Bedroom Overhaul

If you give a girl a Lowe's gift card...

With the $40 Lowe's gift card I got for Christmas, I bought some tools and a few supplies to make this giant sign for my bedroom. It's been horribly dull for years. I got the idea from this post at Apartment Therapy.

I used 1/4 inch birch because it was thin, light, and relatively cheap. Vinyl letters are expensive, so I made my own with contact paper and an x-acto knife. It took forever but it was a whole lot cheaper than buying over 50 vinyl letters at 68 cents each!

Then I spray painted the board with the color I wanted the letters to be and used a ruler and a chalk line to basically make it a huge sheet of lined notebook paper. This was a big help when lining up the letters! Then I just stuck the letters to the board, spray painted my main color, and peeled the letters up! It took about 5 hours start to finish, including a quick dinner break and shopping for materials.** The bulk of the time was spent cutting the letters out of the contact paper.

You may be asking yourself, what's with the quote? The quote is from the episode of Futurama called "Godfellas." Yes, a sci-fi cartoon, as inspiration. Here's why:

In this episode, Bender accidentally is ejected from the ship and drifts through space. He is hit by an asteroid inhabited by tiny people, who worship him as a god. He tries to help his people, but always messes it up. So, he stops interfering and his people end up destroying each other. Sad and alone, he drifts until he sees a galaxy signaling in binary who seems to understand him and the rest of the universe. The galaxy (which we eventually understand to be God) tells him that you have to use a light touch "like a safe cracker." Do too much, and people become dependent. Do nothing, and they lose hope. God ultimately saves the day and returns Bender to Earth. Meanwhile, Fry and Leela have locked a whole bunch of monks in a laundry room and figure that God will save them. Bender valiantly goes back to rescue them as he recounts to his friends that you can't count on God for anything-he pretty much said so himself! The last scene is God saying "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." I highly recommend watching the whole episode (20 minutes) which is remarkably available online here.

I love this quote because it reminds us that just because we can't see evidence that something is working, that doesn't mean it isn't. This can go for God's work in our lives, or our country, or our own work. It's important to remember that sometimes your best work may not be recognized, and it's because you really did do a great job. Recognition isn't everything. And if you spend all of your time seeking it, you're probably faking. Religious or not, this quote means something and I've always loved it. Sometimes cartoons can be pretty deep!

Other stuff in the room:

• The framed roadrunner picture is actually a linen napkin I found at Saver's for a dollar. It matched my room so I took it home, ironed it into an 8x10 rectangle, and stuck it in an old frame that I spray painted to match the room. Everything else in the frames is either scrap fabric or a postcard. Once again, hooray for spray paint and making all the frames match.
  
• The bench is a telephone bench from Goodwill ($10 I think) that I painted. I also re-covered the seat with a nicer fabric. It needs to be painted again, but Krylon fusion spray paint holds up pretty well on cheap laminated plywood that is otherwise un-paintable.


• All of my jewelry is lined up in mason jars on my dresser (free from my dad) because I couldn't find a better way to store it. I like the way it looks. I keep all of the necklaces that I use on a regular basis in that cute orange thing on the lamp shelf, which was a gift from my friend Jared.


• Small mirror: free from my dad's house, again. Big mirror: $2 at a garage sale, found at the same place as the side table, which was $1.
• The tall lamp is a WalMart lamp (for shame!) but only came in a black finish, so I spray painted it. I love spray paint SO MUCH.


• The Aladdin lamp is genuine-it's a real antique but is still incredibly useful. It is courtesy of my aunt and uncle. It saved my butt during an ice storm my first year of teaching in KS, and I'm sure if the power ever goes out again I'll be glad I have it.
• That adorable shamrock cross is a gift from my friend Gina, who always finds me the coolest St. Patrick's day stuff for my birthday!

**Shopping at Lowe's. Ugh. I needed a new set of screwdrivers as mine got lost in the move, and when I asked an employee he said, "Why, what'd you break?" I get pretty irritated when I walk into a hardware store and the male employees assume that females shopping there are incompetent. Look, buddy, I do all of my own repairs. I am a bada$$. Shut up.