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Sunday, September 30, 2012

The Gallery

The official title for our hallway is the Gallery. We're fancy, huh?

I got the idea to do a gallery wall from Young House Love. Check out their posts about it here and here. Before I saw their post, I had no idea what to do with the hallway. It was seriously like an unusable space. You can't put furniture there. Well, YOU may be able to, but I can't. Unfortunately ours is fairly narrow, and not at all open like the one that Young House Love has. But hey, work with what ya got.

I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not a photographer. I have a decent camera but I don't know how to use is (I know, you're all shuddering right now).

Also, I know you've seen this on Pinterest:
It is the perfect hanging arrangements. If you haven't caught on yet, perfect is not what you're going to find here. With all of the frames hanging in the gallery, I put up one piece where I decided it went and then put everything else around it. I didn't use a layout, I didn't cut out newspapers in the sizes of the frames. I put the stuff on the wall and if I didn't like it, I moved it. If you don't like holes in the wall, don't buy my house. I do intend to fix them all though before we move, so there's that.

This is far from finished. Consider this an in progress post. There are still lots of spaces I want to fill before I'm satisfied, but I got so many responses from my tweets about it the other day I figured I might as well post some now.

Long before I actually started hanging things I started collecting them. It took a while for me to get frames and the things to go in them, which is why this is still a work in progress.

Quick tip: Anything that you buy that isn't the exact color you want, and someone offers that "you can totally paint that" is probably not a good idea (I'm so not pointing fingers). At least in my experience, it doesn't turn out as well as you're envisioning. I planned to paint frames white to save money, but that was a big fat failure. I ended up throwing all of the non-white frames out and searching for only white frames. I would say definitely nail down the color/style you're going for first to avoid any instances like that.

Also, as you will see, You don't have to only have picture frames. I went room to room and looked for small things that had collected in small bowls (my dad used to make bowls on his lathe) and found ways to incorporate those things I love into the project.

This is the largest wall in the gallery.
 This wall is directly opposite. The center is our wedding guestbook.
 The corks are from our honeymoon and this is a photo that I love of my grandma.
 This is a canvas covered in fabric. Ingrid made me do it. I got this fabric (and the same thing in green) from JoAnn's. Tammy in fabric is not very helpful or pleasant. Whatev.
 The hand and key are from Hob Lob. I successfully painted them white.
 The top left frame is a cheapie I got from IKEA. The T is from Hob Lob, also painted. The photos are my two favorites of my brothers from when they were babies.
 This is between the bathroom and our bedroom. Mirror was $11 at Target. The frame was empty from Hob Lob. I think it was half off for around $10. I printed the I love you because paper, took the glass out of another frame and walla (I HATE WHEN PEOPLE SAY WALLA) instant dry erase board. For a while it said some obscene things about my boobs (give the man a marker and there is no telling what will happen), but it has been back to being nice lately (because I'm the only one using it).
 This painting came from Hob Lob and I love it. This wall needs more though. It is between our bedroom and the guest room.
 This is the view from our bedroom.
 This is a Valentine of my mom from first grade. I love it. She hates it. I gave her a big frame. She should be happy.
 This is the cork from our first picnic. It's just glued onto a small canvas Ingrid and I found at JoAnn's.
 I got this on Etsy. It is an old dictionary page with the cigars drawn on.
 The top painting was done by my friend Holli who is amazing. She already had these paintings in her Etsy shop, but I asked her if I could order them with different colors and she said it wasn't a problem. So delightful. For the love of God, if you haven't checked out her shop yet, do it now. I'll wait.

Josh is a huge fan of Marvel Girl so when he went to Summit City Comic-Con (seriously) he had one of the vendors draw her for him. The Hulk on the left was drawn for Josh by a guy who was at the comic book store.
 Bottom right is another of Holli's paintings. The small frame is a drawing of Wolverine smoking a cigar. This wall is mostly for Josh I'm realizing.
 At the Comic-Con Josh had a Wonder Woman drawn for me. It's pretty awesome. It actually looks much better in person than it does in this photo.
 Ingrid got me an awesome card. Just because. It looks pretty good with all of the other stuff too.
 Clock was $6 at Target. Bottom left is Holli's painting. Also that is the thermostat that I replaced myself. I'm still impressed that I was able to do it.
 This is our old thermostat, and as you can see, it didn't fit in with my all white theme. It had to go.

 So now you have seen more of my house than most of my family has. Congratulations. Come back anytime!
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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Plaza Plumberry

This week's Nail Polish Pick OTW is New York Color Long Wearing Nail Enamel, #139 Plaza Plumberry - 0.45 Oz, Pack of 2

It's a super cheap nail color. I think I got it near the Wet N Wild. Is that even still around?

True story: It isn't black. It looks black in the photo and it looks black in certain lights (does that actually make it black?) but it's really plum.

