Beautiful.

 

When my daughter Olivia turned twelve years old, our family celebrated with a modified bat mitzvah -- the traditional Jewish coming-of-age rite. Olivia memorized a passage of scripture that marked a transition toward the next phase of her young womanhood, and friends and family compiled a dictionary offering our collective definitions of terms that society seems bent on warping --- words like beauty and love and friendship and faith. As a part of this process, we had a number of conversations about the way beauty is expressed and embodied. Because the mirror can be such a volatile place for a young girl coming to terms with competing ideas about what constitutes loveliness, I wanted to install a reminder of God's perspective. I am convinced that God looks at His babies -- the unrepeatable, irreducible renderings of hands and faces carved after His divine image -- and sees surpassing, sublime loveliness. When I asked Hannah to create this vinyl reminder for my kids' bathroom mirror, I requested that she follow the word with an endmark -- a period, emphasizing the finality of God's opinion. Hopefully, this caption reminds my daughter that her Creator has the last word on the face of His beloved, and that word is beautiful.

At the same time that I requested this word for my daughter, I also commissioned one for a dear friend of mine suffering from an auto-immune disorder that has caused her to lose her hair. I hope that God's view of her loveliness daily supersedes the moments of insecurity, sadness, and fear that threaten to dim the gorgeous light that shines from her heart, her life, and her overwhelmingly beautiful face.

-Amy Linnemann

The Definition of Beauty

Just look at this cutie! When I first saw this picture, my heart melted a little bit! The little girl in the picture has Spina Bifida, just like my son. Tricia, the little girl's mother, was inspired by a quote. I contacted Tricia and begged her to let me put the quote in vinyl. I love the way it turned out. Thank you, Little Mermaid, for inspiring us all.

I adopted my daughter when she was 10 months old. We were told she had Spina Bifida, and while we were completely ignorant about it, SB was not about to stop us from bringing home our daughter.

She is now 4. She rocks her wheelchair, (she loves popping wheelies and doing donuts), and she walks with a walker and braces.

On Facebook someone posted the quote, "You don't have to be able to walk to be beautiful. Just ask the mermaids." It immediately touched me. We just moved and I was planning on an elephant themed bathroom for my pachyderm loving daughter. After seeing this quote, I immediately switched gears- with the quote being the centerpiece of the theme.

I painted 2 paintings of my daughter as mermaids, I bought some mermaid fabric to make curtains, and I bought a mermaid costume to do a photoshoot of my mermaid daughter. This vinyl quote brings it all together!

-Tricia Keierleber

Wanderings

When I found this quote, I knew it was perfect for Lisa.  We were roommates on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I have been to many of the places she talks about, and the others are on my bucket list.  Thanks, Lisa!

I love to travel.  I'm the type of girl who studies maps for fun, who checks airline ticket prices for kicks, who gets a little shaky if it has been too long since my last trip.  I'm more than a little addicted to the rush of adrenaline that comes from stepping off of a plane in a foreign airport.  I love to immerse myself in different cultures, to see how people do things in their corner of the world.  I have ridden an elephant through the jungles of Bali, gone hot-air ballooning over the outback in Australia, and trekked to isolated villages in Africa.  I have eaten crepes at the top of the Eiffel Tower, gelato in piazzas in Italy, and  goulash on a riverbank in Hungary.   I have kissed the Blarney Stone, gone sky-diving over tropical islands, and spent a Sunday afternoon at the bullfights in Spain.  I have seen strange, wonderful, and crazy things all around the world.  And the one thing that remains the same is this:  the more I see of the world, the more I realize I have so much more to see.   I want to spend every spare minute and every pinched penny exploring.  I want to ride a camel through the Sahara, climb the Great Wall of China, and stare in bewilderment at the Moai statues of Easter Island.  I want to go on safari in Africa and see the snake charmers in Marakesh.  I want to shop in the marketplaces of India and see the rain forest in Brazil.  This quote by J.R.R. Tolkien speaks to me.  It reminds me that all of my wandering ways are not for lack of knowing who I am or what I want to be.  I am not lost.  It is in travel that I truly find myself.  So here's to the wanderings. ~ Lisa Eekhoff


Lisa (R) and me on a dinner cruise on the Philippine Sea

A Full Heart

Behind every beautiful phrase I design is an even more beautiful person who has a story to tell.  I want my vinyl blog to be full of stories.  Your stories.

My first blogger to volunteer is Kari.  Kari is a wife (to a published author!), a mother of five, an artist, a home educator, and a Spina Bifida crusader.  I'm sure she wears many, many more hats that I don't know about! I'm so thankful for her encouragement.  You can read her blog here.  Thank you, Kari, for your words!

