What I'm Growing

Lettuce from my garden

Nasturtium

Feeding the Hummingbirds

How to Make a Hanging World Map for Under $15

I wanted to get a world map for our office (aka my husbands game room) but didn't want to spend a lot. So after some Internet searching I decided to buy this National Geographic map (24x36) from Amazon for about $12. With Amazon Prime the shipping was free! When it arrived I was surprised and disappointed to find that it was laminated. Framing it seemed redundant and just thumb tacking it to the wall seemed too casual so I decided to hang it using wooden dowels, string and a hook.

I bought two 4-foot dowels from Home Depot and wiped on two coats of red mahogany stain that I found in my garage. I waited probably about 30 minutes for the stain to dry (because I am super inpatient) and then I used a small drill attachment and put two holes at opposite ends of one the dowels.

While wearing stylish purple gloves I used a (dusty) can of spray adhesive on one side of the dowel while paying attention to the orientation of the drilled holes so the map would hang correctly.

Next I laid the map on an old curtain that I use for painting and other messy stuff. Carefully I positioned the dowel to where I wanted it and let the spray adhesive do its thing. I did have to hold pressure on part of the dowel that slightly bowed so that it would adhere where I wanted it to. Wearing gloves is highly recommended!

Using some twine that I had on hand I strung one end thru the drilled hole, tied a knot and pulled the string taunt. I let out a bunch of stack on the twin spool (I wasn't sure how low I wanted the map to hang) then I cut the end, strung it thru the hole and tied the knot. My hubs hung up the cast iron owl hook for me that I had bought on my first trip to Hobby Lobby.

After some adjusting of the string, I found a length that I liked and hung it up. (Its easy to shorten the string by cutting off the knot, pulling more string thru and tying a new knot)

Materials:

• a paper map
•  4-foot dowels x2
• wood stain and clean rag for staining
• gloves
• power drill and small wood drill bit
• spray adhesive
• string or twine 

Happy Crafting!

Adding interest to the office entry

  I bought this light metal scroll decoration from Hobby Lobby the other day. I could not decide where to hang it so I had my wonderful husband hold it up for me all over the house while I tried to decide. I almost put it above the bathroom door but in the end decided on above the double doors to the office/man cave.