Fun Monday - Hanging

Well, better late than never right? I had so much fun with last week's Fun Monday I knew I had to participate again this week...This week's Fun Monday is being hosted by MJD over at "Return of the White Robin". This weeks challenge is to show something that hangs on your wall that is fun, interesting, endearing, sentimental, or otherwise enticing.

I'm going to start with a picture I posted for a Wordless Wednesday two weeks ago, because it really is the favorite piece of art that hangs on my wall:

This is a painting my mother bought off a street vendor in Africa while I was still a baby. I have always had big eyes, and the girl in the picture reminded her of me. The name of the painting is "Deborah", and it was painted by an Italian artist, G. Morliz in 1937 (this information is all included at the bottom of the painting...which leads me to believe this is a reprint, even though it FEELS like a real painting. Anyway, research online has led me nowhere on this artist, so he was probably nobody well known. Still, I love the painting for it's sentimental value, and also because it is just beautiful.

The next item is a lot less serious:

This lovely wooden house was something that hung somewhere in my parents' house for ages. Eventually it was taken down and put aside somewhere...shortly after moving out, I found it in their junk room, and decided it would be a perfect place for me to showcase my shot glasses. The shot glasses are really what I love the most about this piece. You can't see them clearly in this shot (maybe I'll post a close up of some of them for a Wordless Wednesday some day), but every glass on there represents somewhere I have visited on vacation. The tall glass is from a Celebrity Cruise Lines glass, there are several from different parts of Mexico (Chichen Itza, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, etc.), also from the Cayman Islands, Canada, and various parts of the U.S., such as Hollywood, Vegas, St. Louis, New York and even as close as Maine and New Hampshire. Unfortunately I didn't decide to start this collection until after I had already traveled so certain places, so I still need some from Phoenix and Flagstaff Arizona, Portugal, and Orlando Florida...maybe one day I'll go back and be able to pick those up. Hopefully I'll be able to continue adding to this collection.

The next item on my walls is actually a shot of what I call my "Brag Wall".

On this wall are my high school and college degrees, along with pictures of my moment on stage accepting each of these degrees, and my graduation caps and tassles. Also on this wall are a few placques and trophies I won while on the debate team in college, and some Honors certificates. It is a brag wall, no doubt, but I'm proud of these accomplishments, and hey, it's my house, why should'nt I display them? In my defense, they are in my office, which is the least visited room in my house. haha...

The next two items are hanging in my bedroom. My bedroom has an "African" theme, and this first item was purchased LONG before I even had my condo. In fact, it was hanging in my bedroom at my parents' house when I still lived there, and I used it as my inspiration for my new bedroom. It is a tapestry, and not only does it fit the African them, but it also encompasses one of my other loves...reading (which is what the little kid is doing):

This next one is actually two items, and they are photos taken while on a cruise with two friends. The frames fit perfectly with my African theme as well. The smaller one is a shot of the three of us with our "table mates" from the cruise. The larger one frames three shots of a sunset I took.

The final item is another picture frame. This one isn't necessarily a beautiful frame, and even the pictures themselves aren't anything spectactacular, but it was a Christmas gift from my uncle, several years ago, and is something he made himself. He made one of these (with different photos) for everyone that year, and they all contained photos of people near and dear to us. Mine has a photo of my dad in the upper left hand corner, mom next to him, then a photo of myself with my two cousins (who were my best friends growing up) and my little brother, a smaller shot of my brother, and one of my cousin's daughter. Then there are three shots of myself and my two cousins, posing for my uncle, who was quite the photographer back then. Finaly, the bottom two shots are of my grandmothers. My dad's mom on the left, my mom's mom, with me (I'm the one laughing on her lap) and two cousins.

It's been loads of fun to share my wall hangings with you, I hope you enjoyed viewing as much as I enjoyed sharing.

Please visit MJD's blog for a list of other participants!