This picture.....
This picture  makes me smile. It also makes me feel slightly crazy cause well taking any picture with 5 kids is crazy. (though wearing pajama pants makes it feel somewhat better....it was sunday afternoon..pajama pants)

So if you cant read whats on the back of my car it says

If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart.

This saying means a whole whole lot to me personally. Hence it being plastered on the back of my car.

So I thought Id do a quick blog post on why.

1. I need to remind others. Yes, I might look frazzled and crazy getting in and out of my car. You might see me chasing a wheelchair zooming down the slightly sloped parking lot all while dragging a grocery cart full of kids behind me. (its happened) You might see me even slightly (of course only slightly) lose my cool with a couple of the sweet charming children. I might drop 15 items and leave 5 more behind when I come to your home. I might misplace my phone 500xs because I'm always running around calling Doctors/friends/husband and then setting it down somewhere. And  a sweet smiling stranger....or okay a stranger EVERY SINGLE TIME I leave the house might kindly come up to me and say with a laugh, "WOW You've Got Your Hands full"  And yes I do. Yes its crazy. (Yes thats pee leaking out of diapered kid)....But these kids have filled my heart even more than they have filled my hands. And I truly want everyone to know that. Because today teens are taught to work harder, work better, get better grades, go to a better college, have a better career, make more money...more more more. being a mommy isnt enough. being a stay at home mommy sure isnt enough. and I want to fight against that thought. hey being a mommy is stinkin awesome world!

2. I need to remind myself. Through all those crazy things I just described. Through the spills, the tears, the fighting, the falling, the 'I need help',  the 'mommy can you...." through the middle of the night cuddles, the pukes, the dinners, the lunches, the clean ups and the 1000 other things that I know every mommy reading this understands.  Here's the thing though. Ive noticed a trend in blogs. And dont get me wrong I get it. I GET IT.!!! I can scream that at the top of my lungs before you read this next part.
There is a going trend in blogs and they all seem to have the same theme.."Being a Mom is Hard." I like to call it the mommy martyr.  And it is. I get it. But sometimes....just sometimes I kind of get tired of seeing the martyr flag rising high for us moms.  I get tired of the, "This is so hard." Lets all go cry in our cups of coffee together and talk about how wiping rear ends is so hard.  I know I'm not going to gain any followers with this post. But here me to the end at least. Are we truly martyrs? Are our lives really truly oh so very difficult? Or do we really truly have the most amazing job and responsibility in the whole world? Are there hard days? YUP. STINK YUP.  But are we doing each other any good by wearing our martyr robes for all to see? I get the honesty and as Ive said multiple times I love it. There is beauty in it. But from personal experience. When I wear the martyr flag for all my friends to see I also wear it for my children to see. They know when they are the burden. They know when mom is fed up, They know when mommy feels like she  has given too much too many times. And I just cant imagine what that must be like. If my friends all walked around acting like they just couldnt put up with one more of my mess ups or shenanigans......well we probably wouldnt be friends any longer. And I probably feel like a totally piece of doggy poo stuck on the bottom of someones shoe.
Then I think of the women who cant have children or who maybe have had multiple miscarriages. Or maybe have one child and would desperately love more.  What must they think of our martyr flags?? If I were them Id want to jerk it out of our scrawny spit up spewed hands and shred it! But really. Nothing puts it into perspective quite like knowing not everyone has this option, not everyone gets to stay home and have kid after kid after kid. So who am I to wave my martyr flag? Who am I to complain and gripe and roll my eyes at something God has BLESSED ME with!!! 
So with all of that said....I need to remind myself. When my hands feel so full I cant take another second. I cant take another day. I cant take another week. I need to remind myself..How blessed. How amazing. How crazy good God is. Because even though my hands are full.....and they are VERY FULL.....my heart is that much more full. And sometimes I want to raise my martyr flag the highest of all.....

God is good. God has blessed.

A Little Joy for our Hallway

We are Happy, Happy, Happy in this house. :)

World Traveling Vinyl

I'm so excited to post these pics!  My college friend Anita and her husband are missionaries in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  After over a year of language study, they have just recently moved to their permanent residence.  The wanted some lettering for their new home.


The first lettering I ever made was for their first home in Burkina.

This is what I made- I still like it even though it is obviously a first attempt.

After I made this for a friend, Anita asked me to make one to put in her new kitchen.  I really like the color  of her walls.  They decided to keep the leveling bar on the wall :)

I think this is in their guest room.  I was planning to visit them next spring, but since we are expecting a new baby, I'll have to wait a little longer.

