project - warning - long post, skip the personal reflections if you just want the pictures!

We are once again trying to get our house ready to sell, which means you have to go into all those places you hide clutter and get rid of it so everything looks nice and wide open. 

Do you know that I have SO MANY books? 

It is crazy, anyway, I also haven't hung anything up on the wall since we took most stuff down to touch up the paint when we tried to sell our house 18 months ago.  So everything looks a little barren.

I also just absolutely love family pictures of our friends and family.  Love, love, love them.  I mean really love them - did you get how much there??  If you haven't sent me a family picture in a while, don't feel you need to wait until Christmas - I would take one anytime!  So I don't want another stack of awesome family pictures to get shoved in a box somewhere in my basement.  I decided that if we hung a bulletin board in the dining room it would allow me to hang up pictures without it looking like clutter (notice our Christmas cards are all still hung on a line above Tapper's head so that I don't misplace the pictures before I have a chance to put them on display.)
But all the bulletin boards I have are really old and were second hand from schools to begin with...kind of like this...

see?  Pitted, written on, etc...so I googled last week how to cover one with fabric - because yes, I am the sort that needs a step-by-step tutorial.
Anyway, we had an hour to kill yesterday while we were waiting for our oldest to serve in the last church service so we made a stop in the East end of our city to buy fabric.((Side note about the fabric store - I totally love it there.  I am not a visual person really, but I do absolutely love the fabric store. In my paper craft stash I have a ton of patterned paper as well.  I don't use it much, because sometimes the patterns are so visually stimulating that it is overwhelming, but I love it.))
So I had decided to buy a solid piece of fabric, since I didn't want the fabric to detract attention from the pictures.  I wanted to hang this fabric covered bulletin board in my dining room with all of the pictures on it so I can keep them out and still have it look nice.
Anyway I bought this for fabric...

I know...it is not a solid at all.  <sigh>  I couldn't help it.  It is so beautiful, and it would compliment the accent wall so well....anyway, here is the finished product...

 I think it turned out okay - another note about me - I can 't do asymmetrical.  I just can't.  I am a center it in the middle and have it even on both sides kind of person.  I love asymmetrical designs - but I can't think that way when I am making something.  As you can see I may have had a breakthrough!  I couldn't bare to waste the beautiful design on this fabric from both ends to use the middle.  So I decided that if I lined up the scallops on the one side it would be okay because it would be symmetrical up and down - and it still had a 'line' to it.  (That way one of my daughters might be the recipient of a beautiful skirt - or I might even get an apron from the rest!!)

Anyway, I do like it hanging that way, I think it looks really nice, but I don't know if I can use it to hang the family pictures on.  I think the fabric is definately too busy - so unless I mount all the pictures on cardstock to create a matte and a barrier between the busy fabric and the background of the photos I don't think it will look like I had hoped. 

Although...it just so happens that I really love it this way, and may need to just hang it like a piece of art above the loveseat - check this out...

I would love your opinion!

I also made this one as art for the kids play room downstairs - I love it too...seriously love this fabric, I am so glad it was 50% off!

On this one we even just replaced the frame - I might cut it down and do it nicer when we actually move, but for now it will add a ton of colour to our totally plain and drab basement!