We have lived in our current home for nine years now. Before that we were bottom-dwelling-month-to-month renters. (Not to disparage the month-to-month thing, but it was such a grand and glorious feeling to finally own our own home that it completely lifted us up and out of our feelings of inferiority, but that's not important right now.)
I used to joke that once I owned my own home I would "Park a rocket ship on my lawn or write on the walls if I darned well pleased."
And when we finally signed the last of the ownership papers and held the keys to our own little personal piece of the proverbial pie, we celebrated with champagne and again I suggested, "now that I own this house, I can write on the walls if I want to!"
Of course, it was meant to be funny and to convey the victorious and exhilarating feeling of finally having arrived at (insert the angelic choir here...) our goal of Home Ownership.
"Free at last! Free at last!" (Okay, so maybe that's a bit dramatic....)
As it turns out, one of the first things that we did after painting walls and adding crown molding, was to add some words to the walls. (When I say "we" I mean, I thought of it, but Eric helped with the follow-through.)
By the way, the "parking the rocket ship on the front lawn" thing was all hot wind and bravado. But it sure sounded earnest, didn't it?
As it turned out, however, the writing on the wall turned out to be quite a cool thing...
In our bedroom:
As soon as our bedroom was painted, we had this stencil made to our specifications by Saw What? by the Mad Stencilist.
The fairy-tale quote is the classic favorite ending. It sits above our sliding door to the balcony. It's the first thing I see every morning when I wake up and it never ceases to make me smile and reminds me that "we" are "they." =D
I have another quote in our bedroom. I got it from wonderful graffiti and again it was a special order:
These are vinyl letters and quite easy to display. It's rub-down type, really and can be easily removed. I put this one up on the morning of St. Valentine's Day, while Eric was still asleep. He woke up and found it and actually thought I had scribbled it in my own lipstick. You've gotta love that.
(What does this tell you about what my husband thinks I'm capable of?)
In the stairwell, we have some old and new photos, but there is also a favorite Bible verse:
It's from the book of Job and in English it means:
"You will know that your descendants are many and your posterity like the grass of the earth." (It was a promise given to Job by God himself after Job had lost pretty much everything he had, including his family.)
As you come down the stairs and venture to look up you will be met by these Latin words:
In Omnia Paratus. "In everything, always prepared." or "Ready for anything." We originally heard it on the tv show The Gilmore Girls and loved the idea so much, we decided to put it on the wall so it's the last thing you see when coming downstairs. It's supposed to make you question your readiness to face the day. I like it.
Obviously, this was the year we got married. It's also a rub down from wonderful graffiti. It sits at the top of the arrangement on the stairwell with the rest of the family photos.
When you reach the bottom of the stairs and you turn to your right, you are bound to see this:
Actually, it's practically the first thing anyone notices when they first walk into our home. It reads, "Sit long. Talk much." And we mean it. =D
In Jonathan's room, is the Spiderman quote:
When you're raising boys, it's best to set the bar as high as possible. Don't you agree? ;-)
Next you will find yourself in our living room. Here above our mantel I've stenciled in gold foil, "Amor est Vitae Essentia." Or "Love is essential to life."
Then right before you walk out the front door (or just after you come inside, depending on if you're the type of person who looks up at the door frame....) you'll see this:
I find it comforting somehow....and I'm less and less concerned that a freak tornado is going to pick up our house and deposit it on the other side of the rainbow, but that's not important right now, either. ;-)
Eric has a favorite Bible verse/promise up in his office:
He sees those encouraging words every day as he sits at his desk to begin his work day. I like that thefirst thing he does is remember God has plans for him. The day goes much more smoothly when you are confronted with that promise each morning.
And then there's our giant calendar. The calendar is the nerve center of our office/school/studio. It's where we post plans we've made and make notes of shows we'd like to see and places we want to go. I've shown it to you before, but I don't know if you've noticed that I have a favorite quote above it:
It's by Carl Sagan, and it reads, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
That's our inspiration for starting our homeschool days.
So thank you for coming along on this Tour of the Darby's Walls.
This is a particularly favorite quote of mine. I'm going to put it up as soon as I finish decluttering/re-designing my studio space:
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert
integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers,
the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary." ~Sir Cecil Beaton
Do you have anything written on your walls? If you do, will you share it?
If you don't, did I maybe inspire you? =D
