My family found a new home! (nat)

Ok no, we are not moving although hopefully one day that will be our wonderful news. For now... just my family photos have a new home. I've had this big empty wall that goes up our stairs and I have done a few things and none of them have ever worked. As you can see... big wall, tiny pictures- so not ok.

I decided that I really wanted to make my family tree work here since that was my original intent. You may remember it from this previous post.
The problem from the beginning was the adhesive on the back wasn't sticky enough for these slightly textured walls so I thought sticky tack would work as a last resort, then at the store I saw this Poster Tape. Totally removable but sticks things to walls. Ahh I love a cheap solution.
The other problem was this is a decal that I bought at Ikea quite awhile ago and they no longer make it. This becomes a problem because my lovely 2 year old thought it would be really fun when I wasn't around to start ripping the tree apart, leaving me with half a tree. If they don't make it anymore... then what do i do!? So.... I just took scrapbooking paper that I already had, traced around the few remaining branches and leaves I did have and there ya go. Instead of replacing all the missing leaves with just black and brown again I thought it might be kinda fun (also kinda cheesy) to use paper for the leaves according to the season. So now there's green, red, yellow, brown, and black- but maybe in the spring I'll have fun with it and change it up again. Who knows!! Now that I can make the pieces myself, the possibilities are endless. Totally something you could do too! So here we are again... totally bare and sad
and feeling much happier
sure is a cute family, i'm glad i get to see them everyday now instead of exhiling them to the basement. happy fall!

A little texture to my magnet board

Thanks to this great blog that is stuffed full of fun ideas, I came across this post where she talked about seeing this chair in Better Homes and Gardens. I thought it was such a fun idea and a great way for me to put all my random scrap booking letters to use. So I took this photo and used it as my inspiration for a re-vamp on my really boring magnet board. We are linkin up over at thirfty decor chick for the before and after party too!

See- I told you it was really boring! One of the first decor items I got in the 2nd apartment we ever lived in. It started out plain wood, then got painted black, then brown, it needed some serious life put into it.
So I gathered all the random scrapbooking letters I have, which i don't even know why i have them because i don't scrapbook- it takes me WAY too long to finish one page. I had a few of these wood letters too and just cut some of the edges for the whole- going off the page look.
Here it is with all the letters added. I actually think it looks super cute this way and it would be really fun for like a playroom or little kids room but since it's going in my family room and i didn't want it to distract from the pictures it got 2 cans worth of white paint. I love that this project only cost me 2 bucks- gotta love spray paint for 96 cents!
Oh and I used hot glue to put everything in place. Some letters were sticky on the back but I just wanted to make sure they were all stuck on and not going anywhere
Yeah it took a lot more paint than I thought it would to cover the brown and all the colorful letters.
Tada! Ooooo, AhhhhThen I stuck all my pictures and magnets back on and decided I was so done with the magnets now too. Scrapbooking paper just glued on was not working for me anymore.
So I just covered them in scrap fabrics I had instead, I love an easy facelift!
I especially love that it makes the pictures stand out so much more now. Ahhhh LOVE it!

I've been framed! (amanda)

My Family Room Gallery.

I love, love, love black and white photography. I have taken a few classes myself but am definitely an amateur. I would love one day to fill my house with my photography but in the meantime. I enjoy finding nature prints especially trees and using them around the house. I think it really helps to bring in a touch of the outdoors. These are a few examples of my favorites from around the house.

Such a nice Fall touch with my largest and most favorite print

This series works especially well in the Fall and Winter. I would like to find a few Spring/Summer prints that I like as well. I may take a few myself.


These pictures hang in my Living Room. They were so easy to do and the whole project was only about $20. My husband had kept these nautical prints printed on really nice linen paper that his sister picked up in France. I have always loved them but wasn't sure what to do with them. They are an unusual size and proved difficult to matte or frame. I finally found some unfinished wood frames without backs and antiqued them using a Williamsburg Blue under an antique white. They turned out great but it is difficult to make out the detail on these white walls. Another project in the works- redoing my Living Room decor.


More master bedroom artwork. I tried several combinations of things over my bed. It was proving difficult because my headboard is curved. I finally decided on this series of Monet art prints. I love Monet and I do tend to like a French country style. I printed these from the internet and framed them with black frames I think I paid like $5 a piece for. They look great over the bed.

I love rearranging wall art and making new creations. I needed a few new pictures for my master bedroom and had read that you should fill your adult space with pictures of you as a couple. These are two of my favorite wedding photos. I scanned them in to my computer and printed them out in sephia. Framed them in black mated frames I already had and viola new art and a great memory.

Modern family tree (nat)

Since we have had lots of recent family pictures taken on both sides of the family, I wanted to come up with a fun way of displaying them all- so I thought this would be cute. I really wanted it up in the family room going up our stairs but our walls are too textured and the tree wouldn't stay stuck on that wall... oh well, it's now been moved to the office/guest room so anyone that comes to stay with us can admire my adorable family! I got the idea from walking through ikea. They had a similar one (different decal) on display in a nursery. I bought a different decal there and then arranged it to my liking. I LOVE it!