A Family Wall

Earlier this week, I wrote about the newest addition to Addison's room and here I am here writing about another addition. No, it's not a crib or a rocking chair or some other actual useful item for her room. This is a project. This is something fun! This is something to keep me busy when I get home from work and have nothing to do! But more than just something to do this project is something very important for Addison. This is a wall to let Addison know how loved she is. Because boy, will this girl be loved.

I've proud of the fact that this project came out of my head. I'm not great with coming up with projects. I wanted to have a "family" wall in her room. And like I said a "You are loved" wall. Basically, I want to hang pictures of our family up on her wall, so that she knows how much she is loved and also so that because no one lives around the block from us, she can see pictures and know her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.

So let the project begin! First I needed ribbon, paint, and clothespins. I chose the colors found in Addison's sheet, which was no easy feat. But we found the colors, or at least as close to those colors as possible.

Then the project gets simple and I just painted the clothespins, which wasn't as easy as it looked. But being the queen of determination today, I powered through and painted me some clothespins.

Once those were completed and the clothespins put back together, it was time to figure out how to hang my ribbon and get this project completed.

I decided the best way to hang it was with some 3M hooks. We love those hooks - we use them all over the house, for my measuring cups and for my loofah in the shower. They are great. So I figured that would be a great way to hang up the ribbon on the wall. Plus they are easy and no holes in the wall in case I decide to move it or change my mind completely (I've been known to do that!).

So with the ribbon in place, it was time to clip up the pictures. I printed off some pictures from my computer of family members in two different sizes because I was unsure of what size would be best. So I tried both before deciding the smaller size would be the better one.

I was liking where this project was going but I was still displeased with the end result. So the best solution I could think of was getting smaller clothespins because the big ones just weren't working. They were too big and heavy. So I resolved that there was a trip to Hobby Lobby to find me some small clothespins when Rob got home from work.

And finally he got home and I wanted to explain what exactly I wanted so we went back to Addison's room. Only to find this...

That was definitely not what I was hoping to happen. And being the highly emotional state that I am constantly in, I was frustrated and cranky. But Rob wasn't ready to throw in the towel and was already working through how to fix this. So instead of a trip to Hobby Lobby, we fed me which helped my mood quite a bit before we went back tackling this project.

The first plan was to lengthen the ribbon. Rob found the proper backing for the 3M hooks I used, which were hidden in plain sight in man cave. And he took care of hanging it back on the wall with more of a slope to it.

And while we waited the hour to put the clothespins up, I got another inspired idea of how to make it a little more girly. We are having a girl after all. And it turned out better than I thought.

I just used the extra ribbon and tied a knot at the top to attach it to the hook and let it hang down. It was easy enough. But since doing cutting two pieces of ribbon and tying two knots did not take me an hour to complete. I used the remainder of the hour to sort through the clothes my sister gave me again and start thinking of how I want to organize all the stuff we are getting from her.

And FINALLY the hour was up and we could finally hang the pictures back up. I was doubtful that the big clothespins would work any better now than they did earlier, but Rob knew just how to fix our problem. A simple solution really. Put the clothespin at the bottom instead of the top.

It's amazing how something as simple as that can make a big difference. But there it was, that simple. Also by using a longer ribbon, we were able to switch back to the better pictures which made them easier to see. And this end result was one that I truly did love.

I love this "family" wall and I love having pictures of family up in Addison's room. This little girl will be loved and well taken care of and I like having that reminder up in her room.