Inspiration From....You?

Before I get into the real reason I'm posting today, I thought I'd show one of my very favorite things in my house.  It possibly IS my favorite piece.

Years ago my sister in-law and I ventured into an antique shop south of town.  It was huge.  I like antiques, although my house isn't full of them by any means.  But this beauty caught my eye. An old narrow window shutter.

Here is a close up look.

I wasn't sure what I would do with it, but I liked it enough to shell out a whole $4 for it.  Actually, there were *2* of them. What was I thinking by not getting that 2nd one?!  I am totally kicking myself for not having a matching set.

Just look at the beautiful old metal!

I didn't even care that part of it was painted and the other not.  Still adorable to me.

Anyway, I thought I could use it to store mail or something in the slots, but then thought better. 

<<<< After receiving inspiration by looking at this in the Lillian Vernon catalog, I decided to put my own spin on the idea.

I had the smaller frames leftover from an ugly wire wall hanging thingie, so I thought I'd put them to good use. They already had the eyehooks on them to boot. So all I had to do was buy some ribbon to hang the frames from the shutter. Works for me! 

I don't know about you, but I'm a sentimental person. So I thought that placing photos of my grandparents homes in the frames would be just the thing to make me smile whenever I looked at them. I had visited my grandparents on both sides of my family up in Michigan's Upper Penninsula many many years. These old homes are important to me in my memories.

  The photos weren't of when my grandparents actually lived there because they have been gone for many years, but the houses were still special to me, so I sneakily  snapped photos when we visited the area one summer.  I even have a photo of my grandparents old cabin in Canada, plus a photo of some waterfalls that are nearby that cabin.

Anyway, the purpose of showing all this is because I like to decorate with things that have meaning. I like that I had some inspiration for this project. And I like that I found the adorable shutter really cheap!

So, now I have a new project. It's not an antique, but like the shutter, it was cheap ($6) at JoAnn Fabrics.  And I know I want to do something special with it, but I have no inspiration! It's been sitting here for a few months and I have only a vague idea of what I should do with it!  What is it you ask?  Well, it's this......

It's a big 'ol "W"!!

It's made of papier mache' and is begging me to do something with it.  I can hang it with a hook or it's also free-standing. So what do I do with it?!!

It's big- like 2 ft.x 2 ft. tall kind of big. 

My only thought is to print out photos of my family and make a collage on it. A sepia-toned collage. I'm all about senitment, so wouldn't photos of my family be just what it needs? Or not? 

HELP! I could really use some inspiration here.  Please! I want to hear your ideas. If I don't get them, I might possibly go mad. You don't want me to end up in the loony bin do you? ;)

Youniverse

My friend Leslie sent me a link to take a Personality Test on Youniverse. It's pretty cool and actually is pretty close to who I am in some ways. Take a looksee at mine and then go try it yourself at Youniverse. They also have other quizzes to take. You can discover what kind of traveler you are, which famous star that you match, take a quiz about your well-being, explore the way your mind works, or see what kind of movie buff you are and so on. You can even network with your friends and other people, but I'm not really into that, although it's a cool idea.

PS...Are you getting sick of my music when you log on my blog? I'd like a quick poll from people to see if I should can the music. I like it, but it can get a tad annoying, so let me know if you think I should chuck it. Thanks!

Tagged!

Ok....Caity has tagged me. My first tag. Here are 6 things about moi (I bet most of you wouldn't even know these things about me!)


1. I'm totally addicted to Edy's Loaded Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream (it's not really ice cream..it's more of an ice milk). I will head right to the store as soon as we polish off a container. Heck, I hardly even let anyone else eat it. I buy them their own flavors! Yes, I still fit it in my Weight Watchers plan. I usually eat 1/2 c.(3pts) with a heated up Vitatop (1pt) so it's kind of like a brownie or cake sundae. Mmmm.

2. I'm a peeker. No, not that kind of peeker! I just like to casually (hee hee) look into other peoples houses as I drive by them. Not to see what they are doing, but to see what their decor is etc. I totally love the show, "House Hunters" because then I get to peek from the privacy of my own home. Hey..wait a minute. If I'm a peeker, who is peeking in my house?! Thanks to my dh's love of his large t.v. hanging on the wall, everyone that drives by can see what shows we are watching. Take a look sometime...I'm sure you will catch me watching the #3 thing about me.

3. I never, I mean never, miss an episode of Days of Our Lives. I know, I know. Mindless soaps do the brain no good. But I had started watching it about 15 years ago and always keep up on what goes on in that show. Gotta love DVR's & Tivos. And yes, it's the only soap that I watch.

UPDATE 11/8/07: I forgot to mention that in 1999, dh and I were lucky enough to be in LA (my sister lives in San Diego) and take a tour of the NBC studios. Guess which set they let us see? Yep, Days of Our Lives. It was neat to see things that we actually saw in the show. Plus, I was able to see Kate Roberts (don't know her real name) and Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston, Jennifer Aniston's father) rehearsing a scene. They made us hushhhh for it. I also got a couple autographs from some Days actors/actresses (Carrie, Curtis). Plus we went to see The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that night. That part was awesome. The guests were Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hulk Hogan, Gilbert Godfried and singing was 98 degrees when they first came on the music scene. Boy, I'm making this sound like I'm a Days freak. I'm not..really! :)

4. I've started my own High-Low journal. Not an online journal, but a real one. I list the "High" of my day and the "Low" of my day. Then I write down how I can make the "Tomorrow" a better day or fix the "Low" from the day before. It might just mean developing a better attitude about something, fixing a problem, a goal to finish or simply saying something nice to someone. I'm using this as a Personal Progress goal. I'm doing PP along with the Young Women in my Ward, but mostly I'm doing it for me.

5. I have my own Myspace! It's not like this blog though. I really only have it to be able to see my daughters space (she calls it, spying on her...wink). I can't see hers unless she is logged in already or I have my own account. I also opted to get my own to be able to see my nieces, nephews and friends spaces. I didn't realize my friend Bonnie had one. Obviously Myspace has it's bad points. I've seen many teenagers spaces with objectionable things & songs on them. Teenagers that I know. So sad. I'm wondering if it is even worth letting my teenager have one. I'll be thinking about this.

6. Last but not least.....I love ALL different types of music! I'm a huge fan of the band Chicago, but I also love 3 Doors Down. I like hard rock, soft rock, alternative, top 40, 80's, country, religious, classical etc...the list goes on! Here is a short list of artists that I really like (not a whole list though because like I said, I enjoy many types!):

-3 Doors Down
-Chicago
-Martina Mcbride
-Hoobastank
-The Titanic Soundtrack
-Barry Manilow
-Amy Grant
-Nickelback

The only music I do not like is rap. Rap is crap. One more tidbit about me is that when I was about 13, I was in the Def Leppard fan club!!! No, I'm not a big fan now, but I still remember the words to many of their songs!


Ok, so now I'm supposed to tag 6 other people. The problem is that I don't really know 6 other people who blog! Caity already tagged Holly & Beth, so I can't tag them. I'm assuming Megan was tagged, so that leaves Austin and I doubt a teenager would like to be tagged by one of his Mom's friends. So...I guess my tagging ends here. Maybe some of my family & friends who read my blog can get on the ball and start your own blog huh?! You know who you are!