it's the holiday season

The other night {shortly after my last post} the holiday fever caught me, and I have been decorating ever since. It used to be that Mike didn't get into the holiday spirit, but he has come over the the merry & bright side, and even helped me trim our tree. 

When I pulled out the decorations from two years ago {yes I did not put anything up last year for fear that Violet would try to eat it all} I realized that I didn't have that much to work with, so I knew that I needed to find some other items to help deck the halls. I headed to Michael's {it would have been Hobby Lobby if it weren't closed on Sundays}, TJmaxx, Target, and the Dollar Tree. 

When I walked in Target I saw the cutest gift bags right off the bat, and couldn't resist buying one of each with the idea of using them somewhere as decoration. That is when I thought that I should put them in inexpensive frames and hang them on the wall. Here is what I used:

And this is how it turned out. I thought that I would use the frames as-is, but the frames were nothing to write home about. I had some gold craft paint lying around, so I used a paper towel to wipe some paint on the frames. This really jazzed up the dollar store finds; I love that they have a vintage feel. The total cost was $12 for the festive framed prints.

Now this is the tree that my mom got Mike back when he was a little bit of a Grinch. I picked out the silver & black themed ornaments, and Mike picked out the pickle {kinda hard to see in this shot}. It always gets a spot front and center.

The flowers I picked up the poinsettia flowers at Michael's and traded out the Ikea daises seen in the upcycled glasses post.

Both of the table runners are from TJmaxx. The dinning table runner was just purchased this year, and the coffee table runner was from last year when our dinning table was MUCH smaller. The glass bowl was one that I picked up at Ikea for four bucks, and I filled it with ornaments that I picked up at the dollar store.

The best part was enjoying a home made chai latte by the tree.

wall of frames

As you may seen in this past post, I have been inspired by empty frames as decor. I decided to take it into my own hands, and onto my walls. And this is how it all went.

I first picked up some frames at various places/times {target, ikea, hobby lobby}; all the frames were bought with a difference purpose in mind. These other projects never came to fruition, and left me with a box of unused frames. After a trip to Hobby Lobby, the purchase of the ampersand, and the veto of my original idea, I came up with a collage of frames for the living room wall. I started by removing the glass and backing, then laid out the frames on the floor in a couple of different arrangements.

Above is attempt one.

Here is attempt two, and similar to what I ended up with on the wall.

After measuring, and remeasuring, marking center of each frame, center of the whole collage, and tracing the frames onto paper I started putting these puppies up on the wall.

I marked the center of the whole collage on the top of the largest frame with a piece of masking tape, and marked the center of the couch up on the wall. I determined the height and mounted the largest frame to the wall. Next I used the paper templates that I made to arrange the rest of the frames on the wall. On the paper templates I marked the point of the hanger with an "X" as seen above. The paper templates made it super easy to hang this beautiful creation of mine {which I hung by myself in thirty minutes}. Once the templates were level and spaced, I hammered in the nails, removed the paper and replace the paper with the frames.

Here is the finished product. The prints are these from Ikea, which I fell in love with before the collage idea, and had to have them at five bucks. I may add to the collage, and expand it over more of the wall, or add to the empty frames {use them as shelves}. For now I am happy with the outcome.

pinsiration | frames

Another trip to Hobby Lobby this weekend, and a flood of ideas came to me. One of the sore spots in my decorating are the walls. We rent {and will for a while} so we have to do something besides paint to make the walls more interesting, and make our apartment feel more like a home.

So Hobby Lobby had custom frames, and wall decor for 50% off! I bought a few things, thinking that I knew what I was going to do, but my original plan was vetoed. So off to the web! I started pinning for inspiration, and here are a few things that I like...

 

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I do already have a plan in mind, I will follow up with that hopefully with the next post.