My life is !&@+

Many moons ago, I was looking at cute wedding photography with my newly in-love sister. We loved the ones of the couples holding an ampersand (weirdest word ever, btw). It sparked an idea in me. I jotted the idea down. Over a year later, I brought that idea to fruition. This is a small feat in and of itself. I have lots of ideas. I do about as many of them as I do pins on my Pinterest boards. But I’m on a roll lately. Glow in the dark bubbles? Tried it. Frozen toy ice chunk thingie? Party entertainment for the chilluns. I have now completed two pins. Only 732 to go!

So anyway, my idea was to illustrate my life using symbols. I thought of all the major events in my life, then found a corresponding symbol. I ordered all the pics in black and white 8x10s. Then, I borrowed the new love of my life: Mr. Cricut. We’ve spent many a late night together, I have to admit. He made me beautiful punctuation marks out of carefully selected scrapbook paper and I was ready to rock and roll. I bought a couple yards of fabric and some cheap wood. I mitered and staple-gunned my own frames (29” square). That’s right—mitered and staple-gunned, baby.

Then, I attached a piece of foam core to each frame to give me something flat to glue to.

Then, I stretched the fabric over the frame, staple gunned it to the back, and laid out my pictures.

Needed a little cute in these boring pics

I backed each picture with a 12” square piece of scrapbook paper. Then I mod-podged the crap out of those bad boys. Only I made my own mod-podge, thank you very much (Elmer's glue-all plus water). Some of the papers wrinkled pretty bad, but I kept rubbing as they dried, and now they look flat as can be. I hung both frames on top of each other in our master bathroom. You’ll see why I chose such an out-of-the-way room in a minute.

If you’re annoyed by my bragging and/or not totally amazed by this procedure, I don’t think you understand the magnitude of this accomplishment! I did carpentry! And completed a multi-step project that required patience! With children in my house! Sometimes awake! Afterwards, I thought I was a frickin’ genius. I couldn’t wait to show off my creation! I imagined pinning it and it going viral. Women everywhere would recreate their lives in symbols. They might call such art Tobi-esque.  

Appropriately enough, the first lucky person to see the masterpiece live was my sister, who unknowingly started the seed that became this magnificent flower. She looked at it, complimented its cuteness, stared a little longer, then said, “I don’t get it.” I had to explain the meanings. Then, when my mom came for a visit, she acted like she got it, but she totally didn’t, so I had to explain it to her. So I might as well explain it here. The  countless pinners who come to check out this amazing project might be as dense as my female relatives:

 !      Yay! I met a cute boy and we fell in love

&    We became Mr. & Mrs.

@   We lived @ our first  house.

+     We added a baby to our family.

+     We added another baby.

@    We moved to where we’re @ now

+      We added yet another baby

?       I wonder what God has in store for us now 

(though my sister insists that it stands for, “I wonder when we’ll have our accidental baby girl?” and my mom thought it was an elaborate, “I’m pregnant!” announcement. It most certainly was—and is—not!)

As I explain it, a little bit of its brilliance wears off. So maybe I’m not a genius. “!&@+  my life” may never catch on. Oh well. At least it does a good job covering up this.

My life really is !&@+


Linking up to Kammy's Korner: Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday