Thursday, August 30, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
my gallery wall
Okay. There are so many cute gallery wall ideas out there, that I decided to give everyone a look at mine. I did this wall collage about 2 1/5 years ago. It is way past time to update it, so that is one of my projects this weekend :).
I think I am going to slowly do a house tour because so many people have asked me to do one. I am really debating it though because I feel like my house has so much that needs to be done for me to feel satisfied with it, but is anyone ever satisfied with their house?
So, to ease me in, I will start with this.
Also, are you like me and LOVE seeing inside other people’s houses? I seriously would love to walk around the neighborhood ringing doorbells and ask if I could come in if that wasn’t weird. ;)
I started with the mossy T that I saw in a magazine about 3 years ago. I knew I wanted something like that in my house but had no idea where. When I decided to do the picture collage I knew that is what I wanted the focal point to be.
I made it by buying a gold T at Hobby Lobby and then hot gluing Spanish Moss to it. Easy Peasy.
I decided to go with different color frames and different shapes and sizes. Of course most are from IKEA. The rest are ones that I found on clearance from Hobby Lobby (like the large open one) or TJ Maxx. If you are thinking about doing this and need a lot of frames, it is worth the trip to the nearest IKEA. They have the best prices and look so much like the Pottery Barn version.
A few tips :
- Try to pick pictures that aren’t so posed and ordinary. I know most people don’t consider it a good picture unless everyone is looking at the camera and smiling perfectly, but try to capture a moment or detail that will remind you of a certain time.
- If you are going to do just pictures, then either do all color or all black and white. It makes it more uniform and doesn’t make your eyes go crazy. Especially if you are going to do different color frames. ***See below
- Play with the size of the mats. Have some wide, some thin and some not at all.
- Have a friend there to help. Sandahlyn, was there with me to say if something looked off or crooked and just for moral support :). It is very stressful when you first start, but gets easier once you know what you are doing.
- Then return the favor. After we did mine we started working on hers and now we are professionals ready for hire ;).
- Use paper to map out your collage. We cut paper in the shapes of the frames and worked with those. That way we don’t have more nail holes than you actually need.
- Use the command picture hanging thingies. I didn’t do this but SO wish I did. I am sure my hubby feels the same way.
***Now don’t get me wrong, I love eclectic collage walls that have a mix of everything, color, black and white, prints, mirrors and everything in between. However, when you are working with just pictures I think it looks better to go the more simple route.
Here are some wall collages that I love.
via pinterest
Is it bad to have a collage wall in every bedroom of your house? I think that is where I am headed.
Mine is not the greatest, but since Pinterest I have some really cute ideas now!
I have actually been collecting for my next one. I will be sure to post when I get finished!
Also, send me a email if you need some pictures taken to get your gallery started ;)
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Summer 2012// Aka: possibly the longest blog post ever :)
Okay, I have been pretty bad about posting our day to day lives on this blog. To be honest that is really the only reason why I started it. Fail. SOOO, in order to catch up, I have decided to do an iphone picture dump of our summer. Now, yep, yes, I am a professional photographer. So where are all of the professional pictures of my summer you may ask. Why on my handy, dandy, 5 inch iphone. People, do you expect me to carry my large bulky camera around to every park, zoo and chick fil a in the Birmingham area, while juggling two small children (one that does not walk and one that does walk but chooses to run away making me look like a psycho maniac yelling at him if we are in a parking lot), a very large diaper bag, a double stroller and all the small toys that Harris decided to drag with us that day? Nope? I didn’t think so. I know some moms do it, (okay a lot of moms) but they are supermoms and I never claimed to be one. Mmmmkay?
Anyways, here are a few hundred pictures to help us remember this FUN summer.
Best friends forever
Ruthie pretty much will play with anything that is NOT a toy. I have to be creative.
Harris LOVES mascot looking things. Oh, you can’t tell. How come? Doesn’t he look so excited?
A little dancing in the street.
Never a dull moment. 
Date night! Whoop whoop! We get so excited our minds got fried and we ended up in the kids section of Barnes and Nobles looking at the train table. True story. We might have or have not been told by a lady there that we were pathetic. Pssh!
Bedtime stories. 
