Pinterest Frame Gallery

So I have to admit that I’m a Pinterest junkie. At least once a day I check out the “Home Decor” and of course the “DIY & Crafts” pins and occasionally wherever the cute baby animals pics live (am I a loser for starting an “Awww” board? ummm that would be a yes!) But as inspired as I am by the insanely unique and talented DIYers out there, I rarely pin stuff… I’m just much more of a re-pinner (is this a word yet?) So when I saw Sherry and Katie’s Pinterest Challenge post over at Young House Love and Bower Power this week, I immediately felt inspired (and challenged!) to start pinning the crap out of some stuff – including projects from yours truly. But since the Bonus Room Renovation sucked up my weekend (ask me how much I hate hanging insulation… I’m still itchy!) and the fact that I have to work on workdays, I was only able to squeeze in one project… but it happens to be something that I learned from Pinterest!

So for years, I’ve wanted to make a frame gallery. I know it’s one of those things that grows with time, but I just had no idea where or how to start it. That is my friends, until I saw this little pin on Pinterest with the caption “A tried and true method”. Perhaps this is something lots of peeps know, but not this gal. So when I saw the paper cutouts arranged on the wall with painters tape, a total light bulb went off. I had a similar reaction the first time someone told me the lyrics/title to one of my favorite Rolling Stones songs was actually “Beast of Burden”… for years I’ve been singing “I wanna be your big suburban…” Makes muuuuuuch more sense, right? 🙂

Another reason I put off hanging a frame gallery was due to the fact that I couldn’t find the “right” frames. So when I saw this 10 piece frame set at Target for $24 bucks, I was sold. I do wish it came with 11×14 frames, but the Dining Room didn’t mind loaning us theirs, especially since it has been rockin’ a hot new coat of grey paint.

So without further ado, here’s how I did it…

I started by arranging the frames on the floor. I must of made 30 different possible designs but landed on this one as I really like the balance of the two 11X14’s.

I then traced the frames on paper. I bought a roll of shipping paper from target for $3, which I totally plan to wrap Christmas presents with too. Just image the fun, funky bow colors you could add to it!!!

Since the wall perpendicular to my frame galley also has wall art, I measured its distance from the ceiling to get a good measurement for the height. I know you’re suppose to hang pictures eye level, but since JD and I are giants, this is our eye level.

After hanging all of the cutouts up for the blueprint, I was ready to hammer in some nails! Once the nails were in, I then just removed the paper and hung the frames.

TADA…..

Looks itty bitty here, but it’s actually a pretty nice size! I think it adds a modern feel to our super traditional living room. We ❤ reclining sofas though, and not because they look good, but because they are soooooo comfy…so traditional it is 🙂

Bonus Room Reno – Week 1

We’ve been putting it off for two years. We’ve talked about it, sketched it out and planned its purpose. But until last week, have never actually started any work on it. I’d like to introduce you to our “Bonus Room”. It’s main purpose in life is two-fold – 1. House all the crap we’re too lazy to walk up to the attic AND 2. Help our exercise equipment collect as much dust as possible. Seems like a pretty crappy use of a big room, right? Ummm… yeah.

Although neither of us have admitted it, I think this unfinished room had something to do with why JD and I fell in love with this house. See our first house in Christiansburg came with a completely unfinished basement that we (and several of our handy friends) finished on our own. It already had a bathroom and a small laundry closet, but we added – A tiled entry way and closet, a bedroom, a family/bonus/workout room and a huge walk-in storage closet. Needless to say, we walked away from that house with a little jingle in our pockets and boy did that feel good. I definitely don’t think we’ll make as much off this reno, but we will add an entire bedroom and be able to sell this bad boy as a 4 bedroom-er… holla!

So although this room has been our red-headed step child for many many months, we’re ready to make this sucker shine. And since JD seems to know how to do every repair job in the book, we’re doing the entire project ourselves! Ok… we’re debating contracting the mud work, but who wouldn’t right…? It flat out sucks.

Here’s our first guess at what we need for this reno:

• 12 2X4 boards to frame in the walk-in closet
• 12 pieces of 1/2″ dry wall for the ceiling
• ~16 pieces of 1/2″ dry wall for the walls
• TBD on amount of insulation (for the walls and ceiling)
• TBD on amount of trim
• 1 box of drywall screws
• 5 gallon bucket of joint compound (aka spackle) and drywall tape
• 1 closet door

Here’s our plan of attack:
Since the electrical work is already done, we’re jumping right in.

