There are some days that I can't help but wonder how I got from point A... to living in Hawaii. And building furniture, and then writing about it as my JOB. (Well, maybe someday it will pay me money. But that's not exactly my focus right now. I'm just loving doing what I'm doing, and living in paradise.)
Being a military wife means living a lot of places you never thought you'd end up. We've been married just over two years and have lived in two different states. Oklahoma for 6 months, and now Hawaii for about 18 months. When I was 5, 15 or even 20, I never thought I would move much farther than Colorado. Maybe some other state that touches Wyoming. Not across the ocean to Hawaii though.
I promise I have a point. All the moving is a fun part about our lives. And remembering the other places we've lived and where we were in our relationship is fun. That's why I decided to make a reminder as part of our decor!
I've seen a few different ways of representing places we've lived, but none of them were quite right for us. That's when I came up with these.
They're wooden boards with the states 'stained' onto them. All the places we've lived: Wyoming, where we were both born and raised; Colorado, were I went to college; Virginia, where the husband went to TBS; Oklahoma, the first six months of out marriage were at Ft. Sill in Lawton, OK; and now Hawaii. It's kind of a bummer Wyoming and Colorado look so similar though!
I started with a scrap chunk of 1x6, and cut it into 7.5 inch pieces. Since we've lived in 5 places, I cut 5 boards.
Then I went to my Cameo Silhouette and cut an outline of each of the five states I've lived in out of vinyl, making each state about 5 inches wide. I also cut out 5 tiny hearts (about 1/4 inch).
I used transfer paper to move it onto my boards.
Since I was planning on using stain, and I knew stain would really want to leak under the vinyl, I used my blow dryer over each of the states to really make the vinyl adhere to the wood.
Then I stained them! And got really nervous it wouldn't work!
So I patiently waited... and waited... and waited. And then I carefully peeled the first corner up... And it worked! Hooray!
So I gently peeled each of them off.
Then I added the little hearts to the city (or close to) where we lived.
Then I sealed them with my favorite, Rust-Oleum 's polyurethane.
Then I added a sawtooth hook to the back of each of them.
I hung them up and they're done! They go so nicely next to my 'Distance means so little when someone means so much' sign. I love how every morning when I get my coffee I'm reminded of all the fun we're having on this adventure! Yes, we have two coffee pots. No, I don't want to talk about it.
Thanks for stopping by!
For pictures and updates between posts find me on Facebook or Pinterest! And if you don't want to DIY, you can buy it here in my Etsy shop.
*P.S. I love to DIY, and I love that you want to as well! Please remember that all designs, files and tutorials are for personal use only.
