Gallery Wall

Some projects I can skip right through, some only take a day or a few hours of a day or a few hours over 2 or 3 days.  My Gallery Wall project started maybe in January, and I only just finished it a few weeks ago.  The main wall is done, but actually I want to wrap the gallery wall all the way around our upstairs hallway.  We'll call that Stage 2 of it.  Stage 1, however, is finally done.

It takes a while to find frames, position them and hang them, find pictures for those frames, and then actually put the pictures in the frames.  I actually just updated some pictures as I finished, because after this summer I have a LOT of new picture and I wanted to show case them:)

First, I had to gather all the frames that I have been collected over the years.  Brace yourself, there are a LOT of frames up in the Bland house.

This is not even all of them.  I have over 100 frames just laying around!  I think everywhere I went for 3 years, I bought a frame.  All of them were cheap, or even free (I apprehended some from mom) and I had way way too many.

Anyways, I sorted through the ones I wanted to use, spray painted a few (no brown wood on my walls please!) and started creating my wall.

I used newspaper to help me with this.  I traced each and every frame I wanted to use so that I had a frame like paper to manipulate without having to put holes in the walls.  I made sure I flipped the frame over and put a little hole in the paper where the nail or screw would have to go.  This takes the guessing away from the process so you can place the paper where you want it, move it around until it's right, put a nail through the guide hole and voila!  You hang your picture up and pull the paper off!

I had about 50 of these little guys....so I got to work!

My big ampersand was the middle piece of the wall.  I got that from a thrift store and spray painted it a bright blue.  I love how that color looks with the gray.  Then, using painters tape, I hung up all my little guides and moved them around until I like the arrangement.

I then spend hours of many days hanging pictures, finding pictures, changing pictures...you get the idea.  Today, we have this...

The brass key is a fun addition I found in a gift shop in St. Michaels on our 1st year anniversary.  Some of the frames hold art, others hold pictures.  There is even a frame up there that has a picture of our old lake house (my favorite place on earth, but my family decided to sell it.  Sniff) with the keys that opened the doors.  I'll probably move those items to a shadow box type frame.

The B for Bland I found at Goodwill.  The big frame with the blue fabric at the foot of the stairs has a collection of Instagram photos that I ordered from Printstagram.

This map at the top of the steps will eventually be glue to a cork board, and we are going to pin all the places we've been in the country.  I need to get a map of the world too, maybe a smaller one, for worldly travels.  Let's be honest, I've seen much more of the world then I've seen of the US.  I'm ok with that;)

The great thing about this project is that we can always update it.  As the years go by and we make new memories, I can always switch up the pictures.  I can also always add more frames!

I chose to go with black AND white frames for a few reasons.  One, I didn't want to have to paint the frames all one color, that would be too much work.  Two, I like the contrast of the colors, plus the pops of some of the other color I have in there.  It's pleasing to our eyes.

I just love the ampersand.  I kiss it everyday!  Ok, not really, but I want to!

The pictures in the white frames are cities from all over the world.  I actually have 6 more cities to hang out somewhere, they didn't fit here but I love all of them so I am thinking of putting them in our hallway upstairs eventually.  I love cities and maps, and it would be cool to have a lot more of those around.  It goes well with the theme of our house, which is around the world type stuff;)

The plan is to also eventually add wainscoting to the stairwell.  I think that would be really pretty.  We have to replace our carpet too, it's old and ugly.  All in good time though!

For now I am happy looking at the gallery wall.  I love walking up and down the stairs and seeing all of our good memories and trips and families.  It brightens any bad day!!  Enjoy!

Room fit for a High Schooler

Over the summer, we knew that we had to do something about Ashley's room.

Her childhood furniture was way too bulky and kiddish.  The night stand and dresser drawers looked big, but held next to nothing, I guess they were built with tiny kids clothes in mind.  The furniture took up way too much space in a room that could be bigger.  We live in a town house so our room sizes are smaller than the norm.

The furniture has these pretty little flowers on each piece which are sweet for a little girl, but Ashley was quickly growing out of them.  Plus, there was no room for a desk, so she was always doing her homework sprawled out across the kitchen table (which drives me crazy when I am getting dinner ready) or on our office desk which now hosts our computer.  The girl needs a desk!