We had a visitor. We called her the baby whisper or I think Ruthie wished momma had a little extra sumin sumin like her great grandmother did ;). Sorry hunny. What you get is what you get.
Two little monkeys. Now tell me, do you see me having room for my Canon 5D Mark ii? I didn’t think so.
A rare family picture. To me this is worth a million dollars. Even though Harris isn’t really adding much to the picture I still treasure it and I am just glad he is there. We were supporting Uncle Richard at the Avondale Brewing Company Riverfest. What?! You have never heard of taking small children to a Brewery? You should do it, greaaat fun!
He told me his eyes were catching fire. Please hunny take my sunglasses pronto. I can’t imagine the pain ;)
Sad day. Jeremy had to leave to go out of town for work, FOR A WEEK! Longest we have ever been apart. 
Why is she so PRECIOUS?! Yum yum and could just scoop her up! 
You know, just a little afternoon golf in our undies.
Yes, we were SITLL missing daddy. :(
Cutie patootie shoes.
Sweet little dumpling. Messy house.
Potty trained this silly kid. Seriously, where does he come up with this stuff?! He is very creative.
I actually went to the pool, ONCE, all by myself, Alone. Did I mention I was by myself. It felt weird.
We went to the Mcwane Center a lot to beat the heat. Gigi went with us this time. 
Harris got pretty excited when he saw this tiny potty.
Brother and sister hugs.
Daddy came back!!! Harris wasn’t sure he would. He hugged him for about 5 minutes. It was precious. And then I left the house for a 7 hour spa day and some shopping.
Just kidding.
Visits from Papa.
We went to the rickety fair. Sweet children of mine, if you read this when you are adults please know we went because we love you and wanted you to have fun. Not because we wanted you to pick up some kind of disease and be on the news because one of those ferris wheels finally fell apart due to a couple of the missing screws. 
Fun at Fulton’s birthday party.
Getting ready for the big joint Birthday party. Pictures to come.
Ruthie likes to massage Harris’ hair. I am not sure if she can be a masseuse yet or not ( I am sure that goes against some child labor laws) but it is about time she starts earning her keep around here. I kid ;)
Playing with snakes.
Reading our Bible and learning our memory verses.
Pinterest activities. Working on our alphabet.
There she goes with the head massaging thing again. Can I get in on some of this action?! I am the one that birthed you girlfriend.
Loving the park. She is good now because I can sit her somewhere and she is fine to stay there. Where we are going to have an issue is when she actually wants to get up and play. Now that might be a problem. :)
Lunch dates with daddy!!
Fun with the camera.
Harris’ new obsession. Oatmeal cream pies. I asked him one day if he wanted a oatmeal cream pie for dessert and he said “no, I want a oatmeal RED pie” Ha! This whole time he thought I was saying “green pie”
Fun playdates! Lord, please help us all when these three get on the roads.
“Oh, you know, just on my elephant phone.”
More McWane fun.
Ruthie was real brave and climbed up these stairs and went down the slide all by herself. Did I mention she is really advanced?
Ruthie, sweetie pie, angel baby. It might be time to teach you how to pluck your eyebrows. Is 10 months too early for that?
We loved the Olympics!! Okay, so maybe I just lied. I only really got into the synchronized swimming. But I wanted to pretend like I cared about all of the other stuff like trampoline jumping and archery and all that jazz. (can you start a sentence with But? I am sure I have already done it a couple of times so I am just going to change the rules and say you can. Mmmkay?)
Zoo some more.
Weird fact about Harris: The only animal he is scared of is the owl. He is deathly afraid of them and would probably rather touch or be near a alligator that could eat you or a poisonous snake than an owl. Ya’ll? He kills me. Is this normal?!
Or he would hug this Komodo dragon.
Cutie!! 
I am going to miss these beautiful walks when it is the dead of winter.
Working on the tractor.
Thank you Lord, she is finally eating better.
Railroad park fun! 
I think she is trying to walk. Don’t mind if you do sweetie.
Family picture from Fulton’s Birthday party.
Okay. If you have made it this far congratulations, you are through!! Now I feel so much better that I have documented some of our summer. I am sure I am forgetting a ton of stuff but you get the gist. Now bring on the fall and then skip winter and bring us back to summer ;)
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