To me, the most difficult part of writing is getting started. In high school and college (if I can remember that far back), I spent more time on the first paragraph of every paper that I wrote than I did on the rest of the paper. Of course, that is probably due to my creative writing teacher who drilled into us the importance of catching the reader’s attention right from the start. So, as I sit here and try to decide how I want to approach my first real entry, I’m thinking about all my favorite projects that I’ve done over the past year or so, when it hits me…why don’t I just start with my favorite project that I’ve done? Simple, right?
As the youngest of six kids, there is barely any memorabilia from when I was a baby. I think my baby book has about two pages filled out and there might be a handful of pictures of me. And, there’s always a sibling in the picture with me, none of me alone. My husband, on the other hand, is the oldest of three and his parents are packrats. Seriously, they could be on that show, “Hoarders”, or whatever it is called. My inlaws have decided to sell their house and have been attempting to clean out their basement over the past year. Of course, to them, cleaning out the basement means dumping a bunch of crap from when their kids were young into their now grown up kids’ homes. While I love having the blanket that my husband came home from the hospital in (which both of my kids also came home in) and a few keepsakes from my husband’s youth, including handmade blankets from his grandmother, I could do without the ceramic monster that he made during summer camp…and the box of his t-shirts…and the wicker (yes, wicker) elephant from his room…I could go on and on, but I digress. Anyway, the realization that I’ve come to is that as an adult, the items that I really cherish from my childhood are the ones that have meaning. I hope my kids feel the same way because I’m not storing their crap in my basement for 40 years.
So, that being said, back to my favorite project…drum roll, please…the shadow boxes that I made for my kid’s coming home from the hospital outfits! I smile every time I see them hanging in my bedroom.
I got these great shadow boxes at Michael’s, complete with a fabric backing and push pins to hold the outfits securely. I order both names in 2” size, Coolman font, in electric pink for Amelia and Sky Blue for Tristan using the
MyDesign tool. I decided to mirror the names, so that I could apply them to the inside of the glass, rather than the outside. Of course, having the expression mirrored made it a little trickier to apply, so I trimmed off all the excess paper from the expression. Then, using painter’s tape to hold it to the glass, I measured and re-measured to make sure it was centered and straight. Probably overkill, but like I said, this was one of my first projects, but I think it came out excellent. Of course, with something sentimental like this, how could you go wrong?
I hope my kids like them, because the rest of their clothes are going to goodwill….
