Uniquely awesome photo display.

The walls in my home are sacred space.  Whatever goes on them is something we'll see every.single.day.  So I'm pretty choosey about what gets a spot on those walls.

Which is why many of the walls in our home are still bare.  Just waiting for the perfect thing to hang on them.

The wall in my office is one such space.  I spend a fair amount of late night hours on my computer.  And I wanted something inspirationally awesome to go on the wall I see the most while in there.

I've held out.  And I finally found the perfect thing.

It went from this:

To this:

It took a little longer than anticipated to get on the wall.  And I didn't finish during naptime (which created some challenges with a two-year-old who will remain nameless that was eventually banished from the room) or before my girls got home from school so they sat on the floor and watched me finish.

While I carefully selected photos out of my rather large pile, the girls commented on the photos.  The things they said were unsolicited.  I asked for no commentary on what was going on (because usually by that time of day, I'd like to give my ears a time-out).  I was in full concentration mode to hurry and get those things on the wall before the previously mentioned two-year-old sabotaged the entire project.

Mya:  "Whooooa.  I can't believe you put so many photos of just me.  All by myself.  I must be special."

Jaida:  "Mom, I'm really glad you can take such good photos of us"

And my favorite (and most gratifying since I have an intentional purpose for taking SO many photos of our everyday lives):

Mya:  "Wow, Mom, you sure do take a lot of photos"
Me:  "Why do you think that is, Mya"
Jaida: (without a pause) "Because you think we're awesome!"

Intentional parenting for the WIN!

I got the photoclips at fotojojo.com 

I went back about 4 years and looked through all our pictures, picking out some of my favorites.  I printed them at Costco (I know, gasp--but when I'm only printing as a 4x6 and I'm printing THAT many, I just use Costco).

I started with a block of photos put together first.  I taped those to the wall, and then added pictures one-by-one directly onto the wall.

There probably was an easier way to do it, but this worked for me.  Eventually.

It took a few hours.  But it's my favorite spot in the house right now.  The kids too.  We've all spent a lot of time gazing at that wall, reminiscing about a lot of really good family memories in our home!

I ended up with 153 photos on the wall.  At some point I may go down the wall further, but for now, I have to keep the pictures out of reach of certain little fingers who like to destroy things.

And the view from my desk now.  I dig it.

 Of course it looks cooler if the photos are good quality.  So if you want to do this in your home, learn how to improve your photo skills.  Not just the quality of the photo, but also the type of pictures you take.  You won't regret it.  One of the best investments you'll ever make.