Gallery Wall of Adventures

Shortly after we moved in here Dan and I started chatting about how we had so much wall space that was begging for photos of the many adventures and travels we've shared together. Originally we came up with the idea of a mosaic photo blown up extra large on canvas which would showcase so many pictures from our trips. But, it didnt take long to realize that we were hmmm-ing and haaaa-ing over it too much. Not too long after that we were inspired by John & Sherry's gallery hallway and realized that was exactly what we wanted to do with this large open wall in our dinning/kitchen area.

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Here's a shot of the kitchen right before we moved in from when were scoping out the place...

And this is about a week after we moved in. In our last apartment this dresser lived in our kitchen (which totally felt appropriate) and acted as a buffet; however, here it seemed a little small and out of place.

So after I had spent some time collecting cheapo frames from the Salvation Army and sanding and repainting them all to be white I cut out shapes the size of each frame (just traced them on the paper) and taped them on the wall. I can't say why I started out in the left corner...perhaps at the time I still thought I had enough frames to cover a large part of the wall...then I realized I would need about 6x as many to cover even the top half of this wall. Oh, and we picked white frames because I did enjoy the way the white gave some unity to the variety of pictures/art/maps/etc on John and Sherry's wall. I love metals, different shapes, thicknesses and the like on frames but I knew I, too, was going to hanging up an eclectic array of travel related memorabilia.

OK, so I dont seem to have an "in between" shot of when I actually rearranged the templates into this format but nonetheless, here it is with art. I think my "plan of attack" was to start with a heavy looking frame/art in the middle to anchor it and then work out. I knew this looked top heavy but I didnt care because at the same time I wasn't contented with having so few frames so I figured I'd end up adding to the wall relatively soon....and so I did. :) Oh, and initially I didnt know what art I was going to hang so I clipped a bunch of colorful shots out of magazines. Dan was so disappointed that I got rid of the clipping of 3 long tailed monkeys goofing around with each other. :)

I ended up finding a whole bunch of white frames at Hobby Lobby for 40% (or more) off the already cheap sticker price and snagged a bunch for just $36.00. I will say I enjoyed them much more than my slightly cheaper bunch ($20.00) of frames from the Salvation Army because the backings were easy to remove and replace so changing my art would be easier over LOTS of years. The ones from the SA were usually finished with staples and those are hard to bend and flex multiple times if you want to change out the art. Just a tip. So here she is after I did more templating and hung up the remainders. Speaking of which, I guess I should explain the template thing. John and Sherry shared this great secret to accurate nail holes for each frame and I just repeated it. Basically, I cut the paper the size of the frame, turn the frame face-down and put paper lying on top. Then I'd take a pencil and punch a whole in the paper where the groove/teeth were that would hang on the nail in the wall. That way after I taped my template to the wall I had a perfectly centered hole to punch a nail through that would allow my frame to hang beautifully.

Some of my favorite pieces up there were these random art projects I put together. The big dipper has special meaning to Dan and I so I found this cute canvas rendition on Pinterest and had a grand ol' time painting and punching pins through the canvas to create something unique and special for us.

This is also a SUPER COOL piece for us! We found these Megaladon/GreatWhite Shark teeth on the beach (not more than 25 feet apart!) on our trip in North Carolina so I thought it would be a fun reminder of that vacation. The frame itself was a shadowbox from IKEA and I used canvas paper behind the teeth to glue them down to and to make it look like they were in sand. It looks so cool with the tan canvas. Very fun way to remember looking down by our feet on that sandy beach and saying, "OMG, look at this shark tooth!" :) And Yes, they are as huge as they look! The one on the left is about 2 inches long, at least!

Belated Christmas Wreath Post

This past year I reused my wreath base from Daniel's birthday wreath to add a little Christmas sparkle to our front door. :) I had a friend over for the night making crafts (she painted while I "wreathed"??) We had a lot of fun collecting our materials since she acted as my lookout while I stealthily chopped down a branch from one of the apartment pine trees! I then dragged it all inside (kept it in a big paper bag so it didnt get sap all over my floor) and proceeded to cut it up and wire it to the wreath base. Just added a few green bulbs in matte, sparkle, and shiny from Michael's (on sale, of course!) and...hooooray for holiday cheer!!!

Recycled Springtime/Easter Wreath

With the flowers blooming everywhere I am totally feeling like having more green and color around our house. I got pretty excited about wanting to be outdoors and so I put all of our plants out on our porch, opened all the windows, and decided to bust out my own blooms. :)

Since our front door's been barren since Christmas when we had the homemade Christmas wreath hanging on it, I figured it was the perfect place for a cheery bit of change! So, I collected all my random faux flowers (from my seasonal storage box), my wreath base, and some recycled cloth ribbon....annnnnnnnd wha-la! My 10 minute, colorful, happy wreath!

Stick Star

This is a project inspired by Katie Bower's Barn Star. I've admired it for a while and have been searching for appropriate stick-age for MONTHS with no luck... until just two days ago. I FINALLY found these mostly straight, curly willow branches at JoAnn's and since I wasnt interested in cutting down so many twigs from outside to make my star, I caved to the $9.99 price tag (ridiculous for something that I can find out my back door for free but eh, I'm occasionally lazy. Tuesday was that kind of day.)

