Celebrate your Family

I'm working on a gift for my grandmother- its kinda like a family tree, but not. I don't want to give away the surprise, so I'm not gonna talk about it anymore..... but..... in the course of researching this gift, I ran across some truly fabulous family trees!

Take a look.......

First is my all-time-favorite family tree from my Norman Rockwell book- remember the one I talked about during Thanksgiving? As a child I stared at this picture for hours. I used my finger to trace each branch of the tree, stopping at every couple, imagining their lives together, how they met, where they lived, how they died.... And it tickled me pink every time I made it all the way from the grubby pirate and his dark and mysterious Spanish lady up to the scrubbed and shiny red headed boy.

The next three are all from My Tree and me. Love the colors, love the lines, love the fresh take on the family tree idea..... love it all.

The next two are fabulous because they include pictures!
You can find this one here.

And you can find this one here. By the way, EVERYTHING in this gal's etsy shop is FABULOUS!!! (edit: oh man! I just found out that this print is sold out.... what a bummer. Well, it's still awesome and so is the artist.)

Now, this next piece is a non-traditional family tree. Here you just print the names of all the people in your life, or your child's life, or whoever this little creation is for- and attach those names to the balloons. What a creative way to tell someone," these are the people who lift you up, who make your life bright and cheery, who float around above your head and occasionally loose their helium and start to sink......" well, lets don't take it too literally. Isn't it SOOOOO CUTE? Find it here

Now for a little DIY.... I found these wall decals here , but you can find them all over your world wide interweb. I thought it might be fun to create your own wall art/family tree combo. You could purchase one of these trees (or paint one if you are so inclined) and then add the names of your family members by hand- you could paint them, or find a cool font and print them out.... ooh ooh! and then you could collect small frames and frame each name and "hang" them on the branches of the tree...... I love that idea. Feel free to steal it.

And finally..... click here for a super cute DIY family tree, directions and all. When you finish it should look a little something like this.....

Bye y'all!