Black Panty Salvation

The Temple is a bi-level house whereupon the moment you step through the front door you have 9 square feet to make the decision: upstairs or downstairs.  It’s a tiny yet dramatic entry and what it lacks in width it more than makes up in height.  Oh yeah baby.  I needed to use those walls to make a strong impression.

I’d been searching for a family tree decal on Etsy and Amazon, of which there are 10,000+.  I do not recommend this exercise.  I locked one in a couple of months ago only to discover it’s no longer available.  No matter because this redirected me to trees instead tree, singular.

I love the four trees representing our family as being separate but equal, independent yet the same.  Plus the height of this design better fits my needs, for real.

Planting the Trees:

Hanging the Family:

Or better, the view from downstairs:

Still undecided on the license plates however:

These are the real deal; my plate from when I left Michigan and Kris’ California plate when we moved to NY.  They (too?) obviously represent our roots, they are at a level for the kids to touch and read, the colors sync well and they jive with our mailbox.  What do you think?  I think I’m going to use them and then salvage a Wisconsin plate for the new baby and spend the rest of my days finding a Bermuda plate for Arlo.

While license plates are fascinating, let’s get to the whole point of this exercise:  our family portraits.

In addition to the first impression-making, there’s another reason why I want these by the front door:  convenient to grab in case of a fire.  Though the artist, Chris Geymont, is a great friend, former partner-in-crime and all around bad ass and she knows how much I love these pieces, I don’t think I can ever express enough how much they mean to me.  And I’m totally not just writing this to prime her for Portrait #4, TBA.

Welcome to the Temple.  Should you decide to go upstairs, enjoy our Family Trees and get out of there.  What are you doing up there?  Those are our bedrooms for heaven’s sake.  Nosy parker.