I was loving the accompanying jute that went with the twigs. Just what I needed!

I was so excited to have my star finished that I forgot to take a picture :(. I do have this shot here of the second baby star that I made from leftover scrap sticks though. Just imagine the other one three times the size. :)

I wasn't originally planning to do wrap my star in lights or to put it outside. Actually, I was being a TOTAL COPYCAT and thinking of putting on the mantle just like Katie did, except when I did, it didnt look as nice as it did in her house.

Then, I remembered that on the way home from JoAnn's I popped into a local thrift store to restock our xmas lights because last years burned out right at the end of the season. I love getting them from here because even though they are used and run the risk of shorting sooner, they are only 50-75cents a strand! How do you beat that?! So, next my mind went to wrapping this star and hanging on our porch. There is this porch decorating contest at our apt complex...not that I will win or really have a chance to compete with one of our amazingly stylish and well-stocked neighbors, but I thought hanging this out there would bump me up some points...at least in my mind! Here she is in all here sparkly glory!!! Makes me smile when I'm driving in and can see it through the woods!

Happy sparkle-season to all!!!!!!!

My First Homemade Christmas Cards!

These couldn't have been easier or more fun to make! Pretty much anyone who has ever been to kindergarten has learned how to fold a piece of paper and cut random shapes out of it to make a unique and darling snowflake. I just used my mad KG-Skillz to make this first one :)

These were super simple too because they're just a bunch of squares. I cut one strip of paper off and then proceeded to snip chunks off that strip according to the different sized gift boxes I wanted. To make them look more finished I added the hand drawn bow details and the box tops, which were another small strip of paper.

A little glue stick action and wha-la!

Pre-arranging to see different combinations helps...

The Christmas Trees took all of 2.5 minutes to make too. Thats because all the cuts are straight lines. Here I am cutting the strip off my paper.

Then I cut my first angle off (and waste this one) because I dont want any Leeeeaaaaaning trees. Gotta get my angle right!

And proceed! No turning the paper, just a flick of my wrist at the opposing angle and bam, a whole pile of trees in 30 seconds!

Easiest holiday cards ever.

And they're so darn cute!

PS!!....it helps boost productivity (riiight?!) if you have some of these goodies around :)

Birthday Week Day 2- 26 years!!!!!!

Candy-Cane Lane

I cant wait to see a show here! It's such a pretty place :)

After 2 YEARS we finally rode the HOLLY JOLLY TROLLY!!!

I made it...and it cost $4.00!!!!!! Awesome :)

Couldn't decide. Course! Eventually he went with the one on the right :)

LOVE LIFE

This little inspirational book has us both geeked to get out of bed in the morning and flip the page to read each new day's perky reminder. It's filled with great stuff :) Simple things we've all heard but often forget in our crazy whirlwind life. One day I hope to have a wall to hang my shelf on that's down in the storage unit and I plan to put this book, cracked open on display there to keep reminding us of what we want to focus on. :) I think its also worth sharing so I plan to post for you each new message. Here's your first!

Sunset at South Haven

Last Saturday Daniel and I decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment trip to South Haven to watch the sunset. It was about 6:30 at night and it takes us an hour+ to get there but we didnt really think twice about it! Be adventurous, right?! So, we hopped in the trans am (I drove - big smiles!) with the T-tops off and enjoyed an amazing trip across the state with the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair.

When we got there it was perfect timing. Just enough time to make a quick pitstop at Gingerman Raceway to entice Daniel with summer-time autoracing fun and then to be on our way to the beach. I can't believe how late the sun goes down now! Such a great treat! First we popped into this really awesome shop on our stroll through the downtown. It was filled with books and clothes and jewelry and had great architecture. We bought a book called "LOVE LIFE" there and we have been so enjoying having it sitting out to see its reminders every few days. Its totally worth sharing. More on that later, though. :)

It was a little chillier by the water than it was in the Zoo but so gorgeous we didnt care. It was nice to see the lake and for it not to be covered in ice chunks. :)




When we finally made it down by the pier we saw the coolest thing: a motorized kayak! Now, its not because I despise the little effort it takes to make a kayak move in a channel this mild that made me so giddy. It was totally because it reminded me of the gondolas I saw in Venice, Italy with its gorgeous wood and the capitan's (haha) relaxed nature. It even had a canopy! So great for coasting out to watch the sunset!

A bit of envy here :)It really was stunning. We reveled in it for a bit and then decided head back to the cafe's to have a late night dinner and eventually head home.


We had a great evening meal at this new cafe (shucks, i cant remember the name). I had a bowl of butternut squash soup with a lovely glass of oaky chardonnay and Daniel had penne pasta with a smokey tomato sauce that was mixed with cubes of spagetti squash, mushrooms, spinach, and edamame. Oh and a side of roasted rosemary potato fries dipped in herbed mayonnaise and a glass of red wine. Yum. :)

Loving Life!

~Marlayna