How a Heart Chalkboard Wall Decal Begat a Better Valentine’s Day
Feb.14
Craig makes it impossible to shop for him on any holiday, which becomes an even bigger obstacle when a holiday technically requires a gift with a specific romantic message. He’s a terrible consumer. If he wants something and happens to mention it in my presence, he’ll immediately talk himself out of wanting it before I can finish staking my mental garden marker in what was briefly a flourishing gift idea. I’ve done the math – six years of dating multiplied by roughly three major holidays per year equals 18 or more times I’ve gone shopping and returned with only sore feet and stress-induced hives.
This year, I decided to embrace the Valentine’s Day spirit by fusing decoration, adoration, and inspiration on our kitchen wall. I arranged a chalkboard heart wall decal opposite our front window where any passing city-dweller could see it and perhaps be unconsciously warmed, should he or she be scanning for visible décor through the windows of the overhead apartments. Thankfully, I’m no longer confined to keeping my chalkboard decals where I know Craig will see them, as he now seeks out and quickly fills all the shapes I bring home with his to-do scribbles before I’ve had a chance to finish playing with potential designs.
My plan was threefold: to decorate lightly for Valentine’s Day (the surprising number of New Yorkers who adorn their porches with lights in February is quite inspiring, although I suspect many of them have simply added strands of red to the white lights they used back in December), to add a month’s worth of meaningful appreciations to a relatively dull daylong celebration of love, and to actively brainstorm until I’d drummed up a decent gift and overcome Craig’s indulgence handicap for once.
“Don’t write on this one,” I told him, sticking the baby hearts where they’d look bubbly and supportive of the queen heart.
“Why not?” He was chewing.
“Because I’m gonna use it to write you a little love note every day this month. It’s part of your Valentine’s Day gift.”
He paused between bites of bran flakes and said, “You don’t have to do that.”
I told you not to get me anything.
(Photo credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)
I’d prepared myself for this exact infuriating response, which came from the same place that won’t allow him to buy himself a new pair of Levi’s but once every decade. My response was simply to write “I love you because…” at the top of the heart, leaving space for the first of my daily reasons – “I love you because you’re slightly easier to shop for than the Dalai Lama.”
I wrote a different reason every day for the first two weeks of February. I praised his dedication to nailing a perfect Marge Simpson impression. I celebrated his clam chowder recipe, as well as his admirable work ethic and ability to remove mysterious laundry stains. It’s been a unique challenge to come up with a new and true sentiment for each day, so I recently gave myself a break and instead drew a picture of two doting stick figures at a movie theater, a mountain of fluffy yellow popcorn parked between them.
Craig stood in front of my hasty chalk art for a moment, again munching his morning bran. “Remember that time we left after watching one movie and decided to turn right around and go see another?” he said. “That’s always been my favorite date of ours.”
With that, my chalkboard project led me right where I’d wanted to go. For his official Valentine’s Day gift, I made him a Cinema Night kit complete with microwave popcorn, an economy-sized resealable bag of peanut M&Ms, and a pack of movie tickets thick enough to put us through Oscar season and beyond. It was an easy, stress-free spree.
I plan to see my daily love notes through to the end of the month. Once March 1 arrives, our heart chalkboard decal will become open for his reciprocated affections, fondue recipes to try, running lists of must-see coming attractions… all the lovely things its shape inspires.
Chalkboard Wall Decals: A Great Emergency Gift for Surprise Guests
Dec.28
It’s amazing how many dear old friends my mother has. The moment I’ve recovered from my plane ride home and settled on her couch with a mug of hot chocolate and a DVR loaded with holiday specials, the doorbell inevitably rings.
Mom titters from the kitchen, “Oh, that’s probably so-and-so. You remember so-and-so, right? She stopped in to watch five minutes of your fourth grade school play? She waved to you from the back row? Red sweater? No?”
“No.” I always say. “A thousand times no.”
Don’t get me wrong – I’m happy to meet someone new for the second time, and it’s easy to remember that recorded television and hot chocolate will always wait. Once my mother’s special guest has a cookie in her hand and a few holiday stories under her belt, I start to conjure a semi-accurate memory of that red sweater in the far shadows of my elementary school’s auditorium. We chat, we laugh… and I remember why my mother is such a gem. When it comes to picking her pals, she has fantastic taste.
