{You are my Sunshine} Gallery Wall

I started working on this wall near the end of September.  It has taken me until now to finish up all the little details with it, and fill in the gaps.  I am so excited to share it with you.

 

This wall is what I see just before I turn to go into my bedroom.  It makes me happy.  It was also the perfect place for something like this.

When putting this wall together, I needed to keep it inexpensive.

See that sweet 3 month old Tess.  Sweet Sweet reminders.

I gathered frames from my attic, and then a few from a local thrift shop.  I cleaned them all up good, and gave them a little spray with my favorite tool; spray paint.

I used: rust oleum American accents Honey(yellow) and Krylon gray

Once I had that all figured out, I needed to find pictures to fill the frames.  I knew I wanted to use some older pictures.  I went through my stash and pulled out a few of my favorites.

Isn’t Stella the cutest 5 year old?

I also grabbed a couple of my favorite prints from around the house and added them to this wall.  I have a couple that are mounted on a 12x12 wood square to make them stand out from the wall.

They are home to my favorite print about a lesson learned with Isaac, and Jex’s baptism.

I also knew that I wanted a few of the frames to have some words in them.  That is when I made these two printables.

This printable is for baby Ruby.  It hangs on my wall to remind me, of how precious we all are.

I made this for me kids, because I say this to them all the time.  Tess even says it back now.

I had this one printed through a lab into an 11x14, and then I put it in this frame. You can also print them, by going here.

This adorable round frame was one that I had one of my kids silhouettes in.  The glass broke so I decided to use it here.  I knew it had to have an owl in it.  Luckily my sweet friend Marji is awesome at cutting vinyl.  Thanks Marji.

This little space at the top was so hard for me.  It is awkward.  I hate that I have this round fire alarm hanging out in my gallery wall, but I decided that I didn’t want to burn in a fire either.  So I am rolling with it.  Marji cut this est. 1999 vinyl for me to fit perfectly in this awkward space. 

Now… to the final piece.  The part that holds this wall together.  The word art in the middle, “You are my Sunshine.”  Isn’t it awesome?  I originally saw it here and had to duplicate.

I went out to my local hardware store and bought this piece of wood.  It was already cut square like this, and was the perfect width.  I believe I paid $6 for it.  When I got it home, I spray painted it the same yellow.

Marji helped me cut out the words on her silouhette.  I picked the fonts and the sizes, and then we let the machine do the rest.  We cut them out of contact paper because I didn’t want to waste vinyl that I wasn’t going to use.  Once they were cut out, I used the opposite part of the words as a pattern.  I traced it on my wood.  I wanted the letters to be painted and not  vinyl lettering. I used the vinyl for my pattern only.

Once I had it all traced, I used a cream color acrylic paint to hand paint the letters.  When I was finished, I used a little sandpaper to rough it all up.

I absolutely love how it all came together.  The yellow and the gray together are the perfect combination.

It also brings a little sunshine into my day as I am reminded of those little rays in my life.

I think it is important to fill our home with the things that make us happy, make us smile, and help us remember our blessings.

Affection

For the last two weeks our home has been filled with a few extra loved ones.  My BFF, Krysta came for a little visit.  We even got to share a little time with her husband.  Then just a few days later my baby sister, Lindsay and her baby London came for a visit.  Just a few days later my mother and other sister joined us.

Can you say?  Girls Weekend!!! (Tess did not want to be left out of all the girly fun.)

We had such a wonderful visit.  While they were here, I learned a wonderful lesson.

I watched as my children ran up to each family member and gave them a big hug.  I watched as they laid there head on them, or wrapped their arms around them.  I smiled when they climbed up on their lap and settled in.

It was then that I realized how giving of affection children are.

Each day I relish the moments that my kids greet Jonathan at the door with big hugs and kisses.

  

The words, “I love you mom” are music to my ears.

After the realization of this, I paid a little more attention.

I was amazed at how many times a day my kids showed some sort of affection to me, without my initiating it.

  

Even little Tess will crawl up on my lap, or walk over and plant a slobbery kiss on my face.

 

I even recognized how Jonathan and I use affection to help them feel better when they are upset, or to reinforce a particular rule.   We also use it when giving praise.

  

It taught me two important lessons:

1.  It is important to give affection to our kids.  They thrive on it, and it helps them feel secure.  It also teaches them to show affection.

2.  After watching how my kids can so easily show affection to other people outside our immediate family.  Most importantly how they give it so freely.  It reminded me of how I should be doing that in my own life.  Kids don’t think before they hug someone.  I, on the other hand question myself.  Should I hug my dear friend, should I not.  Is it okay to pat them on the back for a job well done?

