Well, it sure has been awhile. On one hand, I’m sorry I left you hanging for so long.  On the other hand, I really have enjoyed the time I’ve spent away. I blogged every day for almost six years, and through all of that time, I became obligated.  I felt obligated to the readers and obligated to brands I work with,

Most of all, I felt obligated to myself. When I commit to doing something, I do it.  I do it utterly and completely.

I realize now, however, that I never gave myself an end point.  If I never had a plan for the finish, then any finish at all would be a failure.  And don’t take this to mean this is the end – it’s not. I’m simply describing what felt like a lose-lose situation for me.  It seemed that backing off of the blog would be a failure. But also continuing, but not being able to give 100% would be a failure as well.

I’ve always been a black and white kind of person.  Clearly in design, but also in life. I’m either in, or I’m out.  I’m never half anything.  So, it kind of crushed me to come to grips with the idea that I couldn’t give my all to the blog and that would in some way be ‘shorting’ you guys of what you come here for.

What I’ve realized over the last 4 months, however, is that I love blogging.  I like doing projects, I like sharing, I like design.  And I’ve also realized that I don’t have to give my whole life to this blog.  There can be an ‘in-between’.  I can just share as I’d like. And I will. So that is my new commitment.  Sharing what is actually happening in my life, sharing things I am actually loving, experiencing, and doing.

What I share may be a little different than what you’ve become used to over the years.  I won’t be creating projects just for the sake of creating projects.  But I will share what I’m making as I get time here and there to flex my creative muscles.

I may share more fashion than I have in the past, more travel, more of what I’m actually experiencing day to day.  We’ll see.

In the meantime, let’s talk about this felt letter board.

I have wanted a felt letter board for a while, but they’re pricey… so I thought, “clearly there is a way to make one. ”  I found this tutorial and bought the materials back in October.  As of last week, they were all sitting in my office in the sack I brought them home in.  Finally, I had the extra daylight (thanks daylight savings!) to try my hand at the project.

I’ll say two things about this DIY.  1) It’s not cheap. 2) It’s simple and fun.

Regarding the price, the tutorial claims that it cost less than $25, but I actually spent probably $40 – including the letters.  Maybe my dowel supplier is the priciest in town, I don’t know.  But if you’re doing this project, you’re doing it because you want to work on something, not because you are trying to save money.  All in all, I guess I felt the feeling of accomplishment, plus got a letter board out of the deal.  Not bad.

It was fun.  I got to flex my creative muscles, bust out my glue gun and in turn I got a letter board in exactly the dimensions and frame that I wanted.  One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to cut the dowels, but it ended up being simple enough.  I used blue painters tape to bind all of the dowels together and just used a simple manual hand saw to cut them all at once.  Nothing powered or complicated.

The original tutorial does a great job of leading us through the steps, so I don’t need to go into detail here. Just know that it’s a fun project that is worth the time if you’re interested in something enjoyable to do.

So far, I’ve switched up the quotes on my board a few times.  I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it and am still pretty impressed how well it turned out.  I hope you like it two and will give it a shot.

 

p.s.  Thanks for sticking with me.  I can’t promise that I’ll be here every day.  I can promise that I’ll be real with you and will share things that I’m experiencing and hope you’ll enjoy.