Linen Pinboard...it's my way of nesting

So, Jeff has remarked I've been very DIY lately. I think it's the nesting phase of pregnancy. I never had time when I was pregnant with Nikhil because we had just moved into our new house 6 weeks earlier. We were so overwhelmed with getting furniture for the house, since we didn't bring anything with us from Boston, we had to start from scratch. This time almost 2.5 years later, we have furniture, so now I can concentrate on the little things that drive me nuts in our space to organize it better for baby #2.

So, we had our beach time this morning, where I was able to have a nice swim, an activity which gives me a temporary reprieve from feeling so heavy and pregnant!


And, for the first time in a while, we had no obligations, so the rest of the Sunday was ours. Which meant, nap time for Nikhil and mommy and afterwards, I decided to tackle our home office.

Our home office is a mess. Which if you've seen our office at work, actually kind of parallels it. But, for some reason, it drives me more crazy here at home than at work. I guess because home is my sanctuary and for some reason, I feel like the chaos is inevitable at work.

Anyway, for a while we've had a corkboard just resting on the ground of our home office and a magnetic board resting on the top of my desk. Nikhil is always pulling stuff off the magnet board since he loves magnets, so I'm always losing important gift cards, invitations, etc. I've been meaning to hang everything for a while but I didn't like the corkboard. I was looking at pottery barn and found this nice linen pinboard, but for $149 + shipping to Hawaii = $188.10, that is way too expensive.

So, I found this blog, which detailed how to make one yourself. And, it really was that easy. Took about 30 minutes and I made it for $30!

Before- A $15 bulletin board from City Mill


After: My linen bulletin board, costing less than 1/5 of the PB version.

Now, we just have to hang it, which may take another month to do. For some reason, I have a lot of things I keep meaning to hang, but just never get around to doing. I think I'm scared of putting it in the wrong place and being stuck with unsightly nail holes. Or perhaps it's the years of living in rental apartments in New York and Boston, which has scarred me from ever nailing into walls. Whatever the reason, I'm giving myself a deadline - by the next weekend, this and the magnet board should be hung!

And, here's a preview of another project I started working on this weekend- the playroom tables and chairs, though it's taking a lot more coats of chalkboard paint than I had expected, so I'm still not done.

Yes, I'm wearing a sun hat and a respirator mask - that chalkboard paint is a bit fumey and it's not low VOC, so I wasn't taking any chances. But, not exactly my best look.