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Make sure the art and decor in your home connects with the whole family.  Sharing ways to choose art the whole family will love and discussing our NEED to create art and beauty in our lives.

minted art collection on wall

*This post is sponsored by Minted, but all opinions are my own – as always.  I’m grateful to Minted for this design challenge and for giving me the courage to share our current devistating roadblocks with you.  Be sure to snag the free motivational printables in this post  – a little art done by yours truly 😉 .

I’d much rather talk about our struggles to you in hindsight.  Currently, we have no happy ending and the road ahead is looking bleak . . . and that is kind of a downer.  What I share today is not for sympathy, rather I want to encourage any of you in the midst of your own challenges to find the desire to create.

No.  Matter.  What.

minted art collection on wall

First things first – let’s talk about finding art for your spaces that will connect with everyone.  Now, not every piece of art will connect with everyone (that would be boring), but I do feel it is so important to find space in your home where each member of your family can connect with a piece that speaks to them.  How do we do that?  Let me share what I’ve learned.

minted art collection on wall

HOW TO CHOOSE ART THE WHOLE FAMILY WILL LOVE

Filling your walls and shelves with meaningful images or words for everyone can happen in 3 easy steps.

1 – Expose them to art.

2 – Observe their connections.

3 – Make it personal to them.

Let’s explore each step.

dried roses next to art

1 – EXPOSE THEM TO ART

Don’t rely on teachers or friends to expose your family to art!  Parents and spouses know their loved ones best, and can better introduce them to what may connect with each family member.  Here are some ideas for exposing your family to art, so you can better understand what they will like for years to come.

  • Point out art while in stores, doctor offices, and other homes
  • Visit art galleries
  • Look online with them at the Minted Fine Art Collections and have them point out their favorites.  This is exactly what I did while choosing the art you see in these images.
  • Search different types of art with them online, i.e. Abstract, watercolor, landscapes, portraits, acrylic paintings, sketches, photography, sculptures, etc.
  • Create art together!  This instills a love and appreciate for this type of creative venture, whether or not they excel at it.

minted art collection on wall

Some of my children are more prone to noticing the art around them than others, but I really enjoy talking about what we see around us with them as we go about our day.

2 – OBSERVE THEIR CONNECTIONS

No matter how deep our blood runs, no two humans are the same and our tastes for art often vary drastically.  It’s your job as a homemaker to watch and observe what connections your family makes to the art they see.  You could even have them create their own art and watch what they come up with, paying attention to any patterns.

girl looking at art

I picked out some special art pieces from our collections to show you, that each of my family members so obviously connected to.  In each case I was a tad surprised, but delighted to see their preferences take shape.

A BOY AND HIS DOG

This piece has a great story.  We were on a family trip and I begged the hubs to stop at a thrift shop.  We were cruising along and my son got way excited over this pic of a vintage boy and his dog.  Of course, when I saw it my heart flipped over the chippy frame and vintage appeal.  SOLD.  Price?  Didn’t care.  My boy and I connected to the same piece.

boy and a dog art with a boy

Got to the register and the lady laughed and said, “I didn’t even bother to price this thing, because I didn’t think anybody would want it.”

I. Couldn’t. Even.

Until she said, “here, just have it for free.  Maybe you could paint the frame and fix it up.”

Say no more lady . . . you can’t fix perfection.

Pretty sweet deal huh?!  By the way – even a cute 4 year old can connect to art.  He loves having this picture in his room.

CURIOSITY AND COLOR

I sat my littlest girl on my lap and we looked over the Minted Fine Art collection.  She wanted me to stop right at this Pink Fortress piece.  I asked her what she liked and she said “the pink, how it looks old and I really want to know what is inside that window.”

girl exploring wall art

This girl is curious to a fault and found art that feeds that personality trait.

wall art and girl

HOPES AND DREAMS

This wee one is a tornado.  Giant creative mess in the house?  She did it.  It takes all my perfectionist self-control to let her have at it without discouraging her creativity.  But oh how I love seeing what she creates.  She was particularly proud of this abstract art she made after we had researched the topic on YouTube together, so I stuck it in a frame and proudly hung it up.  It is a representation of her long time dream of having a barn full of horses and a house surrounded by lavender fields and mountains.

childrens abstract art creations.

Oh how I would love to oblige.

art created by child on display

WONDER AND IMAGINATION

My sweet pre-teen.

minted art collection on wall

Surely, she is so grown up and saw this Real Reflections Art on Minted and pondered on the importance of seeing yourself clearly and thoughtfully.  Nope.  Boy was I wrong.

reflections art

She saw this misty reflection and imagined herself and her friends jumping into the image and exploring the forest, while being all their favorite Star Wars characters.  That’s what she told me.  Her imagination is vivid and alive still, and this art sparked it once more.

Please don’t ever grow up.

real reflections art

THE ESCAPE AND MEMORIES

I made Mr. TIDBITS pose with one of his favorite art pieces I got him this last Christmas.  Everywhere we went, he seemed very drawn to greenery and pathways and mentioned how he would like something like that in his work office.  He grew up in Washington and his family spent most of their recreational time in the lush mountains.  He loves having this art straight across from his desk.  He says it feels like a work escape for him, making him feel like he is somewhere different than where he must be, when he needs it.

man with favorite scenic art

INNER PEACE

As for me, my choice of Art may or may not surprise you.  Scrolling through Minted, this piece “Beautiful Nature Three” jumped right out at me and I couldn’t let it go.  So I went big 😉

woman hanging art

It’s minimal.  Serene.  Peaceful.  Blue (hello favorite color).  It invokes in me renewal, rest, and calmness – exactly what the artist was trying to depict.

Our life is at a confusing and frustrating stand still right now.  We are not wanting to go backwards, yet unable to move forward.

For my regular readers, you know we moved into a rental, trusting too much in a “hot housing market” to sell our beautiful home quickly, and then hoped to make a quick turn around to buy some dream property to build our forever home.

Reality is this.  Going on 6 months of 2 house payments, dropped contracts, endless problems, and what you may not know – 2 years of constant dead ends looking for property.

To add to the difficulties, my job is my home!  I’m a home decor blogger without a home!  Yes, many of you would love to see what we do with our dark rental, and I would love to share ideas, but everything we own that is nice is left at the other home for staging purposes.  We dine over fold-up tables and chairs, and relax on hand me down furniture.  Not much for inspiration so far.

Now I know there are worse trials.  I choose to fill my prayers with gratitude for having healthy, happy children, a roof(s) over our head, and food on the table.  I’m holding onto hope that it will all work out when it needs to, and fighting my intense feelings of discouragement and worry by creating.

Creating even if all I might have is a wall on wheels in our garage, a $20 mantel from the classifieds, and a few pieces of art that speak to me and my family.

wall on wheels with art and mantel

OUR NEED TO CREATE

I am convinced that we ALL have a deep need to create, no matter our situation.  Create beauty in whatever surroundings you find yourself in, with whatever resources you have.  Create smiles on the faces of those we love.  Create delightful and nourishing food for ourselves and our families.  Create a place to share and educate others near and far.  Create memories, experiences and opportunities to serve.

minted art collection on wall

Creating something that did not exist before can pull us out of feelings of discouragement and despair.  Creating can help us make the most of any situation.

FREE MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES

I created some art of my own to accompany this post, that if you find inspirational I welcome you to fill out the form below to gain access to my TIDBITS SUBSCRIBER LIBRARY where I house all my free printables for my subscribers.



*Already a subscriber?  No need to fill out this form.  Access to the library is at the bottom of every email I send.

The CREATE quote is a long time favorite of mine, and the other words were brought to my mind in times of reflection and prayer.  You can quote me on them 😉

create quote

determination quote

Dream quote

 

 

I hope you find encouragement in them as well.  They are meant to be printed on a standard 8.5 x 11 paper and could be framed and hung if so desired.

For personal use only please.

I’ll wrap this up with the 3rd way you can choose art that connects with your whole family and that is to . . .

3 – MAKE IT PERSONAL TO THEM

When my kiddos were invited into our garage to see “our wall”, one of my girlies plopped down and said, “Wow.  This feels like home”.

minted art colleciton

Somehow, I managed to make “a wall” transform into something that felt familiar and comfortable to them.  Together, we choose art that connected us to who we are as a whole.

To help kids and family members connect to art, you could hang it in a special place to them, name the art “Kate’s Art” or have them explain to the family why they like it so much.

Our blank walls can become so much more when they become a representation of who we are and what we believe in.

Thanks for reading my heartfelt post today!

minted art collection on wall

I’d love to hear about one of your favorite pieces of art and why you love it!  Feel free to leave your comments below and then come and join in on my TIDBITS & Company Facebook Community group and feel free to share pics of your art and chat with others.

For more ways to decorate the walls of our homes, check out my curated Pinterest board all about Wall Decor.

