Blown Away...Literally!

So this is going to be a totally random blog post. Today I realized
that I could barely hear calls on my iPhone 4s.  I actually had this
problem yesterday, but I assumed it was an isolated incident specific
to only that phone call.  When I had the problem again today, I knew
something was wrong with my phone. So I got on Google and did a search
on "iPhone call volume low". I read many posts suggesting a series of
steps that would (sort-of) remedy this problem. Most of these remedies
involved changing the ringer and call volume in a specific order.  I
tried all of these, but none of them worked. I had nearly resigned
myself to taking my phone to the Apple store. In fact, it was only the
realization that I have no repair plan that led me to continue reading
online in the hopes of finding a solution to my problem. I was on my
fourth page of "solutions" (none of which had worked) when I came
across a radical suggestion. This person had gotten an air canister
and simply blew air into the speaker. I looked at the speaker and
there was no evidence of anything blocking the speaker, but I thought
"why not give it a try; you've got nothing to lose." Of course I
didn't have an air canister, so I put my lips to the speaker and blew
hard. I then called my cell phone from my house phone, and lo and
behold, I could hear.  So, to anyone out there that is having the same
problem, please try simply blowing.  You never know, it might just
work.

Original Works of Art by My Little Artists

I decided to frame an original work of art by each of my little artists.  My plan is to change the displayed artwork periodically, as they bring home several new pieces each week.  However, since their pieces vary in size it would be hard to use a traditional frame with a matte.  So I opted for a floating frame which eliminated the need for one.

I decided that just framing the artwork wasn't the best way to display it.  Instead I trimmed around the artwork to make it pop in the frame.  I was hesitant to trim my kids artwork as it seemed wrong to modify it in any way.  But I quickly got over it once I saw how nice the artwork looked with the excess blank canvas removed.

So here it is...

Raymond's Artwork

Raymond's artwork is actually 3 pieces formed into a collage.  The two leaves were one piece of art, and the shapes are from 2 other pieces of art.

Ryan's Artwork

Ryan's artwork was actually much larger than would fit into the frame.  I cut out the main section of the artwork and framed just that instead.

The artwork looks great in their room and the boys were so proud to see their work on display.  Here are some pictures of their room.

One other thing I want to include a picture of is a shadowbox I hung which includes the birth announcements for Raymond and Ryan plus their footprints.  I scanned in their footprints from the hospital and printed it to scale with a coordinating border around it.  I covered the back of the shadowbox with a white-on-white striped wrapping paper to coordinate with the stripe themed room.