map art, kind of

for the recent anniversary of hubby and i, i wanted to make something that had meaning to both of us and that we could put in our house.  i had seen some really cool map art on pinterest, i especially liked this one:
 
but i didn't have time to do the embroidery not to mention the fact that i haven't embroidered anything since i was probably 12.  so i decided to just use map pins to pin the places that we have been together so far.  i searched on amazon for a map, and the only ones that i could find that were in my price range were pretty large, poster size.  i didn't want a large map originally, but after i got it i decided it wouldn't be so bad and it would fill the blank wall space in the office nicely.  and when baby Z is older, we can look at the map together and he can learn the states.  so then i had to go find a giant frame, some foam board and map pins.  i found all the supplies and went home to put it all together.  since the foam board came in a piece that was about 20x30 and the map was 24x36 i had to cut some smaller pieces from a second foam board and connect it to make one big 24x36 inch piece.  i just cut the foam board with a box cutter and then duct taped it all together.  it wasn't pretty but it would work.  then, i put the map on the foam board and tried to put it in the frame without the plastic that would end up covering the map and not allow me to push the pins in.  but it wasn't fitting very well, and the map was being wrinkled.  so i took it all apart and tried again.  i had to trim the foam board a little on two of the sides, taped the map to the foam board and then put it all together again, but still it wasn't fitting very well.   i was getting frustrated because while this was going on my baby was on the floor next to me crying because he wanted to be held.  so, i did a little more trimming to the foam board, attached that to the back of the frame, then taped my map on top of the foam board carefully smoothing out the wrinkles and it finally worked.  i had to hold the baby while i put it all in the frame and fastened it all together, but it got done.  then i put the pins in all of the cities that we have been together, which admittedly hasn't been that many yet, but we'll fill that map up!  it will hang in the office, i'll probably put it up today or tomorrow.  so that's it, pretty simple.