Monday, January 11, 2010

Project #1: Clip Art Photo Calendar

I wanted to start with something simple so as not to frighten myself off.  Ha. Ha.  Projects are so rarely easier than they seem like they should be.  I suppose that if I was the kind of person who would just settle for what I had in the house it would have been much simpler.  I chose the project yesterday, found a suitable frame in the basement and printed the clip-art calendar from Martha's website.

I HAD all of the materials required for this project on hand in my home.  However, one of the items was not what I had envisioned.  The project requires two small screw hooks, like teacup hooks.  The ones in our tool box were brass.  I didn't want brass.  I wanted silver.  And they were entirely too big.

I had to go to the grocery store today anyway, so I figured, hey, no big deal.  I'll pick up some silver hooks in the sundries department of the grocery store.  Problem solved.  Yeah.  All they had were brass hooks.  And they came in a package with an assortment of other styles of wall hangers, which I definitely did not need.  Revised plan:  Stop quickly at the home improvement store just a few doors down in the same plaza as the grocery store after paying for the groceries.  Except...  I got to the check out, loaded my loot onto the belt and picked up my purse.  It felt suspiciously light.  Guess why.  That's right.  No wallet.  No wallet means no credit card, debit card or cash on my person.  They were able to suspend my transaction so that I could go home, get my wallet and come back to pay.

At this point, though, my darling daughter would be coming home from school in just a few minutes so I wouldn't have time to stop at the home improvement store.  I went home, got my wallet, got my daughter off the bus, went back to pay for the groceries, brought them home, put them away and then FINALLY headed back to the same dang plaza for the third time today to look for just the right hooks at the home improvement store.  And they didn't have any flippin' silver hooks that were open.  All of the silver ones had closed loops.  There were several different sizes of BRASS or WHITE hooks, but no silver.  So after discussing my options with the friendly store employee, I decided on these teeny little screw in loops that I could pry open with my needle-nose pliers.  Okay.  Enough time wasted.  By the time we got home my daughter needed to finish her homework and I had to finish putting away the last of the groceries.

Finally after dinner, and after fretting about sticking to the promise I had made to myself to start writing today, even if it was junk, I stood at the kitchen counter, pried open the dainty silver loops, fished an old favorite photo from the office desk (I had wanted to print off a more recent photo of my family, but forced myself to be satisfied with one I found, as it takes me about a half an hour to figure out how to print a picture each time I try to do it), trimmed the photo to fit the frame, trimmed the excess paper from aforementioned clip-art calendar, screwed in my precious little silver hooks, punched holes in the calendar to line up with said hooks and voila!  Project complete!

It's not the most wonderful looking thing I've ever done, but it pleases me.  I hung it on the wall right next to my desk.  Every time I look over it makes me smile.

Here is the project on Martha's site:
http://www.marthastewart.com/goodthings/photo-calendar

Here is my finished project:

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