Inventive Problem Solving

What do you do when your husband won’t let you get a ceiling mount projection screen for your formal dining room because he claims that it’s too over the top? psh, as if! wink emoticon Well, you make one yourself that is magnetized and can just be thrown up over your other one! Having to erase (stuff I still needed on the board) before you could project was a major issue that I wasn’t willing to live with for another year. Problem solved -on the cheap!

I had been pondering over how to solve this problem since last year. It wasn't until I had seen my friend and Sunday school teacher use a portable screen a couple times that my brain finally went "duh, you could do that too!" I asked her what she used to make it and then looked at hers more closely the next time we were at church. There are lots of different ways this can be done. My particular choice was to use magnets, but you could use velcro, put a dowel through it and hang it like a curtain, you could stretch it over a frame, really anything that will fit your needs.

First up, you need the black out screen fabric. It comes in a couple of sizes and I got the smallest one and I've got enough left over to make a couple more screens. I ordered it from Amazon. I also got some 2" flexible adhesive magnet. 

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 After I determined the size I needed and cut out my fabric, I hemmed the edges. I ended up with a 2" hem at the top because I decided that I needed it smaller than I measured for and I was ok with it because it was the width of my magnetic tape, but I'm not sure I would do that again because of the way the fabric sits.

 Doing this job by yourself doesn't allow you to get a really good stretch on the fabric so you're going to have some wrinkles. I just dealt with that fact and tried to get it as smooth as possible. No one is really going to pay attention and notice anyway. 

 I put magnet on the top and bottom so you can get a nice pull on the fabric to stretch out the wrinkles and get a nice smooth projecting surface. 

There you have it. You can see the 2" hem at the top that is more wrinkled than the 1/4" hem at the bottom. I also left all the magnets that were up on my board when I threw up the screen so you can see them under there making the screen more wavy that it will be without them. As it is though, it's a perfect surface to project on for my purposes. 

 The only thing I'm worried about it how dirty it will get when put up over the writing on the board. We'll see how it goes and I may just end up using the left over fabric to stretch on a frame that will just lean against the wall on the floor until I need it and then hang it over the other one with hooks. I'm super excited to be able to have something written on the board and still be able to project though. 

A couple other random things while I'm here. The fashion statement that I made for 3 weeks and then another 48 hours with my compression hoes. I had a black pair and a "nude" pair that made me look like I had mannequin legs. This is how stylin I looked with the cut out toes and my flip flops. I totally rocked it! hahaha I wore mostly dresses during the time because it was the least ridiculous looking I could be. You should have seen how silly it looked with shorts and it was way too hot to put pants over the top. So, I just lived the fancy life in dresses for 3 plus weeks. 

 Also super excited that I've got some sweet peaches from my tree this year. I've got a ton more that I've got to go and take off, but I'm hoping they will get a little bigger and a little more ripe before I take them. I just need to pray that the wind doesn't throw them all off before I can get them all. I think I'm going to dry most of them and turn them into fruit leather.  Maybe a couple of cobblers too. Yum!