The blue/green colors were ones she picked the week before our wedding, I scrambled to paint her room so that when we all moved in together, she would have a special place that felt like hers to help her through the transition.

It worked.  She loved this room and the colors.  But that was 3 years ago.  She was 11.  What you like when you are 11 is NOT what you like when you are 14.  In fact, I can argue that you do SO much growing up from 11 to 14 that you could be a totally different person!!  Her likes and favorites have changed so much ours heads are spinning;)

Fast forward to this year, and she wants PINK.  Like...PINK PINK.  Hello, I'm a teenager and I have dreams of being Pretty in Pink in high school and I need my Pink on...pink.

So that's what we did.  We chose the color.  We put the old furniture up on Craigslist and got $500 for it, the set went to a sweet little girl that lives in Baltimore city, who when she saw the set in person started jumping up and down and screamed, "That's mine!  That's mine!?!?"  It was adorable.  We went to IKEA the next day and picked out great pieces that are perfect for a teen aged girl.  I spent 3 days painting over the green and blue and all the trim and doors and making sure all my mistakes with the old paint (ceiling and window splotches - I was such a painting newb!) were corrected.  

Seriously, it looks like a pro painted up in the there.  It's flawless!  It took 3 coats, even though the Home D paint guy said "Oh with THIS paint, even with a bright color, you'll only need 2."  Yeah right!  Yes, it was great paint, the best kind with the best coverage and the primer...but it still needed 3 coats.  Oh well...live and learn.

1st coat.

2nd coat.

3rd coat!  It looks bright in that pic above.  It's called Candy Coated and its a Behr paint, I think.  She loves it.  It's really a GREAT pink.  This picture shows it a little better...

It's a happy, girly color.  Much better than the blue and green which I did like, but I love this one.

This is a close up of the duvet she picked out.  This is where we started.  I told her she could pick any bed stuff from Pottery Barn Teen. We've been looking at the website for months, pinning things she loves and she finally decided on this.  It is SO sweet.  From there, we brought up TONS of paint swatches and agonized over them.  As we were prepping the walls and cleaning things out, I did this.  All the colors she loves.  Yes, I went and spent $24 worth of little test pots of paint.  This is a serious decision, you know?  She has to live with this color for the next 4 years!

After she chose Candy Coated, things moved kinda fast...

I updated her closed with this really easy closet organizer.  It was about $53 dollars at Home D.  I want it for ALL my closets.  Seriously, I think mine and Dave's closets are getting an upgrade this weekend.

We cleaned EVERYTHING out...yes those are my feet!

We patched up a TON of holes and imperfections on the walls.  Our townhouses were build SO crappy, the walls are awful.  I need to move.

I sanded...

She sanded...yes I made her work for this!!!  But only for a day...then she went to her moms and I was on some sort of speed runner energy...

Oh yeah and our hallways/ extra bedroom looked like this!

Oh my!!!

Ready to paint?  Let's do this!!!  This is what I used for her trim, it's a general white, but it looks great.

After painting Dave put furniture together...and we moved it upstairs

I bought new faux wooden blinds which look GREAT (whole house upgrade coming soon!) and this darling white shades from Target.  With all that color in her room, the white looks awesome!

I went to HomeGoods and found tons of cute stuff to decor with, like this mirror.  The desk is IKEA and is seriously the most perfect desk for this space!

Here are the shades again.  The green bean bag chair will relocate to the basement eventually.  I want to create a reading, cozy space for her here, maybe with this chair from PBT and another small table and light.

This is her small dresser with a pop up mirror - the BEST piece of furniture for a teen girl, in my personal opinion, and a small media cabinet with drawers for her TV, the hammy ham, dvds, books etc.

She really wants a loft bed but we don't think she will love that in a few years, so we are using this bed for now that is a hand-me-down borrow from a friend.  It suits the space until we get her a new one.  I love this one from PBT but it's so pricey.  I think a day bed type would be awesome though, because I think teem rooms need to be a space to hang out in as well as a place for sleep.  The day bed gives it that "family room" quality!