I'm typically diehard essie, but the past two weeks I haven't used any at all. As discussed before, Kroger hates all that is good in the world (except for Lay's Spicy Ketchup chips) and doesn't carry essie, so I got the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat. I have to tell you, it's pretty delightful. I really thought that Good To Go by essie was the only way to go. I apologize, I was mistaken.

Here is another look at my black nails, and what else I did this weekend.
Beware of the giant fist.


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Monday, September 17, 2012

Just Me Again

I'm pretty excited about the fact that Amanda of Growing Griswolds has me as her guest blogger today. She has a section on her blog where she has guests post their infertility stories. I read the two she has posted and felt like I really wanted to share mine. Even if you know me and our story there are still a few details on her blog that I haven't put on this one.  So go check her out.

I really enjoy finding bloggers that I have this in common with, but I typically don't fit in very well. I definitely do talk about infertility on my blog, but I think it's pretty limited. My approach to blogging is that I'm going to talk about the ish that I like, and I don't really like infertility.

You know what I do like? Riding my bike. Ohhh yeahhh.

Ingrid and I ran last night and it was glorious. After work I knew I wanted to do something but wasn't really feeling running two days in a row. And blisters, you know? So I decided to ride my bicycle (read that like Queen). I swear that when we first started running I always envied the people on bikes because I felt like they were getting where they were going faster and easier. Now I'm here to tell you that is just plain wrong. Riding a bike is hard. Super hard.

I left the house and rode north for nearly three miles and couldn't believe how easy it was. It was like piece of cake style. I was sweaty, but I wanted that. Then I turned around and headed south. At first I was like ooohh, this breeze feels so good, and then I was like nooooo it does NOT. Wind is hard, yo. The ride back home definitely slowed my time down, but I'm still proud of this time. I'm new to biking, so be kind.

I do realize that a lot of people run that fast. I don't care. And if you care, you better not be in my way when I'm on my bike, because we're coming through, yo.

In other news, Birchbox hates me. They gave me this horrible color. It's called Tweet Me by Color Club.
 Also, Kroger hates me and won't carry Essie, so I had to get this. I must admit, it is just as fab as Essie's Good To Go. And cheaper. Double points.
 I guess it doesn't look that bad. No. No. It's completely hideous. Thanks BBox. Yo.


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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Johnny Appleseed

We have the Johnny Appleseed Festival in Fort Wayne every year, and honestly I think it is the best one we have. It is certainly the only one I care to go to each year.

Everything there is supposed to be from the time that Johnny Appleseed was alive (I don't think they pull that off entirely, but it is still really enjoyable).

They have farmers market booths, crafts, antiques, and tons of food. I haven't ever cared for the antique section of it because I think it's stupid to spend money on old stuff, but (and Ingrid is the one who pointed it out) because of Pinterest I now find them fascinating. I've always been into history, and this is kind of an expensive offshoot of it. Right?

I've been wanting to get a map to hang in the gallery (our hallway) to put on a bulletin board and put pushpins in each location we've been to. I looked on eBay and didn't have much luck but found this 1907 US Map today for $7. Score.


The food is fab. I got this pumpkin whoopie pie, German Roasted Almonds and Cashews, and my favorite the loaded baked potato (see what I'm saying about they don't get everything exactly on with Johnny Appleseed? I'm sure he enjoyed sour cream and such). 
 Also in the antique area I got a glimpse of this Fiesta Carafe and snatched it. The price tag said $28 and Ingrid suggested (told me to) that I talk the lady down to $20. I chickened out and Ingrid did it for me, so I now am the proud owner of this Fiesta Carafe. I did some digging on it to try to learn a little and I found that these were only made from 1935 to 1946. Given the color, it can be narrowed down to 1935 to 1944. See below.
I also found though that they are to come with a lid, which this one does not have. No big deal though. I searched them on eBay and one of the cheaper ones are going for $280. I'd say not a bad deal at all. I'm really excited about it. I don't have plans to try to sell it or anything, I just want to put it up in my cabinet with my other Fiesta collectables. I told Ingrid that it never occurred to me to look in antique shops for Fiesta, but it is as good a place as any. (Omg, listen to me).

Another fun note...this color is called red, but looks more orange because that's the color that the uranium oxide in the glaze turns it. Fiesta stopped making all red items in 1944 because the US government took control of all uranium for production of the atom bomb. Bam. History lesson.


 They had these beautiful sunflowers. All of the flowers were beautiful, but I think these by far are the best.

 This was also in the antique section. I asked Joshua if he could think of anywhere it would go well in the house, but he said no.
 This isn't from Johnny Appleseed, it's just from work, but it makes me laugh every time I see it. The one on the far right is my favorite.
So that is my Saturday. Have you ever been to Johnny Appleseed? Is this something that people outside of Fort Wayne even know about? You all know the story, right?

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