framing projects 2

Ok, remember when I said I did 2 framing projects over the weekend?  Here's how that went.  Remember the bare hallway?

I've been wanting to create a gallery wall along the long side on the left.  Does anyone follow the blog Young House Love?  I'm obsessed with John and Sherry. Love them!  Anyways, they have a giant gallery wall in their hallway, which you can see here.  Their hallway is much more open, so I think covering all the walls in our little hallway would feel very overcrowded.  But I love the look of a gallery wall.  So I'm working on the left wall and just adding enough pics and artwork on the other walls to help balance it out.  Here's the progress I made on our soon-to-be gallery wall...

Oh, and unlike John and Sherry's gallery wall, I don't want our to be filled with all photo frames. I want some of the "art" to be actual items, like this little bird mirror I've had for a while (and I love!).  I also snagged this little "B" from Hobby Lobby the other day (on sale, of course, for $1.99).  It had these two holes in the back for hanging.  So to avoid multiple trial-and-error nail holes in the wall, I dabbed a bit of toothpaste where the nails needed to go, and stuck the "B" to the wall where I wanted it to hang....

 You probably can't see the toothpaste marks on the pictures below. I wish I had photoshop so I could draw some arrows to point them out, but I'm not super artsy-fartsy like that (EDIT: Greg to the rescue with some arrows! thanks babe!).  I did darken the image a bit to hopefully make them stand out, but they are vertically placed right in the center of the image.

Once I got the nails in the wall the "B" hung just right.  Oh and the image below it is me and some of my bridesmaids holding our flowers. :)  I also pulled out 2 botanical prints I got from World Market several years ago and hung them on the wall.  I tried to scatter things out just enough to not look to spaced out but also enough so I can add things as I want to fully complete the gallery.  And here's the finished (well, for now) wall...

 

By the way, have I mentioned how difficult it is to take a good photograph of our hallway? It's so dark cause there aren't any windows nearby.  So please excuse the shadowy effect going on. It's the best I could do.  Can't wait to fill the wall with more sentimentals.  I have a few ideas in mind, some of which include more artwork, some quotes, another mini shadow box, and some maybe some fabric.  Who knows how the completed project will look in the end!

afternoon hike

Last Sunday the weather was nice, and we decided to take a trip to Oak Mountain with the dogs for a little swim.  I love that we are already getting spring weather, cause I love spending time outside.  I have gotten so stir crazy in our house lately.  I don't particularly like watching tv, and although there are random projects around the house I'll do every now and then, it still means hanging out in the house.  Last Thursday I spent literally 6 straight hours cleaning and tidying up the house and putting together some of the picture frames I mentioned in the last post.  But, I opened every window in the main den, lit some yummy springy candles and played records all day long while I cleaned. And THAT made a day spent indoors cleaning so much better :)

But ANYWAYS, back to our topic of warm weather and playing outside.  So we took the dogs to Oak Mountain last Sunday.  Jack of course is the only one who will go swimming, so while he fetches the ball out in the lake, Lily and Sophie just run along the shoreline and explore the area.  But for some reason Jack lost interest in chasing the ball, and since Lily and Sophie kept wanting to wander off into the woods, Greg and I decided to just take all the dogs for a little hike.  That actually turned out to be much more fun!  There was a small mountain-side trail that wrapped around the lake that we followed for about 50 yards and then it led to a small opening tucked into the woods.  Once we got there the dogs had more freedom to sniff around and run a little bit.  I took these pics with my phone, and as you'll see, Sophie is only in 1 picture. It's because she just spends all her time wandering around and sniffing. That's our hound dog for ya!  It was great and we'll definitely be taking more hikes with the dogs as the weather continues to warm up :)

framing projects

I don't know if I've mentioned before how I have this weird fear of hanging things on walls. Not so much a fear, but I just get anxious about putting nails into walls.  It's weird, I know, but I often wait a long time before hanging anything.  But Greg and I have been married for 5 months now, which means I've been moved into his house for 5 months, so it was time to get some things up on our bare walls!  I got a bunch of wedding pictures printed a few weeks ago and have been putting them into frames around the house.  But there are 2 corners in our house that each have a box of frames waiting to be filled and hung, along with other artwork from my old house that I haven't been able to hang cause I can't decide where to put it all.  So I decided to tackle those boxes this week, or at least make a dent in them.  Here's what I've done...

 

 That "Boggs and Bubbles" is a magazine add for a Boggs liquor. Greg's friend Aidan got it for Greg as a groomsmen gift.  I think it's pretty cool, even if it is a liquor add.  

The projects I did this morning were to tackle our bare hallway.  Here's the before (with the few items I already hung on Thursday).

I have had these bathroom prints for about a year, but I have different prints that I like better for my bathroom so I haven't hung them. 

 But I also have these prints from my 2011 calendar which I love!  And I figured out if I cut the calendar portion off from the prints, they would fit right over the bathroom faucet prints.

 The faucet frames were in glass clip frames (I don't think that's what they are actually called, but it's the best description I can come up with).  The backs of the frame have clips that hold the glass, print and backing together. You just lift up on them and they release.

So I cut the calendar portion off the bottom of 2 of the prints.

 I stuck the print into the mat right on top of the faucet prints.  Then I just put the frame back together.

 And of course, they went into the hallway!!

I did some more framing in the hallway, but I'll blog about that next time.  It's daylight savings tonight, and I have to work tomorrow.  YIKES!  So I've got to get to bed. It's gonna be an eeeeeearly morning!