I have done a few other fun things in here, like that gallery wall you see, that I have to post about but for now, that is her room upgrade.  It's been perfect for her so far, I think she is enjoying it.  There seems to be SO much more space in there, which I have yet to take a picture to prove that.  That's on my to do list!

Hope you love it as much as we do!!!  Cheers!

DIY Outdoor Rug

 Let me tell you how I turned this....

Into this....

For less than this:

The canvas drop cloth is found in the painting aisle of either Home Depot or Lowes, I think that one is from Home Depot.  

It was SO easy to do, and only took a few hours of one day.  I did most of the painting in my basement because it was holy HOT outside, but when I did the spraying I definitely took it out because I didn't personally want to get high, nor did I want to get my husband, 14 year old stepdaughter, or the cat high (although I think the cat is high all the time anyways, don't ask me how because I really don't know!)

First, you lay out your lovely canvas and try to stretch it out nicely.  I actually threw mine in the dryer for wrinkle release and then let it cool down for a bit.  It was definitely less old-manish after an hour of sitting here.  I was terrified to do this.  I was all, "Tina...you are painting...a DROP CLOTH...this isn't going to work and people are going to LAUGH at you..."  But I dove in anyways.

I then measured and marked every 6 inches just on one side so that I had a sorta-guide on where to put my stripes.  I did some trial and error before actually making the marks.  I am so terrible at math, so it took a few times to realize I just needed to measure the whole thing and divide it so all was even.  Such a math idiot!

Here are my marks, which ended up getting painted over so they don't show.  You really should use pencil, not pen.  I was too lazy to go upstairs and find a pencil.  Oh well...

I started laying down the painters tape, it was easy.  I eyeballed the lines and tried to make sure they were straight and I went over each piece of tape 2-3 times to make sure it was really sticked.  I was so scared the paint was going to bleed underneath.  I had no idea what was going to happen!

Here it is all taped up.  I just sat a stared at it for a while.  "Am I really going to do this?"  "Yes!"

I actually asked the Home Depot paint clerk for the OUTDOOR paint, and actually brought the can over to him with my swatch and asked him if that color could be done in the outdoor paint I wanted and he said yes.  But what did he give me when my paint was all mixed up?  Interior!!!  I didn't even realized it until I brought it home.  Sometimes I don't understand those paint mixers.  Dude, I BROUGHT you over the can I wanted it in...I couldn't have made it any easier!!  Anyways, I didn't feel like going back and complaining or spending more money on paint.  This little guy was around $8. I had all the other tools I needed at my house.

I stirred some up, poured it in, and got started.  I used the paint liberally, but you can still see the canvas peeking through a tad when you are up close.  It doesn't bother me, and you could totally do 2 coats but I liked the effect with 1 nice coat so I left it.

Before I moved on in this project, I let that first stripe dry and peeled back the tape to check for bleeding - YIPEE!!  No bleeding!!!

So I kept on a paintin'!

Just keep painting!!  Just keep painting!!

TA DA!!!  All done!!!  I was so happy with it, it went much better than I thought it would, and I couldn't wait to get it on the deck!

But first, I though, maybe I should seal it somehow?  I mean, it is going to be out on the deck, in all the elements with rain and wind and what not...so what should I do?  I finally talked myself into going back to Home D...

I found this.  It says on the back that I can use it on all materials.  I knew I needed water based.  So I went for it.  I was scared again...what if this finish ruined my lovely rug??

It didn't!  I spray 3 coats on the painted side and 3 coats on the back, and then did a test with water.  It beaded up very nicely and even though it absorbed it, it dried really fast and didn't mess up the paint or anything.  I'm not even sure I needed to do this, since canvas dries fast as it is...but oh well:)

I left it here for a day, just to "cure" up.

Voila!!  Here she is in all her glory.  It really adds a sweetness to our deck, and it's nice to feel this under our toes instead of our old wood.  I really love it.  I did this way back in June and it is still holding up great!!  I would really love to get one of those carpet pads to put under it, but they are so pricey and I love that this was a frugal little upgrade.

I will probably bring it inside after the winter comes around, I don't know how it will hold up in snow, IF we get snow at all this year.  I think it's a great thing to have on the deck in the warm months, but maybe a little too summer-y for winter.  

