One Little Word: Projects

I decided to participate in the "One Little Word" project this year. The word I chose was "Family" in an effort to make that my focus this year.

I also decided that just having a word, while all well & fine, wasn't enough. I needed to make it stand out. I needed to make sure it was in front of me at all times - literally. So I did some projects.

The first was easy. Over the holiday season while reading blogs, I came across this....



I know that the blog I found it on was featured at One Pretty Thing but I couldn't find it to link here. The very nice lady who made up the above word art had folks e-mail her for the download. I requested it in brown & in red thinking I would use it but not sure what room I would want to put it in. Oh & I requested this weeks before decided that family would be my 2009 word. It came as a jpeg file & I just had to print it & frame it. I did have to cut it down a tad to fit in the frame & I have it on black card stock. It hangs above my computer desk & I see it every time I walk in to the living room.

This next project I did a few weeks ago & I love it. I've actually done this before but on a much larger scale.

The base of this project is a 9x12 canvas. I found them at the Christmas Tree Shoppe for a mere $1.29 so I picked up a bunch to have on hand for fun projects. I painted it purple (my favorite color) with acrylic paint. First I started out with magazines thinking I would cut out different things to add like a regular collage. That got old fast so then I started going through my stash of scrapbooking things to see what I could find to add to it.

I like how it came out. I had a lot of neat embellishments that actually had something to say about family. I did Modge-Podge the whole top - including all the chipboard elements. I also had some glitter Modge-Podge & I used that to highlight a few words... the "blessed" in "we are blessed," the big "family" in the middle, & the "family matters" in the bottom left.

I like how it turned out & it hangs near the other hanging in the living room. They are good visual reminders of what my focus needs to be this year.

I have one more project in the works & almost didn't post this until I did that one, but decided I'll just show it later - if at all. I'll be making a set of blocks that spells out "family" similar to what I gave my sister & friend, Tammy, for Christmas.

Did you pick a word for 2009? Feel free to share. I love hearing what others are doing.

One Little Word for 2009

A few years ago I heard about the concept of choosing a word for the year to help you focus on something you wanted to change or do or just that pertained to your life. Ali Edwards was the start of it back in 2007. She's doing it again for 2009. You can check out her blog to see what she is choosing for 2009 & why & also to enter a giveaway that she is holding about it.


If you decide to really jump in to this project, you may want to check out the One Little Word blog. They even had a Flickr group so you can share photos. The blog gives you lots of different ways to have your word front & center with some pretty neat projects.


So, what's my word?

~~FAMILY~~

And why did I pick that particular word? Let me share. But first, let's define it...


The online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary states that a family is...

1: a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head :

They have seven more definitions, but the first one is really what I'm looking at. Just to see how it would relate, I looked up "family" in the 1828 Webster Dictionary as well. Here is how it was defined then...

1. The collective body of persons who live in one house and under one head or manager; a household, including parents, children and servants, and as the case may be, lodgers or boarders.

Again, I chose just the first definition. There were five more there.


As 2009 starts tomorrow, I want my family to be my focus. I fear that for too long, I've allowed others things and people to be my focus - including myself. I see how my children react & act towards each other & my heart hurts too often. I want our time at home to be enjoyable. I want my sons to grow up to be best friends. I want our time together to be full of fun memories.


So my focus for 2009 will be my family. I can't wait.