A wedding and a shelf

I couldn't come up with a creative title for this post (sorry). I'm trying to get this blog post in amid this very busy week! Last weekend, J and I went up to Albany for my grand-little's (sorority) wedding. We had a great time seeing her get married. I unfortunately am a little light on the photos from the wedding though. We didn't have a very good angle during the ceremony and then I neglected to bring my camera to the reception. So, here are a few of my pictures so you get the idea. I was relieved to see on facebook that other people had managed to take much better pictures than I did.  We made the long trip up to Albany with 2 of our close friends, stopping in PA Friday night and spending the night with my parents. Overall, a fun and successful weekend.

J and I:

Our friends (J and S):

In terms of house stuff, I have actually been working on a project a few hours here and there over the past week or so. Since I haven't had a whole lot of time and parts of the project needed drying and setting time, this has worked out well. I thought of this project idea when J gave me small monogrammed plates for my birthday. I was struggling to come up with an idea of how to use them. Also, they came with a warning about washing them, so I decided I didn't really want to use them for eating. I finally came up with the idea of a small shelf to display them in the dining room. I looked around the house and decided that we already had the raw materials I would need to accomplish this. These are left over scraps that the contractor left after our half-bath remodel. The dark wood piece was the perfect size as an anchor piece for the molding I used.

I got out my trusty miter box and hand saw to cut the angles on the molding.

Then figured out how all my pieces would fit together.

I used liquid nails to secure all the pieces in place.

You can see how the shelf is taking shape.

I also used some screws to really anchor the long piece of molding to the wood.

You can see that I use a small and a larger drill bit for the screw holes. That allows the wood screw to sit flush with the wood.

I then fixed up all the uneven parts with wood putty that I let dry and then sanded down. I painted the whole thing with the white trim paint we had already.

I let it dry over the weekend, so it was ready to hang up last night. To hang it, I had drilled two larger holes into the back of the wood. I then used screws into the drywall and slipped the shelf over the screws. I also used those command strips for added security. But, I doesn't feel quite as secure as I usually like things to feel, so I may modify it. It isn't holding that much weight so it should be okay.

And here are some pictures with the plates.

I really enjoy the way it looks in the dining room. I have felt like that area was missing something, and this $0 project seemed to fit perfectly!

I hope you all had a great weekend!