That was my adventure with DIYing an outdoor rug!!  It was great fun;)

BOOKS and other fun literary things!

One fun goal I made for myself this summer was to read at least 10 books.  I am happy to say that I accomplished that, plus some!!!  I LOVE TO READ!

Here is the list of books I had the pleasure of getting to know:

1, 2, and 3 Delirium, Pandemonium and Requiem - A really great series, dystopian teen novel (love those!) set in Portland, Maine.  Great reads!

4 Happier at Home - Gretchen Rubin, a great book on cultivating happiness in your life!  Love it!

5 The Fault in our Stars - Book about a teen with cancer.  As you can imagine, it's a tear jerker, but it was a great book!

6 Crown of Embers - 2nd book in the Girl of Fire and Thorns series.  Awesome books!

7 Fablehaven - Way cute book about a brother and sister (kids) that go to visit their grandparents on an Enchanted Farm.  There are a ton of books in this series.

8 Everyday in Tuscany - Another Frances Mayes hit, love all her books!

9 Death comes to Pemberly - A crazy but entertaining book about life after Darcy and Lizzie Bennet get married

10 American Heiress - Think "Cora" from Downton Abbey, this book has sort of a similar story to Cora's with a lot more drama

11 Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey - The real story of Highclere Castle,  so cool!

12, 13, 14,15 and 16 Shadow Falls series - These 5 books are about a girl who learns that the supernatural are real, and she is one of them - she goes off to a camp to find that everyone there is part of this new one.  I enjoyed reading them, could have done without the language in them though!

17 Shadow Cats - A Short novel out of the Girl of Fire and Thorns series about the heroines sister, easy read

18 Prodigy - The 2nd book in the LEGEND series - another dystopian teen novel set - loved both books!

19 Reached - 3rd book in Matched series.  I enjoyed Matched and Crossed and then sort of fell out of interest in Reached.  I'll have to try again, but I've read better!

I want to say that was it??  I tried to keep a list of them all, but I may have forgotten one or two.  When you read as much as I do...the books almost run together or some pop right out of your head until you hear about it again and are like "OH YEAH, I read that!!!"  So, yeah...19 books is not too bad for one summer consisting of 65 or so days!  Some books I read in a day, I zipped right through them.  Others I read slowly and like a normal person.

I recently joined Goodreads to rate the books I've read and to find new books to read.  I also started a Bel Air Book Worm Club too.  Feel free to join!!  We decided that in October we are going to read Allegiant, the 3rd book in the Divergent series.  I am going to spend the first weeks of the month rereading Divergent and Insurgent:)

Through Goodreads I met an author friend!  Her name is Christine and she lives in my town AND she has self-published a YA lit book.  I just finished reading it, it's called Deviation.  It was really good!  It's about a girl in the dystopian US who is part of a government program that turn kids into child prodigies that can do all sorts of really cool things.  The main character, Cleo, is on her way to being a computer/book nerd in the system, she is very smart and studies hard.  She is not too happy when she realizes that she can blow things up when her anger gets out of hand.  After the first incident, she is sent from her University to a military academy, where she learns so much about the program and the plans that the government has for her and some of the others.  I loved that it was set in and around the Baltimore and Harford County area!!  The characters are entertaining and lovable.  This book is part of a series too.  You should totally read it!

Talking with Christine has helped me understand the publishing world a little more.  As I've talked about before, I am writing my own YA lit book!!  Over the summer I did some brainstorming and story boarding and I even drew myself a map of my books "world" or one of the worlds at least.  I'm on Chapter 2 right now, so I'm not too far into it.  But I've decided to carve out a writing schedule over the next few months to see if that helps with my fears of actually putting this idea into print.  Christine has helped me get over the nerves of getting my book out there, once it's done, which is part of the reason I have been scared to write it in the first place.  I know it's such a long and tedious process...but that can't stop me from getting my story out:)  I'm excited to write it and share it with you!!

My plan is to write 5 pages a day.  I figure if I am good about doing that on most days, I'll have a 300 page book in approximately 2 months - give or take a few days.  We'll see how that goes;)

I'm off to review some books on Goodreads - hope to see you over there!  Happy Sunday!