Friday, March 23, 2012

In Project Mode - Magnetic Letters

I'm a list person. Always have been. The number of to-do lists in my notebooks, calendars, computers, and cell phones over the years has to be in the thousands. (Some of you will understand the depth of my listmania when I say that I write completed projects on the list simply so I can cross them off.)

Months ago a friend told me about pinterest.com and mentioned that it was addictive and time-consuming. I took a look, thought it was a fun idea, but didn't get into using it much. Then, last week, for some reason I took a look again and am now beginning to understand my friend's comment. If you peruse various design, craft, household, or sewing boards, your project list could begin to increase in length exponentially. Thankfully, I've also read several blogs lately which have been encouraging me to stop worrying about the length of my project lists and to start by choosing one thing and accomplishing it. Today, I choose a magnetic letter board for Miles.

Miles knows his letters and the sounds they make, but is a scary home decorator with crayons or pens. How to let him play with touching letters and manipulating them without having a new and undesired mural on our living room wall? A magnetic letter board. Our fridge will not hold magnets so I had to come up with another option. Pinterest brought up an idea and, since I had all the components, I decided to try it.

Ancient IKEA tart pan (used as a cookie sheet for 6-8 years) + SOS pad + charcoal gray Rustoleum spray paint (a bright color would be more fun but that's what I had)....


becomes....


a magnetic letter board! For now, I think we'll use it as a tray on our laps until we decide where to hang it. If we're willing for a letter or two to be lost, it might even work as an on-the-go toy to keep in the van.

 
I'm in project mode, so stay tuned.