Nailed It: Sneak Peek

There’s probably going to be a point during this post where you raise your eyebrows at the computer and say, “you did what?” So I’m just going to preface this by telling you I’ve been both a.) snowed in, and b.) a little under the weather for the last two days. Not knocked on my ass, mind you, but just germ-ridden enough that I can only go up and down the ladder while painting the office a few times before I’m exhausted, but not enough so that I can lay around doing nothing without going crazy.

Which means–try not to fall out of your chair– I’ve actually washed and folded all of the laundry in my house.

Right?

I also finally figured out what to do with this piece of wood I hung over the doors to the office a few weeks ago…

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I thought about a lot of things… painting something on it, finding old metal letters to use, finding new metal letters to use, making letters out of tools a la this picture I took back on Memorial:

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Nothing felt quite right…

But then I started thinking about a 20 pound box of rusty brad nails that I found in the barn when I moved in and couldn’t bring myself to throw away, even though I had no idea what the hell to do with them.

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Then a little lightbulb clicked on, which is how I found myself spending four hours indian-style on the floor last night doing this…

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Originally I didn’t intend to space the nails so closely, but I realized it was going to be imperative if I ever wanted to read the words on the board. So basically what I’m saying is that I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into when I started this project…

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But then I effing loved the way it looked, so of course I’m in for the long haul now. (Um, sound familiar anyone? This is probably a theme in my life that should be explored, but I’m going to be too busy over the next month pounding thousands of rusty nails into this board.)

This is what I think of as a “puzzle project”… as in, not something you do all in one sitting. It’s like having a jigsaw puzzle spread out on the table, and every once in a while when you’re bored, sitting down to fit a few pieces together. Except with a hammer and a higher likelihood of contracting tetanus.

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Right now I’m 4.5 letters down, with 31 letters to go, which I’m guessing means at least 15 more hours on the dining room floor.

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What I really love about this is how it doesn’t stand out too much in terms of color… the letters are made almost entirely from the relief. And you know, it just feels right.

So all I have to say is God bless the U.S. and the invention of cold medicine.

32 Responses

  1. Excellent, I like it much better than the string art, which I have to admit I am old enought to remember the first time round (1970’s) and yes I did do some macrame aat the time but I was a little kid at school and didn’t know any better.

    1. I just missed the age cutoff for knowing string art used to be a “thing” (Macrame, on the other hand…)

    2. Yup, did string art here too. I think my parents still have one of mine in the house somewhere. 🙂

      1. I still have a hook rug in a closet somewhere that I never finished. Patience is something I lack.

      2. I have a hooked rug that I did in the 70s. Too bad those garish 70s colors have never come back in style or I could display it. People are still doing string art Google string art and select “images” – wow. Who knew?

        I like Kit’s version with the rusty nails much better. Rusty nails beat yarn and thread hands down, any day. 🙂

  2. This really is marvelous and so looks like you. Will the sign read life liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I am getting a different letter count than you. Hope I’m wrong. I wash and fold laundry om my good days. You are remarkable.

  3. really super like this.

    i also like that over the last few posts, i’ve come to find out that we share a home state (yay, mitten)! i’m currently house hunting on the east side and before i knew such things, reading your blog had me wanting my own old farmhouse to revamp. maybe with a little less know-how and a touch more “fake it til you make it” in terms of home improvement, but we all can dream…

    1. Oh, don’t let me fool you lisa… it’s 90% fake it til you make it around here. That’s what home improvement is all about. Good luck on your house hunt, neighbor!

  4. That’s awesome – love the idea, love the quote and and love the way it’s turning out! The last time all the laundry in my house was clean, folded and put away was the blizzard of 2009 so apparently snow and laundry go together. My family would like another blizzard just to have matching clean socks again.

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