I made this like 3 weeks ago. I hadn't even taken a single picture of it up until now. Gasp. There are no in-progress shots because... well, I didn't feel like it. I found the addresses of various homes that my parent's have lived in... the one where my dad grew up, where my mom grew up (less than a mile away from my dad!), where my dad's first house was, and our current house. This project had a plan but I just sort of changed it as I went due to minor issues.

Ignore the bad flash pictures. It's early and gray outside. Yuck.
         Oh and I did paint this on a block of wood I found in my garage. After I had already painted the first coat, I discovered that one of the sides was curved. It adds character. I did a coat of the dark brown, the light brown, and then all the lettering which I used freezer paper stencils for. I had to hand cut the stencil with an exacto knife and tape all the insides of the letters in. I had to do SO much touch ups. Then I attempted to sand it but I didn't really get that antiqued look... so I gave up. The letters look wavy because of how the wood was. I'm not even done with this! I still have to do some sort of a top coat on it to protect it.

I gave it to my parents for Christmas. They're obliged to like it. Heck, they have to love it!