A quiet canvas

 For most of last week I painted.  I also stressed out.

Who knew that freshening up paint would lead to a meltdown?

{Oh yeah.  Its white.}

Once I had gotten the new paint on the walls I kind of hated it.  The Girl tried to reason with me, saying it was just that it was brighter and cleaner and I hadn't seen the walls empty in years.  Plus, the paint was wet, and I wasn't even finished.  She suggested I live with it awhile, then if I wanted to repaint it later, I could.  She's a wise girlie.

 {the accent walls will have to be touched up, too...}

Reason took hold, and I looked at the creamy white walls the next day and thought they didn't look so bad after all!  I started making a plan to re-paint the green accent walls and figure out what to do about hanging stuff back up.

But once I removed all of those pictures, it occurred to me - an epiphany of sorts.  We just have way too many family portraits all throughout the house!  Some of them are from when Firstborn (30) was a toddler.  No joke.

I took 12 pictures down (all but one was a portrait), stacking them in the office as I went.  And I paused to take this picture...and took a few more down.  And granted, we have lived here for 23 years.  But there are so many family pictures throughout the house. 

 Pictures of my peeps are literally everywhere...even on coffee mugs.  There are pics on the fridge (4)... 

...scattered among the shelves in my office (14!), on the den mantle (1), and in the guest room (2).  There are pictures, in frames, in the garage from when Hubby brought a bunch home when they moved offices.  And there are even more in the living room and our bedroom (6).  Too. Many. Portraits.  I mean, I love my family and I have loved being a mom.  But having these pictures all over the house has just made this whole empty nest thing harder.  How can you move forward if you are always surrounded by the past?  I made a decision to pull some down permanently.

While I was out running errands I ran into Hob Lob and bought a leather bound archival photo album.  It has an expandable spine and you can easily buy refills for it, plus it will hold all of the portraits I will be taking out of frames.  I will spend a Saturday, archiving all of the portraits and this album will go live somewhere safe.  And when we ever want to gaze upon our peeps when they were small, we can.  But they will no longer occupy all of my walls.

So now the hunt is on to find some pretty wall art to grace an almost empty wall or two.  But mostly, I want the walls to be quiet.

{I like the idea of a mandala...}

Art that is not a collection of rectangles.  Something not shiny gold with glass or cheap fake wood.  Something not likely to make me feel tearful when I am missing my peeps.  

Its gonna be a work in progress.  

Stay tuned.

Gina