Thursday, September 10, 2009

Picture Collage Without Pictures

Here is a quick run down on my my latest, almost-completed project...a picture collage.

It all began when I saw Joi's picture collage on her blog.
I had a blank wall in my living room, and it looked fun.
Then I realized I like things more matchy, so I searched for another picture for inspiration.
I found this one from Lettered Cottage.
I don't know, somehow all the frames being black made it suit my taste a bit closer (does this make me boring...probably)
So I went to the store and bought the thinnest frames I could find. I will spend a lot of time looking at these from the side angle in the dining room, so I didn't want them to stick out too far.
Then I cut out a bunch of wrapping paper in picture frame size sheets to try and figure out how many pictures frames I would need to make a collage I liked.
It took me 3 tries, but I finally decided on this one with Lynn's input:
Then I has to do to 3 Wal-Marts to buy enough frames of each size.
It sounds worse than it was. I have 3 close Wal-Marts to me anyways, so I just went to a different one each time I needed to make a Wal-Mart trip.
Then I had to make a 4th trip to buy the nails to hang them...oops!

I also may have bought my friend Chinese for lunch just so she would help me hang them...gotta love friends! Trust me- it was way easier too with someone there to help hold things up and take measurements!
So a million measurements later, we only had to move 5 of the frames after initially hanging them...ha!
It turned out like this:


Now I am just waiting for my sister, the photographer, to get me pictures to put in them.
I would also like to get a couple chairs and little table to make a cute little sitting area along this wall, but for now, empty picture frames will do ; )

Saturday, September 5, 2009

I Love Lamp

Here is a quick before and after picture of one of the projects I was able to complete this week.
It really isn't that dramatic, but it sure makes me happy.

This is a simple black lamp Brandon got for free from Uncle Doug back in college. We have been using it in our living room because the light in here is really dim. However, we really don't have anything black in our living room, so it kind of looked out of place.

So, I bought some spray paint from Wal-Mart and changed the color.
I believe the new color is called Satin Nickel by Krylon.

My friend Mary walked me through the basic of spray painting (yes, I have never spray painted before).
She told me to put light coats and let it dry in between.
I learned why...it runs when you put on to many coats to quickly...oops!

I would have taken the after picture in the light, but Brandon only lets me quit working outside when it is dark....j/k. But seriously, we have been working hard. Really hard.
Our gutter project has been turning into more projects. Lets just say while working on the gutter we discovered a whole section of roof that was leaking on our porch that required patching and board replacing. We also found a whole wall of our garage was infested with ants. Brandon had to rip a whole wall of our garage off (the rest of the garage is cedar...I am not sure why this wall isn't). Then he had to kill approximately a trillion ants with this crazy spray stuff that made my father in law hurl. We have yet to replace the missing wall as it got dark on us tonight.
So tomorrow we will be back outside replacing a wall, hanging one more section of guttering, and painting.
Did I tell you were are changing our house color.
All the paint is on sale at Home Depot for Labor Day weekend.
We bought over $300 worth of paint- yikes!
It may take a few weeks to get our whole house painted due to the unexpected leaks and ants, but I will be sure to post before and after pictures.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Paint and Gutters

It's my week off and my hands are covered in paint, caulk, and glue. Brandon took some time off work during my week off to make some much needed repairs/updates on the house. Take for instance the picture below. This section had no guttering at all. That meant that when it rained the water poured right onto our wood porch in front of the gate. Last winter this porch was a sheet of ice, and my butt was a little sore more than once from it! Luckily, my handy dandy husband was willing to purchase some guttering and install it himself. And why just stop here, he decided to replace all of our worn out guttering this week while he was at it.
The bad part about making small repairs/updates is that you start noticing bigger repairs/updates that need to be made. Say like a few dozen rotted out boards. This means that I have been priming and painting board after board to replace the ones Brandon has been ripping out. If you noticed the dark spot missing a board in front of Brandon and the board kind of hanging down next to it, they are both already primed and painted ready for hanging in the morning.

All this hard work makes me want a nap...
It seems to wear poor Cove out too ; )
In between painting I have managed to fit in a few of my own projects, so I will try and share them soon!