After the "Modge Podge" dried, I used Aleene's craft glue to glue the magnets on. They are heavy-duty magnets I bought at The Home Depot, I believe.  Don't use hot glue to attach the magnets because they will just rip off after a while.  Find a good glue like Aleene's or Gorilla Glue.   I used the clothes pins as clamps.  I let the glue dry overnight, and so I worked on the rest of the board while those were drying.

 

I cut the fabric larger than the board and then stapled it on the back. 

Then I turned over the board and nailed the metal sheet onto the left side of my menu board (sorry the picture is dark and turned, but you get the idea).  I left some space at the top of the board.  Since plywood is difficult to nail into, my nails bent at the end; but I didn't mind because I had a plan to cover them anyway.

I then cut a piece of scrapbook paper and glued it to the top of the board.  I think I might have used craft glue for that. While it covered the metal sheet, I knew that my magnets were strong enough to go through the paper and the ribbon (that I added in the next step).

Using my glue gun, I glued the ribbon across the bottom end of the scrapbook paper and across the bottom of the metal board to cover the nails.  I used craft glue to reinforce it.

I then flipped it over and stapled the ribbon so it wouldn't just fall off.

Using scrapbook paper and stickers, I made the "Menu" label.  I glued it on with the modge podge mixture I had.

Next, flip over the board and find the center of the board, and attach a hanger so the board can be hung on the wall.  You could probably do this last, but I did it near the beginning.

Then I took another coordinating piece of scrapbook paper and stapled it to the back to hide all of the fabric and ribbon ends.

I decided to add another strip of scrapbook paper across the ribbon on the bottom to hide the nails even more and to add a little bit more character.  I like how it turned out.

Finally, I needed a place to put blank strips of paper so my in-laws can add their recipes.  I just folded scrapbook paper to make an envelope and stapled and glued it on.  Yes, I'm a little staple happy.  :)  Many of the other tutorials recommended a box, such as a crayon box, and I liked that idea, but I didn't have one, and I didn't feel like buying crayons just for that purpose.  I already have an infinite amount of loose crayons.

The next morning when the magnets were dry, I added them to the board.

I'm so happy with this project! Hopefully, my in-laws like it as much as I do.  I only wish I had better lighting in my kitchen so I could have gotten better pictures. . . oh, well, lesson learned!

Cookie Christmas Tree

 A couple of years ago, my mom gave me a Christmas Cookie Tree Kit (by Wilton).  This year I finally decided to make one.

To make a cookie tree, you need a large cut-out cookie recipe that you love such as a gingerbread or sugar cookie recipe and a frosting. (My recipe uses 5 cups of flour to give you an idea of how large I mean.) I chose to make my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe.  It's one from my high school Home-Ec teacher.  They taste better than the Lofthouse cookies, in my opinion.  The secret is sour cream.

I chose my grandma's ornamental frosting.  It's 1 egg white, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 cup powdered sugar.  I made two batches of frosting, but I really only needed one.

I cut two cookies from each cookie cutter size.  I used my grandma's ornamental icing that I use for Gingerbread men.   I piped white around each of the stars.

I filled the stars with green frosting and then put red hots on each of the tips.

I took the picture below so you could see a difference in the frosting after I adjusted it. I added some corn syrup to make the frosting a little thinner, shinier and smoother.   The cookie on the right was the frosting without the adjustment.  I liked the character the "before" frosting added, but I also like the smoother finish.

After the frosting dried, I began building the tree.  I stabilized the bottom cookie by putting some frosting on the tray so the cookie wouldn't move.  As you stack the cookies, be sure to place a large dab of frosting on the middle of the cookie before placing the next one on.  Alternate the stars, so they look like branches.

Instead of using both of the smallest cookies as branches, I used one as the star topper.  Since I forgot to set aside some frosting to dye yellow, I used the sprinkles that I had.  I stuck a toothpick in the bottom of the cookie and put it through the middle of my tree.
 

As a sugar-cookie lover, this tree looks so delectable.  My husband complimented it when he got home from work.  I'm still deciding who is going to get the tree.  I think I'd like to start a new tradition that we give a sugar cookie tree once a year to someone that we think really needs a lift or that we want to thank for a special reason.  We'll see.  :) 

My Therapy

This last month has been really hard.  All of Jackson's demons, and in turn all of my demons have been haunting me.  This burden I'm carrying suddenly got heavier this month, and at some points I made it even worse for me and for Jackson.  I haven't been fair to him, and I've been doing my best to learn to combat my demons while helping with his.

Last week, though, my therapy arrived.  I had forgotten how much I'd missed it until I started it up again.   My two oldest brothers, and currently favorites for a while (sorry you other four, this was big),  loaded it and drove it 350 miles and unloaded it for me.  They even left tracks in my snow-lawn so I wouldn't forget the favor.

Matt came home from work, and we were worried that we'd need an army to bring it in, but my brother's truck made it all the way to the front door, and we didn't even need a dollie or the Elders Quorum!  It is not new, but it was free.  It's been a part of me since before I can remember.  I have pictures of me sitting there since I was a toddler and all the way through adulthood.  I am sad my mom doesn't have it anymore, but I'm so, so thankful for it.  I know Matt and Jackson are grateful as well.  This is my therapy:

 My "therapy" fits every mood.  Whether I am angry, depressed, jubilant, or just at ease, the piano restores my balance, it helps me find my center again.  My yelling has decreased.  Admittedly, Matt was sad that it wasn't a new or magnificent instrument and that it is out of tune, but that will be fixed soon.  The best part is that it was FREE, and Matt doesn't have to hear the words, "when I get my piano" anymore because I have it.  The only downsides are that I could play it all day and lose track of time and that I can't turn down the volume. 

Move over Computer! The piano is going to be my newly restored addiction.

To my brothers, mom and dad, THANK YOU!

Thank Goodness

For sewing machines and seam rippers to fix my major mistakes!

A Bit of Light Reading

I don't know if anyone noticed, but when I changed my blog template, I deleted the "Books I've Read This Year." I got too embarrassed to have that up when I noticed that many of my friends and family have much longer lists with books with more pages (you could probably call them more sophisticated books). I'm a light reader. I love to read when I get a book that keeps me moving through it, but it's one that I don't have to stumble across big vocabulary or concepts that are out of my league. For example, it took me two years to read Les Miserables because of all of the French history, and I won't tell you how many times I pulled out a dictionary to read that thing or how many times I had to reread a page because I got lost in it all. There are many books that I've read the beginning of but never finished.

I much prefer children's literature or young adult fiction. Even if they are skinnier books, they usually have something to think about in them, and they usually leave out all of the garbage (swearing, sex, and violence). I'm such a visual person that I can't read that stuff and get it out of my head very easily. Images seem to stay forever.

Since being a school teacher, I've collected many "chapter" books that I haven't even read, but that I had on my bookshelf in my classroom. When we moved here, I boxed them all and put them under our stairs. Well, this weekend, I realized I was bored watching TV, and I had nothing to do, so I pulled out a stack of books to read. I know I can read them quickly and get into them. The book I read first was Loser by Jerry Spinelli.

I originally started this book when I was a teacher, but I couldn't finish it. I was too depressed to read it. I found a good synopsis, better than I can write, here. I've had a hard time reading Jerry Spinelli in the past, but I've learned that he likes to write to make you think, and he usually writes about the underdog, so that you get his/her perspective. Another book of his that I like is Stargirl.
Anyway, I'm trying to broaden my mind by reading, but I think I'll stick with the easier stuff (at least in my mind).