There's a Kitty on My Lap, So You Get a New Post otherwise entitled: A Couple of Things I've Done Lately

A while back, I got really tired of the projector "screen" (a big piece of Black-out fabric) hanging on the wall in the living room. It was just ugly. So I went to my good friend, Google (yes, we are on a first name terms; little know fact: He does have a middle and last name, but I can't reveal them due to copyright infringement) and discovered he knows a lot about making your own projector screen. Big, clunky, I want my living room to be a Home Theatre projector screens.

His knowledge of a working screen that still says "people live in this house" was woefully absent.

Then it dawned on me: I had seen exactly what I'd like somewhere before... now where was it?

Oh yeah, at church.

Am I the only one who finds this weird?

I believe I was probably the first person to use this screen in years when I rolled it down for the Ward Christmas Party. It is awesome, perfect for a huge presentation as it is ginormous! Much bigger than I needed, otherwise I may have been forced to "borrow" it for a bit, in order to figure out how to build my own.



However, being the good mother of 5 children and wife to a very handsome man, I carry my camera everywhere I go and was able to take pictures of the mother screen and come up with my own plans. Here's the original.

And here's the still needs tweaking full-on instructions to Build Your Own Roll-up Projector Screen on Google Docs.

All rights reserved, you may only make copies for personal use and if you sell it to anyone in any form I will be forced to be not happy with you. Whew (my lawyer makes me say all that)



And here are a few random pics of the process. The first is me using a staple gun. It's just fun.















This one is Robert trying to get me to smile and staple my fingers at the same time.











This is a shot of my messy cutting table in my "office slash craft room", but really the point is to show how the fabric is all crumpled up while I staple it on top before adding the pipe on the bottom, and the rope, pulleys, etc.















And here it is,







down.





and here it is, up!

So you can all see the pointless "Preacher's Bar" and built in bookshelves which hold that and so much more.

I haven't put up a cleat for it yet, b/c I am lazy and just haven't bought or made one, so I'm using the connectors for the gate we took down once EJ could go up and down stairs by herself.

It works.

Next project: After Robert and I went out on Valentine's Day I got the chocolate bug. I'd wanted to make some treats for Relief Society, so I went overboard.

It was a nice swim.

Our cute babysitter, Ashleigh (hope I spelled it right), stayed and helped, and Molly even came over to facilitate us making more of a mess!

We ended up with mint truffles,

chocolate chip truffles, almond truffles, cocoa truffles, non-pareils, chocolate dipped graham crackers, chocolate flowers (also some white chocolate flowers),


and chocolate dipped strawberries... Ashleigh especially enjoyed the drizzling with white chocolate process.


Don't forget, if you'd like to drool some more, that you can click on all the pics and get them full resolution!

YAY!

Want the recipes? I am a sharing chef, not a Swedish Chef.

OK, some days I'm a Swedish Chef, "Schmork de schmork!"