Six Months...

Thanks, Knot.com.

Love,
Melanie

Cussing the Gallery Wall

They make it look so easy to have a gallery wall, don't they? Pinterest is full of gallery wall inspirations and how-tos. You can look at blogs all day and be inspired to create a gallery wall of your own. However, you may also cuss it out. Wait? Just me? Hmm...

Let me back up a bit. You see, our guest book was a huge tree that our loved ones added thumbprint leaves to. It's beautiful. It is roughly 2' by 3'. It cost me $300 to frame. In addition to the tree-that-cost-almost-as-much-as-my-dress, we had a shadowbox from his parents containing dried flowers, part of a tree plate, and our invitation. We also had our ring "pillow," which is a mostly-complete cross-stitch I did. I wanted a wall of memories to celebrate our wedding and what better than a gallery wall? We would have pictures of different sizes, differing frames, and different textures courtesy of the cross-stitch and a button "S" I plan on making. Brad and I sorted through all of our wedding and engagement photos until we had a respectable amount and we dubbed the project the "wall of narcissism."

I spent a small fortune on frames, lined them up wrapping paper on the floor, and traced them. I had post-its detailing picture description, orientation, color, and size. I even numbered the post-its and the traced outlines so I could be sure to line everything up again. I hung the wrapping paper on the wall, hung photos, and ripped down the wrapping paper. Everything looked good (and was good!) until I learned that photographers don't really shoot for 8x10 inch photos anymore--they shoot for 8x12 inch.  Really? So, I figured out which photos could take a crop and which couldn't, and then I set about returning and buying new frames.  Thank goodness that Michael's has started to carry digital-photo-sized frames now and I found the 8x12s without a lot of trouble. I also had the benefit of a 40% off of certain frames sale, plus a 25% of total frame purchase coupon.   I'm still on the hunt for a 10x15, though...

Anyway, here are some pictures.  We're still waiting on the photos that will go in the frames and I didn't exactly "style" the couch for the last photo.  I'm keeping it real, I guess. 

What trouble did you have with a gallery wall? Do you have any tips?

Laid out on the floor.

(I know I still owe you a post on the curtains.)

This is a bad picture, but here is the wrapping paper up on the wall.

Aww, look. With my iPhone, I have no idea how to not

let the lamp wash out the left side of the wall.

Taking down frames after learning that 8x10 won't cut it.

This is what the wall looked like last night.

New frames are up, though I still need a 10x15 to replace

the frame above the tree and four from the right.

Note: no styling, but new pillows. :)

Catch Up

I'm such a blogging slacker.  I guess this is where I tell you how busy I've been and apologize for my absence.  I am sorry and I want to be a better blogger.  It's all about finding a balance and I've been enjoying using my time these past couple of months to really settle into marriage.  This stuff is hard sometimes! Brad and I are in a really good place right now and we've really been working on communicating and acting as a team. 

Here are some photos to catch us up to current and we'll work from there. Deal?

FEBRUARY

I won a giveaway that Justine hosted for shop credit from much love, illy's etsy shop.  Please click on those links. Justine is hilarious and Illene will fill your life with adorable-ness. I persued the shop, placed my order, and in no time at all was greeted with a lovely manilla envelope.  Inside was this:

Red tissue paper packages tied up with string...

containing two of my new favorite things!

Short-haired girls can rock headbands, too.

New dress from Jason Wu collection for Target + headband=love.



 Brad really worked hard to make Valentine's a good day for me and his effort showed. We ate chocolate and watched movies all weekend! He even bought a bigger box of chocolates since he "knew [he] would eat most of them." ha!

Yummy heart of chocolates.

Pretty orange roses.

An Apple card with one of our engagement photos?

Instant points for him!

Yes, I totally ate this for lunch one day.

The chocolates look smooshed because there was no "cheat sheet"

 and so I made thumb prints in them all.

My first Coach purse. Bought for the shape/color and not the name.

Thank you, online factory sale.

An Ikea trip with a sleepy three-year-old is made better by a front-facing camera.

MARCH

March brought a lot of new babies, some tornados, a funeral, and lots of time with good friends. And that was just in the first 10 days!

I read The Hunger Games trilogy in about a week and LOVED it.

I have read that there's some controversy with how Mockingjay ended, but I thought it was just as it should be. Email me if you want to start a dialogue.

My mom got an itch to play BINGO, so we rounded up

some happy meal toys and went to town.

We didn't win, but had so much fun.

I'm really thankful that a lot of Bingo halls are smoke-free now.

Here's one of the babes I was talking about.

Brad's cousins welcomed Lumen into their lives on March 1, 2012.

Lumen with Mommy.





Lately

When Christmas rolled around, Brad gifted me with hiking boots.  Mind you, in the two years we've been together, we've never been hiking.  We decided to remedy that this past weekend and found a 1.5 mile trail nearby.  We had fun traipsing around taking photos and videos (from many angles, so I had to be aware of which foot I led with) and trying to break in my new boots.  I'm hoping it becomes a regular weekend event for us and that we get to explore a lot of the surrounding parks.

