family photo wall.

yesterday i completed a project i've been working on for a while. this summer i started collecting white photo frames while on a trip to ikea with my girlfriends. i got a good start on my little collection, but unfortunately our closest ikea is outside of boston, which is about a three and a half hour car trip for us. which also means we don't get to go there often.

ok, really ever.

so i finished my collection of frames off with a few i found at the christmas tree shoppe. ever heard of it? this was a new discovery for me when we moved to new england this summer. i'd never been to one before. wow, was i missing out. this is seriously one of my new favorite stores. inexpensive? cute stuff? great finds? yes, yes, yes. i *love* it.

i ordered prints of some of my favorite pictures of us... some of just nick&i, some of bella, a few of the three of us, pictures with my side of the family, pictures with nick's side, and some cute shots of the cousins before new ones will need to be added as our family is expanding like crazy over the next few months! exciting.

to hang them, i used the newspaper trick i did with the photo collage above our couch (except this time i used leftover christmas wrapping paper). time consuming, but better than having to re-hang all the pictures and filling our wall with nail holes!

i love the white frames against the light grey paint color of our hallway walls (in case you're curious, the shade is glidden's smooth stone. it's the color of our foyer, the hallways and our bedroom/bathroom!)

as i said, some of my favorite family photos are on this wall. one of my favorite pictures from our wedding was this one: nick&i requested our fathers to come pray over us while a worship song was played during the ceremony. i love the sentiment this photo holds--for so many reasons.

and this is one of my favorite shots of bella; she was about ten months in this photo taken last spring in texas in her easter dress. the classic i-have-a-child-and-live-in-texas shot in the bluebonnets that bloom each year. and this frame is my fav on the whole wall; it's actually plastic... shhhhh! it was only 4.99 and i love how elegant and pretty it is! can't wait for another trip to ikea so i can pick up a few more.

my favorite thing to use to decorate our home are pictures of our family. i have them everywhere. above our couch, above nick&i's bed, in our hallway, our bathroom, and have plans for little photo walls for all of our bedrooms. it may be overkill to some, but to me, it's sentimental and precious. i love it. this project in particular was healing for me, as i incorporated a couple of my favorite photos of my dad. i have a few more i want to add, as well as some shots of he and bella in her new room, but i love that i have those special moments captured forever.

white picture frames= $40-45
prints= $20-25
wall full of memories= priceless.

burlap covered frames.

so i've been spending most of my free time these days finishing up little projects here and there in our living room/dining room/kitchen area before i tackle our bedrooms. it's the area of our house that most people see, so i've been anxious to get it spruced up as soon as possible.

in our living room sits a wingback chair that belonged to my parents. mom told me it was given to her and dad from my grandparents as a wedding gift, so i love the sentiment that brings... especially these days. any tangible reminder that i have of my dad is such a blessing. i'd love to get it recovered someday, but thankfully it's cream colored and for now fits in with our living room decor very well. i made some cute little throw pillows for it the other day with some fabric i found on sale at joanns this summer. i love the color they add to our chair.

(i also found a little bird bath/garden accessory at tj maxx this summer that i love. i put it beside the chair because it's just too pretty to have outside! it completes the space for me and i love how vintage-y and shabby chic it looks. the lamp on the other side of the chair is an old antique brass one that belonged to my grandparents.)

the wall space above our chair was a bit awkward, but it looked so empty i needed to figure out something. one of the issues was the thermostat--a blaring silver knob that was just in the way. oh well. i don't think it would make sense to get rid of it and compromise our heating in the name of decorating... especially in maine... although i may have been tempted.

i found an old gold-ish frame and used a mat and photo that i already had on hand to create an art piece for the wall. i needed something to balance the wall space so i began to scour our house. as i was fishing around through what i had on hand, i found the brown picture frames i had above our old couch in our apartment in dallas. and then i remembered i had some burlap in my fabric stash. perfect.

i cut the burlap into strips and using my trusty glue gun, i wrapped two frames with it. i love the textured, natural look of the frames and their neutral shade against the colorful pop of the throw pillows.

and best of all?
they
were
free.

i love re-purposing items i already have on hand and just giving them a different look. fabric, spray paint, scrapbook paper and modpodge are great tools to help in the process. such an inexpensive way to decorate aaaaand you can be creative in what you do. even if it seems weird. you can afford to take risks because even if they fail, you're using things you already have anyway. no big loss. i'll be posting a few other re-purposing projects i've been working on soon :)

happy saturday!

