Home Decor

Have I mentioned my quandaries with paint? Hmmm… yes. I have a serious problem. Mostly due to a serious inability “picture” anything in my head.

When I painted my living room, I went through no less than 8 different colors. Do you remember Bridget Jone*s Diary? I wanted the color of the walls in her garret apartment. It said “warm, cozy and comfy”. Finding that color in a paint was a very long process, however. There is no “garret apartment” color, FYI.

I finally found the color I wanted. I love it. In fact, I love it so much, that I later purchased one of those decor signs with a homey saying on it, in the same color. To hang in the living room. To say it wasn’t very noticable, is an understatement. Totally faded into the wall.

So I moved the sign into the kitchen. Really pops against the blue walls. Looks fantastic.

But now I have a hole in my living room. Finding another sign was going to difficult. Not only would I have to find the right color, but also the right saying. One that wasn’t too preachy, or twee… and be able to find it in about 5 minutes, which is the Cuddler’s shopping limit. Right.

Instead I found Jennifer of Onion Grove Mercantile. Or rather I found her blog Notes from the Heartland. Gardening, DYI, kids… all the stuff I love to read about. And you can probably tell where this is going… I had her paint a sign for that spot. One that is so personalized it makes me squeal. It makes my mother jealous it’s so personalized.

My great-grandfather was a rancher. My great-grandmother was a rancher’s daughter, going back to the days before Canada and the US had really settled on a border. Every story about them tells something about the ranch. The flowers (of which cuttings are now planted in multiple locations throughout the state – I have a granddaughter of the famous rose bush) or feeding the chickens, even stories about the neighbors are still told! The ranch was sold a long time ago – ranching was a hard thing during the 70’s and 80’s, especially when the US government started ‘paying’ people to stop. It’s not an easy life, especially in a place so rural that cell phones can only get signals on mountain tops.

The sign was designed around that piece of family history. I was pretty specific, but Jennifer took my requests and ran with them… even when I changed them!

I asked for a specific type of wood color to mimic the beaten weathered look of wood in that area. Jennifer suggested the colors for the text – which I totally trusted, because of my color issues. At the last minute, I asked her to include my great-grandfather’s brand, incorporated between the ranch name and town. It’s being shipped as I write! It’s going to work so well in that spot and NOT fade into the background!