An update on something I started... in May. I know.

Sorry for the lack of blogging. I have been out enjoying kicking ass in sand volleyball, working out, prepping for our trip to Italy and more!

I am writing to give you all an update on my gallery wall. I started it back in May and thought I would fill in the empty spaces quickly. Well turns out "Young House Love" makes all of this look really easy. So with out further adue I give you my almost finished gallery wall:

As you can see on the bottom there are two blank frames still. I have a map for one and we will be filling in the other with a picture from our anniversary.

I took paint chips and lined them up to make this bad boy. I will be finishing off the edges with matting.

Here you can see MR. A's bow tie. You can also see I framed three of our favorite fortunes from movie nights over the past year. The other photos are from our wedding, a trip abroad and Mr. A's grandpa flying.

Here you can see our wedding invitation, pictures from the wedding, a poem Mr. A's grandma wrote for us, our first key we shared, and of course spider man.

Sorry that these last two photos are not vertical. But I think you get the idea. I am happy with the way this has all come out. I just need a few last touches and I will be ready to show it all off to you!

Conclusion

Sorry for the delay folks, this Yankee was one sick puppy this weekend. I still feel like death but I am working through it with lots of NyQuil and sleep.

Last week just before a crazy storm with no rain and lightning during the sunset, I finished my frame selection.
Then I made my templates for the frames a la Young House Love.

The storm was wicked awesome... you can't tell in this picture.

Again an awesome use for the magazines you have laying around...

I then taped them to the wall and go and even better sense of the space. The hubs even helped out a bit with shifting the taped mock ups around for me!

Once happy with the layout I began hanging the frames. The tip that Young House Love gave me about measuring out where the hooks were on the template and them hammering in the hook on the paper totally helped. I only had to redo a few frames. For sure worth the extra step.

Off to a good start as you can see, wait for it, I screw something up soon...

I only had one mishap, a frame fell off its hanger:

What a shitty hanger!

It looked like this:

Damn you cheap frames!

But this is what I ended up with:

Don't worry it will look awesome once I take out the upside down pictures...

I love love love it. Next step will be getting the pictures selected for the space and getting the matting cut for the frames. I will post a final conclusion conclusion then. That process will take a while for sure! Ugh!
Hope you like!

The saga continues

After I got what I thought was all of my frames spray painted and put back together I thought it was best to get a better idea of the space I was going to fill.So I did a rough measurement of the current gallery wall I had created over my sofa, then marked it out with tape on the floor. I thought this would help me figure out what I was working with.

Of course I vacuumed before I took this picture...

Turns out it was a huge help. The space was actually way larger than the amount of frames I had prepped. So of course panicked and ran around the house grabbing all sorts of frames (some of them I am not sure Mr. A would be happy about me stealing, SHHHH!)

Ignore the pictures in the frames they will be replaced with more fabulous stuff at some point.

I then started my layout to determine if I really needed to use all the frames I grabbed.My first attempt I thought was to forced looking so the second picture is what I have been working off of.

I thought this looked like I was trying too hard, but then I realized I am trying too hard and decided to roll with it.

More changes to come I am sure of it.

Since it has ironically been raining for the first time in 6 months here and I actually need to be outside (damn you Obama for coming here and saving all of us by bringing rain with your magic powers!) I have not been able to finish the picture frames. But once I do I will show you my next step, template making and hanging the pictures.

This what happens when I read other peoples blogs...

I think I am cool and artsy.

This past weekend Mr.A had to work. So left alone to my own vices I decided to start on a new gallery wall for our living room. I was so inspired by Young House Love's gallery wall that I thought I would give it a try and see what kind of mess I could make.

A little background history for you. I bought a bunch of gold picture frames for our wedding that we used on the guest book table. I loved them for the wedding but I hated them for our house. I intended on selling them but after that failed I put them away in the closet and did not think about them for 6 months. After falling in love with what John and Sherry did I decided I needed to try it out. I had done a very basic gallery wall in the apartment when we first moved in. I used mismatched frames and just made it work. It actually came out pretty good considering I did not measure anything and I had no plan when I started it. But I never really loved it and I always wanted to try something new.

The ugly gold frame example. Just one of sooo many!

After I started to pull down the gallery wall I used to have. But you can see the space.