Finally, be sure to check out all the amazing Art and design resources from Minted!  Two of our prints we ordered framed and one I framed myself from one I had at home.  The options are limitless over there and the delivery to my doorstep can’t be beat!

minted art collection on wall

 

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26 Comments

  1. My married daughter and I went to an estate sale this past week. Unbeknownst to the other, there was a piece of art that we both liked, but it cost too much for us. We went back on Sunday afternoon when everything was half off, and it was still there. It was still a bit too much, but when we discoverd that we both liked it, we went “halfsies” and each bought half of the half-off price. I let her take it home first. 🙂 It’s a beautiful landscape watercolor.

  2. Dear girl, Keep your chin up! We had a similar experience with 2 mortgage payments but for 22 months. In the end, a young couple from our church purchased our home…..something that was totally in God’s plan with His timing! Keep praying and trusting and He will see you through this time!

  3. Oh I truly understand the financial pressure. We gave up after 4 months, quit job in Eugene, moved my husband back to WA. And told the realitor we were taking the house off the market( Mom lived next door in a rental we developed/ea. Home had one acre) . Mom stopped driving, moved from CA. just as we finished our rental. The cost of apt. & travel back n forth was very hard. I was a grocery clerk, my guy newly retired from WA State forestry. Not high paying jobs.

    But the power that truly runs the show had other ideas. Realitor says I have an offer of you if you can be out in 30 days. Magic! So I moved everything into storage & moved in with Mom for 5 months more of traveling to OR. on weekends while 2nd home was on market. Larry’s new job was wild land fire
    fighting, tree planting, low pay. Yay we had stress.

    So we once more took a chance in Feb to contract to build a home in new lovely subdivision with a truly nice guy builder. Much more home than I ever dreamed of having but we needed extra room for Mom who did not want to continue to live alone. We did not want to be owning a rental 3.5 hours away, so we left it on market. It sold 2months after we started living together in the new house. Now you can see we juggled our mortgage & apt. Later the payments on empty rental & new home not knowing how long it would take to sell. We paid granddaughter to watch home and mow etc. To make it even tighter I had left my checker job when our new home was ready for us.

    Looking back I can not believe we had the courage to sell 2 homes, uproot my Mom, for a low paying job. I worked, shopped & yard care for 2 homes(each on one acre). I even did Mom’s hair twice a week. I had just finished complete rehab on our home. I just really believe in the vision and kept moving towards it.
    Hope this helps you to keep the vision alive. Hugs, Ruth

  4. Great attitude Cami. I didn’t know that you had moved from your beautiful home, but it looks like you are making this rental your retreat for now. Are can do wonders for a room.

  5. Love the are you chose! That is something I need to get better about in my home for sure! I know your beautiful home will sell soon, Cami. Although I’m sure its stressful right now!

  6. Oh my gosh I love the pics and you do imagery so well. I would have never guessed this was in your garage!!!

  7. Have you taken a St. Joseph statue upside down, by the front door!
    Or even get a St. Joseph card, and put it by the door which people enter your house.
    Also pray of course.
    There many people who use this method to help sell their homes!
    You must believe and it will bring the perfect person to buy your home!
    You just have to trust St. Joseph the patron saint of carpenters.
    Carrie Krumrie

  8. Cami, continuing to pray for you and the fam. Too funny… I just didn’t even realize you were using your wall for the shots… that’s amazing!

    1. You mean, I even tricked you!? That’s a win 😉 . And thank you for your prayers and thoughts Julie dear!

  9. Oh sweet-one you are making a common mistake in life, but first I love the magic you create with so little. Your photo wall, art chosen, mantle, & shared thoughts are beyond wonderful. OK now to the common mistake. From experience I once had in moving to Oregon-selling 2 homes in Washington, moving my Mom, was it took much longer than we hoped or was comfortable (8 months) but turned out better than we could have imagined. We even gave up at one point and gave up the apt. in Eugene and the job. Funny but that is when the 1s home sold, followed by 2nd home 5 months later. After I lived with my Mom, seeing my guy on weekends in a studio apt. in Eugene. Long story but my point is your dream is coming it just takes longer than we like sometimes. Your not stuck!! You are on a magical journey so don’t waste a moment thinking your stuck my magical, creative friend. We ended up building a dream house in Eugene (never expected) with my Mom living happily with us til her transition. The job lead my husband to a biz of his own, so happy he is still working at 72 and so much more to tell. Point is you are living your dream and ‘IT’ will work out better than you can imagine it right now. Keep being grateful for all you have and trust the magic. I’ll be watching.
    Ruth (loyal follower at 75 who loves country decor& redoing furniture & gardening)

