Organize lovely-A bulletin board for our crazy, beautiful life.

That is a name of one of my Pinterest boards. I call it organize lovely because other than functioning better, organizing should allow your space to be lovely. Right? Organized=Lovely. The end.

So this last year with 6 children in school, I found that I always had a pile of papers that had to be signed, looked at, returned, what have you. It was annoying. Especially because I hate piles and clutter. But alas it was never ending.

So this summer, when those papers weren't coming home, I happily looked at the clean counter and thought, "Never more. I will not have piles of papers!"

So I had to come up with a solution.

In our entry way we have this adorable little desk. It had snazzy little mirrors above it, creating a nice decorated little space that did absolutely nothing but look good.

We never sat there except for the occasional playing school, and it was just a constant hot spot where people unloaded papers and odds and ends. I don't have a picture of it. Which is sad, cuz when clean it was cute. But again, without function or purpose.

I knew that it would be a perfect command center if I could find just the right way to organize it while still making it lovely enough to be one of the first things people see when they come in our home.

And since my budget was, as always, about 20 bucks I searched around until I found this handy little tutorial for a bulletin board using foam insulation board instead of cork board. You can buy a huge piece that weighs about a pound at Lowes or Home Depot for 8 dollars. You can cut it yourself with a utility knife, or you can nicely ask the guy helping you to do it. Your choice. I chose getting help:)

I chose a size of 40 inches wide and 45 inches high. It fit the area and gave me plenty of space to organize our lives.

I then chose a piece of fabric that was sturdy enough to recover when a thumb tack was removed, without being too heavy to actually push through the fabric. Make sense?

From there I just followed her instructions and it turned out great.

I also love the look of nail heads/upholstery tacks but I like not spending very much money. So I bought a package each of silver and white tacks and spent the good part of an hour tacking them around the entire perimeter.

I found awesome mini clothes pins and gold clothes pins at Walmart and hot glued them to the fabric.

                                        Dollar buckets from Target always come in handy.

I bought a great desk sized calendar for the whole family's activities, which even with just about one per person, it really adds up! Now we can all check the calendar and see whats what. 

It makes me happy every time I sit there. It's kind of become my space and it seems everyone innately knows not to put ANYTHING on that desk because I have not had to remind anyone-I think my "reminders" are what they are really afraid of. ;) 

Also, I love birds. Sorry. I do. And though it has nothing to do with this post, I possess a high number of bird type decor in my house. It's been that way for years now. I've been thinking about branching out into other creatures, maybe a fox or two, but I just can't seem to do it. 

And I believe that as a reward for my love of feathered friends, a mama robin decided to build her nest on one of the beams of our front porch.

The babies have grown up and gone now, but we felt honored that a little piece of our home made her feel safe to have her babies.

Also, did you know that a robin will totally abandon her nest when you open your front door? She will fly off to the safety and distance of the front lawn and leave her eggs undefended, screeching at you the whole time, but from afar.

I was surprised by that. If I was a mama bird and someone came near my nest? Well, lets just say there would be no long distance screeching.

It's nice to be back by the way. I forgot how much I loved to blog. And oh, there is so much to tell and play "catch up" with. See you soon.