Bulletin Boards and Blue Jeans

I like to craft and to create. Here are two of my recent projects. 

I texted our bishop to see if I could make a missionary bulletin board, and he readily agreed. My inspiration stemmed from Aubrey choosing to serve a mission, and a bulletin board that used to be up in the stake offices. 

It is kind of tucked away, and the only reason I ever saw it was because Brinley and then Parker served missions. I felt it was inspiring to see pictures of the youth in the stake and their mission calls.

Our stake does supply missionary plaques, but it seems they are never up to date.  For example. out of the ten missionaries serving from Odessa 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ward, only one has a plaque displayed in our building. This bulletin board will at least look sharp and be current with our missionaries.

My first task was finding a nice map. I found a download on Etsy of a beautiful watercolor map. The small business was kind enough to make the dimensions more square and add "Called to Serve" at the top. I added a black frame and a text box with D&C 4 to the bottom of the map and had it printed at Staples.

I got to work gathering mission calls and pictures from families in all three wards that meet in our building. I formatted and printed and cut and pasted...and then headed up to church to put it all together.

I love how it turned out. I hope it encourages future missionaries, young and old, to make the leap of faith, and  I hope it makes the families of those serving happy to see their missionaries on the board. 

One of my other projects this winter has to do with a pair of jeans I purchased. When I got them home, I realized they were very, very similar to a pair I already owned. Instead of returning them, I decided I would try to dye them to look distressed.

After doing a little research, I bought RIT dye in brown and orange and began the process. I found a Home Depot bucket, boiled some water, and used about a 1/2 of the brown and added 2T of the orange. 

I was pretty pleased with my results. They were a rusty color and looked a lot different than my blue pair. I wore them several times over the next 6 weeks. 

However, whenever I wore them, Brian or my dad would make little off hand comments like "What is wrong with your jeans?" or "What color would you call these exactly?" They were not being mean...they were truly confused/concerned.🤣🤣🤣

Eventually, I decided maybe the color was too different. (Maybe my girlfriends were just kinder in not calling me out?) I purchased RIT dye in blue... and Wala...the new and final finished product. I like them even better than the original or rusty version. 

It's a win! Now on to my next project.