    1. Ruth. I read your comment earlier today and it has been in my mind and heart all day! I’ve decided I’ll look at this time as a gift to explore other things I’ve wanted to do or share, and enjoy the extra time with my family a little more. If it weren’t for the financial strain, I’m sure I could truly embrace it, but with 6 mouths to feed it gets a little stressful at times. I treasured hearing your experience (what you could share in a paragraph) and took to heart your insight. I needed to hear exactly what you wrote today and I can’t thank you enough! I appreciate your visits and it sounds like we like much of the same things! Well – gardening isn’t my love . . . but perhaps it could be! Big big hugs!
      Cami

  10. Hang in there, Cami! You and I listed our homes at around the same time. We have had three contracts on our home and I think this one will actually lead to a closing on Sept 14. God’s timing is always perfect and I am confident that He will coincide with your sale with finding the best property for you and your family. I will be praying for you

    1. Karen, I sure hope this time works out for you! Hanging onto hope and I so appreciate your understanding and words of comfort my friend! I’ll be praying for gratitude for your prayers! XO – Cami

  11. God bless you for your struggles, i have always told myself, God knows and everything he puts us through is for the good, even though we don’t always see it. There is something wonderful going to happen for you and i know you know, it’s just the wait that kills us. Hang in there, God’s working, hugs.

    1. Marlene – you speak such truth that I know from my own experience, with every fiber of my being. Why is it so easy to switch back to stressing and not trusting with our whole hearts? The wait and financial strain definitely makes it hard, but we are hanging in there! Thank you for visiting and sharing your thoughts with me!

  12. Thank you for sharing your struggles with us , and for reminding us that optimism , hope, and determination are a daily choice! Keep hanging on to those dreams !

    1. Daily choice indeed – and some days are harder than others! So grateful for your visit and comment today Gwen! I’ll keep hanging on if you do too 😉

  13. This was a lovely article. But art does not even have to be purchased. You can frame beloved comic book covers, fern leaves and other greenery found outside, even favorite rocks and stones from traveling. I come from a family of artists and wherever we go we look for original affordable art. Local restaurants often have original local art for sale on their walls. Old books found on ebay or at garage sales often have stunning art visuals that can be copied and framed…or not even framed but glued onto hardboard. So many ways to get art without even spending money if that is your wish. It’s all out there, just open your eyes and see.

    1. Melissa! I couldn’t agree with you more! My daughters art she made herself warms my heart more than any of them. She is so proud of it. I have a super old canning book from great great grandma that I framed before, and it was perfect. I love this point you brought up! Thank you for visiting and for sharing your thoughts.

  14. I loved your post about art. I to am drawn to the reflection of the trees in the water also. I see the beauty of the tall trees (a mother or father) reflected in those around you (children) as the water reflects the image.

    Perhaps you should give advice and help your loyal readers decorate their rooms. I will gladly send you a picture of my room for advice.

    1. Oh Sue! I loved your thoughts on the reflective art! I’m going to look at it a whole new way!

      I’ve been trying to help readers more, and would love to have you share some images with me on spaces where you could use some ideas! Email me! Initially I wanted to help friends and family with some of their spaces, but it has proven very difficult to make it happen with a young family to attend to. Most of our DIY is done late at night and here and there. Not sure if it’s the right time for me to venture into that as much as I would like to. But I can help digitally, if possible. Hope to hear from you!

  15. I’m sorry you are struggling today. Gods timing is always perfect, even if it doesn’t match ours. Maybe he is encouraging you in a new direction?
    I rarely comment online but I felt the need today. To fulfill the need to create you could help people with their troublesome areas in their home and put the results in your blog. Just an idea.
    God has a plan and it’s always good. I hope you find what you need in the time being.

    1. Well I sure am grateful you took the time to comment to me today! Your thoughts were enlightening and really got me thinking. A new direction? Perhaps you are onto something. Thank you so much!

  16. Oh bless your heart! My daughter and her family went through something similar last year but they did sell their house the first weekend they put it on the market and then found the house they wanted but had to move in with my son-in-law’s parents because the sellers kept dragging their feet over one thing and another! It was heart breaking! It’s a long sad story but it ended well and yours will, too. I will pray for you and your family! Love your posts and the art!

    1. Oh that does sound frustrating! No matter how wonderful your in-law are, it’s difficult to move in and then to have all those delays and frustrations must have been so difficult. Glad it has a happy ending, and I will be so grateful for your prayers. Thank you for your kind words!