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Subtle Hints DIY’ed Into A Sign

by | Mar 24, 2016 | DIY | 1 comment

Sometimes the Universe sends me subtle hints. Per the definition of subtle, these hints can be “delicately complex and understated”. And I tend to discard them.

So, the Universe stops, grabs me by the shoulders and screams that hint directly into my face. It gets all up in my business and makes me listen.

The hints have been coming for a while, but the other day the direct hit happened.

I had settled into my morning routine of Mt. Dew, oatmeal and firing up my IPhone.

Reading my daily dose of Thistlewood Farms, KariAnne was sharing a wonderful piece of advice her mother had given her. (Read her lovely story here.)

It was if her Mother was speaking to me also. She told her that “Comparison is the thief of joy”. I googled this quote because I was thinking if her Mother pulls perfectly timed sayings like that, she is probably famous or written a book or down right brilliant.

As it turns out, her Mother is brilliant because her timing was impeccable when quoting Theodore Roosevelt.

Take a quick second and read a little deeper into this quote:

When you compare yourself to others, you know all the dirty details of your situation or the problems with what you’ve created but only the seemingly positive surface information about them or their work. Don’t hold yourself up to some outside vague standard of greatness. -lifehacker.com

This quote needed to stay front and center in my blogging/entrepreneurial life.

So I made a sign. A wood sign. Large and spelled out so I don’t forget sign.

I bought an 8 foot tongue and groove pine board from Home Depot and cut it into three 18 inch lengths with my handy dandy table saw. I even have enough board left over for some smaller signs.

Next, I simply ran a wood glue line in the groove of one of the pieces and inserted the tongue side of the next board. Repeating this process one more time gave me a finished 15 x 18 inch sign.

Using my go to milk paint line, I picked the color Linen from Miss Mustard Seed. The finish on this was to be a whitewash, so I combined one teaspoon of the Linen milk paint powder to four teaspoons of water.

After mixing the paint until it was nice and smooth, I brushed the entire front of the board with the mixture.

Because of how thin the paint was, drying time was minimal. I would guess 15 minutes.

The next step was to draw with pencil the quote onto the board. This quote was easily divided into three phrases. COMPARISON on the top board, IS THE THIEF OF on the middle board, and JOY with fancy olive branch swirls on the bottom board.

Once I liked how everything looked, I traced my pencil marks with black and gold permanent markers.

Final touches will put hanging hardware on the back of the sign. For now it is sitting in my family room as a daily reminder and to let the Universe know that I listened and understand.

Wendy