Where in the World Have I Been?

Hello?

Hello?

Is this thing on?

Yeah... it's been awhile.  I know.

The blogging began to dwindle in 2015 when I took a part-time job (a job that—P.S.—I would not have been qualified for had it not been for this blog!)

The blogging completely stopped last year when we decided to move.

Now if you're a diehard reader—and you probably are if you stuck with me through the blogging drought—then you might remember THIS post, the one in which I described all the places I have lived and how I hoped never to leave San Diego.  I am pleased to report that we have in fact not left San Diego, just bought a new house.  

Our LAST house.  

(Dear Lord, please let it be our last house.)

And the house, while in a most amazing location, needed some work.  (Well, a lot of work.)  And thus the blogging drought.  I have been busier than a one-armed paper hanger.  But also all the more reason to get back to blogging.  I can't wait to show you what we have done around here.  

You see, we knew for several years that our previous house might not be our last and once we came to that conclusion we really scaled back both in terms of projects AND purchases.  Now that we have (hopefully) landed in a more permanent spot, our goal is to do more permanent projects and make more permanent purchases.

This brings me to today's topic: art!

Art is something I have been obsessing over as of late.  I am excited to populate my walls with art that I want to keep, not just art that will fill up a space.   Don't get me wrong: I loved much of the "place-holder-art" donning the walls of our last place, but I am excited to invest in some pieces that we will keep for years to come.  Now when I say "invest," I don't necessarily mean that it has to be expensive.  I mean, I'm not ruling that out, but I envision our walls being an eclectic place where expensive pieces share space with less expensive, but perhaps more meaningful, ones.    

One idea that has been percolating in my head for quite some time is to do a gallery wall of maps.  Specifically I would like find maps of those special cities in which we have lived.  (Again, read THIS post...)  I think it would make a great conversation piece, not to mention a special bit of nostalgia. I decided that it would be fun to use artistic renderings of maps (as opposed to actual maps), and that I wanted to use maps from different sources.  One of those sources is a site called Modern Map Art.  

Now this is where things get fun...

A few weeks ago an artist from Modern Map Art reached out and asked me if I would like to receive one of their prints in exchange for a blog post.  As I've mentioned in the past, this is a common occurrence.  Often I decline because the product isn't a fit for my blog.  If I do accept, it is because the item is something that will be of use to me, i.e., something I might have purchased on my own.   This, however, was the first time I have ever been contacted by a company that I was already interested in doing business with and I was STOKED.

The best news is that they did not disappoint.  I received this BEAUTIFUL 18x24" print (they come in many different sizes) on heavy duty paper.  

For my first map I chose an image of San Diego but if you check out their site, there are many other cities. (And colors!)

Were I to get more, I might choose this map of Madison, Wisconsin, the city where my husband and I met:

Alternatively I could have gotten this print of Chicago, the city where we lived for over a decade and where our younger daughter was born:

I keep thinking of ways one could use them.  Know a young couple just starting out?  A framed  map would be a great wedding gift.  You could get them a map of the city in which they plan to honeymoon, the city in which they met, or the city in which they plan to live.  The possibilities are endless.  

As should be obvious from my comments above, I have been compensated with a map in exchange for this post, however, don't let that stop you from checking out their site.  I really do love their products!

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