things around my house thursday (on a friday), 18 of 52

Ok, here we go. Back to back "Things Around My House" posts, in an attempt to catch up. I'm still doing the "Art on My Walls" series.

Things Around My House Thursday (on a Friday), 18 of 52

this photo was taken Thanksgiving 2007
(the photos below were taken yesterday)

This piece of art has the distinction of being the first piece I ever purchased (at age 40--amazing, eh?) Every single thing hanging on my walls up to that point in my life was either given to me, or it was a framed greeting card (we talked about that here last week).


This was created by the one and only Jodi Green (her etsy shop can be found here). I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, but it took awhile for the stars to align before I could invest.

Here's Jodi's description:
On Returning, 2006
This hand-pulled print is one of an edition of four combining woodblock printing, digital printing, collage and ink drawing. It is printed without borders on Rives BFK rag paper and measures 13 x 18 inches, with rounded corners.

What I can tell you is that it feels like layer upon layer of stuff, and it has a texture to it. I just got sucked right into it whenever I look at it. When it came time to frame it, I found myself really intrigued with the small circles of old maps.

I wanted this piece to hang on the dining room wall, which is gigantic compared to the scale of the piece. I was determined to find a way to make it work on that wall though, because I love this piece, and I want to look at it often, and that wall is one that I look at all day, every day.


I see that wall from the kitchen when I cook or wash dishes, and I see it when I sit at the dining room table with my laptop (my favorite place to work). You can also see this wall from the living room and the front door of the house.

So to make it work on that wall, I made a gigantic frame for it.

I went to Ikea and bought a whole mess of inexpensive little wooden framed mirrors, and then I connected them all together on the back using mending plates. It's hard to see in the photo, but there is also a "mat" of crinkled Japanese paper in the center of the assembled frame.

Then what I did, was to make my own circles from maps, to tie in with the maps Jodi had on her piece. I cut out circles of places where important events in my life have taken place, and I added little sparkly doo-dads to mark where the important thing had happened. I put those randomly around inside the smaller frames.

where MyFavoriteKid was born

where I was when I fell in love with TheMostImportantGuy
and the location of the dance studio where I teach

where the accident happened
(my mom thinks that's kinda morbid, but the idea was to mark the places of life changing events, and that was definitely life changing....LOL)

I also have been meaning to add a circle of where I was born. I picked up a copy of the map (I was born in Hartford, CT), but I haven't cut out the circle yet.


I really love having something from Jodi in my home. I have always been a big fan of her work, and even though we haven't met in person, I sort of feel like I know her. Over the years we've exchanged a few packages, kept up with each other's blogs, chatted online, you know the drill....if you are reading this blog, you probably have a few friendships like this of your own.

I hope I get to meet her one day in person :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~