a bit o' gold.

as i've said, we just moved into a new home at the beginning of september. it's my grandparent's old house and we are slowly making it our own, one project at a time. it's a lot of work, but it's been so fun watching it come together.

this summer, we spent many a saturday painting every room in the house. and since i got pregnant near the end, nick actually did the majority of the painting (which we hate painting...). i spent a lot of time picking out pieces for decorating, which made my little heart ever so happy. what we didn't count on as we excitedly planned out our home and our to-do endeavors was life getting in our way. between pregnancy sickness, regular sickness, my dad's hospitalization and our trips to boston to visit him, it has been one rough fall. we haven't had much time at home to decorate and organize or to get settled. but it's coming... slowly, but surely.

one of the things i started collecting this summer was gold picture frames. i had a vision in my head of doing a gallery wall above our couch; i thought the gold would look so pretty against the light-blueness of our living room/dining room walls and give our living room a touch of elegance.

i'm so glad i did.

i gathered frames from goodwill, tj maxx, the christmastree shop and a couple of old ones my grandparents didn't need anymore. nick's goal for the weekend: to clean out our garage so we can park our cars and shelter them from the frost&snow. my goal for the weekend: to create my gold gallery wall.

both are done. yay.

i have a problem hanging things... if you like behind my plate wall, or my other wall decor, you just may find a plethora of nail holes until i got something just right. awful, i know. so... i decided to take some time and do the ole-newspaper-on-the-wall trick.

i traced each frame on newspaper, cut out the squares and taped them all to the wall in the pattern i wanted. then, i nailed all my nails and tore down the paper, hanging the pictures. i only had two nail mishaps this way. perfect.

here's the finished product:

i used some of my *favorite* photos of nick&i, bella, and our family (knowing i will be changing those family ones ever-so-soon to include our newest pumpkin!) i love our new gold gallery wall... not only because i think it's beautiful, but because it represents the people i love most. which is why i am a huge fan of using family photos as wall decor. so special.

next on my to do list: recover those pillows! i have some fantastic fabric i bought at joanns this summer, just waiting to be made into pillows for our couch, loveseat and wingback chair.

one thing at a time :)

crafts are not just for old ladies.

yes, i said it. and i believe it: crafts are not just for old ladies (although i did just turn 30... so maybe some people would consider me to be an old lady...)

when i was little, i always had creative projects going on. always. i cross-stitched. i colored and drew. i loved to bake. and i had multiple notebooks that i would write stories in... i wanted to be an author (which, by the way, is something i've been thinking more about lately. i mean, apparently all you need to do is write a book about vampires falling in love for a bunch of teenaged girls and you are set for life. LIFE.)

over the years, i became guarded and self-conscious. i didn't want to create things unless i knew that i was going to be good at it... ahhhhh, perfectionism. such a kill-joy.

perhaps one of the greatest challanges to me since becoming a stay-at-home mom is finding ways to not lose my identity and sense of who i am. i always want to be growing, creating, and finding new ways to enjoy life and evolve in the woman i am. not just the important ways (growing more in my love for and knowledge of jesus, finding ways to minister to others, becoming a better wife, growing as a mom, etc) but in little ways too.

so... i decided to bite the bullet and, in turn, i got bitten...by the craft bug.

{yes, craft bugs do exist}

when christmas was coming around the corner, nick&i looked over our finances and decided we would need to be real creative with christmas gifts this year. so, i decided to make things. and it was really fun. and i think it was special to those that recieved our handmade gifts (again: i think so).

here are a few of my creations...

- flower hair clips!

some organza ones...



and some felt ones...




- a picture frame (with an organza flower, covered button and some rosettes... don't be fooled: that's NOT bel and me in the frame. just wanted to clear up any confusion.)

- a cake plate stand (i forgot to take a picture of the one i made, but this is what it looked like; minus the crystal knob in the center)

- hand-stitched felt pillows for my nephews

a texas rangers one for wyatt...

and an owl one for jude...

bella's naptimes became very productive for me... although not so productive for my chores around the house. oh well. i'm hoping to perfect these creations soon and add others so i can start an online botique with my sis! we've already made some really *cool* jewelry and we're trying to build up an inventory to "open" in time for christmas shopping next fall. jude&bella coming soon... you will SO want to shop there.