DIY Timeline Gallery Wall

I’ve been making over my office for what feels like forever.  Partly because I’m having trouble deciding exactly what I want to do with the space, but mostly because I have zero spare time these days.  Working full time and having two littles will do that to you!

I’m now on the home stretch of my office makeover, and I can’t wait to finish up the last few things so I can do the big reveal.  I’ve already shared my DIY Painted Striped Curtains with you, and now I’m especially excited to share with you my timeline gallery wall.

On this wall, I knew that I wanted to incorporate some of my most favorite pictures along with some stylish knickknacks, and I thought it would be really neat to present them as a timeline… a summary of my life right there on the wall.  However, summarizing 33 years (yikes!) on three Ikea picture ledges is just not feasible, so I decided to start from the time I met Brian and go from there since that’s pretty much when my current life truly began.  Awwww…

The first thing I did was to decide which events I wanted to represent on the wall.  I chose the most obvious ones – wedding, pets, kids:

·         Our Wedding

·         Adopting Maui

·         My miscarriage

·         Jacob’s Birth

·         Olivia’s Birth

·         Something to represent where I am in life right now

I ended up dedicating the whole top row to Brian, so it’s all about loooove.  The LOVE mirror is from Hobby Lobby, the gold glitter heart print was made by me and framed in an Ikea Ribba 8x10 Frame, and the XO letters were plain wooden letters from Michaels and decorated by me.  I framed one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day (still my very favorite day in the history of me) to top it off.  And believe me, there were so many good wedding pictures, it was really hard to narrow it down from hundreds to just one!

The “Follow That Dream” print is also from Hobby Lobby, and it was the perfect representation to show me chasing after everything I’ve ever wanted in life.  And really, all I ever wanted since I was a little girl, was to find a husband who loves me, to have babies, and to create a happy life with them.  I know it might not sound fulfilling enough for some, and maybe not very ambitious to some, but all I’ve ever truly wanted was to be a wife and mommy.  And apparently to be a blogger.  ;o)

In January, 2010 we adopted our sweet little Maui, our first baby, and she is framed in a black frame that I already had (probably from Target, no doubt). 

The mirror represents something very personal for me, and I’m not usually too public about it, but I guess that’s all out the window when you start a blog for the whole world to see.  In April 2010 we found out we were going to have a baby and we were absolutely over the moon.  However, on June 17, 2010, at our 12 week check-up, we found out that we had had a missed miscarriage – meaning that the baby was no longer viable, but I had never shown any traditional symptoms of a miscarriage.  It was a total shock.  For the next few months I was an absolute wreck.  It was, by far, the darkest time in my life, and I really spent a lot of time in self-reflection, asking the usual whys and hows – why had it had happened to me? 

I did a lot of praying during that time.  More than I had ever done in my whole life, and that’s what brings me to the next piece on my timeline – a gold and white frame with a bible verse that I had stumbled upon in all of my anguish.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5.  That verse spoke to me more than anything else ever had in my whole life, and it got me through a really tough time.  It is now a little reminder of my sweet little angel that I will get to meet again someday when we leave this world.

In July 2011, Jacob graced us with his presence, and I was forever changed.  He was the baby I had been longing for, the tiny hands I had longed to hold, the tiny nose I had longed to kiss.  He was our perfect blessing from above.

The & sign is to indicate, well, just that.  Jacob AND Olivia.  The final member of our sweet little family.  It was made by me using this fabric from Hobby Lobby (I told y’all they all know me there) and gold glitter scrapbook paper, also from (guess where?!) Hobby Lobby.

In February 2014, we were gifted with yet another blessing from God, our sweet Olivia, the girl I had dreamed of having my entire life.  She completed our family and filled every inch of the last little hole in my heart.  This is my very favorite picture of the two of us.  It was taken when she was barely two weeks old. 

The next piece is somewhat of an inside joke now between Brian and myself – “Never Give Up Never Surrender.”  It’s actually a quote from that movie Galaxy Quest from the 90’s and I’ve never even seen the movie, but a few years ago, Brian and I kept hearing this one contestant on that show Wipeout say it over and over again and it was hilarious!  For some crazy reason it stuck with me, and I feel that it really pertains to many different aspects of my life.  Crazy movie quotes!

For the final piece, I love it because it’s girly, it makes me happy, and I feel like I’m in such a good place in life right now that I should be leaving some sparkles behind me everywhere I go. :o)  I made this piece yet again from scrapbook paper (I love that stuff, so multifunctional!) and spray painted an old frame to display it. 

This little timeline, displayed in my office just for me, is the last eight years of my life in a nutshell.  It’s been happy and it’s been sad, but thankfully the happy times have outweighed the sad. 

I hope you enjoyed this second little sneak peek of my office.  Tell me, what were the most significant events in your life that you would include in your timeline gallery wall?