1.  We started by framing the closet. Without a closet, the room will not officially be considered a bedroom, so this is a must for re-sell!
2.  Next, we’ll drywall the ceiling, add insulation, and say a million cuss words. We loath hanging ceiling drywall.
3.  We’ll then hang the drywall on the walls.
4.  Spackle & Sanding. uhhhhhhhhhh.
5.  I ❤ painting. Thinking a greyish blue or green. shocking, right?
6.  Trim work is fairly easy, but caulking is not. The only other time I used this stuff, a ton ended up in my hair…?
7.  Build window seat and custom desk/bookshelves. This is my hot search topic on Pinterest right now. Look for a new board soon!
8.  Lay padding/carpet, which we’ll likely hire some help for.
9.  Decorate. Decorate. Decorate 🙂

So as you can see from #7 above, right now I’m thinking this room is going to be an Office/Craftroom/Playroom (yes for our unborn children… sista’s gotta plan, right?). I’m most excited about the window seat and can totally see myself sitting there reading a book or looking for squirrel’s with Bo… we’re easily entertained.

So this weekend we’ve finished #1 and 90% of #2…

Walk-in closet framed –

This my friend is a very helpful little tip and essential for hanging ceiling drywall. Build a lift out of 2X4’s and have one person hold the drywall up to the ceiling while the other puts the lift in place. Insert drywall screws and TADA! In the picture below, we’re just testing the lift out before we cut the drywall to align with the ceiling joists.

Next weekend we’re hoping to tackle insulation and start the walls. Week 1 down… many to go 🙂

DIY Fall Decor

Picture this – it’s a crisp, fall Saturday morning and you have nothing to do for the next 4 hours. After slowly waking up, you throw on some comfy clothes and mosey your way into the kitchen for a fresh cup of coffee (that you finally remembered to set the timer for!) After a few warm sips, you open a window beside “your spot” on the couch, so the cool fall breeze can slowly make its way in and the scent of a Pumpkin Spice Yankee candle can circulate. You then curl up on the couch and burrow yourself in a fleece blanket…

This is my Saturday morning fall ritual and something I look forward to all week. (super exciting life, huh?) 🙂

And what makes this teeny tiny ritual even more perfect? When I look around and see my home decorated with the colors of my favorite season. I mean how can orange, yellow, red and brown not make you feel warm and cozy inside?

So I totally get that changing your decor seasonally can be expensive… I mean we’re talking new pillows, table settings, art, and even drapes. But with a little imagination and some backyard inspiration, you can create some of those super cozy magazine spreads for next to nothing!

I recently pulled together some of my favorite fall decorating ideas (most from BHG.com) that are all DIY inspired of course!!! I’m even working on a few of these this weekend and will share soon…

 
Fall leaves + wooden frames = amazing fall wall/shelf art.

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Love how the red and orange throw pillows warm this room. I usually can find these colors in the fabric sale bins at JoAnn’s for super cheap!

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Even if your normal decor is neutral, look how powerful adding a pop of fall color can be. LOVE!

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How simple is this? A felt leaf cutout on a plain fabric.

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This is one of the projects I’m starting this weekend. Great way to utilize all of your scrap fabric!

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Stenciled leaves on a table runner! What a fabulous idea. BTW, if you’re looking for a good table runner for this project, try Home Goods. They have an awesome selection and most are under $15!

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Easy peasy lemon squeezy center piece.

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Don’t mums just scream fall?

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But I still have a sweet spot for yellow mums, especially when they are paired with orange pumpkins. My front porch rocks the combo every fall 🙂

So what do you love most about fall?

When in Rome…

The most confusing part of our Italy vacation was our trip from Florence to Rome, as the Florence train station is crazytown and culture shock in itself. There is no one to help you and no one to ask questions to… well except for the Italians, but considering we only learned how to say wine and tomatoes, we didn’t even attempt it. There is of course the huge train schedule board but it lists final destinations, not the stops between. Since the Napoli train had our train number, we went ahead and hopped on. And who would have thunk it… we ended up in Rome. 🙂

Similar to Florence, we planned tours almost every day. Since Rome is much bigger than Florence, we decided to do a bus tour vs. a walking tour to see the entire city. I also think it had something to do with JD not wanting to hear me complain anymore. I’m not fun to be around when my feet hurt, but who is… right?

We also did a few other group tours, including one of the Coliseum and Roman Formun. JD and I were super excited for this tour, so much that we even watched Gladiator the night before on the iPad. I know, I know, we’re total geeks. Appearance wise, the Coliseum was pretty much what I expected, but I can’t explain the sense of evil I felt while we were walking through it. As interesting as the history of the building is, it’s hard to get over the fact that innocent men and animals were killed for entertainment. I can’t even watch gory parts in movies and to think hundreds of thousands of people came here to watch it live is insane to me. Crazy Romans.

During the same tour, we also walked through the Roman Forum. Lots of old buildings, lots of dirt, lots of marble. Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

I tried to take a few night pictures of the Roman Forum, as it was a hop skip away from our hotel, but this was the only one that came out right.. and it’s not even of the Forum 🙂

The next tour was a 1/2 day trip to the Vatican and definitely my favorite tour in Rome. We started with the Sistine Chapel and words just can’t explain how beautiful it is. I was already floored by how talented Michelangelo was, but after seeing this, it’s hard to believe he was even human. I think what surprised me the most about the paintings were how vibrant the colors still are. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take any pics as they have super strict rules against photography (even though I totally saw a guy sneak one with his phone!) I just didn’t want to risk it… especially in front of 20+ paintings of Jesus.

Next was a tour of St. Peter’s Basilica and there is no way I can even begin to describe how amazing it is. The walls, the art, the alter, the dome… every piece of the structure is breathtaking. As if that wasn’t enough, we then learned that this is the burial site of Peter.. yep, Peter as in one of Jesus’s twelve disciples. Maybe we should of known that before this visit, but we didn’t.. so just imagine how amazed we were!

If you’ve ever taken an art history class before, you’ve definitely read about Michelangelo’s Pietà. It was much bigger than I expected and so beautiful!

Although we didn’t do a tour of the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps or Pantheon, we did walk bys of each.

We of course dropped a little jingle in the fountain. JD even got my coin mid-flight!

The Spanish Steps have to be the hardest monument to find in Rome. I honestly took 3 pictures of buildings we thought were it. Below is the real deal and since these were uhhh… just steps, we maybe spent 20 seconds looking at them. I didn’t even pick up their significance as I was distracted by two lovely Italians… Missoni and Ferragamo. I walked in Ferragamo with shorts and crocs on and totally got mean-mugged. My bad, just wanted to touch a fancy shoe. They didn’t even have price tags and I didn’t think the clerk would appreciate my Italian vocab, so we quickly left.

Last stop was the Pantheon… where a bird pooped on my head. Please tell me that’s good luck and that I’m going to win the DIY Blog Cabin house in Matthews county. Please, please, please!!!

Speaking of pooped, after every tour that’s exactly what JD and I were… exhausted! And since this was our vacation, we tried to squeeze in some down time every day. We are both highly entertained by people-watching, so every afternoon, that’s exactly what we did, alongside two beers and something sweet.

Although I haven’t posted any food pictures from Rome.. trust me when I say it was amazing! JD and I even found a restaurant that we liked so much, we ate at twice! We were so hoping to find “our” spot.. you know, one that wasn’t recommended and one that we just stumbled upon. One that our kids can go back to and say, “mom and dad loved this spot!” Ok, Ok, I totally took that from a Kodak commercial. Anywho, here’s a picture of us at “our” spot, La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali.

In summary… Rome was amazing and Florence was even more amazing. By far, my best vacation ever!

Cheers! 🙂

Ciao Bella Firenze!

JD and I have always wanted to go to Europe. We debated several countries for our first trip across the pond, mainly Ireland, Scotland, UK, and Italy. Then when we sat down and thought about what we wanted to do over there the conversation went a little like this…”We want to see really cool stuff, eat really good food, and drink really good wine!” Yeah… we’re pretty simply people, but doesn’t that just scream Italy? We thought so. So, thanks to Crossroads Travel and our dear travel agent, Doug, we planned the trip of a lifetime to Florence and Rome, Italy and spent 4 days in each city. Although Rome was amazing, there was just something about Florence that I fell in love with! The culture, the art, the history, the people and of course the food & wine.. everything was just amazing.

OK – I could go on for hours but since pictures say 1,000 words and I took a boat load of them, I’m going to let them tell most of the story.