Anita and Ken welcomed their first baby in April.  They picked out a name and kept it a secret from everyone except me so that I could make some lettering for their baby's room. It was kind of fun to be in on the secret.  Isn't Natalie Jewell a sweet name for a sweet little girl?  I love the verse they picked to go with her name.








Ken and Anita, welcome home!!!!  Thanks for letting me be part of your housewarming!

Vinyl for Sunday School Rooms

Someone asked me to make some vinyl for their nursery and Sunday school rooms.  I usually charge $6/sq foot for vinyl but for church projects I will always make it $5/sq ft.

Here are the final pictures:

Stenciling with Vinyl

 I just finished my first painted wooden sign. I'm so pleased with how it turned out!  


Here's how I did it:  A friend of mine distressed the wood she wanted to use for the sign, so that part was already finished.  I used my vinyl cutter to cut the words "Sandy toes and salty kisses".  Instead of removing the extra vinyl from the letters, I removed the letters to make the negative image.

Then I attached the vinyl to the sign and painted over the letters.

I let the paint dry for about an hour, then carefully removed the vinyl.

This makes such a great personal gift.  If you are crafty and want to try your hand at vinyl stenciling, please let me know.  Any vinyl I cut can be weeded with the negative image for stenciling!

Videos

How to apply your vinyl

How to apply your vinyl video

Here is my first YouTube video! I will be sending a link to this video to all my customers from now on.

And a BIG thank you to Jeni for her help with the video today! I owe you some vinyl!

Some Favorite Fonts

I'm always on the look out for new fonts.
 Here are some that I tend to use over and over again!  Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Jeremiah!

This post is not about vinyl. 

Today my little boy turns 2.  Jeremiah was born with Spina Bifida.  Part of his spinal cord did not close and was outside his back.  (I have a picture of his cyst before surgery if you are curious, but it is pretty graphic, so I won't post it here).  Jeremiah was born in the "pike position" with his legs up by his head, and he could not lower them at all.  Our neurosurgeon told us that he would probably never walk.  He was in the NICU for 2 weeks.  He had his initial closure surgery to remove the cyst on the day he was born.  Then three days later, he had a surgery to place a shunt in his brain because he also has hydrocephalus, excess fluid in the brain.  He had another surgery at three months because his shunt stopped working.  He went through a series of casts.  The casts lowered his legs, and he can now bend his knees.  He has no feeling in his feet, but he is learning to take steps with a walker.

A good friend made a video of Jeremiah's progress and I thought I'd post it here.  Thanks, Claire!

We have been so blessed by Jeremiah.  He is a happy little guy!  He has a tender heart, a sweet smile, and an infectious laugh!

Happy Birthday, Jeremiah!  We love you!

A few photos of some new projects

I know it has been a while since I've blogged.  I've been really busy filling orders and playing outside with my kids.  I thought you might enjoy a few pictures of some of my new projects.  Let me know if you need anything!

My largest project

When Erin asked me to make a candy land type game board for one of the walls at Imagination Station, the toy store she co-owns, I was a bit intimidated.  I had never made anything so large, and it was a lot of digital design, something that I have just started learning.  After about 6 weeks of planning and tweaking, a new machine, and many rolls of vinyl, above is the final result.

It took about Erin and me more than 6 hours to apply to the wall!  I thought you might enjoy a few process pictures.

Just getting started.

Applying the vinyl

And some more detailed shots:

 

Thank you so much, Imagination Station, for giving me this opportunity!  It was a lot of fun!  

If you are local, stop by the store, see my work, and support local business!

Silhouettes

For Christmas, my brother-in-law asked me to make him a tile that said, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." I was learning some digital design at the time, so I decided to make a silhouette of their family.  I think that silhouettes add such a sweet personal touch to a gift.

Here is the final product.

I think it turned out great! 

I have been working on some other silhouettes as well.  For a little guy who LOVES soccer, I made took a photograph of him celebrating after a score and turned that into a silhouette.

I talked about a silhouette that I made for my husband of our wedding picture in this post.

What silhouettes would you like to see?  Email me at vinylbyhannah@gmail.com

And the winner is...

Congratulations, Amy Martin!  Please email me your color choices and a few photos of you and your sweetheart!
vinylbyhannah@gmail.com

Be watching for more contests coming soon!

It's a Contest! Tell me your Love Story!

 For Valentine's Day, I decided to make this for my husband.  I have seen it on pinterest, and I thought it would be perfect for us.  I just love the way it turned out.  The picture isn't quite perfect because there is a glare from the window just above the light switch.

I made the silhouette from one of our wedding pictures.  Aren't we cute?

