The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge

The Cloudy Day & Link Up On the Edge #309

August 19, 2022 / 46 Comments
The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge

Last weekend, we went on a little road trip to Pennsylvania to deliver a very special graduation gift to a very special young woman. Her name is Kallyse and I was the teacher’s aide in her preschool class when she was 4 years old. I quickly developed a very special bond with this incredibly witty and smart, kind and beautiful young girl.

After that one year in her preschool class, I accepted a job somewhere else and the classroom teacher, Scott, had only been filling in for that year while the permanent teacher was on maternity leave. But for that one year, Scott, a young man in his first teaching position, and I, in my first full time position as a teacher’s aide, had the best time with this very unique group of 4 year old preschoolers.

This was 14 years ago so my recollection of all the details is a bit foggy. Scott had incorporated an art lesson on Vincent Van Gogh where he taught the kids about one his most famous oil paintings, The Starry Night. Then we broke the students into small groups of 3-5 and each group was given a giant poster board and finger paints to create their own Van Gogh inspired art.

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The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge

Kallyse and three other girls were in my group and together we painted our Van Gogh interpretation which we called The Cloudy Day.

The posters were displayed in the main hallway of the school for a time but at the end of the school year no one really wanted all the group preschool art. So I took my group’s painting and the painting that Scott’s group made and I asked the art teacher to help me treat the finger paintings to preserve them and prevent the paint from cracking over time. He sprayed them with some kind of sealant and I bought poster frames for each one. I gave Scott his framed painting at the end of the school year and I kept mine for myself.

We lived in a tiny second floor apartment at the time which didn’t have very much wall space for such a large frame so we hung it in the hallway right outside of our apartment door. When I got pregnant with Archie and we bought our first house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, The Cloudy Day was the focal point of our dining room decor. Then we moved to Watertown, New York, and I hung The Cloudy Day in the entrance hallway from my garage door. I walked past this wonderful finger painting every day for years and every day it made me smile.

About 5 years ago, we moved into our current home and when we were decorating I couldn’t find an appropriate place to display The Cloudy Day so it was put into our basement storage. It was at this point that I realized the preschoolers who created this painting would soon be entering high school. I had kept in touch with Kallyse’s mom on Facebook since I first met her back in 2008-2009 and so I had the opportunity to watch Kallyse blossom into the gorgeous and talented young woman she is today. I decided that this preschool finger painting might make a really special graduation gift and since she would be graduating in a few years, I might as well hold onto the painting until then so I could pass it on to her.

Since the painting was in a cheap plastic poster frame, I wanted to have it professionally framed in something sturdier, prettier, and a bit more mature. But when I took the painting out of my basement storage a few months ago, I discovered it had gotten damp and there was some mold in the top right corner. I was so upset and disappointed with myself for not taking extra precautions to prevent such a thing from happening, but our friends at The Whimsical Pig were able to save my gift idea from moldy peril. They were able to remove the mold, restore the part of the painting that was damaged from it, and then professionally matted and framed it for me.

While they were working on the painting for me, I arranged it with Kallyse’s mom to meet up so I could present Kallyse with this special graduation gift. Then I surprised them by secretly inviting Scott to join us as well.

We had planned to meet at Musikfest in Bethlehem but since that is a chaotic scene with limited parking availability, we decided to first meet in the parking lot of a nearby shopping mall to make the exchange before heading to the festival. We actually ended up driving around the festival area for about 30 minutes and when we couldn’t find parking we drove back to a restaurant near our parking lot meeting spot for dinner instead. It was so fun catching up with Scott and his 2 year old son, Kallyse, her mom, and her younger brother who was just a toddler when I last saw him. He is now a super talented basketball player and a genuinely really cool kid. Momma Megan has done a great job momming because she has raised two really amazing children into pretty spectacular adults!

The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge
The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge
The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge
The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge
The Cloudy Day, Shelbee on the Edge

This whole gift giving experience, one that has been in the making for 14 years, was so special to me and I am so happy that I was able to pull it off. You can never go wrong giving the gift of art especially when it is the recipient’s own preschool art.

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Do you have any special gift giving (or receiving) stories to share? I would love to hear about them in the comments!

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

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I am a midlife woman, wife, and stay-at-home mother of 2 boys and 2 cats. I have a passion for helping other women feel fabulous in the midst of this crazy, beautiful life.

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Shelbee on the Edge