So this weekend I devised a plan. I would go through all of my frames and organize them. Then I would spray paint them to match! I. am. a. genius. So after I laid out all of my ugly gold frames and thought this is going to suck. So I ran to Home Depot and picked up some primer, masking tape and Kaki colored matte spray paint. I hit my first snag when I realized that the back of some of these frames did not come off. Meaning that I could not spray paint these frames very easily without them looking cheap. So I left the glass in the frames and taped them up as you can see here:

I found a use for all those copies of Time we have laying around. Read them you say? Never.

I then went to town on my frames out on my balcony, after the guy at Home Depot told me to wait because it was to humid out and too hot. NONSENSE I said. I have special powers. And I began. Turns out he was right. It took much longer for the paint to dry than the ten minutes it said it would on the can and I also sweat a lot more sitting in the sun while spray painting.

Looking good so far, I think!

Oh so many frames... At this point I want to die from heat exhaustion.

Up next, I will show you how I am going to lay out all my frames and plan the space. Let me give you a hint, I needed more frames... and I am still not done with spray paint.

I am a master florist...

Or maybe I am in my head... but whatever. I decided to try somthing that scares the crap out of me this weekend. I planted live flowers!

After an hour or so at Home Depot and many phone calls to my mom, here is the before and after. Everything lived through the night so I take that as a huge accomplishment. Don't judge me please. I kill everything in my house other than Mr. A and our dog.

Message in a bottle???

Source

Or more like color from a bottle?

Mr. A and I have been trying to cut way back on finances to save for several large purchases we would like to make next year. One being a house and the other a second honeymoon to Italy with friends. In order to reach these goals we have to cut way back on everything and I mean everything. I am couponing it up at the grocery store, no new clothing for a bit and we are for sure not doing any huge Christmas gifts (we did just get everything for the wedding anyway). We are in the process of merging all of our money and looking into everything we spend and we have realized we budget an embarrassing amount of money for my hair each month. It is almost $100 a month!!!! The reason you ask? I actually have grey hair and at 27 years old it is really embarrassing and frustrating. And no it is not just one or two hairs people I am almost 70% grey. I never want anyone to see it so I am always super diligent about getting those grey hairs covered.

Well in the spirit of cutting back I am considering doing touch ups from the store bought variety. I need suggestions on good products and techniques. I want to know what works best. Am I risking a lot by attempting this? Am I being silly? I feel like this is a thrifty way to make some cut backs but I am concerned I am going to come out looking like an old lady. I will still go see my regular girl for hair cuts and a touch up every 4 or so months but this would be a good bridge between now and then. Thoughts? Recommendations?

DIY Project: Pace Card Holders

I mentioned to you all that my wedding is going to have a wine theme to it and I wanted to buy these wine cork place card holders for the wedding:

Well in an effort to save us a buck and be creative I thought I would try to make these myself. How hard could they be anyway? It turns out not hard at all! I was able to make them with just a box cutter and a cutting board. Perfect! Here are some pictures: 

Box cutter and cutting board:

First I cut a side of the cork off so it had a flat edge: 

I then cut a line sightly toward the back of the cork and then made a thin groove angling it so the cards when placed in the corks are easy to read: 

Finished product: 

These are super easy to make! Plastic and cork work as well! Go forth and make place cards! I feel so Martha Stewart right now! :) 

Style Me Pretty

So in my search for inspiration for our wedding I have come across a great website for inspiration. "Style Me Pretty" is a blog/wedding planning/style site that gives brides a glimpse into real weddings and DIY projects. I have recently fell in love their inspiration board creator and thought I would share it with you all. Follow this link to start your board. I am still working on mine but I think I should be able to post what I come up with later on tonight.

Here is just one example of a girls board:



They have a huge gallery of pictures to choose from but they are also working on a feature for you to be able to upload pictures of your own as well as from other sites. I think this is a nifty tool even just for decorating your home or planning a party. Having a vision will help you convey your message to other people.

Also on the website I found a great coupon for wedding bands from Blue Nile. I am not sure if we will use the coupon but it is still a great find and I wanted to make sure to share the news with all the ladies out there that might be planning their wedding and looking for deals. It was for 10% off for wedding bands for Style Me Pretty users. There is a promotion code that you type in during the purchase.