Dear Friends,
As many of you have noticed, our specialty is inspirational quotes and messages. We love to post these because they lift our thoughts, and make the environments we live in a more celestial place. However, this means that we have less in the way of cool graphics or wall designs. Our friends over The Binary Box (www.thebinarybox.co.uk) make up for this lack. We highly recommend checking out their designs.
Best of luck with your shopping!
The Wall Decal Pal Team
Take running, for example. People spend years of their lives training for marathons. I’ve stood at mile 20 in marathons trying to encourage people on. They look miserable. Exhausted. Sweaty. Burned out. And in no mood to celebrate their victory.
Or take dating. We go out with people and try to share a portion of ourselves with someone else. Hopefully, they get to know us. Hopefully, they are attracted. Hopefully, they will be willing to share a portion of themselves in return. But sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes relationships don’t work. And that hurts.
Yet we go on. The runner finishes the race. The dater picks himself off the ground and tries again. The student keeps studying even after he’s failed the test. The parent keeps loving even when their children are angry and disobedient.
Why? I believe it’s because we are all endowed with the gift of hope. We see things both as they are and as we want them to be. And we know that as long as we don’t give up, someday things will be as we want them to be.
We go forward because we dream.
I say When You Dream, Dream Big. This song sums it up nicely.
I remember when I first began reading as a child. The words were hard. They presented a challenge. But I wanted to learn them, to understand them, to use them. I started small. Dr. Seuss was a great intro into the world of words – their sounds, their connotations, the enjoyment one could get out of them.
I remember reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, a story about a boy and a girl who have a large array of fantastical fish friends. When I was young, I was just trying to sound out the words. Now I see that Dr. Seuss captured everything from physical description to moods in monosyllabic phrases.
So today I’ve created two decals. The first commemorates the story One Fish, Two Fish, itself. But I spiced it up a little bit, because blue fish are boring. I wanted a fish that reminds me not only to be colorful but also to live life with zest. Hence the current decal. The second decal commemorates the process of learning to read. Thank goodness Phonics was invented after spell check. Enjoy!
Until we remember exactly how many people it takes to create that Hollywood ideal of perfection. Ever seen the Dove commercial where it shows this? Check it out:
An entire crew of people spent an entire day taking a normal girl and turning her into something that isn’t real, that can’t exist. The girl that is on that sign at the end is a façade. A shell. We don’t know who she is or what she stands for. She’s just a pretty face made possible with gobs of makeup, gallons of hairspray and a Photoshop glaze. That’s not beauty.
True beauty both comes from within and lies within the eye of the beholder. True beauty can be manifest in a bubbly personality, an irrepressible sense of humor, an amused twinkle in the eye, or an exuding sense of compassion that makes your heart melt. Those things make you beautiful.
It’s more appreciated than you think.
Guys, as a general rule, are not supposed to watch chick flicks unless their girlfriend drags them to the movie theater. Then they are supposed to pretend to enjoy it for her, while also letting the world know that they are only there because of their girlfriend and didn’t really enjoy it. This entire pretense must be upheld in such a way so as to hide the fact that, deep down, he enjoyed the movie as much as she did.
So, I have a confession to make. I’m not a great actor, and can’t pull off that multi-layered chick flick charade. I like romantic comedies. And I watch them whether or not I have a date.
Once, it was raining outside and several girls came to my door, soaked, spattered in mud, carrying a football. They began chanting “mud football!” and asked if I wanted to play. Under normal circumstances, I would have said “tackle or touch?” but this time I was in the middle of My Fair Lady. So they said “mud football” and I said “loverly.” I couldn’t go.
I like romantic comedies because they make me feel good. They remind me that it’s possible to fall in love and have it work out. They remind me that moments of magic aren’t just for Hollywood (trippy I know).
Ever seen Serendipity? Great movie. John Cusack randomly meets Kate Beckinsale as they shop for gloves. They end up exchanging a witty tête-à-tête, then decide to continue to spend the day together, trusting that fate has made their paths cross. And then she leaves.
She states that if it was truly meant to be, fate will bring them together again. Which makes for a great ending but a rather frustrating middle. The whole time John and Kate are crazy for each other — hopeless romantics — waiting. Waiting for destiny.
But I ask, what if fate doesn’t wait for us? When love strikes, I would hate to be the person who doesn’t open when opportunity knocks. That’s why I remind myself that
Luck is Preparation Mixed with Opportunity.
When someone special crosses our path, and we share an enchanted evening, that can last. If we choose it to. Luck can be on our side not the hands of fate.
Thanks for reading.
You can check the opening 10 mins of the movie here.
I remember being in high school and imagining what college would be like. I’d seen the movies with hooked up dorms and fun stuff going on all the time. I remember being way excited. I was going to be independent. I could stay out as late as I wanted. I could eat whatever I wanted. I wouldn’t have to turn down the music.