 

After taking cues from my kids, I realized how important it is to show more affection.  Not only to my immediate family, but to other loved ones as well. 

It was so much fun to look back through my pictures and remember how affection has been a big part of raising our children.

Even when Jonathan and I hear the sound, “ooo” because we are kissing in front of the children.

…and now a few weeks later then promised, my scrapbook pages and love notes to my children in honor of February.

My challenge to you: write a love note to someone and show more affection then you normally do.

Improvise

Yesterday morning at 6:45 my alarm went off.  I sat on the edge of the bed and mumbled to Jonathan, “can I have the morning off?”  Sometimes I find getting the kids off to school the most daunting task.  I think it is because I am still half asleep, and I hate fighting them to get going.  I guess one would suppose after many school days the phrase, “how come you don’t have shoes on, or please eat your breakfast” would no longer have to be uttered.  They do.  I say them every morning.  In fact, sometimes I say them very loudly.

I did not take the morning off.  I got up, and got them going.  I made breakfast, and almost packed them a lunch.  Then Stella decided that she would like to try the ham and cheese sandwich that the school would be serving, so I talked Jex into is also.  At 7:45 we were out the door, and as I was driving I noticed the snow flurries begin to fall.  I waited in the car line, and told the kids I loved them as they jumped out of the car.

By 8:00 I was back home carrying around a very grumpy 15 month old, and by 8:15 the snow was really coming down.  At 8:20 I turned on the news and I knew it was time to take action.  It was time to go back and get the kids, and ten minutes later I got a text from the school saying they were closing at 9:00am due to weather.

Thanks so much school district.  I could have taken the morning off.  Next time there is threat of snow, I am just letting them sleep in.  I am just glad I didn’t make lunches that would have given me something to be really bitter about.

…and as Jex walks back through the door at 9:00am he says, “we are going to be going to school until July.”  I thought to myself that he was right.  If this crazy weather doesn’t let up you will.

My plans this whole week have been up in the air.  I planned to make it out to one of my favorite fabric stores.  I  have this sample I have been staring at and want to make pillows out of.  I had a play date scheduled, lunch with a friend, and funeral to go to.  I also need to get to the grocery store so I can finish my kids Valentines, and make food for the a super bowl party tomorrow.  Oh, and we have been invited to a friends for dinner tonight, and I needed ingredients for the dish I planned to take.  I also wanted to take some Love Photos of my kids this week.

SICK KIDS AND SNOW CHANGED ALL MY PLANS!!

I literally canceled almost everything that I had on my social calendar, and lets not forget my to-do list.

That is when it is time to improvise.

My plans were to go downtown with the kids for a fun photo shoot.  When it started to snow yesterday, I decided to take action and just cross something off my list.

Sometimes plan B turns out great, and you are grateful that plan A didn’t work in the first place.

The snow in the backyard seemed a great backdrop for Our Love photo shoot. (remember I already took pics of Tess.)

I had a lot of fun with Stella.  She really plays with me, and most of the time I just have to capture her being herself.  She loves to play up to the camera.

Here are a few of my favorites.

I think she loves pictures so much because I let her wear some of my jewelry and lip gloss.

I love the small little flecks of snow that are falling down.

She makes photography fun.  I love coming in and plugging these pictures in to my computer and being so pleased with the results.  A good subject really makes great photos.

The boys are never as fun to photograph.  They say things like, “okay, but only one photo”, and “are we done yet?”  I never seem to get all I want out of them.

After I loaded them and started looking I reminded myself that although they don’t play with me, that I am so grateful that I captured them today.

They are mine, and I am taking these pictures as a reminder of what I love about them right now.

I love that Jex looks so grown-up, and I was actually so happy with the few that he let me snap.

Isn’t he awesome flashing his “I love you” sign.

It was a good reminder of what I wanted these pictures to represent.

…and I was positive I had nothing good on Isaac.

….and then he looked at me with those eyes and I was smitten.

He makes me just want to pucker up and smooch him back.

Now I have something to cross off my list:

take Love photos in the month of February

make Valentines for the kids

 

I also crossed one more thing off my list.

Record what you love about your kids in the month of February

Done, Done, and Done!!

I made a scrapbook page for each child yesterday using these photos.  I wrote about them and what I love about them.

I will post the pages and thoughts tomorrow.  It’s just too much for one day.

I guess I am grateful we were snowed in.  I crossed some of the important things off my list.