Displaying Family Photos and Children's Art

Am I the only one who struggles with pictures and art.  I love all types of art, but I have the hardest time purchasing and hanging it in our house and then changing my mind later.  Which is why I don't often wan to pay a hefty price tag, just to take it down later.  I've also been known to say I will make a piece of art instead of buying it.  So it's been a slow process around our house.

So the easy way out is to put up family photos if you have them.  And with the new canvas photo prints, it makes it super easy.  I have ordered many different types of pre-printed art.  There is the normal canvas prints, metal prints, photos that I have framed, or had professionally framed.  I have used many different companies and haven't had a complaint yet.  I would say a great time to order is near the Black Friday sales, or to just keep your eye open for deals.  Canvas on Demand has great deals, so I would keep them on your list.

There is a case to be made for having too many family photos.  So the key is to find a couple of places in your house where you really want to display them.  I grew up admiring my grandmothers house and all the family photos she had up on the stair case walls.  She was rocking the photo gallery long before pinterest.  It has always stuck in my mind and so, I have followed suit by putting up our family photos in the stairways and upper hallway.

We also have a few family photos in the family room, although I am slowly leaning towards taking some of them down.  Especially the older ones that don't include the youngest child :-)  She might mention it all the time.

The next best thing to family photos, or sometimes I think this suggestion is even better, hanging kids artwork.  I love my kids artwork.  And framing them in simple white frames with a bold paint background really makes them pop.  We just recently painted our hallways with black paint on top, and I love it. 

My white frames happen to come from two different stores.  I like these Ribba Frames from IKEA (12"x16"size), but they keep switching out the back of their frames and how they are hung, so it can kind of be all over the place.  I also got these from Michaels a few years ago.  The frames themselves are a little bit thinner and they were a little pricier, but easier to hang.

We also repainted the entryway white.  We had some drywall damage from foundation settlement issues that needed to be fixed.  Plus the original paint color, while lovely in the natural light, turned a little neon with interior lighting.  The entryway itself has therefore gone through quite a few changes.

Entryway when purchased - 2009

Entryway after first remodels - 2016

Current Entryway - 2019

One of the next big projects on our radar is changing out our front doors and adding a porch and discreet handicap ramp this spring.  We love the double front doors we added years ago, but unfortunately our daughter's wheelchair barely fits on one side.  And opening both doors every time she goes in and out is not practical.  So stayed tuned for more changes.

Looking at Front Door Currently - 2019

Subtle Changes

Sometimes you do something and although you like the intention, you just are not crazy about the results.

That was my dilemma in my family room.  I had painted the backs of the bookcases a bright peacock blue.  I liked the blue, but it just seemed a little too bold. 

Let’s review the whole bookcase change.

When we first moved into the house everything was dark paneling.  We painted the walls and at that time I painted the backs of the bookcases white.

It was still too dark, so I decided to paint all of the bookcases white.

That ended up looking too boring for me, and I picked out the peacock blue shade to add a pop of color.

As I mentioned, I liked the idea, but every time I looked at that blue….it just seemed like too much.  So one day on a whim, I took that bright blue leftover paint and I added a bunch of leftover gray paint to it.  I mixed it up until I came up with a little more subdued blue.

In a picture you probably wouldn’t even guess I had repainted it.  But it definitely makes a difference for me, I think the new blue is 100 times better.

What do you think?

18 Days Till Christmas

Our Church has lots of different Christmas programs.  Last night was the children’s program.  We planned to take the whole family into the church to enjoy the program.  It lasted all of 5 minutes and Oliver really wanted to go into the nursery to play. 

I didn’t take any pictures while at church.  Instead I thought I would show you our decorated house for the holidays.

Here is our advent calendar that I made a few years back.  I pretty much exactly copied one from Pottery Barn Kids.

Our entry way.

The living room holds our big tree.

And lastly our family room which has the mantle and our smaller more personal kid friendly tree.

Being Tricky

Today is a day full of class parties.  If your school district is like ours, they have specific lists you have to buy from for class party treats.  Most people probably enjoy that, it’s easy.  But people like me would really love to be more creative and come up with something festive.

This time around I decided to go with go-gurts.  It’s on he approved snack list, and it’s a food that my daughter likes to eat.  But plain yogurt tubes are very boring.  So I created a quick little sleeve for them by taping white printer paper around the yogurt tube. 