One of the first things we did when we arrived in Florence was a walking tour of the city. This was so helpful for us as we were able to get our bearings, learn about the city and dogear must-return spots. Our guide for this tour was full of cool city facts..although his English was a little broken and I only picked up about 60% of what he said. Here’s what I did pick up…

The Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore absolutely floors you. You honestly walk around the corner and it just hits you with it’s size, beauty and amazing details. We didn’t go inside, since our guide said it’s surprising bare but I’m sorry this picture can’t do it’s size and beauty justice.

 
Directly across from the Basilica is the Baptistery, which features a bronze door with the most amazing sculpted panels depicting biblical stories. Directly above the doors, are sculptures of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus, which was by far my favorite piece of art we saw on the trip! I have to admit that I cried a little when I first saw this, but I think that’s what good art is suppose to do to you right?

 
At first glance, I wasn’t very impressed with this building, The Basilica di San Lorenzo, but when our guide told us it was built in 393 AD, I immediately changed my mind. It’s also the burial place of most of the Medici Family, which if you know anything about Florence, know they were the cool kids on the block for many many years. We walked inside but as soon as someone told us we couldn’t talk – we were done. Same reason I refuse to try Bikram yoga… I like talking 🙂

 
Then we saw the David. Ok, Ok…. yes, this is the fake David and no we didn’t see the real one. I was totally fine with this decision until we met this awesome couple on the train who told us that the real one is completely different. Oh well, you see one naked dude, you’ve seen them all right…?

 
Ahh… the Arno River. We walked across two bridges, but this one was by far the prettiest. Might of had something to do with the fact that all of the shops on the bridge are jewelry shops… 🙂 My kind of bridge.

So I didn’t take a picture of everything we ate, but I did get a couple of the good stuff. From the very first bite to the last, I was so very impressed with the food. The fresh pasta, bread, tomatoes and olive oil were just delicious. Here are some of my favorites…

Caprese – sliced fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and basil

Pasta and pizza with fresh tomato sauce. It’s not as saucy as it is in the US, but much better!

Panini with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes.

More pizza, but my favorite while in Italy. Le Campane, Ristorante Pizzeria also had the best bruschetta in Florence. This place was out of the main tourist area, so JD and I totally felt like locals. Scratch that… I felt like a local. JD is blonde and was kind of blowing my cover 🙂

More spaghetti, but just look at that parmesan cheese!

 
Our favorite meal in Florence was at L’Osteria di Giovanni. We took a gamble and showed up at 7:30 without reservations and luckily they had one spot left. The waiter asked us to follow him down these creepy steps for the non-reservation spots and although a little hesitant we did it. To our surprise we got to sit in the wine cellar, surrounded by dusty wine bottles and century old bricks. It was perfect!

We started with a delicious cheese ravioli in a zucchini sauce…

Next was the sea bass. We completely forgot fish is served whole in Italy and to our surprise we got an entire sea bass… eyeballs and all. Luckily, our super sweet waiter cleaned him up.

We ended with desert, but since I already look like a fat kid, I’ll let you envision it. This is my way of saying delicious, since I only learned 3 words while over there and they all had something to do with wine and tomatoes… 🙂

 
So I’ve shared my favorite art, my favorite food, and here’s my favorite tour. On Friday, we took an entire day tour of Cinque Terre, on the coast on the Italian Riviera. Although our ferry stopped at all five villages, we only explored #1, #3 and #5. All of the villages, featured beautiful views and these super colorful buildings.

At the first village, we spent most of our time exploring the castle.

How’s this for a window seat? This was actually a window in the castle…

Look at that brave stud muffin. Notice the aviators, which equals cool Italian.

I followed him just so I could put my foot in the sea. It was very very cold!

Village #2 was beautiful but very small and simple.

Except for one thing… the Gelato!

Best ice cream ever. Yes… it’s blackberry!

JD seemed to think so too 🙂

The last village had the best beaches!

JD took a swim in the ice cold water and I took a nap on the cozy warm beach

 
On our last day in Florence, we took a hike up to the most scenic spot in the city, Piazzale Michelangelo.

No, we’re not standing in front of a painting.

 
Another awesome thing about Florence was the open markets, that sell just about anything! So, on our last day in Florence, we both picked up a little something to remember this amazing city. JD got a leather wallet, since leather is something Italy is famous for.

And I got a blue quartz ring that was made in Florence.

Our Italy vacation was simply amazing. Although Florence was my favorite city, we also made some really awesome memories in Rome. Check back for the Rome post soon!

Ciao!