We did a few fun things this past summer and fall, so I thought I'd share some pictures and layouts of all the fun things we did. I know I wasn't blogging this summer, so I feel like this isn't redundant (at least, that's what I'm hoping).
April: It all started with a picture frame. We got our family photos done in April, and my wonderful friend who takes our pictures (Val, of
The Sweet Life Images), and she showed me the picture frames that they offer to their customers. Well, they are GORGEOUS. And I started dreaming of having a big family portrait on the wall. I didn't really dig the idea of my face being up on my wall all huge and stuff, but I was willing to sacrifice. I chose a beautiful blue. "Bahama Blue" is was called. Well, this got my gears turning and you know where this was going. A whole room redecoration. Which turned into a whole first floor redecoration.
The picture frame that started it all. (With the family portrait that is my FAVORITE EVER.)
So, here's all we did. Living room first:
This is the "accent wall" color we chose. See how it ties the portrait frame in? This is one wall in the living room, the wall that is is front of you and to the right when you walk in the living room. The shelf is a rough piece of lumber from my mom's boyfriend's sawmill. It still has the bark on the front side. The wreath is wrapped in burlap and has a cluster of rolled fabric flowers I made, and a cluster of buttons. My friend and I painted the bottles and I got a few pretties at Hobby Lobby.
I got these letters off of a copyright photostream on Flickr. I printed them off in sepia and painted the picture frames to all match and glued them onto another piece of rough lumber. This is over the entryway from the living room into the dining room.
This is across the (very long) room from the accent wall. So the blue accent wall is on one side of the room, and on the other is the matching frame all to tie it all together. The made all the prints on the wall. The far left one is a "word find" type page with the words "Family. Laugh, Love, and Happiness" in it. The far right one has significant dates in our lives. My and Brandon's birthdays, First Date, Wedding Day, and Maylee's Birthday. The "C" is a project I did by cutting out a whole bunch of "C"s out of cardboard. I glued them together and wrapped them in the matching yard. I then covered a shoe box lid (!!) with wrapping paper that was a great find (brown and blue damask with a shine finish) and glued the letter onto it. The the one to the left of the date project is just a framed piece of scrapbook paper with a Scrabble letter crossword puzzle glued onto it. It has family words on it, too. Then a shelf under the portrait with pretties on it, and a couple shelves made of metal bookends, and we were in business!
My very eclectic photo wall (and my daughter's head). No my frames don't match. No, it's not perfectly symmetrical and perfectly ANYTHING, but I love it.
The dresser I got at a yard sale for $10 painted the same color as the accent wall. It is now our TV stand! Extra storage and pretty, too!
Our dining room. I saw this kitschy "EAT" sign on Pinterest (where else?!) and HAD to have one. Brandon cut all the wood for me and put them together and hung them up for me. And I love them! The to project on either side of the shelf are just framed scrapbook paper with blue spray painted spoons (that I got at Goodwill!) glued onto the paper.
Remember how I mentioned "eclectic" up there? Yeah, well that word describes our downstairs bathroom perfectly. We have the same rough-cut lumber with the bark still showing. Then just a bunch of pretty stuff thrown onto the shelves! I made the rolled fabric flowers in the upper left, a jar of beach stuff, a basket of pretty rocks and beach stuff, a plant, some flowers, an old picture of me and my sisters, an old drink dispenser and some cans. Some style I have, huh? And I can't forget to mention that frame in the middle. My friend wrapped that in jute twine and bailing twine. It came out really pretty (it was a 10 cent find at Goodwill while I was buying the spoon. I bought it just to be covered).
OK, so next Friday, I'll show you some pics of the places we went this summer. We had family visit on two different occasions, so we had lots of fun!
