This week Warren and I went up to Rexburg to visit friends, family and bring a few things up to our storage unit to prepare for moving in a few weeks. (So excited for our own apartment!) It was so nice to see some of our friends and get a feel for our little home town again.
One of the things I love to do with my girlfriends is make crafts. Mostly the type of crafts that we can use to beautify our homes. This week the craft was these String Art things. With my mind still on the Mosaic Analagy from last week’s post, I decided to make a mosaic heart string art to put up in our new apartment in a few weeks. My hope is that it will stand as a reminder to me about the hope in the trials of this life.
Be forewarned- If you so choose to be as ambitious as I didn’t know I was being and choose to do a mosaic-esc piece like this, just know that it is a lot of hammering to a frustrating amounts of nails. But the finished product is pretty!
I only attempted the mosaic heart after having made my first string art of my last name. The pattern I used I had just drawn on a piece of paper, that’s why the lettering isn’t perfect and it looks ever so slanted upwards… Its just more character, right?
What you need:
- Embroidery Floss (3-4 packages)
- Little wire nails (like $1 at walmart, I used NB-50 size.)
- Wooden board
- Paper and marker to plan pattern
The procedure is pretty straight forward. You need to decide what it is you want to make with your string art and create a template of some sort. I liked making the specific spots that I planned on hammering nails in so that it was clear when it came time. How I did the actual nailing part was just to put the paper template right on the wood and nail over the paper then when all the nails were in I carefully tore the paper off of the nails. After that all you’ve gotta do is tie the strings around the nails till it looks all pretty.
I think there is something therapeutic about making something beautiful with your own two hands. Especially something with special meaning. The whole time I was making my little mosaic, I was remembering the story I shared last week. And even though there are many little imperfections in my little heart, they all are part of what makes it charming.
Along with making string art this week, I also dyed my hair. In a completely different way, I think this is therapeutic as well. Ever since my boys left me, I’ve had a difficult time getting up in the mornings and getting ready for the day wasn’t even on my regimen. I can count on one hand the amount of times I’d put makeup on in the last months until this last week. Getting my hair all fresh and done gave me a fresh perspective of myself. Even if it wasn’t the color I thought I was getting, just the act of taking an afternoon to get something done for me helped me see some parts of life I’d all but forgotten existed. The cute woman who did my hair was such a blessing to me that day and talked to me the whole time about her children and her own miscarriage experience. It’s amazing the automatic connection you can find with women who’ve shared such a strengthening trial as you.
With a move coming up, and my life still in this odd limbo between “reality” (i.e. school, job, bills, responsibility,) and my frozen life without my sons, I’ve set myself all sorts of goals about getting back on my feet everyday and honoring my babies with my efforts toward a happy life. One of these goals (the most basic of them,) is to get ready for every day, regardless of what the day holds. If I can get myself up and take that time each morning to look in the mirror and remind myself how I am a beautiful daughter of God who is watching over me and my sons too, then I can get through whatever I have to each day.
–Hopefully when we are more settled in our new apartment and have things in a bit of a rhythm, I’ll be able to share more of the goals and my progress in them. And maybe even make some live videos to share some things with everyone!
Challenge; Take some time for yourself. Whether that be taking ten minutes every morning to put on make up and look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I am hot.” or if its going on a walk all alone to enjoy the fall air. Do it.
Living Lemonade 