Archive for January 2014

Another cardboard project!  We have tons of boxes from our recent move so I am on a roll with cardboard creations.  I was able to complete this little red barn with a silo project in just a couple hours because it didn’t involve any painting.   

I used one small cardboard box, a cardboard tube we had laying around, one piece each of white and grey cardstock 12x12, one strip of felt for the roof, a glue gun, a piece of white thick board for the barn floor, and a black and red sharpie marker.  All of the white you see on the barn is white cardstock cut into shapes that I wanted with a box cutter knife, glued onto the red sharpie colored box, and then outlined with a black sharpie marker. 

Here is where I got most of my inspiration.  Joyfully Weary made a great looking “Little Red Cardboard Barn” that has great step by step instructions (involves painting).  For my red barn I just colored the whole box with a red sharpie and the inside of the roof I colored black.  I only did that because I didn’t cut the roof to exactly match the sides of the box – not on purpose :).   

Here are a few more pictures. 

I left the top of the silo open and put the left over black felt on the inside so that when the little guy reaches his hand inside he doesn’t end up with a paper cut.  Now he can put things down inside of the silo.  The bottom is also open so he can then lift the whole unit up and what ever is in the silo will fall out. 

For the barn floor, I cut off one set of the cardboard box closing flaps.  It helps the barn sit more even on the ground.  I then cut a piece of thick cardstock and glued it to the two bottom flaps that were left.  And voila…. a little red barn and silo. 

Hope this helps inspire someone else.  Lots of Love – Judi

Recently, I have been working on a train track play mat made out of cardboard.  We have tons of cardboard boxes from our recent international move and I was just dying to start on a project making something fun for Isaac. 

Hopefully, our son who is turning 2 very soon will love it.  I wanted to wait and share this project when it was officially finished, but I just saw a linkup event that brings you one new recycled material idea per month for 2014.  Since the cardboard linkup is happening now and ends in less than 3 days…  I thought I would share the cardboard train bridge that we made.  

We looked for cardboard bridge inspiration online and got lots of ideas, but Chris had a flash of inspiration one night and helped me create this tunnel / bridge out of cardboard.

His idea was to cut the same shape over and over out of cardboard, glue them side by side together, and voila here is our cardboard bridge tunnel.  The goals for our bridge was to create a gentle slope so the magnetic connections on the trains would not come undone, a on and off ramp to the bridge that merges almost seamlessly with the cardboard mat (used a large piece of black poster board), super strong bridge that wouldn’t buckle or bend, and a tunnel that is big enough for different sized trains to fit through.

Here you can see Chris cutting out each slice of cardboard.  He just traced the same shape over and over again and cut it out again and again until we got the width that we wanted.

Next we glued them all together using “Tough as Nails” glue.  I am sure you can use different glue it is just the glue that we had available to us.  The final steps were to glue a black piece of poster board inside the tunnel.  We used sand in a plastic baggie to help hold it in place against the cardboard while the glue was drying.  I then drew bricks and road signs on the side.  (In hindsight I would have made one sign German, 6,9 cm, and the other side US, 2.75 in., but alas I had already completed the drawings when I thought of that.)  It is still cool that we are mixing international signs in our cardboard train track. 

We still have a little more work to do, lay down the foam tracks, draw the railroad ties, and draw / create the scenery and landscape. 

Hope this helps inspire someone else.  Lots of Love – Judi

Looks like I might be experiencing a bit of Reverse Culture Shock.  It snuck up on me.  In all the excitement and turmoil of moving back to the US, it waited.  It was packed deep away in one of the boxes.  But now that it has been unpacked, I am not sure exactly what it is or what to do with it. 

What is Reverse Culture Shock? 

I would simply describe it as feeling out of step. 

Reverse Culture shock can make you feel like life’s rhythms changed… yet again.  However, there are many reasons for me to be excited to be back in the US.  I can finally do things like:

1.  Answer the door and talk to who ever is there without struggling and sometimes crying from frustration or confusion.

2.  I can look at a recipe or Pinterest post and say to myself – I know where to find those things, I can actually make that whole entire project or recipe without forming a local, German, fluent speaking search party to find certain items.

3.  I can walk into a grocery store, any day of the week, pick up eye contact saline solution, put it in my cart, and check out.  It is amazing! 

(In our small town in Germany, you could only buy contact saline solution through the Apoteke (drug store), where they kept it behind the counter.  I used to practice my German over and over and they still didn’t know what I was saying.  Either Chris had to buy my contact solution for me or I had to bring my almost empty bottle for “show and tell” and hope they had one left in stock.) 

Reverse Culture Shock also shows up when you start to see all the downsides to your {home} country that you were able to look past before.  I can now see aspects of both countries that I struggle with accepting and also that I LOVE.  When I focus on the things that I LOVE.  I really start to miss Germany.  It makes me want to confess…

Dear Germany,

I sometimes took you for granted this past year.  You showed me so much unexpected kindness in many ways and shared with me the most amazing individuals. 

I could never have imagined meeting and connecting so deeply with that many beautiful, wonderful people in such a short amount of time.  They welcomed, loved, and offered me grace and help when I needed it.  I cherish the relationships that were built and strengthened while I was on your soil.  The impact you had on me is even more amazing, since I didn’t speak your language and our stay ended too quickly.  Thank you for sharing your food, people, culture, differences, and allowing me to learn from this experience and grow stronger.   

Love forever, Judi

PS – I also really loved the landscape (when it wasn’t rainy and cloudy :) and the castles!

Maybe because our time living in Germany was so intensely hard at moments, that the people I met imprinted on my mind and soul very deeply.  That is one reason why Reverse Culture Shock can be so hard.   

With all the changes in my life over the years, it has naturally been easier to move on by numbing myself until enough time has passed.  Time can start to heal the parts of my heart that hurt when I miss people.  But I don’t think I have given myself permission or time to truly heal from all the aches that have been left in my heart over the years.

In addition, I haven’t taken enough time to truly thank and tell each person I have met and spent time with that I cherish them, miss them, and wish we had more time together. 

So this message goes out to many, many people that I have crossed paths with during all these years of moving.  Just know that you are on my mind and in my prayers often. 

Lots of Love – Judi 

PS – Here are some good articles explaining Reverse Culture Shock. 

Photo credit: Myles Davidson, stock.xchng