Not sure what's going on here.  Brad looks like he smells something funny...

Part of the perks of my job include tons of catalogs of school supplies, intervention supplies, and books about disorders.  I usually pitch recycle them, but the latest came with a calendar of student artwork. Check out the first page...

Truth.

I'm also dealing with a little separation anxiety this week as I dropped off my wedding dress (finally) to be cleaned and preserved.  I know I'll miss touching it everyday since I had it hanging in my bedroom closet, but I do have hopes that someone down the line will want to wear it.  I know that if my mother had a wedding dress, that I probably would have worn it.  My mom and I are eerily similar and I would have loved to have even a piece of her dress sewn into mine as my something old.

Is it weird to have a wedding dress as a security blanket?

Finally, we come to the portion of the week that I've spent messing about in the living room.  I hung up a print and a mirror, but I hated the way the mirror looked.  I went to Target and picked up some round mirrors that I thought might look better.  Ed. Note--It is so very dangerous for my budget that Target is literally two miles from my house. I played around with placement and found one that I think works.  What do you think?

Construction paper models. 

Please ignore the horrible cell phone pictures.

Final product (including a peek of me in the mirror).

I am headed to Ikea this weekend to pick up some bedroom furniture, picture frames, and enjoy time with my sister and momma, so you will have some more exciting posts next week.  On the docket will be: updated (or progress shots) bedroom, living room (almost all settled), and maybe I'll delve into my love story with Brad.

How has your year been?  Sticking to your resolutions?

Pinterest Project

I've been playing on Pinterest a lot lately.  You can check out my boards here, if you'd like. It's very easy to spend way too much time looking at cute things on the internet, but I wanted to actually do something, too. I was shopping at Target (surprise, surprise) and found a really cute orange frame that would work nicely as a message board.  Insert a couple 5x7 sheets of card stock and throw a pack of wet-erase markers nearby and, voila, a rewritable message board!  Man, am I crafty.

Are you addicted to Pinterest?  What have you made?

Goodbye, 2011. Hello, 2012.

I've been on vacation since last Thursday and have been spending my time painting curtains, watching House, cleaning/purging, and enjoying some lazy time, too.  After the new year, I will have a living room reveal for you and, soon after that, a bedroom reveal.  So far, I have purged a mountain of clothes to put in consignment and taped paint samples to the wall.

Anyway, here we are at the end of 2011.  A lot has changed for me over this year and I wanted to honor that somehow.  Justine wrote a post to sum up her year and I have stolen it decided to use it, too.

Here's where I am going into 2012:

Age: 27

Location: Northern Kentucky (Cincinnati area)

Status: Married!

Occupation: School Psychologist

Favorite food: This is a hard question since I am such a picky eater.  I guess I would have to say pot roast.  I just cannot get enough of a good pot roast.

Favorite color: Orange (bright), green (deep).

Music I like right now: Adele, Dashboard Confessional, Death Cab for Cutie, Country (Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Joe Nichols, Taylor Swift)

TV shows I watch: I don't watch TV a lot, at least not when it's first airing.  Brad and I don't have cable, so we miss a lot of good stuff.  I do watch House and Big Bang Theory on DVD and catch up on Glee, Hart of Dixie, and New Girl via Hulu.

Book I’m reading: I sadly have not read much recently, aside from magazines.  I do have A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration to read, as well as to finish I Do, Now What?: Secrets, Stories, and Advice From a Madly-In-Love Couple from Bill and Guiliana Rancic. 

Favorite magazine: Marie Claire, Glamour, Martha Stewart Living.  Earlier this year, I spent quite a chunk of time reading Martha Stewart Weddings.  I do love that magazine.

Goals for next year: Live better--eat healthier foods, work out more, laugh more with Brad. I also want us to hike more. I'd also like to further investigate growing our little family.

Overall opinion of my life: Pretty good.  :)

This has been such a good year.  Brad and I got married, enjoyed our honeymoon in San Francisco, and have been working on settling into marriage and fixing up our apartment.  We've laughed together, cried together, and spent lots of time cuddling (as much as he'll let me). We know that marriage isn't easy, but we're working on strengthening our bond everyday.  I think it helps that we know it won't always be easy, but we're always willing to talk about things and work on us.

Where do you stand going into the new year?  Let me know.  Oh, and let Justine know, too.  :)

Our Christmas Card

Somehow I convinced Brad that we should send out a Christmas card.  (Maker's Mark sent him a bottle sweater and I think that tipped the votes, but whatever.)  We gathered up his drinks and my crochet and headed to his parents' house.  His brother-in-law snapped the photo for us and we were all cracking up.

My slight obsession with Gap (yeah, winning the employee discount for a year) led to us receiving a coupon for $35 off of an order from Tiny Prints, so we went with them.  We chose square cards, a matte finish, and rectangle envelopes.  Tiny Prints will even address and mail them for you, but I took care of that part. 

Do you send out Christmas cards?  What company do you like?

We look so adorkable.

Here's a portion of the back of the card. 

We just had the year printed.

Happy holidays!!

-Melanie