Voilà!

Yesterday I left y'all with an almost finished picture frame. I had spray painted it white with just one coat. After applying the second coat,  I liked how it looked kind of white washed and I could still see the wood grain through the paint, BUT the look I was going for was a pretty solid white. I got out my handy dandy Kilz spray primer and did a quick coat to get more coverage. Two more coats of white satin spray paint and I was high as a kite and my frame was good to go! (Just kidding about the high part, but I spray paint in my garage so I could definitely smell it a bit in our living area...woops.)

After all my paint was dry, I set the glass in the frame, then laid the matte and photo down on top of it. Then I used some trusty duct tape to secure the glass. It might not sound very safe, but with the notch in the wood, the glass was flush with outside of the frame (if that makes sense?) So the duct tape has a pretty easy job.

With everything secured, I slapped three 3M picture hanging strips on the back (two on top, one of bottom...this sucker is a little heavy!). Then I took down the mess of a gallery wall above my sofa, and popped this guy up using a small level and my best guess as to the center of our sofa!

Here is a close up of the finished product:

And here is a somewhat zoomed out view. Please ignore my shelf disaster in the corner!

Soon the other two will go up on either side. I am waiting for my photos from MPIX to arrive. Snapfish threw a bog ol' wrench in my plans for an 8x10 close up of each kid on either side when they sent the close-up of Bubba with like an inch of his head cut off. I was able to adjust the cropping on MPIX though, so I am crossing my fingers for frame-worthy prints this time!

Speaking of my adorable babies, here they are out running errands yesterday: 

Abigail has really been loving her Bubba lately.She has always liked asking to hold him, but usually would try to push him off saying "all done!" as soon as he hit her lap. Well the last couple days she has actually held him for minutes  at a time! And she loves giving him kisses! Whenever  I pick her up from daycare (she goes twice a week to get some little kid play-time) she looks for him in his carseat and says BUBBA!!! If Patrick happens to be home and able to keep him, she gets very concerned and asks where he is, it's so cute! 

Gallery Wall, Take Two

I LOVE gallery walls. The only reason I had a big wedding, and had babies is so I could have tons of lovely photos to fill up gallery walls all over my house! Ok, that is not the only reason, but it is a happy by-product of those life events! Anyway, I thought the wall about my sofa in the the living room would be a great place for a gallery wall. Original, I know. I really liked the idea of this project from Iheart Organizing:

I like how the clips add some interest, and allow you to change the artwork/photos on a whim, without the work of picking those little tabs and taking out the old photos, getting the frame back in the right spot, etc. 

Then there is this cute wall, from younghouselove:

And also from younghouselove, the ultimate gallery wall, it's like picture frame wallpaper! 

Now that I've shared with you my inspiration, let me show you my first attempt at a gallery wall:

Not very pretty, is it? I bought a bunch of these frames from Ikea a long time ago in anticipation of some great family photos after Tee Patrick was born. (That's cajun for Little Patrick, and it's what we decided to call him after nobody in either of our families was thrilled about calling him PJ.) Oh, and there used to be a vertical white 8x10 frame hanging in that blank spot, but I stole it for some art in Abigail's room because this wall was stupid anyway. 

I used that photo hanging thing, I forget what it's called, but it has an infomercial, it's like a little thumbtack gun you hit with a hammer and it puts an angled tack into the wall...anyway, not worth it, if you are considering getting one, don't waste your time! The other big problems with this wall are, in no particular order: the black thing that makes the frame able to stand on a table skews the frame and makes them all look wonky and slanted, I do not exactly have the most artistic eye when it comes to making "random" arrangements like this, and I didn't measure. Woops. However, I did at least lay them out on my kitchen table in an arrangement I was fairly happy with. I guess something got lost in translation from the table to the wall! 

All that to say, I have new plans for a different arrangement with different frames. I am going to get some flat white frames from Ikea soon and use those. I think I will still keep my eye out at our local ReStore (habitat for humanity) for some plain cabinet doors for a future project though! 

I don't have an after photo yet, but I did get my prints in the mail, and I think this is the arrangement I have settled on:

What do you all think? Yay or nay? Also, does anyone know of a REALLY GOOD photo printing site? I have been really unhappy with Riteaid lately, and ordered these prints from snapfish.com, and they are very grainy. Anyone have any better luck with another company? Please let me know! thanks :-)

Need to get something off my chest...

I am crushing majorly on a sofa right now. Is that weird? I came thisclose to committing $2k on my credit card for this beauty and the matching loveseat:

It's the Ella leather sofa from Macy's, and is beautiful, and super long, and relatively inexpensive for such a nice looking leather sofa. BUT it is a closeout, which means that since I'm not buying it now I will never be able to buy it. Insert major sad face here. So, to heal my broken sofa heart, I started searching for others that I liked as much to remind myself that there are other fish in the sea. I came across this one, and I really like it too:

It's the Thomasville Carina sofa. But it does not come in leather, so that stinks. I think it would slip cover nicely though. We plan to move sometime next year, so I am trying to make myself feel better about my crappy sofa by knowing that I won't be sad if it gets messed up in the move. Or better yet, we can sell it right before and not even have to move it at all. We'll see! Anyone else have a furniture obsession? Anyone else have a problem trying to find something cheap that is "close enough" to the thing they REALLY want that is pricier, only to find that you should have just waited and saved your pennies for what you really wanted in the first place? Sigh. I have definitely learned some VERY expensive lessons throughout my experience as a first time home buyer and home furnish-er. 

Oh, and maybe leave me a comment and tell me which one you like better! I'm curious which one would be more popular...