I learn that our guest is a teacher for a fledgling Head Start program. She likes to grow lavender, and she admires my mother’s flawless driving record. She no longer wears red because it makes her look flushed. She likes cookies and aerobics, two things that simply must go together but almost never do.
An hour or so into our visit, it happens. Our guest puts down a butterscotch haystack and gets up to rummage through her things in the coat closet, promising to return to the living room with a gift she picked out just for me. Under normal circumstances, I’d feel the instant guilt that comes with accepting a holiday gift without offering one in return. I’m sure that most people know what I mean; even though giving doesn’t have to be reciprocal, it’s quite satisfying when it is.
While our guest is digging through her bag, I take a moment to savor the absence of this unnecessary holiday guilt. I’d planned ahead. In my suitcase was an emergency stockpile of what I consider inexpensive, unique-but-universal gifts: two bottles of espresso-flavored spirits, two embellished NYC-themed holiday ornaments, two reclaimed-wood picture frames, and four sets of peel-and-stick chalkboard tiles.
Once I open her gift to me – the fancy coffee grinder I’d included on a wish list specifically for my mother – I produce from my emergency inventory a festively wrapped pack of foolproof chalkboard decals for decorating her classroom, her home office, her kitchen, and all spaces in between, as many times as she can remove and reuse them.
She’s thrilled. I’m relaxed. We each share plans for our new prizes. I’m going to finally enjoy some exotic new whole bean blends, and she’s going to position the chalkboard decals at the heart of her classroom’s reading center. When the doorbell rings again a few hours later, halfway through Santa Claus is Coming to Town, I press pause and answer it with enviable holiday cheer.
Cupcake Chalkboard Wall Decals Have No Calories!
Dec.20
Maybe I watch too much late-night TV, but I have dreams of giant cupcakes dancing in my head.
Cupcakes are now possibly enjoying their highest popularity in the history of baked goods. Most major cities and college towns have their own boutique cupcake shops where the lines are out the door. Many school districts are scapegoating cupcakes for the childhood obesity problem and are banning them from classroom birthday and holiday parties.
And the infomercial for Big Top Cupcake, silicone bakeware that promises to produce “colossal cupcakes up to 25 times bigger than normal,” seems to be playing three or four times an hour.
If a cupcake is really the size of a cake, then is it still a cupcake or just a dome-topped cake?
Thinking back to comedian George Carlin’s oxymoron routine, “giant cupcake” is just like “jumbo shrimp.”
There are going to be many sugary temptations this Christmas season, with cupcakes being only one option to gorge yourself into gastrointestinal oblivion.
That’s where our Cupcake Wall Decals come in.
It’s the perfect decoration for above the dessert table, with plenty of room to describe the delicious offerings below. Bakeries and coffee shops can also use this design to add a little pizazz to their specials of the day.
If you really want to celebrate your sweet tooth this Christmas, why not add a few Sweet Dream Fairy decals with an assortment of magical macaroons, ice cream pops and jellybeans. Or drape yourself with the Wall Candy sterling silver or 18K gold Cupcake Necklace with white sapphires.
Best of all, both our cupcake wall stickers and necklaces have no calories, which means there will be more room in your stomach for a Gingerbread House or two. Yum, yum!
(Cupcake images via BigTopCupcake.com)
Take a Break, Rudolph – These Festive Wall Decals Glow Year-Round
Dec.11
As children, my sister and I hated the standard plastic one-bulb nightlight our well-meaning mother planted in one corner of our shared bedroom. If one of us woke up in the middle of the night to a quiet house, we were spooked and no dot of illumination could comfort us. (It probably didn’t help that we liked to fall asleep to the Thriller cassette in our Fisher-Price tape deck, but that one monster-laden song wasn’t completely responsible for our nighttime fright.)
One year, after spending a wonderful day decorating our Christmas tree as a happy little family, we began a campaign to “accidentally” fall asleep in the living room every evening after dinner. The twinkling lights and sounds of our dishwasher were so comforting we didn’t need Michael Jackson’s crooning to fall asleep.
Our scheme interrupted my mother’s alone-time rituals. It was too difficult to watch Cheers and eat chocolate pudding with two snoozing children camped out on the living room couch, so she hung a few extra strands of Christmas lights in our room and placed a tiny tree, also lit, on our dresser. My sister and I were suddenly delighted to greet our beds every night, and the month of December was a well-rested one for all.
