Glad & Sincere Hearts

I often have people ask if my home is filled with beautiful signs. Simple answer, no. Detailed answer, I have a few that are my favorites and I have plans for so many I would like to make for our home. But honestly, sometimes at the end of the day it's hard to sit down and make something for your home when you just spent the day making signs for other people's homes.

One of my favorite things to do while paint is drying is to waste hours browse Pinterest for some inspiration. A while back I found this pin from Hymns and Verses.

I wish I could find the actual blog post in her blog about it, the link takes me back to her blog in general, not the post. I do know it is a tea towel sold from Mary & Martha that she framed to display in her home.

Besides the beautiful hand lettering, I also love the message.

In our home, we always eat dinner together. It's nice at the end of the day to sit together and talk about our day. We may not eat the same thing, but we are sitting at the table together. And even if the kids don't like what's for dinner {which rarely happens} we always remind them to be thankful for the food we do have instead of wishing it was something else. Some days it's easy to forget just how blessed you are.

One of my bad habits is finding a quote that I love and then stressing on making a design for my Etsy shop. Once I finally have a design I like, I'm over having it in my house. When I was working on this design, my husband saw it and asked for it to be in our home, only on a bigger scale than what I had in mind.

We had a top from a console table sitting around that I thought would look great as a sign and fit my husband's request for a big sign {it measures 10" x 48"}. We have high ceilings in our living and dining rooms so this sign looks great hanging on our dining room wall above the doorway that leads to the kitchen.

We have history with this table. It was one of the first pieces of furniture we bought after getting married. At that time we had a very country theme going on and it was stained the color shown and hunter green. Soon the green was gone, replaced with black. And it had been repaired...several times.

A little someone also practiced her writing skills on this table top...

Since I don't have an endless supply of table tops sitting around I also made a smaller version on a 1x8.

Even though it's a smaller version, the message is still as powerful. This size is listed here in my Etsy shop.

So, what statement is speaking to you right now?

Sharing and Linking up here!!
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It All Started With A Pillow...

One store I will never pass up a trip to is Pottery Barn, even if their prices are a little out of my comfort zone. Actually, there are quite a few on that list, but Pottery Barn is the one that I can leave feeling inspired and not silently crying on the inside {I'm looking at you Restoration Hardware!}.

A few weeks ago, we took an after Christmas shopping excursion to Austin and my mom swung by Pottery Barn. Browsing through the store I found this pillow on a bed display.

We re-did our bedroom this last year in black and white and I have been adding some red for a pop of color. This pillow would be perfect, but at almost $40 for just the pillow cover, I put it back. I knew I would immediately feel buyer's remorse spending that much on a pillow and...I'm guilty of not making the bed unless we're expecting company. I know, I know. I really should, I always admire the bed when it's made, makes me feel like I'm a grown up or something. Plus, I would freak out every time I saw someone using the $40 pillow.

So this pillow has been sitting in the back of my mind for the last few weeks.

And then it hit me. We have this gigantic wall in our bedroom that I have been wondering what to do with. 

I also have a husband that wishes that I would make more cool signs that actually stay in our home instead of being taken to the shop. So why not take the concept of the pillow and make it in to a sign?! Duh!!

I think my husband was a little stunned that he went to bed last night to me watching tv and woke up to his wife with red paint splattered on the side of her arm and a brand new sign waiting for it's final sanding. I think he was even more shocked when I told him the paint was from a sign I had made for our bedroom.

I love the pop of red. The font makes me smile.

The distressing reminds me of how true love stands up to the test of time.

But best of all...it has given me that vision of what I want to do with the wall. My plan is to take all these quotes and song lyrics about love that have been locked in my head and get them down on wood and up on the wall.

Sometimes I surprise myself...sometimes.

This weekend begins the holiday season in Salado with Christmas in October. Last year was my first year having a booth in a store there and didn't realize how important it is to be at least one season ahead and have been working on some goodies to bring....

Like this sign.

I wanted to attempt to make something rustic, like it had been passed down through the family. It took everything I had not to cover it in a thick coat of paint.

To leave some of the small mistakes I had made (like the paint drip that looks like it belongs).

And to sand it more than I was comfortable with. I had changed my mind at the last minute to change the shading to gray and went against my normal routine and just painted over the red. If I could have sanded it with my eyes closed so that I couldn't see the gray disappearing  in some spots, I would have. But that also comes with the risk of losing a major portion of skin and I really don't have time for that.

This sign is nothing like I expected...and that's a good thing. I am in love with the roughness around the edges, the contrast with the gray and red, and the message it conveys.

Another great thing about this sign...

It's made out of cedar, which makes it great for outside. But the back is not painted for a reason. The smell. There is something about the smell of cedar that I love and have found quite a few people that agree.

So, it's hard to let this sign go, especially since it taught me that going against my usual ways is good.

And I may just surprise myself...