Inspiration Boards

A couple of weeks ago I showed you my One Stop Office Chest.  The significance of this chest is that it was given to my husband and I as an engagement gift.  I had never heard of the tradition, but my parents called it a hope chest.  For years it held odds and ends, but did not serve a useful purpose.  My husband and I transformed the chest into a one stop office chest where we file all of our important documents.  I had stated in the previous post that I wanted to do something with the cork boards that were on the top.  Well, I did and I love it!  I decided that each of the cork boards would be a space for our family to post important items to us.  My board is the pink, Riley’s is the blues and greens and Joe’s is the brown.  I simply covered the cork board with scrapbook paper.  I didn’t even have to cut it!  An added bonus.

Scrapbooked corkboard within the office chest

I love the items that I found to place on my board.  I’ll start with the pictures.  The top left is my munchkin with her Minnie Mouse ears on her birthday party, which you can read about here.  Below that is a picture of Joe with Riley’s Minnie Mouse sunglasses on (he still looks cute!).  The picture in the bottom right hand corner is a picture of Joe as a boy.  Seriously, he was so stinkin’ cute!  The items that you see all have importance to me.  The Irish Knot is from my grandmother and came with a list of my heritage from Ireland.  The moon is a bookmark that was given out at my baby shower.  My family asked that everyone bring a children’s book to help build Riley’s library.  You should see the books she has.  I love it!  The white piece of paper under the bookmark is from my wedding shower where my bridesmaids had me play the prenewlywed game.  The question asks, “What does Jenny love about you?”  Joe answered, “I think, she thinks I’m funny.”  Seriously?!  The H is my varsity level for Hamilton College where I played field hockey and basketball and was a captain in both.  The glory days!  Lol! 

Riley’s board was fun to make because I had these pieces hidden throughout her room to save as momentos.  Now it can be displayed in one place.  The ribbon around the board is from her Minnie Mouse birthday party.  The medal is from the Little Gym, which you can read all about here.  There’s also one of her Thumb Valentines with a bracelet that was made for her when she was a newborn.  I added the headband that she wore to my brother’s wedding and it’s pinned onto the board with two of her earrings that she lost the matching one of it.  The picture is of munchkin in my favorite outfit with her favorite sweet, “cupcake”.

Joe’s board isn’t as much fun, but I still tried to find some things.  The picture in the upper left hand corner is of Joe with his brother when they lived in California.  Joe and his brother are extremely close and were growing up too.  He is overseas right now doing his third tour as Marine.  Each and every time he has gone we worry about him.  The two pins are my favorite.  Joe went to a really large high school and the sports were the end all be all to the school.  Joe played football and baseball.  Talk about the glory days!  The boy will talk your ear off with stories!  Beneath the pins are a picture of Joe looking adoringly on Riley because as he likes to say “she’s my baby girl”.  Guess who does the discipline in our house?!  The other picture is of Joe and I on a trip to the Berkshires when we first started trying for Riley.  She took a year, but she was well worth the wait.  The white paper is another one of the cards from the prenewlywed game.  The questions asks, “What is your favorite thing about Jenny?”  He answered, “That she is so caring.”

Here’s the final product.  I love it!  It adds so much more character to the chest and it gives me a great place to keep my momentos stored.

It’s amazing the significance that a single item can hold for us, isn’t it?  If you’re looking for the bloglovin’ blog hop it’s open until Sunday and you can find it here.  Hop on over!

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