I got to college with an expectation of the way things would be. If you saw the second Transformers movie, you know what I’m talking about. What I got looked more like this:
An example similar to what my college dorm looked like. Bare, boring, needing dorm room decor for sure
A bed, a desk, a bulletin board and dresser, and whitewashed cinder block walls. No color, no life, no inspiring dorm room décor.
Suddenly, I was nervous. I worried that my dorm was going to suck. I worried that I wouldn’t make friends. I wondered if I would be able to do well in my classes, especially with my parents far away. (They were always good for helping me out with tough math problems or bestial English papers.)
But I remember my parents gave me some comforting advice. They cautioned me to eat regularly at the cafeteria, even if it was snowing outside, I was sick and didn’t want to leave my college dorm room. They reminded me to enjoy the experience, maintaining balance between study time and friend time. They told me to go to the dances and dance with the people I thought were cute as well as the people who were really shy or weren’t getting danced with.
If I had to sum up everything they told me and what I learned my freshman year of college, I’d say it comes down to three things:
Work like you don’t need money, Love like you’ve never been hurt, and Dance like nobody is watching.
This decal is available in the store
Spicing up a room with some vinyl quotes from my parents or from other people I respect, both made my environment more enjoyable and reminded me of the simple things in life. And despite my apprehensions, it worked out. I had a blast, even if my room did need a vinyl quote or two.
Thanks for reading. How would you sum up your first year of college?
This Decal Available in the Store!
More and more I appreciate the Disney style of movies. Great music. Fun characters. Simple morals. Yet, oftentimes, these movies have more depth than readily meets the eye. Take Anastasia, for example. A great story of family devotion, loyalty, betrayal and redemption.
There’s a great song in it called “At the Beginning.” You can watch the video clip below:
The song encapsulates the entire storyline and theme of the movie. Two individuals living different lives, whose paths unexpectedly cross. They must travel together, though neither party is that thrilled with the prospect. Like all Disney movies, they realize that this journey they are on has become a metaphor of the journey of their lives. And both realize that the journey is better when there is someone to travel with.
These movies are so enjoyable because they highlight what creates joy in our lives: having someone to laugh with, to cry with, to love; someone with whom you can say: “In the end, I want to be standing at the beginning with you.”
Life is a Journey. I’m glad we don’t have to make it alone.
This Decal Available in the Store!
“Hi, I’m Kailey and Kelly’s friend,” I said to the two girls. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, good to meet you too! I’m Rachel.”
“And I’m Stephanie.”
“I know that Kailey and Kelly have lived here for a long time. When we lived in the apartment complex we would come over and visit, kinda like we’re doing now. Did you two know them before?” I asked.
“No. We met them when we moved in.”
“Oh, have you guys known each other for a long time then?”
They shared a look, then fall apart laughing. Seeing the confusion that must have been apparent on my face, Rachel and Stephanie proceeded to tell me their story. Not four months previously, there had been a really bad rainstorm. For Utah, this is a rarity. Stephanie had been watching the rain pelt her window for a while, waiting for the lightening to move off into the distance. Deciding it was safe, she decided it was time.
“I love the rain,” she said. “I couldn’t not go out into it! Whatever I was doing was not as important as playing in the rain. I ran out into the rain and threw my arms back, tilted my head, stuck out my tongue, and began to spin. I was catching raindrops on my tongue, spinning, and looking at the clouds when I finally decided to look over and saw Rachel. She was twirling!”
I didn’t even know what to say. I started to say something, then Rachel hopped in: “Yeah, we both felt a little embarrassed at first, but then we started dancing together. We realized we both love rain and thunderstorms, and we both love dancing, and we especially love dancing in the rain! We decided we needed to be roommates. We’re total BFFs now.”
‘Wow’ I thought to myself. ‘I probably would have hit a puddle and fell down or a car would have driven by and soaked me or a lightening bolt would have hit me. I doubt that I would have walked away from that rainstorm with a new roommate and BFF.’ This needs to be commemorated. Communicated. Celebrated.
What better way to do that than a vinyl dorm decal reminding us all that “Anyone who says Sunshine brings Happiness has never Danced in the Rain.” We might just find a kindred spirit.
How about you? How did you meet your BFF?
One of my favorite things about using vinyl lettering to decorate the walls of a home is that you can spice it up by placing it on different items before hanging it on your wall.
This is a great example that I found in the home of a friend that was hanging above a closet in the living room. You can easily take a favorite quote or phrase in simple font and place it on a painted board add color to the room or tie it into the overall decor of the home.
The pineapple wasn’t enough. Somehow it just didn’t capture the feeling you wanted to convey. . . you need something that really says, “Hey, I know how to have a good time, and I eat healthy.” And yes, that is possible. Well, the pineapple wall decal was a step in the right direction, but if you really want your wall to shine you may need something more. Let’s take this nice vinyl wall apple, for instance. Now your pineapple not only has a friend, but you feel more complete. People weren’t meant to fly solo, and neither were wall decals.
