Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Tradition: Beautification

I read this challenge and was completely stumped. The only things I could think of are more routines than they are traditions. Then I found I needed to take a picture of something for my personal blog, and realized it would be (or could be) perfect for "tradition."


I cross-stitched this for my daughter's nursery. I bought the kit around 18 months ago, and it inspired the theme for her entire nursery. For months, I searched for a simple black square frame that would fit it without being too big. Finally, I found one. It was still big enough that I needed a matte. I didn't want to pay for a custom size one, though. So I stewed over it for a few weeks. Finally, I realized that I could make one myself by gluing cardstock to a cereal box, and that's exactly what I did.

I use this for "tradition" because women have long had a tradition of creativity and beautification in their homes and lives.

About the picture itself: this isn't in the nursery. When I finally put up the rest of the decor in Julie's room, I will have my husband hang this on the wall then. It will go against a bright lime green wall. In the meantime, this picture is taken in my living room. I love the color of my living room walls, but they always look really weird in photos. Sometimes tan, sometimes green, sometimes mauve. Because there is glass in the frame, I had to try several angles to get good lighting and exposure without getting my reflection in the glass (or the reflection of everything else in the room). I finally set up a giant cardboard box to block reflections but still allow good, natural light.

CC

5 comments:

Shanda Call said...

I like the idea of it. I'd like to see it on a different background, and I'm thinking I'd actually LIKE to see it with the glass glare...sometimes it can make a picture look kinda cool...to know we are looking at a picture. It's hard to get the right lighting for it though. I have never been a craftsy person, but this is very cute. Maybe if you had a plain white background (A sheet maybe) or a blue one even, that matches the INSIDE of the frame?? ...just some ideas. I'm not a professional at this though.

Katy said...

This is a really good and cute cross-stitch!! I'd love to see the nursery, bet it's adorable! I too love that color of wall- we live in an apartment that won't let us paint the walls- but when I do, you can bet on it being a khaki tan like this! Great job on the mat and the photo-- it's pretty!

Melinda said...

Cute cross stitch! I've done one for each of my own girls. Nice trick with the cardboard. Worked great! I really like how your picture is all angles. Except for within the cross stitch itself, it's all straight lines and corners. It gives it a really neat effect!

AprilF said...

I love cross stitch! I only wish I knew how to do it. I really all the angles you have in your photo.

Janelle said...

It's funny, I didn't do the angles on purpose. It was the only way I could get the picture without getting glare. But now that I look at it a little more, I like its effect, too! :)