Since we are talking about love stories, I thought I'd share how I met my husband.  If you have been following my blog, you know that after college, I moved to Saipan. One day, my aunt called me on the phone.  She was giggling because she had just given my email address to the preacher's son at her church.  He was single.  I was single.  Surely that meant that we were perfect for each other.  I had my doubts.  Saipan was 28 hours away from Indiana by plane.  I promptly forgot the conversation.  Four months later, on Christmas Eve, I received an email entitled "Hello from Franklin, Indiana."  I did not recognize the sender, but I have several family members in Franklin.  Chris and I wrote each other every week for four months.

Our first picture together, at my cousin's open house just minutes after we met

In the summer of 2004, I flew back to Indiana.  My parents picked me up from the airport at 10:00a.m. and at 2:00 p.m. we went to my cousin's (who also went to Chris' church) high school graduation open house in Franklin.  My entire extended family, and Chris' entire church all watched us meet for the first time.  I was not at my best- I had been awake for 36 hours and I was trying to adjust to a 15 hour time difference.  I knew when Chris walked in the room because everyone at the party stopped talking.  He took me out to Ritters frozen custard because he knew I missed it in Saipan.  The next day, he came to my house- chased by a tornado.  (I am not making this up).  He stopped at Stake n Shake and bought me fries.  The next day we went out to eat on our first real date, and then I flew to Europe for two weeks.

After Europe, we spent as much time as we could together.  He proposed a week before I had to go back to Saipan.  He called me every day at lunch (11:00 a.m. my time, 8:00 p.m. his time).  I came home for Christmas and spent a week with his family.  He came to visit me in the Spring.  We were married in July of 2005.

Every love story is beautiful.  But ours is my favorite.

So now it is time for me to announce the next contest.

Leave a comment on my blog and tell me about your love story.  You could win this phrase for your home.  You pick the colors, and I will even make a silhouette of you and your sweetheart.  Do you want another chance to win?  Pin my vinyl lettering to pintrest and I'll enter you a second time!  Entries are due by February 22.  (One week from today).

Good luck!

Hannah

My Life Verse

When I was 25, I moved to a tiny island in the north Pacific called Saipan.  I taught second grade to children from seven different Asian countries and islands for two years.  This picture is the view from my apartment looking out over the Philippine Sea at sunset.

One day soon after I arrived on the island, I was up early, reading my Bible and praying.  I felt completely alone.  I moved to the island knowing absolutely no one.  I was afraid that this move would keep me a single woman forever, and I deeply wanted to be be married and have children.  I told God that I did not think it was not fair that I was in the middle of no where, with no friends.  I felt like God had abandoned me.

Then I turned in my Bible to Psalm 139:8-10.

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
 even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.

It was the perfect answer to my prayer.  It was early in the morning, the sun was not yet up.  I was on the far side of the sea.  And God was holding me fast and guiding me.

And you know what?  I haven't ever felt that deep sense of loneliness since. I have been lonely of course, but I have never felt as devastated as I did that day. And as for the singleness issue, the story of how I met my husband will have to be saved for another day.

Here is a picture of my life verse that I made for my best friend...  We met in Saipan.

Do you have a life verse that you want in your house?  Let me know about it!  vinylbyhannah@gmail.com

Some of my unusual requests

Many people ask me if I do custom work.   Yes. Here are a few of my favorites.

My sister-in-law has three sons that she has lovingly nicknamed Doodlebug, Monkey, and Turtle.  What is a doodlebug, you ask?  A doodlebug is conveniently any kind of insect that might interest my oldest nephew.  My brother-in-law asked me to make a stick figure family for his car, but to use animals instead of little boys.  So for my (ahem) wild nephews, I made this decal.  I will replace this mock up with an actual picture as soon as my SIL sends me one. (And yes, she does sell 31.  Hence the 31 bag.)

Another customer loves pigs and snorkeling.  Could I make a snorkeling pig?  But of course.

How about a candyland board?   You got it.

Do you have an unusual request?  Email me at vinylbyhannah@gmail.com !

Surrounded by Scripture

 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.- Deuteronomy 11:18-20



I enjoy making all kinds of vinyl.  I love to create stick figure families for your cars that are custom designed to reflect your personalities.  I love making welcome signs and taking photographs of nature that I turn into vinyl silhouettes.   But by far, my favorite vinyl to design is scripture.  I need the constant reminder.  God even told the Israelites to write them on the door frames of their houses.  Here are some of my favorite verses that have been "fixed into my heart" and written on the walls of my house (or someone else's).

 This is my life verse.  My best friend requested it before I had time to make it for my own wall!