Then I quickly sketched out a ghost and the word BOO on each tube.

Now that looks more festive and it’s a healthy snack!!

Happy Halloween!!

I’m Still Here

I’m still here.  I just haven’t had time to do anything creative.  Too many hours logged at work, and getting things ready behind the scenes for the kids to start school next week.

Plus I am completely over summer and ready for Fall.

I still have one item I wanted to finish up from my summer pinterest challenge.

It should be a super simple piece of artwork to create for the dinning room.  I believe canvas is on sale this weekend at JoAnn’s, so I need to make time to run over there and pick some up.

The next goal is to finish sewing up some new school clothes for both kids.

Then maybe I can allow myself to pick out some new inspiration for fall.

Of course to get all that done, I need to find time, and I’m not sure that is going to happen.

Dining Room Changes

We just finished up remodeling our dining room.  We didn’t do anything major as far as changing layouts, knocking down walls, etc.  We did manage to touch pretty much every surface of the room.

When changing colors in a room, don’t over look the power of spray paint.  Or even paint in general.  All our decorations and furniture were from our first house.  In our first house I went with a burnt orange color.  Therefore my decorations were that same orange color.

But a little spray paint on the plate easily changes it from orange to navy blue.

And a little antique bronze paint on the candles takes them from orange to metallic.

I also used the scraps from the new drapes to sew a table runner.  I am thinking about adding some metallic paint to that as well, but have not attempted it yet.

And lastly the old dining room chairs had a faux black leather seat cushion.  Seat cushions are very easy to change out, and make such a dramatic difference when you add a bold print.

And let’s not forget we also spray painted the chandelier to get rid of the bright white candle holders and made them also navy blue to blend into the room better.

So if you get tired of your old decorations….see if you can paint them before you decide to buy new!

If you would like to see all the before and after pictures of our dinning room remodel click here.

It’s a Farm Party

My Son Oliver turned 2 this weekend.  He loves his animals, so we did a farm party for him.

The burlap and gingham banner read “Happy 2nd Birthday Oliver”.

We had smores bars courtesy of this recipe.

Brownie Oreo bites.  No recipe, just take an Oreo cookie top with peanut butter, add another Oreo and top with more peanut butter, then pour brownie batter around and on top of the cookies.  Bake according to your brownie recipe.  These were my favorite, although a lot of people liked the smores bars the best.

I also cut out little farm animals as toppers.

Oliver’s birthday cake was a regular white cake with Oreo cream pudding in the middle.  I made the little cake topper out of skewers and patterned paper glued to string.

I also made little Old MacDonald food signs for all the food.

The birthday boy also got a special hat, and his own favorite drink….chocolate milk!

For entertainment we had wagon rides on the riding lawnmower, a water hole (a.k.a pool), and horse rides on a little jump horse.

Our little guests got to go home with brown paper cows filled with goodies.  I had Oliver help color the cows for everyone, and I glued them together.

Thanks for stopping by our little Farm Party!

Down on the Farm–Burlap and Gingham Banner

I just finished up making the birthday banner.  I thought I would give you a sneak peak.

There are many examples of burlap banners out there.  Some are painted, some are sewn.  Mine was a strange hybrid of ironing and gluing.

And I never do things the easy way.  Here is the up close shot.

For those crazy people wanting to know how I did mine.

1.  I picked a font I liked and printed out the letters I needed, then I cut them out.

2.  I traced the letters onto fusible craft weight interfacing (non sticky side).  I traced the back or negative side of the letters, so that once I put the fabric on, you could read them correctly.

3.  I ironed the fabric onto the sticky side of the interfacing.

4.  I cut out the letters and I cut out the shape I wanted for the bunting out of burlap.

5.  I hot glued the letters to the burlap bunting pieces.

6.  I cut thin strips of my gingham (or any fabric you are using).  I needed to tie my strips together to make them long enough to hold all the bunting pieces.

7.  Lastly I hot glued the bunting to the fabric strips, folding the bunting pieces over at the top and hot gluing that side down to the back, so that the top had a nice finished edge.

6 Week Summer Challenge

1.  Add fabric to create contrast to jean shorts.

2.  Sew up a bow front tank top for myself.

3.  Sew a foldover bag/clutch.

4.  Sew an interesting shirt for my daughter, using this picture as a basis for the pattern.

5.  Paint some artwork for the dining room.

6.  Loosen up some shirts that are too tight by adding different fabrics.