Once Christmas was over, our mother worried that the strands of lights would cause the electric bill to skyrocket, or that someone would forget to turn them off and something volatile would float past and catch fire. Granted, both of those concerns were probably exaggerated, but a mother’s sense of order shouldn’t go ignored for too long. The lights came down and we went back to relying on our one-bulb beacon of safety to keep the boogeyman away.
If removable, reusable strands of glow-in-the-dark lightbulb decals had existed back then, our family harmony would never have been slightly interrupted. They’re don’t use a lick of electricity and won’t tear up any paint job, so my mother would’ve been thrilled. They spread a subtle, buttery glow throughout the bedroom, so Vincent Price’s baritone would never have gotten the best of us, even in the spookiest pocket of night.
The major flaw of the traditional nightlight is that it illuminates one corner of the room and manages to make more scary shapes than it prevents. Even if your kids aren’t afraid of the dark, per se, they probably prefer more than a hint of light in their rooms, just to keep the shadows jolly.
Instant Gratification: Polaroid-Style Frame Decals
Jul.22
I’m old enough to remember shaking blank Polaroid photos to try to speed up their developing, which was like watching a picture fade in reverse. Shaking them was as effective as tapping your feet to make a long line move faster.
And I’m delighted to discover that old-style Polaroid film has been brought back from the dead in the Digital Age by some photography enthusiasts in the Netherlands! Appropriately, they call themselves The Impossible Project.
The genre is super hot. Lady Gaga, recently signed on as Polaroid’s Creative Director, just posed for a giant Polaroid portrait. You’ll find it at the MIT Museum, which houses iconic photography memorabilia dating back to inventor Dr. Edwin Land.
And now, WallCandy Arts adds its stylish tribute. These removable wall decal Frames turn any wall into a nostalgic scrapbook. They look just as fashionable with 8 x 10 color enlargements taken 10 minutes ago as they do with vintage black and whites from your grandparents’ wedding album. If you are feeling extra creative, we recommend running your photos through editing software or free Web editing apps, such as Rollip.com, to give them a subdued Instamatic look.
Completing the scrapbook or bulletin board theme are pieces of yellowed Scotch tape and push-pins. The blank white area underneath the photos are meant for your witty captions with Dry-Erase markers — the same ones you use for your office whiteboard.
Some WallCandy Arts designs are clearly targeted toward specific ages and genders. For example, unless your hubby still wears Batman underwear, it is unlikely he’d be choosing these RACE ME race cars for his Man Cave.
The beauty of Frames is that they appeal to every demographic. Here are a few occasions and locations where decorating with them would be a huge hit:
WAYS TO USE WALLCANDY FRAMES
1. Dorm Room Decor: While your roommate sticks up the same cliched shots of James Dean, John Belushi’s Animal House college spoof, or (yuck) trendy guerrilla icon Che Guevara, you can show off the fun places you’ve traveled or hope to visit one day.
2. Birthday Parties: Doesn’t matter if the guest of honor is 1 or 100, frame the cutest moments of his or her life in wall decals.
3. Graduation Parties: These are going on all summer long! Kindergarten class photos will make your grad’s friends smile.
4. Wedding Anniversaries: We hardly open up our wedding albums any more, let alone share them with new friends. Make them the central focal point!
5. Bridal Showers: Decorate the house with action shots of the honored couple!
6. Bar and Bat Mitzvahs/First Communions: Any “This is Your Life” is an excuse to line the walls with a Time Machine tribute.
7. Adult Halloween Parties: Put blank frames up on the wall with categories for a costume contest: Funniest Costume, Sexiest Costume, Funniest Couple, Scariest Couple, etc. Take digital shots and print out 8 x 10s on your printer and have people vote for the winners. Give out WallCandy Arts decals as prizes
8. Going Away Parties: When a friend or family member moves, it’s another “This is Your Life” moment.
9. Childhood Bedrooms: Great place to showcase favorite family vacation pictures.
10. Office Decor: Show off the kids to your co-workers or your family vacation pics.
11. Playroom Decor: Kids are fickle. One day they love the Wiggles or Teletubbies. The next day they are “too old” for those characters and are Sesame Street sophisticates. Frames are ideal for displaying magazine pictures and children’s artwork, too.
As with all WallCandy Arts decals, there are no limits to where your imagination can take you.
We’d love to see how you’ve used WallCandy Frames. Please send us your photos and stories about your favorite decoration projects! Share them on Facebook or drop us a line here.
