Honey Words

I've been tutoring part time for the past couple of months. I get to work with small groups of students to help prepare them for our big standardized test here. I so enjoyed getting to work with kids in a school setting again, and it was a wonderful experience. I had this one group of students though that had me reaching into my bag of tricks and silently praying for patience. It was strange because they were separately each sweet, really neat individuals, but something about that mix of 6 kids just didn't work. They were not nice to each other. Really, just flat out rude to one other, and it really broke my heart. One day I told them for the next 30 minutes that we were together, I wanted them to make every word they said to be sweet like honey. I noticed a bit of a difference in their interactions. Baby steps, right? Our target skill was reading comprehension, but I'm hoping that a bigger, more important lesson sunk in.

So with that in mind, make your words sweet like honey today.

Have a good one!

Gallery Wall: Take 2

I took my time while working on just the right gallery wall for our family room... I cut out the templates:

And arranged them on the wall:

I lived with them for a while, and then I gathered the courage to start hammering nails into my walls. Then I stepped back to take a look, and I did not like it at all.

I'm not sure what the problem is. Could it be that they are not random enough... Or too random... Or spaced out too far... Or quite possibly, maybe I'm not a gallery wall person after all. How is it that I like just about every arrangement I come across, except for this one? Maybe it's kind of like me loving a sofa set on a diagonal in someone else's home, but can't live with mine not perpendicularly set for more than half a day. I think I have issues.... I'm going to try to overcome and give it another go. We will see. As of right now, these holes in my wall are making me crazy:

Did somebody say issues??

Speak Words That...

This inspired...

Trying to keep that feeling going.

Silhouettes- a step further

I've been seeing artwork lately using the pages from sheet music and old books. It gave me an idea on how to redo with our silhouettes from a while ago. Of course our originals are not hung back up on the wall since remodeling because I have yet to finish my gallery wall. And true to my typical procrastinating self, I decided to look past all the halfway finished projects and looming todo lists, and give this little project a go. My materials: scrapbook paper, old poetry book, silhouettes, scissors, tape and ModPodge.

I resized the kids' silhouettes using photoshop and printed out the smaller black and white copy. Out of an old poetry book I chose some sweet poems (Twas the night before Christmas for little guy and A Butterfly for the gal), taped silhouettes to the back of the poem, and cut around the black silhouette.

I cut some scrapbook paper to the size of my frames and situated the cut out silhouettes on them.

I loved the way that they were coming along so much that I decided to make one of our newest family member, my daughter's pet parakeet. Kinda silly, I know, but when I found a poem about flying in a garden it had to be done. I cheated though and just found a silhouette online.

Then I painted on some ModPodge. This was actually my very first experience with using ModPodge, and I'm not sure I did it right because I ended up with some wrinkles. I'll be looking into that.

And then I got a little carried away... Seeing the remaining two identical frames I had left (I told you I had a "collection" of frames going for a while now), I decided my husband and I needed our likenesses done as well. He was only slightly confused when I asked him to take my side-shot and then I took his. A few snapshots, some photoshopping, and a couple of love poems later, I had the whole family done.

{What a wonderful discovery this poem by Roy Croft was.}

I figure since they are just 5x4.5" each, it's not completely obnoxious. I'm actually pretty excited about them. Of course, now I have five more things to hang, right after I finish that gallery wall!

Overheard at My House: Getting Married

Here's the scene: My little guy had the very important job of being the ring bearer in his uncle's wedding this past weekend. We've gone through this with my daughter as a flower girl, and I just don't remember having any anxiety at all leading up to the big day. Well, this experience was different. I was worried and actively praying that my little guy would do his job without causing an America's-Funniest-Home-Videos-type moment. And especially so after this little conversation I had with him just a few days before the wedding:

Me: It's time to go pick up your tuxedo!

Little guy: I don't want to wear a tuxedo.

Me: Why not?

Little guy: I don't want to get married.

Of course, I'm pretty sure he changed his tune after meeting the flower girl:

{In case you're wondering, my little guy did a pretty good job with his duties... Aside from falling down the steps at the alter, making faces to the crowd, and ending up playing Angry Birds on my phone for much of the ceremony, we're calling it a success! And the wedding was absolutely beautiful. Congratulations to my bro-in-law and my new sis-in-law!}

My Gallery Wall-in the works

Using my inspiration gallery walls as a springboard, I started piecing my gallery wall together... I tend to over-think things, and then it usually takes me a good while to actually execute. Well, the thinking time is over. It's time time execute! I'm sounding all bad-A but the truth is I've run out of room to store my frame "collection", it really needs to happen now. Here's the gallery wall-to-be, a clean slate:

I spent a good two hours deliberating on an arrangement. My hamstring muscles are literally sore from rearranging while bending over. (Okay, so I could use some more fitness in my life. I happen to be working on that too :-) Here are some of the possible configurations, with many of the frames still needing to be painted and properly filled:

(Please excuse the terrible photography. I was taking these for my own use... I never seem to have the forethought that this might just end up on the ole blog.)

I'm kind of leaning toward the last arrangement, although my symmetrical-self feels more safe with the second to last one. Thoughts?? I'll know for sure soon... I've actually got templates cut out to put up on the wall! Maybe very soon!

Dreaming of... a gallery wall

I've been collecting frames for quite some time now with plans to create a gallery wall. I think I have (more than) enough now, and it's time to get serious about nailing some holes in the wall. I've gathered all of my inspiration images and am trying to muster the courage to actually go for it!

I can't decided if I'm going to try for a more random organization of frames or more of a symmetrical aligned arrangement. My love the random mixtures but my tendency is probably more toward the latter. A good friend of mine just alerted me to this how-to on arranging a gallery wall. It just might give me the push I need to actually decide and do this thing. I think I'm off to do some arranging, and maybe it will be a productive picture hanging type of a weekend.

{all images found on Houzz. The 6th photo is a blog friend... I love her mix of frames!}